Project Update and a Little on Thanksgiving

We're literally hours away from a quick trip home to visit our daughters in the States. We look forward to seeing our girls but at the same time, there are so many thinigs happening here - there is never a convenient time. We will be centered in South Carolina and don't expect to travel very much beyond arriving in Alabama (Dave's mom and sister), South Carolina (Sarah / Allison), Tennessee (Ann's brother and Lynsey) and then back to Alabama for the return. We need some time away and with our precious family and are looking forward to the break, hoping I remember how to drive on the other side of the road.

With this said, I am not sure how our Internet access will be in the coming weeks so if it seems that we have dropped off the face of the earth, we haven't really. Thank you so very much for standing so faithfully with us.

We have a couple of things coming together here in Mozambique in our absence:

1. Next Tuesday, the fellows are coming to fix the water well at Intaka and Belarmino is tasked with ensuring that the well bolts are welded in place and that there is very good security for the well. We will begin digging a new well in Mocuba next year (Project 407670 - Water for Life)

2. We are doing an upgrade to the church at Mavalene, which has out-grown its current space. The church meets in a lean-two next to Pastor Abel's house. We will extend to metal roof to provide more space out of the rain / sun and extend the wall up against the roof. They have an all-night prayer service on 12/31 and normally people in the area throw things over the wall, such as bottles, which can be dangerous to those in the church. (Project 405770 - Mavalane)

3. Marcos Zito's wedding on December 19. (Project 403960 - Moz. Benevolence)

4. OMS Advisor's meeting on December 4.

5. Juka is doing a training session with the Trainers next week in the Mocuba area before they gravel back to Maputo later in the month (to arrive in time for the wedding). He has some business to settle in Nampula relative to our church planting work there and they will leave from Nampula because they can be assured of a seat on the bus if they start there, rather than catching it in Mocuba. So - an extra days travel to assure yourself of a seat.

(photo of Turkeys with Turkeys!)

Thanksgiving (photo above is Jason, Tristen, and Rachel - our adopted kids.)

In the past, we have had Thanksgiving celebrations where we invited various friends to eat Turkey and cranberry sauce, something not eaten much here. It is a great holiday for cross-cultural sharing and participation but this year was a bit different. We decided with the time-pressures in preparation of departing, we would have a smaller celebration here where we live with the two other missionary families near us. Then, other missionary friends found out about it the next thing we knew we had a ton of people coming. Ann decorated the house with Thanksgiving things and we especially noticed that all the children seemed to especially enjoy seeing (and eating!) all the food. Our open grounds allowed them to run and there were all sorts of games in progress all over the place. It made our hearts sing to see all these children running and laughing all around the house. Just before everyone arrived, we managed to change the oil and serviced Aimee's car and then devote the afternoon and evening to eating the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Three turkey's 'gave their all' and some other turkeys did the carving! ;-)

We ate outside in the shade and generally enjoyed a general break from the routine chaos. We had missionaries from seven different agencies, all joined together for a common cause, to spread the gospel. Especially special was Jason and Rachel (and Tristen) coming down from Xai-Xai to spend two nights with us. We love this couple as if they were our own kids and Ann especially enjoyed cooking with Rachel in preparation for Thanksgiving. Tristen calls us Grandpa and Grandma, and who can resist that? They brought this amazing ham (hard to find in with Moslems owning most of the shops!) that disappeared in nothing flat and was clearly the favorite item on the table!

After a few games, we moved over to the Hulsey's house to enjoy a buffet of deserts and look at Don Hulsey's photographs of his dive trip last weekend swimming with sharks big enough to swallow him in a single gulp. Beautiful photographs and I am always so engaged by his enthusiasm for diving. He says he cannot help but worship God when he sees the beauty and wonder of the life that is teaming underneath the waves of the ocean. The photos are remarkable.

It was such a blessed day and I could not help but give thanks in my mind over and over again. It was a great time of ministry to a wonderful missionary community, all who have dedicated their lives to the cause of Christ. The people in this photograph below represent seven different mission agencies doing work in Mozambique.

"Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth....Enter His gates wth thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name...." Psalm 100

Language Update

This week, we took a series of tests at the Language Institute and our instructor has 'graduated us' to the next level of instruction. We will get our certificates in January when we resume classes at the next level. On Monday and Tuesday, we took our written exam that went on and on and on. On Wednesday, we both had to do oral presentations on a subject of our choosing. Next we each listened to a Portuguese 'story' and were quizzed on our comprehension. We next read different texts and were again quizzed orally on our comprehension.

In the final analysis - we did well on written and comprehension, but our speaking was not so great, although 'passing'. We both have this tendancy to throw in English connective words because we aren't sure which of Portuguese connective words to use - so we use English words (unintentionally) like "to" and "so" more in the sense of "uhhh" that some do in English.

As an aside, we've become quite attached to our instructor but his contract runs out at the end of the year and he is not planning to return. He says it is because his income is inconsistent and completely dependent on student contact hours. No students, then no money. For example, we are not there in December, so he will not receive any pay related to our fees. It makes sense to me, for without students, the institute has no income - but it doesn't to him. And, as we've seen other do, they will 'quit' and put themselves in a worse situation (no job) for what seems to us as crazy reasons. We argued with him that he should continue until he finds another job, not just 'quit' with nothing to do, but that is Western culture talking. We have been starting to talk a little bit more about the things of God, and it would be my prayer we could spend more time with him.

I am convinced language learning will take the rest of our lives and we will never be truly 'fluent' although we will be more or less 'proficient'. The people we work with say they can tell a difference; we hope that is true!

Blessings!

"....Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel - because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world...." Genesis 11:7 - 9

Security Issues

One of the things we need to keep in mind is basic security for living here. There are very real safety concerns for us living here that we cannot be flippant about. Some recent events within the last week that accentuate this:

1. A friend of ours was at a stop light near the airport talking to her husband on the phone with her window down. Before she knew what happened, someone hit her arm, took her phone, and ran. Her husband heard the scream and the pitter-patter of the robber running with the phone before the call was disconnected.

2. Another couple we know and their daughter experienced an attempted hi-jacking at gun point and only their clear thinking allowed them to escape unharmed. This was in South Africa where armed attacks are common and the government response is to post signs that say "high hi-jack area". As they sped away, their daughter, who is also our "adopted" daughter, shouted "isn't our God awesome"! - We are overwhelmed at God's protection of these dear friends of ours.

3. We had a South African missionary visit with us who, against our recommendations, enlisted one of the 'nare-do-wells' at the border to help him through the process of entering Mozambique with a car. We were traveling together from our team retreat and this hired man demanded that he do ours as well and we had a significant confrontation at the border over this. It made us realize how easily things can escalate in South Africa. I wasn't about to give my passport or car documents to this hoodlum. It was clear that he was used to intimidating people to get what he wanted. The fear that this South African expressed was sobering and he commented on how much safer he felt with us in Mozambique than in his native country of South Africa. (photo is taken at the border approaching 'no-man's land' - it is always chaotic at the border - always).

4. In a recent Embassy news note, they provided a link to a world-report was just issued on 180 countries citing a 'corruption index'. New Zealand was the 'least corrupt' country coming in at number 1. The US was around 19 if I remember right, and Mozambique had fallen to somewhere around 160. The bottom of the list was Iraq, Afganistan and the like. So, when you deal with police, government officials, and the like, you have to keep this in mind.

5. The embassy just issued an advisory about the increase in crime over the next month. It states that there has been and will continue to be an increase in crime as people seek to obtain money and goods as here, like in the States, there is much cultural pressure about presents, gifts, and celebration around Christmas and New Years. People receive what is called a 13th month salary here in December and that bonus money means there is more money floating around and thus, more robberies.

6. On a recent 'dark and stormy night', the Generator for the well at Khongolote was stolen with a 'guard' on duty (probably sleeping somewhere). This is common here, when it rains, there are more break-in's and robberies because guards are down (pun not intended - maybe ;-))

7. I've written recently about things disappearing out of our car when it is parked and "guarded" in down. Somehow, they get it opened even when we're all locked-up.

