Sunday in Xipamanine

The past Sunday, we visited a small church in Xipamanine. It is a simple lean-to structure in basically a dark slum on the edge of Maputo. The church is basically a family that OMS has been involved with since the beginning. Jorge has faithfully led the small congregations for years in this very spiritually dark place. On this particular Sunday, it was essentially all family members with many children from around the community. Jorge brought a great message and his younger brother assisted him with worship as did several of the younger people in attendence. As we sat there, I could not help but praise God for Jorge and his family’s faithfulness in the face of tremendous odds. Jorge has a group of young guys he is working with one day a week; we recently visited him while the group was there – wonderful youngsters seeking a good adult role model – Jorge is a good one.

This photograph is of Jorge and Regina at his graduation ceremony last November when he completed our seminary program.

After church, we just sat and talked with Jorge for a very long time. He just finished high-school, doing very well and passing all of his final exams, something that is rare here. Most have to take at least a subset of the exams more than once to finish and there is always the question of paying for grades. However, in Jorge’s case, the country has moved to more standardized exams (multiple choice) and computer score cards (in the big cities); his was the first class to use this new technique. Still, many of his peers had to retake the exams.

He has wonderful hopes and dreams and I love to hear him talk about them. He wants desperately to attend University to study Human Resources and continue his education but lacks the necessary finances. He has been looking for work since January without success although we did a little “connecting-the-dots” to try and help him with a new business we knew that was hiring. Like so many, after many months of job hunting with no luck, it is difficult to stay encouraged. He also wants to marry and has a lovely young lady who wants to marry him but again, the job, the house, the bride price, the party – so he waits. Jorge presents himself well, has a very gentle and kind spirit, is intelligent, has completed our seminary program, and speaks a little English – it seems that there should be a good job out there for him. We really pray that he can find work to help his mother and family in this small parcel of spiritual light deep in an inner-city slum known for its witchcraft.

This is one of the difficult parts of the work here. I want so badly to "parent" him and send him to school and do so much more (if we had infinite resources!), but he is well into adulthood (late 20's), part of what I call that "lost generation" who missed the early school because of the problems in the country, but who faithfully continued even late into adulthood to get their education. He is to be respected for his efforts and we really feel the best thing for him right now is to work and continue to grow his ministry. I think he would absolutely blossom with some decent work and that would encourage him also with his church and ministry.

Bless him Lord for his faithfulness…Open the doors that need to be opened!

Dave & Ann

“May the LORD repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness….”1Sam26:23