The Church in Mozambique

Church in Mozambique certainly looks different from the States. Our first stop in our 10 day Bush-Bush experience was to a conference for the leaders of the province of Zambezia. Iris organized this conference for the pastors overseeing the 16 districts within Zambezia which consists of thousands of churches. These leaders slept outside underneath an old tarp to stay dry from the rain while we stayed in tents that we had brought from the states.

The leaders met in a church that had no walls, a dirt floor, a tin roof, and about 800 square foot in size. These leaders each oversee several hundred church but yet their level of spiritual understanding is also limited. I had the privilege of speaking at the conference regarding spending time daily with God and being dependant upon God to do ministry (John 15). I do not know how well the message was received as it had to be translated into Portuguese and then into Lomwe.

While being around the Mozambiquan believers I recognize the great need for discipleship. Their congregations do not have Bibles and additional Christian materials are non-existent due to finances. Also having worked at JH Ranch ministering to families, I see a huge need for family ministry here. The separation between men and their wives is large as well as the separation between men and their children. The need for laborers is great.

Our greatest tool for ministry has been showing the Jesus film in the people’s local language. To go into a village with no electricity and set up a film in their own language is very powerful. For one, this might be the first time these people have ever seen television. Not only this, it is not in the national language of Portuguese but it is in their mother tongue which makes the message more powerful. For us the movie appears to be very old and out-of-date but the impact is still great. Many people gather in the villages for this event and many do choose to believe in Jesus. However, the need for discipleship still remains. Iris is training at least 300 pastors a year at its base in Pemba but the need is much greater. I have seen the huge responsibility the church has in the west to support this demand financially and with labor. This has been a valuable experience to have my eyes opened to this need.

Bush-Bush Ministry

If I were to try to measure the success of our trip by human standards, the number of times we showed the Jesus film, the number saved, the number healed, then our trip could be labeled a disappointment.

Yes, we showed the Jesus film. Yes, we saw many people raise their hands to believe in Jesus. And yes, we prayed for many people to be healed. But to be honest, we do not speak any of the four languages we encountered on our journey and so we do not really know if the people genuinely believe in Jesus or were really healed. I think many of the people lined up for prayer because they wanted to be near the first white person they have seen.

This trip emphasized the core message of Iris ministries, “stopping for the one”, the one in front of you. It’s really the story of the Good Samaritan. For example, one day we drove seven hours through the mountains on dirt roads to get to one village. We arrived after dark into the area and could not find the church or the pastor and had to set up camp in a random spot. Because of our schedule we could not stay the next day and had to return home only briefly stopping at the church to tell them we were sorry we missed them. But while at the church Allison noticed a little girl whose scalp had a bad infection that was oozing with flies. She bandaged the little girls head and gave the mother ointment to treat the infection. This little child was the “one”. The little girl was the person in front of Allison. And for all we know, this mother might have been crying out to God for her little girl to be healed and God sent us on a crazy adventure through the mountains to reach this child. Does God love this woman and her little child so much to send our group on such a journey? Yes. Are we willing to lay down our own plans and agenda and “stop for the one” is the question I must continue to ask myself.

Lord, may I continue to be open to Your plan.

A Lesson in Cross Cultural Ministry

We made it through 10 days in the Mozambiquan Bush-Bush. Imagine 23 people piled in the back of a pick-up truck riding from Alabama to Texas on poor roads and you will have a good understanding of our trip. We started with 12 missionary students and 11 Mozambiquans. At different points in the journey we also transported chickens, sugar cane, corn, rice & beans, and other random items we received as gifts from visiting the locals. If we had been in the States we would have been crying and complaining but because we are in Africa we considered this to be part of the experience and just laughed at our seemingly ridiculous situation most of the journey.

