Women's Ministry

While in Mocuba, Ann was asked to teach at a women's meeting. These meetings are something Juka's wife started when they moved to Mocuba. She is sitting on the mat next to Ann, who was put in a chair because she was the teacher.

The topics, which had been pre-selected by Elina were community health topics. They (Ann and Elina) worked together and did training on HIV, Malaria, cholera, flu, and sexually transmitted diseases. Because they had a guest speaker, the men joined initially for the devotional time but were thrown out when they got to the sexually transmitted disease part. The topics were of great interest here as everyone knows someone impacted by these diseases.

The ladies meeting lasted about three hours and during this time, Juka, Antonio, and I were preparing a lunch meal for the ladies. It consisted of a local squash plant that had a very very hard skin. After removing the skin, quartering, and removing seeds, the squash was cut into small squares. We then boiled the squash in a little water and a fair amount of salt, and then pounded some peanuts up into a powder and mixed that in, along with two small packets of chicken flavoring. It was scooped out as a gruel and it was very tasty! We have seen this squash along the road for sale but hadn't tried it before - now we know the trick and I just loved it.

We all ate together and had a wonderful time of fellowship working together.

I really see the tremendous value of life in community here where everyone works together to accomplish something. Everyone brought a little today and everyone was satisfied. There was good bible teaching, good health teachings, ending with a good meal. Ann took alot of notes as well as she is picking up quite a bit of knowledge about local remedies for malaria, intestinal upset, parasites, and other things that truly work in the absence of doctors and pharmacies.

Antonio is doing a tremendous work in Mocuba, drawing the churches together in unity, encouraging both men and women to study God's word and encouraging the church as a family.

I especially enjoyed spending time with some of the older men. They related to me because here I am old also (well my kids would probably say, 'Dad your old here too!'). They were giving me pointers all along the way although it was in Lowme and we did quite a bit of pointing, grunting, demonstrating, laughing, and smiling.

The process pretty much used most of the day, although afterwards we did spend some time in meetings with both Antonio and Juka, reviewing the health of the church multiplication work in Zambezia province.

I did hear a couple of the older men scolding Antonio later in the day about why they don't have men meetings like the ladies with the same good teachings the ladies get. That made me smile.

Little by little for the Kingdom.

"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25