September 2017 Newsletter

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!

Unfortunately, not long after our return to Montepuez there was a different kind of drama – this time surrounding documentation.  Our team’s status and the process of our personal residency documents became rather complicated.  In July, thankfully, we were allowed to renew our family’s permits, but we still would love your prayers for resolution of this issue for our team as a whole.  We are grateful that the church’s own documentation issues are finally resolved. At a gathering back in May, we witnessed a beautiful ceremony where local church leaders chosen by the people were given the paperwork they needed from the person who fills that role at the national level.  It was a great day and big sigh of relief for everyone involved. 

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!

The team kids’ school just started last week and the girls have really enjoyed it.  Katie is in 2^nd, Ellie is in 6^th and Abby is in 9^th grade… wait, how did that happen?  How can we have a high schooler???  

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