The Crys of Sweet Success

It's my final day in Mozambique. I have enjoyed my time staying with the Dedricks and have seen and heard their heart for the people of Mozambique. The work here is challenging and there are many struggles because of the lack of man power and also because of the extremely young church denomination here. Palavra Viva was officially registered as a church denomination only a few years ago and the leadership of the church is still very young and maturing. As such, there are growing pains that are to be expected but I believe God has great things in store for these churches. Last year alone, nearly 91 new churches were planted in Mozambique by the Palavra Viva denomination. In the northern regions of Mozambique, many people have been giving their lives to Christ and many new churches have been planted. These are the rural, unreached areas of Mozambique. Despite the difficulties the church faces here, God is still working through them.

Yesterday I attended church at Khongolote. I got off pretty easy there not having to speak but merely getting up front and shaking everybody's hand. It reminded me of being at a wedding reception, only it went much much faster and there was no crying involved on anybody's part. After church I spent some time video taping a group that meets regularly to pool there money together into a savings and then distributes loans among the group members. It's commonly know in the OMS circles as the Village Savings and Loan program (VSL). There have been a good number of sucess stories where people have been able to take a small loan to better their lives and then repay the loan to the group. This would be very difficult for the average Mozambican to do on his or her own.

Standing in church waiting for everyone to come through and shake my hand








The VSL group counts their money and keeps good records













Before leaving today, we stopped by the T-3 church which was restarting it's preschool program today...the first time in nearly two years that they've been allowed to have a preschool. At one time the preschool here was thriving but then the government came and shut them down. For two years now the church has been trying to meet the stringent requirements of the government and reopen. Today I got to witness the hard work payoff as the first group of children were here. Never has a group of crying children sounded so good! I can only imagine how sweet it was to the women in the church who run the preschool and have waited so long for this day to come. I believe this is the second preschool operating in the Palavra Viva churches. Khongolote also operates a preschool and recently got a new "school bus." The leaders are still deciding about whether to keep the "bus" or not, but apparently the kids love it!

The "school bus" for the Khongolote church preschool








The first day of preschool at T3 church!