Report by BHW Field Director Following Visit 8-10th July

Recent Events

General

It is two years since we last visited Chrissy and Suzen. Since then there have been many developments. The church continues to grow. A number of more mature Christians have come which has helped with leadership. A number of young people are coming into leadership as well and contributing to the ministry. In general terms, Chrissy and Suzen are encouraged. The church building is slowly being developed and is much more useable than last time I was here.

Many people call Chrissy and Suzen’s place home, they feed at least 9 people every meal. People stay and we heard many stories from those who have been helped and blessed at their place. 

A number of people comment to them that their church is very different to other churches in the town. One reason is the fact that Chrissy has worked hard to develop relationships with people who own or manage businesses. When a business needs a new employee, they ring him to see if there are people in the church with the right skills for the job. Many people have obtained jobs this way, to the point where there are few unemployed people in the church.

They have a number of people involved in leadership teams and taking responsibility. Towards the end of this year they plan to start identifying elders and Chrissy would love to see a Mozambique person come into a full time role in the church. 

Their youngest son Luwi lives with them, he is 7. Also their eldest child Sonia and her 3 year old son (Tawanda) live with them. This adds to the costs as she is studying at the moment. It is a better environment for her and for the family although it costs a lot to have her here. She has to obtain a monthly visa (US$100) and has to leave the country every three months. 

In general, when compared to Zambia, Mozambique has much less Christian influence. The local people are considerably more superstitious and fearful. The Catholic Church has not helped at all with it’s syncretism and Islam does not help. Witchcraft and many horrific practices around marriage and coming of age initiations are still widely practiced. It is very difficult for a Mozambiquan to become a believer. This makes the work slow although they are seeing numerous breakthroughs among people from all types of backgrounds.  

Last Year

Continuing the building of the church has been a blessing because up until last year Chrissy felt like he was pushing this himself. However, the locals have told him that he doesn’t have to be involved in it any more. The ownership of the project by the congregation is a great encouragement. 

There are many small groups around the community now that are operating well. This involves a lot more people in groups and leaders are developing. 

They had an English tutoring programme running for a number of years. It had grown quite well but while they were in Zambia for two months from December last year, the guy in charge fell out with the students and closed it down. This has been a real disappointment to them. They are still not sure what to do with this, to try and restart or to just leave it. 

Pemba constantly becomes a more expensive place to live. Oil, gas and platinum have been discovered so the large companies are moving in. Some hotels are booked out for the next three years! This is putting a lot of pressure on rental accommodation and transport costs.  

New Leaders

Jose and Tania are an interesting young couple. Jose is becoming an outstanding person of influence. His family is Muslim and his father was quite wealthy owning many houses, properties, businesses and vehicles. When Jose was just a teenager his father died. He was the eldest in the family so inherited it all. He then started to live a crazy life-style and started selling everything. He now remains with just one small property and house. 

Jose came to Pemba in 2009 to look after a rental house that the tenants were leaving. Many people came to look at it and said they would come back, but they never did. Chrissy and Suzen came along and he rented it to them. He then went home to his wild life where he had a lot of money. He continued to sell off the properties to support his lifestyle and his family was very worried about him. 

Then his mother died and he started having dreams. His father began to appear, threatening him for selling the properties, and his mother intervened. He began to search for solutions and to go to witch doctors. His girlfriend left him and came to Pemba and after a while he came to find her. She had made contact with Chrissy and Suzen, was living beside them and had started going to church. 

They resolved their issues and returned home to the country but the dreams remained and he got back into drinking and visiting witchdoctors. They then returned to Pemba and his girlfriend insisted that he start coming to church. Soon after arriving he was at Chrissy and Suzen’s place and they prayed for him. They went home and that night he slept for the first time since his father’s death. Early the next morning he was back at their house asking what they had done to him. 

They explained about Isa (Jesus). Later he accepted Christ but continued with his wild life-style. However, Chrissy refused to give up on him and chased him until he gave up and decided to go back to church. One day in 2012 he had been drinking all day but couldn’t get drunk. It felt strange and he came to his senses realising that if he didn’t give up alcohol it would kill him. He prayed that God would change him as he was an alcoholic; he couldn’t live without beer. He lived in a community where everyone was a drunkard and he began to refuse to drink with them. Now even the smell makes him feel sick. 

He became a regular church attender. One day the man who was preaching talked about Bible School. He became interested and started talking about going to Bible School all the time with Chrissy. Eventually he went to OM in Mozambique.  He now looks back and realises that God had a plan way back when the people didn’t return to rent the house and Chrissy and Suzen ended up renting it. He is also very thankful to Chrissy for chasing after him and rescuing him.

He went back to his village and the family were surprised that he was still alive and that he had become a follower of Isa. They told him he had become a Christian because he had nothing else to do and that he was a loser. They rejected him. However, since that time the relationship has improved and now there is some respect restored even though he is still young.  

