Dear reader,
The word ”Ebenezer” means ”thus far the Lord has helped us”. We often feel this way that after 28 years the work of Mosaic is running well with over 50 Mozambicans involved, running the ministry, bringing education, support, meals and of course the Gospel to hundreds of people on a daily basis. We love the ministry and all of it has its foundation in prayer when in 2004/2005 we spent all day, every day in the House of Prayer to seek God for direction and praying for the people of Mozambique. The fruit of those prayers are shown today in the ministry called Mosaic which covers a Children’s center, a Primary School, a Bible school, a Center for Handicapped and a prison ministry with a clinic. God is so faithful!
On the first of June we had Children’s day and we almost had no celebrations as the monthly financial transfer was held up in the Bank in Maputo! Because of all the terrorism in the North of Mozambique they are very aware of finance coming from abroad. We had to send every detail of our organisation Mosaic to get the finance released. Just in time for the celebrations at the primary school and for the children’s center. Children in Mozambique do not have birthday celebrations but once a year on the first of June there is a national children’s day with presents, special meals and lots of games! We were so pleased when the finance came through just a day before. Thank you Lord for the blessing upon the children!
Over the last year at the Center for the handicapped, the group of orphans coming for a little help has increased, they are children left on the street by themselves or brought in by families. The center gives them food and started a class to give them attention to eventually get them in Primary school. Even on Children’s day they were made special with a lunch.
We work together with Social Service to try to find out about the stories behind these kids and how we can get them settled into a family or being taken to a proper Children’s center. Please pray for this process as it all comes down to poverty; it is another mouth to feed which people find hard to manage.
This month of June the Bible school will have several teams go out into the communities all over Mozambique, to help and support and to bring the Gospel! Please pray for the teams, may God lead and direct them to the people open for the Gospel. May they show Jesus’ love by helping local people on the fields and in their homes and share this love with His Word. May they bear fruit, much fruit!
April 2023
Greetings from a warm Africa. We love the Easter season, a time of new life and spiritual renewing. The Jews celebrate the freedom from slavery in Egypt, we Christians celebrate the liberation of sin through the work of Jesus Christ, being crucified, died and rose from the dead. As prophesied by the prophet Isaiah, 500 years before it actually happened:
Isaiah 53v5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities,
and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.
6 All we, like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, each of us, to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
In Mozambique Easter time is celebrated and even very respected in secular society as Good Friday has become a national holiday. We teach our pupils the Easter message in the Primary school and the Bible school students go to the prison and share communion with the believers. The churches have Baptismal services early Sunday morning and so for many, it is a highlight of the year.
The Prison ministry, since the beginning of the year, has done very well with weekly bible studies and sharing a lunch. We have been going to the prison since 2001 and built a clinic for the about 100 to150 prisoners who are all together in a small room. If one gets sick, most of them will get it too and some years ago we witnessed a prisoner die while we were there,we were unable to do anything! We felt to start the discussion with the government and agreed to build a clinic as the hospital would send in two nurses on a daily basis to treat the prisoners. And so it happened and we opened the clinic in the presence of government officials, which has been operating ever since. Pray for this ministry: people in the depth of their difficulty, are open for the Gospel and many get saved in prison!
A few weeks ago the rainy season began and Cyclone Freddy passed two times, with the second visit leaving villages destroyed. At Mosaic, the Prayer house at the children’s center was damaged and some trees had fallen over which was dealt with the same week. As well the water pump at the Primary school was hit and destroyed by the heavy storm. The people in the village had more damage to their houses, not as bad as cyclone Idai, a few years ago which wiped the whole village away but now roofs were blown off and the hard rain (200ml a night) melted the mud walls.(see pictures above)
But life goes on and Mozambican people are resilient, many have gone through hardships in life and the next day they gather and move on with life. That’s why we have compassion on them, they suffer so much, but they come out strong. The Bible school students take it as an outreach to go out and help rebuild their lives, they minister in circumstances and places and show the love of Jesus. We started the year with lots of interest at the Bible school and so the different locations are full. We started a new course for pastors on Saturdays, ”Doing the Alpha course in church” as I translated the course and made it applicable for the Mozambicans. We have done Alpha many years and love it as it clearly explains the how and why of the Gospel and it brings people to faith. Pray that the course will bear much fruit, all through Mozambique.
Pray for the Mosaic leaders and teams: Arone and Merita for the Primary School, Serra and Sarah for the Bible School, Danito and Zefa for the Children’s center, Manuel for the Center of the disabled and Manuel Mastarde as director of Mosaic Mozambique
June 2021
Greetings from a cool southern Africa; winter has come upon us, though our cold temperatures are probably warm to you! Of all places, we feel most at home in Mozambique, but to date our permanent residency still hasn’t come through, so we had to move to South Africa to wait for bureaucratic process to run its course, prayers appreciated!
We have been excited that most Mosaic projects and activities are operating again. For the center of the handicapped it is most important because the people with a disability have suffered especially during the COVID lockdown. On a visit we met a group of new people who struggle to cope with life because of their disability, either the deaf or the blind or like the young boy on the picture who lost his leg when hand grenade blew up. Last year November, he and his four friends were playing in the bush when they found this metal round object. They were intrigued and took it home, putting it next to the fire where his mum was cooking. They played ball with this object throwing it over the fire and when it fell into the fire it exploded, killing three of them and maiming the two who survived. Mateo came with his mum to the center to tell his story and asked for help in any way. He told us sadly, that he will never play soccer again nor be able to run freely. He has to practice using the crutches he received. The team from the center would help him get back to school and his studies could make a difference to his life. Having the center is so encouraging, to have a team looking after the most vulnerable in the area. Joao, the leader and coordinator of the center was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Please pray for him earnestly to be healed! He just continues working and is full of zeal for the work of the center, but we would like to see him coming through in Jesus name!
