The Kanes in Mozambique

 
 

November 2006

  Gregory's Turn to write

 Let me start by telling you about a bad habit that I really need to change. I am somewhat partial to a bit of chocolate. When the mood takes me, I open the fridge, break off two pieces of Cadbury's finest, pop one in my mouth and leave the other somewhere nearby to be properly enjoyed in a minute or two. The problem is that with the afternoon temperature now reaching 42 deg C, the block doesn't stay solid for very long. Instead, the moment I go to pick it up, I end up with melted chocolate all over my fingers, my papers and my desk. Of course the solution to this particular problem is trivial. What's more difficult is trying to acclimatise to having the ambient temperature higher than normal body temperature. Heat exhaustion is a constant worry, infections and rashes are more dangerous, and we are careful to consume huge quantities of filtered water. We had heard that Tete was the hottest place in all of Mozambique - right now we are discovering for ourselves the harsh reality of this fact.

Of course we don't want to speak only of the difficulties. We are also seeing some very exciting things happening. Up to now the Elim church in Mozambique has been largely confined to the rural areas. Village churches are reasonably easy to build and generally speaking the people have more free time that they can devote to church meetings. The disadvantage of working only in the rural areas is that your leaders have a lower standard of education and also fewer people in the churches have paid employment. Accordingly this month sees the launch of a new initiative to plant a number of congregations in the city of Tete.

One of the things we are planning to do is to commence an English-speaking church in order to reach out to the significant number of non-Mozambicans working in Tete. These include people from other African countries such as Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as the much smaller number of residents from Europe and the US. Our other church services use either Nyungwe or Chewa; Portuguese is spoken in the city but most churches still prefer to use the tribal languages. So we see a tremendous opportunity here to reach out to a sector of the population whose spiritual needs remain largely unmet. Thus far we have been unable to find a venue in the city at an acceptable rent so we will meet initially in our own home. Next weekend sees the launch of this new church, so we will keep you posted as to how things develop.

Another prong of our Tete initiative is the appointment of Joćo Cafuliza as superintendent pastor over our (as yet only anticipated) city congregations. Joćo is a member of our executive committee. He is reasonably well educated and we have found him to be trustworthy and willing to exercise initiative. As is the case with many rural-based churches, our young men tend to leave their home villages and move to the cities in search of work. Joćo’s brief is to track down as many as possible of these men and organise them into embryonic congregations. We hope this will then give us a basis for planting proper churches in the near future. We have agreed to cover Joćo’s salary for the first year, with a transition period then kicking in. Ultimately we want the city churches to be wholly responsible for his ongoing support.

Much of our work has been in terms of leadership training and spiritual development. However the Christian gospel touches every aspect of man's life and thus it's important that we don't focus exclusively on spiritual needs. One of the projects we have been promoting among our churches is the building of pit latrines. Basic hygiene is not something you can take for granted and most people in this part of Mozambique will simply relieve themselves under a convenient tree. Not surprisingly, they are prone to all sorts of intestinal problems such as worms, cholera, dysentery and typhoid. In response to this we have been working with our churches to construct latrines that can serve the local community. These are made of brick, are fully enclosed and have a special ventilation system to stop flies and other insects from spreading disease. We strongly believe that any development project should be on the basis of partnership, with the donor and the recipient both contributing to the project. With this in mind we put out a challenge to our churches that each should aim to dig a 3m deep pit and bake a thousand bricks out of mud. We would then supply all of the materials plus an experienced builder to put up the latrine. Thus far two pit latrines are under construction and we are hopeful that other churches will soon rise to the challenge. We'll put some photos on our web site so you can see what this all involves.

Sharon is keen to develop the medical aspect to our work. She regularly teaches on health-related issues in churches and seminars but would like to a start a community-based medical programme. To this end she recently travelled to a remote part of Mozambique where an old friend from medical school has established a scheme that might provide a useful model. The trip took a week and involved driving up to Lake Malawi, leaving our car there and crossing the lake by ferry, where she was picked up by her colleague. Sharon's application to be recognised as a doctor continues to crawl forward. We have sent some further papers to Maputo this week and pray that these may be attended to without excessive delay.

I hope that gives you a reasonable update on our progress this month. Please feel free to drop us a line by email or letter as it's always a pleasure to hear from people. In the meantime here are some matters for prayer:

Grace to you

Gregory and Sharon Kane
Elim International Missions

  
   Prayer Requests  
 
  • Praise God that Sharon travelled safely on her trip to the far side of Lake Malawi. Pray for her registration with the medical authorities
  • Pray for the launch of an English-speaking congregation in the city, that we will be able to attract a good number of people
  • Pray in particular that we can find somewhere suitable at a reasonable rent
  • Pray for Joćo Cafuliza in his new role as superintendent pastor in Tete. Pray that he would be able to establish contact with many of the young men from our village churches
  • Pray for grace and good health as we acclimatise to the high temperatures
  • Thank God that two of our churches have recognised the need to build latrines. Pray that we would be able to see a marked improvement in health and sanitation in the communities where we have churches
  • We give thanks that our post is now arriving more reliably following a formal complaint to the postmaster. Nevertheless we still recommend that any small packets be sent as registered mail
  
   Sharon's Joke of the Month  
  * Mathematics professor turned plumber *

A professor of mathematics noticed that his kitchen sink at his home leaked. He called a plumber. The plumber came the next day and sealed a few screws, and everything was working as before.

The professor was delighted. However, when the plumber gave him the bill a minute later, he was shocked. "This is one-third of my monthly salary!" he yelled.

Well, all the same he paid it and then the plumber said to him, "I understand your position as a professor. Why don't you come to our company and apply for a plumber position? You will earn three times as much as a professor. But remember, when you apply, tell them that you only completed primary school. They don't like educated people."

So it happened. The professor got a job as a plumber and his life significantly improved. He had to seal a screw or two occasionally, but his salary went up significantly.

One day, the board of the plumbing company decided that every plumber had to go to evening classes to improve their education. So, the professor had to go there too. It just happened that the first class was maths. The evening teacher, to check students' knowledge, asked for a formula for the area of a circle. The person he asked was the professor.

He jumped to the board, and then realised that he had forgotten the formula. He started to work it out from first principles and he quickly filled the white board with integrals, differentials and other advanced formulae. A few minutes later his answer came to "minus pi times r squared." He didn't like the minus, so he started all over again. He got the minus again. No matter how many times he tried, he always got a minus. He was frustrated. He gave the class a frightened look and saw all the plumbers whisper: "Switch the limits of the integral!"