APRIL – JULY 2015

After a very long time, the mobile clinic (ACRIS) finally arrived on the 1st April with Helen Meyer, under whose guidance they had quite a fruitful day. A lot of people were able to receive very necessary medical attention, and we are very grateful to Helen and her team.

Marie Smit from Villa Ullongwe also came in April to teach the women of Chandame more about knitting. Our women learned a lot, and always enjoy Marie’s lessons. Several of them have started knitting on their own, and we are very excited to see their new skills develop.

A highlight in Chandame is the market we have every Thursday. Vendors from all over Mozambique come to sell their goods, and we have seen the market grow quite a lot. Here we are able to buy our food and some daily supplies, but medicines we still have to buy in Malawi. We crossed the border for more medicines, and had a talk with dr Renier about the clinic we are building in Chandame. He gave us positive input which helped a lot.

My day-to-day clinic is still running and I ask for your constant prayers in this. We had a 13 year old girl who came to us with swollen glands, and referred her to Nkhoma hospital. They diagnosed her with cancer, and are busy treating her in Villa Ullongwe at this stage. I ask that you also pray for her. Our sermon of 19 April reminded me (John 17:3 and Psalm 100) to not rely on your own power, but to constantly focus on God.

Jan and Marieta van Schalkwyk from Ceres and Joel and Hanlie came to visit us on 30 April for two weeks. They helped us to paint our kitchen, make curtains, helped finish some chairs, fixed the ripper and much more. It was wonderful to have friends visit us, and we enjoyed their stay tremendously. They spoiled us a lot, taking over the kitchen and cooking for us.

The first weekend in May Kobus and Ronell Verreyne, also missionaries from Zambia, came to support us a bit with our missionary work, which we appreciated a lot – many thanks to them! On the 12th of May we visited our farm, Mwala Madzi. They gave us wonderful advice. The purpose of Mwala Madzi is to uplift the community by creating jobs to the locals. Whilst doing this, we will teach them the principles of Farming God’s Way, thereby enabling them to become self-sufficient. We also want to be able to support other missionaries as well as spread our own missionary work from the proceeds of the farm.

We have planted a few Sandveld potato seedlings a while ago, and now had a good harvest, which we sold on our Chandame market. We plan to expand our farming activities even more, but first need to generate some cash to do this.

Our pastor accepted a calling to another congregation on the 7th of June. He gave his farewell sermon at church, which was filled with people from our 18 prayer houses. We were sad to see him go, but we know that he was obedient to the voice of the Lord. The Lord gave him two scriptures in a dream, Jonah 1:1-17 and Matthew 29:19-20. We are sure he will continue spreading the Word with passion. On the 12th of June 2015 we took pastor to his new congregation in Khandale. All our blessings and prayers are with him and his family.

Now we had to call a new pastor to Chandame. We left it in the hands of the Lord and our elders. The right family will be called and will come to Chandame.

On 13th June 2015 we left for South Africa to start a new project, enabling us to generate funds to spread the Word of God and finish our clinic. The clinic already has a roof, and the first layer of paint, but we need money to do the interior (plumbing, cupboards, shelves and ceiling). We left for South Africa to fix a tow-truck and bring it back to Mozambique. Jannie is busy going over the mechanics of the truck. As soon as the truck is roadworthy, we will be leaving for Chandame. There is a need for recovery trucks, as there are accidents weekly. We are going to do the recovery of the vehicles with Wynand and Tanya Theron, who are staying in Tete. We are very excited about this project. This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. Jannie listened to the voice of God, and we continued only after we were sure that this was part of God’s plan. We also ask for your prayers in this.

Lastly, we would like to thank you for your continued prayers. Our finances limit us many times to do everything we would like to do, but God has always supplied in our needs. A big thank you also to everyone in Rawsonville for their support and help whilst fixing the truck.

 

Jannie and Susan Smit

 

PS: I have found the following verses quite helpful in my study of the Bible, and would like to share them with you:

  • Isaiah 37:33-35
  • 1 Chronicles 29:18
  • Micah 6:8,9
  • Psalm 126:3 – 4
  • Matthew 7:18