ECC In Mozambique

Hello Everyone,

God is good! The ECC ministry in Mozambique has been richly blessed this year. These are some of the annual statistics for MZ this past calendar year.



Number of Decisions to accept Christ 2031

Number of Baptisms 57

Total Number of distinct people in structured discipleship training * 143

Total Number of distinct people in a program of leadership training * 81

Number of people attending main
Service each week ** 2591
Number of extensions, cells, house churches, VCP
Or daughter churches started this year
(Worshiping groups) 26


I received the annual statistics for ECC worldwide yesterday and here is a little look at the ministry,

“ECC continued to see significant growth in the number of decisions for Christ, baptisms and churches planted in 2006. To God be all the glory. Here is a brief report of last year’s results.


Decisions for Christ
Baptisms Participants in Discipleship Training Participants in Lay Leadership Training
Churches Established
142,112 29,973 10,385 6,076 737

The continued training and deployment of Church Multiplication Teams around the world has led to a 37% annual increase in decisions for Christ, a 39% increase in the number of baptisms and a 71% increase in the number of churches established. God is good and He is answering our prayers.”

I have been traveling a lot lately in efforts to start new work in other provinces, increase involvement in some areas we currently have ministries, and new areas in provinces we currently have work.

In upper Zambezia one of our Brothers from Maputo has moved both him and his family to Gurue to further the ongoing work in Gurue and the surrounding districts. Nelsen has been a church planter and now will be training others to plant churches. Nelsen moved in January with his wife (Felizmina) and son that had never traveled that far north in MZ. They are ministering in a new language and culture. Please be praying for them in these beginning months of this new ministry. Our vision is to initiate 20 new churches in this province this year, please pray.

Nampula Province is a new area of ministry we have been praying for God to open a way to this new work. At this time we believe that God has called two trainers to leave Maputo for this province. Please be praying for the leading of this ministry. Our vision is to initiate 15 new churches this next year, please pray for the assimilation for the trainers to another culture and for communication, as they will be working in another local language then their own.

Inhambane Province is a province that we started work in about one year ago. We are going to strengthen this work and hold pastoral training seminars open to the churches in the Panda district. This is the same training ministry we currently have, but we are widening the scope and depth of the trainings. Please pray for the African Independent Churches we are partnering with.

Maputo Province is of course the oldest work OMS has in MZ. We pray that we can initiate 25 new churches in new areas of Maputo Province.

Each one of the new believes and new leaders represent discipleship and pastoral training. This is at the heart of the ECC work. By working in partnership with the Nazarene Church we will be starting distance-learning course that will lead to the ordination of the pastors. This Saturday we will start the first course with 10 students and we pray that in four months we will be starting our second course with another 25. As I sit here and think back over the past few months, it is amazing to see the hand of God.

We thank you for all your love and support.

In Christ,
Nathan

The Baby is coming out

You think the title is a joke but really that is what happens. When babies are born here in Mozambique the Mother and the baby stay in the house for 1 month to keep the baby from getting sick and then they have a coming out party. With lots of singing, dancing and throwing the baby around. We have had 3 couples in the church that have had babies in the last month and a half. Last Saturday Nate and I along with two new missionaries got to experience this party for Juka and Elenas baby. We came a little late due to the new missionaries that flew in that day. When we arrived the baby was already being danced around. Normally they toss the baby up in the air(much higher then I am comfortable with) and then hand the baby to someone else and it goes on from person to person. Well one older lady thought she would add some excitement to the day and threw the baby up in the air only to catch her by her ankle, and everyone gasped. She then hung on to her ankle and like a windmill circled her arm. She decided that the toss wasnt enough and she pretended to drop her and caught her arm. As we watched the babys head and body jerk we thought, can this be a good thing? The grandma of the baby quickly grabbed the baby and held on to her tightly until the older lady sat down. Everyone then laughed and thought it was funny. The reason they do this is to scare the fear out of the baby, so she can be strong and healthy when she leaves the house. I am not sure if this works. They also have a little time to share and one of the major topics from the families was how long they should wait to have another baby. They even voted on it, making it 1 yr 6 mo before they could have another baby. We will have two more of these ceremonies in the next little bit and will let you know how they go. Below is a photo of the baby, Milca Mabel, the day of her coming out.