Village Bible Church || Aurora | Indian Creek | Sugar Grove | IL

Tete, Mozambique: Hey Village Bible Church! Today is November 10 and we are teaching ZEBS classes today in the city of Tete. I will not talk about that too much right now. I am going to get back to a question someone asked: "What is it like to teach through a translator?"

We have some really good translators here and it is really not that hard at all. I can speak normally at a quick pace and the translators get it right and keep moving right along. It about doubles the time to get all the points across so you have to keep things moving. The real trick is when we needed double translation. Our translator was delayed by traffic at the Tete Bridge and so we ended up having our primary translator, who does not know the local dialect, translate into Protégées and then a man from the congregation, translate from Protégées in the local dialect. So that really slowed things down and that caused a little confusion, like playing the game of telephone when you have to translate it more than one time, but anyway it’s a lot of fun.

Today was a hot 109 degrees at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. We were sweating like crazy. It is a great relief when the sun goes down and the temperatures start to fall and they fall quite a bit. It is interesting as I was talking to my missionary friend Richards Ackers today about David Livingston a pioneer of missions in Africa about his description of Tete, Mozambique when he pass through here a long time ago. He described it as a dust bowl, a very dusty hazy place a, place where he wondered why anyone would want to settle. That is back when it was a very small settlement; today it’s a town of 153,000 people. So it is no small village today. Interestingly enough after talking to Richard about that dusty, hazy place, probably about an hour later a dust storm blew up that was really crazy. The church does not have glass windows just boarded wood shutters that close when they need to be closed up and we had to close up the whole church. The dust storm lasted for 15 or 20 minutes and it was real dark in the church as we continued on with our teaching and the dust storm passed. Anyway, if you are interested in learning a little more about Tete, Google the word Tete which is Tete and then put the word wiki in and then hit enter and you will find out a lot about Tete and Mozambique and you will also see a picture of the bridge that the translator was caught up on today. Say a prayer for the 153,000 in Tete and also say a prayer for Richard and myself and I am so thankful you are there. So long, we will talk to you later.

I was asked how people could pray for the ZEBS students this week:

Pray for ZEBS attendees...

1 - The material we're teaching though basic for us is very advanced for them... Pray they grasp it.

2 - Pray they'll be able to implement it back home... We're focusing a lot on Biblical Teaching methods these two weeks ... If they could really bring it back to their villages it would have a big impact.

3- Some of these men come in teams from their churches ... others come alone. Pray particularly for these guys who don't have others to lean on for implementation and encouragement of these "new" ideas for them when they get home. Note: many of these pastors and church leaders have no real training before entering into ministry.