Late last night we received word that Pastor Abel's mother had passed away. I have written previously about our visit with her in Xai-Xai. She had a severe stroke back in late December. We met with the family this morning and they have headed up to Xai-Xai. In lieu of a church service in their home this morning, we gathered for prayer and they then began preparations for the long bus journey to Xai-Xai. Pray for Abel and his family as they work through the grieving process; they are a close family. His wife Victoria is doing very well from her surgery, for which we are thankful, so the travel should not be a problem for her. She attends our seminary class on Saturday and together with Abel, they make a powerful team.

We spoke briefly at T-3 church this morning and received a very warm send-off from the church. I told them I was praying that the preschool would be full of children by the time we returned! It was very encouraging to receive such a warm send-off and an admonition to make sure we return soon.

We are close to leaving - our bags are mostly packed and we've said many of our good-byes. We have some concerns about our tickets from Maputo because of how they were prepared so tomorrow morning could be interesting for us! They moved our daughter's graduation up a day, so we have virtually no margin if something goes crazy during the trip - so we would appreciate your prayers for our travel.

So, I imagine our next entry will be from the States. See many of you soon! I'm turning off the computer, packing it away, and headed back with a piece of my heart firmly planted right here with the people of Mozambique.

Blessings,

Dave & Ann

This morning we had a meeting with our church leadership team primarily to discuss comments on the new church discipline that will govern this flegling denomination into the future. They did a wonderful job and we made our suggestions and they have a target date to issue the final version by the end of July.

But, we also found out that the land we had hoped to purchase for a small church in Xipamanine fell through as a previously interested party doubled their offer and the owners went with this new offer, which was more than we were willing to pay. I see this as truly an answer to prayer - not the answer we had hoped for, but an answer nevertheless, and the best one I am sure. So, as a leadership team, we agreed to once again enter a season of prayer about this dark and unreached area known for its witchcraft. We have a small house church in Xipamanine for which we are thankful, but it is really time to move beyond this small lean-to.

Other land has become available in Mavalane, where we have a similar situation with a small house church bursting at the seams but with no room for growth. Tomorrow we will worship there and I plan to visit a small plot of land with Pastor Abel that is available as we are also praying to grow in this area of Maputo.

The saga of the pre-school at T-3 continues - more meetings are planned this week with the government and we hope that we will return to a pre-school full of children. The bureaucracy moves so slowly here and pushing too hard only makes it go slower. But, more and more people are getting involved and Pastor Daniel meets with the head of the government department overseeing pre-schools next week and he plans to invite him to the facility so he can see with his own eyes. We feel like they are possibly looking for a bribe but it isn't very clear. Unfortunately, that is often the way of business here, which can hinder our progress.

We spent much of the day helping our dear friend Juka prepare for his trip north. We have packaged medicines, books, repellents, motorcycle parts, bibles, and training materials into large rubber containers that will be loaded on the top of the bus. Tomorrow afternoon we will take them to the bus stop, which is a large dirt lot with wall to wall buses and what seems at first like total chaos. We will negotiate a price for the baggage, buy a ticket, and observe loading of the containers on top of the bus. Then, we will go our separate ways - we will leave by air to the United States while Juka travels north. He will be training our church leaders and trainers in the north as well as working through some issues that have been brought before the leadership. He is an amazing young man with a heart for church planting and discipleship and has become a dear friend to us.

So, as we enter these final hours before leaving, it is with such mixed emotions. We are absolutely whipped from this year and looking forward to a little down time; we miss our girls and are really looking forward to seeing them. But, our heart will remain here with the people of Mozambique.

Blessings to you. We thank you for standing with us.

Dave & Ann

Yahoo and photostream aren't working very well, so I haven't been uploading photos much as it takes forever and the link between our blog and photostream is not working very well. Yahoo knows they have problems with this but aren't working on it as they are planning to get out of the blogging business. So, I notice we have a photo problem - the bad news is I can't fix it. Eventually we will move to a different blogging plateform (such as google) but just haven't gotten there yet! Thanks for your patience!

Dave & Ann

Dave

Blessings to you!

I wrote previously about our partnership with Youth for Christ in helping them with a church plant in Picoco – a small village that is pretty much isolated. We had made plans to show the Jesus film Saturday night and we spent much time preparing equipment this week. Friday, we loaded up the equipment, including a new generator, and headed out early in the Afternoon. We traveled the nearly impassable road out into the country side of Mozambique, arriving about three thirty in the afternoon. We brought a group of young people from our Khongolote church, who with our short-term teacher Becca Pullin, prayed and left to evangelize the area while others of us set up the church and equipment. The above picture is of the small church with the film ready to go as darkness approached. There was no electricity for many miles around us and the sky was unbelievable in the absence of light pollution.

Becca’s group actually went to the well the nearby Mosque operates and they talked with the people there and left literature and invited many to the service and following movie.

As dark approached, the praise band started (electric piano and a bass guitar) and the praise and worship started and soon we had over 100 people packed into the church. Berto, the young man with Youth for Christ was overwhelmed as he had not been able to get people to enter the church building previously and he was beside himself at how God was moving. This is what prayer does! We sang many songs in Tsonga and Berto did a short sermon talking about the burden of sin, walking around with a cinder block on his head for effect. After much more singing and dancing, Ricardo, one of our ECC workers began preaching. He preached a long time, presenting the gospel. At the end when he made an alter call, nearly everyone in the church came forward to accept Christ. It was an amazing movement of God’s spirit in this small place in what most would say was the middle of no-where – but a place that God truly cares about. As the next praise and worship started, we got the movie started.

