Read the two-minute version in red below.

The dust has finally settled after our conference and seminar season, and I am glad to turn my attention to sending out this report.

395 Church leaders and wives attended the 2023 Fiel Conference in Nampula

Conference season is over.

A preliminary review of the conference was provided two days after it ended. Since then, we have processed the questionnaires and evaluations filled in by over three hundred of the participants. The surveys provide a treasure trove of information about the doctrinal convictions of our participants and the degree to which the conference and literature ministries are shaping this. A report on this has already been prepared and will be sent out in a couple of weeks for those who are interested in reading it.

We'll send a report on it in a few weeks.

This letter is an update on major events since the conference and seminars ended five weeks ago.

Here is current news.

Immediately after the conference I taught two week-long theology seminars for 22 students who stayed on for the six-day course. Soon after that, Julie and I enjoyed a 12-day visit from Marco and Laura Scouvert, like-minded missionaries serving in South Africa. After working alone in church planting for the past 18 years, it was a treat to have a seminary trained church planter and Bible teacher on hand to discuss matters related to ministry, family, and daily Christian life!

A missionary family serving in South Africa visited us for 12 days.

Our families were brought together by a mutual friend (Pr. Jim Elliff) at the time of my operation early this year when I was looking for someone who could carry on the church ministry in Nampula, at least for a while, if I were unable to return. Though I am glad to be back in the traces, I would relish having a colleague like Marco who could help the church in all the ways I and our other bi-vocational leaders cannot because of lack of time or training. I am sure the church also longs for that!

Visiting our godchildren at the Island of Mozambique, left to right, Carlos and Nelzia Sel, Marco and Laura Scouvert with Abigail and Matthew, Charles and Julie Woodrow

We met them through my search for a successor in the Nampula church ministry.

Soon after the Scouverts returned home, Julie and I intended to depart for South Africa for Julie’s shoulder operation in early November. Unfortunately for us, several urgent church matters have constrained us to remain here for the present.

Next on our agenda is Julie's surgery in South Africa.

One concern that came up unexpectedly and has consumed several weeks was revising our church’s bylaws. This is something that the church has wanted to do since its inception. In 1998, under communist rule, it was a requirement that all congregations had to be registered with the government before they could hold worship services, own property, or open a bank account. We tried to comply, but we failed to meet the requirement of having 500 members. Growing a church to 500 members without being allowed to legally meet is a deliberate Catch 22 circumstance that was devised by the colonial Portuguese regime more than 30 years previously to keep any religion apart from Catholicism from spreading in Mozambique. The communists who took over in 1975 were only too happy to leave this law on the books.

Mozambican law requires 500 members for registration before a church can legally meet.

Besides the fact that we did not have 500 faithful members, another reason we were refused registration was because our Constitution and our Book of Faith and Practice were not in the format required by the government for bylaws. Remarkably, however, after turning down our request to register, the National Director of Religious Affairs studied and appreciated the book of Faith and Practice, and with no further contact from our end, wrote bylaws for our church that carefully followed our manual which he cited repeatedly in his document. He then called to say he was sending an official to Nampula the next weekend to register our church and that we must prepare a big celebration for Saturday. To us this was unbelievable, a miracle that fell out of heaven with no prior inkling on our part! I have heard of no other church before or since that was registered this way or whose bylaws were written by the National Director of Religious Affairs himself!  

God miraculously allowed us to bypass this hurdle at our congregation's inception...

However, thankful as we were for this gift from God, we were dismayed that the Director wrote into the bylaws some of his own ideas about the purpose of a church – to preach against alcohol and tobacco and to promote tolerance, to mention a few things sprinkled throughout the document that jarred with the more Christ-centered aims and the Biblical language he incorporated from our own statements.  

...albeit with a few strange phrases in our government-prepared bylaws.

