May News

It's been a while but we wanted to let you know we are still alive and kickin!  The past 3 months have been a great time for us as language goes. We have been teaching Sunday School in a neighborhood where one of our Baptist churches exist.  Terri teaches the mamas outside on a mat and I teach the youth and papas inside the one room mud walled and metal roofed church.  We teach in Portuguese and it's been a great opportunity to practice what we have worked so hard towards.  We still have a long way to go before we can really express our heart and ask those really pointed questions and understand their heart responses.  We continue to ask the Lord to enlarge our minds and hearing as we communicate that incredible "Free Gift" of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.
 
As many of you know we accepted the job request to work with the Koti people of Mozambique.  That decision to adjust to God's call on our life, shifting jobs and countries was made back in mid 2007.  We have been praying for the Koti people since that time and one of our requests to the Lord was if He chose to reach them without us before we got there we would praise His name and be willing to adjust.  Since arriving in Mozambique and living in Nampula, 5 hours away from the Koti and the city of Angoche, we began to pray and try to absorb all the info we could about the Koti and what might be going on in Angoche.  We began to hear of a great move of God among the Koti and after time and much info we have discovered that God has answered our prayers.  It appears there is a large church planting movement happening among the Koti.  This was spurred on by another evangelical organization and a partnering church in Japan.  They now have approx. 200 leaders weekly taking the Gospel to the nearby islands as well as along the mainland. There are now over 4,000 followers of Christ Jesus, these are what we call Muslim Background Believers (MBB).  They are even sharing their new found faith in Christ with the local tribe of Makuwa as well as a people group just north of Angoche.  They are now sending out 2 Koti missionaries to a sister tribe way north of Angoche, this is also a Muslim people group.  We have realized they are doing exactly what we all pray as missionaries new believers in Christ will do in fulfilling the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus.  Wow, God is so faithful and incredible to work with us and even without us, He is all knowing, powerful  and compassionate as we have been teaching our SS classes.
 
As Terri and I processed all God was showing us and how and if we could fit into that movement we felt God showing us these things and asking us to adjust to Him even if we didn't fully understand.  We began to pray where God might be moving our attention and asking our leadership if there were other pressing areas that were of high priority.  We were presented with two that were actually higher on the priority list than the Koti and began to pray.  We felt like one of these jobs better suited our gifts and the mission has confirmed and approved our shift to the coastal town of Pemba where we will focus on the Makuwa-Emeetto people.  They cover a huge area mostly in the central and northern province of Cabo Delgado.  The Makuwa are the largest people group in Mozambique and the Emeetto are a prominent sub-group of approx. 1.5 million.
 
Housing for us has been found and we are moving north to Pemba this weekend. While we will focus on the coastal town of Pemba we will also push to the interior where there are endless villages of people waiting to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Please pray for our friends at Mutemoto Church, our church home for the last 8 months.  We are excited to get moved and settled but it will hard to leave our friends in Nampula.  Please continue to pray for our family; Terri and I here in Mozambique, Reid in Kenya and Will back in Chattanooga.  We are so blessed and encouraged by your support!
 
Partners in Christ,
Brian, Terri, Will & Reid
 The Stubblefields