Joel’s Work

Gondola Typing School for Men – For anyone of you who have read “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” (A great series I would recommend) the fourth book is named “The Kalahari Typing School for Men”. I am doing just that. Teaching men how to type. Men of the church that is. On Mondays I am teaching typing to the leader of the Youth as well as another young man from our church. There seems to be a real lack of typing skills here in Mozambique and I see many people in the offices and even government who type with their index fingers. It costs people in Gondola one meticais every minute to use the computers at a store where they can type and print things. The young man is learning to type while he makes documents for the church. My hope is that in the future they can make their documents in less time with less cost because it is extremely expensive for the church. He also said that the church has more respect in the community if it can make type written documents instead of handwritten ones. They seem to be learning fast and are very interested in the rest of the computer.

Christian Council of Mozambique - My work as of now consists of helping the director put together written proposals for two projects that we will be starting in the next few years. They are both in the same area. One is a food security project which includes introducing new drought resistant crops, terracing land, AIDS and health education, introducing fruit trees, better farming techniques and much more in order to build the capacity of the community to withstand the next drought and feed themselves. We also have a second project to put sand dams in the same area to help with water needs. I have written more about sand dams and what they are in an earlier blog entry. Once we weed through the paperwork we hope to receive funding from Canadian Food Grains Bank and MCC and we will take a trip to the area (which is 5 hours away) to see the site and begin work.

Agriculture Work in Gondola - In Gondola I have had the time to visit a few farmers’ fields to see how they do things and to talk about their dreams. I have helped one farmer with a loan to buy seeds and a watering can so that he can grow more vegetables. Seeds are cheaper in the neighboring town of Chimoio but it costs money to get there so it is not always an option for farmers here. At times I bring things from Chimoio where they are cheaper.

Pastor Fernando and I have plans to start growing a few new plants for seed and experimenting in a little part of his field. It will help me to know how they do agriculture as well as to see what may work here in the future to help improve soils and crop production.

Igreja Evangélica Menonita - I continue to participate in the church and look for opportunities to support them in their growth and to walk alongside them as they try to follow Christ and grow. I preached for the first time ever and it went fairly well. Expectations do not seem to be quite as high since everyone is fairly young to faith and is learning at the same time. They have a time where the sick can come forward and we pray for them and I am often asked to do this.

We continue to look for ways to be involved. It is slow being in a new position but we ask that God would continue to show us how to serve.