Tropical Storm Dando

  

Mozambique is being challenged by tropical storm Dando.  There has been quite a bit of flooding and the main north - south road (there is only one!) is washed out at the Gaza - Maputo province border.  We have a team from the Wesleyan church trapped here because they were unable to get north to Xai Xai.  The city of Xai Xai is already out of diesel fuel and basic things because the infrastructure of Mozambique is so very fragile.

When we were speaking during our furlough time, I used to say that I could count the times it rained over four years on my two hands.  This year has been quite a bit different!    The good side is the gardens are growing well and we see grass where there has never been grass before.

There is much damage as the sand washes out so easily and roads crumble and cave - disrupting traffic flow.  But people take it in stride, where waiting in a line for hours is, well, just normal.

These photos are of the roads right outside of where we live after the water receded.

This storm is hanging out in the sea between Mozambique and Madagascar and moving so very slowly.  The weather forecasts change hourly.  It reach cyclone speeds for a while but has done lots of damage.  It is a very slight taste of what it must have been like in those terrible floods of 2000 when a series of cyclones whacked Mozambique.

We take weather so much for granted.  But, no matter what happens, we can be sure that God remains on the throne and that nothing happens of which He is not aware.

"You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it."  Is 45:8

Into-Africa Year End Summary 2011

The director of the Into-Africa Project, issued the following email summary of the work.  I have a link to this project on the left of our blog.  Mozambique is one of the Into-Africa countries using the Village Church Planting strategy.

I thought you might enjoy his celebratory note of what great things He has done!

"Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Blessed Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

A year ago, when we sent out the VCP Annual Statistics for 2010, we quoted from Psalm 66 and prayed that the Lord would bring us all to “a place of abundance”.  Indeed, in terms of Village Church Planting, 2011 has seen unprecedented rapidity spring forth in several wildernesses.  The Lord our Redeemer manifests His power, breaks the power of oppressors, and transforms wastelands into harvest fields!

Preliminary reports for the year ending 15^th December 2011 show our VCP Church Registry reporting 1,005,330 members in 16,718 churches across 29 African nations.  The year on year growth in members was 397,503 (65%) while new churches initiated was 7,281 (77%).  Hallelujah!  Our Lord reigns!  It is not by might or power that this disciple making movement occurs, it is the unstinting faithfulness of our God who brings new deliverance attended by an awesome display of His loving kindness. 

   

Yet we must pay tribute to the army of harvesters across Africa who work diligently in these fields; their faith, focus, and faithfulness has made them effective harvesters in the hands of our Heavenly Father.  These labourers have been tested: they know what it is to go hungry, be displaced by war, opposed by fanatics,  have burdens laid on their backs, and men ride over their heads.  Yet they can now claim ‘God is bringing them to a place of abundance’.  (Ps 66:10-12)

We also pay tribute to our many partner denominations who embrace the VCP ministry philosophy; it is primarily the pastoral training component that is central to the church planting and disciple making movements that attracts them to join the VCP movement.  They too help us keep record of the church plants and provide letters verifying our registry statistics.  This verification process has enabled us to weed out errors, and now forms a vital part of our reporting.

To our donors and intercessors, you are vital cogs in these movements, heaven records your faithfulness. God has surely listened and heard your prayers!  Please continue the race with us, you lift our arms up as the battle rages!

Pray with us that 2012 will continue to see an outpouring of God’s Spirit across Africa and indeed to the ends of the earth.  May one million members become as one grain of sand beside God’s ocean of love. 

We look forward in anticipation to what God will do in the year that lies ahead.

In the only cause that counts,

Bruce Bennett,

Executive Director,

OMS South Africa.  " 

Wow and wow!

Dave and Ann

Happy New Year

Church at Sao Damasco

It is amazing that we have passed another New Year’s day in Mozambique.  The years are clicking by way too fast, as I’m sure many of you can attest to in your own lives.  Of course, it really is just an arbitrary day on a man-made calendar not unlike any other, but it provides wonderful opportunity to think about where you have been in the last year and where you might be going in the next!  We are in the midst of such an analysis, proud to have had a small part in the planting of over 120 churches in the past five years and approximately 15,000 decisions for Christ.  What a privilege it has been but there is a change in direction here taking place, and we are sensing that God may soon be moving us in new directions as well.  We look forward to seeing what He will do in the coming year and we seek only to walk in His path for we, like sheep, are far too dense to see the divine picture and plan.

Purchasing Bibles at the Bible League in Maputo

Due to various scheduled times out of our team members, we spent Christmas here in Maputo with two missionaries on short term assignment here (Kyla and Phillip) and with our friends the Brains who are with the International Mission Board (IMB) and preparing to return to the states next week for their own furlough.  Ann hosted Christmas dinner here and everyone pitched in for a traditional meal and my precious wife, who’s love language is ‘gift giving’ had small gifts for all.  

