CAM Christmas Program 2010

20 December 2010

Dear family and friends,

The Dead Shepherds band

Mary, Joseph and the youth

The musical was chosen in September, practices started the first part of October and the final production was last Friday, December 17th. There is always so much work and energy put into getting the Christmas program ready for the performance. The musical was one that we had presented five years ago. It was called “A Band of Shepherds” and it was about a group of shepherds who were a rock band and had been hired to entertain the people in Bethlehem during the census. While they were out in the fields they encountered an angel band that rapped and danced and told them the message of a Messiah born in Bethlehem. It changed their lives. They now had hope and something to live for. It was great.

We had a full house in the seminary chapel and the students did an incredible job of the musical. The fourth through sixth grade students were the angel band while the seventh through twelfth grade students were the choir and cast.

Silvio doing a rap with the angel band

a happy angel

The Kindergarten and first grade class presented a number and the second and third grade classes presented two numbers and a short skit. I don’t think that we have any shy kids at CAM, and if they come shy, they don’t stay shy for long.

 
The most rewarding part of being a part of CAM is hearing the parents say how much they appreciate having a Christian school for their kids and that they like the family atmosphere.

The program is over and now we have two more days of school, exams for the high school students, and then school will be out until January 17th. Larry and I look forward to having some R & R at a friend’s guest apartment near the beach. We look forward to sleeping in (if that is possible for us), reading, watching DVDs and getting some sun on the beach.

National Assembly Meeting presents new Church Discipline



Raul showing the Discipline



National Assembly in T3 Church

 19 December 2010


Dear friends and family,  

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Juka Fernando praying over Discipline



Yesterday we were able to partcipate in the National Assembly meeting of our national church Igreja Evangelica Palavra Viva.  In typical Mozambican style, it was to start at 9 AM but it finally got under way by 9:45.  The objective of the meeting was 1, celebrate the 5th aniversary of the National Church registration.  2.  To adopt the newly created church discipline.  Seems pretty simple.  Four hours later the meeting was coming to an end.  Between the beginning and ending was filled with reports and encouraging words from some of our church leaders and the reading of the Discipline.  This is such a big milestone for the church.  Since 2005 when the church was officially registered with the Department of Religious Affairs, the church has slowly been working on developing the discipline to help guide it in its decision making.  It has definitely been a long and tedius process.  Many versions of the discipline have been written, reviewed, rewritten.  Even the present version adopted is just the beginning and we know will need revision and additions.  For me, the Discipline is a "living" document that will grow with the church and will need revision regularly as times and circumstances change.  But it is a great beginning.  Something that gives the church and the leadership guidance to make the tough decisions and to help and encourage the church to spiritaul maturity. 



 

Church leaders and wives



With over 100 churches throughout the country now, the Discipline is essential and now the church can move forward with the development of local, disctrict, regiional and provincial leadership.  Susan and I believe the church is moving forward and we feel privileged to have been here when the very first church was planted in 1997 when it met under

Pastor Daniel cutting 5th Anniv cake



a tree in the township of T3.  We have watched that church struggle and grow and seen other churches planted over the years.  We are excited that the National Church is recognizing its role in reaching its own people for Christ.  Please remember to pray for the National Church and its leadership.  Specifically remember to pray for Juka, Daniel, Raul and Abel. 



Thanksgiving and more



Larry & Susan with the Khongolote pre-school kids



December 11, 2010



December is a busy month for us in Mozambique and we always look forward to our break from school, but before we can take that break we have many things that are on our agenda.



Thanksgiving at Boa Nova



First of all, going back to November, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with several missionary families out at Boa Nova, a missionary compound. There were 37 people who enjoyed the delicious potluck dinner.



Pastor Glenn Fretz shares the Word



After Thanksgiving we had a visit from Pastor Glenn Fretz, retired pastor from Chilliwack Evangelical Missionary Church (in Canada).  It was great to be able to show him some of our ministries as well as he was able to preach and share a couple times.



