Answered Prayers

Dear praying friends,

For the last four and a half years, you have been praying for me in regard to the broken relationship with the United Baptist Church. As you know, I was working in the city of Tete, Mozambique. In January of 2001, there was a meeting between the United Baptist Church and SIM, which ended in SIM being asked to leave for 5 years. When we left, we had no idea what our future with the UBC would be. We had the impression that we might never work with them again because of the accusations which were made against us. SIM was able to register with the government independently and we re-entered Mozambique to work with any church we wanted. There has been a lot exploration on our part and, although we do not seem to be as focused in our work, we have been working.

Two weeks ago I was given an invitation to the national conference of the United Baptist Church. We were invited for one meeting with the General Superintendent and the provincial superintendents. In a sense this was the same group we met with in January of 2001, but many of the people had changed. Some of them had not been in the meeting 4 years ago and some others had not agreed with the ultimate decision. In this meeting there was vague talk of repentance and Steven Wheatley and I said they were forgiven, considering the General Superintendent hadn’t been actively involved in the previous meeting. We then went on to talk about what each of us expects of the other. Most of this will work out as time goes by.

Pastor Rabo, who I worked with in Tete, was then called in. He had asked to speak at the meeting. He is no longer the provincial super, so wasn't in on the other meeting. He had hardly sat down when he was ask to say what he had come to say. He began by saying that he had a part in kicking us out four and a half years ago. He had lied about me and influenced others to get rid of us. He sold the houses in Tete knowing that it was SIM property, taking some of the money himself and using some to buy more land for the church. Some of the stolen money went to build two houses at the church which were never finished. He used and had an accident with a car that he knew was mine. All this because of coveting, jealousy and greed (he actually used these words). He confessed all his sins against us. I don't think I have ever heard such a complete confession. Needless to say I was in tears, but so were others in the group. When he was done, I went over to him and said that I forgave him, shook his hand then hugged him.

Thank you for praying over the last years. Praise the Lord, because He does make all things beautiful in His time.

In Christ,
Janice