General News

We had a good time on Saturday afternoon, when Armindo and I slotted in one of our increasingly popular leadership training sessions. We again had 60 to 70 people turn out, some of them coming in from Massinga and Malova by mini bus.
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As they walk from the bus drop-off point to the church in Maxixe, they sing loudly the whole way here. It's great to see and hear. They do a sort of shuffle along, in a half-walk, half-dance, kind of a way. They are not in a rush even though they are an hour late... this is Africa!
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We had a great time together, and everyone is so looking forward to times of training and teaching to be given by visiting teams, that will be coming out to help us next year.
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If you are reading this, and feel that you would like to come out to help to teach and train pastors and leaders, or get involved in working with the young people, or teaching the mothers, watch out for our calendar of events for 2009, which we will be publishing at the end of this year.
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Jocarne launched

We have pushed hard this last week to get the last of these few churches built and up and running. This church has been built mainly by twelve of the young people in Armindo´s church. Some of them came to Christ themselves through our outreaches and now have a heart for the work here. Having worked all day, they all came back at night to help with the set up and take down of our outreach event.
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I was surprised to find people from Matacalane there on the second night. They live 15 kilometres away and could hear our music from out there. 8 or 10 of them had walked three hours to come and join us! We had around 200 people coming out to see what was going on. They all love the "Jesus" DVD and quite a good number responded to the message preached.
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The local chiefs are delighted. It is important for us to have their approval. One of them strongly encouraged the local people to come and get involved . We opened the church on Sunday morning, and Ben is now leading this work here in Jocarne. Thank you for praying for us all. Keep going!
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Jocarne

Whilst Armindo and I were searching and praying about our last church plant in Jocarne just north of Maxixe, we were enquiring about the area, numbers of people living locally and what type of churches were already present in the area.
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Having gained some useful local infomation and chatted further, we were able to lead the three men that we were talking to, to Christ. All of them had a picture of Christ in brilliant light in front of them, as they opened their hearts, and received Him into their lives. One of them an ex- military man who fought in the Frelimo/Renarmo war has been very touched. He burnt the idols he owned, that he was trusting in, and God has been working powerfully in his life. He took it upon himself, to help us find a piece of land and is today helping us to build the church there.
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If you are praying for us back home, please do......we are doing our outreach nights on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday again this week, and open the new church on Sunday. Ben with be taking over the reigns of this church in Jocarne, so please pray for him.
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Reginaldo is out to Matacalane, today starting his new-believers course there, which he is so excited about.
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Numbers are growing slowly in each of our church plants, which is great, the church in Masinga that we planted last year is struggling a bit, so please pray for that situation. Numbers have dropped quite a lot for some reason, so we are trying to find out why, and how we can help.

Thank you so much, for praying for us. I have not been able to put any photos on recently, as the internet connection is so slow here in Moz, please look out in the next few weeks. I have some great pictures of Matacalane and the children at the orphanage and will be uploading them early in December when I get to South Africa.
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Bless you. Pete and Armindo and team.
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News from the orphanage

Things are moving forward nicely at the orphanage in Malavela this week. The local builders are in, refurbishing two old buildings which were still structuraly sound, into a kitchen and laundry. They have also demolished the old toilet and shower block, which was starting to fall down, and was infested with rats. They will be putting up a new toilet and shower block this coming week.
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It's so encouraging to hear of funds coming in back at home; recent gifts of money have allowed us to get on with these pressing projects.

The kids are doing tremendously well, and they are growing fast. The new ones have settled in nicely. Joanna, one of the carers, told me that the smallest of our new arrivals, Celesta, one of our twins, passed 24 worms once she had taken the worming medicine! No wonder she couldn't stop eating or put on any weight. Her stomach was swollen with the worms. Now her little face is starting to fill out; her little arms and legs which were hardly as thick as my fingers, when we brought her into the orphanage are now filling out nicely.
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She is a little treasure that we have snatched from the jaws of death, and we love her, just as we love all the other children here. Each one of them has a tragic, heart-wrenching story behind them, and as we see them grow and start to develop, it spurs us on to reach out, and help to see more children saved.
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Thank you again for praying for us, and for supporting us financially. We can only continue to do our work here at the orphanage through your support from back home, it's absolutely vital to us.
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MATACALANE UP AND RUNNING

