Building one of 1,001 churches in Mozambique

[Key Guy]

From the St Helena Star, California

http://www.sthelenastar.com/articles/2009/06/21/features/community/doc4a39589634b93721240090.txt

Quote:

A team of Seventh-day Adventist church members left the Upvalley Sunday to build one of 1,001 churches in the impoverished country of Mozambique.

The destination for the 10 Angwin and Calistoga church members is a country that is in the throes of recovering from 30 years of war and is described as crippled by illiteracy, malaria, and a lack of drinking water. There is a 16.2 HIV/AIDS rate and 44 percent of Mozambique’s 21 million people are undernourished.

“Our church is sponsoring one church at a cost of $25,000,” said Susie Fox, the Adventist team leader, adding that each of the 1,001 Mozambique churches is being built by — and at the expense of — Adventist congregations throughout the U.S.

The Upvalley group is expected to complete its construction project by June 25.

“The churches are made of pre-formed brick and put together like Lincoln Logs,” Fox explained, “and, because we don’t put in any grout or mortar — just pile up the bricks — it goes very quickly.

“With the bricks already fitted, we expect to actually get the church built in three days. You don’t have to paint, or stucco, or put in any sheetrock or anything like that,” she added. “The bricks have a finished texture inside and out.”

Still, these slap-together structures are welcome additions in the Maputo capital area where the Upvalley group is working. So welcome, said Fox, that, more than just as churches, the buildings will serve as educational and community meeting centers. Teachers who come to the area will use them to take on the illiteracy problem.

Fox laughed at a question about indoor plumbing.

“They’re lucky if they have water,” she said. “But at each church a well will be dug (by another Adventist team) and a pump will be put in.”

But even that will be a quantum leap forward in a country where people — mostly women — must walk two to five miles and spend up to five hours a day to procure clean drinking water.

The concrete and steel frameworks to align the bricks that the Upvalley team and other groups are using to mount the walls were put in place by Maranatha International, an organization that historically has partnered with the Seventh-day Adventists on such projects.

Fox heads the Upvalley team because she is the most experienced in this particular group. She has participated in like building projects in Peru and Honduras. She has also served in the Adventists’ educational system, overseeing the student cafeteria at Warner Pacific College in Walla Walla, Wash. for 15 years.

Another team member, Gilbert Abella, grew up in Mozambique, and another, Scott Blum, is a former missionary in Africa. Zack Gore, one of the youngest team members, graduated from Pacific Union College on June 14, the day the group left. Victor and Lou Anne Aaen, a husband and wife doctor/nurse team, are also on the mission.

“It’s been a part of sharing the gospel with the world,” Fox said of the church construction program. “We have felt we need to share our religion. So we train the locals and they in turn preach to the masses.

“There is some resentment in some places and you almost have to do it undercover. But Mozambique likes us to come in and build their churches, dig their wells and educate them.”

(photo online)

[phkrause]

Thanks for the article and the link. While looking at the photo, I notice the guy, about the sixth one back with the mustache. He looks like the actor from the movie with Julia Roberts called, I believe, Sleeping with the Enemy. I can't think of his name, but the guy reminds me of him.

pk