The culture here pretty much closes down mid-December through mid-January, usually due to heat (not so much this year! PTL (so much for global warming)), and many take holiday time.  It is a time of family and friends, but Christmas remains a bit sedate in the churches, where-as ‘all the stops’ are pulled out for Easter.  

Chad, Ann, & Sergio with Solar Jesus Film Equipment

We have re-stocked our church planting supplies, including new Bibles in a newer easy to read Portuguese translation as well as local tribal dialects.  These will eventually find their way to our church planting pastors along with new training materials for children.   In addition, Ann has some translation work in progress translating the OMS human trafficing material into Portuguese for use in our training centers spread throughout the country.  This remains a problem in Mozambique and a South African city right over the border is reported to be a central hub for this kind of activity.  You feel a heaviness when you drive through this town, and it may be because of this horrible sin impacting so many.   In addition, we hope to have the translation of new Village Church Planting Pastor materials underway in the coming weeks.  (Six new manuals have been completed, which will replace the 23 booklets we are currently using and which are difficult for us to obtain and reproduce).  

We are partnering with the Weslyan work in Xai Xai on setting up and using our solar powered Jesus Film equipment.  Chad, shown in this picture with the hat, and his friend Sergio have a sound lab at the Bible College in Xai Xai and can do the requisite computer work to get the Jesus film moved onto the SD cards this equipment uses.  They will make it look easy (the advantages of youth!) and be able to get it into use quickly.  What a joy to partner with like-minded folks reaching Mozambique for Christ.

"Grandma Ann" with Tristen & Jocelyne Helm

While we were in Xai-Xai, we stayed with our missionary friends, Jason and Rachel and enjoyed just spending time with them and kids.  Our lives have been enriched through friendship with this dynamic couple who serve with an organization called Unitas Inteternation.  They have established a fish farm (among other things), where they are growing fish to provide food and funding for the Xai-Xai Bible college.  They also oversee a farm where they have chickens, beef cattle, fruit trees, fruit, and vegatables for sale, with the funding all going to support the Bible College.  Not without challenges, they perservere for the cause of Christ.   I was able to help Jason install a water tank in his attic - a two hour job that took the better part of a day - like all plumbing work!!  I’m not sure how much I really helped, since we had to ‘re-do’ it about three or four times before we got it right!  Isn’t that also par for plumbing work.

The Helms in Xai Xai

Christmas at new "Pic n Pay" in Maputo

Kyla and Phillip, our short termers serving at CAM, have been here since last summer, serving in the Christian School operated by OMS.  They were getting a little stir-crazy with the school down for the holidays, so we took them to South Africa with us to pick up things for the school, check the mission mail, do more eye exams (Ann) this time.  We came back through Kruger Park, (I know, someone has to do it!  ;-)).  We had a delightful time with these precious young people, who have stepped out in faith to see what God might say to them as they serve here in Mozambique.

Some missionaries we knew here who are not coming back to Mozambique, left many things in storage here thinking they would be back by now.  I’ve been spending a few days here and there getting their things ready to ship back to the States.  The hard work is done, although now it is the detail stuff, getting it through customs and the like.  We need to get their stuff shipped, to free up storage space needed by the OMS School.   That has been a joy for this family served many years in Mozambique and partnered with OMS on many occasions.

We’re in the midst of Mango season and the cashew fruits are coming in, so there will be much preparation of cashews in the coming weeks.  I was discussing these things with some Mozambican friends yesterday and there is much tradition associated with the cashew and preparation.  There is the nut and the fruit.  The fruit is used to produce a kind of wine (we saw it on the side of the road while we were traveling to Xai Xai) and there is a cultural memory of killing and eating elephants this time of year as the Cashews come in.  I asked if they had ever eaten elephant, and they said ‘no’ but they have heard the stories and there is supposed to be great power in the eating of elephant and the cashew wine, but they stay away because there is also witchcraft involved in all of this.  Oh Africa, oh Africa, there is such a spiritual darkness that is so much a part of culture…. That explains the stories I also heard in Tenga in 2007, where a lone elephant came through the area to be feasted on……

We wish you a happy new year.  More importantly, we pray that God will reveal himself in new and powerful ways this year.  There is much happening in the world and there is much ‘spin’ on everything you read or hear.  It seems so much like the time of Israel in the time of the Kings, prior to going into captivity; the countries are different, but the stories are the same - rebellion against the Creator and a worshipping of men.  There is nothing new under the sun.

So today, we leave with you what has become our favorite and maybe our life verse from Romans 15:13: 

“May the God of Peace, fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in Him, so you might overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  

It’s all about Him - it is not about us.  Overflowing hope comes from trusting He who is always faithful.

Happy and blessed New Year.

Dave and Ann

Mr. Elephant in Kruger Park

Phillip & Kyla

Rya Brain re-arranging our Nativity Scene

James Brain enjoying Christmas in Mozambique

Ann opening presents from her Precious Pearls

 

Ann's (formally Mabel's!) Christmas Tree