Volgers

14/12/2012

Story from South-East Asia


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In one Southeast Asian country, a small church made up of 10 families had received training through a DNA partner. After they completed just the first training, they wanted to show God’s love to a family whose wife was having heart surgery. They decided to help by harvesting the family’s crops while the wife was recovering and the husband was tending to her in the hospital. About 30 people from this tiny church set out to the couple’s field—pulling up crops, bagging them, and delivering them to the couple’s doorstep.
When the couple returned from the hospital, they were stunned. They had worried about what to do with their unharvested crop. Even though they faced high medical bills, they assumed their harvest would have to be abandoned.
The couple opened their hearts to Christ after receiving such a practical example of his sacrificial love for them. On top of this, nine other families in the community witnessed this event and also asked to receive Christ!
“They said they wanted to believe in God because they had been seeking love but had never found any until they saw the love in the church,” reported our partners in Asia.
The love of Christ is a uniquely powerful thing! And if we wish to be used by God to heal the world’s brokenness, it is, in the end, the only thing that works.
I took this story from the web from: (You can read their whole letter here.)
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07/11/2012

God in a Lomue house



We walk down the hill over the bare granite rocks to visit an Elder of the congregation of the IRM (Igreja Reformada em Mozambique) in Ile Mozambique. The people received the gospel for the first time less than 100 years ago. The Lomue people are very traditional and as I start to understand something of the culture, I am amazed at the joy, humanity and respect in their relationships. It is something to experience, although you have to be able to lay down your own thinking and cultural setting. The congregation is still very young and the people are in the church for different reasons witch I will not call Biblical reasons. Then you get people like this man whowas sent twice in dreams to become a Christian. In the first dream he met a person whosuffered and died and then rose from the dead and invited him to come to him.
He hadthe dreams in the colonial times when the Catholic Church was the only Christian church and unfortunately was closely linked to the government. They did not train people and had a lot of strange ideas. They even persecuted the then new Protestant church by burning churches and killingleaders. In this setting the second dream then sent him to the protestant mission.
I think that he believes that the forefathers sent him. So first we talked about a God whogives you choices, and that he may choose for himself.  He is now a leader in the church, but he does not manage to pray. If he tries to pray, he starts crying. I explained to him the basics of prayer and that going to church with a well dressed pastor and other members and using different words than the normal conversations gave us a wrong idea of what communication with God is. The other lie is that the Lomue people see themselves as not worthy and made in a class very far from God. They believe that you need special ways to get your words to God and mostly they believe that it is not possible to talk to God.
Firstly I told him the story of the ants. How someone wanted to help the ants in their struggle to carry their food to the nest. Each time he wants to help them with his finger the ants attack him or flee. So he discovered that the only way to help ants is to become an ant himself. Then I went and sat on the ground before them to illustrate this. I asked him if God knows his house. He said yes, then I told him how the curtain of the templewas torn when Jesus died, the curtain to the holiest of holies and the people. He could interpret the significance. As I sit here before him, so God is here and incarnated as a Lomue whospeaks Lomue. He knows all the struggles and shareshis house with him, like me sitting here before him. I asked him if he can talk to me. Yes he can and then I told him that Jesus likes more to hear him speaking normal Lomue. If he speaks normal Lomue, he can express himself better and therefore it is better for God also. The same way he talks to his wife and children he can talk to Him. Further that crying is one of the best prayers, because you show Him your heart. The traditions that tell him that he is far from God is a lie. The idea that prayer is a church thing and a formal thing is a lie. We do not have to impress Him with clothes or any other thing. I also had to tell Him how God does not push him away when he doesthings wrongly or make mistakes. We treated Him as enemy, but the day that we talk to Him, He accepted us, because the price for the bad relationship was already paid!

To go and sit down before the man also touched me, because it became clearer for me, how God incarnated in our lives in so many different settings. This attitude and identity of God of having compassion and then incarnate it in our lives to help, is the same Identity or new life that God gives us. Now we start to incarnate in the lives of others in other cultures. Not thinking of our position, but serving. Phil 2:6.

In the second house the deacon and his wife told us that they do not have a very good relationship. We listened to some wonderful ideas of him in his business to serve others. Then we identified the problems of his family as the most important matter to start with. His marriage relationship is the foundation for his business and his position as a leader in the church. If that foundation is not strong the rest will also suffer. I took the agreement between God and man as the basis for our relationships because Paul did the same. We first tried to understand Gods agreement with us. Firstly it starts because God is good and He cares. His identity is becoming ours through Jesus and therefore we learn first to care. To have the heart of God for my husband or wife is the first vision that we can strive for. We should have our partner’s growth as our aim. After that we took the fruit of the Spirit of Gal 5:22 as part as our vision. We took for example peace and that it means to accept all weaknesses of the other, to have gratitude towards God for the other. To have patience is important and tomake your agreement with God more important than the hurt you receive from your partner. Especially Kindness was very important in a culture where power en control is so important. Self control is also very important in what you want, also for the sexual relationship towards your partner or when you are outside in the community. It is very useful to start from God and His covenant with us and then identify it as God’s Identity. From here you understand that God is recreating His identity towards us and now we are living that identity towards, firstly, our spouses and then towards church, friends and at the end enemies, reflecting God’s Identity like a mirror. In our conversation it is good to take for example kindness, understanding howwe can be kind and then see how a kind person treatsa situation differently.
I picked up some challenges for the pastor and his wife and working with the deacon I could see that he translated everything with enthusiasm. I believe that he took the challenge and vision also for his own family.
In the previous congregation we talked a lot about service and the pastor started the next morning to sweep around the house, something he hadnot done before. Further he helped in making food. How much do we value these things in money?
I think you can understand why I enjoy this work and also why it is so important to visit people in their homes. It does not mean that the sacrifices do not sometimes make me struggle. This thing about TIME is for example sometimes terrible. You are in a hurry to be back before dark and the pastor is also in a hurry, but apparently in a very different way!

22/10/2012

Chiconono Vision Conference



There are a few more people attending the conference from the beginning. It was also positive to see that everyone attended the whole conference. I can’t give details and Bible verses, but only an summary of the process over 4 days.
In our revision of the conference in 2010 we looked back at the way they evaluated the community.
The following problems were identified:
Poverty
Diseases
Fighting between people
People hold tight to their possessions
They are uncivilized
Jealousy
People are ignorant (without knowledge)
Live in fear
Muslim community
Polygamy is the rule
No love
Bad sexual behavior
Worship of ancestors is strong

This Year they added a few more characteristics of the community:
People are lazy
There is a lot of theft
Telling of lies is a problem
Pride
Hunger
Alcoholism and drug abuse are getting worse.

In our revision we confirmed that that the community is like a tree. The fruit is only the consequence of the way the community thinks. You can not only change the fruit and think it is a different tree. The problems are caused by the roots and the roots represent the way we think. Prov 4:23.

