In crisis: ‘when everything looks like darkness, God continues to be God’

In crisis:

‘Even when everything looks like darkness, God continues to be God’

Praying for this

The Coronavirus could cause unimaginable suffering in countries like Mozambique, where almost half the population live below the poverty line. The World Health Organisation has warned that Africa could become the next epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here’s what the situation is like for our neighbours in Mozambique right now, and how you can pray.

As a young man, Carlos Tique Jone was forced to fight in the Mozambican civil war. He prayed for God to protect him, and God did. Last year, his city was shattered by Cyclone Idai, and he didn’t know if he would live or die. Now, Carlos, along with the whole world, is facing the threat of Coronavirus.

By supporting BMS World Mission, you’ve been partnering with Carlos since 2012. You’ve helped him in his day-to-day work leading the BMS team in Mozambique, as well building up local churches and helping people in Beira and the surrounding area start small businesses and support their families. You helped him deliver much-needed practical relief after Cyclone Idai. And now you’re helping the BMS team in Mozambique stop the spread of Coronavirus, by providing soap and advice on effective handwashing for families that are part of BMS-supported preschool projects across the country (reaching a total of 4,250 children and their parents).

A building with rubble to the side of it after Cyclone Idai.
Cyclone Idai caused widespread destruction. You helped BMS respond to the disaster.

Carlos is an incredibly wise, generous, humble and servant-hearted man, who has been part of so much life-transforming work in Mozambique, one of the least developed countries in the world. We caught up with him as part of our series – In crisis: lessons from the World Church – to find out how Coronavirus is affecting the country, and what we in the UK can learn from him at this time of global crisis.

Quote - “Isaiah 43: 1-3 helps me to understand that, in every moment and in every place, God is with me”

This isn’t the first crisis you have faced. What has kept you strong during hard times in the past?

Our faith in God almighty is what has kept us strong in the past. Now, as we are facing the Coronavirus threats in our country where there isn’t a good health service, this is the time when our faith in God is tested and we must stand firm in him, because he cares for us all the time. Isaiah 43: 1-3 helps me to understand that, in every moment and in every place, God is with me.

In the midst of Coronavirus, how can Christians encourage and support people in their community?

As Christians we have the message of hope for our communities at times like this, because we know who our God is and to whom our life belongs. So, let us spread the gospel of Jesus, sharing with people the hope of a good life in God’s presence. Christians have to share the love of God with desperate people and take care of those who are in need. We don’t need to be afraid of what will happen to our lives, we must just believe in him.

What is the situation like in Mozambique right now?

The situation in Mozambique is still calm and under Government control, as the number of infected people is still small, just ten people – nine in Maputo City and one in the north of the country. However, people are worried about the real number of infected people, as the Government hasn’t got the capacity to test all those who have symptoms or who come from high-risk countries.

Right now, we are in a state of emergency for 30 days from 1 until 30 April. Schools and universities are closed and all gatherings with more than ten people are prohibited, including church services. People are worried about their future, as they don’t know how long this situation will last and how they will survive. Many people depend on selling goods daily to feed their families and the Government’s measures don’t allow them to work in the street and small markets.

BMS team leader in Mozambique, Carlos Tique Jone
You've been partnering with Carlos since 2012. Please stand with him again today by praying for Mozambique.
People in Mozambique and around the world need your help right now

People in countries like Mozambique – places with extremely limited health provision and high rates of poverty – need your help now more than ever. You can help give Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), soap and hygiene items, emergency food, and other much-needed resources to struggling people around the world today. Find out more and give to the BMS Coronavirus appeal.

You’ve lived through crises before – like last year’s devastating cyclone. Can you tell us about the struggles and uncertainties of living through that? Has it helped to prepare you for the Coronavirus pandemic?

There is a significant difference between Cyclone Idai and the Coronavirus, because Coronavirus spreading to more people depends on our behaviour. The cyclone was a natural disaster, which no-one could spread and which affected people without looking at social status. But the Coronavirus will affect more poor people than rich people, as the poor can’t protect themselves because all the protection products are very expensive in our country.

To be honest, each crisis affects us in a different way, and I can’t say that our experience with Cyclone Idai is helping us to struggle against the Coronavirus, as we are still recovering from the great aftermath of Cyclone Idai. So, the uncertainty of Coronavirus is a big challenge for us, and we don’t know what to do, but we just wait and trust in God. However, the cyclone prepared us to understand that all protection comes from God, so we must trust in him and be calm, as without God in our lives, we are nothing and our lives are insignificant. So as Christians, we are trying to avoid being panicked and we share the message of hope in WhatsApp groups or by text message to help those who are in fear for their future.

