SANTA MARIA BAPTIST CHURCH

Situated at the extremity of the Maputo Peninsula off the coast of Mozambique, this evangelical congregation was planted about six years ago. Local authorities gave various reasons as to why they would not permit the construction of a church building. However, a few months ago, this restriction was lifted and we immediately purchased a site.

God, in His amazing providence, within days raised up a donor who wished for us to build a church in this region. Praise God.

Normally, in Africa, on a scale of 1 to 10 the construction degree of difficulty would be 3 or maybe 4. Santa Maria has been most, most difficult, way in excess of the above scale. The local 5 ton 4x4 cargo truck owners instituted unacceptable terms for transporting our building materials, due to a very large bog/swamp which would have to be circumnavigated.

Our only option was to use small wooden clinker sailboats with a maximum payload of 10 tons to transport the building materials. The boats returned to base harbour on the next high tide.

About 70 tons of cargo has already been transported to the site, including stone aggregate, building sand, cement, steel reinforcing, cement blocks, roofing timber, IBR roof sheeting and much, much more.

Almighty God has graciously superintended this whole project so that it has progressed smoothly without any serious interruptions.

GLORY TO HIS NAME.

Please join us in praise and thanksgiving to Him for the progress so far. At present, we are at roof height. Work has stopped for the Christmas season, and to give us an opportunity to seek additional funding for the completion of the church, hopefully early next year.