Soccer/Football in Big Screen

One of the major sport events in the world has just begin - The FIFA World Cup, where 32 team from 6 continents compete to be the next World Champion title.

For 90 minutes everyone looks at the screen and forget about their problems and needs. What matters is who is going to win!

We arrived at this township around 5 PM with the sunset behind a group of children playing with an handmade ball. We then started to align the satellite dish and prepare the screen.

After that it's a double event - soccer for the fans, and a big screen with images in both sides for those who never see nothing like that.

At half-time, testimonies with christian athletes sharing about the importance of knowing God.

 

My Xará...

Here in Mozambique, when someone has the same name, we say "he (she) is my Xará (namesake)!

Little Alice is aunt Alice's Xará, one of the girls admitted at the Pediatrics Ward and a loyal company for Alice on the daily tasks of coloring and playing. A simple way to spend the time that everyone has abundantly at the Hospital between chemo treatments.

The African Winter is coming...

You may not believe, but when the temperature drops to 79º F / 26º C like today, we need to add a blanket on the bed, use long sleeves or just a warmer piece of clothing.

That's why our ladies at the Hospital already know what to do at the "crochet" workshop - crochet hats, that's it!

1st Futsal Tournament 2014

Last Saturday we finished the Futsal Tournament with 8 teams representing 8 local churches from different areas of Maputo.

Check the pictures:

The skills at their best...

Whoever loves to play does not complain about shoes...

The venue at Josina Machel Secondary School

Saidate sharing the Word with the players

Prayer Time

One for each other...

The ball for the Final Match

The teams ready

The goal keeper in position

A difficult moment for the defense...

And that's goal!

Best scorer with 16 goals

2º Place - Igreja Baptista Renovada

1st Place - Igreja de Betsaída

The winning team!

Family Picture with the best 4 teams

My 2013 books

During 2013, I had the opportunity to read some great books that I will strongly recommend to those interested in the respective topics:

One of my favorite readings each morning. What happened on this date in church history? From ancient Rome to the twenty-first century, from peasants to presidents, from missionaries to martyrs, this book shows how God does extraordinary things through ordinary people every day of the year. Each story appears on the day and month that it occurred and includes questions for reflection and a related Scripture verse

When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation and ministry to those in need. Emphasizing the poverty of both heart and society, this book exposes the need that every person has and how it can be filled. The reader is brought to understand that poverty is much more than simply a lack of financial or material resources and that it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve the problem of poverty.

More than one million people participate in short-term mission projects outside of North America every year-and millions more are involved in domestic cross-cultural missions right here at home. This is encouraging news. But the work is not done. There are weaknesses in our approach and practice. And these volunteers need resources to help them prepare for effective cross-cultural engagement. Serving with Eyes Wide Open helps Christians understand the changing face of Christianity and how that affects short-term missions. In three parts, author David A. Livermore will take a broad look at what the twenty-first-century church is doing on the mission field, the assumptions people make about Christianity, and what it takes to adapt effectively to new cultural contexts. Perfect for all who engage in short-term missions trips-either at home or abroad-Serving with Eyes Wide Open will equip readers to serve more sensitively.

Foreign to Familiar is a splendidly written, well researched work on cultures. Anyone traveling abroad should not leave home without this valuable resource! Sarah's love and sensitivity for people of all nations will touch your heart. This book creates within us a greater appreciation for our extended families around the world and an increased desire to better understand them.

This book, African Friends and Money Matters, grew out of frustrations that Westerners experience when they travel and work in Africa. Africans have just as many frustrations relating to the Westerners in their midst. Each uses and manages money and other resources in very different ways, and these differences create many misunderstandings and frictions.

The author deals with everyday life in Africa. He first introduces the very different goals of African and Western economic systems and then presents ninety observations of African behaviors related to money matters. Explanatory comments are given that show how each one works out in real life. He illustrates his and others' experiences with anecdotes from across the continent. Drawings by two African artists add further clarity to the text as they capture Africans and Westerners in authentic situations. The result is that the reader is able to make sense of customs that at first seem incomprehensible.

This book will be of interest to Westerners living, working, or traveling in sub-Saharan Africa: business, government, diplomatic, and NGO personnel, religious workers, journalists, development sociologists, and tourists. The audience also includes professors and students in African studies. Africans will also be interested for what it reveals about Western culture and many of the significant ways Westerners react to Africa.

In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. InGetting Things Done Allen shows how to: 

* Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box to empty
* Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations
* Plan projects as well as get them unstuck
* Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed
* Feel fine about what you're not doing 

From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

In his bestselling first book, Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen presented his breakthrough methods to increase efficiency. Now “the personal productivity guru” (Fast Company) shows readers how to increase their ability to work better, not harder—every day. Based on Allen’s highly popular e-newsletter, Ready for Anything offers readers 52 ways to immediately clear your head for creativity, focus your attention, create structures that work, and take action to get things moving.

With wit, inspiration, and know-how, Allen shows readers how to make things happen—with less effort and stress, and lots more energy, creativity, and effectiveness. Ready for Anything is the perfect book for anyone wanting to work and live at his or her very best.

