Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Couple Videos

I have wanted to get these posted for a while but just didn't have the time or the internet. the first video is a little taste of what the gatherings in the village of Assumane are like. The second one is from our Fun Day back in April, I hope they play for you.



Residence Visa Finally

I am sorry I wrote this a week and a half ago just getting it posted now.

As I write this I am sitting in Blantyre, Malawi having just returned from the Mozambican Embassy and finally after trying for about six months I have my residence visa. This now allows me to return to Mozambique and start the process to get a one year visa that at the end of the year I can renew with out having to leave the country. It will be nice not to have to be leaving the country every two or three months to get a new visa. Thanks so much for your prayers for this. Please continue to pray for the process of getting my one year visa. The one problem I may have is that they want an up to date police check on my criminal record. I got one of these just before I left Canada but that was back in October of last year. I haven’t been back to Canada since and thus there won’t be anything on my record for that time but please pray that they might accept the one I have, otherwise I will have to wait until I go back to Canada and then start this whole procedure over again when I return. This is all in the Lord’s Hands and I am trusting Him with it.

Peter, Annelisa and Antoinette arrived back here safely in Lichinga two weeks ago after spending about ten weeks in Europe and ministering in churches in four different countries but mainly in Spain. They were so happy to get home and be reunited with their family again. Antoinette spent just over a week here before she returned to Pemba this past Tuesday. It was a joy for us to hear their testimonies of what God was doing while they were there in Europe.

Praise the Lord my back has fully recovered from the injury I had about six weeks ago. Thanks to all of you that were praying for my back. It has been such a blessing to not have to do a lot of really strenuous work during this recovery time. We have hired a dear Christian brother, his name is Mateos and he is doing all the plastering of the walls on the admin building as well as pouring the floors. He is doing such a good job and has a real heart to serve the Lord. He is such a blessing to us. With Mateos doing these things I have been able to be involved in some other ministry as well as work on some other projects.

I meant to mention about the Greater Harvest School in my last email but forgot to. This school is for training and discipling the Yao people (The Chi Yao tribe is the people group that we are mainly working with here.) to be equipped to be able to go out and bring their own people to the Lord.


In their small groups for devotions in the morning.


The whole student body plus teachers.

There are about 25 students in this first class. Many of them live quite close and walk about 20 minutes to get to the school but some of them ride their bicycles two or three hours to get to class which starts at 7:30am. This shows that they have a real hunger and desire to learn. It is so encouraging to see their eagerness to learn and be discipled. This week they are finishing up their first six weeks of the school year. There will be three six week periods in all I believe. Two weeks ago I helped with teaching one class each day that week.


Kevin is speaking and Jesse translates into Portuguese and then Victo translates into Yao

A time of worship and prayer


The three main men.

Christian, Jesse and Kevin


Kevin, Jesse and Christian are the three that have really spear headed this school and saw that it got off the ground and running. Their goal is to see these students sent out in groups of two or three to the rural villages in the Northern part of the Niassa province where there has been no Christian witness yet. Already the Lord has put different villages on the students hearts that they feel called to. We just received the testimony of a couple named Condela and Anita. You may remember that they were a couple of the people that I sent the testimonies about, a few weeks ago. They had gone to a village and I believe that there was an Anglican church there and they wanted to find out who the pastor was. They asked around and found him. They told the pastor that they just wanted to see the kingdom of God be advanced in that place. Condela and Anita joined them for their church service and part way through the pastor said “We have some visitors here that I want to come and share with us.” They got up and shared about the transformation the Lord has made in their lives. They shared the gospel and then welcomed anyone who wanted to give their lives to the Lord. The pastor was the first one to want to accept the Lord then there we many others. They also prayed for the sick and many were healed one person completely healed of malaria. They really wanted to go to a second village but as they were trying to leave the first village people were bringing all their sick people out to the road and asking them to pray for them, so they never did get to the other village.


We are seeing that many of these villages are very ripe and ready for harvest. Jesse and Christian went out before the rainy season started and gave out some audio Bibles in the Yao language that are solar powered to some of the chiefs in these villages. After rainy season, once the roads were passable again they have been back to visit these chiefs and several of them have said “We have been listening to the Bible and we believe what it says. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and we want you to come and teach us more about Him. “These are very Muslim villages and it is a big step for them to say that they believe that Jesus is the Son of God because they are taught that He is just a prophet and he is only the son of Man and not the Son of God. There are whole villages ready to give their lives to the Lord and they need people to disciple them and this first class of students are more than willing to take on the responsibility. Please pray for them for their protection and provision that they would have all that is needed to be able to fulfill the call of the Lord on their lives.


I had the privilege of going to the Hospital with Victo and a few of the other young brothers. We go to try to show them some love, befriend them and share the gospel and give them a chance to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Many people in there are hurting physically but even more importantly they are hurting and are spiritually sick and need a healing touch of the great Physician. It is a joy to be able to introduce them to the Great Physician and allow them to make their choice.


I went with Victo to the prison this past Tuesday and had an amazing chance to speak to the guys. They want to see the kingdom of God come and bring revival to that prison and see it radically changed for Jesus. There is a core group of about 15 or so Christians that we meet with and then there are about a hundred other guys who sit around and listen to us. Each time I have gone there are guys who are asking for Bibles, they have a hunger to know more. We have to be careful and find out why they want the Bibles because some of them will use the pages of the Bible to roll up there tobacco and make cigarettes, but many of them do have an honest desire to study God’s Word.


Since Mateos has been doing the plastering I have been able to get a kitchen built in the admin building. I haven’t been able to get the cupboard doors made yet because I am waiting and waiting and waiting on the wood to make them. I was able to get their solar system hooked up for Rachel and Melissa so they can charge a few things and have also been able to get them running water in their kitchen and bathroom. They have jokingly said that they are not sure if they can call themselves missionaries anymore now that they have a few more conveniences. We know that our living conditions have nothing to do with whether we are missionaries or not, it was just a joke. That was kitchen number four that I have built here and now I am working on number five. The Wilcox’s house was the first building to be built here on the base and now the last one to finally get a bit of a kitchen. I just started on it two days before we came here to Malawi.


The Kitchen in the Admin Building


These are a few pictures to show the progress on the Wilcox's Kitchen.

Victo was kind enough to give me a hand with the pouring.

The almost finished product, need to take of the forms and sand and wax it then it will be ready for use.

Lord willing I am planning to return to Canada on July 22nd for maybe about two months I am not sure exactly how long. I will be leaving Mozambique on the 13th and spending a week with some friends in South Carolina, so that means I only have about one month left here in Mozambique. These nine months have really flown by very quickly. I will look forward to connecting with as many of you as I can. If you don’t live very close to me and would like to get together sometime while I am home it would be best to make some plans for that in the near future, because last time I was home it seemed like some people forgot that I was leaving till about a week or two before I was to leave and then I was very busy trying to make time to see people. Just a little FYI.


I think this will have to suffice for this letter. Thank you, thank you for your continued prayers and partnership in what God is doing here in Mozambique.


These are just a couple random pictures.

These are the puppies the Wilcox's got a couple weeks ago. They will eventually be guard dogs.

It is getting very dry now and this is the time of year when people go out into the bush and cut grass for roofs and fences and carry it back into the city to sell or use themselves. This is a group of ladies doing just that.