Serving

Recently I had a dream that I remembered when I woke up (not usually the case.) We were at a funeral in the U.S., getting ready for a meal. I wanted to wash everyone's hands with a basin and pitcher as is done in Mozambique. The first row of people came up and washed, but the next few rows refused to come. They said their hands were clean or didn't say anything but just sat.

At first I was offended, then I said, "Oh well, I can't force them to accept the service" and I gave up.

 

Interpretation? Sometimes we serve with mixed motives and pride gets in the way. We want to be the givers to the "needy." We want to be needed. We feel superior to others. At times we want to force our service on people who don't need it - their hands are already clean. I have rejected hand washing at times because I just finished washing elsewhere. It's not personal rejection - I just don't need that service right at the moment.

I need to ask God what service is needed for specific people at a particular time. Then I must guard my heart and serve with pure motives and love for the people. When my desires line up with God's it will be a good thing for everyone and show God's love.


Our December Newsletter is now posted under "Newsletters" if you want details of what we've been up to the last few months.

Merry Christmas!

Chinhangane Village

It was a HOT week in early October (around 100 or above) but we still had good times with a team from Grand Rapids. The rains should be coming by now, but it looks like it may be another year of drought and heat. There is no food in the granaries, but people are now making money by rhino poaching as they are close to the Limpopo and Kruger Parks. They know they may not live long, but at least they will live well, so they continue the risky activities. The village leader is in jail in SA and some of the men have been killed. Massingir District where Chinhangane is located, seems to be a hub for this illegal activity.

 

Crocodiles are also a big threat. Last week a group from Chinhangane went to a nearby village to fish in the river. They dive and spear the fish, but this time a man was taken by a crocodile. They only found part of his body but got permission to catch the croc in a trap. They opened it up and found some other body parts. It makes one very willing to just view the river from farther back.

 

 
 
 

 

People’s lives are certainly not easy and comfortable in Chinhangane. This church from Michigan has provided a drip irrigation system for their agriculture field, a water system so they don’t have to get it from the river, and they have taught skills like knitting and sewing. They work with children and church leaders and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also showed them how to tell Bible stories in a way that helps non-literate people re-tell them and uses a lot of discussion – Simply the Story. There are only four churches in the village and three of them teach a mixture of Christianity and traditional religion/ancestor worship. There are plenty of challenges but we thank God for what has been accomplished.

This is one of the discipleship groups greeting us with songs and dancing.

The Big One that Didn't Get Away

While passing by a fresh water lake during our travels to Chokwe over the years, we have seen ladies selling freshly caught fish. So fresh that some of them were still wagging their tails, or so it appeared. Once we stopped with a friend who bought some that were still gasping for air, water actually, but they were quite small. Recently the fish have become larger due to improvements in the retention dam and the size of the lake. Having changed our diet to more fresh foods and natural oils, we found that fish in Maputo are quite expensive, so on a recent trip I stopped and bought some tilapia from the ladies. After some experimentation and a little learning on how to properly clean and cook these fish we decided to try it again. The tilapia were there and we bought some, but so was a much larger fish, for the same price, so I could not resist the opportunity to see what it would be like.

First off, it weighed a lot, was harder to de-scale as compared to tilapia and hard to handle. How to cut/filet such a thing? All I had was small, but good quality hunting knife that was really sharp. However, these was still a lot of meat left on the ribs, so we left half of the fish intact and baked it rib bones and all.

One piece made supper plus leftovers for quite a few future meals. After cleaning this one, the four tilapia were a cinch, but will make only 2-4 meals for the same purchase price.

Coconut Sagas

As some of you may recall, we helped start a cold pressed coconut oil business back in 2006 with a startup donation from some of our friends at Harvest Community Church. World Relief supported the idea and a WR manager (who was approaching retirement age and from that community) agreed to take the managing partnership role.

Producing liquid, white gold (from a tree no less)

Needless to say, it has been a live, learning curve in action from day one. I could go on, but needless to say, the first 7 years we lost money, maybe broke even the next and actually made a profit last year (if the books are to be believed, since they got done after the fact from a year’s worth of records). This alone is a series of sagas that could at times turn one prematurely gray!

