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Mozambique – Sep/Oct 2009 – Danny & Lindy Ministry

Events  /  Mozambique – Sep/Oct 2009 – Danny & Lindy Ministry

Danny and Lindy spent about a month in Mozambique during September and October 2009, before the team from Mississippi arrived. This is a report of many of the things that God did during that time. The time with the Mississippi team is not included here as it is reported separately. Also not included in this report is the month that Danny spent there with the African team after the Mississippi team left, which included the Foursquare Pastors Licensing Course.

This part of the Mozambique trip with both Danny and Lindy here was very fruitful with more than 2,000 salvations in eleven outreaches. Three pastor seminars were conducted in Estima, Mutarara and Manduwa, with 387 pastors attending and getting ready to continue spreading the Word though the land.  During this part of the trip we bought a church building for the use of one of the local churches, and dedicated another church building built by the the congregation.  We took part in a wedding.  And there was a steady stream of ministry to people needing prayer at the mission base.

 
 

 Most of this report is comprised of parts of emails sent from the field during the journey. 

 

Danny arrival and catching up with Mozambique news

Wanted to let you know that Lindy and I arrived safely in Mozambique this last evening.  We praise the Lord not only for the safe air and road travel, but also that on-route to Africa we were able to briefly see our 3 of our 5 children during intentionally long layovers in New York and London.  That, plus now getting together with our African family again after nearly half a year, all very emotional. 

 
And on top of that today is Lindy’s 60th birthday.  Many of you know that we had an early party for her a couple of weeks before leaving for here.  But only a few of you know that before the birthday we did not even have enough funds to feed ourselves during our stay in Africa, and we knew in faith that God would provide everything necessary to do what He wanted done.  I’m excited to say that after the loving unselfish gifts at the birthday party, we are now able to carry out the formerly tentative plans to take the Gospel to Estima (about a 6 hour ride from the base), Mutarara (maybe a 10 hour ride from there), and then through the Lower Shire of Malawi (we have felt we needed to go there for soooo long).  Thank you to all of you who helped, and thank you Holy Spirit for inspiring them.  We plan to leave for Estima Sep 29th after a much needed week of preparation, review of the BibleSchool progress. review of fund-raising  businesses, etc.  Please join us in prayer that Brazilian evangelist Jean Marc and friends are able to join us later in October, and that together we are able to also carry out the still tentative plans to reach out to Macanga and Fingoe (long distances in the other direction) – they are in the process of raising funds for this. 
 
We had an interesting adventure when we landed in Malawi.  The airlines did a good job of delivering all our luggage including the 2 donated computers, 2 laptops, projector and a bunch of other stuff, and customs didn’t even bother us.  But once outside when we took everything to the car, we forgot one bag just left on a chair, and many of you know how things work in Africa.  Went back the next morning to find out that someone had turned in the bag to the police.  Not only was the bag there, but even though everything in the bag had obviously been moved, it was all there.  I find that totally amazing.
 
Twice on the way down to the Mozambique border at police checkpoints we were asked to provide some “help” for them (bribes).  It’s getting to be sort of fun that after I try to talk to them in my extremely rough Chichewa they give up and let us go.  Then getting through Immigration crossing over to Mozambique, we know one officer fairly well since years ago when we gave him a Bible.  Later he told us that he “has to be nice to us because we do the work of God”.  Then he went on to tell us that his wife has now joined our Bible School and his 13-year-old son keeps telling him that he desires to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to some day become a pastor.    
      
Just talking to our African family for a couple of hours after we arrived at the base and before bed last night, I can’t express how encouraged I feel of their growth and how things are going in Mozambique.  I felt like crying a few times during that reunion.  Here are just some highlights to give you an idea.
 