Carlos Tique Jone quote: “Coronavirus will affect more poor people than rich people, as the poor can’t protect themselves”

My family is struggling with the Coronavirus threats with mixed feelings, because our daughter has got tuberculosis and we know now that she has weak immunity and she is vulnerable to infection. So, this situation affects us seriously, as every day we think about what to do to avoid other family members getting infected with tuberculosis or another disease. It’s a hard time for my family and we just look ahead, trusting in God. Psalm 46: 1 helps us to understand that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble – like in the moment that we are facing now.

The Coronavirus is a great threat for us here in Mozambique because we grew up in community life and it is very difficult to stop children going out and playing with their friends or to avoid someone visiting us. Our hope is just in God almighty who cares for us. The scriptures help us to find strength and hope in this uncertain time, like Psalm 27: 1, Nahum 1: 7 and Habakkuk 3: 17-19 – “our God is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.”

A girl in a marketplace.

How has your relationship with God developed as he has taken you through deep valleys?

My relationship with God has grown as I have understood that without God in my life, I am nothing and I can’t do anything to protect myself. Now, I have learnt that God is my God all the time, even when everything looks like darkness, God continues to be God.

Are there any lessons you can share with the UK Church?

Yes, there are many lessons which I can share with the UK Church. First, as Christians we need to trust in God and not in man or good hospitals, medicines or specialised institutions. The Coronavirus has demonstrated that our knowledge is nothing in some situations. We need to trust in God not only when life is going well, but in every time and circumstance.

Secondly, we must understand that we are travellers on this earth, going to heaven where our Father is. Everything we have here we’ll leave in a second when God calls us to him. While we are alive, let’s do good things for all people – love them and forgive them.

Thirdly, let us put our lives in Jesus Christ, our Lord who won death for us, and not in our wealth.

Carlos Tique Jone quote: “While we are alive, let’s do good things for all people”

How can we pray for Mozambique, and for you and your work?

Please, pray for:

  1. Wisdom for our Republic’s President and his Government, that they make good decisions to protect the nation
  2. Unity for the churches, that they work together in preaching the gospel and helping people in the struggle against the Coronavirus
  3. Strength and protection for the BMS team here, as we work in an uncertain situation
  4. My daughter, as she continues taking medicines to fight tuberculosis, that God would heal her
  5. My family, that we continue standing firm in faith in God
  6. The Baptist Convention of Mozambique, as they lead in this uncertain time, when churches’ Sunday services are prohibited
  7. The farmers I work with, as they prepare for harvest in uncertain times, under fear of Coronavirus
  8. Wisdom and faith for me, as I lead the BMS team in Mozambique
In crisis: lessons from the World Church

In case you missed them, read wisdom from Sri Lanka and Nepal today.

Praying for Mozambique? Click here to let us know!
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Building blocks of recovery

Building blocks of recovery

Elias thought his brother was dead. Cyclone Idai destroyed everything he had. But with your help he regained hope, enough to overflow to Mozambique’s future generations.

Lectures weren’t on that day. But no-one had told Elias. He got to his college and it was empty – that was when he heard the winds blowing. Jumping into a car and getting a lift home, the car was slightly lifting, momentarily floating in the air on the way. He felt his feet pulling away from the floor as he ran into the house to find his brother. Parts of the roof had already been ripped off, and rain cascaded in through holes in the ceiling. He immediately thought the worst. He thought his brother was dead. Thank God, he wasn’t. He found his brother hiding. They ran to find shelter, but Elias had lost all his official documents; all the books he needed for his studies. He lost everything he had.

A church with the roof ripped off and interior destroyed.
Roof ripped off, all the furniture destroyed, the walls riddled with damp, this was the state of a Baptist church in Beira after Cyclone Idai.

This storm became what we know as Cyclone Idai, the natural disaster which hit Mozambique, and global news headlines in March. Shortly after, Cyclone Kenneth struck, leaving further damage in its wake. For Elias, BMS World Mission’s immediate relief response of food, shelter and clothes got him back on his feet. But what next? Before the cyclone, Elias was a theology student. He was also a preschool education programme (PEPE) teacher, in one of the 60 preschools in Mozambique funded by your support. But now he had lost all his coursework, and the preschool where he worked was in ruins. His future, as he had planned it, had been derailed.

Heaped rubble on the floor after Cyclone Idai.
Escolinha Joias de Africa was one of the PEPE schools reduced to rubble by Cyclone Idai.