Susan with students Joash and Silvio baking goodies



Moving into December I was busy baking goodies for the staff Christmas party. I had some help from a couple of the 10th grade boys this year. Here are Silvio from Nigeria and Joash from the Philippines helping me make Nanaimo bars. (A special cookie from Canada) We also pulled out the decorations and decorated the house to make it look more festive.



CAM Staff Party at our home



The CAM staff Christmas party was December 7th and even though it was rainy in the afternoon we had a group of 22 people. There was plenty of food and during our time together we shared memories of our favorite Christmas and Christmas traditions. It is always a special time and we are blessed to have such a great staff at CAM.

Baptism in the Indian Ocean

Saturday, December 11th was a special day for five people from our church and five people from a sister church. These ten people were baptized in the ocean this morning. It was a beautiful service on the beach and we celebrate with these believers as they took this step of faith. Pray for them as they live their lives day to day, that they will make godly choices and follow the Lord in all things.



 



Those baptized today, December. 11, 2010





CAM School starting its 15th year on the 10th

Dear friends and family,

Where has the months of June and July gone?  It has definitely been a busy two months for us.  It does seem a bit of a blurr, but we will try to give a brief update. 

CAM School has been a busy hub of activity all school break.  Our full time teachers, after their vacations, returned to tutor some of our students who needed extra help.  In all 12 students spent most of the break working on English skills (those who are English as a second language) and a couple worked on courses they needed repeat in order to meet graduation requirements.  The workers did a lot of painting and repairs and Larry added a commercial reverse-osmosis water filter system.  With more and more students attending, and tap water not safe to drink, we have had to purchase bottled water.  It was becoming too expensive and unreliable delivery of the water helped make the decision to purchase our own water purifying system.

We also were planning on a missionary couple to arrive by July to teach 2nd grade and High School math classes.  Unfortunately, they were not able to raise their support in time and their arrival has been delayed until January.  Pray for the Faxons as they raise up their prayer and financial partners.  So, the search was started to find replacement teachers.  The Lord answered our prayers with a husband and wife who are Mozambicans but were educated and trained as teachers in Zimbabwe.  As of the past week we are fully staffed and we have a record 71 students enrolled. 

Due to the steady increase in enrollment over the past few years, we have now maxed out our current building and are sadly having to turn students away for lack of space.  Our building has been a blessing the past 10 years but it is now time for CAM to search for a bigger facility and with more outdoor space for sports and PE.  During these past two months we have searched and looked at different alternatives, but to date only one place seems both affordable and has sufficient space and buildings.  Pray with us as we continue this process and we seek the Lord's direction and will for CAM's future.  We'll keep you posted as things progress, but in the meantime, just pray.  God knows!

One of the more interesting aspects of the summer (winter here) was the 4th of July celebration held at the US Ambassadors residence.  I was asked to sing the National Anthem.  At first, I thought it was to just a small group, but at the dress rehersal I was informed there would be up to 500 in attendance.  I was a bit nervous, but I think it went well and at least I didn't forget the words.  I was supposed to lead it with others joining in, but it was more of a solo.Here are pictures of our ambassador, Madam Rowe and some of the dignitaries at the event.

Another major occurance was the completion of the Dave and Ann Dedrick's first term on the field.  They have faithfully overseen all the ECC (Every Community for Christ) evangelism teams as well as the CMED (Micro Finance) program and many other responsibilities.  They left for a year of Home Ministry on July 22nd.  That leaves just Susan, myself and Aimee Howarth as the OMS team in Mozambique.  The reality of just the three of us to oversee all our ministires is overwhelming.  But we trust the Lord for his strength and wisdom as we direct the work here this year. 

We are excited that in just six weeks we are anticipating the arrival of missionaries Melvin and Sharon Kelly.  They are from Ireland and will be joining us with their twins (9 months) Joshua and Abigail.  Melvin has spent three years as a missionary in Mozambique but this time he will be returning with a wife and children.  We are so happy to have them join us.  Pray for Melvin and Sharon as they make their adjustment to Mozambique and for their future ministries.  They will be working in Compassionate Ministries within our national churches and seminary.  Pray for Sharon as she studies Portuguese and for Melvin as he refreshes his. 

