Sunday 12th July is ALMA Sunday – the day the Diocese invites special prayers for its projects in Angola and Mozambique – which we support in the parish. It is the anniversary of the day the Covenant was signed in 1998. Funds raised are used for various projects:
ALMA’s Children – A fund set up in 2001 to promote education and the relief of poverty. Each of the Link dioceses is allocated one-third of the sums raised.
ALMA Catechists – A fund established in 2004 to help with the training of lay catechists.
General Support – Met out of general funds
Special Projects – As required
Catechist Training Course In Chimoio
Bishop Dinis has just spent five days in Chimoio with 30 Catechists from 20 different Congregations in Púngoe Archdeaconry who were taking part in a ten-day training course. He writes:
I feel more than excited about the future work which the Catechists which will be undertaking. Some spent 2 days traveling to the place of their training but all made a sacrifice to come. In addition to the training for the office of a Catechist they made a plan for evangelism and taking the Gospel to more than 20 new places’.
Some of the challenges these Catechists will face are related to the long distances they have to travel, the cost of transport, earning a living, superstition and the high rate of poverty, malaria, HIV/AIDS and of course sin in its many manifestations.
This was the first training session for 2009. The Catechists appreciated the fact that mosquito nets were provided for them as both Chimoio and the places they came from were badly infected with mosquitoes after the heavy rains that made the multiplication of the mosquitoes so rapid.
Opening of the Education and Health Project at Chihunzuine
The Education and Health project at Chihunzuine in Mozambique, supported by the ALMA’s Children fund, was launched on 27 January 2009.
ALMA received the following message from Bishop Dinis about the launch:
Physically and Spiritually Healthy Children was an expression sung, spoken and used in prayer at the little village of Chihunzuine, as the Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa launched the full programme of this initiative which has been partially active for 1 year.
About 700 people attended the event which consisted of:
The blessing of the water system
The blessing of the school
Planting of trees and watering the garden/field
Baptism of 30 children using the first quantity of water from the water system
Feet washing to children, some adults and even people not connected with Christianity.
Just under 70 children have registered so far and the enthusiasm was evident, as they felt as the centre of the community and the whole area will benefit from the water. Some people had to walk for 30 minutes or even an hour to draw water and carry it in 20 liters containers.
ALMA was thanked for coming alongside Chihunzuine community and providing education and water – in one word “health”- as children grow up with this support. May God continue to bless those by whose generosity and insights we can now breathe happily.
Together in the Gospel.
The Right Reverend Dinis Salomão Sengulane, Bishop of Lebombo
NEWS
a) Angola:
Diana Evans has returned from her eight weeks in Angola, working with Nets for Life and the Diocesan Department for Community Development. She also visited her link parish in Negage, Uige. Diana has returned with several suggestions and project ideas – watch this space – http://www.almalink.org/index.htm .
b) Mozambique:
Some snippets from ‘The Mozambican Investor’. (Send an e-mail to if you wish to subscribe : [email protected] ).
Climate Change Already Here and Getting Worse
(this follows up on our report in the last circular. Bishop Richard has recently pointed out the importance of making “it clear that climate change is not just an economic problem to be solved by technology but that it is also profoundly a spiritual challenge involving doing justice to some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.”)
Small and medium-sized ships may be repaired in Nacala
Tete Economy Grew By 36.7 Percent in Four Years
And from Mozambique Business issue 1147 we learn that Pemba has just been admitted to the club of the most beautiful bays in the world.
The most recent USPG magazine also has two interesting articles on Mozambique work.
c) Lebombo
St Monica’s church Mahlazine has been rising from the ashes with help from ALMA. It was badly damaged by the armaments explosion in Maputo in March 2007. We have had news and several pictures from Father Juliao Mutemba on a day of blessing at St Monica’s. The shell of the building is now complete but internal fixing such as tiling, electrics, security bars and painting remain. St Monica’s would love to have a partner church in London. As it is situated between the military base and Maputo International Airport the noise of planes taking off and landing is a regular feature of worship and church life.
Please pray for our ALMA link Officer in Lebombo, Josephine Mutemba, who has been in ill health and undergoing investigations recently. Pray too for her husband Father Juliao Mutemba as their parish in Bagamoyo celebrates its patronal festival.
d) Niassa
In March the Medical Orchestra Concert at St Mary’s Brookfield raised some funds towards building a new community health post in Mandambuzi (area inland from the Lakeshore). This story from Dr Peg Cumberland shows just why it is so important.
‘A couple of months ago a father from Mandambuzi came to see me with his 14 year-old son to ask me if there was anything we could do to help the child recover full health. The boy was very unsteady when walking and his speech was slow and awkward. The father told me that his son had been an active lively child until 2 years previously when he suddenly developed a fever. As the nearest health post was 3 hours walk away and, at that point, the child was not very sick, the family decided to wait to see if the fever would settle on its own. On the third day the child became unconscious. Afraid he would die his family and friends made a makeshift stretcher and carried him down the steep, rocky path to the lakeshore. He was finally transferred by boat to a small hospital on Likoma Island, Malawi, where he was treated for cerebral malaria. The delay in treatment led to severe neurological damage and for three months he was unable to walk or feed himself. He has gradually recovered to his present state but he will never return to being a normally active child. Had there been a health post in Mandambuzi the boy would almost certainly have been treated with antimalarial tablets on day one and never have become seriously ill. ‘
General Support
The types of activity which are met out of ALMA’s general fund include:
Payment of air fares of visitors to London from our Link Dioceses in Angola and Mozambique;
Payment of travel costs in connection with the theological training of ordinands outside their own dioceses, e.g. in Grahamstown, South Africa;
Contributing to the audit fees of our Link Dioceses, in special circumstances, to ensure financial transparency and accountability.
Contribution to ALMA Link Officers’ salary and benefits in the Dioceses of Angola and Niassa (and, potentially in future, of Lebombo);
While some of these activities may not seem exciting to fund they are critical to capacity building in our Link dioceses and to enabling parish links to develop.
Special Projects
Many donations are received for special projects in our Link Dioceses, paid for by individuals or parishes. Such projects include:
financing of church and school buildings;
literacy projects;
provision of mosquito nets and bibles;
and many other vital initiatives.
More information about ALMA can be found in leaflets at the back of the church or on their website www.almalink.org
ALMA