Then we looked again at who God is and what He wants. What fruit He wants in Chiconono. We looked at the fruit of the Spirit. One of the fruits that caused a good discussion was Kindness. It caused a good discussion about leadership style. How you help someone in a kind way and not from above. l
 We looked at faith from the life of Abraham. How he received promises for a big nation and then everything he experience told him that it is not possible. He is too old, his wife can’t have children, and 30 years passed without anything. At the end he believed and by faith, God’s plan came to life. We are living in this community with many problems, but we have a vision of a new community. There are many things that make us believe that it is not possible to move from this reality to the reality God intends for us. Many of the participants repeated that this is what they learned. We should not look at our situation, we must look at God, it is possible.
We then went to discover the reasons for these problems, which thoughts have theses consequences. The roots we talked about were the following: Some of these lies we discussed further as practice in how to identify lies, therefore I will share some of these discussions also.

  • Men are superior to women: 
  • Racism and tribalism: In evaluation this lie came back as something learnt.
  • Physical work is a curse:

This lie came from not reading the bible wrongly. We saw work as a curse of God because of the sin of Adam and Eve. They will produce their food in sweat. The truth is that God send people to work before the falling in sin they had to look after the garden. Work is to honor God.

  • Trust in the spirits of the forefathers
  • Fatalism (we were destined to be poor and the least and we can’t change it).
  • There are no future and history is going nowhere (just repeating itself)
  • Zero sum, that anyone that do better than others, stole power from the others and needs to be pulled down to restore the balance.

Interesting to see that according to the groups evaluation, the following lies became weaker: Work is a curse; Men are superior than women; Racism and Tribalism; Worship of spirits.
Lies that became stronger were evaluated as follows:
Materialism and History is going nowhere
The lies that stays the same is: Zero sum. In general there are a positive change in the thinking of people from the conference in 2010 to 2012. They told us that where there are richer people, the balance is out and then the others talk to the witchdoctors.  They then make people to change into snakes that will go into the houses of rich people to steal from them. They also tells about the fact that people out of fear to be out of balance went and bury their money in the past. These days they do not do it so often. The government official visited our meeting and added that if someone have a motorcycle, car or maize mill, that the others suspected them of killing someone. That is the only way to manage these things.
On the topic of worshipping the spirits, one of believes is that the driver is not driving the car, but the spirits is guarding and driving it not to make an accident. If a accident occurs, it is when the spirits get tired.
The other comment was that, you are not allowed to do anything if the spirits do not tell you to do it. If you are preparing your fields, first the spirits must attack you and tells you to do sacrifices for your fields, then you are allowed to do that.
They told us how the different kings (those more important than the chiefs and headmen), there are three of them in the area, had a big meeting to ask the spirits to protect the workers before they started to build the road to Mavago. In the process of building one worker lost his leg and they saw that the spirits did not manage well.
There are places on the road to Chiconono that are sacred and cars may not travel fast there. If you travel fast, that car will make an accident further on. Today they see that some cars now travel fast when they past those places without making accidents.

Work of the church

After this understanding of the beliefs in contrast to the intentions of God, we saw that God wants to give us a better life. His kingdom needs to be realized here in Chiconono, because He wants to bless us with a better life.  The root of this Life is Jesus Christ.
On this point we asked the members about the functioning of the Church. What is the roll of elders and the answers indicated that elders need to control and lead the members. They even said that they have to focus more on Physical work than spiritual work. They need to control the deacons as well.  Here we saw that the physical spiritual divide as well as a leadership model of control in the minds of the church and it gave as a good starting point to compare it with a biblical leadership model.
When we talked about the role of the pastor of evangelist, the members stressed the idea that the pastor should serve the members, visit them, not having favourites, and not work only in the centre. It gave the picture of passive members served by a pastor as a church model.
When we talked lastly about the role of the members they said that they needs to be one. They must listen and learn from the leaders and be obedient to what they hear. Some also say that they need not to wait for the leaders, but use their gifts and teach others.
With this information, Johannes looked at the servant attitude of Jesus as the foundation of everything. He very realistically used the washing of feet as an example. Then demonstrating the leadership model where the leaders are serving the members from behind. Then he used the model of a soccer team playing against the best player in the world, but that player is the only one playing. (Pastor or evangelist). Which team will win?
He then used the story of the good Samaritan to demonstrate who is our neighbour. Who do we need to serve? It came through very clearly that we everyone is our neighbour, especially the ones that are outcasts and even our enemy’s. We talked about many examples.
We discovered again the biggest commandment of Love and how to live it out as service to our neighbours. Members do not wait for a pastor to serve them, but with the pastor we are serving the world. If we do not do that, we are not church! We need to avoid a pastor running around solving problems but leave the people in the community do die in lies.
If neighbour is ill, who is the best person to help him, the president of the country, missionary, or you?

Worldview

We then used glasses to explain that our basic view of reality and assumptions determine our fruit. Johannes used a few examples like the pastor in Zambia that adhered to the tradition. The community believe that when the husband of a lady die, that she is still under his control. The only way for her to be free is through a ceremony where the brother of the deceased need to sleep with her. So when the brother of the pastor died, he slept with his deceased brother’s wife to “free” her. In the process he got Aids and died of the aids. So the question is what killed the pastor? Was it the Aids, or was it his believes. The group answered that it was his believes.
We then looked at so many places in the Bible where it is mentioned that our transformation depends on the way we think.

Planning removal of old thoughts and planting new thoughts

We divided in a few groups and each group discussed a lie from the tradition.  The thoughts that were discussed were: Work is a curse; Zero sum Materialism and History has no purpose. They still struggle with this new way of thinking but we were surprised at some good results. We did this by answering 5 questions. The group that worked with the lie of work is a curse answered as follows:
How did this lie start?
They said that when people came back from their fields they are tired and negative and accused Adam for the curse of work. This started the negative feeling for physical work.
How does it transmit from generation to generation?
When children see the negative way that parents treat physical workers, they also look for other ways to get their money. Then stealing and manipulation etc starts.
What is the result of this lie?
People stay poor and do not develope.
What is the truth from the Bible?
The Bible talk about work as a way to glorify God.
What can we do to combat this lie?
We ourselves can go work with joy and praising God! This way we demonstrate to our children a good attitude to work and to love work.
This way we handled also the other lies and some of the feedback were:
The community have the attitude that they do not like it when others have good things. It is fueled also by looking at white people. The reaction is that you start bad stories about that person so that his name will be dirty. Or you go to whitchdoktor to get medicine to pull that person down.
When talking about the lie of not considering the future. They explained that the reason why people do not have fruit trees is because they think that they will be dead before the tree bear fruit. Even build a good house because they will not have time to stay in it. Therefore adult people do not want to learn to read and write, because they will die before they can do it. People divorce without thinking about the future of the children. Do not sent them to school. To combat this lie is to teach and then yourself live with a vision. Plant fruit trees.