Another exciting milestone is the near completion of the Mocuba Training Center in Northern Mozambique.  Just this past week it was innaugurated and the first pastoral training seminar conducted by our ECC workers, Juka and Abel was held.  I am anxious to see pictures and hear results soon.  Pray for water for this property as several bore holes were dug but no success in finding water enough to put a hand pump or submersable pump. 

We are also pleased to announce that the National Church has finished the Church Discipline, or as they call it the Manuel de Disciplina.  It has taken over three years to get this far and it is now being presented to the churches.  This document will be so important for the church and its leaders as they grow and mature giving them tools to deal with difficulties, as well as defining pastoral and church leadership roles. 

Anaother exciting opportunity is that we have visitors from Korea with us now for the next three weeks.  This couple, Ilbong and Seung Yeon, are about to finish up a seven month missionary internship in Korea and the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church is sending them to Mozambique as missionaries.  We are helping them with housing, meals, transportation and arranging meetings so they can get a good picture of life in Mozambique and ministry opportunities.  This is a great opportunity for partnership with the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church and OMS Mozambique.  Pray many doors will open for future ministry together.

Personally, we are both doing well and are healthy.  We were able to take five days off recently and go to South Africa for some R & R as well as take care of routine doctor and dentist visits. 

Looking back over the past two months we want to give praise to the Lord as we see His hand in so many things that have taken place.  We also look forward to this next school year knowing that it will be challenging, but also encouraging.  Pray with us for continued good health and strength as we continue to seek the Lord daily for spiritual direction and growth.

God Bless,
Larry & Susan

CAM school Picnic

May 23, 2010

Dear Friends and family,
 
These are very busy days for Susan and myself at CAM school and for the mission.  The past month has been busy with programs, potlucks and yesterday we capped the year with the annual CAM picnic.  We had a very good day of fun and activities for the students and families, but we also had a tragedy.

Would you please pray for John Jeong, a 5th grader at CAM.  We are not sure what happened, but at the picnic area there was a fire pit outside the fence that we think a ball had gone into.  John jumped in to get it (we think) and he didn't know the ash was still hot.  He burned his feet quite badly, so we washed the ash off the burned areas and notified his parents who met us back at CAM.  John was treated at the trauma center and is home recovering.  90% is superficial, but 10% of the burn is serious.  He'll recover, but it will be very painful the next few weeks.  Your prayers would be very much appreciated.

At the picnic we had four bbq's cooking and a large amount of salads and deserts.  Afterwards, our Sixth grade teacher, Ms Davidge, organized many games for the kids to play.  This was the longest picnic we can remember with families not wanting to leave until almost 5pm.  Although there was tragedy, we believe the picnic as a whole was a good ending to the CAM school year.

This coming week will be the final week for our two seniors, Orlando and Miriã.  Graduation is on the 31st and the final day of school is on the 2nd. 

The CAM Yearbook is coming along nicely and we have 2/3 printed and we should be able to finish the remaining seven pages by the end of the week so we can punch, collate and bind the 85 books.  We give out the Yearbook the final day and have a signing party.  We'll end the day with bbq hotdogs, chips and soft drinks for all.

Another item for prayer is the Sunday Night Fellowship.  It is an English service we have been attending for over a year.  We still mentor and attend our Portuguese church service each Sunday morning.

The Sunday Night Fellowship has had some changes as all the former leadership have left the country and now Larry and two others are leading this fellowship.  Larry is also the treaurer/finance person for the church.  We recently moved the service to our seminary.  This is exciting and the service really ministers to Expats and missionaries needing to worship in English.  Pray for us as we seek the Lord's will for this fellowship. 

Lastly, as the end of the school year approaches, we are busy making plans for the next two months.  Several items to pray for:

 1.  CAM textbook order ships from the USA on the 26th and is due to arrive in port July 14th.  Pray it arrives on time and that the paperwork we need to process and clear customs will proceed quickly.

