| |
Sharon's Turn to write
Greetings once again from Mozambique which has been our home
for the past five years. This is about to change. We have
been in discussion with our missions director about our
future role here. As a result of those discussions and after
much prayer we have decided that it is time for us to leave.
We believe that we have done what we came to do in terms of
establishing the Elim church of Mozambique on a foundation
upon which the local leaders are well able to continue to
build. Indeed, we consider that our continued presence may
actually hinder rather than enhance the development of local
leadership. While we are here, our African brothers tend to
look to us for guidance which can produce an unhealthy level
of dependency. We believe that we need to step back and
allow them to look directly to the Holy Spirit for guidance
on how to take the church forwards.
In addition to this, Josiah is now ready to embark on his A
level courses. It seems unwise for him to move halfway
through his sixth form career, so we have decided to bring
him home now and let him study the full course in the UK. I
am booked to fly home on 16th August with Josiah, Nathanael
and Samuel and will try to get them into schools. Daniel
will stay here with Gregory until the end of September when
the Elim church will hold its annual conference. They will
finish packing up the house and will join us in the UK on
2nd October. Gregory will send at least one further
newsletter before then.
Part of the agreement with the church here and with our
missions director is that we will arrange further short
visits twice a year, principally to meet with the leaders
here and find out how the work is going. We will also give
further teaching to the churches and will try to bring
written resources so that our people can continue to grow in
their understanding of the faith. The prospect of these
visits is certainly softening the blow of saying goodbye -
on both sides.
As you can imagine, these last few weeks have been dominated
by tying up loose ends and handing over the work, and this
remains our priority for the weeks that remain. Having said
that, Gregory has been deliberately working himself out of a
job from the very day we arrived, investing lots of money,
time and energy raising up the local leaders. Three weeks
ago we sent three of our executive members, plus the youth
leader of our international church to Nampula in north-east
Mozambique. They went to attend a three-day conference
followed by a week of seminars for church leaders. As the
crow flies, Tete is around 600km from Nampula. However, in
this part of the world it is often more relevant to measure
journeys in time rather than distance. For our men it was a
two-day journey on a series of minibuses, and involved them
going first into Malawi and then back out the other side.
They left at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning and arrived at 1
a.m. on the Tuesday. And they had to repeat the process in
reverse to get home again! They thoroughly enjoyed
themselves and benefited greatly from the teaching, from
having fellowship with pastors from all over Mozambique, and
from the reduced-price bookstall that was open during the
conference.
My major task in regards to handing over was to put in place
some specific structure for the women's work. Back in April
I approached five of our most capable women and asked if
they would serve as a leadership team. They have all been
heavily involved in the women's groups in their own
congregations, and have been regular in attending my
teaching sessions when I've been in their areas. Two of them
have also travelled extensively with me as interpreters from
Portuguese to the local tribal language. What I have now
tasked them to do is to take the teaching I have poured into
them, and go pass it on to others.
I have been pleased by the manner in which they have risen
to this challenge. We gave them three of the sturdy wind-up
MP3 players which allow people to listen to Bible and
teaching recordings. I also passed on to them a pile of the
picture-based health notes which I have used to teach the
women how to care for their bodies and their families. In
recent weeks they have shown great initiative in taking
these resources around the various women's groups. Their
hard work is particularly laudable given that since we
launched the team in April two of the women have had babies
and a third is due to deliver any day now. This weekend they
will be holding a two-day conference for the women in the
churches in Tete city and Moatize. The organisation of that
is entirely in their hands, and I look forward to seeing
them rise to the challenge. The people here hugely enjoy
meeting together in larger groups like this, and the two
days hold promise for bringing great encouragement and
inspiration to the Elim women of Mozambique. I will speak at
the conference on Saturday. This will be my 'final address'
and as such will undoubtedly be a rather emotional occasion.
With much encouragement from Gregory I have also managed to
write a follow-up to my study book on marriage. This one
deals with parenting issues. The longer we have lived here,
the more we have realised that few Mozambican families enjoy
the stability of Mum, Dad and their own children. A variety
of factors including divorce, pre-conversion immorality, and
polygamy, as well as AIDS deaths, conspire to produce a
plethora of families involving step parents and half
siblings, as well as grandmothers and aunts bringing up
orphans. There is very little help available in terms of
guidance to parents and guardians as to how to go about
raising the next generation. We hope that the study book
will go some way to filling this gap. Writing these study
books is extremely time-consuming and it seems a shame only
to reach our own members when the need for teaching in the
church in Mozambique is so vast and the Elim family is
comparatively very small. In our leaving we are making all
of the written resources we have produced freely available
to pastors and missionaries working with different churches
in Mozambique in the hope that many more people may benefit.
Another area of handover is the mosquito nets project. We
were given a sizeable donation for mosquito nets recently
which has enabled us to buy another 200 nets. These are
currently sitting in the house of our general
superintendent. In co-ordination with the senior pastors
from the villages who acted as my interpreters at the
previous net-distribution centres, he will see that these
reach needy people in isolated villages. Our pastors will
later report back to us how the programme goes. If all goes
well there is no reason why they should not be able to
repeat this same project in the future.
