A Road Trip of Epic Proportions

In just over one week, myself and the new leadership team of the Mozambique Initiative (MI) will be crossing the ocean, heading back to Mozambique for the journey of a lifetime!  As many of you know, the MI has been extremely productive this year.  Examples of this include the completion of 12 safe water projects (with another 12 in process!), the funding and implementation of 10 sustainability projects, and the upcoming graduation of 15 seminary students. The team will be visiting many of these projects throughout the country, celebrating and documenting this work. This journey will begin with a brief stop in Malawi where we will visit Project Peanut Butter, as we search for solutions to malnutrition in Mozambique.  From Blantyre, Malawi, we will drive through the Niassa and Nampula Districts on a road trip of epic proportions.  As you can see from the map below, after Blantyre, we will be stopping at Cuamba UMC to see their sustainability project of raising chickens for meat that is in the works there.  Then we will heading over to Nampula to visit the Maratane Refugee Camp where we have been drilling a safe water well, and finally, we will drive over to the Island of Mozambique to see the historic beginnings of the country.

The new MI leadership team was voted in during Missouri Annual Conference in June of this year.  Since this time, we have been tasked with envisioning the future of the MI and brainstorming about this new chapter of ministry.  This visioning involves working closely with the leaders of the Mozambican conference, which is another major goal of this journey. During this important time, we plan to dream, vision, and build relationships with our partners in ministry in Mozambique in anticipation of some important growth and change in our ministry together. This will be a time of intentional, thoughtful work. The team will also begin to plan for an April 2013 itineration with Bishop Schnase of the Missouri Methodist Conference to solidify the next quadrennium of ministry in Mozambique.

We ask for your prayers for guidance, safety, creativity, successful brainstorming, brilliant ideas, and loads of fun as we work closely with our brothers and sisters in Mozambique for the next few weeks.  Stay tuned here for updates about the journey!