As westerners we never really had a clue as to where we were going or what we would do next. We got an upclose view of cross cultural ministry. The Mozambiquan culture is not time oriented. For one, almost no one owns a watch. Therefore, any event we did we had to start playing music really loud so people in the villages would hear it. Once they heard the music they would slowly start making their way toward us. Then after about an hour we would begin showing the Jesus film.

We also realized that Mozambiquans are not crisis oriented. We plan for potential problems that may never happen. They appear to wait for the problem to occur and then seek a solution. This cultural difference was most apparent in our food preparation. We would want to plan our meals for the day so we did not go hungry in remote areas. They tended to want to wait till they were hungry and then solve the problem. Such differences easily cause frustration between two cultures and it definitely began to wear on us. We know there is no right way but the tendency is to assume that our western culture is the best way.

We read a book required by our school regarding ministering cross culturally. It spoke on how Jesus left heaven, His culture, and came to earth humbly as a baby. He had to learn to speak a language, learn the Hebrew culture, and then minister within this context. We too must come into this Mozambiquan culture humbly as a baby, not as an arrogant person who knows the best way to do things. Our bush-bush experience helped us better realize the reality of cultural differences and how they can hinder ministry. We must always come in humbly.

No Internet

A fishing boat trolling took out 300 feet of fiber optic cable that supplied Mozambique’s internet. Therefore, we have been without internet for 4 weeks and will be the remaining time here. We have been unable to check our emails so we apologize for no responses and few updates.

Our Schooling

We are on our last week of classes in our missionary school. I would try to summarize our experience as a “test run” in missions. Being in Africa for 3 months has exposed us to some of the emotions one might face should the Lord call them into overseas missions. Our experience has also exposed the barriers in my mind that would cause me to tell God, “But what about my family? Is it safe to have a family on the mission field? What about finances? And what about the enormous spiritual need? It’s overwhelming and where will we begin?”

The very first week, Jackie Pullinger, a missionary to Hong Kong for 40 years emphasized to us that we cannot let fear of having a family in a foreign land be the obstacle to us going overseas. She reminded us that the Israelites did not enter the Promise Land because they too feared that the giants would swallow up their children. I had never before pondered this before and it resonated in my heart breaking down this mental barrier I had allowed.

In addition, by observing the ministry of Iris, my faith for God’s provision has been greatly increased. During Iris’ 30 years of ministry, they have never sent a support letter or requested money. They have held to the belief that for God’s work God will provide, and He has done so for Iris. As I witness the long-term impact of their ministry trusting the Lord for their finances, I do not feel like I should ever again limit my ability to serve the Lord based on finances.

But what about the enormous spiritual need? Heidi Baker’s primary encouragement to us has been “to stop for the one”. Our job is to minister to the person in front of us. It is God’s job to multiply the “two loaves and five fish” to feed the multitudes. We do not need to try to reach the masses but simply be faithful with the one in front of us. This message has been modelled to us in an incredible way here, and I hope we have caught it in our hearts.

Our time here has also been very beneficial on a practical level. We have experienced some of the emotions of missing the comforts of home: family, friends, food, and English. We better realize the people we meet might become friends with us because they want to take advantage of the fact they think we are rich westerners. We know the importance of language study and the priority it needs to be to minister. These lessons have been invaluable and should the Lord call us to be missionaries, will make this journey much more smooth.

Well, this summary is an attempt to capture an incredible experience for us. We are so thankful we have had this opportunity. Time will determine its true impact on our life.




I have witnessed Iris minister impact thousands of people and yet, they have never sent out a support letter. They believe God provides for the things He calls one to do. How can I fear that my good Father would not also provide for us too should He call us? I have discovered that the mistake I had been personally making over time is living as a survivalist and a minimalist. I knew I did not need much money and was content with this. However, I am beginning to discover that God does not just want me to have faith to feed only myself but that He wants me to have faith to believe for enough to help other people too.