Back in the shelter with his brother, Elias saw children start to pour in, taking refuge from the raging 120mph winds. Some of them had lost their homes, some their siblings, others their parents. They were all traumatised. During their seven weeks in the shelter, Elias prayed and played with them. “Everyone around me started to call me ‘pastor’ because I was praying,” Elias says. “I was so happy because the children learnt a lot.” They were children without an education, and children who’d had no other chance of learning about God’s love.

A man smiles at the camera with a Baptist church behind him.
Elias is just one of the Christians that you’re supporting to bring hope to younger generations in Mozambique.

Like Elias’, these children’s futures had been derailed. So many schools were now just heaped rubble on the ground. “Without school, children wander and waste time on the streets, learning from older kids who also aren’t in school,” explains Elias. “But at PEPE, children learn a lot. One of the mothers was so taken by her children’s transformation she wanted to come to church. That’s why I’m captivated by this work.”

A group of boys smile at the camera in Mozambique.
These children deserve a better future than wandering the streets. Will you give them one?

And that’s why the immediate relief you provided is just the beginning of Mozambique’s recovery story. Long-term relief means ensuring children have a future – and for that they need an education. Your generosity has enabled BMS to dedicate over £17,000 to rebuilding PEPE schools destroyed by Cyclone Idai. The team is led by BMS mission worker, Sergio Vilela. He’s using his previous experience in construction as a firm foundation for restoration. “I’d like to thank the UK Church. People were so generous after the cyclone,” he says. “We are able to help here only because the Church gave so generously.”

You’re also providing fullness of life. Alongside reconstructing PEPE schools, you’ve supported a play therapy project for children suffering from trauma. For children just like the ones Elias described staying in the shelter. “When I heard that UK churches had started to support us, I thought – wow! I could see we were united in the body of Christ,” says Elias. “We thank God and UK churches for the love you’ve shown us.” And everyone here at BMS thanks you too for your faithful generosity. Thank you for giving hope to those in need.

EDUCATION IN MOZAMBIQUE

In Mozambique, only 45 per cent of children complete primary school. Most drop out to help their parents at work, look after their siblings or simply because school is too hard and their parents, who perhaps never received schooling, are unable to help them.

This is why BMS began the PEPE project in Mozambique, to give children the head start they need to thrive. PEPE provides children with education through play, song and, in many cases, gives them their only meal that day. It’s run by local Baptist churches, by people like Elias, who know their communities’ needs and are filled with God’s love.

Like this story? Click here
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A teacher teaching a child how to write numbers on a blackboard at a school in Mozambique.
Your giving is working to restore the PEPE schools damaged in Cyclone Idai.

Share the story of Mozambique with children at your Sunday School and join us in putting the building blocks of recovery together. Print off our information sheet and all-age craft activity.

Take me to the Sunday School activity

Words by Melanie Webb.

A letter from Mozambique

After the cyclone:

A letter from Mozambique to UK Christians

Supporting this

How Mozambicans are regaining hope thanks to the incredible help they received from BMS supporters after Cyclone Idai.

Dear friends,

After the cyclone, I went out in the rain to see how people were. There was rubble everywhere. We lost everything – everything we had worked for over whole lifetimes. From one day to the next, it was gone. Our stores and crops were destroyed by the cyclone, so our immediate worry was food. But what’s affecting us most is a lack of hope. Smiles have disappeared, heads are hung low.

A building with rubble to the side of it after Cyclone Idai.
Cyclone Idai caused widespread destruction. You helped BMS respond to the disaster.

Thanks to the aid churches are sending to Beira, some feel like they have the strength to start again. At CBM, we have collected and distributed food. Those we could feed are no longer worried. Instead they can focus on gathering the materials they need to rebuild. The problem is that materials are expensive, and most people have lost their jobs because so many businesses were destroyed.

A church with no roof in Mozambique after Cyclone Idai.
This church lost its roof after the cyclone hit. But BMS supporters stepped in, and your gifts have enabled the roof to be rebuilt, so it can return to being a fully functioning church.

People aren’t sleeping. They want to get back up again. They want to work. I try to speak hope into people’s lives. We can lose material things, but we can’t lose faith in God. He is our refuge. We have so many reasons to praise God. I praised God amidst the destruction, because he had protected us – we thought the cyclone was going to be much bigger than it was.

This photo demonstrates how extensive the damage was after Cylcone Idai. Only a bare skeleton of a church building in Beira remains.
This photo demonstrates how extensive the damage was after Cylcone Idai. Only a bare skeleton of a church building in Beira remains.

