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

Maputo, Mozambique: It’s great to be here on the edge of a great mission field. I call it “The Outpost” because I think of the words of Richard, he says that on some of these days when things get hard, his wife reminds him that when he’s tempted to go back into the pastorate to remember that there are 50 men willing to fill that kind of role when only one in fifty are willing to come to a place like Richard Akre has come. He’s really a hero of sorts to me. This is a hard area not because it isn’t beautiful but because there is a lot of darkness here and contrast the beautiful church music – the African choir – to the loud noises and drums that sometimes can be heard at night time. It’s just a place that really needs the Lord. There are many people groups in a small area which communication difficult.

We just got done with our first ZEBS class today in Maputo and we’re packing up getting ready to head out of town. This first ZEBS class was at Pastor Zechariah’s church and it turns out that I learned that Pastor Zachariah is not just pastor over one church but over several churches. They all meet in either house churches or little local neighborhood churches and then once a month they come together at the big church where we held our ZEBS today. I thought that was neat – it sounds a little bit like the adoption that we’re considering and perhaps a little bit like the New Testament. But anyway it’s been great to get to know his family. He’s packing up as well because he’s traveling with Richard and I to be our translator for the next two weeks.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed the snippet of music that I sent you from the African singing – it kind of reminds me of the music of Selah – the brother and sister singing team on Christian radio. They grew up as missionary kids here in the fields of Africa somewhere and brought back a lot of memories. I kind of go back to the memory of my first night in the chapel here where our prayer meeting was done by the light of a single light bulb as we worshiped the Lord together and came around on our knees for our family and for this neighborhood.

I’m sorry that I can’t get to all the questions people give to me on Facebook– I try to answer a few. One of them I am going to answer is the question about wild animals. About the wildest animal I’ve seen around here are chickens walking all over the place – so you don’t have to worry about me getting eaten by any lions over here.

The question that I am going to try to answer next time is, “What’s it like trying to teach through a translator?”

Thanks for tuning in to the weblog and lot’s of love from The Outpost.

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Question: How's the cuisine down there?

Answer: Mostly rice and beans ... A little fish (heads and all) but cooked and flavored well.

Question: What is the lesson of the day?

Answer: Principles of Biblical Teaching today ... They have not had a lot of formal training so it is pretty basic: We're teaching up to 30 classes in 4 towns / villages ... 150 - 200 students expected in all.