I recently wrote a report for our missions director in which I outlined some of our achievements during our last term in Mozambique. This proved to be such an encouraging list, I thought you might like to read it as well. Hopefully it'll provide a good summary of our activities as well as give you a feel for how we would like to develop the work in the future.

• We held day-long training seminars on the last Saturday of each month.
• I wrote a number of TEE study books in Portuguese, addressing key issues of Christian teaching and practice.
• Sharon met with different groups of women every Thursday, teaching the Scriptures and instructing them on health issues.
• We gradually expanded our executive council from three to six men, ensuring that the office holders were capable and adequately trained. A good part of our ministry has to do with the training and mentoring of these six individuals and their wives.
• We introduced the sacrament of communion, imposing a rule that it should be celebrated in all of our churches at least once a month.
• We put in place a system for church members to bring in the tithes of their harvest, making this mandatory for all church leaders, and ensuring that funds were being released into the local church.
• We stressed the importance of church discipline, showing the executive how to investigate any offences, apply appropriate measures, and where possible to see the offender later restored.
• We initiated a system whereby every church has to send in attendance and offering figures every month so as to ensure that we can better supervise our churches.
• We have promoted links with the Elim work in Malawi and in Zimbabwe, taking members of the Mozambican executive to meet with their counterparts in these more established churches.
• We received a number of short term teams, two from the UK and three from Zimbabwe.
• We have so far constructed eleven quality pit latrines. This exercise has been conducted on a partnership basis, so as to encourage local churches to take full responsibility for such projects.
• We have supplied roofing materials to cover eight churches, first requiring the local churches to erect their church buildings to a good standard.
• We distributed 1000 mosquito nets to vulnerable individuals in several remote communities. We  followed up this initiative with a questionnaire to confirm that the nets were actually being used and had not been sold.
• We set up a network of people who sell Bibles and other Christian literature door-to-door and in the markets.
• We have placed particular emphasis on developing the urban base of the Elim work, planting two churches in the city of Tete.
• We have pursued an active programme of evangelism, including house-to-house visitation, open-air meetings, screening Christian films, and holding revival meetings.
• We supervised Mel Price during her six months of service in Mozambique, liaising with the different communities where she ran her child development clinics and children’s Bible Clubs.
• And somewhere in the midst of all that, we even found time to home school our children!

One of our targets during this furlough has been to enlarge our support base, particularly in terms of the number of individuals and churches who sponsor us financially on a regular basis. Last year 44% of contributions to our support fund came from the churches in Ireland and a further quarter of our support was given by individual donors. A number of churches have recently indicated their willingness to start funding us on a monthly basis and this is a great encouragement as we return to the mission field. This is particularly important at the present time as sterling has weakened considerably against the US dollar. One unfortunate consequence of this is that everything in Mozambique now costs up to 30% more than it did six months ago! I am taking the liberty of attaching a copy of our standing order form to this newsletter as a number of people have enquired about this in recent weeks. You can find a selection of forms and tax declarations on the Downloads page of our web site and the necessary instructions are all on these forms. We don't make a habit of going on about money but we're quite deliberately bringing our needs to your attention on this occasion. It's great when people get behind us in prayer but we also need people to back us in terms of financial support. 

As things stand at present, we don't have anywhere to stay when we get back to Mozambique. We had to let go of our house in Tete as the landlord suddenly increased the rent by 50% (and that before the currency devaluation!) We have some friends looking for somewhere suitable for us but it's obviously a major concern. You'll find this mentioned below in the section on prayer requests along with a number of other pressing issues. We value your prayers and we look with eager anticipation to see how the Lord will provide for us in this.

You'll have noticed that I've changed the format of our newsletters. You'll find Sharon's ever popular Joke of the Month at the end as usual. Any comments on the new format would be appreciated. Moreover, we currently have just over three hundred people on our monthly mailing list. If you know anyone else who would appreciate receiving a copy of this newsletter, please ask them to contact us directly.

Grace to you

Gregory and Sharon Kane
Elim International Missions