Hello everyone,
We’ve had an intense few months and wanted to share some of
what has been happening over here with you.
Back in April, I had surprise hernia surgery – it still amazes me that
Rachel and I were able to travel down to South Africa, get a diagnosis, have surgery
and return home to Mozambique in less than 2 weeks! My recovery has definitely been slower than I
expected but I’m feeling almost all the way back to normal. We are so thankful for all the love and
support we’ve received from so many of you.
Thank you!
Besides our regular meetings with church leaders and
deacons, two ministry events stand out in our minds. One was the inauguration of the church building
in the village of Siwewe – it was such an encouragement to see many members
from other churches in the area gather to celebrate the completion of their
place of worship – one man had walked for over three hours to get there! The teaching and singing that day were lively
and it was amazing to think about how far that church community has come. 
Another memorable event was spending a few
days with a new church plant in Merenge. At earlier stages in our team’s work
here we were much more hands on with helping new churches get off the ground. But these days, especially in certain
regions, new churches are planted and we often do not visit until the community
is more-or-less established. So, back in
July, it was fun to spend time worshipping and doing baptisms with the new
church plant in Merenge. Church leaders
from nearby villages had done the visits and evangelism and it was a blessing
to get to participate in a small way with them in this effort.
These days, our time is spent more working with the Theology
School (“Instituto Teológico de Cabo Delgado” in Portuguese). I have taught five week-long classes over the
past few months on the subjects of: Preaching, New Testament Survey, and a
class on the Giants (Defeating Problems Facing the Church in Cabo Delgado). Next month, Rachel will be teaching on Church
History, her first class in the Theology School. Typically, these are
intensive, one-week classes and our team usually offers 2-3 of them each month,
mostly here at the team property, where we are in the midst of a building
program to construct classroom and dormitory space as well as a cafeteria. For now, the food preparation is based out of
our family’s yard, so it will be nice when the Theology School can move into
the new buildings :). Special thanks to
Jeremy Smith for leading the construction! Over 110 students have taken at least one class in
the Theology School so far – a pretty amazing number considering that this is
only our second year of operation in this format. We are excited to see how God can use this
school to bless the churches in Mozambique. 
In June and July, we hosted 10 great interns from Harding
University. They learned to speak some
Portuguese and Makua, job-shadowed us as we went about our normal ministry
routines, and also spent a weekend by themselves staying with a trusted
Mozambican family. Our kids love having
interns and this group was no exception.
They were a blessing to have in our homes and in our lives for the
six-week summer internship. Here is a picture of our early worship together at the beach in Pemba on the Sunday before they returned to the United States.
Near the end of the internship, Abby and Rachel left
Mozambique for a three-week trip to the United States. She’s working on a Master’s Degree in
Historical Theology from Harding School of Theology in Memphis and it was a
blessing for her to take a class on campus this summer. While she was in class and researching her
paper in the library, Abby traveled around with my parents to see family in Tennessee
and Alabama as well as getting to reconnect with friends she made during our
year in Searcy, AR. They also got to see
Rachel’s parents and many, many, many other special people (I tried not to be
too jealous)! Their visit to the USA was
capped off beautifully by attending the wedding of former interns, Ethan and
Morgan McGaughy. On their way back home,
they met up with Ellie, Katie and I in South Africa for doctor and dentist
visits as well as some vacation time. We
enjoyed zip lines, game drives, lion petting and elephant rides (of course!) before
returning to Montepuez.
At the beginning of this month, Goncalves Inacio, Jessica and I hosted a Conservation Agriculture Seminar for the farming
associations we have been working with over the past few years. About 50 people attended this refresher course
where we reviewed key principles and practices, made compost together and covered
some new territory about grain storage and marketing. It was a good event and we also collected
data on the different associations to assess how we are doing at meeting the
goals for the program.
Lately, Rachel has been going through the Sermon on the
Mount with women from the Menhuene cluster in the Ancuabe district. This is an area that the Westerholm family
has spent a lot of time with and she has enjoyed getting to know these
women. This group has many more literate
women than the clusters she has worked with in the Montepuez district but they
have not spent much time studying together.
Please pray for the Kingdom of God to take root and produce fruit in
their lives!
We are so thankful to have Cindy Mercer with us. She retired after a career teaching in Ohio
and bravely decided to come join us to teach the team’s kids.
We usually have two teachers for the four
different grade levels but we still need one more teacher. So… if you, or someone you know would be
interested in teaching at our team school in Montepuez, please let us know and
we can send more information.
Also, at a recent meeting of the church leaders in our
Province, they decided to set aside the week of October 1-7 for prayer and
fasting about true conversion (including repentance and life-change) and true
love (and unity) among the believers and churches in Cabo Delgado. You are
invited to join us in this time of prayer and fasting for God’s Kingdom in
Mozambique!
Please pray with us:
- For resolution for our team’s document issues
- For God to use the Theology School to bless the churches
- For the followers of Jesus to live lives marked by true conversion and true love
Grace and Peace,
Alan and Rachel
So happy to catch up with your lives and His Work! Jacob & Jaynie
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