Dear ones,

We desperately need your prayers!  Because of incredible heart changes occurring here in Mozambique and the potential for more (more on that later), demonic forces are not happy and we ARE under attack.  We praise our Lord for protection and we need your earnest prayers!

Door thieves tried to bust

Just a few hours ago, at 2 a.m., Melissa and I were awakened when we heard the young missionary couple living in the house right next to ours screaming to us for help. I ran out the door when the wife said thieves were breaking in so I quickly retreated back again behind my locked door, looking through the external metal door's screen.  Eight (8!) men with machetes and a crowbar were beating down their door and demanding money from them. Through the metal re-bar door, one thief had managed to put a minor cut in the husband's hand while he was trying to protect his family.  The dogs just stood at a distance and barked, while our single night guard with his machete could do nothing.  I immediately shouted out that we were calling the police and then called another missionary friend who drove like Jehu into the police station and showed up with police 40 minutes later.  The thieves, who were probably waiting to see if our threat was real, scattered back through the hole they cut in the fences and out into the darkness of the neighborhood.  Needless to say, that family packed up their 4 young children and finished the night at the larger walled in missionary compound next door.  

One missionary just informed me that last year, gun-armed thugs were making their rounds in our city among foreigners to steal and devastate.  In the early 90's , our own Good News for Africa missionary colleague in the capitol, Maputo, was shot to death in his home in front of his family by thugswho supposedly heard he'd withdrawn money that day.  It seems that now in Nampula things are escalating for those who do not have armed guards.  I'll be making trips to the bush and cannot leave Melissa here alone with a simple guard.  Dan & Robin Been, our colleagues who will be moving onto the property in June to the house that was just attacked, have five children, and are super concerned.  They said they will now be writing their supporters asking for funds to hire armed guards.  Though we don't know at this moment what that will cost, my guestimate from previous info is $1000 to $1500 per month.  Splitting that cost of armed guards between us would mean we need $500 to $750 extra per month per family to handle this.  Could you bring this need before your churches and pray about how you might help? 

Evangelist Antonio with his relative's kids in his care.

So, before I mention the spiritual attacks on our family, I want to talk a little about the great victories we are experiencing that are angering the enemy.  Can you imagine giving up 1/2 of your income to start an orphanage and Christian Training Center?  When we got back, our main evangelist, Antonio told us the following...  In 2005 he spent months chasing all the paperwork to give the gov't so that he could receive monthly military pay for having fought in the civil-war (1975-1992) here.  He has friends to this day whose paper-work is buried in some heap in the capitol and have received no funds!  Yet, in 2005 after two months, he heard that the person sitting at the desk processing his papers just happened to have someone from Nampula here show up who knew Antonio to be a respectable guy and so, right then, his application was approved.  He makes $100 a month working for us here and lives off that (unbelievable isn't it!) and he receives another $100 a month for his military pay.  He now is starting to use all his military pay to enlist the help of the churches he helped to plant in order to start an orphanage and training center (youth, marriage, church leadership...)  Wow! His wife is one with him in this.  And this is the fellow that during our first term came to me a number of times with a poor person's mindset of, "I'm a nobody and have nothing, so others need to give me money to do ministry" thinking like everyone else I know in Mozambique.  So many times, by God's grace, I've poured into him God's greatness, His promises, ... and he came away with a new perspective.  This weekend he and his wife are buying the property out in the bush near those churches.

Meal with church leader from the bush visiting us.

There is sooo much more I could tell you!!!  Heart changes even this last month in people we're working with!  God is going to move more and more.  With the trips to the rural church networks and trainings in the grace, freedom, and power our Lord purchased for us (Col 2:12-15), we couldn't be more bug-eyed than we already are!  Pray that the enemy will not be able to sabotage the ministry and that the Lord will move on in power on these trips out.

Now, with all that going on, we believe the enemy is seeing the fruit!  And more fruit to come.  Beginning last week, it seems that each person in our family came under some kind of spiritual attack.  My previous Saturday and Sunday were very discouraging.  I could not figure it out.  Prayer was difficult.  Monday, woke up, prayerful, and pressed on in faith and received victory. It's been one of the most blessed weeks in my life. (We're also very thankful that Hannah's health has been much better.)  But, each one in our family had some similar experience or something that greatly agitated their life, even bringing great doubts of faith in God in one quite vulnerable who is careening on the precipice. We are quite concerned.  When we were there, we could easily spend an hour talking with our children through whatever came up and they'd leave built up and encouraged in the Lord.  Now!? When we're on the front line here, what do we do dear brothers and sisters except pray with tears and faith!?  The 7 hours later difference makes it very difficult to talk via skype at the best times for them when they're off work etc.  We're sleeping when they're home from work and available in the evening.  Because of these things, we feel we must empty our only personal CD at our bank and bring both Elijah and Esther here for at least two months to pour into them, and strengthen them, probably as never before.  I would make the trips to the bush still and they would go with us, but would cancel the ongoing fun but time-intensive translation work while they're here.  So, yet again, we present another need to you, if you feel a desire to help cover some of the airfare to get Elijah and Esther here, we'd continue to be forever grateful.

"Sovereign Lord, hear the threats of the enemy and do what you have pre-determined and now give us courage to tell others about Jesus and may You stretch out your hand through Jesus to do marvelous things!"  (the gist from Acts 4:23-31)

Thank you for joining us in prayer,

Daniel and Melissa Maddux