With Strand Congregation in Mozambique

Sunday School training outreach with Strand reformed Church

 

The first team was actually a very small team. In the last hours we heard that the material we wanted to use on the outreach did not arrive in Milange. Dirkie managed to get the material and we had to divide it between us for the flight to Malawi. We made the weight limit and me and Dirkie flew out to Malawi. Kobus and Nana met us on the airport and we stayed the first night with them. From there we hired the Prado from Milange and went drove to Mocuba with Benjamin, the leader of the youth group of the synod. We met up with another youth leader from Magodane congregation in Mocuba. The first day of training were postponed for a day because of communication problems. It was a group of maybe ten that came for the training and the two youth leaders who did the training, did very well. Me and Dirkie only helped with a few small things. I had to talk about our calling specifically for the youth. They used material for Sunday school and helped the local youth leaders to use it effectively as lessons for Sunday school. The focus is not on only understanding the messages of the Bible, but also to focus on the growth of a relationship with the Lord.

After the training we spent a few days in Mocuba visiting Lugela, Tacuane, Muraba and a new church near Muraba. We listened to trained youth leaders in giving the first lesson to the children and afterwards helped and encouraged them. Some of them surprised us with a lot of initiative and enthusiasm. Benjamin also brought the Jesus film and we showed it in all of these places.

I also had a good talk with the building committee that is responsible for the building of the church building in Mocuba. They are very inexperienced for a project like this, but in general did very well in managing the building. They build the walls up to window level. It is a good partnership where the local congregation is responsible for one part of the work and Strand congregation helps with the rest. It is a nice process that is not finishing a task but is developing people involved.

We also visited Magodane congregation where we also had a day of training whereafter we visited prayer houses to listen to the youth leaders in presenting their first classes. They were very excited and we can see that some of them will do good in creating a system of Sundayschool. Felizardo, the youth leader of Magodane did very well.

On our way back we went with a small bush road to the prayer house of Machina and the people there demonstrated a deep gratitude and enthusiasm. We really enjoyed it. The morning at 4 it started raining so we packed everything and left for Milange. The road was very wet, but we arrived in good time. On the way we shared with one another about the privilege of doing this work, because it also form our own lives in a powerful way.