2.  We are losing a few teachers and we need to find qualified replacements for August.  This is very difficult as Mozambican teachers generally are not well trained or speak English well enough to teach the American curriculum we have.  We also have limited finances to be able to offer salaries that are sufficient to interest teachers from the U.S., thus we need missionaries willing to raise their own support but have a heart for teaching missionary children.  3.  Pray for the construction license we are seeking from the govt. to allow us to build on an office and three classrooms during the school break.  The plans are almost finished, but need to be reviewed and agreed upon before we can submit to the government for approval.  This will take a lot of prayer to be able to get the paperwork done soon enough and accepted by the govt. to start and finish this project sufficiently by August 1st so we can have school begin the next week.  We trust the Lord but it will take a miracle for it to happen.  Please pray.

God Bless each and every one. 

Larry & Susan

CAM happenings and more...

April 5, 2010

Dear friends and family,

The last month has been a hectic but exciting time for us in Mozambique. The seminary started on February 15th with 30 students and is doing very well. Director Don Hulsey is doing a great job as well as Daniel Maduel and Xavier Massingue who are all teaching the classes, which last each morning from 8 to 12:30. The next part of the curriculum consists of hiring tutors who are teaching the students who don't have a 10th or 12th grade education. These are big milestones for Mozambicans and because of the civil war which lasted 17 years and ended in 1992, we are just now realizing the devistation of the educational system which is now just recovering. I remember talking back in 1996 when we first arrived and seen the poor education standards, if any, and that we realized that it would take an entire generation for the country to improve...and it has. We are finally seeing young people graduating and going to college. A new merging middle class is developing. Mozambique is moving forward, and we have felt it a privilege to have been here and seen it happen first hand.

Each year we take the CAM students on a field trip. Many times we go to South Africa or Swaziland for two or three days. But we have wanted to find something here in Mozambique and this year we were able to go to Maputo Bay Adventures which is a survival camp just a little over an hour from Maputo, or 2.5 hrs by catamaran boat.

The first trip in February was for the 7-9th grade boys. There were seven of them and I (Larry) went as one of the chaparones. The camp is run by missionary friends, Jim and Stacie Bowers, who are using the camp to reach a more educated class of young people in the Maputo area. The camp is quite primative as we stay in tents and rough it a bit in the bush. The food is always great and the activities are full of challenges for the students to stretch themselves as well as develop key teamwork skills.

There were physical challenges and mental challenges associated with learning to use compasses and GPSes to find clues and locations on long hikes. One hike I was on was to be 7.5km but ended up being 15km due to lots of wrong pathes taken. But it was exciting to see the kids work through problems and learn to overcome them. On one long hike they had to find a village, barter their hats and machetes for two chickens, fire wood and manioca (tuber root). They didn't realize at the time that what they got was dinner and they had to kill, clean and cook the chickens and manioca. I have just one picture of "dinner" for the squeemish at heart....:)

A few of the favorite challenges were archery, team work to get everyone over the "Berlin Wall" and climbing the rock wall.

In the late evening all the students had to take turns with "guard" duty for two hours. A staff person was on duty as well and gave opportunity to just talk freely around the campfire about anything, including solving all the worlds problems and great discussions about Christ and what He means to each of us.

The last of the feld trips was taking 22 3rd-6th graders to Swaziland.  Susan  and four adults went along and the kids had a great time and experience.  They left at 6am on Friday and returned Saturday evening.  Their first stop was to a factory that makes specialty soaps out of marula fruit oils.  It was quite interesting as the kids were given a tour and also were able to tun the machine to crush the nuts to extract the oil.  They then drove to Nisela Safaris where they stayed the night in traditional Swaziland bee-hive huts.  The kids loved hem and the challenge was to get in and out of the litle door which was about two feet tall.  The day cntinued with a drive through safari where the students saw man variets of animals and were able to get out of the vehciles and see some close-up.  Fortunately there were no carnivores at this game park.  In the evening the students cooked over an open fire and made up skits to entertain everyone.  It was a very long day and extremely hot so everyone was tired but the kids didn't want to go to bed as the beehives were so hot and had no fans.  Eventually all were told to go to bed as the next day was to be a long one as well.

