A New Year

We are one week into the new year, rejoicing in what God has done in this past year. We are currently in South Carolina, traveling and sharing what God is doing in Mozambique. This past week we had the privilege to share in a church outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The pastor of this church and his family are dear friends to us, dating back to when we lived in Charleston with our young family all those years ago. We are very thankful for this spontaneous opportunity and it is the first time ever we ran out of prayer cards! More will go in the mail today! This was a very special time for us and a wonderful encouragement to us.

We continue to travel much, making the most of every opportunity to share what God is doing in our lives and in Mozambique. We just issued our year-end report for the church planting / multiplication program we work in and to encourage you, I’ll provide some basic statistics from that report for Calendar year 2010:

15 new churches planted

3379 decisions for Christ

At the current time there are over 890 people in structured discipleship training and 260 leaders being groomed in the Village Church Planting Program. These are statistics in the rural areas of Mozambique and do not include the seminary and larger established churches in the Maputo (capital city) area. We praise God for each of these decisions, for each of these new churches, and pray he will grow the leadership and the congregations as they learn to walk with Christ. What a privilege it is to have a small part in this work.

It is our prayer that the existing church base will grow in spiritual maturity and understanding and that there will be a renewed passion for evangelism and church planting with a concurrent emphasis to disciple those who are new in their faith.

As we think about this next year, we see that we have much that must be done before we return to Mozambique. Some specific prayer requests:

1. We have an intense travel schedule over the coming months and need travel mercies and His presence as we go from place to place.
2. We are a bit overwhelmed thinking about the logistics of returning to Mozambique. We need to move out of the cabin, prepare a small shipment to send back to Mozambique, decide what city it is best to fly out of (driven by the shipment), and what to do with this car we bought when we returned to the States. We are scattered between four states and would like to centralize our things back in Pittsburgh, where we have a few things in storage. We need to get this all clear in our minds so we can purchase our return tickets.
3. We are beginning to sense a different direction when we return as we have prayed about this next term. We still would be doing church planting / multiplication, but we are sensing a bit different personal focus this next term. This may involve moving into a more rural environment but we are waiting on Him.
4. The thought of leaving our children again weighs heavily on us. This has been a higher cost than we ever anticipated and grips us deep in our souls.
5. We simply want to be obedient to the Call on our lives and walk confidently in that Call. It is such a privilege to be a part of the church planting movement in Mozambique.
6. We pray that we would be used of God to make a difference. We have learned that this comes by being obedient day-by-day, where-ever God has us at the moment.
7. Our National church leadership is key to the continued spread of the Gospel in Mozambique. Pray that they would remain faithful and obedient to God's call on their lives.

Blessings in this New Year!

The photo is Dave with precious grandson Caleb.

Dave & Ann