May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
How are you? I hope you are good. I am good thanks to God and things are going ok with my job at Total.
Many things have been happening in the church these days and I hereby report it for your information and prayers:
About one month ago, the church (parish) council decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of St. Stephen Parish in a very different way by organizing a series of activities and ending in a thanks giving service on the 28th of August (the day of the parish). The council has then created a task force group headed by António Raúl and Joaquim. They created different groups of work in order to organize the activities that would honour the owner of the church – Jesus Christ, the Lord! Myself and Osvaldo and Delfina are organizing Mission & Ministry group and are in charge of organizing the service itself (the programme, the related liturgy, the bible readers, the guests, etc). A bishop from Nigeria is expected for this event. He will be preaching in the service and is expected to give us a talk, seminars and bible studies together with the English congregation.
A calendar of activities was created in a record time and we are now working on it. Last two weeks were of intense work in order to organize all this work. The starting point of the activities was in Sunday the 14th. The following activities were realized:
- Visit to Bishop André’s house in Benfica by NESE – Núcleo dos Estudantes do Santo Estêvão (The local branch of Anglican students’ federation) on the 14th August. Students and other visitors had the opportunity to talk to the bishop and his family and ask questions and clarify their doubts about the life and future of the church. That was also an opportunity to comfort the bishop and his family and encourage him on his ministry. They also prepared some offers for the bishop’s house. That was a very happy afternoon at bishop’s home. After the visit, all students got a gift from the bishop.
- Radio Interview: Pastor Emmanuel gave an interview on Thursday (or Wednesday, I’m not sure) last week to the main Radio channel of Angola (RNA – Rádio Nacional de Angola), Angola National Radio which is listened all over the country. We got very positive feedback from people who heard the message on the radio. Anglican church is not much known here despite being spread in many neighbourhood of Luanda and some other provinces for many years. We’re working to change the situation. Some other interviews and preaches are planned for the next week.
- Visit to the Central Maternity Hospital in Luanda by the whole church: A blood donation campaign was held on Saturday (20th August) at the central maternity hospital in Luanda. Many members were present to share their blood with those who need some of that precious liquid to survive. Around 20 members (number to be confirmed) donated some of their blood, most of them young people of the church. Many other members were present and also wanted to give this offer to whom needs it to live but, health condition restricted the number of donators as an pre-donation medical exam had to be done. I could not give any due to health condition and lack of good sleep in the previous night (high blood pressure – hypertension , was my conditioning health condition). Apart of donating blood, some other essential goods for the new comer babies and their mothers were offered to the hospital. We prayed for the babies, mothers and the nurses, doctors and all the workers of the hospital. That was a blessed activity! There is an important and interesting highlight: a very happy coincidence! Pastor Emmanuel’s daughter (Daliança) who works in that hospital, was at the hospital in the moment of the visit but not as a nurse, she was there to give birth. She had twins: a boy and a girl and we were all happy to see her and the children and Pastor Emmanuel very happy for his Grand children who had just come to the world. May God bless and protect those children from this dangerous world!
- Afternoon of praises: A festival of choir singing took place yesterday afternoon (21st August) in the parish. More than ten choirs from our church, from the Baptist church and from other evangelical churches were present in the event. Some of us who still had some energy (after eight hours in the church) ended the day (evening) in a shopping centre in a new area of Luanda to relax and have some talks on different issues of our lives. That was great!
Some activities are planned for this week until the Sunday the of the thanks giving service:
- TV interview: Pastor Emmanuel and some other leaders of the parish will be in a TV programme of our public and main TV channel (TPA –Televisão Pública de Angola).
- Visitor bishop’s arrival: If he gets his visa on time (confirmation is expected early this week), bishop from Nigeria is expected to arrive on Thursday and start his programme on Friday. He will stay in Angola for a week.
- General cleaning campaign: a general cleaning campaign in the zones around the parish will be done on Saturday (the 27th).
- Preparation of the venue of the service: the service will take place in the new church building (not finished yet) as the one we use now will be small for the number of people expected for the service. So, the place needs to be prepared. John Tasker knows the new church building that is being built, you preached there when you last came to visit us last one year ago. The works of construction had considerable progress and at this time we are in the process of putting the roof of the church. I attach some photos of the church. Again, we have problems with the high tension wires that are still in the place. It seems to be a very tough problem for the church. Please, do pray for us as we are seeking a feasible solution for this issue.
Thanks giving service: This will be the end of the programme. A special service is planned and we expect to organize a different service where God is lifted the highest we can! Please, pray for this event that all goes well and that God in His mercy accepts our offer of praise and glory to His mighty name!
Rogério and Gelson will be the interpreters of the day. We are working on making them the main interpreters of our parish to make us more communicative as more people will be able to speak comfortably in English and will get the courage to interpret a sermon from an English speaking preacher which is not easy in fact. But Gelson and Rogério are very happy and motivated for this mission. They are university students, very committed Christians and full of humility plus they speak very good English. Abrão(which is in copy) is also a good contact to have information of the parish although he works in rotation regime(28/28) – 28 days out of Luanda and 28 days off work in Luanda. Abrão is one the returned members of St. Stephens. Like me, he left Angola to Brazil to study engineering in 2003. After completion of his master degree he got back to Angola two years ago and is now working in Angola and helping the church with his valuable background from his external experience.
This year, the organization of the anniversary of the parish is being done mostly by young people. Joaquim, myself, Osvaldo, Delfina, Abrão, Tussamba, Daniel, Rosita, Maria Afonso and some other brothers and sisters are doing their best to make successful.
With much love,
Domingos Mbomba Massala
