| |
Sharon's Turn
to write
The outstanding highlight of the past month is that our
international church in Tete has moved venue and has
subsequently doubled in size! We planted the church in Nov
2006, meeting in a disused cinema auditorium which seated
250. At that time the congregation consisted of our family,
a Zimbabwean family, and a handful of single people. Putting
it mildly we rattled around. For a variety of reasons we
moved in March 2007 to a school classroom, and the
congregation has grown slowly since then to around 25
adults/youth and 15 children. Upon our return from furlough
we saw that any further growth would be impossible without
the classroom starting to feel uncomfortably full. We
approached the caretaker of the cinema and negotiated to
rent that hall again. In preparation for the move Charlie
organized the youth to put up posters around the town, and
we hung a banner across the front of the building. The
cinema is on a main road and is a well known local landmark,
while the school was tucked away in a back street. Whether
for these or other reasons, we have been absolutely thrilled
to see the hall about one third full on the past 3 Sundays,
with around 25 children, and 55 adults/youth. Of course the
task now is to retain those people and disciple them. We are
delighted to have our Mozambican assistant pastor, Samuel
Mitivo, on board, and he will certainly have plenty to keep
him busy as he works alongside us in the coming weeks.
Thrilled though we are by numerical growth, what we really
long for is growth in character and discipleship. We
therefore rejoiced when 20 of our members turned up at the
cinema the Saturday before we moved bearing brooms, mops,
scrubbing brushes and toilet cleaning fluid. The task was to
turn the dusty, musty auditorium into a place where people
could comfortably worship the Lord. I had thought this an
impossibility, but as people worked together tirelessly and
without complaining, we saw a transformation come over the
place. Special mention must go to the youth who tackled the
toilets, doing a frankly disgusting job with willing hearts.
They had handkerchiefs tied on their faces initially, but by
the time they finished the room sparkled and smelled of
Handy Andy. Anyone can come to church and sing and dance. In
fact in a place like Tete where there is very little
entertainment a 'knees up' at a pentecostal service may well
be the high point of the week! It is quite another thing to
give time and energy to dirty unpaid work. We thank God for
the love offering our people brought to the Lord that day.
We are looking forward to another milestone in the life of
the Elim Pentecostal church of Mozambique this month, as we
celebrate our first Christian wedding. One of our members, a
young Zimbabwean man, approached us about a month back
stating that he had paid the bride price for his fiancée.
Yet rather than just taking his bride according to the
African tradition he wanted to marry in church and obtain a
formal wedding certificate. We are very much looking forward
to celebrating with them on 19 April.
In the last newsletter Gregory mentioned the saga of my
application for medical registration. I had become very
disheartened as I had submitted my papers twice and both
times they were 'lost' in the system. I was not particularly
hopeful as I sent them to Maputo for the third time... Yet,
it seems this time there is a difference. Last year I met a
Mozambican doctor while he was working at Moatize district
hospital just outside Tete. In fact he was the only doctor
in Moatize district which has a population of 200 000, and
he was rather interested that someone else was willing to
lend a hand! Returning from furlough I found he has been
transferred to Maputo. However he has clearly not forgotten
the needs of the people in this far flung northern corner of
the country as he is personally receiving my papers and
submitting them to the relevant departments in the Ministry
of Health. It is obvious that they are now being dealt with
as he keeps phoning me asking for some other document. Maybe
this time the door will open for me to use my medical
skills.
As I type this we are actually in Blantyre, Malawi. As you
know we stayed here in January while looking for
accommodation in Tete. We lodged with our Elim missionary
colleagues Sonya Lester and Jackie Griffiths. Jackie has
been given responsibility for training Elim pastors in
Malawi. She asked Gregory if he would be willing to take
part in teaching at the Bible school she runs here. This is
an excellent scheme whereby existing Malawian Elim pastors
are invited to Blantyre for 3 weeks at a time, four times in
the year for intensive Bible teaching. Gregory agreed to
teach for one week as a one off during the final three week
stint for the 2008/9 student intake. He also arranged to
bring four of our senior leaders to take part in the studies
and benefit from fellowship with their Malawian colleagues.
