Get Out Of The Boat!: Shipwrecked!!!

Lighthouse in Beira Mozambique, Im not sure it is still functioning, but aside from being a nice looking lighthouse, it makes for a really good teaching illustration. Because....

In front of it is a large ship... "wrecked". (Now.. to be honest we have heard this ship was brought here to act as a break to help preserve the coastline) However, having a huge shipwreck right in front of a lighthouse is rather "poetic" to my mind. I can think of tons of different sermon illustrations for something like this.. but one that comes to mind this week is how even though many pastors here in Mozambique have Christ (the light) in their lives, and they are assured of salvation and desiring to teach others, they feel like a floundering ship (the shipwreck). Many PASTORS here lack even BASIC bible knowledge, let alone the leaders who are leading childrens ministries and sunday school! Recently Rick was able to lead two seperate Childrens Ministry Training seminars up north, and was shocked to learn that these church leaders and pastors were struggling to illustrate salvation in an understandable way for children (that wasnt so shocking... many north american pastors struggle with that). The real shock came when he asked them to act out several Bible Stories... they gave him blank looks. Well... what Bible Stories do you know??? Ummm....Elijah.... Mathew.... something about Peter... oh and that guy Jonah. I guess we take it for granted that people who have grown up in the church will know the story of David, Moses, Gideon, Daniel, The Parables of Jesus and oh so many more! Please pray for us as we train and work alongside these leaders- they have such a passion to learn, and teach everything they learn to the children!

Pastor Elias facepainting with watercolor pencils.. a treat when the missionaries are in town.

Many children in areas up north are malnurished (splotchy hair, distended tummys)

Rick's chalkboard full of steps to succesful ministry. If you can see the pyramid there everything is based on GOD (Deus), followed by Relationship, Preperation, Involvement , and Program!

Many of the pastors run a feeding program to feed vulnerable children in their towns one day a week. Here are the plates brought by the children.. waiting to be filled.

A very hungry little one!

Rick was also able to see some of the Zambezi River wildlife while at the seminars.. Here are some hippos (cute to look at... very nasty in real life)

And a crocodile... not cute to look at... still nasty in real life.

This past weekend we went to Beira to get some errands done, pick up a short term volunteer, visit accao social, and of course spent an afternoon at the beach.