Rabia & Dionisio's Wedding

A local pastor (Dionisio) who works closely with Jacob, got married today, in his home, which is on Jacob's farm. He was married previously, but his wife kept cheating on him, and eventually the other church leaders in the district advised him to divorce her, so he did. The new bride was also previously married - she was the 2nd wife (at the same time) but could not have any children. She saw a doctor and told her husband that for a certain (small) amount of money she could have surgery to correct the problem. Her husband decided it was cheaper to divorce her and replace her, which he did.

Dionisio was interested in this lady (Rabia) so he asked the other church leaders what they thought, and they agreed it would be good for him to marry her. So he sent a friend to Rabia's brother to ask for his permission (her parents are dead), he agreed and it was arranged. (Dionisio and Rabia knew each other well and wanted to get married, but the process is necessary.)

The wedding was in large part the families, church leaders and the local chief answering the question "does anyone have an objection to this marriage?" They all testified that it was proper and good and it had their blessing. The ceremony lasted about 2 hours.

After the wedding everybody was served corn meal beer. When they were bringing it in, I thought somebody was tracking in something on their shoe. But if you don't breathe through your nose while you drink it, it's actually pretty good.

Pictures and videos can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/meloniefudge87

What Jacob Does Here

Jacob has lived in Africa - Zimbabwe and Mozambique, for 35 years (except for one year in Brazil and four in the USA). He has learned that a foreign missionary (in an area that has existing churches) should always be working himself out of a job – meaning that his job is to work alongside the local church leaders to help them to do their job better; not to build an organization around himself or to supplant local leadership. It may be slower, and doesn’t lend itself to exciting letters back home, but it builds men and women into strong leaders who depend on God, not foreign know-how and money.

He does not approach his work with an outside agenda. He makes it a practice to always go behind the local leadership - they will let him know what the needs are, and by working with and through them, they have emotional ownership of their work.

In 1984 Jacob and his family returned to Gweru, Zimbabwe, where he was co-leading the Mkoba church with a local preacher. The church was composed of poor laborers and was not supplying any support for either preacher (money was coming from the US for both). In 1991 Jacob decided and announced to the church that they no longer needed him – they had elders, a good preacher, deacons, and a membership of 700 (it was 300 in 1984). That’s when he moved to Mozambique.

The Mkoba church has since taken responsibility for the support of their preacher, started two more churches in Gweru (both of which are thriving), and grown to 1000 members.

Jacob’s role in Mozambique could be characterized as a resource person. He travels to a district (with advance notice to the churches), meets with the church leaders, and asks them how he can help them. For several days they will study together, help them find solutions to their problems, and if it seems appropriate, commit his outside resources to help meet a need. He has a constant theme of teaching them to depend upon God, not on western money or missionaries.

One time he asked the village leaders what they needed, and they immediately requested that he help get rid of the elephants who were destroying their crops and threatening their homes.

For the past 10 years Jacob has been driving a LandRover that has just about given up the ghost. The dirt trails, gullies, potholes, huge loads, and dust clouds have taken their toll. Two weeks ago he was able to get a “new” car – a 1994 Toyota Hilux Surf (similar to the 4Runner). What a blessing it has been! It gets there without breaking down!

Prayer Needs

- That the church leaders in this province (Manica) will be receptive to Jacob’s offer to help them. They have been conditioned to expect support and financial assistance from the missionaries, and that’s not what Jacob has to offer.
- That God will move His givers to supply the remaining $8000 for the new vehicle. (He had to rob Peter to pay Paul to get it.)

Mika, Pedro and the Churches in Tete

Two visitors came to the house this morning to see Jacob - Mika and Pedro (pronounced Pedru – it’s Portuguese, not Spanish), both of whom are preachers from Tete Province. Mika speaks English, and I was able to learn some things from him.

Tete Province is the left finger on the northern side of Mozambique, about the size of Kentucky or Indiana (38,800 sq.mi.) with a population of 1,500,000.

In Tete, as in all of Mozambique, the Roman Catholic Church was the only Christian church for many, many years (Mozambique was a Portuguese colony) and is still the largest denomination. Many people feel loyal to it because their parents and grandparents were Catholic. The other “largest group” he mentioned is Jehovah’s Witness.

Mika (pronounced Meeka) was born in Zimbabwe but came to Mozambique as a child. Some of his mother’s family were in the Rhodesian army. During the war the family fled to Malawi as refugees to avoid being killed by the guerrillas fighting the government. His father was from Mozambique, so they settled here after the war (the guerrillas won the war, so going back to Zimbabwe would not have been safe).

Tete Province is sandwiched between Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia, all of which are English speaking, and have many strong churches, including the Church of Christ (having been recipients of many, many missionaries for the past 100 years). Mica says there are 200 Churches of Christ in Tete Province, with an average size of 50 – 60, and some of as many as 300. But there are not 200 preachers for those churches, so many of the preachers are circuit preachers. Their work, though, is hampered by very poor roads. With roads, a person can hitch a ride or ride a bicycle, but without roads, they must walk. A walking preacher is limited to an area of about 50 mile radius, and each church might get one visit a year. With a bicycle he could visit those same churches four or five times a year.

The roads are so bad, I was told, that to make the 60 mile trip from the district where Pedro lives to the Provincial capital where Mika lives, it is necessary to go through Chimoio – a 400 mile trip.

Mika said the greatest need of the churches is for printed materials to help the Christians grow – reference materials, tracts and booklets on living a Christian life.

Prayer Needs

Pray that God will raise up more evangelists, pastors and teachers, and that He will provide the resources they need to grow in their understanding and faith.

