June 2003

Dear Friends,

Our fourteen guests from the Outreach Foundation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) arrived May 6, somewhat travel-weary, yet eager to learn and to be used by God. We kept them busy in Zimbabwe visiting churches and church leaders, various ministries to street children, sharing with the evangelists we help to train, and of course an unforgettable trip to Victoria Falls, where they saw the longest sheet of falling water in the world.

From early on in our communications with the group, we stressed two realities: that we must come as servant-learners and that our presence means much more than what we will do while we are here. These two concepts are sometimes difficult for Americans to grasp. Because of our emphasis on education and training, we often feel we need to show everyone else what they should do. We also have a tendency to want to fix everything that appears to be broken. We are geared to think that what we can do or fix is the measure of our worth. Yet, in Africa, the opposite may be true.

Part of our trip was spent in rural Tete Province, where the Outreach Foundation, together with the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique, has helped to establish 48 churches in less than ten years. We saw how holistic Christian development, schools, church buildings, wells, and clinics all serve to strengthen the work of evangelism as the gospel moves forward. We also saw first-hand how important discipleship training is to the process of evangelization of a people.

We didn’t “do” much in our four-day visit, except:

• A few of us brought greetings in the name of Christ from you and the churches we represent.
• A few of us preached at some of the churches we visited.
• All of us stumbled and bumbled along with the little bit of Chichewa we were learning to speak.

We didn’t fix anything or teach anything at all, but listen to the thank you written to us by our director in Tete Province, the Reverend Nedson Zulu: “We were really blessed by the group and enjoyed their company. As usual, this is a great encouragement to us (the pastors), and the people in our place. They really appreciate being visited. Moreover, your visit makes our work much easier as we do not play with their minds when we make promises to them. (They have seen the people behind the promises.)”

Are you getting the picture we are attempting to paint? The Apostle Paul said it like this: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2).

For your prayers:

• Our trip to the States from June 2-23 for meetings in Louisville.
• Our summer volunteer, Kyle Clendaniel, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, arrives June 24th.
• Bob’s surgery on June 27th for hernia repair.
• The Outreach Foundation mission group as they share their stories and experiences.
• Because of the partnership between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Church in southern Africa, many people will come to know Jesus as Lord. There is great hope in all our hearts for what our great God is accomplishing in Africa.

Jesus Christ, the hope of the world.

In His Love,

Bob and Bobbi

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 51