The main focus over the past six months has been to feed the hungry. With the support of donors they were able to buy bags of maize flour and distribute it to their people and the wider community. This prevented many people from dying of starvation. Several situations arose within the community that brought on the lack of food:
1) The government placed a fishing ban for six months due to over-fishing in the waters. This was devastating to the local economy.
2) There was a severe lack of rain and many of the local crops failed. This caused a serious shortage of food and finance.
3) The ongoing impact of COVID-19 has limited the amount of movement and local trading. This has severely affected access to essential foodstuffs and household requirements. This is finally lifting as the effects of the pandemic are waning.
With children being allowed to slowly return to school in the past couple of months, the literacy teachers (MOZ04a) have also been able to become active again. This has been very encouraging for both the teachers and the children.
There is continued growth in many of the churches. One church plant that started a few years ago through a healing miracle has grown from 10 people to over 100. The main centre has doubled in the numbers of people coming each week to over 250. Many Muslims are coming to Jesus through these challenging times.
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Agirati (woman with the grey top) is one of the literacy teachers. She was sent to a Foundations for Farming course in Nampula to help her grow food and feed her family. She has the potential to become a trainer in the community in the future.
For many years she was in a terrible marriage with a man who would cheat on her and beat her after drinking alcohol. Recently he divorced her. This has meant that she is safe from him but in a more vulnerable position at the same time with no covering, protection or a bread winner.
It is great to be able to empower a single mum with four children like Agirati to farm and teach and earn a living. She is so encouraged and her self-confidence has grown greatly. She is a stand-out believer and over many years has led many women to Jesus.
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In the month of May 2021, a lady came to the TyH center asking for prayer for her 20 year old son. He had contracted cerebral malaria 5 years ago and had completely lost his mind. He was raving mad. He had been 7 months in a mental hospital in Nampula and lots of witchcraft did not help. He disappeared for a while and was found living in the street; back home he was always talking to himself, laughing and would take off outside at night.
His hard-core Muslim mum heard that when the TyH believers prayed that people get healed. She invited the team to her house and Talsamo and the team went and prayed. The next day when they returned the mum said he slept through the night for the first time since he got sick. They kept visiting and praying and within a few days he was in his normal mind and talking. He has declared that his new name is Ernesto and he wants to go back to school. He is a new man! He and his mum came to worship for the first time in late May and the team continues visiting and caring for them.
There are two major impacts of COVID on the ministry. It has caused food prices to sky-rocket to the point where many people just cannot afford basic foodstuffs. It has also meant that meetings, both large and small have been affected and restricted.
However, due to having a large community centre, meetings have been allowed to continue with social distancing and the wearing of a mask. Actually, more meetings have been organised to cater for the people and their needs for both the Christian community and the wider community as well. This has created a lot of goodwill in the community and from the leaders of the community.
The literacy programmes were affected for a period, about 9 months, but they are now up and running again and between 800 and 1,000 children have all come back to classes. In fact, more are wanting to join. The schools are now functioning again and the majority of those in the tutoring classes have returned with much more enthusiasm than the other children and, because they have been continuing to read at home throughout the lockdown, they have gone further ahead in the classes. The schools are very complimentary of the programme.
There are always new things being dreamed about and worked on.
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The one taking most energy at the moment is the continued development of the football academy. They have been able to purchase land across the road from the Centre for the purpose of developing this academy. They are about 50% of the way through this project and are excited about it's potential in the community.
They are developing the Foundations for Farming project and hope to purchase land adjacent to the Centre to establish this as a production and training unit.
They are planning to establish a distribution programme of Koti Bibles and food.
There is a lot of unrest in the north of Mozambique through the ativities of violent Muslim militia groups. Many people are fleeing south and they are finding a need to care for some of those refugees, mainly Mwani people.
There are two major issues: the ongoing shortage of food and the ongoing residual affect of COVID. It has pushed more people below the poverty line, some of whom had come out of poverty. This has put back development by many years and continues to require emergency intervention.
1) That Ernesto will continue his recovery and become a wonderful servant of the Lord and a testimony to God's transforming power.
2) That Agirati will be kept safe from harm and continue to be a wonderful witness and lead many more people to Jesus.
3) For those who have returned from the Foundations for Farming course that they will be faithful with what they have learned to put their knowledge into action.
4) That TyH would get a good deal for the purchase of some land adjacent to their main Centre on which to grow food and establish a model farm.
5) For good discipleship to happen with the new people who are coming to Christ.
1) Recently the TyH church had the celebration of the Koti Bible which has been printed and distributed. This was 20 years in the making and life changing for the community to be able to read the Word in their own language.
2) After a three year journey of being messed around with many government officials, the TyH church is now an official organization registered in the capital city and signed off by the President of Mozambique. This is a huge miracle and one of the reasons why during COVID the church could continue to operate.
This continues to be a standout partnership. The people on the ground are proving themselves to be very mature and have taken up leadership and development very well after a couple of rough years. They have a strong commitment to growing the church in discipleship, a hallmark of this group. This is producing healthy churches which in turn is seeing them have an impact in their local communities. They are aware of the needs and opportunities around them and do not shy away from hard work. They are flexing around the circumstances and working on the short term needs (COVID relief) when required without losing focus on the long term (training in Foundations for Farming and the production of the Koti Bible).
It is very impressive and a great model of partnership.