At the children center we have a privileged position as we do not take full responsibility for the daily running any more. Danito and Zefa are doing a great job, spending enough time with the youth to have input in their lives. We have been running the Alpha course every Sunday which brought a deep interest in God’s destiny for each one. Many discussions came forth in seeking what God has for them. Sarah has been doing Sunday school with the small boys as they do need as much input as possible. Pray for the small boys to come through since having no parents is a big hurt in life which if unchanged can also damage their futures. Only God can fill and heal the hurting soul. Pray for a boy called Nori who has TB in his bones, with no prospect of getting better, only increasing pain, we need a miracle!
The Bible school is working hard and shining! We have just under a thousand students and so to produce the materials is a full time job. We have three manuals and they are copied and issued per chapter so by the end of the year they have the book! At the moment we are busy making a daily devotional of the Bible in one year, a summary of readings for every day. This will be in Portuguese to stimulate the students in reading the whole Bible in their devotional time.
And so Mosaic continues to shine in different areas. The leaders come together on a monthly basis to develop the plans for the month ahead. Pray for Mosaic to be established and bear fruit for the Kingdom of God! May every tongue, tribe and nation proclaim that Jesus is Lord, and Mozambicans will be there proclaiming, ”Jesus e o Senhor!”
April, 2021
As the world is in turmoil over Corona and as well Mozambique has a small number infected and is in State of Emergency. But to put it in perspective, malaria kills 400.000 people a year in Africa, Sarah just had it and has recovered. Africa has it’s own challenges and this virus is not what we need on top of all the diseases we have in Mozambique. We pray for protection of the people as an outbreak here would be disastrous as people live on top of one another and so it would spread fast.
We have spent the last two months in Mozambique, are in South-Africa now and hope to travel back next month again for a longer period. Ebenhaezer is the word we would like to use, ”till here the Lord has helped us”! In all the different Mosaic ministries we are encouraged to see Mozambicans taking responsibility and flourishing. In South-Africa the forming of a Bible school is in process. We only want to say Ebenhaezer, to God be all the glory!
Let’s start this update with an amazing testimony, the opening of the Bible school in Gorongosa, 150 km from our main Mosaic center. For many years this place was a high place for witchcraft as it is a central highway in the country of Mozambique. In 2001, a team went up the mountain and we stayed three days in a cave to pray and fast for Gorongosa and Mozambique. Almost 20 years later most witch doctors have disappeared and many churches have sprung up. But even more amazing the opening of a Center for Bible study with a full time and part time (Saturdays) Bible school opening on the foot of the mountain. Teachers from our Mosaic Bible school come out for a week at the time to teach pastors and students. On the picture below, one of the pastors who climbed the mountain with us, we met there again and is now in the Bible school. Note: because of bad roads, you can only reach the place by motorbike at the moment so it felt a real adventure getting there. The Bible school is now operating in nine different locations with just under a thousand students. Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to work through the study of the Word!
At the Primary School we had the official opening of the year with a special occasion: the opening of the school library. Books are still limited as it is difficult to get Portuguese books but we hope to build the collection through the year. We would like to add I-pads and internet for the older kids to get connected to the world! A library was on the list of government conditions to run a private school. Not that any government school has a library but it is a good addition. The teachers have updated their certificates and a three-yearly seminar has been given to update the teachers on new government regulations. Our Christian Primary School has over 700 pupils which is a testimony for the community we serve, the Gospel is preached freely and on a daily basis. Pray we will stand in an anti-Christian society!
One of the objectives to be a at the Children center was to give a break to the leaders, Danito and Zefa. The beginning of the year is busy as some kids need to go to Secondary school, some to University and because of experience we good help organising getting everybody in the right place. God has a plan and purpose for each individual and we, with God’s guidance, work on helping the kids coming into their purpose. A second job we wanted to get done was the renovation of our house as it had been seriously damaged by the cyclone Idai. After fixing the roof and painting the rooms we felt we didn’t need such a big house but it would be perfect for the small boys and their carer to live. They were so excited to move in and we made it a festa with cakes and popcorn! We ourselves had already moved into the guesthouse next door which has two bedrooms.
Visiting the Center for the Handicapped is always a joy, when they go into their small groups and are being taught by the discipleship school students. In the center this group of people gets a place in society, are being told they are precious and God loves them! We have been concerned for the mentally handicapped people as they are not being cared for and the people who do care for them are burdened. Some years ago we had a plan to build an extension to start caring for this group. The foundation is there and maybe this year we will be able to finish the housing. Pray with us to see this vision completed as we believe God cares for least loved in society.
The coming weeks we will be working in Maubane, South-Africa and see how the Bible school can come to pass. Pray for Gladys who will be heading the school as leader. She herself has done Rhema Bibles school many years ago and has the vision to bring the Word to the poorest Townships. Beginning of April we hope to be back in Mozambique and do a leaders conference for Easter if travel is still allowed…
Mosaic-Mozambique goes on developing and building and we feel comfortable working between two nations as we have good co-workers! Above all our Co-worker the Holy Spirit leads the way and makes us go aside for Him to do a work we can not do! Therefore all glory to Him, the perfecter of our faith!
In this world in turmoil may His peace and joy stay strong in you and as He is the unshakable Rock we stand on!