We therefore came up as a family last weekend, the boys and
I continuing schooling while Gregory has been teaching each
morning at the mini Bible school. He taught on 'ethics' and
has tackled some hot potatoes, including work ethics, money
and bribery, sexual behaviour and HIV/AIDS. His chief aim
was to stimulate the men to think through these issues and
arrive at a way of approaching common but tricky pastoral
dilemmas in a Christlike and compassionate way. It was not
plain sailing, but he is delighted by how well the teaching
was received.
We have appreciated the break, particularly in light of a
very distressing situation that has developed at home in
Tete. There is a bar across the road from our house which
was never a bother initially. However, during March they
started to play raucous music at discotheque level from mid
afternoon till the early hours of the morning every Friday,
Saturday and Sunday. We are finding it extremely difficult
to think, pray, relax or sleep with the beat continually
pounding our senses. The worker responsible has proved to be
extremely obstinate and has flatly refused all requests from
local residents to turn the volume down, saying he must play
loud music to attract people to the bar. Our landlady is
guiding and supporting us in taking this issue forward
through the various layers of municipal authority, and we
are hoping eventually to reach an amicable resolution.
In closing may I direct you once again to our website.
Josiah and Daniel each wrote a poem this month for an
internet writing competition on the theme of Africa. These
are posted on the Bonus page of the website. The boys have
received some very positive feedback on the poems, and would
be delighted to hear what others think too.
Thank you again for standing with us in the joys and trials
of life here.
Grace to you
Sharon and Gregory Kane
Elim International Missions
|
|
| |
Prayer Requests |
|
| |
- Keep on praying for our health,
protection and safety as a family.
- Pray that Sharon would finally be
granted permission to work as a doctor.
- Praise God for the growth in our
international church. Pray that we will have wisdom to
disciple those whom God is sending to us.
- Pray for Samuel Mitivo and his
wife that they will quickly adjust to living in the city
and will get to know people in our international church.
- Charlie Comerford, from St
Albans, has done a great job building the youth into a
coherent group through sports, weekly Bible studies and
open air evangelism. He leaves on 14 April. Pray that he
will know what the Lord has for him next. Pray too that
the youth group will continue to go from strength to
strength.
- Praise God for the excellent week
Gregory spent at the Malawi mini Bible school.
- Pray for Morgan and Virginia as
they prepare for their wedding on 19 April. Pray that it
will be a joyful occasion and that Christ will be
glorified in the celebration and in their life together.
- Pray for a resolution to the
problem with the bar.
- On Easter Saturday we plan to
hold open-air meetings in various markets in the city,
including public readings of the Easter story. Pray that
'faith will come from hearing the Word of God'.
|
|
| |
Sharon's Joke of
the Month |
|
| |
There was a
farmer, Perley Moore, who had recently bought a truck and
found that the "basic price" was only the beginning. Once
the salesman had added on all the extras -- towing package,
toolbox, fifth-wheel attachment, etc. -- the price was quite
a bit higher. Well, by a strange turn of fate, that same
salesman stopped by Perley's farm one day to buy a cow. The
dealer examined the herd, picked out a likely
specimen, and asked about the price.
"That's a hundred-dollar cow," Moore replied directly.
"That's fair enough," said the salesman. "I'll take her."
"Well, now, that's the basic price," Moore added, getting
out pencil and paper. "There are one or two extras, of
course." He made a few notes and handed the paper to the
dealer. Here is the final invoice:
Basic cow: $100
Two-tone exterior: $45
Storage compartment and dispensing device: $60
Four spigots @ $10 each: $40
Genuine cowhide upholstery: $75
Dual horns @ $7.50 each: $15
Automatic fly-swatter: $35
Total: $370 |
|
| |
Gregory's Quote of
the Month |
|
| |
"Be not angry that you cannot make
others as you wish them to be,
since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be."
- Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ |
|
|