Exercising love reports:
Our caracter and identity must be to love one another and serve one another. If people talk about the Reformed church in Chiconono they must think of the people that love and serve. If this is our identity, others will also start to be loving our neighbours.
Many of the lies were fueled by the education system that taught that God does not exist.
One young man said that he met his friend that was very troubled. He explained that someone is drugging him to kill him because of the way he lived. So he was on his way to the witchdoctor to find medicine. He then talked to him and convinced him not to that, but trust in the Lord to protect him. (I got the feeling that this was a made up story because of what they know we want to hear.
The laughing man said that there is a long man who shared that he wants to learn about the Word of God, but when he came, there were many people that wanted him to help milling their maize as he have a maize mill. He is sacrificing his time to study to serve people.
There were initiation rites and were dancing through the night. Some people danced the whole night without eating and were so tired that he could not walked. Then he went to buy some bread and gave him to eat. The money he used were money for salt for his own home.
Other person walke through village and have a disire to share the things that he learned from the conference. He sat down with friend and told him what love is and even the next day went back and shared some more. The man now is with us!
Women went to visit a sick person and found that there were no food. So she went and buy some food for the sick family.
Johannes guided them in understanding that to grow as servants and to be witnesses, it takes effort and discipline. Matola did not became a champion sitting down studying books, look how others do it. You need to work hard plan and discipline yourself te became like Crist. Represent God. To sit in church listening , being baptised and giving offerings only of money only, will not make you like Crist. The church should be the place where we train to love and serve.
SUNDAY
Matt 28 16-21
We did the going to the world quite well. We did the baptising also quite well. What we lack is to teach people to keep everything that Jesus commanded. We need to grow. This growth is represented by a hand. The palm of the hand is to be rooted in Christ.  One finger is to grow to be sons and daugters of the Lord. 2Cor 6:18  About our relationship with God.  Our willingness to live in Gods house as our own house. Experience God's love.  (Lie said that God is far from us).  I will be with you till the end of the earth.  Difference between slaves and children.  Stressed the fact that God created men and women in the image of God. Need to grow as servants. Matt 20:25-27. His servants with the value that He gives us. Treat people with the value of being His image. Grow also as students. stewards.

STEWARDS
Matt 25. We are entrusted with God's creation what is it? Trees; Animals; Fish; Gras; fields; children; water; people; neigbours; Church family; family; enemy; sick people; prisoners; wife and husband; father mother; myself, money; clothes; cellphones; house; life; even time; etc. Everything belongs to God. Did we develope His or did we destroy or bury it.  God gives time for Chiconono, we do not know for how long we will have this opportunities.  The radio belong to God, the money of the church belong to God. The buildings belong to God, The toilet there outside is falling in, is God's toilet and we are entrusted to take care.

Soldiers
Who is our enemy? Is it Churches or other people? No, Satan is the enemy. The one that say that he is king and you need to fear him. But he is the slain one. He is overcame and we can resist Him with the truth. The truth will make us free.

Students
Bible is very important.

Servants
Here we learned about the very important aspect of Christian leadership.

Child of God
Here we start to live not as slaves but as children.

New deeds of love
We went through the process of planning and doing small acts of love in our communities. We left the congregation with this tool to continue with Gods transformational work for Chiconono and vicinity. We could not help but leave there with the feeling that we left family there! Although there are still a lot of challenges, when you start to share a vision and learn to see Gods heart, you leave with hope in the heart.

13/10/2012

New sense of the calling of the Church in North-East Mozambique.


I had a few discussions that turned out to be very valuable for rediscovering the calling for the Church (including myself) in Mozambique.
In my talks to people in the market and with leaders of the church, I intentionally asked them about their evaluation of life in the town of Milange. As in South Africa people were all inclined to see that the values of people are declining rapidly. Normally I do not take this too seriously, because through the ages people say these things. When we looked at practical things, it proofed to be true.
The town is growing at an alarming quick rate and everything from government’s side is working on a bribery system. Government on local and national level does not care about the poor and weak. Families are less and less inclined to look after the elderly and disabled. Statistics show the increase of HIV and AIDS. More and more you hear about murders of elderly people after they were accused of witchcraft and so I can continue.
These things made me think again about Gods intentions. How He is as good God, wants to see love, peace, righteousness etc. What are the consequences of the life as He intended it to be? Well, not what we see now.
The other question came to me: Who have influence of these communities?  There are in government a strive for power and with a lot of people doing what you say, means that they have a big influence. In these broken reality God wants His influence to be real through His children so that the community can be transformed to the better, namely His intentions for the community. The church is at the heart of this process.
We can’t just look at it, we have Gods heart and have His passion and His love and strive to bring positive Biblical transformation!
Look at the situation in South-Africa! How political leaders are looking at a country that is busy to hurt itself terribly and they are not doing anything about it!  They use law and power to reign. We as His children has the effective strategy for healing, because it is His strategy!. We need to get involved as His church and start bringing His love and service and start this sacrificial transformation process.
Here in Brackenfell we had a meeting with the community about a through route where theft and other things became a problem. The one man wants to iron the “bliksems” till they listen and the other enjoy it when they suffer etc.
NO! “They” are not our enemy’s. They are not God’s enemy’s! It is not an easy way, but let us use His sacrificial strategy and let us bring His light in a dark world. We can’t help Mozambique if we are not involved in our own country and learn through our own trails.
I want to invite you to get involved in God’s compassion, we can’t stand back and watch our world and our brothers fall in pain and suffering. Sometimes we are still living in good conditions and defending our homes and clinging to our dwindling lifestyles. Is this a reason to live? There are many that are hurt more than us, even if they themselves participate in the strikes etc. God wants to bring His transformation in their communities and lives. Do we feel what God is feeling? If not, do we know Him? We are His representatives created in His image!
The vision of the Taking Hands ministry is to see transformed communities in Mozambique. This through a strategy of growth in South-African Christian communities so that there can be effective partnerships with the Church in Mozambique through which this vision can spread in the Mozambican Church that is God’s answer to the problems in Mozambique. The church has a lot of potential and between all the problems has a lot of Biblical characteristics that needs to be confirmed.
We REALLY want to bring Gods transformation and can’t sit back and look how communities destroy themselves.

22/09/2012

The trip with Experience mission to Mozambique

Experience Mission

This outreach are one of Experience Mission's initiatives. This group exists out of 10 young Americans between 18 and 26 years old that came to Africa as part of an leadership building experience. The aim is to experience the different cultures of Africa and learn from them. Firstly they spent 6 weeks in the Western Cape staying with colored families around Lamberts bay and Vredendal. After that I joint them for the trip to Mozambique where they will stay with Mozambican families. Even the name family has a different meaning! 
I came to love this group. What they do is challenging to any person and I do not think that I saw them one day well rested. I became proud of the Americans because of their faith in God that drives them to serve and to be happy in spite of challenges to the core of their culture. This few weeks they will, in spite of high temperatures, work in gardens, carry water every day, wash out of pails in a culture of very little privicy, eat day after day very basic food, etc. They are serving families in Mozambique that are very poor and have to look after orphans. 

