Bush Telegraph

December 2012

Jinx & Dawn Reyneke

Serving with AIM

Among the Ndau

 

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 Cor 9:15

 

Silly season….

The ‘silly season’ is upon us where people miss the true meaning of Christmas ...      however, we thank the Lord for the privilege of being able to celebrate Christmas once again and for everything it means to us-Jesus came into the world. We pray that we will commemorate His birthday in a way that is pleasing to Him, not only at Christmas but everyday of the year and for all eternity. We also pray that you are able to share this festive season with family, friends and fellow believers– may it be a time of great spiritual rejoicing!

My father (Dawn’s), Toni and nephew Josh are here for the holiday and this time we will be having Christmas dinner at Cecilia’s house together with Jen, our friends from Zimbabwe, the Catholic priests and nuns. Quite a full house. We alternate each year and everyone contributes to the meal. So we have Brazilian, Italian, American, Zimbabwean and South African food...a variety. Sadly, the McCorkells won’t be joining us as they are away on Home Assignment in the UK but we will be thinking of them having a ‘white Christmas’ while we will be sweating....

Pastor Domingo & Laurinda

Pastor Domingo has been transferred to Tete and we have yet to hear who will be  replacing him. We are not clear on when they will be going but some say it is as    early as the 1st of December. Please keep them in your prayers that the transition will go smoothly and until the new pastor arrives, we will be able to fill Ps.Domingo’s shoes..

Many of you have met them and I am sure that they are sad that they did not get to say goodbye personally and also to thank you once again for your support -prayers,  financial and material gifts over the years.

Jinx is planning to pay the President of the American Board Church , Ps Madeira a visit in December to discuss what has been done so far and for future plans. Please pray for the traveling and the meeting.

Wonderful news!

We are now back online again.. It has been a frustrating time with having to use the 3G stick which kept on dropping every few minutes. We believe that the stick works well in Chimoio but I think we too far away and the signal is not strong enough. We have found a provider for $150 per month which is just a $4 more than the last one. We thank you all for praying with us to resolve the issue and to the Lord for His provision and answer to prayer. It also seems as if the old provider will be returning the monies paid in advance… God is good.

Deaths

Over the past two months there have been quite a few deaths—family  members of members within the Church and in the community. As we are entering into the rainy and mosquito season the deaths will be on the increase. Last weekend we had a massive storm which left us with no electricity for 3 days but it also killed two people in Espungabera with lightning strikes. (Many houses fell down as well.)  Please pray that we can continue to spread the Good News and that we reflect Christ in us.

Ministries

Over December there will be no official ministries taking place but we will continue to minister wherever possible. This is also a time for us to catch up on much needed maintenance of our house and paper work. Jinx will also be working on the Roloff’s house. Please pray that we can buy the necessary materials needed before the factories shut down for Christmas. The Roloffs will be arriving toward the end of Feb next year and much still needs to be done.

And so as we come to another end of year– we would like to thank each one of you for your partnership with us– we would not be here if it weren’t for you and your love for the Lord and His people. Thank you!

Take care and God Bless,

Jinx ,Dawn and Toni

 

 

So Happy

Finally, our Internet is up and working again. Boy what a lot of work we have just discovered that needs to be done. Backlog, WOW!

Thanks for all your prayers.

Our new team member is soon to arrive

Jennifer Jacobs will soon be in Mozambique. She arrives in Beira on 5th July and will go directly to Chimoio to get her documentation done for work & residence permits. Please for the transition from Brazil to Mozambique. She is from the USA and has been in Brazil since the beginning of the year to learn Portuguese.

Calander for the next few months

Just an idea of what we will be doing up until the end of August.

30th June to 7th July we have the outreach team from South Africa.
We will be visiting 2 bush Churches. Sambanje and will show the Jesus film 2 nights. Then from there on the way back to Espungabera a Church at Muchiyoyo which no outreach have visited yet. Here we will hopefully be helping to put up a Church framework made of poles cut from the bush. As well as showing the Jesus film two nights. We are going to be doing children, ladies and mens ministries at both places.

8th July Cecilia is getting a outreach group from Brazil of 11 people. FANTASTIC! The main focus is on training Sunday school leaders/teachers and also youth leaders. The Jesus film will be shown 2-3 nights there as well. This is an area where there are a lot of children and young people. They young "men" 18-25 years old are quite keen on carrying forward the idea of having multiple wives. Please pray for this time that we can get through to them. There will be quite a big focus on ladies ministries during this week as well. We are hoping to get some men as well so that we can have the opportunity to teach them as well.

20th July to 4th August Walter and Rosie get an outreach team from Northern Ireland from their home Church. EXCELLENT! They are coming to help build a 3 room dormitory which will be used by future outreach teams and also the Bible school students. While they are here they will be part a new Church plant at a place called Bundwa (not Bunga) and will be putting up a Church framework. And there will be the showing of the Jesus film over 2 days.

