'The Story' and helping kids find their way through the trees

Our sponsoring congregation, the Donelson Church of Christ, is going through The Story (check it out at TheStory.com). The church as a whole is using this material to study through the main events of the Bible to better understand God's Story and what it means for our stories. Before we finished up our furlough and left Nashville to began our journey home to Mozambique, Brian Oliver handed me a copy of the The Story for Children by Lucado, Frazee and Hill.  It is has terrific artwork and well crafted chapters.  I was pumped because it was going to be my turn to teach the Bible class for the kids and now I knew what we could use with them every Tuesday night for the next few months.

The week before I started going through the Story with the kids, my teammate Jeremy Smith and I were presented with a challenge.  He had a group of church leaders who wanted to get a better understanding of what the Bible was all about. So, in just four sessions how could we teach through the main story of the Bible?

We settled on telling the story of the Bible as the story of four trees. It is the story of a God who created a people who then lost their way.  But, God rescued his people - making a way for them to come back to Him.  So, it is a story about being lost and finding the way again.

With the first tree - the tree of knowledge (Genesis 1-3) we see how God created the world and put his prized creations, Man and Woman in a beautiful garden.  He told them to rule over the garden and that everything in it was theirs to enjoy.  In the middle of the garden there was a tree of knowledge that God told Adam and Eve not to eat from.  Adam and Eve were deceived by a serpent and ate the fruit of that tree.  Because of their disobedience, they had to leave the garden, stop eating from the tree of life, and live in a world cursed because of their sin.

The second tree we come to is the burning bush (Exodus 3). Most of Adam and Eve's children followed in their sinning ways.  But, God made a promise to a good man named Abraham and led his children, the Israelites, down to Egypt.  There, they suffered as slaves. One day, God called to a man named Moses from a burning bush.  He told Moses to tell Egypt's king to let God's people go.  God did many miracles to get Israel out of Egypt and made a path through the sea to get them out and lead them eventually to a promised land.

The third tree we come to is the cross (Mark 15-16). God's people lived in a new land, but continued to disobey God.  God called after them, sending many messengers until he finally sent his son Jesus. Jesus came to show us how to live and died on a tree, the cross, where he defeated humanity's enemies - Sin, Death, and Satan.  God asks us to join him in loving and blessing the world until Jesus comes again.

Finally we come to the fourth tree, the tree of life (Revelation 22:1-5) One day, we believe that Jesus will return.  The dead will rise, Jesus will set things right and those who belong to him will inhabit a new world, renewed through God's power.  We will dwell with God in a beautiful city where there is no death, no darkness and no curse.  God will replant the tree of life in the middle of the city and its' fruit and leaves will heal us all.

God uses the story of four trees in the Bible to help mark our path.  We can remember where we have been, and see where we are going.  Where we live in Mozambique many people use trees to mark their path (most mud huts look the same - as you can imagine!).  They say, "turn at the coconut tree," and "when you get to the big mango tree you are almost there."  We use trees to help guide us. God uses the story of these four trees found in the Bible to help us find our way home - a home with Him.

In my first class going through The Story for Children with the kids on the team, I asked the older ones: "If someone asked you what the Bible was all about what would you say?"  Luke said, "Well I would say that we learn about God creating the world and keeping it running." Abby said, "I think I would talk about Jesus dying and rising again." Ellie said, "Yeah and we would need to talk about all the great things Jesus did and said."  Then Andrew thought for a while and said, "This is a really hard question."

I had them line up on the wall.  Each of them took on the role of one of the four trees or a major character in our "Four Tree Story" timeline (Abby really likes being the Burning Bush!). Over the following weeks we would line up and each of them would have a crack at telling the overarching story of the Bible using the four trees. 

After a few weeks, we decided to put the Four Trees story into a song to help us remember.  We picked a familiar tune and I think the kids have most of the song down by now (Katie needs help keeping the lines straight - though she is really cute singing what she remembers).  

I put a copy of the song below so you can check it out.  So, far the kids have really enjoyed going through The Story and it has been fun to have a hook like the "Four Trees Story" to help them remember how all the individual Bible stories fit into the overall narrative of what God's Story is really all about.

Grace and Peace,

Alan

Our Way through the Trees

(to the tune of "Down by the Bay")

by Abby, Ellie and Alan Howell

Long, long ago - there was a tree

Down in a garden - made for Adam and Eve

And God said "Don't - eat from that tree"

But, the sneaky snake

said God's rule was fake.

And they lost their way.

And then in Egypt - God's people were slaves

so he called Moses - from a bush on flames

he said, "Tell Pharaoh - 'Let my people free!'"