Bus trip from Cape Town

I met the group at the bus stop in Bellville Cape Town. We took the bus from their to Johannesburg for 27 hours through the night. We stayed at a Church building for the day, went shopping while the visums was organized. The evening we were on the next bus to Maputo through the night. Many did not sleep well. We arrived 4 hours early for the border post and had to sit in a closed bus and wait for 4 hours. Then we had to stand in a line of 200 meters waiting to get our pasports stamped, walk over the border. Armed soldiers checked the pasports and made remarks about Obama. Then we stood in a line for the Mozambican stamp. Suddenly we were in another country different from South Africa. 
We arrived in Maputo and uncle Jan came to fetch us in his pick-up. Meet the team:


We stayed in the guest house of the Reformed Church and early the next morning we climbed the next bus. The bus was good, except for the toilet that were quickly filled so that it was a mess as the bus went through the huge potholes. We arrived in Beira in the dark and Naldo had to do two trips to take us to his house. He treated us with a South African "Braai" Barbecue. We had a few hours to rest before he took the tired group back to the bus at 4 in the morning. Then at 15:00 we arrived in Mocuba, but the bus did not want to stop at a place form were we could have walked to our destination. The result was that we had to organize motorbike taxi's to take us there. What an African Experience!   


We had some time to rest, learn some of the language and have orientation at "Osivela wa Jesus" The love of Jesus. This is a school for orphans where the orphans can have education based on Christian values and have something to eat. There are also a clinic to look after them and some other smaller development projects. Each member of the group is assigned to the family of one or sometimes more orphans that attend the school. Mostly they are grandmothers of the children. It is in their house that they will stay for 6 weeks. Going out on the Thursday and come back on the Tuesday, to go out again on the Thursday. Here they meet some of their host families:


 In the time of orientation we visited some houses to get used to the basic cultural customs of relationships and respect. It is a relational culture and therefore very important to understand. During this time the elder of the Reformed church, who demonstrated to us how to visit a house, gave each member of the group a coconut to drink. He opened it with a machetti on an very skillful manner.


This morning I came with a chapa "Mozambican taxi" from Mocuba to Milange with the road in a bad shape. Now I am thinking and missing the group and pray that the Lord will bless them in this very challenging times. I believe that our Good God have will use this time and that it will have good consequences in many places for a long time!

02/09/2012

IRM and Ministries share and plan


There was a good growth between the supporters, in the understanding of the challenges of the Lords work in Mozambique.In looking for a strategy to answer this it became clear that the church is striving to grow in its own giving and need a lot of encouragement, joint celebration of achievements, confirmation of importance and worth in Gods Kingdom, equipment and joint learning in practice how to create a strategy for the specific circumstance of the synod. There is a need for a good joint intention and pressure to grow towards that intention. We discovered that in this process there still a big need for financial support as well as missionaries. In itself this support can be detrimental to the growth of the church, but if it is done with the intention in mind and good accountability from one another, it became a very effective way to support the growth of the church. Looking at missionaries, it it therefore very important that any missionary will go in a position of service. Missionaries should not do the work, but work behind the scenes behind Mozambicans who will grow and do the work. Further the missionary need to listen and learn more that teaching and talking. In short there should be a process of discipleship that work both ways. In a sacrificial process, everything that does not look like Christ should be removed so we can build that, that looks like Him. 
It is better to have full time missionaries, but short term missionaries can also help a lot.One missionary can be involved in more than one need according to the persons gifts.
Together we started to identify some of the areas where missionaries with this attitude can fill essential gaps:
Literacy
As John Roux gave his farewell speech, there is a need to accompany the Literacy office for a while and in South Africa to accompany Mozambicans to all the congregations involved in this work to keep them well informed and build these relationships. Further to support the process of giving reports, find ways of effective developing and printing material,
Youth work
This work is very important for the Church and the Kingdom of God. There are a few initiatives, but a missionary is needed to work behind the youth leaders in Mozambique. It looks as if Kobus Eskteen will may be able to help here.
English
Mozambique is isolated from the rest of the world by a language barrier. The exposure to the rest of the world is very important for a church to grow. Material and communication with partners is also essential. Some pastors is learning English on their own and it already helps. We analyzed together that it is still a high priority to look for someone that can help in this regard.
Computer training
The Church is more and more using computers in administration, creation of material and communication. Viruses are destroying a lot of work and there is a need for someone to train people in maintaining computers and also in training how to use them more effectively.
Stewardship
This ministry is doing some work in creating material and helping the synod with bookkeeping. The need for a missionary is to help the church in equipping and discipling the church members in living as Stewards in giving and daily lives. How to manage God's resources. There are some initiatives but the missionary can help to bring the partners together. It is very important that the church can grow to be less dependent from outside so that it can grow into a giving church with their own outreach initiatives.
Mission of the Mozambican Church
The Tumbine synod has a committee who are responsible for different mission areas in the 4 North Eastern Provinces. There are roughly about 3 000 000 unreached people in especially the Northern part. In some of the areas where the church are involved there are a need for a missionary to stand behind the leaders and members of the church to assist in this calling. This calling is a joint calling between us as supporters and the Synod themselves as well as some other partners. Especially in Chiconono the need is urgent, because of a radio station that covers a big part of the Niassa province. Like in other areas, the local elders and evangelist expressed their need for further training and equipment as they themselves are mostly also young Christians in  areas where Christianity is in many aspects in contrast with very deep rooted traditions. It is not easy.
Antroponeurship
For a community to became self sufficient it is necessary for businesses and other initiatives. These must be build on values and these values we find in a Biblical bases. For this the church is necessary. Closely with Stewardship this principles of business is identified as a need where a missionary can help. A lady is planning to give a course with the agricultural ministry, but there is a need for a missionary that will continue supporting this process.
Medical
Here is a need for medical personnel, doctor and nurses. There is also the Anamed program where the use of medical plants has a big potential to help the community on a sustainable way.

Other needs are transport and financial needs. Although personal contact is higher on the priority list, the church is struggling, because the income from congregations are minimal and the synod are more than 90% dependent on funds from outside. The Western Cape Synod is helping, but the funds are decreasing rapidly. This year they managed to help with R70 000, but next year it is only R50 000. Many programs were cancelled because the need. The mission committee could not visit all the mission areas and the synod could not visit all the presbyteries. There are a help for each pastor of R500 a month. Only one pastor is without help and in December another 3 will join the ranks. We try to help them also with a R500 a month for survival in difficult times while the church grow towards looking after the needs of their own pastors.

