FIEL Conference at Maputo

The Maputo conference went well—230 attended, of which most were pastors. Ronald Kalifungwa’s messages on texts from Timothy’s epistles were excellent and challenging. He spoke on being a man of God (2 Tim. 3:17), on exercising ourselves unto godliness (1 Tim. 4:17), and on doing the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5). I also was privileged to have considerable fellowship with him—especially at mealtimes; he is truly a joy to be with. I’m hoping to bring him over to North America sometime in the future to speak at our Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary conference. I sat in on onlyp arts of Jaime Marcelino’s addresses because he spoke in Portuguese, so I could only grasp about ten per cent of what he was saying. I spoke on God’s solemn charge to preach the Word (2 Tim. 4:1–2), on teaching families how to do family worship (Joshua 24:15), and on reaching for holiness (1 Pet. 1:15–16). My translator, Anselmo Vilaneulo, having studied in the States for some time, knew his English well.

Ronald Kalifungwa

At one point, I spoke about my being assaulted in Latvia. Later, a woman named Madelina approached me, saying that as a missionary working in Mozambique, she had had a very similar experience in which she was bound by two men who assaulted her. She too experienced a special time when the Spirit caused numerous divine promises to flood into her soul—especially 1 Peter 5:8–11—to carry her onward and forward. Our experiences were remarkably similar indeed, only with this difference—I felt deserted by God shortly after my experience was over, whereas she felt extremely close to God for more than a month, constantly humming and singing praises about God to the joy of her soul.

FIEL sold a goodly number of books, including the new translation into Portuguese of my dear wife’s book on kindness, and my own newly translated Family Worship volume. Some of my other books in Portuguese that have been in print for a while didn’t sell as well. The FIEL staff was quite pleased with the conference over all—especially as a first time effort. Next year they hope to build on this momentum, and rent a larger place that can hold 400 or more.