The latest newsletter from Steve & Katuska Davies in Mozambique arrived this week. The annual team retreat took them away from the smoke of Maputo to the salt of the Indian Ocean, and they were refreshed from Bible teaching from other OMS missionaries. The seminary is now operating both a day and night programme, with different students attending the evening classes to the ones attending during the day.
Katuska continues to home school their three children and deal with financial and administrative matters at the seminary. Health issues (often related to the hot sticky climate) continue to be a focus for prayer, as does Mozambican bureaucracy! Steve and Katuska have a ‘precarious’ status according to their identity card which means they must now take another driving test to acquire a Mozambican driving licence. Mistakes were also made on their children’s identity cards which mean they have to be renewed each month and a special exit permit applied for every time they leave the country (to travel to nearby South Africa, for example.) Such bureaucracy can be tedious and time-consuming, but they say they remain ‘cheerful and reassured.’
As elswhere in the world, Islam is growing fast in Mozambique and poses a real threat to the church. Pray that the Bible college will be able to strengthen the local church and help in teaching on this and other issues.