Be free to contact me for further more detail information on any of the needs. murraydg1@gmail.com

23/08/2012

Ministries and IRM share joint intention (Vision)


After a good Bible study on the passage in the Joint intention 1 Cor 3: 5-6 and 12-18 the table was well prepared for the rethinking of this intention. We took some of the words in the intention and discussed their meaning. The following was said:

Based on the Bible

Our lives must be in line with the Kingdom of God not with individuals.
The Bible should be the base of everything we do.
We need to treat one another based on Biblical truth. We also have to do this in our discussions together.
We are part of God’s story and we need to reconcile relationships that were destroyed by sin.
We need to be the image of God and that means to be servants. The way we want to treat one another also in these discussions

Growing Church

This growth is Spiritual and also in numbers
Change is part of this growing process.
This change should be visible as you move from one point to another.
Sacrifice and dying in yourself is part of this process. The old person must die.
This is a continuing process and does not happen automatically.
A plant need food and water to grow.

How

We need to be ready to learn.
Understand that our position is not where we wants to be.
Need to be ready to die.
We need to celebrate each movement in growth.
This is all done in dependency on God.
We must plan to grow and we need to sow the seed.
Growth brings happiness.  

Discipling

First we discussed the duplication of ourselves as Christians. In this process we have many weaknesses, so we need to duplicate Christ in us.
We disciple others while we ourselves are in a process of being discipled.
The objective is to be like Christ.
Discipleship is intentional
It is walking with one another.
It is sharing Christ with one another.
The discipling process starts with one person that is duplicated and the three are then again being duplicated. Multiply this way through communities.
To give away yourself (Sacrifice) is part of the discipling process.

20/08/2012

Biblestudy - Ministries talk to the IRM


I still think it is cheating to arrive in Milange the same day than leaving in Cape Town. It was good to chat about the different ministries and which issues the supporters want to add to the agenda.
We arrived in Milange in the evening and greeted the church leaders. Thursday morning we started by introducing one another and then we did a Biblestudy on 1 Cor 3:5-6 and 12-18. Kobus Eksteen guided us through this passage and it became a very productive time as we could link it to our joint intention between the ministries in South-Africa and the IRM. All through our meetings, the principles of this study were repeated.  I try to jot down some of the ideas:
We saw that in Christ we have a new covenant and that covenant is bringing us in a process of change. We have brokenness before Christ and before one another in this process. The seed need to die to produce a new plant and multiply the seed. We do this through grace and we have nothing to be proud in ourselves. We need to be humble before God and one another.
Only through His Spirit can we understand the new vision and he made us capable to participate in this process. We all have veils over our eyes and it is only in Christ that this veil can be removed. We need to turn to the Lord daily.
The veils are taking away our freedom and we do not always recognize it.
Many times we feel uncomfortable in our discussions and we do not have this freedom. The devil is each time bringing the veil or blanket between us. Sometimes we feel inferior and that we are criticized by the other party. We feel accused. Christ take this veil away and takes away the spirit of accusation. In its place he creates love and then we can demonstrate the glory of the Lord. This open relationship is the Glory of the Lord.
The prayer is that God will take away this veil, in all our discussions, where it exists, these few days.

09/07/2012

Gepreserveerde Christen (Stephan Joubert)


As sommige mense bid “Bewaar my, o God,” bedoel hulle eintlik “preserveer my.” Om kos te preserveer is om dit vars te hou tot die vervaldatum op die verpakking. Sommige wil hĂȘ die Here moet dieselfde met hulle doen. Hy moet hulle ongebruik en ongetoets deur die lewe laat gaan. Hulle moet ongeskonde by Hom aankom wanneer hul aardse rakleeftyd verstryk.
Die eerste Christene was nooit in die geestelike preserveringsbedryf nie. Vat vir Paulus. Toe ‘n profeet genaamd Agabus in Handelinge 21 aankondig dat hy in Jerusalem gevange geneem gaan word, het Paulus se helpers besluit hy moenie soontoe gaan nie. Paulus het dadelik geantwoord dat hulle hom nie met hul trane sag moet maak nie. Hy was nie net bereid om gevange geneem te word ter wille van die evangelie wat hy verkondig nie, maar om ook hiervoor te sterf. Paulus het verstaan en verkies (!) dat die Here hom kan “opgebruik”. Dit het nooit gegaan oor sy eie preservering of selfbehoud nie. Hy wou nie sy lewe deurbring as ‘n lewende dreigement wat heeltyd net dreig hy gaan nog eendag groot dinge vir die Here doen nie. Hy het dit sommer elke dag gedoen. Hy wou ook nie gedurig hoor hy het potensiaal in die Here se diens nie. Elke aand teen slaaptyd het hy sy daaglikse porsie potensiaal tot eer van die Here opgebruik.
Derduisende mense plaas Sondae in die kerk “alles” op die altaar vir die Here. Hulle teken in al wat ‘n aanbiddingslied is die beheer oor hul lewe aan God af, net om dit haastig terug te vat as hulle in die “normale” lewe aanland. Ten beste soek vele eintlik net ‘n God wat uitblink in die preservering van sy aardse bewonderaars.
George L. Fox het begryp wat dit beteken dat die Here hom kan opgebruik. Hy was ‘n kapelaan aan boord van die USAT Dorchester toe ‘n torpedo van ‘n Duitse U-boot dit op 3 Februarie 1943 getref het. Matrose het in die see gespring en met reddingsbootjies probeer wegkom. Toe kom vertel een van die soldate vir Fox hy het nie ‘n reddingsbaadjie nie. Net daar gee Fox toe syne vir die soldaat. Die drie ander kapelane het Fox se voorbeeld gevolg. Terwyl matrose van die skip weggeswem het, het Grady Clark, een van die oorlewendes, gehoor hoe die vier kapelane sing en hardop bid vir die veiligheid van die soldate in die see. Self het hulle geen kans gehad sonder hul reddingsbaadjies nie. Jesus se woorde dat daar geen groter liefde is as wanneer mense hul lewe aflĂȘ vir ander nie, kry in sulke tye nuwe betekenis.
Navolging van Christus gaan oor die selflose weggee van jouself aan Hom en ander, nie oor selfpreservering nie. Of oor die instandhouding van godsdienstige instellings waar ‘n skadelose, goed-voel-evangelie heers nie, en boonop teen ‘n winskoopprys wat mense se geestelike sakke pas. Jy noem so iets geestelike narkose!
Christus se helde is steeds mense soos die Samaritaan van Lukas 10 wat sy besige program onderbreek het om sy hande vuil te maak met die bloed van ‘n onbekende man langs die pad wat onder rowers deurgeloop het. En wat sy beursie oopmaak om vir hierdie man se sorg te betaal. Of Stefanus wat in Handelinge 7 bid dat die Here sy vyande asseblief tog sal vergewe terwyl hulle hom met klippe doodgooi. Die uitdaging is nie om ongeskonde die ander kant te haal nie.
Dit is om sĂł te leef dat jy aan die einde van jou aardse reis die grootste woorde ooit hoor: “Mooi so, goeie en getroue dienskneg. Jy was getrou oor die bietjie wat Ek van jou verwag het. Kom sit aan by die fees van die Here. Ek het vir jou plek gehou!”