Saturday morning they left the camp and drove to Manzini where they toured the Swazi Candle Factory and craft shops.  They were given demonstrations by a master candle maker where he was able to make an elephant from a block of wax.  Many of the students were also given wax for them to experiment with. 

All in all, the trip was a great experience for the kids and adults.  They arrived home Saturday evening full of stories and tired from their long days.  We are so thankful for having such amazing students.  Many commented on how well behaved (really?) was the group and we too think they are special in deed.

Thank you for your prayers and continue them as we need the Lord's wisdom and vision to meet the challenges of running CAM school. 

in Christ,

Larry & Susan Weil

Seminary Program Launching 15 Feb 2010

13 February 2010

Dear friends and family,

Tomorrow is Valentines Day. And even in Mozambique there are lots of flowers on the streets and lots of pink Valentine gifts being sold up and down the street. It is one of the few foreign holidays that is really remembered here. And I think that is special...just like Susan is special to me after 28 years of marriage.

So much has happened since I last gave an update, so I am sure I will forget some important things, but what is exciting is that on Monday, February 15th, the seminary will launch its first year program with 30 students. The applicants come not only from our own national church "Living Word Evangelical Church" but from 14 other recognized churches in Mozambique. This will give a great mix of students. Ages range from 21 (minimum required) to 65.

Of course we have had Bible teaching going on since 2001, but only on a part-time basis. Now, these will be all-day students and this is a big change. We are so privileged to have Pastor Don Hulsey as our new seminary director and he has been working closely with our Dean of Students, Daniel Maduel and Xavier Massingue, our Registrar. Between the three of them they will share the teaching load for this first year.

We covet your prayers as we step out in faith to begin the program knowing we don't have the necessary scholarships and sponsorships to even run the program more than a few months, but God knows all this. I have been working hard on a funding letter which is now at OMS USA for editing, and once that is approved, we will be able to mail out to our supporters and interested friends and churches who have a special interest in seminary students knowing that it will be helping our graduates who will soon be pastoring, training and equipping the growing national church in Mozambique for the Gospel.

At CAM school, we are well into our second semester now and in January we added three new students bringing us to a record number of 61 students from 19 different countries. The challenge is that they are Portuguese first-language students and all are needing special tutoring to learn English to integrate into their classes.

We also are enjoying the return of Dr. Claude and Marilynn Meyers (former CAM director/founders from 1996-2006.) The Meyers are with us for five weeks and are helping out with tutoring, swimming and a drama to be performed in early March. The Meyers are staying with us making our home full.

CAM also is benefiting from a security upgrade grant from the US Embassy. Over the past two years many improvements have been made around CAM school and we had about used up the money we received, but about six months ago the plan to add a generator to run the school when power cuts happen was contemplated and submitted for approval. It was finally granted in late November and an extension received to install the generator by the end of February 2010. Well, the generator is resting at CAM and just needs it to be wired to the building. This will be such a huge blessing so that school can run as usual even if the power goes out. Computers and air-conditioners will continue to run and that is important on these very hot days.

Another exciting thing that happened over Christmas. We met a young man from the US who distributes solar-powered hand-held electronic Bibles. He has the ability to put eight Mozambican languages on the units. Well, we have a guard at our home who can't read and I was able to buy an electronic Bible in Portuguese and his HEART language. You should have seen his face when I turned it on for the first time and he heard the Gospels in his own language. He faithfully listens to it and others are asking if they can get one. Looks like I might need to raise some funds for this new need.

Lastly, for the past seven years we have been sharing a small water tank (750 liters) at our home with a home behind us. Almost every day when we would return home from CAM the tank would be empty and we would have no water until the following morning when the local water supply would start to fill up the tank again. Last November a supporting church informed us of some money we could use for a project. We shared the difficulties we had with our water system, and it was agreed. We added a second tank (one tank for each home) new water pumps, new piping and finished cement work around the tanks. Now we are enjoying water every day and that has just made life a bit easier for us. PTL!!!

God Bless,

Larry & Susan