Jim Pedersen - Mozambique Video Interview
 A group of 15 of us from the Northern California Conference have been in Mozambique to help build one of the 1,001 churches that Maranatha has committed to constructing here in this country. Our project has been to put up one of these facilities so we’ve been laying brick, brushing them off, putting them in place, seeing the building come up over a really short period of time, and to see it come together has just been incredible to watch and to be participating in. We’ve also been helping conduct Vacation Bible Schools for the kids that are in the local village, and there has also been a medical clinic that’s been conducted for people in the village to help them with their health issues. It has just been great to have a synergy of things coming together on this trip in this very first project for the Northern California Conference.
A number of months ago, a number of us at the conference had some discussion on what we could do to impact the kingdom of God in a bigger and bolder way than we have done in the past. And we came up with the theme of Be Bold for God, and as part of that, we chose three projects that could help us step out of the box and move in some new directions. We decided to have a small school youth pastor, that would go to schools that have one or two teachers only. We chose to do a church plant in a part of the conference where we did not have an existing church. But those are both things that would benefit Northern California Conference people and we are part of a worldwide organization, a worldwide movement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. So we decided to partner with Maranatha, through whom we have also worked in the past through some of our churches and schools and Pathfinder clubs on building projects, and their commitment to do 1,001 churches in Mozambique captivated us. And we decided to sponsor 25 of those projects for Northern California Conference groups to participate in, and we are here now on the very first of those 25 projects, to see the kingdom of God begin to expand in Mozambique.
There have been so many parts of this trip that have been favorites to me. Of course being involved in the construction has just been incredible – to lift those bricks, to brush them off, and to see the building come up so quickly – that has just been a dream come true. But to interact with the people from the community, the church members who are coming and actually helping and rubbing shoulders with them, and putting this church into place, for them, and to see the smiles on their faces – just incredible. The kids as they come to watch and see what is happening, to watch them playing with the balloons and the toys that have been brought for them, the smiles on their faces are just so much of a reward for me to see. All of this, rubbing shoulders with my colleagues, people from our conference who are here – we will now have a bond that will last us for all eternity as we have seen what God has been doing through us.
Coming over here to Africa, I suppose it goes without saying is just a totally different world compared to Northern California Conference. If you have a picture of Africa, it pretty much meets where we are at. We are out in the bush. We are out away from the big cities. It takes us an hour to drive from where we are staying every night out to the work site and you really do leave civilization behind, to come out here, to park, to start our work. You begin to see people just arrive and you wonder where they are coming from, but they are coming from other small villages, and they just appear out of the bush. All of the sudden, there’s a crowd of people, a crowd of kids, who have come to see what we are doing. And to realize that in this place, there is going to be a church, possibly a school will be held here, literacy classes, medical clinics, all of those things happening in the facility that we are going to leave behind. That is so thrilling to see happening because we know the kingdom of God now has a more concrete presence here in this location.
Be Bold for God is the theme that we chose to describe the projects that we are doing in this initiative from the Northern California Conference. And our goal has been to raise one million dollars by the end of 2008. Now the one million dollars we anticipate will cover all the three projects and help us do what we sense God is calling us to do here. But we also are looking for people to help us, especially with these building projects in Mozambique. We can give our money, but we also need people to actually construct these facilities and so I am hoping that our churches, our schools, our Pathfinder clubs, our youth groups will work together to help us accomplish finishing constructing these 25 sites - all of us working together. Some churches can take a project on their own, some may want to take two projects. Some smaller churches or schools may want to work together to help create a group that will come over and take on one of these projects. So I’m hoping that together, across our conference, we will come together in a way that we haven’t even seen before to accomplish some projects, specifically the Mozambique projects, and constructing facilities that will be a lasting testament to what God can do.
My appeal to you is to join us in these projects. Join us in prayer, we need that to make these things happen on behalf of God. I hope you will join us and Be Bold for God in taking the steps of writing checks and making contributions toward these projects. But I also hope you will Be Bold for God and sign up to come and actually help with one of these projects over here in Mozambique. The kingdom of God is going to be benefited far beyond your wildest imagination and you need to be here to see it. Be Bold for God.
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