07/07/2012

Reformed Church outreach to Mocuba 2012



The team existed of 5 members of the Annlin congregation in Pretoria, one member of Rustenburg and 2 members from Strand congregation. Strand started about 12 years ago to be involved in Mocuba and the other congregations started to be involved in 2011. In Mozambique they are partners with Magodane congregation of the Reformed Church of Mozambique. There are 12 prayerhouses in the Maganja da Costa area and 4 in and around the city of Mocuba and one near Lugela town.
The team camped in tents and used the local facilities, sometimes eat local food and when the kitchen gas finished, they made food on fires. 

We experienced something of each others lives
A young women, the child of the elder Joao Agusto, were pregnant and with and eleptic atack burned her one foot very badly. Fear and traditional ways of thinking made them to flee from the hospital and the foot infected really badly. When the team arrived the foot was dead and the leg was smelling badly. It was a  miracle that she were still alive after more than a week with severe pain. Three days after her foot was burned she gave birth to a daughter, the baby was passed from one lady to another to find some milk, but was screaming for hunger. The team talked to the family and they agreed to take her back to hospital and bought milk for the baby, and the child immediately stopped crying. The leg must be amputated and the family needs to buy people from the market to agree to give blood. The team helped to "buy" the blood and the operation were an success. The good form this tragedy is that white South-Africans and Mozambicans cried together because of the suffering and many borders were no more. Already the message is spreading: The trust in forefathers could not help, but prayers compassion and medicine helped." 
The other team saw a girl of 18 years old, but looked like a 13 year girl because of a tumour or something that is growing in her throat. It is blocking her airways and she is struggling to breath and must suffer tremendously. The hospital informed her that they could not help. It is powerless feeling to know that you can do nothing and could only pray and cry together.
The team came with the objective to serve and to listen to people and learn about there life. You can not help everywhere, and should not always help, but there is a message and hope of freedom and a GOOD GOD that have compassion. This compassion reach people through broken people.

Something about stewardship and servanthood
The basic gospel message of salvation is preached again, but complemented with a deeper application of stewardship. Children and adults are made ​​aware of our responsibility for nature and parents helped children, for example to pick up papers and clean the area. The leaders testified that they almost cried when they realized how they did not care for their world. Stewardship in relationships are also discussed and it is helped to see the lies, how the devil deceives us. In RSA, the white people believed the idea that whites are more valuable and better than blacks, and blacks again believed that they are worth less than white people. When we investigated with the participants if it is also the case with them, the answered that it is not a lie, it's the truth! On this honest practical way and a very good attitude, we talk and discover what it means to be the image of God. We have God's potential, love, creativity etc created in us.  We have the potential to create. The sin broke this image, but it is restored in Christ. We all are equal and we can now treat each other  more worthy than yourself. This way we discussed different lies and found the Biblical truth.
Afterwards, they were very grateful that we were not like many other teams, who only handled the wordless book, but on a much more meaningful way, went forward and discussed and shown the new life in Christ.

The influence of last years accident
After the accident in 2011 where two people died and two were seriously injured, the local congregation did not think that the team will visit them again. Pastor Jussa informed us that the local community accused the church that they used spiritual powers on the team and that resulted in the accident and therefore they will never come back. (Remember that your worthiness depends on how many visitors you receive). When pastor Jussa visited prayerhouses in preparation for the team, even they did not believe him. They did the preparations with doubt, thought that it was all in vain. When they arrive, everyone was surprised and the only explanation is God. People do not do that. This helped to create the open and honest attitude we encountered. We were overloaded with live chickens, sweet potato's rice etc. This was not the main gift we received, it was the attitude to learn and listen. The  team received many good experiences to take back to South-Africa.
Furthermore the team went through a time of therapy for the hurts of the accident. When they saw the wreck there was a lot of tears. We prayed together and through time it became easier. Dup, the driver later could stand alongside the wreck with a smile about the goodness of God and became his old self with a lot of jokes. On the way back we stopped near the accident site and could tell one another that we are now OK and we could give a prayer of thanks on the road. We learned a lot about a good God.

Other activities
For the first time the Jesus film was shown in the local Chuabo language. We also projected a follow-up film with good results. It is a film that show the results of the life of Jesus on the lives of people. It uses the setup of a chief who's bad life was changes by Jesus. 
We also talked about a partnership between Strand congregation and Mocuba in constructing the new church building. It was good to see the promises from Mocuba's side in participating and a willingness to pay for certain material. They took ownership of the building and planning.
They played with children, told bible stories and colored in pictures about those stories. We played soccer and explained the gospel through colors on the ball. The two ways posters were explained and used in house visitation. 
The house visitation again were very valuable, because it demonstrated service and a willingness to listen en experience.

Future
We see more possibilities in making the partnership a growing relationship that will have a positive influence to both sides. Errors made, were discussed and the relationship is growing.

Thank you
We thank every supporter and everyone that were praying. Thank you for congregations that sent people for the outreach. Thank you to God who always knows the best!

01/07/2012

Gereformeerde uitreik na Mocuba 2012



Die span het bestaan uit 5 lede van Annlin gemeente in Pretoria, 1 lid van Rustenburg en 2 lede van Strand. Die Strand was al 12 jaar betrokke by Mocuba en die ander gemeentes het verlede jaar bygekom vir die uitreik. Die gemeente waarmee saamgewerk word in Mosambiek is Magodane gemeente van die Geref Kerk in Mosambiek. Daar is 12 kerkies in Maganja da Costa area, 4 rondom Mocuba en een in Lugela. 
Die span het in tente gekamp en plaaslike geriewe gebruik, soms plaaslike kos eet en toe die gas opraak ook op vure kos  maak!

Ons ervaar iets van mekaar
In Lugela het ‘n jong vrou, die dogter van ouderling Joao Agusto, wat agv ‘n eleptiese aanval met swangerskap, haar voet lelik verbrand. Vrees en tradisionele denke het veroorsaak dat hulle vlug uit die hospitaal en het die voet baie lelik ontsteek. Die span kom daar aan en die vrou is in so ‘n toestand dat dit ruik en baie sleg lyk. Sy is in die ongelooflikste pyn toe al vir meer as ‘n week en haar hele liggaam is verswak. Drie dae na die brand is die kind ook gebore en word van een vrou tot ‘n ander aangegee, maar kry nie melk in nie. Die spanlede onderhandel toe met die familie en gemeenskapsleiers en op die ou end vat hulle die vrou na die hospitaal en koop vir die kind ook melk. Die kind wat dag en nag gehuil het is skielik stil en tevrede. Die ma se been moet afgesit word en die familie moet bloedskenkers koop. Die span help daarmee en op die ou end is die operasie gedoen. Die mooi van die lelike situasie is dat daar saam gehuil word en alle grense word daardeur oorbrug. Daar word reeds verwys na die feit dat die tradisionele vertrouelinge nie kon regkry om haar te help nie, maar gebede en mediese hulp kon haar help.
Die ander span sien weer ‘n meisie van 18 jaar, maar wat lyk soos ‘n 13 jarige agv ‘n groeisel in haar keel wat haar in die vreeslikste situasie plaas waar sy sukkel om asem te haal en die hospitaal kan blykbaar niks vir haar doen nie. Die magteloosheid om die meisie amper voor jou oe te sien kwyn van swaarkry het ook saam trane gebring.
Die span het gekom om te kom dien en te luister na mense in hulle lewenssituasie en dan hulle te dien met Jesus se gesindheid. Mens kan nie orals help nie en moet ook nie, maar daar is ‘n boodskap van hoop en bevryding en van ‘n GOEIE GOD wat omgee. Dit word realiseer deur mense ten spyte van hulle gebreke.