What compelled us to finally make this global revision to our by-laws now, just as Julie and I were preparing to depart for South Africa, was an urgent request for help from our brothers in Mission Ekklesia, the indigenous Reformed work that we have often written about and have assisted in Nampula since its inception ten years ago. The three leaders were members of our congregation and/or former students in my theology seminar. In recent years these men have earned Masters’ degrees from good Reformed seminaries in Brazil and are opening a Reformed Evangelical seminary in Nampula. However, for the seminary to be credentialed by the government it must be established under a registered church, and we are the only like-minded possibility around that is registered.  They hope to start offering classes in January, hence the need for us to alter our bylaws quickly to include a seminary.

The impetus for updating our bylaws now is our friends' need for a registered church to sponsor their seminary.

Inserting a few clauses about a seminary is a small task, but guiding the document through the bureaucratic maze to obtain legal status takes weeks. Since we already had to invest so much time in the endeavor, the leaders decided to spend an additional few days extensively revising the bylaws and, most importantly, establishing an association of autonomous Reformed Evangelical churches under our charter. That section alone takes up one third of our new bylaws. The hope is that other like-minded congregations can obtain legal status by joining us through this association of churches.

In the process, we're creating an association of Reformed Evangelical churches under our legal umbrella.

Providing this opportunity is essential, if it can be done, because 48 years after obtaining independence, Mozambique is finally re-writing its Religious Regulation Law. After a century of religiously hostile rule by Catholic-minded Portuguese settlers followed by twenty years of control by ardent Marxists, Mozambique became a democracy 28 years ago and adopted a constitution that guarantees religious freedom and the right of Mozambicans to assemble. Yet ironically, the proposed Religious Regulation Law being drawn up by Mozambique’s “democratic” ruling body is even more restrictive to religion than either the Catholic or Marxist regimes were. The Law being considered still forbids the assembly of people in a church that is not registered, but now, instead of needing 500 members before a church can meet legally, it must have 2000 members! And that number may increase even more before the Law is enacted. Such is the attitude governments these days are taking toward Christianity, even in Africa, even in allegedly democratic societies!

This is important because the government may soon require 2000 or more members for registration and/or enforce its prohibition on unregistered church meetings.

I am thankful that during the 33 years I have lived in Mozambique, the government has turned a blind eye to unregistered churches. I hope that policy continues. Still, unregistered churches cannot own land or have a bank account or enter into legal agreements with anyone. Worse, some unregistered churches have been threatened by local officials asking to see their registration papers. These churches are keenly aware that the officials have power to shut them down for operating illegally. Even if the central government tolerates the church’s existence, opportunistic local officials can use the church’s vulnerability under these hostile laws as a means of financial gain. This is typical “modus operandi” in this part of the world!

Unregistered churches usually aren't harassed, but neither can they own property or make contracts.

As expected, it took several days of work and research to revise the document, but it has taken weeks to get all the signatures in hand and paperwork properly formatted just to get the document past the first rung on the bureaucratic ladder. We would appreciate prayers that this step may be accomplished successfully for the sake of churches that one day may need this connection with us to ward off rapacious government officials, and that the approval can be granted quickly so that the seminary can open in January.

Pray for a quick and successful ratification of our amended bylaws by the government.

To our shock, we discovered after the Fiel Conference that our bookshop attendant sold nearly 1800 books from the store in the past 16 months without invoices, putting the money in his own pocket and changing the stock in the computer to make the computer say the books never existed. Because the worker had not been taught how to change the inventory in the computer, we assumed this sort of scam could not happen. Since the monthly stock inventories almost always agreed with what the computer said should be on the shelves, we did not detect the deception for a long time. We only became suspicious when we discovered books were sold to friends with no computer invoice being issued. A thorough investigation quickly revealed that what we had discovered through our friends was only the proverbial tip of a very large iceberg.

Over 16 months, our bookshop employee pocketed one-third of sales money and altered our computerized inventory to hide his theft.

The worker did not realize that the Mission’s conscientious administrator was making and storing backups of the computer files every month. Comparing consecutive backups and noting the books sold via the computer during each interval revealed the startling fact that one third of the books disappearing from our shop month by month were not paid for – at least, not to the Mission. When the full investigation was completed, the loss to the Mission came to 15 thousand dollars, or ten times the annual income of a typical Mission employee!