We've become very comfortable living here and we do not go around in fear, feeling comfortable nearly anywhere in and around the city during the day. At night, we are more careful and deliverate in our routes and activities but not foolish. In the rural areas, we feel much safer and it is those places like the border where you must be very very careful. We try to be wise but at the same time if you allow yourself to become fearful, it can become imprisioning. We drive the same backroads all the time, we give rides to people (mostly older folks) and know the people and the children we see on the roads. Over time, you become a part of the landscape and a part of the communty through your presence and this greatly increases your level of comfort and I think your safety. It is when you get off in those areas where you aren't 'known' or recognized that I think your risk factor starts to increase. But in any case, I praise God for his provision and protection of us here; I am sure that when we graduate to heaven, we will be amazed at how time and time again, through the prayers of His people, we (we in the sense of all believers) were spared time and time again. We truly have to trust Him in a very deep and certain way to function cross-culturally where your mere presence can invite trouble because of your perceived affluence.

May our security and confidence rest in Him and Him alone.

"...I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:6-7

Newsletter

Our Christmas newsletter is now available through our newsletter link to the left!

Blessings!

Dave & Ann

Updates

We continue to spend much of our time in formal language study. We have completed the first level and have been advised our final exam will be Monday. So, you know what we will be doing this weekend. I will loose one class Thursday as I'm having oil-pressure problems with our Toyota and plan to run it to South Africa Toyota for repair. I ordered a sensor and am praying that is the problem - I've tried all the tricks I know but something is not working quite right. It all started after Toyota Maputo fixed my broken starter - so I'm thinking they hit the sensor and damaged it removing the starter - if so it will be no big deal. I didn't take it to Toyota Maputo because if they have to order a part, it could be months as compared to days in South Africa. The sensor is waiting for me in South Arica. I spent Saturday under the hood fixing some electrical problems, replacing wiring and taking care of a few things but it didn't do anything for the oil pressure problem. The car is old, the temperatures here hot, and electrical wiring breaks and the insulation falls off, causing all sorts of problems.

The water well at Intaka - the fellows who installed it were there on Sunday and promised a quote, proposal, and 'fix date' to me by Friday. Now, they didn't say 'which Friday'...... This has been a long-time coming.

We took two sewing machines from our sewing center at Intaka to the repair shop. The two needing repair are the more exotic machines whereas the simple Singer is jugging away. The person at the shop just shook her head and said "these machines get alot of use don't they?" Yes, indeed they do. So, we are awaiting the call.

We have a wedding dress that we share amongst our churches as they are quite expensive. We just got it back from a wedding in the north and our white dress looks like someone drug it through red dirt. The dry-cleaners (yes we have them here) was doubtful they could do the magic this time but we are hopeful. They said the same thing last time and it came back beautiful. It's been used something like 10 or 15 times, so we really can't complain too much. Our next wedding is December 19 and we promised this dress. There is also one in the north this coming Saturday but they will have to rent something. We need to get a couple more dresses - hopefully at some second-hand shops while we are in the States although we need something more conservative than what you typically see in the States. They can add a little jacket or something to them. Anyone sitting on some old wedding dresses you aren't ever going to use? We can promise they will get used and used and used here. Send us a line.

We had a field retreat in South Africa recently with speakers from OMS - US. It was a weekend of rest and challenge. Great messages although I (Dave) came down with a horrible cold / sore throat thing and spent the better part of one day in bed (doing Portuguese homework). We stayed at a small garden hotel thing outside of Nelspruit and enjoyed the fellowship and time away. Two of the three men who came were good friends of ours, which was a special blessing and the other a very interesting man from South Africa working with Men for Missions International (MFMI) and who had just completed a 5000 km bike ride raising money for Bibles. He also holds several world records in bicycle events and is a little older than me but in incredible shape. I have no excuse..... I greatly enjoyed hearing his stories about competion and about his business endeavors in South Africa and Malyasia. Very interesting and a great testimony - he was saved through a "mighty men" conference in South Africa lead by Angus Buchan; I wrote about the movie "Faith Like Potatoes" which is about Angus Buchan's life. I have heard recently that this movie is now being shown in the States in some venues. The last 'might men' event attracted something like 200,000 men. Pretty incredible.

The message of the retreat centered on Fellowship with God - that is the first thing and we started from the story of Mary and Martha (see below). A message all of us who get 'busy' need to keep hold of...

We bought another load of bibles this week for distribution in our churches and communities. It's always a good thing when we get Bibles out into the hands of people seeking God's direction in their lives.

