| |
Gregory's Turn to write
One of the following didn't really happen this month. Can
you tell which one it was?
Three of our boys went on a donkey ride; Sharon cooked
enchiladas for Christmas dinner; we came close to burning
down the old cinema where our international church meets;
none of our Christmas parcels were stolen; on Boxing Day we
made an ice sculpture of the Statue of Liberty.
Do you remember back in 2008 we ran a Good Friday Passion
Play in several of the markets in the city of Tete? If that
doesn't ring a bell, you can watch our YouTube video by
clicking
here.
We recently did something very similar by putting on a
mobile Nativity Play in the largest of Tete's open-air
markets. We had our 'Mary' astride a donkey with faithful
'Joseph' leading the stubborn animal by a rope. We had a
particularly elegant Wise Man, a pair of scruffy shepherds,
two thuggish soldiers fresh from the slaughter of the
innocents, two shiny winged angels, an odd-looking narrator,
and to round off the procession a figure dressed all in
black and carrying aloft a wooden cross. Supported by a
crowd of well-wishers, we spent two hours moving through the
market, stopping every so often to retell parts of the
Christmas story. It was great fun, incredibly hot (with the
temperature hitting the upper 40s) and there was no question
that we got our message across. To see for yourself what it
all looked like, check out the photos section of this
website.
The actors for our Nativity Play were all participants in
the evangelism training programme that I ran throughout
November. Starting at the beginning of December I chose the
five most capable of these young people and sent them out to
work as evangelists. They have kept themselves busy through
visiting house-to-house, preaching in the markets, selling
Bibles, making use of our Saber MP3 player, arranging youth
meetings, screening Christian movies - you name it, they
have had a go. Right at this moment I have sent them out of
the city to spend a week in rural evangelism, being based in
two of the smaller towns where we have Elim congregations.
Their sheer enthusiasm is invigorating and contagious and if
you haven't yet watched our YouTube video of their
month of training, then I recommend that you do so by
clicking
here.
Sharon has been busy too in that she organised an evening
Carols by Candlelight service at our international church.
Mozambican churches don't normally have evening meetings and
a carol service was certainly something of an innovation.
But Sharon worked hard to train a choir, Stephen McLoughlin
from Lisburn kindly recorded some music for us, and we
advertised the event widely with leaflets, banners and even
announcements on local radio. The carol service went well
and we were pleased with the attendance. Moreover the
flickering night-lights made for an evening that people will
remember for a long time to come. I did however have one
niggling fear over the idea of a candlelit service - when I
did a flammability test on the carpet and the sponge filling
from the chairs, both materials burst enthusiastically into
flame and belted out the most obnoxious fumes! We took some
sensible precautions and nothing went awry on the night, but
it was a salient reminder that Health and Safety regulations
are rarely enforced in this part of the world.
It's very easy to get stuck in a rut, to end up doing the
same sort of thing year after year, simply because it's
never occurred to you to do things any differently. That's
why we believe so passionately in the cross-fertilisation of
ideas that come about through meeting new people and
travelling to other places. During December we were thrilled
to send five delegates to attend a youth conference in
Zimbabwe that was organised by our Elim churches there. We
would like to express our thanks to the capable Lollita
Munembe for looking after our young people. We also had a
visit from Pastor Angelino, a Mozambican who works here for
the Church of Pentecost from Ghana. In its early days
the CoP was supported by missionaries from the UK,
but these days this West African church sends out its own
missionaries to many nations throughout the world. I
arranged for Angelino to meet with a number of our senior
Elim leaders and he spoke powerfully on the importance of
building an indigenously led church, one that looks to its
own resources rather than constantly having its hand out for
aid from abroad. I pray that one day the Elim church in
Mozambique might find itself sending out missionaries and
evangelists to work in other lands.
In closing we would like to do something a little bit out of
the ordinary. Christmas Day can be a lonely time for
missionaries with friends and family so far away. But this
year was made so much more special as a number of dear
friends as well as several supporting churches sent us
Christmas packages in the post, whether stocking fillers or
specific presents for the family. It's really hard finding
something suitable for one another here in Tete as the
practice of exchanging gifts at Christmastime is largely
unknown within the culture where we work. So here's a great
big thank you to Evangeline Millar, Pauline Winn, Max
Rawlings, Mel Price, Kay Walker, and to the churches in
Preston and Wyesham. (Several of our family members also
sent us Christmas presents and we were grateful for those
too!) We were also encouraged by three gifts of Christmas
money that were sent through our HQ. On the strength of
these, we have been able to book ourselves a week's holiday
in January on the shore of Lake Malawi. So we say to all
those people, thank you ever so much for thinking of us and
for showing the extent of your love.
And just for the record, yes, we did have enchiladas for
Christmas dinner and they were delicious. But no one round
here has even seen a snowflake, let alone crafted the Statue
of Liberty, alas.
Grace to you
Gregory and Sharon
Kane
Elim International Missions
|
|
| |
Prayer Requests |
|
| |
- Thank God for the
success of our mobile Nativity Play and our evening
Carol Service. In a nation that renames Christmas as
Family Day, we took great delight in proclaiming the
Saviour's birth
- Pray for Jaime, Rosário,
Eduardo, Noé and Onéssimo, the five young men whom we
have trained as evangelists. Pray also that their
activities would inspire others to become more involved
in the work of evangelism
- Temperatures are still
very high. Pray for grace to cope with the heat, and
that we wouldn't fall sick - especially with a holiday
booked for January!
- Josiah has his mock
GCSEs in January. Pray for him that he would be
disciplined in his studies
- Oliver Heath from
Staffordshire will be arriving at the end of January to
spend three months with us. Pray that he would travel
well and that he would quickly gain a level of
proficiency with the Portuguese language
- Gregory has finally
finished the novel that he has been working on for the
past three years. Please pray that he would be able to
secure the interest of a publisher, no mean feat in
these difficult economic times
|
|
| |
Sharon's Joke of
the Month |
|
| |
Magic Trick
A cruise ship hired a magician to entertain the passengers. Since
the passengers changed every four or five days, the magician was
able to perform the same tricks over and over.
Unfortunately, the Captain of the ship had a parrot who sat around
and watched the magician perform his tricks, over and over.
Eventually, the parrot learned how the tricks were done and would
interrupt the act.
"It's in his sleeve" the parrot would say. "He switched balls."
"It's in his pocket." etc.
Naturally, the magician was quite disturbed by the parrot but could
do nothing about it, since the bird belonged to the Captain.
Unfortunately, the cruise ship had the misfortune of hitting an
iceberg and sank to the bottom of the sea in a matter of minutes. As
fate would have it, the magician and the parrot managed to grab hold
of the same floating piece of furniture.
For 3 days neither said anything. The magician stared at the parrot
and the parrot stared back. Finally, on the 4th day, the parrot's
resolve cracked and he said:
"OK, I give up, where on Earth did you put the ship?"
|
|
| |
Gregory's Quote of
the Month |
|
| |
"I have found that there are three
stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it
is difficult, then it is done."
- Hudson Taylor |
|
|
