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Letter From Chad Vanden Bosch
April 2, 2011
Dear Friends,
Life here in Mozambique has continued to be hectic...but good. The
transition of the first month or so definitely had its rough spots, but
now it seems like things are starting to click. For the past 6 weeks I
have been taking Portuguese lessons which are finally starting to pay
off. Like any language learning experience, there is that phase where
you feel really stupid because you know enough nouns, verbs and
adjectives to follow conversation, but don't know really how they all
fit together to make a coherent sentence. There were a number of weeks
where the response to pretty much any sentence I tried to say in
Portuguese was the raised eyebrow and blank look that told me I still
didn't have a clue what I was doing. :) I obviously still have a ton
of work in the language learning department, but at least I'm starting
to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
A few weeks ago Sergio and I had the opportunity to travel up to central
Mozambique to distribute audio Bibles in the Shona language. These
distribution trips are always a highlight for me and this was no
exception. We spent 4 days around the city of Chimoio distributing
about 130 audio Bibles and showing the Jesus Film at 3 different
locations. The demand for audio Bibles in that area, like most of
Mozambique, is incredible! Last year Sergio traveled up to this same
location to do a small distribution of about 50 audio Bibles. These 50
audio Bibles filtered out into many of the surrounding areas and within
weeks the pastor who helps us distribute these units was inundated with
people seeking God's Word in audio. By that time the 50 units were long
gone so he had to turn people away empty handed, telling them they had
to wait until we brought more. There were a number of people who were
not satisfied with that answer, and so they began scouring every little
store in the city of Chimoio looking for these MegaVoice audio Bibles.
Finally so many people were asking the local merchants for these that
they started to come to our pastor friend asking where he got them from
so that they could also get some to put on their shelves! :) Needless
to say, our 130 audio Bibles did not last long. Hundreds of people,
many of whom have never heard God's Word before are now listening!
While we were there we also heard some great stories of how the Lord is
using His Word in audio to continue to reach the people of Mozambique.
One of my favorite stories has to do do with an unlikely evangelist. We
were told of a church member who received one of the audio Bible last
year. This man was not educated and couldn't even read, but had an
evangelists heart. He ended up sewing a little bag that could hang
around his neck that would hold his MegaVoice audio Bible. Now,
wherever he goes, he has his Bible hanging around his neck reading God's
Word to anyone who will listen. Many people ask him about what they are
hearing and he has used this simple tool to lead many to the Lord!
There really is power in God's holy Word!
This trip up to Chimoio was also exciting for me because I finally got
to see the fulfillment of a dream that I had many years ago. The idea
was simple, fit a 4x4 vehicle with all the necessary equipment to turn
it into a self-sufficient mobile movie theater. I originally tried to
implement this with the vehicle I drove in Mexico...but I was a little
ahead of the technology and was never able to find a way to power a
projector and amplifier long enough to show the entire film without
having to carry along a noisy, smelly and potentially unreliable
generator. Thanks to LED projector technology, this is now feasible. I
installed a second battery in the back of my truck(that still charges
from the alternator) and all the necessary wiring for the projector and
amplifier. All we had to do was drive to the location, set out the
speakers and screen, and we were ready to go! It worked flawlessly! We
showed the film three consecutive nights in three different locations
where it had never been shown before due to remoteness and lack of
power. Each night we had a great response, but the third night was
something special. After bashing the truck down a footpath, we were
directed to pull over into an empty field in what seemed to be the
middle of no-where. This field had been cleared just for this purpose.
There was no church in this area yet, but some believers from another
area had cleared this field and planned this showing to help plant a new
church. After getting the speakers and screen set up, we started the
film and people started coming in droves. Soon there were a couple
hundred people who seem to have materialized out of no-where to sit in
the dirt to watch the story of Jesus unfold. Before the film we had
distributed a few audio Bibles and as those made their way around the
crowd, more and more people came to use to receive their own. About
halfway through the film we got a heckler in the crowd. This is not
totally uncommon, and in fact, is something that I find kind of
exciting. You see, when the Lord is really doing something powerful,
the devil always tries to interfere and distract. So when the hecklers
come, it means that something powerful is happening. After a few
minutes the heckler left, and if anything, the crowd was larger because
people came to see what the ranting and raving was about. At the end of
the film we had a local evangelist speak and had several people come
forward to receive Jesus Christ as their personal savior. We also had
over 50 people who raised their hands to say they would be at this new
church's first service on the following Sunday! God is good!!
