Mozambique pastors visit tribal ministries
Last week several pastors accompanied New Tribes Mission leaders in Mozambique to two tribal villages to observe the ministry there.
Every year NTM leaders meet with an advisory board of Mozambican pastors to discuss the progress of the work and receive their input. Board members and several pastors accompanied the leaders on their journey.
One group traveled to the Mwinkas to observe the culture and language learning progress of the missionaries there.
The missionary team discussed the Mwinka world view and culture with the pastors and helped them understand that God's Word would be taught in the Mwinka language taking account of the cultural barriers to the Gospel.
Another group of mission leaders and pastors went to the Lolo work. The pastors were delighted to see the translated Scripture portions and written Bible lessons, and hear the audio recording of the lessons that the team has prepared.
The next day the two groups met in a near-by town to discuss their findings.
A missionary leader wrote that one of the pastors heard the missionaries in the Lolo ministry say, "God has helped us... it isn't us, it is God." The pastor said that he observed this intimacy with God in our team there. "This is the secret", he said, "Intimacy with God is necessary to do this work."
Many pastors were amazed at how the communities in both places had accepted the missionaries and that the missionaries were invited to the tribal ceremonies.
One of the pastors said, "We want to stand together with these brothers in faith. We want to learn to enter at the grass-roots level and then [share] the Word of God. We will pray."
Pray that the missionaries in the Lolo and Mwinka tribes will continue to build relationships with the tribal people. Pray also that the advisory board and other pastors will more clearly understand the objective of tribal church planting.