Imagine if you can a quiet Sunday afternoon in Tete. We've
just returned from church; our worship service started
shortly after 9am and finished with a bang at 12:30pm. That
might sound like a very long meeting to some people but
churches in Mozambique only have morning services, so we
don't have to rush to get back out again tonight. It's
winter here so the outside temperature is sitting at a
pleasant 25ºC. We actually had spot of rain last week but
chances are it won't pour now until November.
I wonder what you think of when you imagine an African
church service. Perhaps some noisy drums and a lot of people
in brightly coloured clothes dancing to the beat and
shouting 'Amen' at the preacher. I wonder if you picture all
the children as barefoot, their clothes peppered with holes,
but with smiles on their faces as they bounce on the bamboo
mats that cover the dusty floor. Chances are you visualise
your African brothers and sisters under a tree or inside a
rickety shack with a rough grass roof. Poverty is everywhere
but there's no denying the joy that permeates their every
expression of praise.
Not that you would be wrong. That aptly describes most of
our village churches here in Mozambique. We've spent many a
Sunday morning in such an environment. And yet the truth is
that Africa is changing as more and more people (mostly
young men) drift into the cities in search of employment.
The upshot of this is that most of our rural churches are
made up of women, children, and often only one or two men.
This is why we made it a priority from the outset that Elim
in Mozambique should be well represented in the towns and
cities. And this is why Sharon and I planted a city church
in Tete, one that would allow us to model those principles
and practices that we teach and promote throughout our
ministry.
Last month we shifted the site of our morning service to the
banks of the Rovubue river so that we could baptise three of
our young men. Jamal is a police officer who relocated to
Tete after completing his training. Without a scrap of
embarrassment he testified to the complete transformation
that Christ has orchestrated in his life. Yet even I was
taken aback as he listed some of the things he got up to in
the past. Filipe works in a grocery store and has thoroughly
enjoyed taking part in our church's evangelistic programmes.
Two years ago he starred as Jesus in our outdoors
Passion
Play. More recently he has joined us in distributing
Christian literature to the people who work in the shops and
offices in the city centre. Gove is studying to be a mining
engineer. In his testimony he related how he had always
considered himself as more or less a Christian. Yet it was
only when he joined the Elim church that he came to know
Jesus as a friend and Saviour. Yes, we teach people; yes, we
try to make their lives better; but it is when we see men
and women redeemed and walking in grace that we know that we
are making a difference that will last onto eternity.
Here's a photo of some of the members of Elim International
Church. You'll notice that most of our people are Africans,
no surprise there. What isn't as apparent is that our
membership is made up of a number of different
nationalities. We have quite a few Zimbabweans who have come
to Tete fleeing the economic meltdown in their own country.
We have some Malawians and one man from Congo and just this
morning we had a gentleman who grew up in Swaziland. And of
course we have a fair number of native Mozambicans. Now if
you think about that for a moment, what languages are all
those people going to speak? Most weeks we have songs in
Portuguese, English, Shona (from Zimbabwe), Chewa (from
Malawi) and Nyungue (from this part of Mozambique). Not
everyone can speak every single language (although a few
can!) but we all have a go.
Some aspects of our Sunday service aren't all that
dissimilar from many churches in the UK. For instance we use
a computer to project the words of our songs onto the screen
at the front of our rented auditorium. We use microphones
and a portable PA unit; Sharon normally plays her guitar;
and a number of people will take a turn on the keyboard. We
break bread every Sunday; use PowerPoint to display the
notices; and when it's nice and hot people sometimes nod off
in the sermon just as happens in England or Ireland.
What works well in a village church doesn't necessarily
translate in the city. That's why we are so keen to model
alternative ways of doing church. For example every Sunday
we send the children out to Sunday School during the sermon.
That might not sound very unusual, but very few Mozambican
churches lay on anything at all for kids. Yet we thank God
that little by little our churches are coming to see that
children's ministry is not only doable but well worth the
effort. A similar thing has happened with Holy Communion.
When we first arrived in Tete, only one of our Elim churches
ever broke bread and this once a year at Easter. These days
all of our churches celebrate communion at least once a
month. And when pastors and visitors drop in at our city
church, they can see for themselves that breaking bread
doesn't have to be a long-winded ritual. Instead communion
should be a vibrant reminder of the centrality of the cross.
Not only do we teach and demonstrate these concepts through
our city church, two of our national leaders have served
internships as assistant pastors, allowing them to see
first-hand how and why we do what we do.
One of our success stories has been in the area of raising
finance. When we first came to Mozambique, we discovered
that almost everyone routinely puts the smallest possible
coin in the church offering - of the value of one English
penny. Poverty can be quite an issue in the rural areas, but
few people in the cities are actually as poor as the
proverbial widow and her mite. In our city church we imposed
a ban on people putting any coins in the offering that were
worth less than 5 meticais - about 10 pence. Now that may
sound harsh to some ears, but it proved to be an effective
way of pointing out that we shouldn't be giving God the bare
minimum. These days we rarely see small coins in our
offering because our people have learned the principle that
worship is more than just words. We have also taught our
church members to tithe, such that our church's monthly
income is around 120 pounds. This allows us to pay the rent
for our church building and to salary an assistant pastor.
Moreover, through our people giving generously and
consistently, we expose as a lie the idea that African
churches are too poor to do anything by themselves. It's
been great these past five years to receive funds from our
brothers and sisters in the UK, money that has allowed us to
build latrines, roof churches, purchase mosquito nets, etc.
