Youth and the Grace by which we stand

Sometimes I am just striken by certain events and photographs. I am especially touched and concerned about the youth of this country. They represent the future of Mozambique and they are being pulled so many directions. The family influence is so great and the vestiges of traditional religious practices (witchcraft, curses, and the like) is all around us. In addition, the corruption and general acceptance of stealing, whether it be from your employer, the government, or your neighbor, is just beyond understanding. Things change slowly but the youth remain the key and our churches continue to struggle with having viable youth programs, reaching young people for Christ; training them to understand God's plan for their lives. Today I am praying for the youth in our churches. We have a young fellow at Khongolote named Abel who is so precious and loves the Lord so much. They even call him little pastor. I must get a picture of him to share - he is an example of a bright future in a land that doesn't always seem to cherish or even hope for bright futures. Our hope must be in God.

Have a wonderful Sunday. We have started the CD series from our home church on Galatians and it is meshing so closely to what we have been reading and studying already; the message that God is affirming in our lives. The Gospel is simple and we must accept it deep in our hearts. We are saved by Grace and can add nothing to it; and what we do we do out of love for the God who has paid the price already for our sins; past, present, and future. These is no room to doubt so great a salavation; so great a gift. And whenever we try to add something to it, we get in trouble and as humans we fall into that trap so easily.

There is a great Keith Green song that speaks to this: "...but nothing lasts, except the Grace of God, by which I stand....." My soul sings it out whenever I hear about this marvelous Grace, this amazing gift of God...

Happy Sunday,

Dave & Ann

"....we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1-2

Miscellaneous things we are thinking about!

We have had a couple of severe days of rain. I needed to take the car back into the shop for the air conditioning again (the repair went out while the Australian team was here). We have a leak that is probably in the condenser under the dashboard. I left early to get to the garage in Maputo but the rain had flooded the roads to the point that traffic into Maputo was completely at a standstill. I spent two hours trying to get to town but was unable to or return because of the traffic snarls. A friend of mine tried to go in the other way and his wife had only gotten through early in the morning because she has a snorkel on her car. So, that wouldn’t have worked for me either. Finally, I was able to get turned around and head home - when I called the garage, the owner said, “no worries, the workers won’t come in today because of the rain anyway,” so today’s project was to get the car back into town and get the air conditioning going again. We need to resolve this before we go north, which we are feeling a little pressure to do promptly so we can get our training center construction project back on line.

I really enjoyed talking to the garage owner today – he is a Greek man who has spent 40 years in Africa – 10 here and the rest in the DRC, or Congo. He has lived through rebellions, wars, overthrows, and the like and had a unique and interesting perspective as we talked about Africa and the work that we do. He gave me a lot to ponder and think about and I hope I was able to do the same. I look forward to further talks as I think this air conditioner thing is going to be an ongoing challenge – or at least it certainly has been for quite some time.

Our church multiplication supervisor is back in Mocuba safely and our Christian Micro-Enterprise Development (CMED) coordinator is wanting to return to Maputo for a bit as he has reached a bit of a slow-down in his work there because the people participating in the village savings and loans programs are very busy right now at their farms and do not have time for other things for a while. I was quite discouraged about the funding of this program but we have recently had a man in Canada agree to match us dollar for dollar up to $7000, which would get us a good year more in this wonderful program. In addition, there may be some folks interested in coming to work this program, so God’s timing seems to be unfolding. So, maybe I won’t have to cancel the program at the end of March as I thought! Won’t that be encouraging! He continues to teach me about His timing versus my timing desires! (Project 432560-Mozambique CMED) - (photo is of Mario (left) with CMED group in Zambezia province where the black dresses indicates widows in mourning)

Our seminary is to start February 15 with 30 students on the register. However, while we think the building is paid for (depending upon who you talk to!), we are just about out of operating expense money. What a crazy way to live! We have asked our headquarters for assistance and we’ve been scrambling to get student scholarship information together – it will take nearly 200 dollars a month for each of these students to operate the building without going into the red. As our student enrollment increases, this will drop, but for right now, we are scrambling. But, this seems to be such a common story across the seminaries – it takes money to pay non-missionary teachers, guards, lights, water, sewer, taxes, upkeep, and the like in addition to books, paper, pencils, and the like. In addition many of our students will need some assistance with transportation costs so they even have a chance at attending. It’s an interesting tension – this could make or break the investment into our lovely facility. I’m just not used to this hand-to-mouth living – it seems so irresponsible as we try to discern the line between faith and foolishness!!