·    A few more new churches have been started.  I don’t know how many yet, but it’s exciting to see.
·    The Foursquare church at our mission base in Vila Ulongue is very actively helping the other new churches in the area, including the building and roofing of some.  Our whole team help to pastor that church.
·    Cesario is the young man on our team that we’re helping to get through the Mozambican equivalent of high school, he’s a senior now.  It is so good to see that he is still getting very good grades, and that he is still visiting the prison and the hospital every week.  But a couple of surprises: the first is that one of the new churches was not able to come up with a leader and Cesario is leading them until they can take over; the second is that even though it has been a challenge to bring the Gospel into the high school, Cesario has been asked to preach to the whole assembly two mornings per week right after the national anthem before they break up to their respective classes.  When he preaches in the church he seems to have the respect of the adults and even other pastors.
·    Moses and Gift who both got married since we last saw them seem to be ear-to-ear smiles.
·    Matthias, Moses and Gift are very busy teaching at the Bible School and their other preaching and pastoral responsibilities.
·    There still seems to be a steady flow of people staying temporarily at the base because they need prayer from the team.  The last one was a lady and her 16-year-old daughter who fainted at least once per day.  The team prayed for her when she came to the base and a day later when she did not faint they decided to keep her at the base until tomorrow.  But yesterday after 4 days of no fainting at all she claimed a total healing and went home early.
·    One of the ladies that attends our ministry services recently became aware of a 4-year-old girl who was limp and thought to be dying.  When she went to the house the family believed the child had died, with much mourning in the house.  She asked to take the child to her house to pray for her and was allowed.  A large group of people followed, some ridiculing her with the common “who do you think you are to think you can raise the dead?”, to which she answered that “they told me that the Holy Spirit can work through me, and I believe them”.  As she was praying for the child, she sat up and now looks healthy.  Praise our wonderful all-mighty God!!!  It’s stirring quite a buzz in that part of town, we’ll see what the Holy Spirit has in mind for that neighborhood.
·    Just today after Cesario visited the prison and the hospital, he saw a lady doubled over trying to walk with a cane.  He prayed for her and took her cane away – she could now stand straight with no pain.
 
 
We just celebrated Lindy’s birthday tonight, lots of people attended and it was tremendous fun.  First birthday party that I ever go to where Happy Birthday was sung in 8 different languages – English, Portuguese, Chichewa, Yungwe, Sena, Lomue, French and Spanish.  Nice surprise. 
 
Please also pray for the elections in Mozambique in late October.  They are heavy into campaigning now.  We were surprised when we drove in last night to see the President’s plane at the airport.  That airport is just a dirt runway with no building at all, and over the years we have been here I have never seen an airplane there.  I am not too comfortable that our cars are being borrowed by the government to take visitors back and forth, and we are advised that it would be extremely unwise to also help the opposition party.  We have seen violence in the past, so please pray, it’s a tricky situation.
 
Tomorrow we’re up at 5am to pray with the team and lots of the local church members.  We’re getting together for corporate prayer every day at 5am and 6pm.  So good night.
 
I’ll try to keep you updated as the Lord’s will unfolds during this journey.
All for Jesus,
              love,

                 Danny and Lindy

 

New church building in Moatize & Newly Dug Well in Chipanga

 



 
 
 
 

Soon after arriving, great news that allowed Wheresoever to buy a small church building in Moatize very near the capital city Tete.  It will be useful when/if the ministry base expands to Tete, and in the meantime it will be used to help other churches by providing a temporary place to meet.


This is from one of the emails on 9/26:

Hallelujah.  Donations have been made to cover the buying of that church building in Moatize.  There’s apparently enough land to build a little house for the pastor, and outside toilets too!  Believe it or not, we own it now.'

Danny also mentioned the many, many people coming from all around to receive prayer as well as some daily prayer gatherings that have started up two months ago.  People are coming to pray at 5am and 5pm every day, crying out to the Lord.  

Along with other things for even further praise is the success of the 3 wells that have been dug in Chisamba where the farm is - the chief in that village is very pleased about them, and the villagers have clean drinking water where the pond they were previously using is quite awful, in fact 'disgusting' according to Danny. See this picture of the Mississippi team later praying over this newly dug well.

