We often get the opportunity to meet extraordinary men and women in the bush. People going beyond the call of duty. Men and women who serve and care although they have not been asked to do so. They are not being payed … they are never covered by a headline story …. they simply show up and make God known through their servant hearts. So today I would like to share a few of their stories ….. if I may?
Meet pastor Xavier Getz from Guru. Guru is about 200 km’s from our mission base. He is a church planter, leader and Bible teacher. His love for the Word of God is amazing. He takes responsibility for huge areas in central Mozambique and believes that every believer should have a Bible in their hands. As you know this is unlikely as getting Bibles to very remote villages can be an extremely difficult task. Not for pastor Getz. He makes a plan and because he makes a plan we desperately try to help him to get Bibles to believers. In the process an organisation with the name ‘BIBLES FOR BELIEVERS’ became crucial partners with us. They made Bibles available free of charge so we could help pastor Getz. His report back to me was simply: “All Bibles have been successfully placed in the hands of believers in villages. Can I fetch the next batch?” He receives no salary but his drive and motivation ……. is awesome to see.
Alec Wilson is a man who is capable of speaking many languages. He is currently translating a lot of women literacy material into the Malawian Chewa language. With more than 750 women studying literacy in Malawi it is a huge blessing having free material available so they too can read and write. The moment women can read and write they receive a Bible in their mother tongue. Alec helped as, after translating 5 books into Chewa, to also distribute these books to the various schools in Malawi. In the process of distributing these material God blessed him in an unique way. He met his family in Malawi which he has not seen since 2003. The family thought he died ….. and the surprise visit was a ‘miracle from God’, as Alec puts it.
The next brother that makes a huge difference in the various communities he serves, is pastor Mafuta. Everytime I look at his humble home (above) I realize that these men are not doing what they are doing because they are interested in making money or benefiting from anything they are doing. Their humbleness, friendliness and servant heart brings a tear to my eye many times.
Pastor Mafuta is a church planter. I sat with him after attending a church planting seminar with him. He was on fire and ready to plant many churches in un-churched areas. But this was not what took me by surprise. It was the way he was going about it that amazed me. He went to his family and wife and asked them permission if he could plant churches for a full year. In return, if they would allow him to do this, he would serve his wife and family for a year outside of the church. I have never heard anything like this. And in an African context that was very strange. Of course they gave him permission …. and so he went on his way planting churches. “And next year…..”, he says – “I will serve my family to honour God, but now God will bless me and open doors so we can share the Good News in time for those who needs it!”
We made sure he was equipped for the task. He received “Heart of man” charts and materials donated by Bibles for Believers (yes again ….).