We must trust God! (Project 302000 – Maputo Seminary)

“As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” Ps 18:30

Australian Team

No, we haven't fallen off the end of the earth - yet. We were blessed to have a team from Australia here to visit the ministries and work at an Orphanage in the area. It was composed of seven young ladies, both students and young professionals. They were such a delight to be with and to experience their "first time in Mozambique." Things we don't even blink at anymore they saw through eyes of wonder. And they pitched right in where they could, helping around our house, with meals, with Sunday School, becoming part of the family. It reminded me of not so many years ago when I had four daughters in the house and all their friends!

And then they just overwhelmingly blessed us with new medical supplies, clothing, and other items we can use in our poorer churches. They took one load to the nearby Orphanage run by Arco Iris and we have a load to help with our work as well. Things like this make such a difference and it will be such a blessing to some of those in need that we work with.

Ann gave them look-alike Mozambican skirts as a "thank-you for coming" which they all wore to church where they spoke and sang to the congregation. Then, they went and worked with the children. The one picture is on top of the Mozambique seminary with us and their team leader from OMS Australia and another friend from OMS South Africa who assisted with a vehicle and driving up from South Africa. We tried to challenge them about God's plan for their lives and I hope they will stay in touch with us so we can watch what God does with their lives. These young ladies were clearly a 'cut above' and we could see God's hand on them. It is our prayer that they will always be open to whatever plan He has for them and not be distracted by the wiles of the world.

It was our joy to have them here and we pray they have gone back changed and seeing the world a little differently.

(our Internet has not worked well since we have returned - tonight it is too slow to upload pictures - I'll post this note and see what I can do another day - Completed! yeah!).

Dave & Ann

"...you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many." 2 Co 1:11

Seminary Meeting

Today (1/19) we met with our Seminary Director and reviewed the 32 students who have applied for our first class scheduled to begin February 15, 2009. These students completed lengthy applications and references including their home churches. We were surprised that we had so few candidates from our own Palvra Viva denomination, but perhaps that is because most have participated in all sorts of training through the years. The student body is a diverse group covering 15 different church groups, which greatly expands our potential impact for Christ. One of our OMS advisors reviewed the candidates with us and thought the mix would be good for discussion and growth. He had quite a bit of wise counsel for us as we proceed and provided important insights for us in consideration of culture. We have all ages and are especially excited about the more mature men and women who have applied, that we hope will bring a level of seriousness and disciplined life (example) for the younger students.

We are desperately short of money to pull this off and so are trying to work with our parent organization to advise us. We seek to find people to sponsor the students - we provide the degree to the student essentially 'free of charge' but in reality we need to cover the water, electric, property tax, building guards, teachers, and the like. Individually the amount we need isn't that great (per student) but it adds up quickly and will increase if we add a class a year. We're working on a scholarship program through our Canadian OMS office, but it is the perienniel chicken or the egg tension. We need students but need scholarships for them, but can't get students without operating, and can't operate without money, and can't get money without scholarships, and can't get students without scholarships, and on and on it goes. And, as important as it is, seminary student scholarships don't seem to be as 'sexy' as instant deliverables like water wells, for example - it's a longer term commitment and actually a chance at a life-time relationship, but not something that comes easily. It is certainly a matter for prayer. In some cases, if we are unable to help the student with some minor costs, such as transport to and from school, we rapidly become unaffordable in a place where jobs are so limited.

It's very exciting - we have a beautiful facility, trained staff, supplies to start, a curriculum, a plan, and an enthusiastic director. It doesn't get much better than that, oh yeah, there's that green stuff again....(well actually money isn't necessarily green here - some is blue, some is red, some is tan...)

