No pictures tonight, but I wanted to share a bit from my day. We are getting ready for a significant event in the life of the Mozambican church founded by the OMS missionaries who came before us. On Saturday, we will be ordaining the first pastors of this denomination. Today, I had the privilege of sitting on the review board with two other men, interviewing each of the eight candidates. It was a beautiful day and as I sat on this board and listened to the stories of these lovely men who have dedicated their lives to Christian service, it often brought tears to my eyes to hear of how God had 'come through' time and time again in their lives. I have to admit as I sat there, I wondered what qualification did I bring to this panel, other than perhaps my age. It was a daunting task and responsibility, but I knew each of the candidates well and have seen God at work in their lives and the lives of their families; I think the choices were good.
The three of us sat on plastic chairs, two chairs stacked together to give us a little more height behind a two narrow tables covered with Mozambican fabric. The interviewee, entered and sat in his own stacked chairs. We prayed together, talked some small talk, reviewed the five page application form, asked various questions, which would lead to more questions, followed by more prayer, at which time our board chairman (a Pastor from OMS), would ask us if we accepted the candidate. Very formal, but very pleasant.
It took me back to my days of sitting on Navy Qualification Boards - a passing thought I had today as I sat on the third floor of our seminary talking with each of these precious men.
The service is planned for Saturday morning, followed, of course, by food! I'll try to get some pictures on that day.
Thank you for standing with us. Today was a good day and we need a good one here and there amongst the chaos to remind us of why we are here.
The distractions of life here can sometimes be overwhelming. As an example, there was an electrical problem here last night and instead of 220 volts, we had something like 360 volts - blew out every lightbulb in my house, a few electronic items, our microwave, and we have more to discover. As I was trouble-shooting things with my electric meter, I actually blew it out - Maybe at that moment I had 220*3 phases; don't know - but it fried my meter. I haven't checked the piano yet, I'm afraid to! Fortunately, we had power conditioners on most of our things and we immediately unplugged anything that mattered - this situation went on for hours, and has cost us much in lost electronic things. The problem was traced to an underground cable that water entered, shorting out the three phase wires and causing all sorts of havoc.
An aside on the light bulbs - the very first bulbs to go - pop, pop, pop, pop, immediately, were those awful and expensive government-mandated (at least in the States) flourescent bulbs. The incadescent bulbs held on for a while longer but they also went one by one by one. So, today, I brought home from the city a sack full of lightbulbs so we'd have light tonight - but no more of those expensive flourescent things that will blow up the next power cycle that is bound to come.
Last night Ann was taking a shower and when she turned the handle, she got the 360 volts (maybe not all of it, but close) standing in water. I came in to check it out and tried to turn off the water with a dry cloth and I got shocked - not a little, not a buzz like we've had before, but a heart-stopping shock where you can't let go of the handle. Ann is still sore today from the shock. It's related to our well pump, the high ion content of our water, and the crazy electrical problems. Honestly, we are very lucky we weren't electrocuted last night. I got some insulated pliers and turned the water off. Water - electricity - don't go together well. I have the pipe on the other side of the wall heavily grounded, which is probably the only reason we weren't electrocuted. I suspect it is all related to some fence work done around the substation, but we will never know for sure. In any case, everyone here has lost equipment. This is just today's example.
Remember to pray for this weekend's service; and for Juka, Abel, Daniel, Dinis, Belarmino, Carlos, Francisco, and Nelio - that God's guiding hand would be upon them. Pray for us as well; we are in desperate need of prayer coverage right now as we wressle with some difficult decisions.
Blessings.
Dave
"Here is a trustworking saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer (Pastor), he desires a noble task...[he] must be above reproach." 1 Timothy 3:1,2
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