United Reformed Church Northern Synod

A month in Mozambique

John Durell reflects on part of his sabbatical, spent with our Global Partner Church.

It was dusk as we walked back to the main road from the pastor’s house on the edge of the village. The path threaded its way between bamboo huts and slightly more substantial houses built of mud brick, where fires were lit and people were preparing their evening meal. I already sensed that all eyes were on me, but was slightly taken aback when Carlos said “You know, you’re probably the first white man who has ever walked down this path.”

We were in the border town of Zobue – more a village really, looking across to the border with Malawi.  I savoured this David Livingstone moment cautiously: Tete is one of the more far flung Provinces of Mozambique, with a climate particularly hostile to Europeans, but the substantial brick-built church that we had just visited, together with the newly-dug well just beyond the pastor’s house, suggested that western aid and influence were no strangers here. A little later I understood the force of the comment: plenty of westerners come to help, but in the eyes of the local people they simply rush in and rush out, keeping to the main thoroughfares. The novelty, as Carlos saw it, was in someone being prepared to get close to people.

I have come to see this as a challenge to us as a Synod as we try to develop our partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique. I had the privilege of spending four weeks of my sabbatical this summer in Mozambique, and that time was roughly divided between seeing new situations and catching up with old friends. My wife Hillian joined me for the latter part of the time, and we were able to travel together to Chimoio in the centre of the country to meet up again with Armando, one of the group who visited us in 2004, and to see yet another side of the Church’s life in a town where Presbyterians are not so strong. Back in Maputo, we were able to spend time with all the other visitors from 2004, and to learn much more about the present challenges facing the Church, not least as it tries to be an effective force for the Gospel over the whole country.

 

In Tete Province the Church continues to expand. Just the week before I was in Zobue, the pastor had received a new congregation into his parish, which now numbers something like twenty different congregations strung out along the border. Many of these have their origins in the civil war, when people fled into Malawi and were evangelised by the local Presbyterian Church. I was anxious to learn more about this, and find answers to my question (relevant I think for our situation in Britain): “What is it about the Gospel that makes people want to join the Church?” I got some answers – but I also found that people were anxious to quiz me, and hear some of my own views and insights.

In this vast area, the Presbyterian Church has just two ministers (pastors), assisted by an evangelist and a youth worker. How, I was asked, are they to cope? I found myself reflecting on what we are discovering in our own Synod about the need to keep a local focus and think strategically as we look to further God’s mission in the world today. We have the frustration of having so few people to work with. Our Mozambican friends are constrained by material poverty. Rich in things, poor in people: poor in things, rich in people. Surely we can learn from one another?

It was good to discover, on returning home, just how much our churches have been doing this summer in raising money for the Mozambique Fund. We have a long way to go if we are to hit our target; but particularly as I tried to travel around Tete I discovered how vital it is for the Church there to have its own transport. And back in Maputo, Hillian and I sat in on a meeting of the Evangelism Commission which looked at plans to develop local leadership in these under-resourced churches in the centre and north of the country – plans that can only be realised if the training teams envisaged are able to get to them. If we are not able to meet our original target and buy that brand new Toyota vehicle, I wonder if we might work out a revised plan to help the Church get moving in every sense.

But it’s not just about money. People I talked to see the need for us to keep in touch, to share our hopes and our prayers, and find encouragement from one another for whatever God is asking of us. They are glad to have this link with us, and want to find ways of strengthening it – despite all the problems of language and communications. I still hope that other visits may be possible from Mozambique. I also hope that more of our people will want to find ways of visiting there and strengthening relationships – and I’ve tried to get the church leadership to think of worthwhile projects for any other ministers who may be tempted by a sabbatical in Mozambique.

I’m sure there are opportunities there for anyone among us to be challenged to see the world in new ways and have new insights into what God is doing today. There is scope for discovery and adventure and life-changing experience, as well as for helping a young and growing Church to determine its own strategy and how it can be of service in the life of the nation and among its peoples. But, as I realised that evening in Zobue, the best we can offer is simply to come close to people, and discover with them what it means tha t– despite all the differences between us – we are all sisters and brothers in Christ.

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