1. Near Liupo with the catechumens.

One of my first experiences there was a meeting with catechists and other lay church leaders near the village of Liupo. It left a deep impression on me. For about two hours I listened to stories of their survival during the time of the civil war and how they sustained the work of evangelization when the foreign missionaries were forced to leave. In spite of incredible hardships, they continued to give witness to their faith in Jesus, inviting people to share their hopes and sorrows in moments of prayer. As I heard the accounts of their sacrifices and of the dangers that many had faced, I realized I was sitting with a great band of "confessors of the faith."

Now that the years of confusion and violence have ended, the Church communities are growing very rapidly. The ministers report that whole villages are entering the catechumenate together. Indeed, in some cases, the catechists are those who have been catechumens longer than the rest. The church leaders near Liupo stressed one thing in particular. They want to know more about the Bible. We could have stayed there sharing stories the whole day through, but our meeting was broken up by the rising of a very strong wind. People scattered to find cover, hoping for a little rain. Often I have wondered what it must have been like to be alive at the time of Pentecost when the Church, according to the Acts of the Apostles, grew incredibly fast under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I no longer need to wonder, for I suspect I have seen it with my own eyes in Mozambique.

Old treasure. This meeting with church leaders highlights some of the "old treasure" of Christian missionary activity. Like the earliest days of the Church there is the desire of those who have survived a time of trial to tell a story of faithfulness in spite of suffering. There is the hopeful tone of the storytellers who look forward to a chance to build a new life. There is the joy that the message of Jesus is finding enthusiastic response as people seek for a renewed sense of meaning. And there is, above all, a palpable sense of the presence of the Spirit.

New treasure. At the same time there are some new treasures evident in the meeting. Because of the growing emphasis on the Bible Apostolate as an essential dimension of life and service for Divine Word Missionaries, the SVD Team in Mozambique has come to be known by many as the "Missionaries with the Bible." This reliance on biblical teaching fits very well in a Mozambican Church that has developed a strong network of diverse lay ministries in its time of suffering. One of the confreres wrote recently that "I continue to be amazed by the model of Church-of-many-ministries that has grown up here (during the time of the civil war) and has managed to involve so many people in active ministry. They are teaching us how to be missionaries."