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Angola
Missionary Report - Dec 2008
(Brian Howden)
Greetings in the Lords name.
Many thanks for your prayers and interest
in the recent visit to Angola. We trust that the brief account that
follows will encourage you to keep praying for the vast and needy
land of Angola.
You may remember that my arrival in Luanda
did not leave much time, if any
to make the connecting flight to Saurimo, but the Lord graciously
overruled concerning this. The air stewardesses put me in business
class for the last 40mins of the flight to Luanda, (“Ignorance is
bliss” is the saying, but now I know how the other half travel!)
this enabled me to be one of the first of the plane and through
immigration. Then I discovered that the flight to Saurimo was
delayed, not leaving till approximately 8am. How great is the God we
serve! So thank you for praying about this.
By the Thursday of the first week I had
managed to complete the process of applying for a renewal of my
Residence permit. Later a brother was able to receive the much
needed ‘Receipt’ for the process, this is important because I can
travel for a time using that document. Please do continue to pray
for this matter that the renewal will be granted swiftly, it is
always an anxious time because things do get ‘lost’ in the system
and then problems arise.
During that week I was able to meet up
with the young men from the Bible class that we started during my
last visit. I was really so thrilled to see that all of them had
listened and done what I had encouraged them to do during my
absence, that is to start studying the Emmaus courses for
themselves. All of them had done an extra course and some of the
others were on their 2nd or 3rd course. As the
Lord guides I plan to do a series of Bible studies with them during
my next visit. Please do continue to pray for them, that they may be
kept.
I was saddened to hear of Satan's latest
attack on the assembly, this time through the inability of an elder
to forgive someone who has wronged him. The other person involved is
one of the village chief’s family, who although in assembly
fellowship has never shown any spiritual life, and no desire for the
sincere milk of the Word. Although of course he is chuffed to bits
about putting his children in our school he only wants the chief
place amongst the saints in the assembly. Please pray that the Lord
would intervene as these things do untold damage to the testimony in
the village.
With the help of Jonathan Singleton I was
relieved to get my Land Rover fixed for the trip to the Cuilo region
in Lunda Norte province. I could never have gone without his help
replacing some bushes on the steering, just the day before I left
the vehicle was almost un-drivable so it was a great relief to get
that done and to fulfil my promise to the assemblies of a visit.
There were three areas which I had planned
to visit all of which I had never visited before. At Luangue there
were believers from 17 assemblies present, we stayed there for 4
days before moving onto Caluangu. Living conditions at Caluangu were
rough and the hut we stayed in was perhaps the most primitive I have
ever experienced, the food was very basic and the meat so tough my
jaws were almost constantly aching after a few days. There were 15
assemblies gathered for the meetings and numbers were large, there
was an open ear to the preaching of the Gospel and the teaching of
the Scriptures. Many professed salvation and many more believers
were challenged by the Word of God and after most meetings there
were a number who were seeking to be restored to the Lord. Once
again we are so thankful that the Lord knows those that are His, but
we pray that the reality of those professions will be shown in lives
changed for the Lords glory. The assemblies in that region are very
isolated and they told me that I was the first missionary to ever
visit them and live amongst them even for a short time. There was
great enthusiasm among them but even greater ignorance of basic
Bible truths, but a wonderful willingness to be taught! It was a
wonderful privilege to be able to pass onto them Bible truths in
their own language, we just pray that the Lord will yet bless His
Word.
The journey from Caluangu to Cuilo was
very difficult due to the number of rivers we had to cross, it had
also been raining hard and the rivers were swollen and had broken
their banks. The bridges were normally made of branches and tree
trunks which were submerged and very slippery. The rivers were deep
enough to swallow several Land Rovers and were often inhabited by
crocs and hippos the locals kindly informed us. It is quite an
experience to feel and hear the logs moving beneath you as you edge
the Land Rover across these bridges. Often we found that the bigger
challenges were the flood plains and not the rivers that brought
more problems but the Lord was with us and we made it safely into
Cuilo.
After 6yrs of peace there was very little
evidence of any re building work going on in Cuilo. The believers
said that the Government don’t even supply nails to help them roof
their homes with tin sheeting. So once again although it was a large
provincial town supplies were just not getting through. Hardly
surprising when the bridges scarcely bore the weight of a Land Rover
that trucks are not getting there.
The meetings were held in an assembly
called ‘Havemos de Voltar’ which means ‘We have to go back’. It
demonstrates the desire of the people to go back to their towns and
start again after the years of war. So it was good to be with them
and seek to be of encouragement to them. We found 27 assemblies were
represented there at the meetings and we were really thrilled to see
their desire to continue gathering on a sound Biblical basis. As in
every place, we met with the elders in the evenings for a time of
prayer and sought to encourage them to go on holding fast that which
they have despite the problems that they face.
From Cuilo the Camaxilo is only 150km away
but there is a big bridge down and it is just not possible to cross,
but we look forward to the day when we can link up with our brethren
from that region.
In every place we made the Scriptures and
other literature available to the people in the Chokwe language.
Once again we were impressed with the great need for literature to
be made more available to the people. We sold out of Bibles and
nearly all of the books and commentaries we took. Assemblies came in
from far and wide to get hold of the materials that they are hungry
for. Being in such an isolated region the needs are so very great
but it was at least a little help to the Lords people.
My dear fellow labourers Pedro Sajoia and
Joao Lologe were a great blessing and I was so grateful for their
help and fellowship in the preaching and teaching of Gods Word.
Pedro despite being elderly coped with the conditions very well and
kept in good health. Thank you for praying for these men, they
deserve a place in your on going prayers.
While away in the bush I found out that my
‘promised’ flight back to Luanda from Saurimo with the diamond
company wasn’t going to happen, so we left Cuilo a day earlier than
anticipated in order to arrange another flight to Luanda. I
eventually managed to get a space on a military cargo plane and
together with 100 plus other long suffering passengers crammed into
the hold arrived in Luanda well in time for the return flight to
London.
In closing we just want to express once
again our sincere thanks to all who have prayed with us and for us
during the visits made to Angola this year. Many miles have been
covered, the Word has been preached to the unsaved and taught to
many thousands of believers, and the promise of
Isa 55:11 remains “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my
mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper
in the thing whereto I sent
it.”
Yours through the
wonder of His grace,
Brian and Debbie Howden |
