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Sharon's Turn to write
Greetings from Tete where we have just completed a
month-long training programme for young evangelists. Despite
all our fears it passed off extremely successfully. Gregory
started the month with eleven youths (four of whom were
girls) and three older, married men. After the first week
one of the men and one young lad dropped out, but the
remaining twelve stuck with the programme all the way
through.
They arrived with lots of enthusiasm but little in the way
of Bible knowledge or understanding of the Gospel. As the
month went on, Gregory put great emphasis on what the Gospel
is really all about. And along the way he taught them to
present the same message in various interesting ways. They
learned a number of lively drama sketches, how to preach
effectively, how to use PA equipment in a productive rather
than counter-productive way, and the value of using sport as
part of youth evangelism. They were also given access to the
Saber MP3 players with pre-recorded Gospel messages and
accompanying picture books, which some of our pastors have
been using so effectively in their areas. Each day also
started with an in-depth Bible study where they learned to
dig into a passage of the Bible and discover for themselves
what it really had to say.
One day per week I took over the teaching and we looked at
some of the major threats to people's health, and how to
teach people to take care of themselves and their families.
We covered HIV/AIDS, malaria and cholera. They enjoyed
developing some drama sketches to teach on these areas, and
even wrote a song telling people how to avoid cholera!
The course was by no means all theory. Every Saturday they
were to be found doing open-air Gospel presentations in the
city markets. On one occasion they were told to stay at home
and focus on evangelism in the areas where they live. And
several times they walked up and down the long queues of
traffic waiting to cross the suspension bridge, selling
Bibles and engaging the bored drivers in conversation about
the Lord. Each of our trainee evangelists are testifying to
how much they have enjoyed the month and how it has
benefited them in their own spiritual walk. Gregory has
produced a short video showing some of the team's activities
(including our health song), and you can view it on
YouTube by clicking
here
.
Five of the young men have committed themselves to spend the
remainder of the long school break (which lasts until the
end of January) working as evangelists. Most of their work
will be in the city and the nearby town of Moatize, though
we are hoping to send them to the rural areas for a few days
to bring encouragement to some of our younger churches
there. They will work unsupervised on a daily basis, though
Gregory will meet with them weekly for feedback and
encouragement.
The evangelists' training certainly dominated the month, but
that's not all we've been up to. We have also been seeing great
blessing in our international church. Being the only church
in the city that uses English as well as Portuguese, we
attract people from several nations and many church
backgrounds. For some considerable time we have been
concerned that we are a Pentecostal church in name, but not
so much in practice. Gregory therefore decided that he would
teach about the Holy Spirit each Sunday during November, and
pray for any who desired to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
A number of people have had unforgettable encounters with
God and have been deeply impacted by the Holy Spirit. One
young lady who has been attending the church for a long time
but still following an ungodly lifestyle also repented and
turned to Christ. And we ourselves have been refreshed and
blessed as the Lord has been moving freely in the church.
From my side, I have finally written a study book. Over the
past four years, Gregory has written a number of study
guides in English or Portuguese, and he has more than 180
people studying these at home. We attribute much of the
growth in our people's understanding of Scripture to this
unglamorous work of writing and producing the booklets, and
(even more unglamorous) marking the answers that come in!
Since our return from furlough I have been increasingly
aware of the extent to which family life is in such a mess
in this part of the world. People largely do not know how to
live together as Christian husbands and wives, nor how to
raise their children in a godly way. The more sad stories I
heard, the more I felt we should be doing more to address
this need. Gregory's response was to challenge me to turn
the burden into action and write a study booklet on the
subject. My biggest challenge in this undertaking was to be
true to the Bible and to be culturally appropriate. This
meant I had to consider issues such as polygamy, bride
price, and the tensions created when the new bride finds
herself living under the same roof as her in-laws. I have
yet to see these particular issues considered in any
marriage book in the UK! I had something of a helping hand
here as we still had some copies of a marriage guide that
was written in English in Zimbabwe, and I took many of my
ideas from there. Last week we printed 50 copies of our new
Portuguese booklet about marriage, and distributed them at
the month-end leaders' seminars where they were eagerly
snapped up. During the two weeks before we got the books
duplicated I heard no fewer than five heart-rending stories
of marriages that have gone wrong. Certainly there is
enormous need; it remains to be seen how effective the
booklets will prove to be. My next challenge is to write
about bringing up children, and I don't have a Zimbabwean
book to guide me on that one!