So, we wrapped up production in December with my requesting they buy a few more coconuts at higher prices so that I can have some oil to sell in the off months. (Which they don’t. Prices were too high and they were too tired.) Then in early January, our manager says he and his wife have made a decision that he would retire this year and sell the factory. Wow, just like that, no discussion, questions or what do you think about this idea, Steve?

Well, we need a new manager and likely some new partners/investors in the mix if we want to move forward with production, growth and innovation. So, I share/shop the idea around to about six different parties that I know of who are either doing coconut oil, buying from us, selling oil, or want to sell it.

One comes back right away with, “Sure, I want to rent your factory for the next year and make oil. Here is my proposal.” Well, we had enough experience with this person to believe the offer was about 95% likely to fall flat before getting out the door, so I said, “Give us a written proposal, not just discussion” and that was just about the last of it, except a phone call to say, “No longer interested’ about 4 weeks later.

Another says, “Here is my idea/proposal, I bring you the coconuts (since I am starting similar operations across the street), you process and sell me your oil.” Our manager is convinced this is it, the answer to all his problems! Raw materials and export are covered, just run the factory. (I am not. What happens to our current customers who are depending on us for supply?)

Two more candidates who are actually working in the area with coconut products, have serious and real responses. Can we see your books and what would you charge for the company? Here’s the rub, no books since last year. How long to whip things into shape? Four weeks. That feels like a life time, even in the off season for a businessman. So, we wait. Once the books come out, we get verbal confidentiality agreements and share the data. How do they look? Not good, not terrible, so we have to think about selling this thing on its potential, not its actual profitability and return on investment, which is reasonable based on high demand from current customers, new people asking monthly and not being able to keep product in stock.

However, the price is just too high “for now.” We really need another year to make improvements, add capacity and build up revenues. What to do? Partnerships, alliances, new leadership, investments are all possible if we pursue and agree. So, we keep talking seriously to the two most likely candidates. One is like minded, business as ministry, the other community minded and profit driven.

New bombshell, the manager is selling his house and moving out of the community, even Mozambique. Wow, so much to not like about that unilateral decision. What to say or not say? We spend 2-3 days exploring options and talking about it. (I need to travel for two weeks now.) Ok, he will stick around until end of April. Lots of direction to pray for here. What is best for the company, him, us, the community, the business?

Talking to a close friend and advisor from our sending church, we ask these questions and receive the response, “You need to decide if the primary focus is ministry or business. I have seen each doing the other, but the primary focus must be agreed and done, or the other will interfere and create confusion.” True, we have seen that many times. Good food for thought. Primary goal has to be make a profit. Once this is sustainable, then as one producer said, the jobs will come (and so will opportunity for ministry.) The big outstanding question is now, how to structure the management, which partner to help us and who to hire for this year?

New bombshell (one that is easier to live with), the manager has decided not to leave Mozambique and wants to stay involved. Now the question is, how to move forward with the current limitations of present leadership? (So, my own advice comes back to remind me that, “If it were not challenging, it would not be called business!”) The saga continues……… (with hope).

“The best and most difficult decision I made in my life”

Our WR colleagues sent this story. It gives some background to what many people in the villages believe and how their fears rooted in Animism control them. Thankfully Mr. Tivane made the right choice of trusting God.

Boaventura José Tivane, is a 60 year-old man from 25 Setembro/Chibabel Village in the district of Guijá. Mr. Tivane has two wives and seven children. He sustains his family as a farmer. He became a Christian five years ago, however he continued practicing African traditional religion until very recently.

He explains: In 2010 I began to go to church even though my family depended on the counsel of witchdoctors. If we had any disease or perceived some bad luck we ran to a witchdoctor. I am also the eldest son of the family so I was required to lead the religious ceremonies of my siblings if they were advised to do so by their witchdoctors. To maintain the family spirits I was required to build a hut specifically for them where I kept some red and black cloth and some coins to appease them. All the family’s religious ceremonies were held in this hut.

I decided to surrender my life to Jesus as Lord when I observed the lives of two people, including my own daughter. Besides going to church, they started to live devout lives, loving and serving other people in the community. I wanted to be a Christian who really loves people to the point of serving others. In conversation with my daughter I told her that I would change if she would call her friends to pray for me. My daughter attended a WR training in a nearby church. When they came to pray for me, they offered to destroy the hut for the spirits and burn the artifacts if I wanted to dedicate my life fully to God. I accepted, and I think of it as the most difficult and the best decision I made in my whole life.