Dawn and I ave tried to make plans to go down to South Africa a few times but too much to do and Can't seem to fit a quick trip in. But we are thinking that we will have a gap to do that from 5th August to about 12th August. We have to replace Dawns Laptop which went KAPUT about a month ago. But even more fun than that is. We will have to get a new scanner as well to suite. Ours we have now was bought before we went to Namibia and has served us well since 1997. But we have no drivers for it to work on anything since Windows ME/2000. We will need to visit dentist as well. And possibly have eyes checked

13th August to 25th August we get a construction team from the USA. They are coming to help with the completion of Russell and Nicole's house. Russell is a medical doctor and will be working in the Espungabera hospital along side the Mozambican doctors and nurses. They arrive in February with 3 small children.

Please pray we have a lot on the go.

Bible School

Tomorrow we have Bible school again for the week. And then we have our AIM Mozambique conference after that so we are going to get very busy again. We would appreciate your prayers as Dawn stays at home this next week alone. And then as we go to the conference.

A short break

It has been a great few days time off. We have been in Chipinge with Hendrik and Meryl. It was a much need time off.

How do you eat an elephant?

How do you eat an elephant?

So how do you eat an elephant?  Easy, “Invite the family”. Together you can get through the elephant, one mouthful at a time.

It’s 2002, and AIM has placed two people in Espungabera, a town in rural Mozambique. Their mandate is to work with the local church, tiny at the time, to develop and mentor leadership & to plant Churches. The elephant on their plate was enormous, more like a prehistoric mammoth, but for two South Africans, Jinx and Dawn Reyneke, flinching wasn’t an option. They knew the Lord had called them to the work. After prayerfully settling four growing-up daughters and two sets of parents they ‘put foot’ which is Jinx’s description for getting on with it, quickly.

Anyone who knows Jinx and Dawn will tell you that these two don’t sit around watching flies land on cows and within a few years the gospel was preached mightily, the Church had grown and there were many baptisms. But a handful of people can only eat so much elephant before their tummies start to get sore.

Now, Mozambique seems to have a simple 3-rule road infrastructure; ‘this way’ and ‘that way’ and ‘mind the potholes’. With new Church plants stretching up to one hundred & thirty five kilometres from one end to the other, the work quickly became a mobile ministry. Thousands of hours were spent driving and Jinx was spending hundreds of hours under the hoods of hapless vehicles that the Moz bush roads chewed into pieces, with Dawn patiently serving coffee by starlight. Lots of coffee. South African friends who made short term visits annually didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when the stories came out via newsletter.

Jinx once blogged… “It has got to the stage where the repairs and maintenance are keeping me out of what the Lord has called us to do. Namely planting Churches and training Church leaders as well as heading up the "new" team of missionaries which are coming to enable the work to go forward through discipleship in all the local Churches.

In the early days they only dreamed of heading up a full team of missionaries and for many years they were alone. The work had been growing and the local men whom the Lord had called as village Church leaders needed help. One village pastor walked to Espungabera through the night with his sick child in his arms, only to have the child die a few metres in front of Jinx and Dawn’s home.  The Reyneke’s work under a fabulous leadership team who are always willing to pray, assist and mentor, but the team is based in Beira, hours and hours away on the death chilling roads, each member also in fulltime ministry.

It became clear that help was needed to eat this elephant. What to do?

“But God…”  (Don’t you love these words?) But God had a plan.

As well as providing reliable transport, the Lord had been preparing the hearts of Walter and Rosie McCorkell from Northern Ireland and Cecilia from Brazil to join the Reyneke’s.  Prayer, time and, yes, some tears, brought these three workers to Espungabera. They needed accommodation so basic house building started,  Jinx even falling from the roof one day onto a pile of bricks but the Lord spared him from serious injury.  Many friends from Pretoria drove the 2-day journey to help with the work together with friends from the Church in Ireland

The ‘family’ had been summoned to help eat the elephant.

Thousands of miles away, while this was happening, the Lord was preparing even more family to come to Mozambique, five in all.  The Roloff’s and Jen Jacobs are from USA and the Dyck’s are from Canada. These folks are in Missions preparation and will need housing when they arrive.

AIM International has opened a building project to provide simple, basic housing for the new Missionaries arriving in Espungabera in 2012/13. Will you help Jinx, Dawn and the Moz team eat the elephant?  If you’re hungry and part of the family you’ll be welcome.

For more thrilling instalments on the Moz family go to www.JinxDawn.blogspot.com

Funds may be sent to your nearest AIM office. Please quote the project name and number Mossurize Construction Project; SR-MOZ-152-U

Zimowane, burning of the witchcraft trinkets

The latest

In the last 2 weeks we have negotiated to buy a house from a man in Espungabera. It has the roof on and is plastered inside. But all the rest needs to be done. Namely the floor, ceiling, electrics, plumbing plaster of outside. Window frames need to be put in and glazed. This house is in preparation for the Roloff family coming in February next year. It sounds like it is a long time away but is just around the corner. We have an outreach team coming from the USA to help with the build for about 2 weeks in mid August.
The situation is that we got a loan for the buying of the house but have no finances to finish it at this stage. So please will you pray that the funds will come in. There is a project registered for this with AIM (Africa Inland Mission). Its Mossurize construction project SR-MOZ-152-U Please quote the project number if you feel led to help in this way.