How the Lutheran Church in Amambo built their building

Shauen Greets a Child in Amambo (photo by Carlotta Cisternas Tiews)The Lutheran Church in Amambo (Maromeo Region, Mozambique) has endured through years without a minister before they were brought to the Lutheran Church. Their extended time of isolation caused some to leave the fellowship for a time and others to fall away from the faith altogether. For those who remained, they took up a burden of responsibility and self-sufficiency. Faced with the challenge of finding a space sufficient for them to gather together, they endeavored on their own initiative to build a church building that would meet their needs. They fashioned mud bricks for their church with their own hands and fired them using wood they gathered in the thin forest of their area. Out of a sense of pride, desire for a permanent and low-maintenance structure, and to demonstrate their conviction to the community, they committed to roofing their church building in tin sheets rather than thatch. A typical bag of charcoal - sells for $1 in townFor the timbers, tin roofing, and mortar for brick-laying, they cut trees and burned charcoal, walking or biking it the twenty kilometers to the closest town where one very large bag of charcoal sells for $1 (60 Meticals). Through these efforts the Lutheran Church in Amambo today worships in a brick building with a tin roof. While they eagerly desire to continue the work and put in a concrete floor, doors, windows, and to plaster the interior of the church, they’ve stalled in construction because of the drought and violent political conflict which has further depressed the economy of the area, significantly reducing the market for charcoal and increasing the cost of building materials. Nevertheless, the Lutherans in Amambo know that in time, stewarding what God has entrusted to their care - small as it may seem - and perhaps with the assistance of friends in the faith, they will continue to develop their worship space as they gather around Word and Sacrament. Praise the Lord for His people in Amambo and their eagerness for the best possible space set aside to gather together in His name.