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Gregory's Turn to write
This past month has been tough. It started badly with one of
our church leaders losing his wife to cancer. Then the child
of one of our senior pastors died suddenly. A short time
later one of our church members went into hospital to have
her baby, only to be treated abysmally by the nursing staff
resulting in the death of her newborn child and the woman
contracting a nasty infection. In the midst of all this our
whole family succumbed to a bad dose of malaria that pinned
us to our beds. Josiah wasn't immune to these trials either
even though he was at boarding school up in Blantyre. He
took ill (thankfully not with malaria) and collapsed in a
faint on the floor of the school office. And then to top it
all off, I picked up our car from the garage where a
mechanic had been working on the brakes, only to discover
belatedly that his assistant hadn't bothered to tighten the
lug nuts properly. I was halfway down the highway when my
rear wheel bounced across the road by itself and the rest of
the car came to an unexpected halt. Not good. Decidedly a
frustrating month.
Of course there have been some positive developments. Two of
our executive members received brand new motorcycles that
will aid them greatly in visiting our Elim churches. It has
been great to see the joy on their faces, although I was
somewhat alarmed to discover that one of the pastors had
been driving his motorbike without having any idea how the
clutch or the choke worked! You can see a photo of one of
these bikes on the photos page of this website alongside
some great family photos of our growing boys.
Digressing for a moment into the world of multimedia, one of
the videos on our YouTube channel passed a landmark
this month when it chalked up more than 1000 views. I don't
quite know what to think of the fact that the least watched
video on our channel has to do with how people can
contribute financially to our ministry here in Mozambique.
Perhaps you should pop over to
http://uk.youtube.com/user/ElimMoz and have a look for
yourself. While you're there, do take a look at the brand
new video we have posted of last year's open air Nativity
Play. See Mary and Joseph as never before. And, yes, I do
know that the donkey isn't actually mentioned in the Gospel
narratives, but it sure made for some great street theatre!
One of the big demands on our time is the home schooling of
our children. Sharon does a first class job with this,
working every morning with Samuel, Nathanael and Daniel, and
ensuring that they are ably prepared for the future. I also
help with Daniel, tutoring him in maths, science and church
history. Josiah, as you all know, is safely up in Blantyre
and so is spared the tension of of having to work out
whether he's dealing with his father, his teacher, or his
pastor. A little while ago we took our boys on a field trip
to observe the work of an African blacksmith. You can see
the fun our boys had by clicking
here
and watching a short video from their YouTube
channel.
Easter will soon be upon us and I have been very straight
with our city churches, saying that I am not prepared to
organise any of the evangelistic extravaganzas that have
characterised our celebration of Christmas and Easter in
recent years. It would be very easy for us to fall into the
routine of making everything happen ourselves. But our role
as missionaries is to facilitate and to equip, and as such I
have challenged our district leaders as well as my youth
evangelists to come up with an evangelistic Easter
programme. I understand that their plans are proceeding well
and it is with a mixture of excitement and apprehension that
I am looking forward to the Easter weekend. Most churches in
Mozambique just meet together in a three-day holy huddle
from Friday to Sunday; I thank God that in Elim we're waking
up to the imperative to proclaim the meaning of the cross to
those many Mozambicans for whom the church is still largely
irrelevant.
Let me finish with a tribute to Daniel, our new teenager. A
couple of weeks ago many of the young people from our
district churches gathered together on a Saturday for a
day-long youth celebration. I wasn't involved in the
programme but I stopped by just to show my support. And
there was our Daniel, the only white face in a sea of
jubilant, worshipping Africans. The entire day was conducted
in Portuguese but Daniel held his own, contributing to the
discussions and joining in all the activities. At the end of
the afternoon he walked down to the main road and caught one
of the crowded commuter minibuses that took him into Tete
city centre. We had arranged to screen another of our
popular Christian movies at our international church and
Daniel was keen not to miss it. The following morning in
church, drum sticks in hand, he banged away on two goatskin
drums before going out to teach Sunday School. It's great
seeing our lads growing up, developing socially as well as
spiritually. And did I mention that he's already taller than
his mother? Do make sure you check out those photos of our
thirteen-year-old.
Grace to you
Gregory
and Sharon
Kane
Elim International Missions
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Prayer Requests |
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- We never tire of asking
for prayer for our health and safety. We read this month
of a missionary doctor in Pakistan who died recently of
malaria. Likewise, when the wheel fell off of our car,
it could easily have resulted in a nasty accident. So
while we thank God for watching over us, we are
constantly aware that we need strength and good health
to operate effectively in this part of the world.
- Pray for the ongoing
home schooling of our children, for wisdom and
flexibility for their parents, and enthusiasm and
understanding for our boys.
- Pray for the
preparations under way for Easter that our people would
be bold in their witness to the work of the cross
- We tried something new
at our international church this past month, offering
free lessons in conversational English to secondary
school students. Unfortunately the uptake was abysmal,
so we have albeit reluctantly dropped the scheme. Pray
that we would continue to be creative in searching out
ways to impact our wider community.
- Now that the rainy
season is at an end, Sharon's ready to restart weekly
women's teachings in one of our rural churches. Please
pray that everything would fall into place for this.
Pray also that our car would take her there and back
without anything else falling off!
- As a church we have made
a formal complaint about the way the woman who lost her
baby was treated. Please pray that the authorities would
take this seriously and that the standard of care in the
hospital would start to improve.
- Our international church
currently rents an old cinema, but we really need to buy
our own land and build a premises. It is proving
extremely difficult to find a plot in a suitable
location for a reasonable price, partly because buying
land always becomes a political issue. Pray that God
opens the door for us.
- Pray that we keep our
eyes on Jesus during times of discouragement, and don't
lose heart.
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Sharon's Joke of
the Month |
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Crossing The River
Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large,
raging violent river. Needing to get on the other side, the first
man prayed, "Lord, please give me the strength to cross the river."
Poof! Lord gave him big arms and strong legs and he was able to swim
across in about 2 hours, having almost drowned twice.
After witnessing that, the second man prayed, "Lord, please give me
strength and the tools to cross the river."
Poof! Lord gave him a rowing boat and strong arms and strong legs
and he was able to row across in about an hour after almost
capsizing once.
Seeing what happened to the first two men, the third man prayed,
"Lord, please give me the strength, the tools and the intelligence
to cross this river."
Poof! He was turned into a woman. She checked the map, hiked one
hundred yards upstream and walked across the bridge.
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Gregory's Quote of
the Month |
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"Satan may build a hedge about us and
fence us in and hinder our movements, but he cannot roof us in and
prevent our looking up."
- Hudson Taylor |
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