Maxixe, Mozambique 10 September 1997 Dear friends: We are well and busy, and grateful for the many blessings we receive from God and from friends here and to the farthermost ends of the earth. In this letter we give you some additional news about things we have reported previously: printing work, meetings and the progress of Tom s Sengo. Some of Carol's ministry to children is described in brief notes on sewing dolls and distributing National Geographic magazines. We now communicate regularly by telephone and e-mail, something we hoped for when we arrived in 1988, and Carol describes the excitement of the day the phone was installed. A comment by pastor A. T. Litsuri suggests that in this culture the dead open doors for the Gospel to be preached. We trust that these short items will give you a glimpse of various aspects of our full and varied lives. Printing (Lawrence): The pastors at Barane, Jogo and Morrumbene are pleased with the individualized stewardship materials I printed for them. They claim that members are enthusiastic and that giving will increase. I did some church stationary for a bishop of an independent church, Igreja de Jerusalem. A story about family life, "A Ngango wa ka Magupela" is half done. In July, I had an opportunity to use Robert Moffat's printing press during a visit to Kuruman, South Africa. I made 25 copies of Moffat's original translation of the Lord's Prayer into Setswana. The press still works like new, has few moving parts, is rugged and magnificent in its simplicity. Telephone and e-mail (Carol): In April, the children came running in excitement to inform us that "a telephone pole had been planted in Dorana's cassava patch", not far from our house. Then came a man in a yellow coverall lugging a roll of telephone wire which he looped around the post on our front veranda with a promise to come back soon. Neighbor Albertina got a fright when she saw a piece of the line in her yard and thought it was a snake. Then came the ladder to be propped against the rondaval and deliberations about where the phone was to be. Two days later the phone was actually installed. The line was dead at first but later connected. Then Larry spent a bunch of time and energy installing the software, snuupm, and made many phone calls to Maputo to get our e-mail account on the computer at the Eduardo Mondlane University in order. It is amazing to have a telephone, to be able to communicate so quickly, and to have access to the Internet and its resources from Balaza. We learned of the birth of our grandson, Ian Gilley, the next day, whereas it took six weeks to hear about the births of our other grandchildren. (Ian Carlyle Gilley, the first child of Michelle & Jon Gilley was born in Colorado on April 30th!) Meetings (Lawrence): The regional council meetings in Inhambane and Maputo went well and according to form. There was lots of fellowship, some good preaching and few substantive decisions. We have added one more meeting to the annual round, the Synod of Mo‡ambique. The synod was created to coordinate and strengthen the work of the two regions. There was a celebration to launch the new synod last October in Maputo. The inaugural meeting of synod was here at Balaza July 25-27. It was wonderful to have pastors and delegates from Maputo and Inhambane together. Lots of local people attended the meetings to see friends and relatives as well as to learn what the synod promises to be and do. The synod was concerned with finances, what to spend money on and where to raise the money to support the structure and its program. Synod is seen by many leaders as a sign of maturity. It is felt to be a motivating force to strengthen the church and extend its work. It may also be a step towards independence from the UCCSA, because of suggestions being discussed in Zimbabwe and Botswana that their synods become independent national churches. Children (Carol): We have "Sewing Class" on Monday afternoon on my front veranda. This all started when Adelia asked me to help her make a small rag doll. Augusto (12) saw the doll and asked if he could make one too? Then Augusto's twin sister Angelina, then sister Matilda (10), then those 3 decided to make dolls for graduating Bible School students. Then Nico and Pai and Betinha made dolls for their 5th birthdays. Then the dog ate Nico's and he had to make another. Last week a child I had never seen before, appeared. He gave me a gift of 2 oranges and announced that he had come to make his doll. Some who have finished their dolls have gone on to make doll clothes. Some have made "beanbags" filled with custard apple seeds. Four children are currently making balls by sewing together 12 small pentagons. Others have small doll quilts in process. Usually there are about 8 children sewing at a time. They come with younger brothers and sisters they are looking after and we let the little ones amuse themselves with blocks and old National Geographics while the rest of us work. I also do some serious sewing with bigger children around the edges of my days. I like best working with only 2 children at a time. They have begun to sew clothes for themselves. At home there are chores to do, or nothing. At school the learning is rote and there is little stimulation and few resources. At church the children sing songs and listen to Bible stories. At sewing class there is another way to relate to others, to talk about things, and to be supported in the desire to learn. I hope that others, especially our students, will see the benefits and possibilities of relating to children in caring, concerned teaching-learning situations, like the sewing class, and make it a part of their ministries and family life. National Geographic Magazine (Lawrence): In my childhood I was awed by The National Geographic Magazine. It had the aura of a revered book up there with the precious leather bound and gilt edged volumes. I was taught to be careful of the distinctive, heavy, yellow covered volumes with exotic names on the their spines and magic photographs on their pages that had a special place on the bookshelf. Now we have lived in places that could provide wonders and pictures for the pages of National Geographic. We have had a subscription to National Geographic, enjoyed it and been educated by its contents and photographs. Until recently the volumes of National Geographic have had a special place on our bookshelves. Not more than a year ago, Carol was talking about a new bookshelf and designing it so that the National Geographic magazines would have a space just right for them, where they would be reverently and carefully preserved. But the old aura has been transformed into a new and different kind of excitement. The pristine volumes are getting dog eared. Carol