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We have had a few trials this week, but otherwise all has gone really well! Poor Delfina got bitten twice by a snake on Tuesday afternoon.
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We had a huge downpour on Friday evening, so no meeting, but Saturday was fantastic, with around 250 adults and children coming to see the Jesus film. They loved it. We preached the parable of the sower, which spoke directly to these simple farming people. Almost the whole crowd made a response to the message. The presence of God touching many people was great to see.
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One lady was healed of a back problem as she received prayer. Then came the celebrating. The people danced as Filimon lead the people in worship, they danced and danced and would not go home. I eventually got to bed at 1.30 am only to be rudely awoken by my alarm clock a few hours later.

We were upon our way back out along the dusty rutted track to Matacalane, for our first Sunday morning service in the new church and it was great with around 90 adults and children. The two local chiefs came too. We sang, we danced, we preached, and we prayed. Then we had lunch cooked in four enormous pots over the fire.

Reginaldo and his wife will now be leading the church here, which has generously been funded and supported by the Foundry Church at Widnes. They have also blessed us with a fantastic trailer which can be seen on some of our photos, which will be displayed here soon. Please continue to pray for the work here. We have done all we can to give our new church plant it's best possible start.
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Thank you so much for partnering with us in this exciting work, meanwhile Armindo and I are seeing the local chief at Jocarne this afternoon, where we will be building our last church for this year.
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Matacalane

The power has been off, the internet connection is weak, the computer is caput... That's Africa!!! You either love it or you hate it. The wet season has begun, we are sweating cobs.... high temperatures and high humidy, when it rains here it rains!!!
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Rats, moquitoes, snakes, scorpions, bugs the size of houses, unexploded mines, disease and sickness! And robbers! I ask myself why I love this country so much? Maybe it's because it's not difficult to make a difference in the peoples lives, who have suffered so much out here, in one of the poorest countries in Africa. Welcome to Mozambique!!!
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You have to laugh! At 4 pm yesterday we are driving slowly along the dirt track, in the Land Rover, towards our new church at Matacalane, announcing the first of our four nights of outreach. The headights are on full, the hazzards are flashing, the sound system in the Land Rover is on max. playing the favourite local Christian track over and over. The car is rocking, the front doors are wide open to let the sound out. Several people are dancing to the music, on the roof of the trailer. The girls in the back are waving to the locals, who are waving madly back at us! Armindo is on the bonnet with the megaphone, encouraging people to come along later in the evening. Everyone is loving it!
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We arrive at our new church which stands proudly waiting for us, with some trepidation as to what the night might bring! We are in the middle of nowhere. As usual before a first night our thoughts race.What if no body comes? This could be a disaster! Why have we put the church here? Satan loves to bring doubt and fear. But that's not faith. We believe we have put this church in the right place.
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We hope, we pray. We set up the equipment. An hour or so later it's already nearly dark, then a big blow..! The generator won't start..! Stay calm..! Don't stress..! Trust God..! Maybe the fuel is not getting through yet. People have started to arrive and then, eventually, we get it going! Relief! The lights go on, suddenly illuminating the whole area.We put on our favorite track, before Filimon comes to play. The sound goes out far into the surrounding area, through the powerful sound system.
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More people arrive, they are steadily trickling in, soon it's time to start the video. Armindo introduces the evening and enthuses about the Jesus DVD. Now another blow, the DVD won't work!!! Nor will our spare one that I brought out as a back up. Big sighs. Pressure is on now.Try and stay calm.We are all busy praying. Then suddenly we have a picture on the big screen and we are off. More people arrive, there are now 150 to 200 people here, we are all delighted with the turn out on the first night.
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Surely nothing else could go wrong now? We settle down to watch the DVD, based on the Life of Christ, taken from the book of Mark. The people are transfixed. Then some shouts go up at the front of the crowd. The girls start screaming. It's a snake. Just what we need now, another distraction.We had already killed several scorpions, which love to come out in the evening.
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I quickly grab the nearest thing I could find, which happened to be the high-lift jack for the Land Rover, and much to everyone's delight killed the snake and threw it on the fire. It seemed ironic that the images Jesus used as examples of the power he was giving us over Satan, found in Luke 10:19 were the same things we were seeing in the natural, at the start of our outreach. "Behold I give you power to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the devil and nothing will by any means harm you. "
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During these outreaches we see quite a number of people set free from evil spirits. The spiritual realm is very real to everyone out here. Curses are placed on people by the witch-doctors with terrible results.Their drums are regularly heard beating through the night. Evil spirits leave sometimes with loud shrieks and often result in the person or child being healed of some disease or sickness as they are set free. Satan's power is no match for the power we are given as believers, in the name of Jesus!
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The rest of our evening goes smoothly. Armindo and I preach, and as usual men,women and children pray... some for the first time...acknowledging their need for a saviour. The sweet presence of the Holy Spirit touches people's lives. They are eager to come back the following evening. The Holy spirit will soften the ground in their hearts again, as His transforming Word goes out to a people He loves so much, and for whom He died, that they may find life, and life in all its fullness.
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Thank you for joining us in praying for this rewarding work, we will be continuing our evening meetings until Saturday night, and open the church on Sunday morning.
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Matacalane

