Our Work in Mozambique - Leadership Training and Discipleship
Leadership Training
For several decades the Church of Christ has been spreading among the Lomwe people of Mozambique. In their desperation to survive, the people are eager to add the Christian 'religion' to their traditional beliefs. We work with the under-discipled Church of Christ among the Lomwe people.
Most churches are being planted hastily. Pastors are chosen merely because they are literate or the relative of the church planter. The peoples' knowledge of Jesus and what He did for us is limited. Many continue to live according to their traditional beliefs and practices while observing 'church' rituals on Sunday.
We live in the city of Nampula which sits at the border of the Lomwe and Makua people, who are sister tribes. The Makua are a significantly under-evangelized people group. Our focus is to re-evangelize and train up the under-discipled Lomwe churches so that they can reach the under-reached Makua.
One way we work toward this goal is by visiting the rural congregations and offering leadership training in the form of one to two week seminars.
We also have an urban discipleship ministry in the city where we live. Nampula is the largest city in the northern half of the country and strategic to reaching all the northern tribes with the gospel.
The Mustard Seed Discipleship Center
Through a God orchestrated series of events we have begun a Mozambican association, called "The Mustard Seed", that shares oversight of our discipleship ministry. They also own and manage our large, well-located building in Nampula that serves as our center. Each day there is a steady stream of people who stop by the center to study, pray and make inquiries. We offer:
- One-on-one discipleship and counseling
- Weekend Bible classes for pastors and youth
- Accountability and prayer groups
Our association is developing some new discipleship programs to begin in 2007. They will be economically self-sustained through some initial donated capital, good stewardship of the building and the church's resources. Some of these programs include:
- Rural interns made up of pastors and their families, who will be discipled and groomed as missionaries for two years.
- Youth interns who will be discipled through a two-year program of hands-on guided ministry and self-study.
- Continued outreach to under-evangelized areas surrounding the city, bringing the interns along for additional training.
- The administration of a micro-loan fund issued to selected families within the church for entrepreneurial, community development initiatives (like raising chickens, digging wells, better gardening techniques, etc.).
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