January/February 2015

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Gen 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth. And all the high hills that were
under the whole heaven were covered.
Greetings to all,
O.K. I know that the Lord promised He would never DESTROY the earth again by flooding and the
scripture was really chosen just to convey the strange feeling we had as we drove for kilometres through a
land, where the road itself was the only high ground. From the pics you can clearly see how the water
literally stretches out to the horizon on both sides of our vehicle. Moses and the Israelites probably felt
similar as they hiked through the Red Sea on dry ground, and the rest of their world was water.
.
.

It was a good journey back into Moambique after

spending the Christmas period visiting our family
in Nelspruit, spending time with our grandson and
watching my daughters slowly swelling belly, as
our soon-to-arrive granddaughter practises her
growing, in anticipation of her arrival in March.
While the border crossing was easy and the
journey manageable, despite the appalling roads,
our hearts grew very heavy as we began to enter
the areas that have been really hard hit by the
latest deluge.
Crossing the mighty Zambezi river was even
more impressive than usual (The bridge itself is
about 2.4km wide and by the time we arrived
there the waters had overflowed the banks by a
further 1.5km)
Beneath the two seascapes in the pics this
month, lie the destroyed crops of a nations rice

harvest. Once again a famine is about to strike

our people and we shall once again have to
witness a poverty stricken people struggling to
survive until the second planting of the year can
be harvested.
We are already planning to resurrect the Adopt a
family project we ran during the previous flood
period. Basically it works like this Those who
want to participate in the project make a fixed
commitment to help ONE Mozambican family for
a period of three months, undertaking to feed
them with a 40kg bag of rice which costs R285.71
each month.
Families might have to sacrifice a trip to the
steakhouse, give up a movie night or not eat a
couple of burgers for a month or two. Instead take
this small sacrifice and send that value into
Moambique.
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January/February 2015
We shall then, secretly, purchase the bags of rice
through our trusted Pastors, who will distribute
them, primarily to the widows and orphans, then
secondly to other families in the church and
community. We do it in this way, so that we are
less visible as The great and mighty foreigners,
throwing their wealth at us.
Instead it simply becomes, the Church of Jesus
extending hands of compassion to those in need.
(The left hand does not need to know what the
right hand is doing).
Last time we did this, we were able to sustain
more than 40 families right through the hunger
season, until the following harvest came through.
We did not lose a single one of our flock through
starvation and as partners in this mission, many
of you who receive this newsletter were directly
responsible for making that a wonderful reality.

we were back and hooked up once again to our

local network provider.
Prayer needs:Join with us as we give thanks and praise for safe
travelling, protection on the road and no
breakdowns.
Return thanks also that our Mozambican church
family are all well, despite the rising incidence of
malaria (much more water!!!), thanks that the
Lord continues to provide for them and protect
them.
Let us pray that these heavy monsoon rains will
soon stop, that no more lives will be lost and that
in this time of crisis, the church will once again
have the courage to use the opportunity to
unselfishly demonstrate the love of Christ

Keep Shiny, Yours in His Service,

Lets do it again.
A number of you made a real effort to try and get
hold of us when news of the flooding was shown
on TV. From our side we want to return our
heartfelt thanks for your love and concern. You
have no idea how much your communication
effort helped to make us feel less alone, less
isolated and far less remote.
Our apologies that in some cases we simply did
not respond, because we were on the road,
without mobile phone or internet coverage. Many
of your messages came through in a rush after

eugene.wessels@world-outreach.com or
wesselset@googlemail.com
Bank details: A/C Name E Wessels
Standard Bank FishHoek 072120010
Branch code: 036009