We have a big baptism event at Picoco on December 4. We will unfortunately miss that special day. We took our MFMI visitors out to Picoco while they were here and happened to catch a training session for those new believers and the Pastor asked me to speak, which gave me great opportunity to launch from the story of Philip and the Eunuch in Acts. Bottom line was to encourage them to follow the Lord in baptism and not worry about a party, a god father or god mother for the event, but rather to simply follow in obedience to the Lord's command. It felt good to do it in Portuguese and have Nelio be able to then translate to Shanghanna. It was a great time and that church is continuing to grow and it thrills my heart to see the steady stream of people getting water at the well. I had some balloons with me that day and blew up balloons and talked with all the kids gathered around the well, inviting them to the church, and challenging them about life in general. Balloons are a great conversation starter here and many kids don't have an idea of how to blow one up. I see all these kids here and just grieve about their tomorrows. The church is slow to reach the youth here and the youth are tomorrow's church and tomorrow's leaders. We adults are but a 'flash-in-the-pan'.

I want to write about the government excess car but it deserves a separate entry. It is another great example of how 'you get what you pay for....'

Blessings.

"And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."" Luke 10:41

CMED Update

Mario, one of our Christian Micro-Enterprise Development (CMED) coordinators has been in Gurue since last August building that program in our churches around the Zambezia province. This wonderful young man has truly responded to God's call on his life as he teaches about God's plan for people's life and as he helps people understand Biblical concepts for handling money. Mario returned to Maputo to deal with personal issues and gave us an update today. We have missed our meetings with him, relying instead on phone-calls.

He told us about six churches he is working with and the challenges and successes he has had. He has two village savings and loan groups going now and is assisting a fellow in Gurue who has six of these groups going, two of which grew into churches. The two new groups have 25 people in one and 18 in the other.

He has had to work through schedule issues because the meetings have to work around planting and harvesting schedules in an agrarian culture. He has had to deal with misunderstandings on forms and unfounded expectations. Let me try to explain.

We have a form we use in our Into-African project where we record the number of people in each of our churches in the north by group. For example, how many men, how many women, how many orphans, how many widows. Well, the churches wanted to know that since we were recording widows and orphans, when was the money coming to build them houses and provide them food. When were the missionaries bringing car-fulls of money to help them? And since he was bringing a Village Savings and Loan program to them, how much were the missionaries putting into it so they could spend it? Sigh.....

Mario is an amazing fellow and he, with Juka, patiently worked through these issues. The turning point was when an old man in the group finally grasped the program and the church planting movement and said, 'you are offering us something much more valuable than money' and after this older man explained it in his way to the people, the rest of the people nodded in assent and the work continued. Our objective is not to build dependency but rather self-sufficiency that will continue in the absence of the car-full of money. (Man I'd like to have one of those!). The hand is always out here; the challenge is putting something in that hand with lasting and life-changing value.

Mario's objective is to have six successful groups that are self-sustaining before he returns in February / March. We are so proud of his dedication and the example he sets for others as he serves God through this program. The sad part is that this program is just about out of money. There is such potential but it is going the way of so many things in this time of economic crisis. Without an influx of funding from somewhere, we will be forced to shut it down on April 1. We need about $12 to 14,000 a year to keep this going, which basically pays salary and expenses for three people who are training in all of our churches along with training materials, savings boxes, and the like. Project 432560.

Maybe it is God's timing and it has run its course. But, somehow I don't think so. We continue to pray for the funding and for a missionary with a passion for working full-time on this program, expanding potentially into projects that would allow the program to self-sustain. Such tremendous potential and such wonderful men to work with.

"Consider the ant...consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer, or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest." Pro 6:6-8

Cultural Barriers

This last weekend, we went to a special Baptism service at our T-3 church. People were to come from two of our churches, Machava and Mavalane. There were originally 14 people that were prepared and to come for baptism. In this photo you will see the 4 who actually came.

So, you might ask, what happened to the other 10 people? It's heart-breaking and the same thing we experience with weddings. In this culture, no one 'pays their own way' but rather there seems always to be someone else who pays. The answer is actually in the photograph in a way. Behind each of the people who were baptised, there are people standing behind them who are their 'god father' or 'god mother' for this particular event. Their responsibility is to take spiritual responsibility for the person being baptized, to take a life-long interest in their life from a spiritual perspective, and to pay for the party that is to follow the event, even buying dresses, clothes, paying transportation for guests, or other things related to the day. The 10 people who didn't come didn't have that person and so they didn't get baptized. To put it another way, it's all about the party....sigh.