So now we are in December, and Christmas is looming. This
Friday I will go to collect Josiah from boarding school and
we will enjoy his company for a month. The second half of
the term has flown by and we look forward to hearing some of
his stories.
We are planning two major evangelistic events in December.
On the 18th we are putting on a nativity play. This will be
similar in style to the passion play we did on Good Friday
last year. We will walk through the town in costume, with
various actors reciting lines that re-tell the Christmas
story. We have arranged to have 'Mary' riding on a donkey -
yes a real live donkey - so we don't expect anyone not to
notice that something rather unusual is going on!
On 20th we are holding a service of carols by candlelight.
We hope to attract many people to this: both Mozambican and
foreigners, Christians and enquirers. Christmas is not a big
thing here in Mozambique - the 25th is actually known as
Family Day. So an evening carol service will be a new
idea to a lot of people but we are advertising it widely. I
have quite a job on my hands training the choir, as carols
are not part of the culture and few people know any of them.
We also need to find a way to illuminate the building with
candles without burning it down!
In closing we thank you for your support over this past
year, and we wish you every blessing for Christmas and the
coming year.
Sharon
and Gregory Kane
Elim International Missions
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Prayer Requests |
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- Thank God for his
blessing upon us the past month. We are most grateful
that our health and stamina has held out, and our family
life has been peaceful.
- Thank God for the
tremendous growth in the twelve individuals who have
completed the evangelists' training. Pray for those who
are going to spend the coming two months in evangelism
that they will be faithful and fruitful.
- Pray that my study
booklet about marriage will prove to be a help to many
couples. Many of our women are illiterate, and their
husbands will need to read and explain it to them. Pray
that in the process of studying together they will grow
in love and devotion to each other.
- Pray for our nativity
play on 18th December and carol service on 20th to be a
strong witness. Pray that many people will understand
what Christmas is all about, and will want to find out
more about the Saviour.
- Thank God for the fresh
move of the Holy Spirit in our international church.
Pray that we will increasingly see people using
spiritual gifts, and that our other churches will also
catch this vision.
- Temperatures are soaring
to 40 degrees and beyond. Pray for grace to cope with
the heat, and that the rains will come in their season.
- Christmas is always a
peculiar time of year to be away from home and family.
Pray that we will know God's presence and grace, and
also for our families back in the UK.
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Meet
some of our Leaders |
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Meet Mateus Chiundisa. He is
married with grown-up children and lives in the area near
Samoa where most of our Elim churches are to be found. As
well as pastoring his own church, Mateus is a subsistence
farmer and his livelihood depends heavily on the yearly
harvest.
This past year instead of bringing a sack of maize, Mateus
brought a goat as the tithe of his harvest, as his animal
breeding had been more successful than his cereal crop. When
we were with him recently, he testified that the 'church's
goat' has now had a kid! So that's one tithe where God
literally is pouring out the blessing.
Mateus was recently appointed Deputy General Superintendent
of the Elim Pentecostal Church of Mozambique. He is also
district superintendent for the Elim churches in the Samoa
area and coordinates the leadership seminars that we run
every month for pastors and other leaders within the rural
churches. (We run a separate monthly seminar for our city
churches)
Please pray for Mateus as he adjusts to his new role and as
he works closely with Pastor Cafuliza, the General
Superintendent.
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Sharon's Joke of
the Month |
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Kitchen Wizard
My friend's husband is always telling her that housekeeping would be
a snap if only she would organize her time better. Recently he had a
chance to put his theory into practice while his wife was away.
When I popped in one evening to see how he was managing, he crowed,
"I made a cake, frosted it, washed the kitchen windows, cleaned all
the cupboards, scrubbed the kitchen floor, walls and ceiling and
even had a bath."
I was about to concede that perhaps he was a better manager than his
wife, when he added sheepishly:
"When I was making the chocolate frosting, I forgot to turn off the
mixer before taking the beaters out of the bowl. That's why I had to
do all the rest."
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Gregory's Quote of
the Month |
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"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet
ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be
so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came
without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till
his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he
hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a
store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
- Dr. Seuss |
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