Moses led them to the sea

where it came to be

that God made a way.

Then God sent Jesus - made blind men see

taught us to live - set people free

gave up his life - died on a tree

He defeated death,

and he lives today.

He is the Way!

Jesus will return - he'll plant a tree

and it will grow - by the crystal stream

it's fruit and leaves - will heal us all

So, in the end,

our God will win.

Oh, what a day!

So, that is how - God leads us home

And in the darkness - no more to roam

He's made a way - through these four trees

And so now we know

how God's Story goes

He leads the way!

november news

Hello from northern Mozambique!

Greetings! And happy week-before-Thanksgiving! We love hearing about what God is doing in your neighborhood, and we enjoy sharing with you what He is doing in ours. As one of the writers in Proverbs put it, "like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land."

Not long after our last blog post, we were happy to receive our teammates the Westerholms back from their furlough. And on the same flight, our first grade teacher, Rebekah Keese, arrived as well! Our girls were delighted to reconnect with Maggie and Jane, and Ellie and Maggie love having "Miss Rebekah" for first grade.

The last weekend in October our team, together with the Napai church here in town, hosted the first-ever Youth Conference for Churches of Christ in Montepuez. It was exciting and refreshing to see so many young people (about 90, roughly 15-30 years old) worshiping and studying together. Churches here are still tiny compared to the surrounding population, which means that seminars and conferences are a huge encouragement to believers as they sing, learn, and pray together in such a big number. The theme of the conference was the book of James, divided into five different sessions and taught by both Mozambican leaders and some of our team. Alan co-taught one of the sessions with Cruz, a young man he has been discipling. Several of the churches that sent young people were also assigned certain sections of the book of James to put into song; several times throughout the conference they would share the new song and teach it to the whole assembly. The response has been good; in the area north of town we have noticed more confidence and enthusiasm in the young people who went to the conference.

I treasure my Fridays with women in villages north of town. The two different discipleship groups are each about halfway through the Sermon on the Mount, and it is sweet to see them growing in confidence. It is fun to watch their eyes pop open at some of the ways Jesus describes Kingdom life (turning the other cheek?!), and also fun to watch them passionately discuss what they've heard. And it is beautiful to see their children already living a different childhood than their parents.

Looking at the calendar, we should finish up this round of the Sermon on the Mount by mid-January, when we'll take a break during February and March. That time of year many people move out to their farms to cultivate and weed their growing crops and to chase the monkeys and rodents away, and it is harder for people to get together regularly. (Those are also the months that some roads become a nasty, muddy mess!) We're praying about what's next for these two groups; we may decrease the frequency that we meet so we can start visiting with women in Nkororo who've asked to study together in their village.

The church in Newara has had some struggles; the two men have left the church, leaving a church full of women and one very, very old man who can barely see and hear. They are still very new to following Jesus, but we have been encouraged by their perseverance in studying and worshiping together, which is significant in a culture that, while matrilineal, is still very patriarchal. Maria, a new believer in the church in Newara, has been a midwife and traditional healer in that village for years, and she had kept the spirit-house with its white flag. We've had some conversations recently about her work and the spirit-house and its meaning, but I'm not from here and didn't grow up in a culture of spirit-houses, and my ability to ask probing questions and give instruction in this area of culture is limited. One of the best parts of this stage in our work here is that there are maturing believers who can appropriately challenge these parts of the culture, so I asked my friend Delfina, a sweet godly woman from the Napai church, to come with us two Sundays ago to worship in Newara. The church was happy to have an extra visitor, and she asked challenging but respectful questions and gave good godly counsel to Maria and the rest of the women.

Twice recently I've spent the night out in villages with women; once for an initiation ceremony for a girl in the church, and once with one of the discipleship groups north of town. It is fun to have the extended fellowship and worship time with women I love, but it is also humbling to be reminded of how difficult daily life is for Mozambicans, and that I did not grow up that way. I have tried to learn several of their skills over the years, but I still have not had much practice at extended hours of hoeing, the daily sweating over the fire to cook the shima, mastering the wrist skill required to sift the grain by tossing it up in the air with the basket and then catching the grain again while the husk floats away. They are strong and hard-working, but physical suffering is a daily reality.

Alan continues studying on Tuesdays with groups in Nekwaya/Kambiri/Nakuka and Nkororo. He has also continued going to the Chiure district with Jeremy to study with leaders there. Alan and Jeremy developed a 4 week curriculum to teach the overarching story of the Bible. The study focuses on four trees from scripture: the tree in Garden of Eden, Moses and the burning bush, the Cross, and the tree of Life in the book of Revelation. These trees serve to frame the larger story of redemption in the Bible. And as people here often use trees to give directions "turn right at the Mango tree," and "turn left at the tall coconut tree," they encourage the participants to tell the story in a way that helps people find their way home.