This one-volume edition of Simon Walker's trilogy of books on 'undefended' leadership addresses leaders in all walks of life: from the home or pre-school to the corporate, academic, political or church offices. It combines the contents from his books: Leading out of Who You Are; Leading with Nothing to Lose; Leading with Everything to Give. In the first book he examines the formation of the leadership ego and shows how maintaining a front and back stage derails leaders. In the second book Simon looks at how power is used in leadership, based on eight case studies from history, and draws powerful guidelines for leaders today. In the final book he focuses on the leader's vision and examines what has caused the current failure of leadership in the West. He points out the direction in which we need to move if life is to flourish in the coming decades.

Is Mozambique an African success story? It has 7 percent a year growth rate and substantial foreign investment. Fifteen years after the war of destabilization, the peace has held. Mozambique is the donors' model pupil, carefully following their prescriptions and receiving more than a billion dollars a year in aid. The number of bicycles has doubled and this is often cited as the symbol of development. In this book the authors challenge some key assumptions of both the donors and the government and ask questions such as whether there has been too much stress on the Millennium Development Goals and too little support for economic development; if it makes sense to target the poorest of the poor, or would it be better to target those who create the jobs which will employ the poor; whether there has been too much emphasis on foreign investment and too little on developing domestic capital; and if the private sector really will end poverty, or must there be a stronger role for the state in the economy? This book is about more than Mozambique. Mozambique is an apparent success story that is used to justify the present 'post-Washington consensus' development model. Here, the case of Mozambique is situated within the broader development debate. Joseph Hanlon is Senior Lecturer at the Open University and the author of Beggar Your Neighbours; Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots?; and Peace without Profit (all published by James Currey) which have all made influential interventions in the development debate; Teresa Smart is Director of the London Mathematics Centre, Institute of Education. Published in association with the Open University.

The trials in Mozambique of the killers of Carlos Cardoso aroused much media attention. Many had only a vague idea of who Cardoso was but most had a good sense that he was an important figure in Mozambican politics and civil society. For those who were unable to read about him in Portuguese, this book in English by Paul Fauvet and Marcelo Mosse is an essential place to start. To learn about Carlos Cardoso is to learn much about Mozambique.

Portugal is Europe's south-western extremity, washed by the Atlantic, and warmed by the Mediterranean sun. Alone among Iberia's ancient kingdoms, in its independence from Spain, it is a nation about half the size of Florida, with two-thirds the population. Yet, over centuries, it has influenced the lives of the rest of us far more than many much larger and powerful countries.

Live Soccer

The MDI2014 Futsal Tournment started on saturday and will happen for 2 more weeks, where 8 church teams will try their best to score. They represent 8 churches from different areas of Maputo.

At the end of the day, another live sport event. The broadcasting of the first match of the Championship of African Nations at a poor neighborhood, hosted by a local church. The match was South Africa - Mozambique.

Due to the rain, the terrain has muddy, but good enough for a big screen event.

Mozambique scored the first goal, but ended losing by 3-1.

Aligning the Dish

Setting the screen

The first spectators

Church Leader giving his testimony

A unusual way to make a seat!!!

Happy Christmas

Married vs. Singles

Yesterday, I was invited to speak at a "Married vs. Single" soccer match.

I confess I don't understand why do they arranged this match! Why should married people would play against single people? What's the point?

Maybe the married want to prove they are still fit for sports... maybe the singles want to say they are not so bad considering they can still play good soccer...

Whatever the answer is, I believe this was just a motive to organize a soccer game! The point was, they want to play, they want to compete, they want to win!

In fact, wanting to play and to win, or, in another words, to be competitive is not so bad... It pulls from us the best we have, and take us to exceed in our efforts to play, and if possible to win.

At the end of the match, the winners should be thankful to the losers, because if were not them, they would not try to play better and give their best. At the end of the game all should celebrate the opportunity to be better players.

Unfortunately, this is not the common competition that surround us everyday.

Each day, we experience the competition that put face to face poor and rich, strong and weak, powerful and fragile people. Each day, the world demands from people they need to be richer, stronger, powerful, cleverer, and nicest. A competition where everyone needs to win, no matters what needs to be done, and who needs to stay in second place.

It reminds me of another game - the Game of Life! A match much more complex, that starts on the day we are born and ends anytime, we don't know. A competition between a life with a purpose and a life without it. a life with God or a life without God..

In this match we ALL starting losing!

The Bible says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) Our selfish nature pull us away from God. We are prevented from a relationship with the Creator because we are obcessed by our own self interest no matter what. We are enable to love when we stay far from the One who is Love Himself.

But, is exactly because of God's love, that, in this match where we all starting losing, the same way we ALL can win!

The Bible also says "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). Everyone can win this victory!

The promised salvation by God is not about who wins a game but who accepts the truth! A truth that is accessible to ALL!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)

The Son of God is Jesus - the One we celebrate his birth in this season, in case you forgot that! J The Jesus about whom the angel announced to the shepherds:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord!” (Luke 2:10-11)

This year, think about this! In this Match of Life, we all start loosing, but we all can finish as winners! We never know when it will end. It may be in some years or in some hours. Be ready!

This Christmas, be part of the winning team!

To know more about God, click here

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Love without words

Julieta is under chemoterapy since February, and it is proved how skilled she is for "crochet", an activity that aunt Anita has been teaching at the Hospital. She just finished this blue dress:

After that it's time for a special "treatment" by aunt Alice, taking care of her nails!

The same with Emilia, a patient that couldn't believe what was happening! Nobody ever had done this for her!

Sometimes, small gestures speak more than words!