One of our main ministries in Mozambique ended up being preaching to the congregation in their women’s retreat. The church was very excited. The leadership told us how hungry they were to learn anything they could from us. Most of the people could not read and their is a limited amount of Bibles between all of the church members who can read. The retreat included some women pastors from a church from a city called Beira. The ladies were very enthusiastic to say the least. The first day of the retreat Hanna was going to speak and then I was going to give my testimony. As we sat through the morning teachings I began to become disturbed by the teachings of the ladies that came from Beira. Hanna and I ended up speaking at the end of the morning teachings. The teachings continued through the day and into the evening. The next day was a repeat, with another full days worth of teachings. All 26 of us did not stay in the retreat at all times, but we made sure there were at least a few of us represented for each of the teachings. As we began to talk to each other about the teachings that were being preached we realized that the applications were all works based. When we realized that we began emphasizing that salvation was not works based, but it had little effect on the teachings. For example, the women were teaching that if your pastor wants to go to another city to preach, you have to make sure you give everything that you have to get him there and since the pastors wife is skinny you need to feed her more to make sure she is fat. Giving should be out of the overflow of your heart, because of your love for Christ. When we see how much He has given to us and how He is faithful to provide we will want to give generously to those in need. Many other things were being said that showed the works and money centered preaching. The outrage amongst our squad was evident and I am proud to say that our guys really stepped up. They were quick to preach the truth…to preach Christ! The night before we left Tim and Nick met with the pastors and talked to them about false doctrine. They also talked to them about the importance of knowing the truth for themselves and not letting false doctrine come into their church. We made sure we did all we could to bring the truth into that church. Jaco has planned to go back to start a discipleship program, but it is pretty far for him to be going back and forth. One of the biggest problems in Africa is that short term missionaries come and present the hope of Christ and people are so desperate for any kind of hope that they jump at the chance of a loving God who will heal their sickness and provide for their needs. The problem comes when the missionaries do not stick around long enough to teach the people about who God is beyond salvation. For many of the people here, they go to church on Sunday because they like the singing and dancing, but then they go home and worship all of their other dead idols right along with the one true God. The people need the truth of God, they need a personal relationship with Christ that is not based on the things that they do, but based on what Christ did. The people need discipleship and an example that they can watch and follow.
God – send people who love you to teach the church in Africa about who you are and how to hear your voice and follow you!
I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. Psalm 119:30
