October 16, 2006

Dear Friends,

I want to first of all thank all of you for praying for us while I was in Mozambique.

My trip went better than we expected; no sickness, no big problems, just blessings upon blessings.

When I arrived at the Beira airport I was met by about 8 men from three of the churches. It was overwhelming to learn that several had ridden their bicycles up to ninety miles just to meet me at the airport; that took the edge off of my thirty hours of traveling. What a blessing it was to meet with these precious servants of God. The ladies had prepared a meal for us so after the greetings, that took a while, we ate and I proceeded to my hotel room; nice, comfortable and about $22 USD per night including breakfast.

On the 17th of September we headed for Subue, the town where we held the seminar with the pastors and church leaders. It was supposed to be a 7 hour trip but we had a breakdown in a town called Gorongosa, near the lion park of the same name. After 7 hours we were back on the road and we arrived at the village about 6:30 AM, completely exhausted! After some rest, we had an afternoon session with the men. For the next five days, we discussed the practical and doctrinal aspects of the local church ministry and I took them through a short review of Christian doctrine form the Bible. What a blessing this time was. We had no electricity, no water in the houses (made of sticks and mud) no cell phones, no nothing but the people our Bibles and the Lord.  It was great!!

I was asked by the local government official to stay in his house which I accepted after I found out the great privilege he was extending to me and to the church. They felt that it would help the church greatly for me to accept. However, even though it was a concrete block building, there still was no electricity and I washed in river water brought up by his servants every day. And it was great!!

Our trip back down the hill was really uneventful and we had a glorious day of good weather to travel. The rest of my time was spent in the company of one of the pastors or in the churches preaching. In all I preached in five churches. The people were such a blessing and it was great to see a good spirit of cooperation between the churches and pastors. In Subue, two people came to faith in Christ in the services. On the Sunday in Subue we met with about 80 people in the young church. And it was great!!

My time in Beira towards the end of my trip was spent in talking through future plans with the pastors and discovering what we can use of the local facilities for the future Bible Institute. They have asked me to head up the organization and begin the training of the first institute students, beginning in September of 2007, the Lord willing. There are a number of difficulties that we need to find solutions for but we are sure of God's leading and that is enough for us to proceed with plans to begin next year. We are planning another short trip like this year but maybe for two months at the most; we hope to be able to teach two three week blocks of three hours each weekday evening and then spend two weeks visiting and preaching in the churches. And it will be great!!

Again thank you for your prayers. Please pray for the pastors and churches in Mozambique. They face spiritual opposition and economic problems that make even the simplest ministry task nearly impossible. We are praying about what can be done to help these impoverished brethren. What they have asked for is training to help build the future leadership of the Independent Baptist Churches in the country of Mozambique.

You should find a few pictures attached to this email God bless you.

Alan & Kathy Hart

Independent Baptist Churches of Mozambique: www.igbim.org