In October, Alan co-taught a seminar in using storytelling and oral strategies to produce better Bible translations at SIL/Wycliffe in Nampula. Translation teams for seven different Mozambican language groups participated. It was a great and stretching experience for Alan to step out of his usual routine and use some of the tools he uses in ministry and apply them in a different way - to Bible translation. Overall the seminar went well and the teams produced some texts that were easier to read and captured more of the way those languages are spoken on the street.

On the family business front, we've had one trip to Immigration in Pemba for Alan and I to renew our annual residence documents, which is not so stressful as it used to be (though more expensive!), but alas we have only completed 19 of the 37 steps required for us to get Mozambican drivers' licenses. Ok, I am exaggerating... just a little bit. The girls are doing great, loving school and their lovely teachers. Ellie turns SEVEN this weekend and has four loose teeth, and she is so excited about all of that. Abby is still a voracious reader with a tender heart, and is WAY too tall if you ask my opinion. Katie is our clown who is trying to learn how to tell jokes; she loves preschool, and we are so thankful that she has been a LOT easier on us in the potty-training department than either of her sisters were!

We are looking forward to getting together with our team and a couple other American families next week to celebrate Thanksgiving from afar; our traditions have grown to include not only a fairly traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but also a piñata bash, a half marathon, and lots of time skyping with families in the US!

We are thankful to participate in God's work in this corner of his world.

We are thankful to be blessed with such a dedicated, loving, servant-hearted team.

We are thankful for health and healing.

We are thankful for God's loving Kingdom that is already inaugurated but still coming.

We are thankful for dear friends, in Mozambique and in the States.

As we wrap up, please pray for our Mozambican friends in the "time of hunger," the annual three to four months (November-February) before the harvest (March-April) when food supplies are diminishing. And pray for the rains (December-March) to be strong and steady but not flooding.

We love and miss you!
Love,
Rachel for all of us

welcome home

Hello from northern Mozambique!

We treasure the time we had to spend with so many of you on our furlough this summer! We spent most of our time in Texas and Tennessee, with a road trip through Indiana, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Florida, and Georgia. We tried to see as many loved ones as we could fit into the calendar - please forgive us if we didn't make it to you! Overall, furlough was very rich and full of the blessings of getting to be with dearly loved friends and family; we deeply appreciated all the conversations, meals, and coffee, and we really enjoyed seeing how God is moving and working in your lives and neighborhoods. Going back and forth between Mozambique and the US, we feel we are abundantly blessed with more than one lifetime's worth of friendships, and we have so many "homes" in which to lay our heads!

We have been back on the ground in Mozambique for four weeks now, and are back into most, though not all, of our regular routines; life and work move more slowly here. We are so thankful for the love and hospitality of our teammates the Smiths who provided us with over a week of meals while we unpacked and got organized and cleaned all the dust. Coming home after furlough also means coming home to a nearly empty pantry and freezer; in addition to a supply-shopping trip to Nampula, since we returned I have made yogurt, sourdough, granola, mayonnaise, and chicken broth, frozen cooked chicken and ground beef, roasted 40 pounds of peanuts, and canned 68 pounds of tomatoes into 14 jars of tomato sauce and 22 pounds of cucumbers into 14 jars of dill relish. Whew!

And now for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT... Many of you will remember that due to severe water shortages over the past few years, in late November 2011 we paid a South African well-drilling company $10,000 to drill a deep bore well here on the land. They drilled down to 66 meters, hitting two significant water veins, cased and capped the well and left promising to return to install the pump (part of the deal) in a matter of weeks. The weeks turned into months, and by the time we left for furlough at the end of April, they still had not returned to put the pump on the well, despite all our emails and phone calls inquiring/asking when they would return to complete the job. Many of you asked us about this on furlough and have prayed about it; we had come to a point where we were assuming that the drilling company would not return and that when we returned to Montepuez we would need to buy a pump and pay someone else to install it.

WELL, (ha ha) we landed in Pemba August 25 in the afternoon and got to Montepuez after dark, and enjoyed supper with our teammates. We slept our first night back in our own beds, and, we woke up (still very groggy with jet lag) to a phone call saying the drilling company was back in town. Alan got the guy on the phone, and he said he had the pump and would be over to the land shortly to install it! So, ten months after the drilling, we now have a functioning bore hole on the land filling up our tanks an cisterns as needed - thank you (thank you! thank you!) for all your prayers. I'm reminded of Jesus' instruction in Matthew 6 not to worry "because your heavenly Father knows what you need."

