The week
from June 18 to 25, 2015 will be an unforgettable period for pastors Roger,
Chris and Carlos. Rev. Roger Zieger is Mission Director for “Mission of
Lutheran Churches” – MLC (Bleckmarer Mission), Germany. Rev. Christoph Weber is MLC Regional Director
for Africa and lives in Durban, SA. ( www.mission-bleckmar.de).
Rev. Carlos Walter Winterle has been pastor of St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Cape
Town, SA, since 2011. He is Brazilian; served as pastor in Kenya from 2006 to
2010, and in Brazil from 1973 to 2006, and is in charge of the Theological
Education by Extension – TEE program running in Mozambique.
We met at
Johannesburg airport, South Africa, and flew together to Beira, Mozambique,
arriving there in the afternoon. Driver Silva was waiting for us and he took us
straight to the Bible Society shop to buy Study Bibles in Portuguese and New
Testaments in the Chisena language for the 20 new TEE (Theological Education by
Extension) candidates. We spent the night in a guesthouse in Beira.
Next day, on
Friday, we drove almost nine hours to reach the Vila de Sena, where the
Concordia Lutheran Church – Mozambique, is based. The eight candidates to the
Holy Ministry were all waiting for us and welcomed us warmly. They are
finishing the TEE program after five years of studies, with training sessions
once a year led by pastors/professors from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Brazil – IELB. The eight candidates will graduate and be ordained on 9th
August 2015.
Services
were celebrated in Cado on Saturday morning and in Sena on Saturday afternoon.
The liturgy was led by one of the future pastors, the three of us delivered
their messages/sermons; several adults and children were baptized and the
Lord’s Supper was offered.
On Sunday,
the services were celebrated in Chemba and in Três de Fevereiro, with baptisms
and Holy Communion as well.
On Monday
morning we visited the churches in Kapasseni, Zambezi, Sabonete, Mpango and
Murrema, delivering short messages and prayers. People were always waiting for
us on the way to the church and in front of the church they were singing,
clapping hands and dancing, showing their Christian joy.
Four
churches are still huts, and the other ones are very simple brick buildings. On
Tuesday we visited the youngest church, Mutarara, a one and a half-hour walk,
including crossing the Zambezi River on a pedestrian bridge.
An
impressive moment to share: In one of the churches, when I was addressing the
candidates before the Baptism, and I asked them: “Do you renounce the devil,
all his works and all his ways” – and knowing the big role evil spirits play in
the traditional African religions, I added: “and do you renounce all the evil
spirits?” all answered, YES, and an old lady shouted, “NEVER MORE! NEVER MORE!”
We had
meetings also with the Chief of the Village of Sena, Mr. Adamo; with the eight
future pastors; with the 20 new TEE candidates; and with other local people as
well.
As the
Lutheran Church in Mozambique has not had an ordained pastor up to now (June
2015), they always had to wait till an ordained pastor came from Brazil to
perform baptisms and to offer Lord’s Supper. A total of 117 people were
baptized in the four Services, 37 adults and 80 children. The other places are
waiting till July, when an ordained pastor is coming from Brazil to lead the
TEE classes and to celebrate Baptisms and the Lord’s Supper.
It was
always nice to cross by car many villages in the bush on the way to the several
churches: the visitors inside the car and the future pastors sitting outside behind
it.
The Lutheran Church in Mozambique began in 2006, when a Mozambique
refugee, Joseph Kembo Alfazema, came back from Canada to visit his mother and
to look for mission opportunities, as he graduated as pastor at the Lutheran
Church Canada – LCC, a sister church to SELK. He met pastor Carlos at a meeting
in Mozambique in 2007 and he asked for help to prepare local pastors for the
new church that was growing well. Carlos offered the TEE program of the
Seminário Concórdia of the IELB. He began the classes in 2010, with training
sessions for three weeks every year. The eight candidates come together once a
month to revise the contents. Pastor Alfazema, the founder of the church, was
giving them a great support at the beginning; but, due to health issues, he had
to go back to Canada for treatment in September 2011. The eight candidates were
not discouraged being by themselves. They worked even harder, shepherding the
established congregations and even expanding the church. Many other settlements
in the bush are asking them to come and to preach the Gospel; but they are not
able to go to all the places due to long distances.
After their
graduation and ordination, they will supervise the 20 new candidates. There are
representatives from all 10 established congregations in the new class, and
they are leaders, helping the future pastors doing readings at the Service,
visiting people and sharing the Gospel. They will be challenged to go to new
places when they are ready.
The doors
are open to the Gospel in Mozambique and the challenges are huge. People depend
on their small machambas (farms) to survive, and what they harvest is all what
they have to eat: corn, rice, beans, sorghum… Some raise chickens and goats.
Sesame and cotton are cultivated and sold for some income. The pastors do not receive any salary, and the offerings at the Services
are very little. Even so, they are happy to serve the Lord.
The Lutheran
Church of Brazil donated a bicycle to each of the students three years ago, and
this year a motorcycle was given to the eight candidates so that they can serve
better the churches far from their own villages.
Carlos was
helped by Pastor Horst Kuchenbecker in the TEE training sessions in 2012. And
Pastor Andre Plamer has accompanied Carlos since 2013 to train the candidates
as well.
MLC (Mission of the Lutheran Churches) is now
partner of this Mission, after the visit of Pastors Roger and Chris, sharing
the Gospel with unreached and unchurched people in Mozambique.
The word God
addressed to the Apostle Paul can be quoted here: “Do not be afraid; keep on
speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack
and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (country) (Acts 18:9,
10). Indeed, God has many people in Mozambique to be called to the salvation by
faith in Jesus Christ. After our visit we can testify that this is true and we
praise God for His faithfulness, still sending His messengers to the end of the
earth to save His elected.
