Touching Hearts and Hands in Mozambique

Maputo is a city of contrasts. Opulent shopping centers stand sometimes just a block away from decrepit colonial structures, abandoned since the decade-long war for independence that ended in 1974. Tenements rise ten and fifteen stories, often atop upscale or middle-class ground-floor shops.

Poverty and affluence coexist: not in separate zones, but haphazardly heaped together in a beautiful, jumbled urban sprawl along Mozambique's southern Indian Ocean coastline.

It's crowded spiritually, too. Churches work in a space increasingly encroached upon by Islam and various traditional religions. The Muslims are aggressively proselytizing and taking over business interests, while traditional belief systems remain entrenched and undetected.

Pastor Henrique Sitoi is a former political activist. During an eight-year prison sentence following the war, Henrique found Christ by reading Gideon Bibles. His fellow inmates started calling him "Pastor" as more and more of them came to Christ. After his sentence, Henrique studied theology in Johannesburg before returning to Maputo with a heart for Mozambique.

It is with Pastor Henrique's network of churches that we minister in Mozambique. He led most of the pastors and leaders to Christ as children in a dual-purpose English class he started. They learned English, and they found Christ. The pastors and their wives were on the edge of their seats the entire week, taking notes, leaning forward, standing up for prayer.

Many of them had never heard that God is first a Father, who wants what's best for them. They were relating to Him as a King or Judge. There was an incredible tenderness as the Father ministered His love to these leaders, whom He sees not as workers or servants but as His children.

There was also practical ministry. They learned the basics of how to maintain and balance finances for the church, in the interest of good stewardship and accountability. They learned that churches should compensate vocational pastors: many pastors have been working full-time in their churches with no salary at all! The earnest in their faces was precious as they realized that one leader had served them for twenty years, without ever receiving a cent.

Couples were ministered to, and some leaders were counseled one-on-one.

It was a fast-paced and beautiful week. Our friends Waldir and Deomilia da Silva, Portuguese-speaking pastors from Pretoria and long-time friends of Pastor Henrique, led the week and facilitated the counseling times. I'm so grateful to have been a part of it: ministering on the Father-heart of God and doing some much-needed computer repair for Pastor Henrique.

We plan to continue training the pastors and leaders in Maputo with one or two more visits in 2018. I am already looking forward!

​As missionaries to Southern Africa, our sending team makes everything we get to do possible. We are so very grateful. Thank you to everyone who continues to make this incredible journey possible.

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Ps Henrique's church, from the street

Inside Ps Henrique's church

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Ps Henrique "went live" with me from outside his home in Maputo!