And then there were seven!

Finally, after months of planning and praying, the big day arrived. On 18th October we welcomed a new female addition to our household. We give thanks to God for the safe arrival in Africa of Mel Price, our new co-worker, who will be here for 6 months. We are loving having her with us and she seems eminently suitable to this placement. She is coping well with the heat and cultural challenges, is making progress in communicating in Portuguese, and is getting on extremely well with her interpreter and with the local believers. So far she has been staying with us, but today she took possession of the keys of her own rented house, just a couple of minutes' drive from us. She hopes to buy a moped tomorrow and will then be able to live and travel independently. She has accompanied us into the 'bush' for our rural Bible studies, and clearly has a real heart to serve the local people. This Monday she will start with an afternoon children's Bible club in Moatize. Over the following 2-3 weeks she hopes to build this up to morning play groups and afternoon Bible clubs in at least 3 of our churches. We have heard of a missionary in Chimoio (five hours' drive south of Tete) who has set up many rural and urban play groups and experimented with making toys out of all sorts of natural materials and household rubbish. I have arranged to go with Mel this week to visit Sarah and learn from her. We hope this will help get the groups set up on a good foundation.

Tete is built where the shallow Rovubwe river empties into the mighty Zambezi. While the Zambezi is full of crocodiles, the Rovubwe is safe for swimming in. On Saturday 6th October we went to the sandy riverbank with a small group of young women from the church to celebrate P's release from jail. We all enjoyed it so much that we decided we must repeat the event before the rains come and the river ceases to be safe. Last Sunday afternoon saw us back there, this time with many more church members, to welcome Mel. Each person contributed food for a picnic lunch and we played handball in the water; firstly men against women and then Brits against Africans. Since Africans outnumbered Brits 2 to 1, their resounding victory came as no surprise. The local lifestyle offers little opportunity for pure fun, and these social days were an outstanding success. We have posted photographs of last Sunday's social, along with other highlights of the month, on the Photos section of this website.

Gregory's monthly leadership seminar took a very different format this month. He invited Pastor Likhoozi, a Malawian pastor who co-ordinates a Distance Learning Bible program, to come and take the entire day. Since the pastor spoke directly in Chewa and was selling Chewa literature, the seminar held appeal even for members of our churches who are not able to understand Portuguese. The result was a record turn-out of 55 people, including 15 women at what is usually an all-male event. They came with money to buy the books which we subsidised so that the cost to the church members was just 20 pence a book. Pastor Likhoozi first taught from the life of Nehemiah, and then explained in detail how to study the books at home and how to fill in the test papers. There was great interest in the programme and we hope this will lead to a wider group of our people starting to study the Word of God seriously at home.

It has been a concern to us in our international church that the church has been heavily dependent upon us for direction and week-by-week running. Of course this is normal in a new church. Furthermore since many of our members are from neighbouring countries and are very mobile, it took a long time to find out which members would become permanent and would be reliable. Recently we have become more confident in some of them, and this past week, over a meal, we held our first local church leadership meeting. This was very informal and we have not appointed anyone to particular positions within the church. It was a hugely beneficial evening though, and they were very free to express their own thoughts about the direction the church should be taking. There were some excellent suggestions which we will take on board. It is an encouragement to see such signs of growth in spiritual maturity.

Please Pray

Praise God for Mel's arrival! Pray that she has a fruitful ministry while she is here Pray for those who bought Bible study books that they will grow in their understanding of the faith, and will want to teach others Pray for our safety on the roads and from thieves and robbers Praise God for the freedom we have for public evangelism. Pray that we will see people added to the church through our regular films and open air preaching events Pray for all of us as we try to cope with the high temperatures and the many frustrations of daily life Pray for our church plant in Matundo and for João Cafuliza as he seeks to build a good reputation in the area Pray for our emerging leaders to grow in wisdom and maturity so that the church can grow beyond where we could personally take it

Grace to you

Sharon and Gregory Kane

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Sharon's 'Joke of the Month'

* Got Any Crackers *

A duck walks into a bar and asks "Got any crackers? "
Bartender says no.
Duck walks out.

Duck walks in the next day and asks, "Got any crackers?"
Bar tender says no.
Duck walks out.

Duck walks in the next day and asks, "Got any crackers?"
Bar tender says, "I told you yesterday and the day before that no!
and if you ask that one more time Ill nail your beak shut!"
Duck walks out.

Duck comes back the next day and asks, "Got any nails?"
Bartender says no.
Duck says "Good. Got any crackers?"

_______________________

Gregory's 'Quote of the Month'

* Eva Peron on Charity *

"Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty.

Aid does away with it once and for all.

Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before.

Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance.

Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities."