Report from BHW Mozambique Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person: Chrissy Lukanga

A team of four from BHW visited for three days in July and had meetings with Chrissy about the work and how it is developing. Suzen was not around, she is in Zambia with the family until September, part of their preparation for their return in the future. We talked about timeframes, and they are working towards three years but won’t leave a gap in leadership. 

Recent Events

Activities

Covid caused everything to completely close down and this was also around the same time as the threat of terrorism was increasing. It was a very tough time for Chrissy, Suzen and the church.  Thankfully no one from the church died of Covid, but the police were aggressive and took advantage of the control. Once restrictions were lifted, many people returned to church, and they needed a tent extension on the church. The tent has subsequently been removed, and they now run two services with 80 people at each service. The church has grown significantly since BHW’s last visit. Most of this growth has been from conversions.  

The church’s focus is on evangelism and church planting. They run two discipleship classes each Saturday. They have sent some to OM and YWAM for Bible and Missions training and on their return, they go out to other villages and districts. Local Christians run most of the church services now and it does not depend too much on Chrissy. 80% of the church members are Muslim background believers.  

The women’s group has become very effective and is doing a great work.  

The church is increasingly focusing on Muslim evangelism as this area is largely Muslim. Chrissy feels that the churches do not understand Islam and how to move towards Muslims, e.g., the AOG is the oldest evangelical church and is large, but they don’t have any Mwani (Muslim) members even though they live in a totally Mwani settlement. Most churches and Christians are afraid of Muslims. 

We talked about how some of our other BHW partners have a completely different model for reaching Muslim people. This has several aspects: 1) encouraging new believers to remain in their community and culture; 2) not using church jargon - washing ceremonies instead of baptism; Prayer House instead of church etc; 3) weekly teaching programmes for leaders to learn and be discipled then return to their village groups to teach them; 4) using the seven-question model of teaching. They read the Scripture, then have seven questions, so that anyone can lead that; 5) they use short messages on What’s App for teaching, training and coaching; 6) new believers start groups in their houses and the conversions multiply quickly.  We also talked about the Koti language classes in Angoche (MOZ04a) and their effectiveness. 

Chrissy told us of a pastor friend whose church is reaching Muslims by having meetings in their homes. He is keen to pursue a relational movement model rather than a structural church model.

One problem the leaders have when guys go to live in a new village is funding their living costs.  We discussed the goat project in Madagascar as an example (MAD02a). We will receive a proposal about this. 

The church does a lot of social activities and meet needs within the community without prejudice or talking about church. Some get back in touch with the church afterwards and they are followed up.

There are three tribal groups in Pemba (i) Mwani who are totally Muslim, (ii) Makonde who are largely Catholic and (iii) Makua who are 60% Muslim and make up 60% of the population.  

Militia Activity

The threat of raids by violent militia groups is still very real not far to the north of Pemba. Chrissy recounted the day the militia threatened to come to Pemba in April 2021 and the panic that swept the town. Many people fled including many of the missionaries. Since then, they have had to deal with many orphans who were forced to watch their parents murdered with machetes. People are dealing with severe trauma. It all became very real while the BHW team was there. Early on the second morning Chrissy got a call from a young woman in the church. Her husband, also a church member, is in the military and out on operations against the terrorists. The squad was ambushed, and several army men were killed. Her husband is missing, his body has not been recovered. That night she came to church with her little baby. What do you say? So sad!

New and Emerging Leaders

He has a good number of young leaders coming on who are interested in supporting themselves by various means.  

Leaders trained by OM in Nyasa Province:
Zitu – carpentry
Joao – farming
Amisi – farming

Leaders trained by YWAM In Montepuez:
Garnet – farming

Leaders in Balama - trained by a Nigerian guy based in Nampula who is training leaders in evangelism to Muslims:
Inacio- carpentry
Pedro – farming

Lucia – Trained by YWAM. She is looking for a project to support the ministry to widows and orphans who have lost their parents due to the terrorists. She has done some training in women’s empowerment, and how to counsel women who have had trauma. We discussed options for women’s empowerment and potential projects teaching women to sew then provide sewing machines so they can start a co-op to sell in the market. Lucia is well connected to authorities and well known to people due to her work with orphans and women.

They have three leaders currently at OM who finish this year which BHW funded. One speaks English.

Personal Stories

Jose – 13 years ago Jose’s parents passed away and left an inheritance to their only son. Within three years he had wasted it and sold all their assets. He started having nightmares about his father and tried unsuccessfully to get help from witch doctors. His girlfriend was invited along to church by a friend – then Jose came too. He was looking for medicines to cure his nightmares but was offered prayer instead. Chrissy introduced him to Jesus and prayed for him.  

After three years of nightmares, he was free from that night on. He was well known in the community as a loser, so his conversion had a big influence. He came to prayer meetings, then requested to go to Bible school for three years. He returned and evangelised his sisters who came to the Lord. The witch doctors also came wanting to hear about his conversion. He is now the leader of OM Mozambique and has left Pemba. 

Rosario (34 years old) is a teacher from the Makua tribe. He and his older brother Lazaro came to Chrissy because their unbelieving mother was sick. Chrissy prayed for the mother and God instantly healed and delivered her. Lazaro and Rosario came back asking for Bibles. They had looked everywhere for healing for their mother, so they wanted to know more. Chrissy led them to Christ, and Rosario is very keen to learn and has been discipled.  

Earlier this year he said he wanted to leave his teaching profession and work full time, but Chrissy advised that he should continue to serve God has a teacher until something opens up. He is married to Atika with three children.  

Lucia (33 years old) was an orphan, and 12 years ago Chrissy and Suzen took her in with her baby son. Her baby was sick every week until they shifted in with Chrissy and Suzen, then all sickness went. Her son is now 14 years old. Lucia has her own ministry with orphans, widows and divorced women.

Titus Nguenha is a policeman who was a key leader in the church. He is married with two children. He was to be transferred to another region but was reluctant to go to that region.  However, the church felt that he would get a large promotion and then be posted to another place within six months. In the first month he received a double promotion, and within three months was transferred to another area, where he now has a small group.

Swale (22 years old) is from a strong Muslim background and came to the Lord through Jose. Three years ago, he wanted to go to Bible School, but it was during the time of unrest in Pemba, and his policeman father was opposed to the idea, so he stayed here. 

Two of their leaders are now living and evangelising in Palma the most northern town in Mozambique. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The children’s ministry had about 300 attending on a Sunday, but some community people didn’t like that and established other programmes to compete with it. Now there are around 200. 

Chrissy has a good relationship with people on the Council who helped him get released when he was arrested.  Also, some Muslim people are very supportive of him because of what he does in the community.

Plans for the Future

The focus is on church planting in Muslim areas where there is less church activity. The challenge is how to support these church planters and Chrissy is wanting to help them set up small businesses to allow these leaders relocating to the villages to do ministry. Currently those who have gone out have no financial support and are struggling. The leaders who have gone through OM are given some skills training, so they have some ideas. There are a couple who have joinery/carpentry skills but need financial help to get set up. Chrissy suggested about US$300 would be required to get their businesses up and running.

It is also important that these leaders have a reason to be in these communities, apart from the gospel, as they are more quickly accepted and there are less questions asked.

If BHW was to support this, Chrissy suggested that a loan that could be repaid to a fund to be reused, rather than a grant, would be the best model. Having to repay these amounts would encourage accountability. He has some others who could form a group to oversee a loan programme/revolving fund.

We suggested that rather than getting one larger amount, which is hard to repay, that they get smaller amounts. The Fund Committee could then buy what they needed in the way of tools etc and until these loans are repaid, the tools would be owned by the fund.

Another option is to provide a fund for the Fund Committee to work with. The money comes and goes, and then could be topped up later. Chrissy will talk to his people and come back with what it would look like and how it would operate.

Current Issues and Challenges

1) Going out into the villages is a challenge now. They need to take provincial/district/village documents to go anywhere.

2) Understanding how to be more effective in the Muslim community outside the church model.

3) How to support the church planters and enable them to be financially self-sufficient.

4) Planning for retirement and relocation to Zambia will be a challenge financially.  

Prayer and Praise Points

1) That so many Muslim people are coming to faith.

2) For wisdom as they plan to commence a different style of ministry to the Muslim communities. 

3) For those who have been trained and those in training as they begin to establish themselves in new locations. 

4) For Chrissy and Suzen as they begin to make plans to leave Mozambique and return to Zambia. 

Comments

A ministry beachhead has been established here because of a lot of hard work. However, the real work is just commencing. Chrissy’s role now is to mentor his people into the new ways of doing things. There is probably an ongoing opportunity here for us, but we will see what emerges.