So, with all this, we started the movie quite late – but everyone stayed – most brought a chair, matt, or cinder block from home and sat and watched the film. We had some challenges with the equipment – we are using VCR tapes and the player has been in several world wars I think. So with much fiddling and much prayer, we got things going and the movie ran flawlessly in Tsonga. We packed up in the dark and headed home about 1030 for the 1.5 hour drive.

Then, this morning, we picked up Juka and family at Khongolote, plus Nelho for the run back out this morning. We started our first church service at 0900 after setting up cinder block seats. As the singing started, soon we had about 85 people present. It was a normal church service, much worship, much prayer, a children’s time, and a great message. I was called to speak and Juka interpreted my Portuguese into Portuguese and Tsonga. We prayed specifically for some serious health concerns in the church – the community health needs are considerable in this remote area. At 1200 we dismissed at headed back and there are three other services planned for this week as discipleship is essential. Nelho is going to work with this church and is considering moving to the area and would become our new ECC worker, using this church as a training center to train other people to evangelize and plant churches. It’s so exciting we can hardly contain ourselves. All we had to do was show up – the harvest is so very ripe – so ripe.

So, I have a third place I want to put in a well so the people can go somewhere besides the mosque for their water – we won’t make people join to get the water! That’s three wells I’m praying that the funding will come in for – Intaca, Picoco, and San Damassao.

So – we have another area to focus prayer (Picoco) and a place we have seen God’s spirit move in a mighty way. Not by might, but by my spirit says the Lord!

We leave in a week to come to daughter three’s college graduation and then meetings at OMS – and the demands on our remaining time here are intense – intense. So much to do in the next days and so much will be left undone. Remember us in prayer as we serve you here in Mozambique.

As a prayer request – the unrest continues as the dollar falls and the cost of goods escalates here. There is rumor of a general strike on May 3. We leave May 5. The last riots made it impossible to get to or from the airport for a couple of days. So – we have that bit of anxiety to deal with. Much will depend upon what the government does with the minimum wage update due out by law this month.

“So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.” Zec 4:6

We coasted to a stop and sat and watched these guys watch us for about 15 minutes. Another car eventually pulled up behind me, blocking my exit. Ann was saying "David, David" as these guys were really big. Do we drive by, or not? Rhinos and Elephants have been known to flip cars in the park and I wasn't ready for that.

Eventually, the standing Rhino turned his rear towards us - at which time I started the car and shot past them - and up they came faster than you can even imagine, chasing after us. The car behind me was backing up as fast as he could as we headed on down the road.

"....There is that Leviathan which you have made to play there." Psalm 104 - 26

The above picture is of a structure built by Mozambicans under the oversight of Youth for Christ. One of the members of our City Church works full time for Youth for Christ, and this structure was a vision they had for an area called Peqcoco, between Maputo and Swaziland. They want to eventually start a school there for youth but now have this wonderful structure which they want us to help them with – this is more of a church structure and they plan to build a school structure next to it. They have done evangelism work in the area but have requested our help with getting the church started. So, we went out to visit the site and agree that it is a great location to establish a training center for our ECC program.

What is also interesting is that there is a relatively nearby mosque that is also evangelizing the area, providing free food and other services. It is the first time we have worked an area in the south where we will be toe-to-toe with a mosque. They have a well at the mosque that you can use if you join the mosque. They also give away rice and other materials some days, if you will join - an interesting approach, but nothing can compete with the life-changing power that comes through a personal encounter with the very Creator of the Universe. We can’t compete with the Mosque dollars, but we can offer a transformed life through radical heart surgery performed by the master physician!

Juka believes he has a young man who is feeling called to move to this area and start working the area as an ECC work. Timing-wise it works well as we are initiating a new training program next week for the Maputo Province. Pray with us about this young man who will begin the 3-hour commute each way as he determines if this is indeed the call on his life. We plan to show the Jesus film this weekend at the site, which is way off the beaten track; in fact I need to test our generator to be sure we have electricity. Juka has a program planned in conjunction with Youth for Christ.

So, we have been praying about our ECC work in the southern part of Mozambique and after much prayer, God has provided a structure, an undeveloped church plant, with an organization we can easily partner with. It is in an unreached area and the only work is the nearby mosque. The battle for the soul of Africa is intense and increasing.

So pray with us. So, this is the third location where I hope to put in a well to benefit the church and the community. We received a quote last week that each well will be on the order of $2400 depending upon the depth of the well. In Peqcoco, it will be a welcomed addition to this remote community.

I say it a lot, but I don’t think I can say it enough - thank you for standing with us as we serve Christ in Mozambique. Your prayers are being answered in dramatic ways and we are working relentlessly to further the gospel of Christ while the field is ripe.

Blessings,

Dave & Ann

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!’” John 4:35

But, I digress - in the seminary, we finally found one of the leaks and I think it is fixed. But the shocking one (sorry, I couldn't resist) was a crack in the wall where water ran down the building, into the crack (that appeared after the armory explosions last year), and then ran into the hollow cinderblock, into the conduits, and on to the floor. We rented this scaffolding (I know, it is different than what you use!) where the company sets it up for you - and takes it down, and then chipped out the crack and voila! found the problem. The building was built with pillars and floor sections and then the block walls added on top of the floor slabs with the conduit inside the blocks. But, in some cases, the top course of block had a substantial cap to the bottom of the next floor section that wasn't filled in. So, when the building moves, shifts, it cracks and there is free access to the building interior. The outer smooth skin you see is really just a skim coat of cement.

So, we are fixed, painted, and waiting a big rain. Praying for rain is an important thing. I am convinced that if Mozambique just had moderate rain, it could be a bread-basket. The things we've planted here and watered grow like crazy - but you must have water. You can see our wonderful landscaping growing in at the seminary - where the things grow year round and never stop.

So, pray for rain in Mozambique - rain without floods!

Dave & Ann