Visiting a New Church

Several days ago, the guard at the house next door to Jacob asked if he would come preach Sunday in the church he belongs to, and of course Jacob said yes. Our wives were still gone to the ladies' retreat, so the two of us, and the guard headed off to church, which turned out to be an Apostolic Pentecostal Church. The service was in the Shona and Senna languages. Jacob preached in Portuguese, with translation into Shona.

After the sermon, the pastor repeated much of the sermon, which was his stamp of approval on what had been said.

I was asked to lead a prayer, and so I said a phrase (in English) and waited for a translation, which did not come. So I prayed in English, knowing that very few understood. A bit later the pastor (who did understand English) asked me to pray again, and I asked him to translate this time, which he did.

Some pictures can be seen at
http://picasaweb.google.com/meloniefudge87

Pictures are Posted on Picasa3

The best way to see pictures, including several videos, is at

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=meloniefudge87&target=ALBUM&id=5390228710671619633&authkey=Gv1sRgCOLKkcHRqdnfWw&invite=CO-M_bcL&feat=email

How I Met Jacob

One Sunday night in 1977 we were having our Sunday evening service in the little church in Gweru, Zimbabwe. There were about 30 or so of us, and the service looked much like an American service would have for the same occasion. After a couple of songs, in walks a white family (we were mostly white, but not all) of mom, dad and 4 little kids, who marched right to the front row. They knew when to sit and stand, and they knew the words to all the songs. Of course we were very curious and eager to meet them! As soon as we were dismissed, I introduced myself, and the dad said, “My name is Jacob Michael; I preach for the church of Christ here in Gweru.” My immediate thought was, “no you don’t; I do.” But I said something more appropriate than that, and found out he was preaching for a Christian Church in one of the townships. They were American, not much older than us, and we became great friends; studied and prayed together a lot, and have been close ever since.

When we left Zimbabwe in 1980, Jacob and family were in Goiania, Brazil. We spent a week with them on our way back to the states. Through the years since, my dream has been to go back to Africa and work alongside Jacob.

One day in the spring of 2007, as I was driving to some appointment, my cell phone rang, and it was Jacob – calling from Mozambique. He said he and Jaynie (he married again) were returning to the states in the fall for 18 months, and upon their return to Mozambique at the beginning of 2009 they would be starting a new project in another area of the country, and they would like for Melonie and me to join them as team members. In the ensuing conversation, I said something about financial obligations and Jacob said financial matters are common to all of us and to trust God to take care of that part.

That’s what he said. Here’s what I heard. Fudge, you’ve been saying for 20 years that you want to go back to Africa. It’s time for you to put up or shut up. And you think you have financial problems to deal with – well isn’t that special! Who doesn’t? When are you going to learn to just do what you know you need to do and trust God to deal with the finances?

Hardly a day has gone by since then that I haven’t thought about going back to Africa.

(While they were in the states during that 18 months we were blessed to be able to attend the Christian Missionary Convention with them, and then to spend almost a week relaxing with them in the foothills of the Ozarks. That was a wonderful time of Melonie getting to know them and they her.)

Want to know more about life in Africa?

Here's the blogspots for some of the missionaries we have met here. Reading some of them will inform your prayer life.

www.michaelgnfa.blogspot.com

www.lynnlagore.blogspot.com

The Power of the Good News

Several of the African tribes in this part of the continent have a custom of tying a leather or cotton string or thong around the wrist, neck or abdomen of their infants, which will remain on the infant as it grows until it comes off. The purpose of this practice is to dedicate the baby to the spirits, procuring the favor of the spirits, which they believe will result in protection and good luck for the child as he/she grows up. The believers know that worship of the spirits and the power of the shaman is satanic, and they know that “he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.”

Eugene Wessell and his wife Tina live and minister in Zambezia Province in Mozambique. He is South African (his mother is English and his father Afrikaans). Tina is from the UK. He does some preaching, but primarily serves alongside the local church leaders.

About three years ago, Eugene preached a sermon encouraging the believers to stop dedicating their children to Satan, and instead to dedicate them to Christ. After he preached, one of the men stood up and declared, “He is right. We must go home and release our children from Satan, and give them to Jesus.” And they did.

Two weeks later, one evening after sunset, Eugene and Tina heard shouting, and then saw a group of men break through their front door with a tree trunk, shouting, “Mata! Mata!” (Kill! Kill!) The men, all with glazed eyes, were armed with machetes. Eugene and Tina defended themselves with bar stools and pieces of furniture for about 30 minutes, but grew too tired to continue. Though badly wounded, they managed to escape the house when Tina took some money from the bedroom (about $300) and threw it at the men, who began to turn on each other in a scramble to pick up the money.

Eugene and Tina hid in the elephant grass until the attackers tired of trying to find them. They were badly cut, as well as having broken bones, and were air lifted to South Africa for treatment and recovery. Upon their return a couple of months later, they found the house had been stripped of everything of any value. It was apparent, however, that the motive was murder, not robbery.

There was a second attack by the same men shortly thereafter, after which the attackers were identified and arrested by the authorities.

Eugene went to visit the ringleader in jail numerous times, each time taking him food, water and fresh clothes. (Those amenities do not come automatically with jail time in this part of the world.) “Why did you attack us?” Eugene asked, to which the man replied, “I had a burning here (pointing to his chest) that told me here (pointing to his head) that we must kill you.” At that point, Eugene said, it all made sense. It was all spiritual; retaliation from Satan for encouraging the release of the infants from their satanic dedication.

Eugene said to the man, “Your god destroys people; my God loves you.” After some time the ringleader surrendered his heart to Jesus. He is still in jail, but he is now a brother.