We discovered the problem after friends tipped us off that they were not receiving computerized invoices.

The worker did not realize that the Mission’s conscientious administrator was making and storing backups of the computer files every month. Comparing consecutive backups and noting the books sold via the computer during each interval revealed the startling fact that one third of the books leaving our shop month by month were not paid for – at least, not to the Mission. When the full investigation was completed, the loss to the Mission came to 15 thousand dollars, or ten times the annual income of a typical Mission employee!

A painstaking comparison of inventory backups with sales records revealed the embezzlement.

The Mission is requiring full restitution, but as seems to happen with thieves, our worker may have squandered all the money he stole. Apart from $1,100 worth of books we have taken from his own home, we have not found a way to recover anything significant, but we are only starting our inquiries.

We sell the books at cost or even under cost to make them affordable to local believers, so we never have surplus funds from the store to make up for losses that we incur. Our main disappointment financially speaking is that replacing the books sold in the past year will require paying $15,000 beyond what we have received through the sales of the other books. This is just to get us back to what we had on hand before. We also give away hundreds of books away to church leaders who participate in reading clubs that meet monthly to discuss the last book read and receive a new one. We were planning to greatly increase this program for 2024 and will be processing our book order in December for the next year expecting to provide for these many reading groups. We beseech Jehovah Jireh to enable us to recover from this unexpected setback to our plans literature ministry!

We don't see how we can receive the full restitution we require.

We had ambitious plans to greatly increase the literature ministry this year, and are praying that God will yet enable us to do this!

As noted already, the three seminary-trained brothers with Mission Ekklesia have been strongly encouraged by seminary professors they have met with in Europe and the U.S. to establish a Reformed seminary in Mozambique. God has raised up these brothers and drawn them to Nampula from various parts of the country, and I can vouch for the fact that they are impressive academically and spiritually. They performed well in their studies at a respected Reformed seminary in Brazil, and two are now working on a second master’s degree. The third was already a university professor with an advanced degree in philosophy before starting his master’s program in theology.

The Ekklesia brothers, local faculty for a new Reformed seminary, left to right Ibrahimo, Timóteo, and Valoi

Three Mozambican seminarians we know and respect are establishing a Reformed seminary here.

These men have successfully recruited a number of Portuguese-speaking professors from overseas to help teach students via Internet courses. For those of us who long for the church in Mozambique to embrace the gospel of salvation by grace through faith and establish itself firmly upon a correct understanding of the word of God, this seminary represents a great step in the right direction!

Online classes with overseas professors will boost the gospel's spread in Mozambique.

Fees for people who will be starting their seminary studies in January are $150 per semester. The seminary also offers a master’s degree for qualified individuals through Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS) in Grand Rapids, MI. The fees for that course are $100 per month.

Mozambicans pay only $150 per semester, or $100 per month for the master's program.

Just this week I was contacted by Pastor Paulo, a former Assembly of God leader, inquiring if I knew how he could receive sponsorship for enrolling in the PRTS master’s course offered through Ekklesia’s seminary. The pastor is a retired high school teacher, yet like the Apostle Paul, even in his 60’s he continues to thirst for a deeper knowledge of God’s word.  

Pastor Joaquim António Paulo

Pastor Paulo, a retired teacher, seeks sponsorship for his master's in theology.

Pastor Paulo has an interesting story. Fifteen years ago, he began attending our Fiel Conferences from 650 miles away. That may not sound like a great distance, but Google says it is an 18-hour journey traveling over our kinds of roads. Through the conferences he came to understand the doctrines of grace, but when he began preaching salvation by grace through faith rather than the works salvation his own denomination insists upon, he was soon marginalized. It was not long before he realized that if he wanted to preach the gospel of grace unfettered, he would have to establish an independent congregation – one of those congregations vulnerable to being shut down at any time by unfriendly officials due to not being registered with the government!

He came to understand the doctrines of grace through our conferences and left his denomination to establish an independent congregation preaching the truth.