 
 

Oct 6 Update - Traditional Dancers and Wedding

This is just a short note to share with you a little more of what God is doing here in Mozambique.  I don’t have any idea when you’ll get this because there’s no internet here in Estima where we arrived late last night.  We have now started a seminar for leaders (around 15 pastors and 38 other leaders), and tonight we will hold our first crusade here. 

We were busy celebrating after dedicating a new church building (entirely managed by the village and church members).  A group of “traditional dancers” came to disrupt our celebration, many were nervous about the possibility of violence breaking out.  Most of you probably know about these traditional dancers who practice ancestor worship and see themselves as animals, normally getting very upset if they are referred to as human beings.  I was surprised as they usually hide from us, it’s rare that we get a glimpse of them, and risky to take their pictures.  After a little while of tense discussion, and then not so tense, they all decided to invite Jesus into their lives !!!  Isn’t the Holy Spirit exciting?  One of them even came back to watch the Jesus Film when we showed it later that night.  Here are some pictures so you can visualize this better.
 
During that celebration, it was also nice to take part in the wedding of one of the church elders.  Weddings do not happen in villages like this, they refer to themselves as married when they start living together. But now that we have introduced them to the concept and invited all “married” couples to now get married before God, this couple with children is the first one, to be followed by many more.  Kenneth and I needed to temporarily give up our wedding rings until after they were married, of course in the village only our team had any rings. 
 
I hope this is not ancient history by the time you get it, I suspect it may be next Monday on our way to Mutarara through Tete.  Please keep praying for God’s will to be done here.  Also keep praying for the vehicles, as we were a day late starting this seminar because of one of the cars. Also pray for the team’s health and even their voices, with all this preaching, teaching, singing and translating, together with all the dust, some of the voices are getting strained.

 
Oct 10 Update - Seminars in Estima and Mutarara
 

 
 
 
The seminars in Estima and Mutarara have been effective, with a total of around 200
  pastors and leaders of local churches attending. We love to hear their testimonies, these people are being deeply touched by God. If I have time I’ll copy some of the testimonies down and let you read through.  A recurring comment seems to be that they “have been revived”, and that unlike other seminars they have attended, they have not just had head learning but have grown so much spiritually. During the seminar inEstima one man testified that his grown daughter that had been prayed for earlier by the team at the hospital was healed, she was so swollen up that she had not been able to go to the toilet for a long time. Matthias told me that a small child who was with his mother at the Mutarara seminar was healed of malaria during Lindy’s preaching. At one of the churches we attended on Sunday morning a man was instantly healed of diarrhea and was full of joy – it was funny as they were trying to communicate this to Lindy through mime. Long term diarrhea can be a sign of something so much more serious here. 

Testimonies from Mutarara

The following are testimonies from pastors and leaders who attended the Wheresoever seminar in Mutarara. Often at the end of a seminar, we ask for feedback from the students.  In this occasion, five persons came forward to share.

Note:  The language has been intentionally left as spoken and translated.

Man  – Thank God He has done great things on me.  I can see God speaking for my life.  These teachings are not them [the team] but God teaching us through them.  We were dead but now we have risen up.  God give them [the team] extra wisdom to come and teach us again. 

The women are behind, now they are rising up. I was a dead person and afraid of the witchcraft.  Now I know I am a child of God.  I cannot be afraid!


Woman – I am very blessed from yesterday up to today.  We came from far, we need to walk with the Power of the Word, because we weren’t doing anything.  When our friends touch us they will be blessed.


Woman – Thank God for allowing me to reach this day from Zambezia.  This is His secret of what He is doing to us.  From Angonia to my village I had pain in my heart, I think it was a demon.  I asked God to forgive me.  I wanted to go to Mutarara to hear the Word of God.  I needed help to carry my baby because of the pain – now I am healed.  What He is doing for me He will do for you.


Man – We are blessed in our hearts, we were not expecting to receive [the Word of God] like this.  My life and my friend’s life is changed.


