Miscellaneous Missionary

This week looks like another trip. Lord willing, I will be returning to the Lolo work for an extended period of time. This trip, like all of the others has been set with complications. The government paperwork has been set back, forcing us to get a later start in the morning. The pastors with which we had tried to work are not available. However, the director and I hope to head south to Zambezia with another pastor for the opportunity of beginning study of the Lolo language. Right now, it is an area without any formal infrastructure, and I will have to arrange my own electricity, water, and everything else. However, I am piloting a new pattern of not building my own house, but renting an existing house from a local family, which means that the hassle and expense of housebuilding has for now been avoided completely. I should be out of touch in many senses until August, since I will be out in a very rural area. In August, the field has a workshop on advanced language learning, communication, and translation, which will bring me out for about two weeks. At that time, I will know more about what the time line will be and so forth. The Lolo team had hoped to begin teaching chronologically in the month of June, but the lesson preparation has been set back a little by some training of teachers aids. The hope is that this will greatly help the teaching in the future, since the people group is so scattered. The literacy class is moving forward, and the first readers of Lolo are emerging. There is not a lot of momentum for others to want to read at this point, but the base that exists in key in setting up the program in the future. The Zooks, who have been responsible in large part for all of this work give praise to God for the help of the literacy teacher that is nearly fully trained and able to teach most of the classes himself.
We would ask for prayer as we seek to prepare the soil of the hearts of the community for the planting of God's Word.
We would ask for prayer for wisdom in interacting with the community so that they will have clear understanding of their need for God's Word in their own language. Right now, the general mood is that missionaries are here to fund development projects, and the expectation of teaching God's Word is minimized. Please pray for God to create through our team a hunger for God's Word in the hearts of the Lolo people.

And it is not over. As I reflect on the last several months, I see a lot of ups and downs. I have eaten a lot of raw sugar cane (local version of the popsicle). I have visited many places. First, I had to prepare for the first ever official evaluations in Portuguese by the team here in Mozambique. I have the distinct honor of being the first to be evaluated at the target level on the field. While I did feel proud of this for a while, I soon found that I still learn loads every day. This was especially true as I did translation of field documents into Portuguese. Soon after, I was asked to consider an existing work that was short on people. I had always wanted to move into an area as a part of the original team, but this seems to be a window of opportunity and an exciting ministry opportunity. Over the next several weeks, I found myself packing and unpacking and repacking in anticipation of a move that did not seem to happen. Later, I was able to spend significant time in the administrative post of Derre with the team there and several consultants discussing needs and expectations. When I left there, I still had no place to call home, but a much clearer picture of what needs to be done. This last week has been a bit frustrating dealing with internet problems and trying to feel out what needs to be done back here in the city. Finally, I do have an agreement on living space and some plans set for a move sometime next week. At least for starters, this will be a very remote setting. I may not be able to attempt communication until August. I will probably be spending my days getting as much vocabulary as I can and getting my feet under me in a culture and language study program.

Please pray for the Lolo people, that God would be preparing their hearts to hear His Word.
Please pray for Matt Zook, since he is developing Bible lessons and preparing for evangelism.
Please pray for my strength and health, physically and spiritually.
Please pray for continued peace and stability in Mozambique.