Mozambique mission team begins training
Filed Under: BWM, Missions, Mozambique, Portugal, World Missions
WELS' first missionary team to the African nation of Mozambique has arrived in Portugal to begin language training and prepare for initial outreach efforts in Mozambique next year. Rev. Jeff Enderle, previously pastor at Gethsemane, Omaha, Neb., and his wife Angela arrived in Portugal on Mar. 7. Mr. Bill Meier, previously lay missionary to Malawi, Africa; his wife, Cathy; and three daughters arrived on Feb. 29.
Pastor Artur Villares of the Lutheran Church of Portugal—WELS sister synod—has been helping the Meiers and Enderles get acclimated with the culture. "Pastor Villares has been just wonderful," says Meier. "He is guiding us through all the frustrating bureaucratic stuff that's been going on. It pretty much would have been impossible without him."
In the midst of it all, Meier says there has been an unexpected blessing: one of Pastor Villares' colleagues is a Mozambican professor living and teaching in Portugal. In addition to providing information on the history and culture of Mozambique, the professor has also agreed to introduce Enderle and Meier to the Mozambique Society in the neighboring city of Porto.
Meier says many members of this society are residents of Nampula, the same city where WELS hopes to begin mission work in 2009. "A lot of Mozambicans are only here for a year or two and then they go back. So we have the opportunity to start networking with residents of Nampula. When we get there, we'll already have connections just from this Mozambique Society."
But Meier says he hopes the networking won't stop there. "Both Jeff [Enderle] and I have sort of our own personal goal that while we're here meeting with people and practicing our Portuguese, we're able to do some friendship evangelism," he says. "We need to keep continually witnessing and finding opportunities to invite people to the local congregation. We're praying that the Lord will bring some families to this church in Portugal."
Read more about the Meiers' experiences in Portugal on the new World Missions blog, online at http://missions.wels.net/wpmu/