Josiah is at home with us now, having completed his GCSE
exams at the end of June. He is expecting his results later
this month, but is not worried about the outcome. He has had
to say goodbye to the friends he made at school in Malawi,
which was not easy for him. All in all the boys are coping
well with the prospect of moving yet again and having to
settle in a new home. This will be the eighth time we will
have relocated to a place where we basically know no one and
have to start from scratch making friends and integrating
into the community. At least we and the older boys have
something of an understanding of what lies ahead. It is
Samuel who seems to be most stressed about the move, perhaps
because for him Tete is the only home he knows. He has only
very fuzzy memories of the six months we spent in Ireland in
2008.
As for what Gregory and I will be doing once we're back in
the UK, this is not yet clear. Gregory hopes to find a niche
where he can continue to develop in the ministry. And I hope
to pick up the threads of my medical career. Having been out
of medical practice for five years I will not be able to
work as an independent practitioner without going through
some form of refresher process. Such schemes exists -
doctors are very expensive to train and the government has
wisely made resources available to hang on to them once they
are qualified! What I need is to find my way through the
process. At times like these we can identify with Abraham
'who went, not knowing where he was going', and with Paul
who said, "I know not what lies ahead". Of course none of us
ever actually knows what tomorrow holds, and it does us no
harm to be reminded periodically of our utter dependence
upon the grace of God.
In closing let me express my personal thanks for all the
love, prayers and support you have demonstrated to us over
the past five years. What we have achieved here would not
have been possible without you.
Grace to you
Sharon
and Gregory
Kane
Elim International Missions
|
|
| |
Prayer Requests |
|
| |
- Take some time to pray
for our city church. Pray that our people would grow in
faith and in their knowledge of God. Pray that they
would continue to be active in evangelism and in Bible
study. Pray for this new clothes project that our people
would dig deep in their pockets and that they would reap
the benefits of such generosity. And do pray for the
relaunch of our weekly youth meeting.
- Give thanks that
Josiah's exams went well and that he is now reunited
with us.
- Thank God that Mario,
Jaime, Araujo and Mateus travelled safely to Nampula and
back and had such an upbuilding time. Pray that the
input they have received will strengthen and inspire
them for their continuing ministry.
- Sadly Zivanai Baira has
stepped down as the assistant pastor in our
international church as he made the decision to take a
full time secular job. We have asked Mario and his wife
Joaquina, who have hitherto been members of the Moatize
church, to join us with a view to taking over the church
after our departure. They are faithful and capable
people - Mario serving on the executive and Joaquina on
the women's committee. However, they are understandably
somewhat daunted at the prospect of stepping into our
shoes. Pray all God's grace and wisdom upon them.
- Pray for Joaquina,
Lucia, Edina, Christina and Evelina as they take on
responsibility for the women's work. Pray that the
forthcoming conference will be a great success and a
boost to their confidence. Pray God's blessing upon them
as they travel around the various women's groups. Pray
that they and their families would enjoy good health.
- Pray for us as we face
the practical and emotional challenges of leaving
Mozambique and re-entering British culture. This is the
first time that moving will involve our facing the
additional challenge of a family separation. Please pray
that we find a place to live and suitable schools for
the boys, particularly for Josiah. We give thanks that a
member of my mother's church in Wales has a second-hand
car lined up for us. Pray that we stay healthy and
remain friends throughout all the busyness of packing
etc. Our youngest, Samuel, has been showing signs of
stress.
- We recently spent
another two weeks without internet access, which was not
welcome at this stage in the game. Pray for reliable
communication links for the remainder of our time here.
- Lastly thank God for all
his faithfulness and blessings upon us over the five
'Mozambique years'. We have faced countless challenges
and we thank God that he has brought us through them
all. We know it is only by his enabling and the help of
your prayers that we have seen the fruit of lives
transformed and the church strengthened.
|
|
| |
Sharon's Joke of
the Month |
|
| |
What is a Cat?
Cats do what they want. They rarely listen to you. They're totally
unpredictable. When you want to play, they want to be alone. When
you want to be alone, they want to play. They expect you to cater to
their every whim. They're moody. They leave hair everywhere.
Conclusion: They're tiny women in little fur coats.
What is a Dog?
Dogs spend all day sprawled on the most comfortable piece of
furniture in the house. They can hear a package of food opening half
a block away, but don't hear you when you're in the next room. They
can look dumb and lovable at the same time. They growl when they are
not happy. When you want to play, they want to play. When you want
to be alone, they want to play. They leave their toys everywhere.
They do disgusting things with their mouths and then try to give you
a kiss.
Conclusion: They're tiny men in little fur coats.
|
|
| |
Gregory's Quote of
the Month |
|
| |
"This life, therefore, is not
godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting
well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now
what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet
finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it
is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and
sparkle, but everything is being cleansed."
- Martin Luther |
|
|
