Pages

Thursday, May 3, 2018

May 2018 Newsletter


Greetings from Montepuez!

The rains seem to have finally stopped and the weather is starting to get a bit cooler.  That’s been a nice change as we’ve started wearing long sleeves and light jackets in the mornings and evenings this week. 

We’ve also experienced a big change in our ministry recently with the inauguration of the Theological School (“Instituto Teológico de Cabo Delgado” in Portuguese) facilities on April 13th.  Church leaders and government officials and friends all gathered (around 140 people or so) to cut the ribbon and celebrate this new stage in the life of the school and our team.  It was a beautiful day and went amazingly smooth. We are so thankful for all the hard work that went into that day – especially on the part of the Smiths who spearheaded the construction and the inauguration itself. 





Our first semester of classes kicked off a few days later as I taught the “Introduction to Theology” week-long intensive course with a great group of 31 students.  It was a mixture of new and returning students – made up of people from different districts of Cabo Delgado and a few from Nampula and Zambezia provinces.  It was such a blessing to use the classroom after meeting in an open-air pavilion for classes in 2016 and 2017.  Our ministry has shifted to spending more time giving formal training to church leaders with teammates teaching different week-long classes.  This week, I am teaching a class on “Evangelism, Disciple-Making, and Church Planting” then a few weeks later a New Testament Survey class and then a couple weeks after that, Rachel will teach Church History (a class she taught last year).  We recently realized that in a 10-week span, Rachel or I will be teaching week-long classes 6 times!  So please pray for us to have stamina and that God will use this time to bless these students and the churches they serve.

We had a chance to use these new facilities back in March even before they were finished in order to host the bi-monthly meeting of deacons of communication and collaboration from all over Cabo Delgado.  They were scheduled to meet in a more remote area but some washed out bridges meant that the location was changed to Montepuez.  These meetings are important times where representatives of the 70+ churches gather together to plan and give counsel to each other.  At that point the kitchen was still being run out of our family’s yard, but we were able to use the dining area and classroom to meet in.  Later that night I realized that the two main topics they had spent time addressing were deciding on what issue we all would choose to pray and fast about for the churches in Cabo Delgado and making a plan for supporting the upcoming women’s conference – Wow - how far things have come!  It is encouraging to see us shift from all the issues with the rogue church leader and dealing with the ramifications of his divisiveness in the past to meeting about more constructive topics regarding the future. 

During that first week of classes in the Theological School, Rachel left for Kenya to participate in a women’s retreat there.  She really enjoyed getting to fellowship with other women in ministry in this region of Africa.  She also left the girls in charge of our kitchen while she was gone!  Abby (14), Ellie (12) and Katie (8) did an awesome job making sure we all were fed and taken care of.  It is so amazing how much these girls have grown – we are so proud of them!

In just a few weeks our interns from Harding University will be here.  The eight of them will be spending six weeks with us learning language and culture and job-shadowing us.  At the beginning of June, while they are still here, the churches will host a women’s conference on our team’s land.  It has been a few years since they’ve had on a women’s conference – please pray that God would empower women to shine the love of Jesus in their homes and communities!

Another thing we would like for you to continue praying about is our team’s residency documents.  This issue has been prolonged and complicated and has dragged out for a couple of years now.  Please continue to pray with us as we are still working towards the resolution of this issue. 

The rainy season started early and went later than normal, but unfortunately
 crops have not done well this year.  Please be in prayer about that as well, our friends are not in crisis mode, but as so many of them live on the edge, having an off-year of production makes things more difficult.  Please pray that God would provide more than enough so people can share.  Back in January, Rachel went with some of her friends to work with them in their farms – it was a fun time to be together in our last rainy season here.


We mentioned back in January that after a two-year process involving prayer and input from American and Mozambican colleagues, we’ve decided to leave Mozambique at the end of 2018 and return to the United States following a calling to do ministry there.  It will be a big transition for the work here and our mission team – there is still much to be done among the Makua-Metto people.  Please keep this whole process in your prayers.  Our family wants to “leave well,” not underestimating the impact of stepping away from Mozambique after completing a commitment to serve 15 years here.  We plan to make return visits to remain connected to the work. 

That upcoming transition is affecting our lives more and more.  Our team has begun to shift some responsibilities off our plates and to others -which has been good, but also a strange experience.  We recently bought plane tickets and will arrive in the United States in December – so the reality is sinking in more and more!  We’re talking about it often as a family and are having a complicated mix of emotions as we finish out our final year in Mozambique.  Please keep this process in your prayers, both our leaving Mozambique and our moving to the States.  Thanks so much for supporting us and this ministry!

Please join us in prayer:
  • For a good internship, women’s conference and classes in the Theological Institute
  • For resolution of our document issues
  • For wisdom about wrapping up our work in Mozambique well and trust about what God has for our family in the future

Grace and Peace,
Alan and Rachel Howell

No comments:

Post a Comment