Thursday, July 29, 2004 Blowing in the wind……
We apologize for the length between our last newsletter and this one, but because most of our situation has been a waiting game, I wanted to hold off and give you a more thorough summary of what is going on with us. There have been some changes in our situation, so please bear with us as we try to give you a timeline of what has been happening.
W will be here in Nampula until December and then we’ll leave for South Africa to have the baby. We have found an apartment here and are now settling in and praying for God to show us what he wants us to do over the next few months. Our team has already begun brainstorming about what we could do while here in Nampula. Some will be working with existing churches while others are working with local missionaries. I have decided to work with an agriculturalist who works for World Vision. His ministry is that of digging water-wells for communities who have problems with local water sources.
We will also be using this time in Nampula to rework the vision and structure of our team. We have come to the conclusion that it would be best not to re-enter Montepuez with six families. So, Ann and I along with Kyle and Ginger Holton will be moving to a town in the neighboring province called Lichinga. This will mean starting a new work among the Yao people of Niassa province. The Yao are a neighboring tribe of the Makua and have a similar culture but speak a different language. They are predominately Islamic (roughly 96%) and have no known churches among them. The Holton’s have shared with our team in the past a desire to work among a completely unreached people group like the Yao but this has never been an appropriate move given our commitments to the Makua. But ever since the mandate was given to leave Montepuez we have been re-thinking our vision for Northern Mozambique. Sam Shewmaker, our team mentor was here this last week to
help our team work through the logistics of this type of vision and help us come to some understandings of how this vision will work. This was a tough decision for our team but we feel like this was the best option for the context of Northern Mozambique and for the work of God among both the Yao and the Makua.
We are going to need your prayers this month as we begin functioning differently as a team. We will be working basically as 2 smaller teams under the umbrella of a larger team, and we want to make plans to continue our teamwork together, but realize that we will be farther apart than we had originally planned. Because of our experience with the politics here, we also want to make a wise decision on when to make the move to Lichinga. We imagine that the latest would be after elections, but we plan on taking a trip to visit the town and governing officials. After that trip we hopefully can make a more informed decision.
Besides all that, we are both, or should I say all three of us, healthy. Ann is in her 12th week, and is feeling great. She’s not quite “showing”, but that is coming soon.
Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement during this time of being "exiled". We love hearing from you. May God bless you this month.
The peace of the Lord,
Rusty and Ann
Prayer Points:
P.S. If you would like to write us you can use our Nampula address @ C.P. 688 Nampula, Mozambique |