Fresh Report From Mozambique
Hi again Prayer Partners. Thank you so much for your continued prayers during this intense time in Mozambique – we are reaping the benefits here. And thank you too for so many of the encouraging comments that we're getting from you. Sorry no pictures this time, will need to go out through my phone. Actually not sure of that, I enjoyed phone email when they turned on GPRS on the network. But since yesterday the GPRS has gone off the air in both networks, hope to get this to you somehow.
- Please pray for Lindy's health. Even though she's carrying a good bit of the seminar teaching load, she has been struggling for a few days with infections and exhaustion . The daily temperature down here in Mutarara of 105 degF does not help, but her spirit is strong. The side pains have subsided, her tail bone area even survived the 10 hours of REALLY rough road (I use that term loosely) into the grueling 14-hour ride from Estima to Mutarara (18 hours including stop time and tire-changing time).
- Praise God that the rest of the team is fine healthwise, even with a whole lot of sweat flowing down their faces, and that malaria has not and will not have any effect on the team as it has in the past.
- The seminars in Estima and Mutarara have been effective, with a total of around 200 pastors and leaders of local churches attending. We love to hear their testimonies, these people are being deeply touched by God. If I have time I'll copy some of the testimonies down and let you read through. A recurring comment seems to be that they "have been revived", and that unlike other seminars they have attended, they have not just had head learning but have grown so much spiritually. During the seminar in Estima one man testified that his grown daughter that had been prayed for earlier by the team at the hospital was healed, she was so swollen up that she had not been able to go to the toilet for a long time. Matthias told me that a small child who was with his mother at the Mutarara seminar was healed of malaria during Lindy's preaching. At one of the churches we attended on Sunday morning a man was instantly healed of diarrhea and was full of joy – it was funny as they were trying to communicate this to Lindy through mime. Long term diarrhea can be a sign of something so much more serious here.
- We have now agreed to hold another unplanned seminar near Chare, an area near Mutarara that is too far for many pastors to walk here (we do have some of the pastors here now and they stress the need). That is the area where many of the flood victims from two years ago are still living in the temporary camp shelters. This will squeeeeze our time in Malawi's Lower Shire, but we all feel we need to do this.
- Praise God that since we arrived in Mozambique this trip on Sept 19th, more than 1,400 persons have invited Jesus into their lives and hearts during the outreach activities at the mission base and the crusades in Estima and here in Mutarara.
- Another Praise Report. One of the more successful businessmen in Vila Ulongue, the small town where our mission base is, had been complaining about the noise that we make at the church services and prayer meetings because he has tenants near the mission base, and has threatened to have the government stop us. The side of his body was partly paralyzed and he complained of acute lower back pain. Moses could not join our team at the beginning in Estima because he had to arrange for the burning (baking?) of the building bricks that we are making to raise funds for the ministry. It turns out that this is the man that needed to arrange the carrying of all the firewood to burn the bricks, and after negotiation with Moses he agreed to do it. A little later Moses prayed for him – no more paralysis, no more pain – he said this God of ours is real, and that he and his whole household will follow Jesus and will attend our church, they need to learn more about God. Praise God, reminds me of "…But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Jos 24:15.
- One of the churches that our team had started during a previous trip to Mutarara has had to close. A little tough to hear since it was one of the few Foursquare churches in the middle of town, but it turned out that they could not afford to rent a building in town. We will pray with the pastor today and talk about their options, please join us in that prayer.
- We have made some missionary friends in Vila, they were helping translate the Bible into Yungwe. They built a house in a small village in the mountains between Songo and Estima that they have not even been able to visit for over a year. The village only has a Jehova's Witness church. I was very happy to hear that they want the house to be used for God's purposes, they would be very happy if we could start another church there, and the pastor/leader could live in their house. Please pray for wisdom.
- Sadly our neighbor at the mission base died of malaria while we were in Estima. Please pray for her family.
- Pray for the Mozambique presidential elections on Oct 28th. There are three parties running, please pray for peaceful elections as in the past we have seen some violence although we do not see any evidence of that now, and also pray for continued favor from the government. A number of risky things have happened that we're not comfortable with, but God has protected us – for example, the ruling party taking our car for a few days during the campaign and our bus one day, later accusations that we were collaborating with one of the opposition parties were proved false and our claims that we are not politically aligned came through. We're being warned that we may need to change some of our plans on and near election day, I'm praying that we don't need to (would affect Macanga outreach).
- There has been a lot of laughter in the team. For example, yesterday when our seemingly intelligent dinner for the seminar found a way to jump out of the car on the move through an open window. The goat escaped. A couple of hours later two of the local girls finally returned with it (I hope it was the same one).
Thank you and abundant blessings on you. We stand together as the body of Christ, each taking our part in the work of expanding the kingdom at this season. It is happening all around me and you, we just need to open our eyes to see the greatness of our Mighty Awesome God. Hallalujah!! He has risen and He is ALIVE.
All for Jesus,
love,
Danny and Lindy