Jose met Tania at church and they married in January 2014 after he returned from OM. He now wants to go back north to plant a church amongst the Muslims. He is not expecting to have an easy time of being a Christian in a Muslim community and realises that he will have to become good at developing relationships with them. At the moment Tania has a job and her family will not allow them to leave Pemba and go north so they are stuck here at the moment. 

They like working with young people and Jose leads a Bible study with them. The older people at church like him and listen to him, he has a gift of speaking. His Muslim background has helped him to understand his culture and how people think. This will be a great benefit when he speaks to them about Isa. He sees his background as part of his preparation and training. When he goes to the field he would like to be self-sustaining and we discussed what that could look like. He has land available to him so farming/gardening could well be a useful tool.  

Personal Stories

Domingos

Domingos is a 16 year old young man with an infectious smile. He comes from a Moslem background and the story of his family is remarkable. His brother became a believer through Chrissy and Suzen. He then told Domingos about Isa and he rejected it. He was a pure and faithful Muslim he used to say. He went to the local madrassa and was very committed to Islam.

However his brother kept talking to him and this made him mad. What made it even worse was that his brother came back to the village and lived such a powerful life that he had to take notice. He wondered how come this infidel traitor could be so caring and loving. So, he came to Pemba to find the church that was teaching his brother. His sister warned him that he would be converted. He replied “if I find something so good then it is OK, I will accept it, if I do not find it then I will just leave!” He found it there and became a follower of Isa. Soon after that his sister did as well and now they all come to church. 

There has been such a powerful change in all their lives that the parents are very impressed and are happy for them to be Christians. 

Esperanza

Esperanza is just 14 years old and lives with Chrissy and Suzen. Her parents don’t really care for her or love her. She loves being in this house and thinks of them as her parents. Last year the time came for her to be initiated, a coming of age event that all boys and girls go through. Suzen questioned the father about why they would do this to their daughter and the father said, "well, it’s much better that she is living with you,” and walked away.

Initiation for girls in this culture is very traumatic. At that point, when the girl is 13, the father will not provide for the daughter any further and she has to commence contributing to the family income. This creates many problems for girls at that age and they become very vulnerable. 

However, Esperanza now has a safe home and family, gets to go to school and loves it. She seems to be a happy girl who doesn’t mind smiling. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Chrissy and Suzen receive numerous comments from people in the community. These are usually words of appreciation for the work they do amongst the families. Many young people have been caught and discipled before they went too far and the parents are thankful for that.

Chrissy has been asked to sit on a number of local boards, schools and council because of his influence in the community. There is a lot of respect here. 

The marriages of a number of young people has also had impact. It is almost unheard of for people here to get married. Their teaching and example is challenging social norms.

Ideas for the Future

There are a number of items looming for them. They are starting to think about the future of the church and whether or not it’s time, or when the right time is, to move on to something else. 

They are keen to stay as there are a number of young people emerging who want to go into church planting, especially amongst Muslims. We heard stories from a number of them and they are outstanding young people. 

Long term they want to develop an English school. They have some land but the way forward is still not clear. This would take a lot of resource and would require some strategic partners. FCE, a South African Christian Education NGO, is willing to get involved somehow. 

An income generation activity would be a great boost to the work here. At the moment nothing is very clear about what that could be.  

Current Issues and Challenges

1) The finances to be financially viable as missionaries here. It is a real concern and places huge pressure on them personally. 

2) Some difficult people in the church who should know better but they are causing numerous headaches – e.g. the English tutoring

3) They need a few more people who can take up decision making responsibilities. 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) The calibre of the young people that are being trained and developed
2) The growth of the church in both numbers and maturity. The development of the small groups is a great blessing.
3) Wisdom for Chrissy and Suzen as they lead the church here, think about the future and make decisions. 
4) A couple of weeks ago, without Chrissy and Suzen knowing, the church took up an offering for them and are going to do that regularly. It was said that this was a love gift because so many of them had been helped by them.

Comments

This is a great partnership. Chrissy and Suzen are consistent workers and are making a deep impact in the lives of some strategic people. It is worth continuing to have conversations with them regarding their plans and support. Somehow they need to be better supported. 

There are many factors contributing to this including:
1) This is an urban environment, not rural
2) They have many dependents, their own and numerous others, many of them are going to school
3) They go back to Zambia each year for the sake of the family
4) They have high costs for their dires (permission to stay in country) including for 7 year old Luwi. They have been here for 7 years so the cost of dires is going to remain for 3 more years until they are eligible to become residents 
5) They are not farmers or business people 
6) It’s an expensive place to live with tourism and the growth of the mining industries putting pressure on the local economy
7) A number of their young people go off to training and then want to be missionaries so this puts extra pressure on them to assist with support. There is some potential to train those who go into rural locations in Foundations for Farming