Woman – I’m standing here to thank God for what He has done in our lives.  He has given us power, we were people astray.  I was backslid.  The Word of God has told me to ARISE.  The devil blinded us, we couldn’t go forward so we just do things we don’t know what.

We thank God.  Those that have forgotten God have now remembered this WORK FOR GOD. 

Reflections

♦  We have now agreed to hold another unplanned seminar near Chare, an area near Mutarara that is too far for many pastors to walk here (we do have some of the pastors here now and they stress the need). That is the area where many of the flood victims from two years ago are still living in the temporary camp shelters. This will squeeeeze our time in Malawi’s Lower Shire, but we all feel we need to do this.  

♦  Praise God that since we arrived in Mozambique this trip on Sept 19th, more than 1,400 persons have invited Jesus into their lives and hearts during the outreach activities at the mission base and the crusades in Estima and here in Mutarara.

♦  Another Praise Report. One of the more successful businessmen in Vila Ulongue, the small town where our mission base is, had been complaining about the noise that we make at the church services and prayer meetings because he has tenants near the mission base, and has threatened to have the government stop us. The side of his body was partly paralyzed and he complained of acute lower back pain. Moses could not join our team at the beginning in Estima because he had to arrange for the burning (baking?) of the building bricks that we are making to raise funds for the ministry. It turns out that this is the man that needed to arrange the carrying of all the firewood to burn the bricks, and after negotiation with Moses he agreed to do it. A little later Moses prayed for him – no more paralysis, no more pain – he said this God of ours is real, and that he and his whole household will follow Jesus and will attend our church, they need to learn more about God. Praise God, reminds me of    “…But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Jos 24:15.

♦  One of the churches that our team had started during a previous trip to Mutarara has had to close. A little tough to hear since it was one of the few Foursquare churches in the middle of town, but it turned out that they could not afford to rent a building in town. We will pray with the pastor today and talk about their options, please join us in that prayer.

♦  We have made some missionary friends in Vila, they were helping translate the Bible into Yungwe. They built a house in a small village in the mountains between Songo and Estima that they have not even been able to visit for over a year. The village only has a Jehova’s Witness church. I was very happy to hear that they want the house to be used for God’s purposes, they would be very happy if we could start another church there, and the pastor/leader could live in their house. Please pray for wisdom.
♦  Sadly our neighbor at the mission base died of malaria while we were in Estima. Please pray for her family.
♦  Pray for the Mozambique presidential elections on Oct 28th. There are three parties running, please pray for peaceful elections as in the past we have seen some violence although we do not see any evidence of that now, and also pray for continued favor from the government. A number of risky things have happened that we’re not comfortable with, but God has protected us – for example, the ruling party taking our car for a few days during the campaign and our bus one day, later accusations that we were collaborating with one of the opposition parties were proved false and our claims that we are not politically aligned came through. We’re being warned that we may need to change some of our plans on and near election day, I’m praying that we don’t need to (would affect Macanga outreach).
♦  There has been a lot of laughter in the team. For example, yesterday when our seemingly intelligent dinner for the seminar found a way to jump out of the car on the move through an open window. The goat escaped. A couple of hours later two of the local girls finally returned with it (I hope it was the same one).
Thank you and abundant blessings on you. We stand together as the body of Christ, each taking our part in the work of expanding the kingdom at this season. It is happening all around me and you, we just need to open our eyes to see the greatness of our Mighty Awesome God. Hallalujah!! He has risen and He is ALIVE.
 
Lindy Off to Other Missions
  

This is from one of Danny's emails soon after Lindy left. She had other places she needed to go:

Quick note just to let you know that Lindy took off from Malawi yesterday (Wednesday) and should be arriving in London in a couple of hours.  It was a bit difficult to leave her at the airport knowing I will next see her in a couple of months (after she goes to Cuba, Ecuador and Latvia), but as we keep saying, “All for Jesus”.