We also appreciate those gifts directed for our own personal
support. But we strongly believe that every local church in
Mozambique should be able to look after their own pastor and
meet their own running costs. We can't say hand on heart
that all our Elim churches have fully learned this lesson;
but we thank God that they're getting there.
Staying on the subject of money, we recently launched a fund
raising initiative in our city church. Without touching the
existing tithes and offerings, we have challenged our people
to generate additional funds so that we can buy in bulk a
quantity of used clothing and distribute this in some of the
poorer rural communities where we have Elim churches. Thus
far we have raised enough money to buy half of a 50kg bale
of second hand clothes. In a few weeks' time I will
accompany representatives from our city church as we go to
distribute these clothes. And at that time we will make it
clear that this gift comes not from some anonymous donor in
the UK but from their fellow Christian believers here in
Africa, echoing the sentiments of the apostle Paul in his
letter to the Corinthians:
“This service that
you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s
people but is also overflowing in many expressions of
thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have
proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience
that accompanies your confession of the gospel of
Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and
with everyone else.” (2Cor 9:12-13)
And now for something entirely
different. Our Daniel recently upgraded his church drum kit.
Instead of banging away on two goatskin drums, he now has
his own handmade drum kit, consisting of five separate
drums, a string of bottle tops on a wire, and a bicycle gear
as a rather peculiar cymbal. I know that this all sounds a
bit crazy but we ordered it to be specially made after
seeing a similar drum kit in action in one of our more
remote Elim churches. Click on the play button on the picture below to
view a video from our boys' YouTube page. Definitely a video not to be
missed.
I wouldn't want to leave you with the impression that
everything is perfect at our Tete city church. Far from it!
We struggle to get people to come out to the Tuesday night
prayer meeting. Does that sound familiar to anyone? And our
youth group collapsed earlier this year when the secondary
school timetable clashed with our existing programme.
Schools in this part of Mozambique practise hot seating,
which means that some students get to go to school in the
morning, others in the afternoon, and an unlucky third group
in the evening. We're having a go at relaunching our youth
group this coming weekend, but it's nigh on impossible
finding a time that suits everyone. Some things, it seems,
are the same wherever you go in the world ...
It's exciting being part of what God is doing in Mozambique.
But we can't do it alone. We rely on the prayers, love and
advice of our many friends and supporters. I was
particularly blessed this month to receive phone calls from
two of our supporters in Ireland: Mark Wainwright and Bill
Hoey. You don't necessarily have to call, but we do
appreciate every person who drops us a line. I hope that
this month's newsletter has given you a fresh perspective on
our life and ministry here in Mozambique. It's tough
sometimes. To be honest, it's tough quite a lot of the time.
But we walk with God and he is not slow in pouring out his
favour on us and on his church.
Grace to you
Gregory and Sharon 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.
Pray by name for Jamal,
Filipe and Gove who were baptised last month. Pray that
they would grow in faith and in obedience. Pray also
that they would find good, Christian wives.
Josiah finished his GCSE
exams last week. Thank you for remembering him in
prayer. He is due to return home this weekend, so I
guess someone will just have to break the news to him
that his little brother has moved into his long
abandoned bedroom!
Please pray for Zivanai
Baira who has been working as assistant pastor at our
city church. Zivanai has run into some personal
difficulties and he's struggling to balance his time
commitments. Pray that he would find a workable solution
so that his ministry in the church does not suffer.
Four of our senior
church leaders are travelling shortly to a conference on
the far side of Mozambique. Please pray for them that
the long two-day journey would pass without incident and
that they would arrive safely at their destination.
Sharon has been working
closely with a group of senior women's leaders,
mentoring them individually and encouraging them to take
on more of a supervisory role over the women's groups in
neighbouring churches. They are planning a women's
conference for August and we would appreciate prayer for
all the organisation that will go into this.
On July 11th we will
hold our annual Tithing Sunday at which time we
encourage the members of all our churches to bring a
tithe of the crops they have harvested. This year's
rains were on the poor side and there's a danger that a
number of people will decide not to participate. Please
join us in praying that people would honour God in the
tough times as well as when everything is going well.
And, as always, please
pray for our health and safety. Pray also for our
families. My mother has been quite ill of late and we've
found it hard living thousands of miles away from our
loved ones.
Sharon's Joke of
the Month
Wedding Plans
Jacob, age 92, and Rebecca, age 89, are excited about their decision
to get married. They go for a stroll to discuss the wedding, and on
the way they pass a pharmacy. Jacob suggests they go in.
Jacob addresses the man behind the counter: "Are you the owner?"
The pharmacist answers, "Yes."
Jacob: "We're about to get married. Do you sell heart medication?"
Pharmacist: "Of course we do."
Jacob: "How about medicine for circulation?"
Pharmacist: "All kinds."
Jacob: "Medicine for rheumatism and spondylitis?"
Pharmacist: "Definitely."
Jacob: "Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, jaundice?"
Pharmacist: "Yes, a large variety. The works."
Jacob: "What about vitamins, sleeping pills, antidotes for
Parkinson's disease?"
Pharmacist: "Absolutely."
Jacob: "You sell wheelchairs and walkers?"
Pharmacist: "All speeds and sizes."
Jacob: "Great. Then we'd like to use this store as our Bridal
Registry."
Gregory's Quote of
the Month
"When you were born, you cried and the
world rejoiced.
Live your life in such a manner that when you die the world cries
and you rejoice."
