It is Sunday morning. I am sitting in a church in Mozambique that has a steel roof and walls built out of reeds. The pastors and members of churches like these are just too happy to have a simple place where they can meet together to hear the Word of the Lord and meet with fellow believers.
Yesterday was our third and last day, meeting with the pastors and leaders in Xai Xai (Shy-Shy) a coastal town in Mozambique. During the meetings we encouraged the pastors to look beyond their own church and see other villages and towns that need to hear the good news of Jesus.
Our message was well received as the pastors made commitments to establish 13 new churches in the Province of Gaza in the next 12 months. Please pray that the Lord will give them the courage to fulfill this committed.
During the pastors meetings we also introduced the Live School to them and shared the news that the Live School curriculum will be available in Portuguese by March 2016. We showed them a few snippets of the material that has already been translated. Six pastors committed to start a pilot Live School, using the already available material, which will run from January to Mid March 2016.
Please pray for Isaac Modise, our Live School team leader who is responsible to start Live Schools in Southern Mozambique as he plans to return to Mozambique in the first week of January to train the facilitators.
After our meetings in Xai Xai we drove to the town of Chokwe, another town in the Gaza Province. Here were 48 pastors and leaders waiting for us in the local Anglican Church. The expectation was tangible to say the least.
Over the next few days we ministered to these valiant men and women some of who minister in harsh conditions. Almost all of them hold down a full-time job while pastoring their churches.
We put up a map of the region surrounding the town and asked the pastors to consider making a commitment to go to at least one village in the next 12 months to find out what the needs of the people are and if needed to plant a church there. As a step of faith they were asked to place a sticker on the map where they intend to go. It was such a blessing to see 27 pastors stepping up to the map to seal their commitment in prayer.
We also used a different color sticker to show where Live Schools will be started by March 2016. If our world wide averages are anything to go by they will collectively train 187 of their members in the next 18 months to join the labor force to help reach the lost, plant churches among them and/or get involved in community transformation.
Isaac will also return to Chokwe during the first week of January to train the facilitators for the first six pilot schools there. The plan is that these schools will start in the second week of January.
During our visit to Mozambique we also met with church leaders in the capital, Maputo to arrange the official launch of the Portuguese version of the Live School. This will take place on 18 & 19 March 2016. We are expecting 150 – 200 pastors to attend.
A number of the pastors from Xai Xai and Chokwe will also attend the launch in March. We will also invite a few of the leaders from the northern regions of Mozambique where we have worked for many years to the launch. Please pray for the pastors who are busy making arrangements for the launch in Maputo.
We left Mozambique with a renewed urgency to complete the Portuguese translation on time. The need for workers to gather the harvest is enormous. The pastors are open, willing and able to train their people and want to use the Live School curriculum to do so.
Blessings to all of you.
Willie & Lydia Crew