(to be continued)

Bush-Bush Outreach

Friends, we would love your prayers for 10 days, August 7-16. Allison and I will be co-leading a team of 7 Mozambicans and 12 Foreigners into the Bush-Bush for evangelism. We will be travelling to the Zambezia province which is 2 days drive from Pemba. We will minister for 6 days there in different villages, showing the Jesus Film in the evenings, praying for the sick, and visiting homes.

We are expecting to see God’s love to shine through us. We just returned from an outreach this past weekend. Heidi Baker led this outreach to a small village on the coast north of the Pemba peninsula. We witnessed two deaf people healed after the Jesus film had been shown. Heidi asked the villagers to bring anyone they knew was deaf to the front for us to pray for their healing. It was a wonderful sight to one of man’s faces and his joy following the healing.

The next day we went house to house in the village visiting people and praying for the sick. One of the ladies we visited had a wound on her foot that had been getting worse over 6 years. Allison believed if in the USA the doctors would likely amputate her foot because the wound was causing decay. The lady allowed us to pray for her and told us she believed she had demons. The Mozambican pastors prayed for the demons to leave and for her to be filled by the Holy Spirit. We, personally, do not have much experience dealing with the demonic but it is very prevalent here. The Africans appear to be very aware of the spiritual world. Almost every night if one wakes up around 2am one can here the witch doctors chanting outside the walls of where they live. The local people will visit the witch doctors when they are sick to receive treatment. If they are healed, then they must pay the witch doctors. The one positive to this spiritual environment is that people are more open to receive prayer because of their belief in the spiritual and supernatural.

Also on this outreach, we saw our first giant. This man had the largest head and shoulders I have ever seen. Unfortunately, he must have broken a leg when he was young and it was never reset. As a result, he is now almost 40 with a withered leg and immobile. His request from us was to pray for him encouragement and a wheel chair. His name is Paula and I could not understand his Portuguese but I could sense his gentleness. We blessed him and encouraged him. I would love to see him provided with a wheelchair but even such things here require miracles.

Mozambique Life - July 13

We continue to learn about Mozambique culture. In our seven weeks here we have yet to notice a husband/wife couple together outside of the context of the home. I believe this has to do with the Muslim influence, and this separation of men and women continues into the church. The children here roam free at an early age. We see three year olds walking next to a busy highway unsupervised. The children seem to raise each other and discipline does not seem to exist except for the rules of nature, the strong survives. I have seen multiple fights break out and have broken a couple up between small children. Overall though, I am amazed at the joy the children carry. We think they have so little but they do not seem phased by it. They are creative in the toys they use to play. They create soccer balls out of plastic bags and string. One of their favorite games is trying to fill an empty water bottle with dirt before getting pegged by a ball.

I have continued to tutor a local teenager, John, in math. He is still struggling to do two digit addition. He does not seem to grasp the 1’s digit, 10’s digit, 100’s digit, etc. I do not know what to do other than to be patient with him and still show him love by helping. Unfortunately, I do not know if he is going to stay the course and seek more help. His peer influence does not look good.

Allison has made friends with a couple ladies in Iris’ ministry to the crippled and widows. Iris gives these people food in exchange for them doing some simple work projects such as making necklaces. We visited a home of two sisters who were both widowed and crippled. One sister has club feet (a common sight here) and the other lady had a broken leg that was never set properly. We visited their place of living. They are on a list for Iris to build them a mud hut ($300, I believe to build). These visits are quite humbling for us as we know the luxuries we have back home.

Our school continues to be malaria free. This is a huge praise report. The mosquitoes have not been as bad as we prepared mentally for them to be. I’ve used bug spray just a few times. We still must sleep under a mosquito net which I will be thankful when I no longer need. Allison did get bitten about 100 times by chiggers when sorting beans to give to the widows and crippled. She looked like she had chicken pox but she has now returned to normal. We can laugh about it now.

Allison has cooked some meals for us to supplement our diet. It’s amazing how a home-cooked meal goes a long way to making one feel more comfortable. I am blessed with a great wife.