The African country of Mozambique is a study in contrasts. Empower recently sent a team there to teach New Man, New Woman, New Life, and as usual, the teaching brought about powerful results.
Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest and underdeveloped countries in the world, but its economy is currently one of the fastest growing in the world.
Located just northeast of South Africa along the coast of the Indian Ocean, Mozambique is about twice the size of the state of California.
And although an estimated 56 percent of the population is Christian, the culture at large often stands in direct contrast to Christian values. Witchcraft, sexual promiscuity, and Animism pervade the culture.Sadly, these influences have become entwined in the church (so that people have trouble discerning the difference between cultural norms and Biblical truth).
The local chapter of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) urged Empower African Program Director Pastor Frank Michael Tweheyo, to return after Frank’s earlier visit there. They hosted the seminar and gave Frank and his wife, Pastor Phobice Tweheyo, a warm welcome (including having the staff march past them singing “Bom Vindo, BomVido (Welcome, Welcome) Frank and Phobice,” which Frank said moved him to tears because it was so heartfelt and unexpected.
The people of Mozambique are friendly and welcoming. Yet in another baffling contrast, the culture teaches men that they are to be the rulers of their home—a role they enforce not just with words but often with physical violence. Men beat their wives for minor infractions such as burning their dinner or talking back to them. This behavior is so culturally expected Christian men often engage in it, thinking it is “normal.” Many believe it is even biblical, as they have syncretized God’s word and the secular culture so completely.
Pastors Frank and Phobice traveled from Uganda, where they live, to Nampula, to teach the New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar to about 33 people, which included mostly pastors and their wives, and some civic leaders from the city. Their hosts eagerly presented gifts to Frank and Phobice.
Empower eagerly accepts invitations like this one because we hope that these pastors and their wives will not only gain information, but have their own lives and marriages transformed. They will then take this new way of living and understanding God’s word to their congregation, multiplying the impact of the seminar exponentially.
As often happens when we teach the New Man, New Woman seminar, the Holy Spirit begins to work. The teaching and subsequent group discussion challenged and convicted the pastors gathered in Nampula.
Frank, via email, tells what happened:
“One Pastor, Philippe, repented on his own behalf and on behalf of other pastors for allowing culture to take the upper hand, and making them rulers instead of servants. One other, (name withheld ) repented on his own behalf and on behalf of others for actively beating wives as culturally expected.”
We’ll post more details about the trip later (and some great photos) this week. But we wanted to share these life changing-confessions and transformation that came as a direct result of the Empower teaching. Your support of Empower is changing lives!
Please pray for all of these pastors and their families: that the seeds planted in this seminar would take root and flourish, that the participants would share the message of mutual respect and biblical equality with their congregations, that the men who confessed would truly change their actions, and above all, that God would be glorified in Mozambique.