Trip to Visit Rural Churches, Part 1

Friday October 21, 2011

Left early with Jacob and Dionisio for a trip to Tete Province to visit churches and leaders conferences. 350 km to Tete. About 10 hrs of driving, with a stop in Tete city to pick up 3 more people. Drove another 200km into the bush to Furankungo, Makanga district, where about 30 people from the churches were waiting for us. Arrived just before dark. We set up our tents, then walked about a mile into town to present ourselves with some of the leaders to the police, to let them know who we are and what we are up to. Then dinner of cheema (corn meal mush), and Jacob set up his 12” TV on top of the car and showed the Jesus Film in Chechewa to about 100 people gathered. Before it was over I was asleep. 2 hour film – done about 11 pm.


Saturday Oct 22, 2011

Before daylight was even a thought I began to hear people talking outside the tent. As soon as it was light, before the sun was up, the sounds of women, children, pots being scrapped made staying in the sleeping bag useless and made me curious about what was going on outside.
Jacob reminded me that when greeting someone, one's proximity to the ground is an indication of respect. When I was seated and a man introduced himself, I should have remained seated, letting him be higher than me. This morning the same man (who speaks English) called his wife over to introduce her to me. She came over and quickly fell to her knees in front of me to greet me.
Languages here – Chechewa and Portuguese, and lots of English, because of the proximity to Malawi. Greeting in Chechewa - “ma de banja.”
Breakfast of bread and tea. They did a roll call of the churches and each came to get their breakfast as called.
This conference was for the leaders of 38 churches of Christ (acapella because of influence and evangelization from Malawi) in this district. Evangelists, who plant churches, evangelize and train up churches until elders are appointed (by the churches). Sometimes there are problems with an evangelist who does the appointing and tries to keep control of the churches in his sphere of influence. One such evangelist was at the conference, and because of his dominant personality is a real problem to the churches around Tete (city) and to the other evangelists.
Breakfast started about 7 am. Singing at 8 am. The schedule was for 2 speakers in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, two at night, then Q&A beginning at 10 pm. Being the visitor, I spoke first in the AM . Spoke from Matthew 20 – the greatest is the servant, and Philippians 2 – Jesus as our example of servanthood. Then Q&A – how do you deal with pastors who lord it over the churches? Are they really pastors? I referenced David and Saul, and also 3 John.
The program got pushed back in the afternoon, with dinner at about 7 pm, (cheema, peas, greens and stewed dried fish (whole little fish). Watched the Jesus Film again, and started teaching again about 10 pm. I preached first again.
I had planned to talk about elders from 1 Peter 5, but they asked me to talk about family. Started with Genesis 1, then Ephesians 5, with references to servanthood (from my morning lesson). The only thing I could see was the flashlight in my eyes. Asked for questions at the end and got a lot of questions about divorce, adultery and polygamy, and how to deal with these things in the church and among pastors. (Such as, if a woman comes to church who is wife in a polygamist marriage, do we receive her? If a man and woman divorce because of ones unfaithfulness, both remarry, then both new couples want to come to church, do we receive them?
After speaking, I went to bed. They had Q&A till about 1 am, with the main topic being the role of women (the question was asked by one of the women). Women have been taught to be quiet in church (but it's ok for them to sing). After much discussion, the consensus was that women could speak, but not exercise authority. Another topic discussed was whether a polygamist pastor is really a pastor. Another – if a person is arrested (presumably for no good reason), how should he respond.
Jacob will ask questions during these discussions, but is careful not to give answers. It is important for them to reach their own conclusions. If the missionary gives his answer, they would accept it and not think it through for themselves.
When I preached here, it was translated from English to Chechewa. When Jacob and Dionisio preached, they preached in Portuguese, with translation to Chechewa. When Dionisio preached, Jacob translated that to English for me. Jacob uses simple language (in Portuguese) and goes slow, so I could generally understand what he was saying.
The leaders expressed their problems to us. They were:

1. Lack of trained teachers and study materials.
   
2. Economics – the Church of Christ (meaning – the missionaries) does not provide money (US $) for them to build church buildings, and no salaries for preachers.
   
3. Poverty of the people (reference #2).
   
4. From 1994 – 2000 there were not many churches, and growth was limited by the talent of the preachers. Preachers did not encourage others to grow and learn to preach. (Reference #1)
   
5. Division over singing during the Lord's Supper.
   
6. In Malawi we had one preacher per district who was appointed by and supported by the missionaries. We need support from the missionaries.
   
