How did YOU get to church this week? By car? By foot? By bicycle?  A few weeks ago we had a real adventure, even by Daniel's definition of the word. The national Elim leaders had arranged for us to preach in the church at Mbwembe. We drove along the tar road for an hour, then along a winding dirt road for half an hour till we came to ... a river. It was only about knee-deep and we saw people wading across carrying bicycles on their shoulders. But it was wide, and lay at the bottom of a hundred-foot cliff. The car could go no further. We slithered down the steep incline, and climbed into a hollowed out log which served as a canoe. The 'ferryman' waded the river (reputed to be infested with crocodiles, but mercifully we didn't encounter any) and pushed us safely to the other side. There we were met by some members of the Mbwembe church who had brought along their bicycles. Together we climbed out of the river valley. Once on level ground we each clambered onto the luggage rack of one of the bicycles (Samuel was strapped onto my back), and off we rode to church. Of course to get home we had to repeat the process in reverse. We were relieved to find the car intact, although some mischievous person had let down one of our tyres. Well, Gregory and I had been saying I probably needed a refresher course in changing a wheel. I got it. Since then we have made a habit of carrying a foot pump at all times.

So, when we are not canoeing across rivers, what are we up to? In a word: teaching. Gregory is teaching a group of around 10 men in the Moatize church each Wednesday afternoon. He is currently working through the book of Acts. Traditionally, teaching here consists of one person talking and the others listening. The men didn't know what to make of their first Bible study when they were expected to find the answers themselves from the passage. Neither were they expecting to be given memory verses as homework. But they seem to be thriving on the system now, and last Sunday they proudly recited their verses in front of the congregation.

I am also doing weekly bible studies on Thursdays with the women. For four weeks I went to Moatize and we looked at the subject of marriage. The women seemed to find it very helpful to consider marriage from a Biblical stand point, and the discussion became quite lively at times. I am now going to Samoa where I am doing a series on the women in Luke's gospel. I am trying to look at the stories afresh and through African eyes, and am amazed at some of the powerful cultural issues that they raise. I face a different challenge in teaching the women in that many of them do not speak Portuguese. Indeed the educational level in Samoa is so low that I am accompanied each week by two women from Moatize who interpret for me into the local language, Nyungwe. (One of them has a very young baby, and I am continually aware of how blessed I am that she should be willing to undertake the journey each week to help me teach.) In this environment it would be impossible to conduct an interactive study, so I preach and then invite questions and comments. I have been most encouraged by some of the very personal issues which some of the women have asked about. I hope that as the weeks go by they will grow in their understanding of the Scriptures and their ability to help and counsel one another.

However we are painfully aware that the people will not grow significantly if they are relying on a weekly Bible study; they need to form the habit of reading the Bible for themselves. To this end Gregory is selling  Bibles in modern Portuguese at a discounted price to the minority of people (almost all men) who can read them. This leaves us with the problem of how to help the others. The Bible is available in Malawi in Chewa, the Malawian language. Some of our people own Chewa Bibles and we plan to buy more of these when we visit Malawi. However, it is becoming apparent that many of the people struggle to understand Chewa also, and they need Nyungwe Bibles. To date the Bible is not translated into Nyungwe,  though there is an SIL couple working on this and they have produced Luke and Titus. I have been selling Luke's gospels, and they have been very popular, especially in Samoa where the women are able to read the Bible stories I am using on Thursdays ahead of and after the study. However, many of the women, (most of the older ones) cannot read, and hence we are looking around locally for people who could run literacy classes. Nevertheless we are encouraged by the response to the sale of gospels. I was particularly blessed when an illiterate grandmother bought one, saying she would ask her children to read it to her. However, I couldn't suppress a smile when I saw her holding it upside down!

We are having a break from home school for a couple of weeks. When we left Maputo the boys' school kindly allowed us to take the text books so that the boys could finish the year's curriculum and be given a grade for their work. We finished that curriculum recently and sent the material back to Maputo. We will now have another new start with a specialised home school curriculum. Since this will be new again for us, we (parents/teachers) need a little time to prepare and get ahead of the children. They are certainly not complaining about having a break.

Not only do we need to be a step ahead of our boys in home school; our pastors need to be a step ahead of their people. To this end we have just held our first Saturday leaders' seminar. It was well received and we hope it will become a monthly event. We had 26 local pastors and church leaders, representing 12 churches (out of a total of 16 in the Tete province.) Gregory taught on tithing and on holy communion, after which Pastor Jolinho, the vice-superintendent, led us in a very special time of communion. We took a break and gave the three national leaders opportunity to form a panel to answer local questions. Some of the women cooked lunch, which was ready more-or-less on time: no small achievement!  And finally we prayed for one another before going home. It was a good and memorable day. We hope that meeting with the leaders month by month will give us chance to get to know them individually and therefore be better placed to serve the church.
 

Please Pray

We have finally heard that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has agreed that we can remove our furniture - although we are yet to see any paperwork. Praise God! Pray that things now move quickly. Pray for the local pastors to grow in knowledge and to lead the churches well Pray for the Nyungwe Bible translation team to make good progress Pray that we will have wisdom in the Bible teaching we give and that it will strengthen the believers Pray that we will find a way to teach our people to read Pray that we will know God's direction as we consider starting a congregation in the city Pray that we will soon feel at home, and make friends; the boys are particularly in need of playmates Pray for the teacher at Samuel's crèche whose husband is critically ill Pray that we will continue to make good relationships with the churches and will know how best we can serve and strengthen them

Grace to you

Sharon and Gregory Kane

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Sharon's 'Joke of the Month'

*Tired and Thirsty*

Three students are leaving their last classes of the day.

The law student is thinking, "I'm tired and thirsty. I must have coffee."

The English student is thinking, "I'm tired and thirsty. I must have latte."

The medical student is thinking, "I'm tired and thirsty. I must have diabetes."