sticks the covers back on with plastic tape. Old precautions have been swept away by enthusiastic new readers of National Geographic. Children in our neighborhood borrow the magazines one at a time and study the pictures. Once a week they can return a copy and borrow another. We bring out the cardboard box so that another one can be chosen and carried home where who knows how many children and adults will turn through the pages for who knows how many times. Tomas Sengo (Lawrence): Tomas has been learning the director's job. He has learned how we handle applications and work with the committees of the church. We have talked about the academic program. We have moved a lot of files from my computer to his. He has taken over the bookkeeping and preparation of the monthly allowances for the students. We have been through one meeting of the school committee together. There is a lot more to cover in the few remaining months, but Tom s says that if he has e-mail he can seek explanations even if I am in the US. "The dead are our best evangelists" (Lawrence): Thinking of all the people who would attend the "missa" the next morning, Pastor Litsuri commented: "It seems the dead are our best evangelists." "Missa" (mass) is a memorial service for a deceased person(s) requested and organized by the family. There is a service at the church, a visit to the grave to place flowers, and a meal at the home. It requires days of preparation and the celebrations typically last from 6am to noon. Family members from far and near, neighbors, fellow church members and others can be expected to attend. A missa is an ecumenical gathering. It also draws many people who never go to church. Pastor Litsuri explained that it is because of those dead people that all of those unchurched folk come to church. He concluded, "It is up to us to preach the Gospel to them." The particular missa that Litsuri referred to was held for one elderly man who died eight days previously, a indigent man who died last month on the veranda of a shop nearby, the parents of a prominent family in the community who died some twenty years ago. The Balaza church was packed (over 500 people) and there were at least 200 people sitting outside. The deceased had attracted 700 people to church, the majority of whom would not have come for any other reason. Pastor Litsuri did his best to preach the Gospel to them. Land-mines: In a letter to President Clinton urging him to support a ban on land mines, Bryan Stone, a United Methodist missionary doctor serving nearby at Chicuque Hospital, wrote about a man he had cared for: Jose is a strong 30 year old Mozambican farmer who arrived at our emergency room last month. He had been on his knees opening up some new ground for his crop with his short handled hoe when he struck one of Mozambique's two million anti-personnel land mines. The mine must have been slanted away from him because he only received the blast effect. But that was enough. It burst the globes of both eyes splitting the lower lid margins. In the operating room we enucleated one globe but there was enough left of the other to leave it as a filler. His eye sockets and the blast burns on his hand and forehead healed quickly but he was totally blind. He always smiled at our voices and was eager to get on with his life. At discharge we sent him to get two prostheses. One for his eye and another for the leg he lost when he stepped on his first land mine in 1990. Please let the government and your legislators know that you support a total ban on land mines. Visit (Carol): Our daughter, Sharon Rippey, visited us in July with her 7 year old twins, Aurora and Gabriella. It was wonderful to share our Mozambican home with them. There were many special moments. I read books aloud to the girls: My Friend Flicka, TheSuperRoo of Mungalongaloo, and Mantis and the Moon were favorites. Some evenings we spread out a mat and lay on our backs looking at the stars and learning to recognize the Southern Cross, Scorpios and Corvus. One morning we got up very early to see Orion. One night we looked at Jupiter and saw 4 of its moons through the telescope. We listened to music, especially the Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie album, More Together Again. As a "surprise for Grandpa Gilley" they learned his favorite song from that album , "Sailing Down This Golden River". In exchange, he taught them how to sing "Ha Dumisa Wena Hosi hi kota ya kuga" ("For Health and Strength and Daily Food" in xiTshwa). Aurora and Gabriella made friends with children in our neighborhood. They played games of tag, catch, drop the handkerchief and Looby Loo. They flew kites with Nico, who had showed them how to make a kite with some reeds, string and a plastic bag. They visited Luisa, one of our students, to learn about Mozambican cooking. She taught them how to prepare a vegetable stew which involved grating coconuts and pounding peanuts in a big mortar and pestle. One day Rev. Mazive sent them a live chicken as a special gift. The girls ran to Luisa to ask her to kill and cook it for them. Aurora and Gabriella became proficient at sweeping sand out of the kitchen. They learned about washing clothes in buckets and hanging them on the clothesline to dry. They learned to use the waste water to water thirsty plants in the garden. They got used to trying new things to eat, like granadillas and papayas. They were enthusiastic about the delicious warm bread from Maxixe's Taj Mahal Bakery eaten with my homemade lemon marmalade. They also liked our lettuce salads dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt. We travelled together by car, private taxi, taxi van and pick up truck taxi. We went on luxury buses and crowded ordinary busses. We crossed Inhambane bay by sailboat. We also did a lot of walking on the sandy paths of our neighborhood. It was wonderful spending time with Sharon and observing what a super Mom she is. It was wonderful being able to be grandparents to our own grandchildren. We were delighted with Aurora and Gabriella's enthusiasm and wonder and all that they learned. My personal agenda was to spend enough time with these identical twin granddaughters to be able to tell them apart. After spending a month together sometimes I could tell them apart. Furlough: We will be in the United States from December 1997 through May 1998. During February, March and April we expect to be speaking in churches. In our next letter we will give details of our itinerary in the US. We hope to be able to give you some information about what we might be doing in our next assignment. We appreciate your interest and support. We request your prayers. Lawrence C. Gilley and Carol C. Gilley Return to Mozambique index page Return to first page