Today I'm thinking of World Relief and the work we help to organize from the head office. I work with Church Development. One of the main things we have done is to help four coordinators in different areas to hold trainings and seminars for pastors.
Pastor Madeira, who has worked in the center of the country with World Relief reported that “lack of unity among pastors brought unhealthy competition among themselves, disunity, lack of trust and enmity to the extent of some of them going after witchdoctors in order to prosper more than the other. With the unity we brought among them, there is now the spirit of cooperation, repentance from the wrong done in the past and a passion to serve more and more strongly for the Kingdom.” Jose Madeira is the one on the left of the picture, next to Anastase Nzabilinda who is the director of Church Dev. and other leaders from Sofala Province.
Willem Nel, director of Volta a Biblia, a Bible training center said that it takes a long time, much prayer and discipleship before people are willing to leave ancestor worship and animism. And then he commented that we are all tempted with idolatry, whether it is ancestor worship, or trusting witchdoctors in Africa, or materialism and security in the West.
I learned early in my time in Mozambique that many pastors are chosen because they can read, or they have natural leadership abilities, not necessarily because they are Christians. The country of Mozambique does not have a strong background of Christianity. During the Socialist era Christianity was suppressed and it has only been 20 years since then.
The training these coordinators have been doing is very basic "What we believe" teaching so that the pastors will receive the truth and then pass it along to their congregations. The sad news we received recently is that we can no longer give them even the small stipend we were giving because there is no budget money for this in this new fiscal year. We are also needing to stop support to two young men who have worked with children's clubs and with trainers of children.
It really grieves me to see this part of our ministry end. Who knows, these pastors may continue going out and training even without funds for transportation but I know it will be difficult for them to continue.
If you would like to contribute to WR, one way to do so is through the catalog you can find here: https://worldrelief.org/page.aspx?pid=723&nccsm=15 If you'd like to give to leadership training go to "Stand for the Vulnerable" and then "Train a Church Leader." Mention Mozambique if you'd like.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2:14
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