7. The long distances preachers must travel to meet together. (Most came by bicycle, some 30 or more miles.)
   
8. Disagreements over doctrine. We need more missionary help to train more preachers (meaning – to tell us the answers).
   
9. Too large an area to evangelize. Preachers cannot get around to all the churches. They have to choose between farming to feed their families and preaching. (Meaning – we want the missionaries to support us and buy us motorcycles.)
   
10. (Women's input) Lack of women's teachers and leaders. Distance between villages.
    
    Sadly, they see many (most?) of their problems as being rooted in the need for more US dollars and more missionary intervention.  With all good intentions, the missionaries have been building dependency upon American missionaries rather than on God for over 100 years now.  Breaking dependencies is very difficult for any of us, but it can be done, with wisdom and patience.  But there are still many mission groups and aid organizations feeding the dependencies in the third world, which makes the job all the more difficult.  No one has evil intentions, and the problem is complex.  There will be more on this in coming posts.
    
    Pray for your brothers and sisters in Mozambique.  Life is hard for them, and Satan is very active.
    

Bush Fire

Africans all over sub-Saharan Africa burn off the dried grass near the end of the dry season (September - October) before they plant their new crops.  They believe it makes the new crops grow better, makes it easier to plow, and flushes out any animals, making hunting easy for a short while.

If the wind is blowing much, they burn much more than their own fields.  One of the reasons the soil is poor in some places, and there are no trees to speak of, is this practice of burning.  Small trees have no chance of making it to the big time.  A lot of voices have been telling them not to burn, but cultural norms change very slowly.  (In our culture, we know that fast food is not really good for us, but McDonald's has never done better.  We need to be careful when we think that other cultures are maybe not as smart as we are.)

Jacob's farm has several times been the recipient of out of control fires, and once the target of an intentional fire set by a disgruntled squatter.  Jacob keeps the grass near the house cut short, and beyond that they cut fire breaks and, if a fire is coming, will set back fires.  So far they have only had one devastating fire, and that was before the house was even completed.  It destroyed a lot of newly set medicinal trees and some building materials.

Jaynie said that a fire was her worst fear, and that particular fire - the first one - was especially traumatic.  But it forced her to trust God more and reminded her that the farm and all her ministry plans involving the farm were in His hands, not her control.

Grocery Shopping

Friday October 14


Unpacked, rested most of the day.  Melonie didn't feel too well after not sleeping well. In the afternoon Jacob & I went to Chimoio, about 15 miles from the farm, to get groceries. First to the supermarket – Shop Rite – a South African chain. Any American could go in there and feel almost at home. Then to the local market, where we found fresher produce, but not quite the variety as the supermarket.


The local market was row upon row of crowded little stalls with piles of whatever vegetables, fish or fruit they had to sell. Some of the “stalls” were nothing more than a blanket of sorts on the ground to mark out the vendor's spot. The aisles between rows were narrow, the whole market was built on ground that was not quite level to begin with, and has over time been eroded by the rain. To get down the aisles means negotiating your way through small gullies and ridges, accompanied by the din of hundreds of conversations all around you, multiple people calling out to buy their goods, and swarms of flies feeding on banana peels, dried fish, and anything else in sight.


Life here moves on African time. Jacob had hoped to go by the mechanic's shop to check on the progress of repair on his Land Rover, but we were too late – repair shops and such close at 4 pm on Fridays. On the other hand, the mechanic has only had the vehicle for two weeks (to replace the front bushings), so it's probably not ready yet anyway.

Our First Night in Mozambique

Thursday Oct 13

Arrived at Jacob and Jaynie's farm from the Beru's in the Vumba in Zimbabwe. Border crossing was pretty uneventful, except that the price of a visa to get into the country has jumped from $25 each to $80 each. We were not expecting that!

I learned a lesson in timing at the Michael farm – as I was getting ready to jump into the shower, the generator went off for the night. The water is on a gravity system (both hot and cold) so I had water, but no lights. Melonie had the lantern in the bedroom, so I proceeded to shower in total darkness. Not too hard, but I would have preferred at least a little light. Friday night I did a little better – at least I got wet before I got in, and Melonie was kind enough to bring the lantern to the bathroom. Some of us are slow learners!