Dear Family
and Friends,
Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year from Central Mozambique!
This
Christmas season our center held a week long Children’s Ministry Training Camp,
inviting youth from our local churches.
After learning how to teach children through the use of drama, music,
games, puppets, etc., the group of 45 students from 10 local churches divided
into 4 groups at the end of the week to hit the hundreds of neighborhood kids in
our town with the Christmas story!
I (Lorena) had
invited eight of my best children’s ministry leaders, whom I had trained in the
past, to come help teach (Pictured Below).
Each leader
took a group at the end, spending the whole day prior preparing their program
together and putting to practice everything they had learned during the
week. It was a great success –
everyone had so much fun!
The leaders,
being youth themselves, ended the week with new vision and motivation. They tell me they now want to go back to
their areas in the north and conduct their own training seminars just like the
one we did! Also many of the newly
trained youth now want to start their own children’s ministries in their
churches and neighborhoods. This
is huge, in a country where children’s ministry basically doesn’t exist. Unlike the West where Christianity has
been part of the culture for centuries and almost every child already knows the
Christmas story, for instance, most Mozambican children don’t know that Jesus
came to this earth 2,000 years ago and that He lives today to be our Savior and
Lord. All the Bibles stories are
new to them. They are thrilled,
(along with their parents), to hear that God loves them and they don’t have to
live in fear of evil spirits and curses.
We are thrilled too, to have the continued privilege of sharing the Good
News in this country. Seeing wide
eyes and open hearts as they hear for the first time of Jesus’ promise to
forgive their sins and be by their side forever, makes everything worth it.
It’s definitely
an honor, not a sacrifice, to be here as a minister of the Gospel.
Learning to make puppets out of paper bags
The
Discipleship Centers continue to thrive.
Two new Districts began centers in Zambezia – Gile and Gurue. Others continue on in various
stages. Brian just finished writing
a new discipleship book - on
marriage and family. Last week he
and our head trainer, Pastor Mario, worked through this book with leaders from
our 60 Discipleship Centers in the district of Morrumbala for the first time.
Addressing this topic is extremely needed in a culture of multiple wives, and
promiscuity to the point of AIDS infecting 1/3 of the population. The idea of marriage and commitment is
foreign for the most part. As a
consequence, the children suffer the most – growing up with multiple “dads” if
not kicked out onto the streets by their new “dad”. The children are also abused, because the culture
teaches that relations with a virgin will cure a man’s AIDS. A few months ago I spoke at a women’s
seminar. Holding up my wedding ring,
I shouted out how our marriage of 30 years is blessed and free of disease
because we choose to follow God’s way…. The Holy Spirit fell mightily on that group at that
moment. The people are hungry and
open for the Truth here.
One of the most
thrilling recent stories takes place in a district called Lugela. They are all new believers, hungry for
the Word and filled with questions!
Normally in this culture when someone gets sick, they go to the witch
doctor. But last week, a new
believer in Lugela told his neighbors to pray to Jesus for their sick baby
instead. The baby was about to
die, but the parents, also new believers, decided to pray to Jesus and not go
to the witch doctor. They prayed
together and the baby is now completely healed! Their testimony of hope and salvation is spreading in that
village where death, disease, fear, and witchcraft is usually the norm.
Thank you
for your support and prayers, making this possible for us to remain here. We miss you all and wish you a very
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
In His
Grace,
Brian,
Lorena, Caleb, and Nate
Support Address: Calvary Chapel Foothill Ranch, 26882 Vista Terrace, Lake Forest, CA 92630, (949) 768-4190. Please make checks out to the church with a note in the memo of the check,
"The Wood family".