I ask that you continue to pray for us – don’t forget about us and continue to give what you can.
Then, even when the media has forgotten about us, we’ll keep smiling, because you have remembered us.

Thank you,
Anibal Ramos

Anibal Ramos works with BMS partner, the Baptist Convention of Mozambique (CBM) in his native Beira. You’ve enabled him to play a crucial role in the relief efforts, working alongside BMS team leader in Mozambique, Carlos Tique Jone, in the devastating wake of Cyclone Idai.

The story of recovery

You gave an incredible £82,000 to help people like Anibal in the wake of Cyclone Idai.

But our desire for restoration didn’t stop there. You enabled BMS to give a further £17,600 to rebuild preschools and churches which host preschool education programmes.

Want to do even more? Give to BMS relief ministries
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We were able to act because you gave generously. Give to BMS relief ministries today and help some of the most marginalised people in the world recover from devastating natural disasters.

Thank you for giving people in Beira the strength they need to start again.

First featured in Engage, Issue 45. Written and edited for the website by Melanie Webb.

Mozambique: The relief response begins

Mozambique:

The relief response begins

Supporting this

The Cyclone Idai relief response has begun. But Beira still needs your prayers and support.

After our initial call for prayer and support, BMS World Mission supporters donated over £70,000 towards relief efforts in Mozambique. Thank you so much for your generosity. You’ve helped us kickstart the relief response in Beira. But the people there still need you.

The city of Beira still needs your support. Donate now.

“I have conveyed your prayers, support and encouragement to all those I’ve met from the CBM and they have been extremely grateful to know the world is standing with them,” says Rachel Conway-Doel, BMS Relief Facilitator. Rachel recently returned from Beira after flying out in March to help the Baptist Convention of Mozambique (CBM) assess the need created by the cyclone. 200,000 homes have been destroyed, and over 1,000 cases of cholera have now been reported, with at least two reported deaths. Cholera vaccination programmes have begun in Beira and other cities in Mozambique, with over 900,000 vaccines being shipped to Beira alone. Mosquito nets have also been provided to many people, including all our supported partner workers, to help combat a rise in malaria cases.

Destruction on a Beira street, with upturned trees and paving slabs
Your support is vital for the Cyclone Idai relief response.

The Cyclone Idai Relief Response

The long-term relief response in Beira will take the form of reconstruction of infrastructure, agricultural recovery and legal education support. As the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai shifts out of the media spotlight, we know you won’t forget about the people of Beira. Please continue to pray and give so people there can rebuild their lives.

“I have lived nearly 30 years in Beira and have never seen anything like this,” says BMS worker Carlos Tique Jone, who was in Beira when the cyclone struck. He and his family are safe, and he is working with CBM to help facilitate the Christian relief response. Watch the above video to hear a thank you message from Carlos, and see how your prayers are already having an effect.

Pray for Mozambique

We asked some of our supported partner workers in Beira what they wanted prayer for. Here’s what they said:

From Agira, Fernando and Lídia, who work with the Association of Christian Lawyers (AMAC) in Mozambique:

  1. Pray that their families will be protected from cholera and that the vaccination programme can reach everyone.
  2. Pray for Lídia’s house. Part of her roof and wall has been damaged and as she is both studying, working and living alone, this is hard. Pray for her and her house to be protected.
  3. Pray for the people AMAC serve – beforehand they were vulnerable people, and now they will be more vulnerable because of the cyclone.

From Constância, Elídia and Anibal, who work with Baptist Convention of Mozambique:

  1. Pray for the many mothers and widows whose homes are uninhabitable and who don’t know how to restore their lives.
  2. Pray for Mozambican churches, facing huge financial needs as they start to rebuild. So many churches have been affected, and so many members are in financial need themselves that rebuilding is going to be a massive challenge. Pray for all of the Christians struggling to rebuild their own lives while also helping their churches help others.
  3. Pray for jobs. Many companies have closed, so many people have lost their jobs. Pray for the Mozambican economy and its effect on ordinary people.

If you want more prayer points for your church, please visit our previous update: Pray for Beira.

Thank you for remembering Cyclone Idai survivors. Please keep praying for the relief response in Beira. And if you want to do even more, you can help our brothers and sisters in Mozambique by giving today to Disaster Recovery and Relief. Thank you.

Support the Cyclone Idai relief response Give now
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Download the prayer points and share with your church

Words by Laura Durrant.