Iets meer van diensgestalte en rentmeesterskap
Die basiese evangelieboodskap van redding word weer verkondig, maar aangevul met ‘n diepere toepassing op rentmeesterskap. Kinders en grootmense word bewus gemaak van ons verantwoordelikheid oor die natuur en ouers help kinders om onder andere, papiere op te tel en skoon te maak. Daar word na die tyd deur die leiers getuig dat hulle amper gehuil het toe hulle besef hoe hulle die wereld nie oppas soos hulle moes nie. Rentmeesterskap in verhoudings met ander mense word ook bespreek en daar word gewys op die leuens waarmee die duiwel ons mislei. In RSA word die wit mense groot met die gedagte dat wit mense bo swartes is en swartes word weer groot dat hulle minder werd is as wit mense. Toe ons uitvind of dit ook daar die geval is, was die antwoord dat dit nie ‘n leuen is nie, dit is die waarheid!! Op die manier word daar op eerlike praktiese manier, in ‘n baie mooi gesindheid, oor die sake gesels en ontdek wat dit beteken om in die beeld van God geskape te wees. Om God se potensiaal, liefde, skeppingskrag ens in ons geskape te he. Die sonde het dit gebreek, maar dit word in Christus weer herstel. Ons almal is gelyk en kan nou die ander hoĂ«r ag as jouself. Op die manier word ander leuens ook bespreek en Bybelse waarhede ontdek.
Na die tyd was die getuienis dat hulle baie dankbaar is dat ons nie net soos baie ander spanne, net met die woordlose boekie gekom het nie, maar op ‘n baie meer sinvolle manier verder gegaan het en oor die nuwe lewe in Christus gesels het.

Invloed van verlede jaar se ongeluk
Na die ongeluk waarin 2 mense ernstig beseer is en twee oorlede is, het die plaaslike kerk nie gedink dat die gereformeerde span weer sal kom nie. Ds Jussa vertel iets daarvan vir ons in sy afskeidswoorde die jaar. Hy vertel hoe die kerk deur die gemeeskap beskuldig was dat hulle die span getoor het met medisyne sodat hulle in die ongeluk gekom het en dat hulle nooit weer sal terugkom nie. Verder het ook die kerkies waar ds Jussa voor die uitreik voorbereidingswerk gaan doen het, hom nie geglo dat die span weer gaan terugkeer nie. Hulle het maar halfhartig die pad oopgekap en toilette en wasplekke gebou, maar gedink dit is onmoontlik. Toe die span kom, was hulle uit die veld geslaan en sien dit nou as net God wat so iets kan doen. Dit het gehelp in die ongelooflike oop en eerlike houding en hoe ons oorlaai is. Ons is wel oorlaai met hoenders, rys, patats ens, maar dit was die klein bydrae. Die groot bydrae was die gesindheid van mense en hulle openheid om te hoor en te leer. Die span het baie mooi ervaringe om terug te vat na RSA.
Die ander deel is die terapie wat die besoek vir die span self gehad het. Toe hulle by die blyplek in Mocuba opdaag, toe le die bussie se wrak daar by die hek. Daar is dadelik baie trane gestort en saam gebid. Met die tyd het dit makliker gegaan en later kon die bestuurder self langs die wrak staan met ‘n glimlag oor God se goedheid. Oom Dup het ons veral later baie vermaak met sy grappies en opgewektheid en was weer sy ou self. Die besoek was vir ‘n paar van ons baie goeie terapie vir die verwerking van die ongeluk. Ons God is goed en ons leer elke meer iets meer van Sy goedheid.

Ander bedrywighede
Die Jesus film is gewys vir die eerste keer in die Chuabo taal. Daar is ook ‘n opvolg film gewys wat baie goeie reaksie uitgelok het, omdat dit iets van die toepassing van die film gewys het in die lewe van ‘n hoofman en sy mense. Daaroor is ook baie goeie terugvoering gegee.
Daar is saam gedink oor die vennootskap in die bou van die kerkgebou in Mocuba. Daar is met kinders gespeel, bybelstories vasgele en selfs prentjies oor die bybelverhale ingekleur. Sokker is gespeel en die evangelie is met kleure op ‘n sokkerbal verduidelik. Die twee wee plakaat is weer deurgepraat en gebruik in huisbesoeke.
Veral hierdie huisbesoeke was baie waardevol, want die mense het gesien dat ons wil dien en wil luister na mense.

Toekoms
Ons sien al meer moontlikhede om van die vennootskap tussen RSA en Mosambiek ‘n groeiende verhouding te maak wat sal voort gaan om na beide kante toe positiewe invloed te he. Die foute wat gemaak word, word bespreek en so groei die verhouding elke keer verder.

Baie dankie
Vir elke ondersteuner en voorbidder. Dankie vir gemeentes wat mense gestuur het. Dankie vir ‘n God wat toe op die ou end tog beter geweet het!

16/06/2012

Footprints in Ile, Mozambique: 12-14 June 2012



IRM Ile
Hein and Danie explaining the
community's current reality.
On Sunday June 10th Hein van Wyk traveled with Danie Murray, Johannes Aucamp and JosĂ© Ganhale from Namurua to Ile to do follow-up on a Hope for Africa Vision Conference conducted at the IRM Congregation there in 2010. Hope for Africa’s vision is to see engaged, high-impact local churches affecting real transformation in their communities and in sufficient mass to disciple their nations. The vision is realized through a mission of helping the local church discover a vision for the Kingdom, to adopt a biblical worldview and to live it out in every aspect of community life.

During the previous Conference in 2010, which was hosted by Past Antonio Ualize, Hein van Wyk, assisted by Danie Murray from Handevat and Johannes Aucamp from TOPIA, helped to lay a biblical worldview foundation for the church's role as God's private voluntary organisation. They examined the biblical evidence for man's brokenness and God's intentions for responding to that brokenness in the future as well as in the present. It further examined God's intentions for the role of the Church as it serves as a "window" through which broken humanity can see God's intentions for healing. During the conference the delegates had the opportunity to deal with cultural lies like fatalism, tribalism and male superiority in practical small group discussions.

