vathi va toko wirimu: October 2014 Newsletter

Greetings from Montepuez!

The weather here is warming up and the green mangoes dropping onto our tin roof from the tree in our backyard are getting larger and larger - sure signs that a new season is upon us. We've started using fans at night to keep cool under the mosquito nets and we know that it will only get warmer... If you need a break from the bitter cold in the northern hemisphere this winter, please come sweat with us in Mozambique!

Life for our African friends has been "hotter" in other ways as well recently. Just this week, Mozambique held its presidential elections, and leading up to that important event there has been a lot of activity and campaigning. We've been praying for peace and encouraging our friends to pray for peace, and we have been thankful for relative calm so far as the results have started coming in.

Over the past few months, Alan has continued to be involved in his regular studies in village churches. The churches in Chipembe, Nkunama, Omeringue, Ncororo and Namuno clusters continue to study the series of lessons on leadership, and Alan has enjoyed very positive feedback from the series on poverty in Nakuka, Nekhwaya, Khambiri, and Balama clusters. He has also made a few overnight trips out - he had a great visit to Cuamba to visit Armindo, a young man he has been discipling who is in his first year in college (you can read more about that here), and Alan's visit with the church in Maxoka was positive as well. The classes he is coordinating with Jeremy for leaders in the Chiure district are starting back up and we're excited about their commitment to disciple and train emerging leaders in those congregations.

Another recent highlight has been Alan's experience of memorizing a large section from the book of 2 Corinthians with Cruz. This young man is going to secondary school far from his home and Alan has been discipling him for a number of years now. He has helped start a small church in the village where he is living and it has been enjoyable to watch him grow in maturity and commitment to Christ. He has a talent for memorizing scripture and Alan does his best to keep up with him! Memorizing and walking through that text was a great way to help Cruz explore the Apostle Paul's heart for ministry and apply it to his and our ministries as well.

We also have had some sad news lately. In the past few weeks two older men who had become Christians in churches in Mirate passed away. Raimundo was one of the first members of the church in Chipembe and that young body of believers met at his house in the early years. A loud and colorful character, we have clear memories of Raimundo insisting that he be baptized. Though his story took a sad turn in the last couple years as serious health problems and conflict with his wife caused him a lot of pain, we were proud to see the church step up and minister well at his funeral. We lost another friend, Havara, just last week. His wife had attended Rachel's study in Ncororo for over a year and they both were baptized on the same day back in January. Havara was a man who exuded calm and was well respected in the community; he had served for years as a school teacher in the village and a few months ago the church moved and began meeting at his house. Havara was someone we had grown to love and appreciate and it is hard to imagine the church in Ncororo going forward without him. Since he didn't have any blood relatives in that village, he was buried here in Montepuez, and because funerals are so important in this context, we were really grateful to see the church here in town help out and bless his family even though most of them had never met him. These events are a great opportunity to show the love of Christ and often other plans have to be put on hold to respond appropriately. Alan and I figured out that in a span of three days we spent about 15 hours at the funeral or helping out the family. We are grateful for the way the team and teachers helped out a lot so both of us could be there for Havara's wife Susana; please pray for Havara and Raimundo's family.

A few other projects have been using more of Alan's time lately. In coordination with the Leprosy Mission, he helped design and develop a series of recorded conversations in Makua-Metto sharing over 50 Bible stories in ways sensitive to a Muslim audience. Alan was only minimally involved in the recording process, but now that most of them are done, he's been spending his Fridays (while I'm out in a village) listening and marking places that need correction. We know that the recordings will serve the leprosy self-care groups as well as being a great resource for the churches for many years to come.

The construction of the bridge near the village of Bandar is under way and Alan has worked closely with Will Zweig, a Peace Corp Volunteer and engineer who is heading up the project. Thanks to generous donations we are fully funded and will hopefully complete the bridge by the end of November (just in time for the rainy season!). Alan's role has focused on community relations, organizing the labor and transportation of supplies. Chad and Jeremy have been a big help too, taking cement to the site and lending their construction experience as well.

Not all of our projects to bless our Mozambican friends involve so much of our time, but they can have a big impact. This year's round of sustainable agriculture seminars is finishing up and participants are getting ready to plant once the rains begin. The goals of the project are to form 10 associations of farmers using these principals in their communal plots with the end goal of seeing 100 Mozambican families implement them in their own personal farms. We've heard a number of good reports lately that indicate we are well on our way to meeting those objectives. Praise God!

People from Alan's parents' church in Germantown, TN collected reading glasses and sent them over with the interns back in May. For the last few years, donations of glasses have been a big blessing to our Mozambican friends in the churches and the community. It is a joy to be able to give away glasses to people and help them be able to read and see well. We received about 50 pairs and they were quickly given out to friends and neighbors. About once a week we will have strangers come by the house or stop us on the road and ask us if more glasses have come in. One of the church leaders commented on how Jesus' power to give sight to the blind continues to be evident as his people share what they have to help others see again. Giving out glasses is a simple way to bless our friends and they very much appreciate it. If you would like to know more about helping out in this way, let us know.

At the end of August, we had a meeting of church leaders from all over Cabo Delgado to share the suggestions from our consultant visit by the Huffard and Cox families. That meeting went well and it was agreed that all of us need to move forward with a plan to recognize deacons in the churches all over the province. It was also decided that our team should meet regularly with three Mozambican missionaries who serve in this area. These men and their families come from the "Bible belt" of Mozambique and while we have worked well with them in some ways, there has continued to be a lot of tension in our relationship, mostly regarding one of the men and issues related to finances and support. We committed to address this issue with them and lay out a process for naming deacons in the near future. Please pray for the churches in Cabo Delgado. It seems that we are entering into a new stage of development that is very exciting...albeit one that we want to see bathed in wisdom and unity.

The three women's groups that I study with are going well; the Chipembe cluster is studying through a booklet of Jesus' teachings and parables, the Newara cluster is studying through a booklet on Jesus' healings and miracles, and the Nekwaya cluster is studying through the Sermon on the Mount. We've got about two months to go before we pause our studies for the planting season in mid-December. I love these women and their children, and my prayer is that their roots are growing down deep, like a tree planted near the riverbank.

Abby, Ellie and Katie are doing well and we are all really enjoying getting to know the new team teachers! Rosemary Perry and Amber Roe have begun settling in to life in Montepuez and it has been very fun to have them living next door. We've been talking more with the girls about our extended furlough to the U.S. next year to live in Searcy, AR and serve as the Visiting Professor of Missions at Harding University. While the three of them are excited about seeing family and making new friends, they also have shared how they'll miss their teachers here and the other team and neighborhood kids. While we've spent over a decade now (gulp!) dealing with the reality of living far from family and friends in the States, it will be a new experience to have a long stretch over there missing everyone over here in Africa!

In other news, it looks like we will to take a quick trip to South Africa next month. Abby and I were already planning to go to continue her orthodontist treatment/dental work, but just a few days ago Alan cracked a lost a big chunk of a tooth. Thankfully he is not experiencing any pain at the moment, but we'll be glad to get that taken care of sooner rather than later.

Thanks so much for partnering with us in this ministry - there is no way that we could do it without your encouragement and support!

Please pray with us for: