SAM Ministries

Maintenance Facility Takes Shape

SAM Ministries — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:01:49 +0000

A portion of the floor has been poured and walls are now going up on the Maintenance Facility in Mozambique. John Topham (below) has been assisting the mission in a number of ways since his arrival last week, including assisting Rick Cogbill and the local building team with construction.

Leveling a portion of the maintenance facility floor.

Fani learning to use the transit level.

Pouring floors Mozambique-style…one wheelbarrowful at a time!

The beautiful final product. What a blessing it will be to work on a cement floor rather than in the dirt!

The walls going up on the poured section.
(Little McGuyver, Rick and Heather Neufeld’s Jack Russell, does a quality check.)

Window frames mounted and subsequent floor section prepared for floor pouring.

Walls Up On Craft Center!

SAM Ministries — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:20:49 +0000

Great progress has been made on the women’s craft center as the exterior walls are now up.

Work is still underway on the interior walls.

The building will consist of a storage area, a work area for the women, and a shop for the sale of products made at the mission.

Brick By Brick

HeatherN — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:25:39 +0000

The housing for missionaries, Rick and Heather Neufeld and their family is slowly being constructed, brick by brick, on the mission farm. Already under construction for a year, they hope to be finished by Christmas, or early next year. The walls are nearly completed, and the beams for the roof are being prepped already.

Hopefully the roof can go on in the next few months, clearing the way for window and door frames, plaster, flooring and paint to all go in! Please pray for the funds they need to complete this project to come in as well as for safety for all those who are working on the house. This house will allow the Neufelds to continue on with their work in Mozambique, as well as free up the cottage they are currently in for use by the many short termers who come to volunteer here.

10th Annual Banquet Coming Up!

Lynn Lagore — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:56:19 +0000

The SAM Ministries 10th annual banquet is coming up soon and we’d love for you to attend! It will be a great opportunity to enjoy a good time of fellowship together and to hear the latest updates from both Brazil and Mozambique.

The RSVP date is May 11th so there is still time to register.

Date: Saturday, May 19, 2012
Location: Richfield Christian Fellowship, 3715-85 St. NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Time:

Refreshments at 5:00 p.m.
Dinner at 5:45 p.m. (catered by Kosmos)

Price: $25/person

If you would like to attend but don’t feel you can pay for your ticket, please contact us. We have a limited number of sponsored tickets and would like to help you to be there.
If you would like to sponsor extra tickets for somone else, please let us know.

Contact:
Ph# 780-408-3268, or
Email: sammoff@telus.net

Orphans And Child’s Play

SAM Ministries — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:56:50 +0000

“We delivered orphan food last week- and I was privileged to hand out a few more bags of goodies from the Fort McMurray church to the last few Amigo Orphans who had not yet received.

I cannot tell you how much I love being able to give little girls their very first dolls. It is something we take for granted, the ability to pretend play, to imagine, to share our secrets with a dolly who will never spill the beans! Many of these girls care for siblings or relatives from the time they are 3 or 4 years old, carrying around younger kiddos on their backs as they fetch water and firewood. But that early “life experience” does not stop their joy in receiving their first dolly- the smiles when they get that first dolly just give me goosebumps! Here is the smile Celina gave me as she showed off her brand new dolly!

The Amigo Orphans also met for their twice monthly meeting this past Friday. All the kids within walking distance come, and it was a lot of fun this week (as usual) watching them play. I tried my hand at some jump rope (which sadly, I can no longer do with any sort of grace- I used to LOVE doing Jump Rope For Heart at school, but I’mm realizing that was many years ago apparently) and also enjoyed playing some Frisbee. I absolutely love watching the kids interact with each other and Pastor Mariano, laughing and just enjoying being kids! Mariano told the story of Noah and listened to their concerns and requests- mostly for more pens and notebooks for school!”

Mariamo makes a valiant attempt to catch the frisbee.

Joao spent some time trying to read the children’s Bible.

Couldn’t resist this pic of the smaller Amigo Orphan boys sporting the shoes they received a few months ago.”

Thank you!

By Heather Neufeld

Second Mechanics Module Underway!

SAM Ministries — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:23:49 +0000

Rick Cogbill arrived earlier this month to teach the next module of the mechanic training program in Mozambique. Since the mission’s community grinding mill broke down recently, he and the students used it as an opportunity for some hands-on learning as well.

Besides teaching and incorporating various repair projects as practical components, Rick has also been operating the backhoe to help the crew working on the airstrip and has undertaken to see progress made on construction of the maintenance facility.

Peter, the mission’s construction department head, begins building the pillars.

Progress on the maintenance pit which will be used to service vehicles.

We rejoice to see this much-needed facility taking shape!

The Malaria Factor And The Runway

Dwight Lagore — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:58:38 +0000

We have often shared about the impact malaria has on the people of Mozambique. Caused by a parasite that is transmitted by the anopheles mosquito, according to the World Health Organization, malaria still kills over 2000 children a day in Africa! This is why mosquito nets are provided to the children in our orphan program and why we do our best to ensure our health posts have a critical supply of malaria treatment. You can help with a donation to our health ministry and put a note on it “for malaria medication/mosquito nets.” If a glass of cold water in Jesus name get’s God’s attention, I have no doubt a treatment of malaria medicine would do at least the same, and both save lives and give children a chance to become productive adults.

But it is not only children who suffer, often it is their parents who struggle to be productive at critical times of the year due to a bout of malaria when they should be planting or cultivating or harvesting their crop. And the delay of a week for a farmer at a critical time of the year can mean the difference between an adequate food supply or starvation.

Two weeks ago much of the heavy equipment showed up to begin the completion of the runway on the mission in Mozambique. Everything was set up and the contractor and engineer along with our team were prepared. But just as the equipment arrived on-site, Law the contractor came down with malaria and so badly that he ended up in a private clinic fighting for his life. Then after many delays waiting for a flat-bed that could transport the grader, one was found and the grader arrived on-site. No sooner had this happened but that the grader driver came down with malaria and was put out of commission. Thankfully both men will survive and we anticipate the work to be completed over the next few weeks, but this demonstrates so clearly the impact this disease has on us and the people we work with.

Thanks to Ron Wayner, Rick Neufeld, Tony Frank as well as others on our team, the work has progressed in the meantime with the mission back-hoe and tractor-drawn grader blade. And thank you for your prayers and interest in this project!

Rural African Pastors

Lynn Lagore — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:31:34 +0000

“The African rural pastor – a unique breed of men and women which you will not find anywhere else. To truly understand who these men and women are you have to see them in action, move with them, listen to them, stay with them … and hear them preach and pray. Over many many years I have carefully explored their hearts and watched them closely – trying to understand what makes them so very unique.

Taking of course into consideration that this courageous breed do not get any salary, no thirteenth cheque, no car or house allowance … never mind an i-pad to read your notes from. They travel by foot, bicycle or even dare to get on the local taxi to visit churches. They travel light. No extra baggage (they don’t own any), no extra food – God will provide on the way. But so is their passion for souls and planting new churches that this doesn’t stop them from pursuing souls. I know of a pastor that sold his last chicken so he could afford to travel via local transport to share the Gospel.

This breed is always friendly, always ready to share a word of encouragement and ALWAYS ready to bring a Word of Hope to a lost and wondering soul. They don’t have to prepare long sermons or spend many hours trying to Google another preaching theme…it’s in their heart. They carry the fire of God and it pulls them continually to do ‘what God wants them to do’, a pastor answered me.

I visited one of those churches today. A typical African grass roof church. Where Pastor Mafuta was teaching students the word of God. Many of these students had been attending the Bible Study for the last 5 years continually. I was humbled when they asked me to ‘encourage’ them. I mean…they just encouraged me!! Where do I find the words to explain how wonderful they were in the eyes of God. These men, this breed…is still untouched by ‘prosperity theology’ or ‘liberation theology’ or any other form of ‘theology’ – just a passion and love for Jesus Christ that makes them…’move’ as they like to explain when I ask their secret.

Today this is to all those men and women who are unfazed by ‘theology trends’ or other ‘world trends’. They themselves sometimes live in extreme poverty with very little material possessions – but they are unmoved by this.

They simply just LOVE God, they LOVE man and they LOVE to share to whoever would listen. Pastors, I salute you!

We currently train more than 700 of these pastors alongside the Zambezi river and other areas in central and northern Mozambique. Many of these pastors started their own orphan programs and agri-businesses to feed many in their communities. They are the true heroes of Africa.”

Written by Francois Rauch

Building For A Future

RickN — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:12:54 +0000

Heather, and I along with our daughter Tendai can confidently say that we are exactly where God wants us to be. After four years with SAM Ministries we are now hard at work building a permanant home here in Mozambique for our family.

This is an incredible project and we are so thankful for all our family and friends back home who are making this dream possible.

Currently we are working to put the roof on our house and have already received enough funding to purchase the materials needed for the trusses, ceiling boars, and a portion of the zinc roofing. Our goal is to be able to have the funding to fully move into our house by the end of the year.

Her First Dolly!

HeatherN — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:47:57 +0000

This week while delivering the monthly orphan food amounts I was privileged to have the opportunity to give little Angelina, a new member of the Amigo Orphan Program, her very first doll.

Angelina shows us her new Dolly.

I was nearly brought to tears as I watched how this little doll made both her and her granny smile SO big- it was incredible. I realized after I left, that this was most likely the first soft & adorable doll that the granny had ever held as well!

Granny M, cradles the soft dolly, with hands that have seen many many years of hard work.

Sometimes it is the simple things, like handing out a small stuffed dolly, that remind me of the awesome work we get to be a part of! Thank you to the many sponsors who make our work with these orphans possible, and to the folks from Fort McMurray who donated so many lovely items for the kids to enjoy!