Hein, Danie and an elder during the
Conference in 2010.
The follow-up Conference this week was attended by delegates from various local churches in the area. These include the Igreja de Cristo, Evangelica de Cristo, Assemblies of God, Emmanuel Evangelical Church and IRM Ile.

Delegates at the Conference
As introduction to the Conference Hein shared the story of God’s covenant to Abraham from Romans 4: 17-24, “….Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness." But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.” 
Hein explaining different
worldviews

God promised Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed, including all the nations of Africa (Gen 12: 2-3). Abraham believed God, against all hope, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
It’s important to note that Abraham against all hope, faced the fact that he was old and that Sarah, his wife, was barren and past the age of child-bearing. Although at times Abraham searched for man-centered way to fulfill God’s Promise, he did not waver through unbelief; he became fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised. God will also credit righteousness to us (Africa) because of our faith. Let’s be greatly encouraged; transformation is coming as a result of the trustworthiness of His promise. Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that has ever happened.” 

The Conference continued to build upon the two realities Abraham faced; God’s reality and man’s reality. The community of Ile is faced with a reality which they described as poverty, sickness, lack of clothing, clean water, transport, healthcare, etc.; basically a community who forgot God. But, there is another reality and it is the reality God has for Ile. In Jeremiah 29:11 we read, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” It’s upon this God-reality that the Vision Conference is build. There is hope for Ile, even against all hope.

Transformational development is more about roots that it is about fruits. Unless the root is changed, the fruit will remain the same. God knows this and provided a new Root for Ile in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. In Revelation 22:16 it says, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."On this Root the community must be build, as Paul said in Colossians 2:6,7 ,”Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” 
Delegates describing what the glasses
they wear tell them

The old roots, which are not of God, are responsible for the current reality Ile is facing. These roots, in the form of cultural lies, were identified and discussed. These included beliefs like tribalism, male superiority, ancestral worship, work is a curse, that there is no future, materialism, etc. This was discussed in inter-active small group meetings. The delegates then had the opportunity to think of practical ways, based on the Word of God, they expose these lies.

Some of the feedback received during the course of the Conference was as follows:
  • “When we work and start to sweat we think we are cursed.” 
  • “I believe I’m poor, because my father was poor. I believe I inherit poverty.” 
  • “I planted 3 coconut trees sometime ago; the others didn’t. Now I enjoy eating coconuts while they do not have any.” 
  • “Old people didn’t plant anything, because they think by harvest time they will be dead anyway.” 
  • “Thank you for what you shared with us today. It’s good seed. We expect many more tomorrow. We will not forget today.” 
  • “God promised Abraham a son. He was in doubt, because he and Sarah were old and couldn’t have children. Abraham tried to find his own solution by having a child with Hagar. God said that was not His plan.” 
  • “I remember the tree; the tree depends on its roots. When the roots are good, the tree is good. My question is how can you cut the old roots?” 
  • “I remember the tree; if you plant bananas you will have banana fruit. If you want to change bananas to mango you need to have mango roots. In the same way, if you want to change your behavior you need to change your thinking, for example, if you want to have a car, don’t just sit a wait for one, change your mind and do something.” 
  • “Africans think, like fatalism, when my grandfather was poor, my father and I cannot be different; we will be the same; we cannot change. If you think like that, you have the wrong glasses. You need to change your glasses to what the Bible says.”
Past Ualize translating Worldview
concepts in Lomue, the local
language.
Someone prayed during the meeting, “Our town (Ile) cries for change. Our glasses are misleading us.”

During one of the debriefing times Pastor Ualize shared with us how things are changing in Ile.
In December 2011 the town’s Administrator called all the churches together. She said that the condition of the community is going to get worse, because the Provincial government didn’t accept her plans for development. She asked the church leaders for advice and they said that the matter must be given to God.
In January 2012 a prayer meeting was held and all the community leaders were invited. They prayed, read the Bible and worshipped God for the entire day.
In June 2012 the Town council called the pastor saying that things have changed dramatically. As a result of the prayers plans are now underway to change the water situation in the town, to tar the main road going through the town, a community radio station will be started and a bank will open office in town. Not one of these things was possible in the past.
Church leaders in small group
discussion

He also shared how his personal situation changed for the better. When the IRM started the congregation in Ile in 2007, many people had doubt about the sustainability of such an initiative. The previous pastor asked people to make bricks to build a building for the Church, but for many years the building didn’t become a reality. Only under the servant-leadership of Past Ualize did volunteers come and put up a steel structure which became the roof of the church building. More volunteers are now joining the process in making more bricks to complete the building.
Church members experienced positive change in both the community and in the congregation at Ile. They are now pulling more than their weight in sustainable development initiatives, like taking care of the up keep and transport needs of Pastor Ualize and his family. In 2006 Pastor Ualize had to travel by bicycle to visit the various prayer houses in the congregation; something that is tiring and very time consuming. In 2006 he was fortunate to receive a motorbike through a congregation in South Africa. It was a great help, but he still needed the finances to maintain it; something the local congregation was not prepared to help with. He had to find ways to fund his own transport by using whatever he had in his hands; including the continued use of the bicycle.
Past Ganhale facilitates small
group feedback
After four years of using a bicycle, the situation changed in December of 2010 when the elders started to give him money for transport. They gave him 2 liters of fuel for every prayer house he visited. Supporting the pastor financially was difficult for the small congregation, but they prevailed. Each month each prayer house committed itself to make a contribution; some even give extra. Now, when the pastor returns from visits to the prayer houses, his motorbike is loaded with many things people gave him. They came to understand that giving is more blessed than receiving.

Johannes facilitated the third and last day of the Conference with Danie interpreting for him. Johannes guided participants through the practical application of worldview principles, as were discussed during the previous two days. The practical application of Biblical Truth is done best through demonstrating God's love through acts of service. For this reason God call's the local expression of the Church to demonstrate His love in the community where it serves. Johannes explained to the participants the idea of Seed Actions or Seed Projects, which is a proven strategy or method for doing small, short-term development initiatives with local resources. The session helped participants to make use of resources found within the community and in the process be set free from dependency on outside resources.
Johannes facilitating Seed Projects

The team left Ile late that afternoon heading for Mocuba, where they spent the night. Friday morning Hein, Johannes, Jose Ganhale and Tanya, a Peace Core worker from Mocuba, left for Milange. Danie stayed behind to receive a visiting team from South Africa.. 

The next round of Hope for Africa Vision Conferences in Mozambique organized by the IRM Tumbine Synod will take place from 17th to 27th of October 2012. Hein, Danie and Johannes will again be responsible for the facilitation of these Conferences.
Hein and the Team on their way to Milange

Soli Deo Gloria!

2023-11 Lugela besoek

hierdie is berg by Cricane (morrua)  Hier is die byeenkoms by Cricane  Tydens Cricane gesprekke ...