Slow Moving in Mocambique

I finally made it back to Africa, but only for a couple weeks. Missionary Jeff Enderle and I spent two weeks in Nampula, Moçambique working to sort out the registration of our Lutheran Mission, and also gathering more specific information regarding potential homes, vehicles, and schools for our children.

Our registration has been a trying process. Twice in the past three years we have been invited by Moçambique’s Department of Religious Affairs to register our mission and begin work, yet we still have not finished the process. Just prior to this trip, we assembled all of the information and paperwork we thought would be necessary to finish our registration application, and we had high hopes that when we returned to Portugal, we would return with our application completed. And, during the two weeks, as we worked with the Department of Religious Affairs, it seemed everything would be completed. However, on the Thursday before leaving Nampula, we found out that we had been misled as we had been given the instructions for registering a church, not the instructions for registering a foreign mission.

While this was very discouraging, it also led to some self-examination and I believe we simply have moved too slowly since we were first invited to register in February 2005. Since the first invitation to register, the Chief of the Department of Religious Affairs has retired, and many policies and guidelines have changed. So, we are left to cope with the changes and re-organize ourselves. I am still confident we will finish the process, it will just take a few more months than planned. The main delay is that we are now required to have a list of signatures of 500 Moçambican resident-members of our organization who in effect are petitioning the government to grant our registration. This is one of the new and very recent requirements for registration. Fortunately, because of the ministry in the border regions of Moçambique near Malawi, we will be able to collect these signatures; it will just take a few weeks to finish this work. Then we will reprint all of our other documents and have them all notarized again (always a requirement in Portugal and Moçambique) and then head to Maputo to submit our application.

During our stay in Nampula we were very happy to find that our children will be able to attend a good school with an American curriculum. This school existed a few years ago, but only had one teacher and less then ten students. Now, the school has 27 students and three teachers, and they expect over 40 students for next school year. They have a great library and are trying to buy land to build a new campus with athletic fields, art rooms, and science and computer labs. It is a wonderful blessing to the expatiate community in Nampula. This school begins with first grade, which works out well as we will likely send our children to Portuguese language pre-school and kindergarten, so they will speak the language of Moçambique before entering the American school.

We also learned that both housing and vehicles are expensive and difficult in Nampula. Vehicles are readily available, but good vehicles (even used) are very expensive and are targeted for theft. Older less expensive vehicles are available, but are obviously less reliable and spare parts can be hard to acquire. For housing, we could simplify the options by putting them into two groups. One group has homes in the center of the city with good water service, but no yard at all. The other group is on the edge of town with a yard large enough for kids to play in, but extremely poor water service. We are praying for something with a yard and reliable water and hoping the Lord will provide. A yard is very important as there are no parks or green spaces for children to run in within Nampula, leaving the home and the yard as the only space for play. The need for water service is important in any city.

After our trip, we have re-adjusted our goal for residing in Nampula to late spring of 2009, hopefully April or May. If we are able to submit an application for registration in Maputo before Christmas, then this goal seems quite reasonable. In the meantime, we will continue to work to improve our Portuguese. Some of the missionaries we spoke to in Nampula told us they wished they had stayed in Portugal longer than one year just to improve their Portuguese before arriving in Nampula. So, it seems, the Lord has provided us with this opportunity. We also hope we will in fact now have the opportunity to make real contributions to the ministry of the Lutheran Church of Portugal. As our Portuguese improves, we will become more involved in leading worship services and teaching Bible studies, and we are indeed networking among the people we meet and trying to witness.

Please continue to pray for our health and safety, as well as praying for the registration of “Missão Luterana—WELS” in Moçambique.