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