Another barrier is that these services are dreadfully long (three plus hours) and with the requisite parties, it is an entire day's event, going long into the night. So they aren't scheduled all that often because of the time commitment and if you don't go to the party, or stay long enough when you do go, it is an insult. Then, afterwards is an expectation for receiving the first communion, which is another church service to follow. I like the tradition, but there goes an entire day - and with a limited leadership team in our churches, it becomes a barrier.

We went to one after-baptism event we had been invited to and after a church service at the home and the people receiving first-communion, a big meal was served. We talked at length during and after the meal with many people and when we tried to leave afterwards, we were told that the huge meal we'd just eaten was a 'pre-meal' and that to leave would be an insult. So we waiting and even more food came out. It is a great time, but I find it discouraging that people let a party keep them from getting married or being baptized. And the 'time thing', well that is partly our western time-orientation perspective. We like to say here that 'we have watches and the Mozambicans have time'. Think on this. I'm getting better at this, but still when I look at all we are trying to do, it is hard to watch the hours run away!

I praise God for these four who were baptized and grieve about the other 10 who have finished discipleship classes but felt they had to have a sponsor to pay. A tragic dilution of the importance of baptism.

Pastor Able talked about this in his sermon at the Baptism as his heart was also broken over this. He had no idea until the morning of baptism day when people called to cancel. This is something that is much more prevalent here in the Maputo area and as you move out from the city, it is becomes less and less of an issue. Makes me think of the old TV show "greenacres" where the city people move to the country and take their nonsense city ways with them - hope we don't do that.

Challenges. Why is it that we ('we' in the sense of people from all cultures) "have to have" the things we can least afford?

"Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" (Acts 8:36)

Answer: "I don't have a Patrinho (Godfather) with deep pockets to throw a party for me, my family, and my friends." someone in Mozambique

Pastorial Training in Mocuba

We've been off-line a bit now mainly because of our crazy schedule. We have had the pleasure of having a team here but it limits what we normally do greatly and so we have to let quite a few things go until after, which includes writing in our blog. The time with the team went very well, which is a testimony to the wonderful job Ann does in the background making all the various arrangements, which were substantial in this case. Juka also did a wonderful job setting things up in Mocuba. A great joint-effort.

This most recent team spent a week in Mocuba doing pastorial training using a book written by an academic who took a sabatical in the middle east visiting sheep-herders and then wrote a book about it to help pastors better understand their roll as the leader (shepherd) of their church (flock). The team used the pictures as story-points to explain biblical references to sheep, shepherding, and the pastorial (sheep-herding) lifestyle and then provide practical application to the pastors and trainers in our northern churches. The team bought a stock of these books (in English) as they are not yet translated into Portuguese so that the seminar attendees could have the pictures, which are beautiful. This is an effective training method in an oral culture and is why our Chronological Bible Story Telling program also works so well, which also starts with pictures that are used to help tell-the-story.

In this photo, you see the attendees with their books. There was quite a discussion at the time of the photo as to which book should be emphasized in the photo - the new English book (that they can't read!) or the Bible. This is an interesting thing to ponder in this country where few even have books and few in rural areas even have Bibles. The team kept saying "show your Bibles not the shepherd book" but we got the shepherd book! The team included experienced Bible trainers who kept emphasizing that this was simply a training tool and the Bible was the real book, but there was a pre-occupation with receiving such a nice book. This is the second time we've seen this since we've been here where a program was brought and there was some confusion between the program itself and the Bible. I don't mean this in a negative way as the programs were great but I think it is a warning for all of us who serve in places where there are few Bibles and little Biblical knowledge. We have to get Bibles into the hands of the people and then teach them what this Book says. It is the living word of God and it transforms lives. And when our training is done, there should be no question which book is the Word of God. Something for us to ponder no matter where we teach.

We have received much positive feedback from the people who went to the training over the past few days and they were very excited that the team came and spend a week teaching them, fellowshipping with them, eating with them, and getting to know them. It always comes down to relationships. We praise God for the dedication of these men who answered God's call to teach church planter-pastors in rural Mozambique.

It was a great blessing.

Dave

"Peter replied, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life." John 6:68