Living and working as missionaries is unique in that many of the things we use/need are not actually ours - the land, the house, the car, the well drilled for water. We rely on God to provide these things, often through his people (You!), and we don't forget this. We see his love and your love daily as we wake up in this house, as our children play on the land with their friends and go to school in the school house, as we use water, and drive the truck to this or that village. Our thanks go to our great God, and we also thank you for letting his generosity flow through you! So we are feeling more and more settled and "at home." After unpacking and cleaning, we have even been able to get around to some tasks that we didn't have time for between moving in and leaving for furlough; despite a few setbacks and frustrations, Alan has been able to get running water inside the house now (hooray!), and we finally hung our wedding pictures on the wall. We're working on getting hot water in the showers, hopefully it won't be too much longer. Abby and Ellie have been really good sports about taking cold showers; Katie, though, screams as if she's been seriously injured, so we've been heating up a bucket for her bath...

We were sad to say good-bye to Robert, Allison, Miriam Berger before we left on furlough, but were so thankful that they gave a year of their lives to come and be the first teacher to join the team, and we will miss them! We also excited to announce that we have new teammates; Kara Tobey arrived just a few days before us, and after getting settled she is now in her third week of teaching the third/fourth grade class. Kara was one of our missions interns from Harding University in 2009, and we are very happy to have her back! Rebekah Keese will also be arriving in a couple weeks (on the plane with the Westerholms returning from furlough) to teach the first grade class, and we are excited to have her here as well! I'm not sure Kara or Rebekah (or Allison and Robert) can fully understand how much we appreciate their faith and commitment to come and teach the team kids; education of children can be one of the biggest challenges missionaries have to figure out, with some missionaries making major career or field changes due to lack of adequate educational options.

This week we resumed several regular activities from before furlough; I started going north Friday to pick up the weekly women's study in two different village churches, and Alan went down to Chiure with Jeremy today to begin again their mentoring visits with leaders there. We've worshipped with three different churches since we returned; we gave them your greetings, which they appreciated very much, and they've asked specifically about those of you that have come to visit here. Two Sundays ago we shared a meal with the Chipembe/Omeringue/Nkunama church cluster and were served monkey meat with our lunch, which was a first for us, even after all these years. It's funny to me to watch my two year-old slurp down monkey meat complete with skin like it's an everyday thing. The church members clarified that it wasn't baboon (akhole) but a smaller monkey (nsapwe) "about the size of a cat" that one of the men caught in a trap. Just a little different from the meals we shared with so many of you in the States!

Thank you again for all your love and support and prayers; we miss you when we are far away!

Please pray with us for:

• The first annual youth conference coming up at the end of October in Montepuez

• Wisdom as we mentor disciples

• For God's reign to take root in hearts and bear fruit

• The Westerholms and Rebekah Keese arriving the first week of October

Much peace to you,

Rachel and Alan Howell

heading over for furlough

Greetings again from northern Mozambique!

As I write we are two weeks away from departure for furlough in the States, which means we are trying to balance our regular responsibilities and commitments while also preparing to be gone for a few months! To complicate things a little bit we’ve also had a computer virus which has kept us offline for most of February and March, and we’ve been sick ourselves, too – lately it seems like we’ve caught every little bug that’s going around, and we’re a little weary of being sick. One nice change has been the weather – right about April 1^st the temperatures dropped from their heights and turned cooler, with cool breezes blowing almost all day. We’ve been wearing long sleeves and jackets several mornings, and I can’t ever remember wearing long sleeves in April in Montepuez before.

Before going further, you’ll remember Brian and Laura Beth Oliver and Roy Young from the Donelson church visited us here in Mozambique back in October. Brian’s skills as a videographer are stunning, and he has blessed us by making a video about the work here. Many of you may have already seen this, but in case you haven’t seen it yet, you’re in for a treat – just click on this link! http://vimeo.com/35650818

Alan and Jeremy are continuing their leadership training with a group of nine men in Chiure, studying through the book of 1 Peter as well as talking about intentionally making disciples and investing in new leaders. This group of men is already bearing fruit, and it is exciting to see God working in their lives. After the study a couple weeks ago, Alan spent the night in the village of Mahipa, where two of the students are from, to visit with them in their homes and continue the conversation about how to put what they have been studying into practice. Alan is also going through ministry training materials with leaders of four of the churches north of Montepuez (Nkororo, Nekwaya, Nakuka, Khambiri). This past Saturday Alan was with the group from the village of Nkororo as they studied through the story of Nehemiah and talked about what we can learn about leadership from his example.