The optimists say "let's proceed ahead - teach them and the money will come" and the pragmatists say "how can you proceed without a funding base; how can you make a commitment to these students and gamble on their future?" and the pessismist say "we should not even start a class without funding in place and maybe we should just sell the building and do something cheaper so we can have operating costs covered." All of them have a great point as we try to find the line between faith and foolishness. Lead us oh Lord and show your hand. By the way, we are proceeding....

I was able to get the broken shock absorber fixed on the car today. Made a huge difference and the leak in the air conditioner was caused by a rock hitting the little condensor (radiator-thing) in front - making a small hole. It will be interesting to see if the repair holds with all the jarring over these rough roads! Progress.

We have a big Church Multiplication meeting in the morning and in the afternoon will meet with the Embassy to start the passport renewal process. Language class was canceled for tomorrow, which is a blessing actually. We're still suffering from jet-lag, sleeping about three hours a piece the last couple of nights. In my case not even Ambien will touch it! But each night is better - I'm understanding jet lag a bit better - it has never been an issue before. One of my friends says it is just age......

Blessings.

Dave & Ann

" Everything is allowable, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable, but everything does not build others up." 1 Cor 6:12

Re-entry

Re-entry has really been something! Our jet-lag is improving but we're still a few days away from normal. We're on a fast track to get some things fixed, repaired, etc. before the weekend when our Australian team shows up - so today, first thing we hit it hard. We have always said that if we could get one thing done here in a day, that was an accomplishment because simple things just take forever. But, it is improving and our crazy day went surprisingly well, invaliding this saying that was so true when not so long ago.

We have to renew our passports right away and have an appointment with the Embassy later this week. However, we needed updated photos meeting the US requirements, even thought we like the 10-year old photos in our passports much better! Success! While they developed the photographs, we got badly needed office supplies, two things, oh my gosh! Then we stopped at the battery store and got a battery for the CAM car we will rent while ours is in the shop, ....another success. That's three things! How can it be? Then, that went so well, we need some supplies for the team from Australia arriving this weekend, can it be done....YES! four things! So, we made it to the language school by noon and Yes, our instructor was ready for us and we began our next level of study, being scolded for not speaking Portuguese in America and being thoroughly humbled at what had slipped out of our brains during the last few months. We tried to ease his pain with an Obama T-shirt we'd picked up in the states as our Instructor is a big Obama fan. We really enjoy our teacher and are glad he is sticking with us a little while longer! On the way home, we swung by Toyota to see if we might be able to get a shock absorber to replace the broken one we're driving on - Yes! got the last ones they had in stock. We then returned home through one-less detour (praise the Lord!) - oops, I forgot about the new one...and got the CAM car going, went off for diesel fuel, got ours ready for taking to the shop tomorrow (remove everything inside that is not welded in place). Now, to do the mountain of homework, and look at that stack of email! Wow!

Tomorrow we have an important seminary meeting about our new class that we want to start in February and our very serious shortfall of funds for operating the facility. We have 30 students signed up for class and no money after something like May. We really need to see how God would have us deal with this problem - it is not like the other world I worked in for so long where you make a plan covering parts, people, and paper, ensuring all the funding is in place before you start. In the missionary enterprise, you move forward in faith looking into the unseen void ahead,....knowing in whom we place our trust...praying that we're operating in faith and not just being foolish. As I've said before, eternity hangs in the balance for so many and how will they hear without a preacher?...

Got to go do my homework!...

This morning's devotion was about Contentment where I pondered Psalm 131 and our preponderance to be "doing" instead of "being." The book I am reading (listed below) says that "Christian contentment means that my satisfaction is independent of my circumstances." Philipians 4:13 tells us that we can do all things, being abased and abounding - in Christ. We spend our lives learning that only in knowing Christ can we really do anything of lasting value. May our preoccupation with getting things done not crush our contentment that comes with walking closely with the Lord. Amen.

Blessings & boa noite,

Dave & Ann

"How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Romans 10:14

Referenced Book: In Christ Alone by Sinclair B. Ferguson