Sharper Than Any Two-Edged Sword

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword…” Heb. 4:12

Our team here in Central Mozambique loves to teach the Word of God.  We train others to teach, and divide into small groups as we reach out to over 60 districts with hundreds of churches in our care.  Yesterday was another one of those great teaching days.  After three hours of very dusty travel through hundreds of potholes on a dirt road to Buzi, Sofala, we arrived at a little church filled with women who had gathered for a 3-day women’s conference.  They had already begun the night before with Cecelia, who leads this district with her husband, Jaco, along with many local pastors.  The women greeted us warmly, eager to learn more.  We sang, danced, and attentively soaked in the Word of God all day.  What a joy to participate in giving the Word to women so hungry for Him! 

Buzi Women's Conference

For lunch we ate a meager, but wonderful, meal of cabbage and rice. Our central region still suffers from hunger, as their farms have not produced much of anything for the past 1½ years.  The rains have been scarce.  They are preparing their fields now for the upcoming rainy season, which is supposed to be arriving late this month or November.  (Please pray for these rains to come!)  No one complained, but it was sad to see the land so dry and the hard times these families are experiencing.  It will still be another 3-4 months before another harvest, assuming the rains come.   Prices are going up tremendously as well, since the supply of food is diminishing. 

God is good, however.  We thank those of you who have contributed funds to help those suffering from famine here in Central Mozambique.  A container of donated freeze-dried food has arrived and the food is currently being passed out to the districts in the province of Zambezia.  For those farther away from the container, we are sending teams with money to buy rice.  We’ve already been doing this, but we continue to go to new areas as the famine is still affecting many.   You’ll see more pictures in our next post, as we are making plans now to go to a very impoverished area in Mutarara, Tete.  This is a very difficult place to reach, however, as the roads are still unsafe for travel.  Please keep Oct. 11,12 in your prayers as our missionary, Peter, will be traveling there on dangerous roads with Mateus, one or our best Mozambican itinerate seminar teachers. 

Pastor Jacob and his wife Cecelia

Near the end of the day, Pastor Jacob commented how our discipleship books have changed so many people’s lives in his churches.  “Do you have more?  Has Pastor Brian finished another book yet?” he eagerly asked.  “He is almost finished with Foundations III and we are ready to print one on stories from the New Testament,” I responded.  He couldn’t thank me enough for all the seminars, discipleship books, and Bibles we’ve been given them these past few years.  Yet we feel so blessed as well, being able to participate and see the spiritual growth in this district.  So from Pastor Jacob, his many churches, and from all us missionaries, we thank you also for your prayers and support in making the production of these discipleship books possible. 

We are one Body, but many parts, each doing what God asks us to do.  Thank you for remembering us and taking time to read our posts.  We pray abundant blessings on you, from all of us here in Central Mozambique!