From Mozambique

This is our fourth day here in Mozambique, and I have to say it has been very fruitful so far. We have had many good meetings and opportunities to talk with people who are doing things here in the country, both Mozambicans and Americans, Christians and not, Church workers, missionaries, and government officials. The pre-existing connections here have been invaluable; we could not have accomplished the depth of learning and understanding that we have without them. Our two main avenues of connection have been the United Methodist Church (a connectional system that is strong here in the country) and my relationship with OMS International. Because of those relationships, we have been able to connect with people and hear from them in valuable ways. They are already here on the ground doing good work, so we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We are able to look for ways we can partner with what they are already doing. That will maximize our investment as a church, as well as strengthen what they are doing. We do not have to arrange an infrastructure for what we do because there is already one existing.

The focus of this trip has been learning, asking questions, and making connections. A lot of learning has happened! The church has much we can learn from. Each evening (or whenever we have a spare moment, really!) Steve and I have been processing the meetings, trying to discern how our church can be involved in healthy and helpful ways. There are so many opportunities, possibilities, needs, and ways we can learn. One question that we have repeatedly come back to is the difference between charity and development. We want to help, but not in ways that will only create dependency. There has been enough help of that sort, so we must work very hard not to give hand-outs, but to help in ways that will allow people to help themselves.

Many of our conversations have come back to the idea of training. Of course, there is the old saying that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. As one of the Mozambicans said, If you give me food, I’ll just eat it and then lie down and take a nap! As we think about ways Crossroads UMC can be involved, there is a great opportunity for training. We met with a person from the Ministry (equivalent to a Department in the US) of Education this morning. He said they have done a better job over the last ten years of providing access to primary school (through 7th grade) throughout the country; there are now 4.5 million children in school, compared with 2 million 10 years ago. But there is a lack of quality in the teaching. The teachers need training, but the need for teachers is so urgent that they have accepted teachers who were willing, but don’t have training. Maybe this is one way we can contribute in a meaningful way to the future of this beautiful country.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with some Muslim leaders in the capital city of Maputo, where we have been the whole time so far. We hope to find ways we can bridge the gap between the religions in the area of development work, while we still maintain our commitment to Jesus.

We went to several different church services yesterday and were blessed by it. Steve went to the service where all 5 United Methodist churches in the city came together for a celebration. He said there were several times when tears came to his eyes because of what God was doing. The music and the spirit of cooperation was wonderful.

I went to a service in another part of the city where I preached in Portuguese. I have been pleased to find that I haven’t lost too much of my language in the 7 years since I was last here, although I have confused several words with Spanish! I preached about God’s plan for the city and the importance of Maputo in God’s plan for reaching Mozambique. Afterwards a young man named Amilcar came up for prayer. God had been challenging him to do something significant, and he said the preaching Sunday was God’s word for him. He wants to help reach the city for Christ; Praise God!! Please pray for Amilcar.

I also got to go to the last part of the service in T-3, which is the church I was a part of when I was here in 2000-2001. It was good to see some of the people from my time there.

Some quick notes:
- It has been great getting to drive here again! I missed driving on the left side of the road.
- There is a lot of new development here in the last 7 years. It seems much of the city has a fresh coat of paint and a fresh coat of pavement.
- Here in the city people seem busier than they were at that time. They have become more punctual and more obsessed with the schedule. The joys of modern life!
- We are 6 hours ahead of Eastern time. Interestingly, Steve and I happened to spend the time from 4:00-5:00pm here talking about the Bridgeville campus. With the 6 hours time difference, that means we spent the whole time of the Bridgeville service talking about Bridgeville! We were thinking about and praying for you all.

Thank you for your continued prayers. We have more meetings scheduled for the week, and we’re working to schedule still more before we fly out on Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday we are heading up to Xai-Xai (pronounced shy-shy). This is a couple hours north in a more rural area. So far all we have seen is Maputo, which is much different than the rest of Mozambique. It will be good for me to get back out there, and I’m glad Steve will get the chance to experience it.

From Maputo, Mozambique,
Jonathan