For many months, maybe longer, his wife could not understand what had come over her husband. She saw no reason to abandon their former denomination, so he went off to preach in his new church each Sunday while she continued to meet with her friends in their old church. Eventually she began to see the difference between what her husband was teaching from the Bible at home and what she was hearing at church. Once she was fully convinced of salvation by grace through faith, she joined her husband’s ministry and has supported him ever since. 

It took his wife a while to realize he was right.

Even while teaching high school and pastoring a church, this man completed a law degree. Despite his varied qualifications, since retiring from teaching he has devoted himself full time to ministry to his own and other congregations. He continues to travel to the Fiel Conferences bringing with him pastor friends he is influencing, signing them up for my post conference seminar.

He earned a law degree but pastors full-time.

One of our own church members was transferred to his city for a year, so we put the two of them in touch. Our member was thankful to be in this man’s congregation and learned much from him.  

A member of our church spent a profitable year in Paulo's assembly.

During my phone conversation with this pastor, I mentioned that while I longed to see him have this opportunity to learn even more, I wanted to be sure we had money for the 2024 book order, the 2024 Fiel Conference, and all the new reading groups we hope to establish this year before starting a fund for sponsoring students in Ekklesia’s seminary programs! However, I am happy to pass along his story for those who might have other priorities. The total cost would be $1000 a year for three years.

Our financial priorities are our conference and literature ministries, but maybe yours are different.

A brief interview with Pastor Paulo is part of the video “Faithful” prepared by Tim Challies. At 19:30 in the video, he serves as a spokesman for many other Mozambicans explaining how through the conference ministry he came to realize there were serious errors in the message he and others were preaching to their congregations.

Tim Challies interviewed Pastor Paulo in his video "Faithful".

We are thankful that Julie’s shoulder pain has been manageable for the lengthy time she has had to wait for her operation. Relief from the steroid injections should have worn off months ago, so we ascribe the good results to the prayers of God’s people. Unfortunately, other joints are wearing out too, and sometimes we wonder if their complaints are not simply drowning out the cries still being sent to her brain by the damaged shoulder! Julie’s operation has been scheduled for 7 December. Please pray that this time it can truly take place!

Julie's shoulder pain is under control as we await her December 7 operation.

I am well after my own operation last February. When I resumed my old aerobic workouts ten weeks after my coronary bypass procedure, I was amazed to discover how weak I was! It has taken months of training to do even half of what I used to do when I had a bad heart. Fondly I hoped that the three additional vessels sending blood and oxygen to my myocardium would result in more speed and energy for both work and exercise, but unfortunately my dreams of a turbo-charged pump and ramped-up ministry have not yet been realized! It appears age is taking away strength faster than the operation and physical training can give it back.

I've recovered from my February surgery, but my strength is waning as I age.

The past months have been a time of increased spiritual need for people all around us. The worker in our bookshop is not a member of our church but is nevertheless a soul we formerly looked upon as secure in Christ. Now we wonder and are dismayed. There is another presumed believer on our team, also from another church, who has systematically stolen from us as well for two years, though in a much-restricted way because of limited opportunity. His recurrent transgressions only came to light in the past week.

People close to us have significant spiritual needs.

And there are souls in our own fellowship that for months have needed special on-going attention. Applying the word of God to their circumstances is not the hard part. I am keenly aware that pastoring them, wooing them, encouraging and loving them into a position of spiritual strength is beyond the pale of men operating alone. We pray for God to work, even against their will, to make them will and do according to His good pleasure. That is a task only God can perform, though somehow pastors must attempt to do it too. For months, Julie and I have been praying for success to this end for several in our congregation. We would appreciate your prayers in their behalf.

Pray for God to transform their lives by His grace.

I hope this account has given you a glimpse of what the Lord continues to do here in north Mozambique even during our “slow” time of year. I trust readers can appreciate the momentum that is building on the one hand, and Satan’s attempts to thwart God’s work on the other. We appreciate prayer for these many individuals and ministries, and are so thankful to God and to you for your ongoing interest and the generous financial help that makes these ministries possible!

Thank you for your prayers and gifts.