NAPS

Twenty-two NAPS student missionaries arrived in Beira Mozambique on May 14 and proceeded to Chimoio where we were met by other native youth missionaries from Zambia, Zimbabwe and the host country. The next day, we began a series of intensive mission training with local youth in preparation to work in 5 assigned rural villages (4 in central and 1 in northern Mozambique). Our Mission was from May 12 – June 22, 2009.

After three days of training, all the missionaries were divided in 5 groups and accompanied by local pastors from each districts. 4 teams worked in the rural central districts of: Rutanda, Munhinga, Canhonda, Chissassa and 1 team (which I had the privilege to work with) worked the northern rural district of Posto Campo.

Upon arrival to the assigned areas, each group further divided into smaller teams to spread the message of Jesus Christ to neighboring villages. By the end of the mission, NAPS had covered more than 15 villages in 3 weeks. In each area, we conducted daily children programs at the primary school, house-to-house bible studies, nightly evangelistic campaigns with PowerPoint, provided meals to students.

Our biggest challenge was the language barrier. Though we had native translators, some of the natives did not speak the villagers’ local dialect fluently. This did not prevent the message however. NAPS partnered with the ministry Faith Comes by Hearing, which donated 5 audio Bibles called Proclaimers. One Proclaimer went to each area in the center while 2 sent to the North.

Most people’s eyes were riveted on the radio, elated to hear the words coming from them. These Proclaimers complimented the preaching because the people were able to hear many references from the preacher and in the bible studies, so hearing it on the radios was fascinating to them. On our way to deliver a Proclaimer to the Cundine camp site (in the North), one of the native trainees, Armindo, got overly excited while we played a sample in the truck. He had never heard an audio version of the bible. One visiting to the Cundine site also admired the radio as he too had not heard the bible play in that fashion.

NAPS partnered with Maranatha and was able to build 5 One-Day churches in the Central areas (and provided material for the construction of 2 others), and provided materials for the construction of 3 churches in the Northern areas (Post Campo, Cundine, and Samaral-Bajone). The church membership in the North more than doubled as 407 people were baptized and 333 in the Central. More amazing was that several of those who where baptized prior to the last week of the mission, labored with NAPS to bring in more souls for our last baptism. Many youth where trained in evangelism. The conference quoted that this was the largest baptism the conference has experienced since 1933. God truly poured out his spirit this summer!