The Heart of Mozambique

Mozambique is a country with acres of palm trees and kilometres of sandy coastline off the Indian Ocean. It is home to tropical edens and extensive bushveld that host elephant, zebra, lion, giraffe and more.

But, despite its wealth of beauty, the struggles against Portuguese colonialism and civil war left Mozambique the poorest nation in the world in the early 1990s. Since then, its people have known sustained peace and economic progress; but, drought, floods and famine still cause hardship. And about 12 percent of the population suffers from AIDS.

Here in the heart of Mozambique OM works. In 1992 an OM team living in the south of the country were involved in relief and development work, as the civil war had not officially ended yet. Then in 1995 the work headed northward and an idea for a training centre formed with the vision to train local pastors through seminars. Antonio Nipueda, a national and the current leader of OM in Mozambique, joined the team in 1997 after he and his family had served on OM’s ship, Doulos, for two years. This training soon evolved into a full discipleship programme, based in Mocuba, a city in the centre of the country. “Our vision was to reach the unreached group of people up north,” says Antonio. “And the way to reach these people, the strategy we found, was to establish the training base.”

Since 1999 churches from all over Mozambique have sent their most promising members to OM’s two-year mission training school, one of the only Christian programmes available to churches in Mozambique. “We started the training base in Mocuba because there are many believers and evangelical churches that we could recruit from and mobilize to evangelise the neighbours in the Makua and Yao tribes,” says Antonio.

During the programme students receive Bible and practical missions training. They practice what they learn by teaching in churches and visiting isolated areas to share the Gospel with unreached people. In November 2008, 10 students graduated from the programme. “When students finish, not only do they go to evangelise and plant churches in unreached groups, but some of them are the head pastors in their own local denominations,” says Antonio. “And, when they go back they send us more people for the ministry!”

OM Mozambique has realized that there are many future church leaders and missionaries that cannot afford the cost of the food, accommodation and educational materials necessary during the two years of training. OM Mozambique is committed to raising funds to support them. Please pray for Antonio and the team as they train more national missionaries to reach the lost in Mozambique. Please pray for the necessary finances to continue developing this ministry.

OM’s role in the Church is to mobilise people to share the knowledge of Jesus and His love with every generation in every nation. OM pioneers and leads initiatives to redeem lives, rebuild communities and restore hope in over 110 countries.