Alan has a new ministry opportunity that we would appreciate prayers for. A missionary doctor-friend who works with the Leprosy Mission International is interested in making a series of recordings of biblical stories for the leprosy care groups to listen to, and he asked for our team’s input since we speak Makua-Metto. Alan agreed to write the dialogue for a couple of sample recordings which we will record on April 19^th. The recordings will consist of the text of the story from scripture and then three participants having a conversation about what they heard and how it applies to life today. Alan has really enjoyed working on these initial dialogues and recordings, and he sees the potential for these recordings to be useful for passing on the biblical stories to multiple audiences, especially in such an oral society. Please keep this project in your prayers.

On Fridays I have continued studying slowly through the Sermon on the Mount with women in Newara and in the Chipembe/Nkunama/Omeringue church cluster, and I love being with these women and their children! They are far from perfect (as am I!), and there are still a lot of scriptures they haven’t heard yet. But it is beautiful to see their lives and their children’s lives starting to look different as they answer Jesus’ invitation to walk in God’s Kingdom. Coming up on Easter weekend there were two people in Newara who were ready to be baptized, and two people in Chipembe as well, but Alan and I had already committed to worship in town that Sunday, so we couldn’t come join their worship and celebration. The Friday before Easter I listened as the women in the Chipembe cluster actively discussed whether or not they were going to walk the 7-8 miles (2-3 hours) down to Newara, and Alan and I prayed like crazy through the weekend that they follow through and go worship and do baptisms together. Yesterday I went up for our study in Newara and was thrilled to hear that the Chipembe/ Nkunama/ Omeringue believers had walked to Newara and that they had baptized four people together!

Seeing people catch glimpses of God’s Kingdom and realize that Jesus is inviting them to come walk with Him in it is thrilling; seeing the church BE the body of Christ to each other and their neighbors makes us want to jump up and down and shout! Small churches walking 8 miles to worship and baptize new believers together, without any involvement from us, is a sign of love and maturity here. Other exciting recent news was that over the past few months the larger church in town began organizing different days for members to go together to hoe the fields of the widows in their church, again, without any involvement from us. It’s enough to make us shout Hallelujah!

We are excited to share news of growing churches with you! To see the full picture, though, is to remember that these churches are tiny in relation to the surrounding population, and there are plenty of significant challenges and growing pains. Drunkenness is everywhere, most marriages are flimsy, and apathy is a big problem. We invite you to seriously pray with us over the darkness in this area, that more and more people will see the growing Light.

On the home front we continue to be daily reminded of the love God has shown us through the generosity of his children to build this house – thank you so much! On Saturday April 21^st at noon we’re having an open house party to celebrate God’s generosity in building the house, and you are all welcome to join us! We’ve finished a few other projects on the house; the closets have shelves now, and the carpenter should bring the closet doors soon. Alan went to Pemba this week to get the tank and pump for our cistern so we can pressurize and have running water in the house. Currently we’re still using rain water in the cistern, and yes, unfortunately we’re still waiting for the drilling company to return and install the pump on the well so the well can be usable (It’s been four months now that we’re waiting on the pump for the well; please pray for the drilling company to fulfill their contract with us.)

We have loved having Robert, Allison, and Miriam Berger as teammates this year, and it’s hard to believe that our girls are wrapping up their school year with “Miss Allison.” Allison teaching the two classes of team children has blessed us tremendously and kept us from extra stress and exhaustion in a year of high stress and multiple transitions for the whole team. Robert has also been helping our team configure maps of the churches in our area in addition to caring for their baby daughter Miriam while Allison is teaching. Since we moved to the land we’ve been next-door neighbors with the Bergers, and we will really miss having them here. Looking ahead, we’ve been praying for God to provide teachers for the coming year, and we received great news this week that Kara Tobey, one of our former interns, and Rebekah Keese will be joining our team this fall to teach our children for the coming school year!

We are thankful for the ways God provides; He is so faithful. Lately we’ve been asking Him to provide us with some rest and rejuvenation while on furlough, which is coming up soon. We are very much looking forward to treasuring our long-awaited time in the States with family and loved ones that we miss so much (and hot showers, broccoli, strawberries, Chili’s, and leaving the girls with grandparents are all bonus)!

Please pray with us:

· For believers to grow in Christ-likeness, teaching their children and neighbors to do the same

· For health for our family

· For the well-drilling company to return and finish putting a pump on the well

· For safety and rest in our furlough travels, no lost luggage, and that our children will sleep well on the planes April 28/29!

See you very soon!

Love,

Rachel and Alan Howell