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Committing the start of this church plant to God.
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Day three and every one has worked incredibly hard.
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It's not fancy, but its practical, a tin roof, lots of ventilation and an earth floor.
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We have just finished building the church at Matacalane. It's in a very rural area and we are all very excited about our next few weeks. Whilst looking for the right area to build our next church, we came across a group of Christians whose pastor had died some time ago, from an Assembly of God church, and they no longer had anyone to lead them.
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They had a piece of land but no funds to build a church . We had a pastor and some funds to build with, but no land ....having spent some time chatting and praying with the group of Christians, and several meetings with the local chiefs, it seemed good for all of us to work together. . There was no church in the vicinity, and although it appears to be extremely remote, there is a large school and upwards of 1,000 people living locally!
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On Wednesday 12th-15th Nov. we are starting the first of our outreaches here. Reginaldo is a very humble and godly young man. He and his wife are very excited about the opportunity to pastor this church.
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Please pray for us as we get started this week. The church will be opened on Sunday 16th Novenber 2008.
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Rosa.

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Meet Rosa. The resturant owner's daughter Sadya, in Xaixai, introduced me to Rosa, a pretty girl who had become friends with Sadya a few months ago., it may surprise you to hear she cannot read or write. Her Mother tragically died when she was three years old.

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In the last few months her Father has kicked her out of her home, and now she is left to fend for herself. Desperate, hungry and vunerable, she now has no home, and sleeps where she can. The only way she can feed herself is to sell her body, to whoever will give her enough money to put food in her stomach for the next day.

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It's the same tragic story all over Africa!

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I feel gutted for her, and pass my plate of food over to her, she eagerly wolfs it down...the three of us pray and ask God to get involved . The tears begin to flow and I sense the compassion and love of God flowing out to this broken woman. I give her a small amount of money, enough for her to feed herself and help get her through the week.

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Armindo and his wife have invited her to come back up to Maxixe with us at the end of this week, to live with them...it's her only hope of ever getting out of this rut. If she is not already HIV positive now she soon will be, unless some radical steps are taken!

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This is one of the projects we will be starting at the orphanage next year at Malavela, to help the likes of Rosa come out of prostitution and find healing and purpose in life.

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Meanwhile this girl needs our help now! Rosa needs to move out of this area, but she's afraid. If she will come up to Maxixe for a week into a warm and loving family enviroment the chances are she might stay. Please pray for her, you can make a difference to the circumstances that surround her life, as you pray for her.

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We cannot meet everyones needs out here in Africa, but we can make the world of difference for those that God does bring across our path, and whose hearts are open to allow Him to touch them and change them, as only He can!

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