Aside from this distribution trip, we also have many pots in the fire
back here at our studio. In my last update I mentioned that we were
clearing our land in preparation to start our new studio building
project. After about 2 weeks of slaving away in the hot african sun,
the land was clear and all my toes are still attached! A couple of
weeks ago we took the next step and built a store-room where we can
warehouse our building supplies. This was really quite an interesting
experience for me considering that the building is built mostly of reeds
which are then plastered with cement. Coming from a world where
everything is dimensional lumber and drywall...this was a new
experience. It also became abundantly clear that gathering building
supplies here is not quite like driving down to Home Depot. We spent
two days driving all over the countryside picking up wooden poles from
the market, cement blocks from some guys back yard where they make them
by hand, reeds from the Limpopo river flood plane, crushed cement from
an old demolished building, and even sand from the dunes near the
beach. Getting the sand actually ended up being somewhat of a failed
clandestine operation. You see, you can hire some guys with an old beat
up tractor and trailer to haul a load of sand for you...but that costs
about $40. Sergio and Steve thought we could save that money and go
down to the beach ourselves and fetch it. The guys directed me down a
sandy two-track that led toward the beach. After a few kilometers the
sand got really deep and I got the truck bogged down. After a lot of
pushing and digging we decided that was probably as close as we were
going to get to the beach. The sand along the road was not good..at
least according to Steve..so we headed up a dune to get sand up there.
This whole time I kept asking Sergio if this was legal...because it
definitely didn't feel like it. He kept saying that it was fine and
that no-one owned the land so this was no problem....but if anyone came
and yelled at us they were going to say I was in charge...yeah...that's
great! :) Anyway, we wrestled 6 sacks of sand down off the dune and
loaded them into the back of the truck to head back to the building
site. When we got back there after an hour, we were exhausted. We
dumped the sand out on the ground and the builder just laughed and said
that we needed at least 5 times that much. We hired the tractor. ;)
With our store-room now in place, we are very close to kicking off this
building project. I mentioned last update that we were still waiting
for the final paperwork to be approved...well...we are still waiting.
We had a breakthrough last week when we chased down the surveyor(which
is actually quite a funny story I don't have time to share) and finally
got him to sign off on our papers. We are now just waiting for them to
return to the local municipality where we will have to pay our tax and
our fee for the building permit. I really do believe that we should
have everything settled in the next few weeks. Lord willing, we would
love to break ground on this project in May! We only have about 1/3 of
the amount we need to complete the entire project, but we feel strongly
that we need to at least put the first floor up so that we can re-locate
our studio temporarily if our current facility continues to deteriorate
to a point we can no longer use it. Every day it is getting closer to
that point.
This past Monday we had the privilege of kicking off the recording of
the New Testament in the Mwani language from northern Mozambique. There
were many times over the past few months were I didn't think this
project was going to become a reality, but God is good! Our readers,
Shikito and Sauege, are with us for a month, which we are praying is
enough time to complete the NT recording. This first week we put in 10
hours days and were able to record about 80 chapters, which was a great
start! I am very excited about this project because this language is
from a place that has been on my heart for the past couple of years.
When Sergio and I did our first distribution trip, we spent a night in a
place called Mocimboa de Praia in northern Mozambique. We spent an
afternoon walking the beach talking to the fisherman and we were
surprised to know that there along the northern coast there was a people
group called the Mwani who are over 99% muslim. From that day I have
been praying for an opportunity to bring God's Word to those people in
their own language. God is answering those prayers and I am just so
excited to see how he will use His Word in audio to reach the Mwani people!
Prayer Requests:
-Praise the Lord for another successful distribution trip. Pray for all
of those who received God's Word that they would have open hearts as
they Listen.
-Praise the Lord for the successful showings of the Jesus film. Pray
that those who made decisions for Christ would be surrounded by the love
of God's people.
-Continue to pray for the details of the impending building project.
Pray that the paperwork would be received and that we could begin with
the first phase of that project. Also continue to pray for the fund
raising effort as it is on-going.
-Pray for Sergio, Steve, Shikito, Sauege and myself as we work to record
God's Word in the Mwani language. Pray for wisdom and clarity of mind
of the readers, as well as patience, endurance and concentration for us
as we put in countless hours of recording and editing.
-Continue to pray for health for myself, Sergio, Steve and their
families. Sergio came down with malaria while we were in Chimoio and
even two weeks later, he is still feeling the effects. Pray for full
recovery for him.
-Please pray for me next week(April 12-13) as I will be traveling back
to Michigan for a couple weeks. This is a planned trip to check in at
the home office and attend a few meetings. Pray for safety in travel as
well as rest and limited jetlag.
Thank you again for your continued prayers and support!
Blessings,
Chad
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