This is the Angola Mission Team's  Quarterly newsletter, featuring articles by Umoyo Zimba Holland and Jordan Yarbrough,  information about recent baptisms, and Prayer Requests.
Angola Team
Seedtime & Harvest 
Field Notes from Angola 
Umoyo joins our team for a fun photo op!

The team is overjoyed to have had Umoyo with us for the past two months in Angola! She and Nathan are currently traveling out of the country in order to finish up a few things including Umoyo's visa process and car repairs. Nathan will return to Angola after the car repairs and Umoyo will travel to South Africa for professional development and then to Zambia to tackle the Angolan visa process. Please pray for the Hollands during this time of travel and then separation. Pray fervently for Umoyo's visa process. 

Fresh Eyes on Angola:

Mrs. Holland's thoughts after two months here

By: Umoyo Zimba Holland

My Husband tells me I’m sometimes annoying like Pollyanna, an eternal optimist, always looking at the bright side of things, hopeful, a dreamer. Much could be said about the lack of infrastructure and development in all sectors of life here, but I see Angola as a country of immense opportunity. Opportunity to impact many generations to come in different areas of life and to reach people with the Gospel. It excites me to think of the opportunities to impact a nation so vast, a people so beautiful.

I arrived in Huambo almost two months ago now and on a practical level, I was overjoyed to find that we have running water, a functioning hot water heater, a kitchen and washing machine. When I visited Angola before Nathan and I got married last year, he did not yet have any of these things. In Windhoek, Namibia, where I’ve lived until two months ago, everything works. Clean, drinkable water comes from the tap, the power doesn’t go out, the internet is reliable, and if anything does fail, you just make a phone call and it promptly gets fixed.  I was warned profusely by my friends about the perils of living in Angola. So you can understand my excitement when I arrived and the basic commodities of life were available, things that I have normally taken for granted. Within this apartment building though, some of our neighbors don’t have running water and a stones-throw away there are others who don’t have electricity, water or a sewage system. So I’m really thankful for those things.

When Nathan moved into the apartment where we currently live, it had a tiny bathroom, no kitchen or electrical wiring. Somehow he was able to envision and create a reasonable and livable place for us. Despite the challenges Angola faces, the opportunities to make a difference are limitless. In the future I hope that with the help of others on the team we can make a lasting contribution to healthcare in Angola while reaching people for the Gospel.

 

Side by Side:

Mentoring-partnerships in the Gospel

By: Jordan Yarbrough

One of our team’s goals from the beginning was to intentionally work side by side with Angolans: a mentoring model. We wanted partnership in every aspect of our ministry. We prayed the mentoring would be a two-way street – that we would be teachers, but also learners.

Because of this goal, in the beginning some ministry gained momentum quickly due to efforts of our partners who already had action plans. It also means there were times when efforts started by others or in partnership with others had to be continued alone when, for one reason or another, the partners no longer participated.

One such case is the church plant in São Luís. This church was started by a partner from our national church; but he left a short time later leaving our team to nurture these new Christians. Since this time, we have prayed for wisdom and a godly Angolan to come encourage and lead in this church. Thankfully, in January, César Gonçalves da Cruz (pictured above with his wife) was sent to Huambo by our national partnering church to join us and lead the São Luís church.
 
I was privileged to work closely alongside César during his first few months here. I was blessed by his earnest heart for God, his desire to work with our team, his willingness to be open minded in many areas, and his gentle approach of gaining trust before taking leadership. César and his wife Adelaide are both familiar with Ovimbundo culture and language, have experience in leadership, and a great appreciation for God’s grace. We are blessed to be able to teach and learn alongside César and Adelaide, and we are thankful for the additional time this gives our team to invest in other ministries and outreach.
 
While César has had moments of difficulty in joining with a team whose worldviews and ways of thinking are often different, we praise God that we have the desire to serve and obey Him in common. Because of this, we have all been mutually encouraged through our partnership in the Gospel. While partnership is never without its challenges, and while the church’s difficulties have not miraculously ceased with the addition of more leadership, we see God growing all of us. We pray for His continued grace and mercy as we walk alongside others and try to show them the possibility and freedom brought about through a personal relationship with Christ. 

 

Angola Mission Team

The Angola Team:

Nathan & Umoyo Holland
 
Robert, Teague, Efesson, & Biruk Meyer

Danny, Katie, Eliana, & Sophia Reese

Jordan Yarbrough

 

Planting Churches
Nurturing Growth
Harvesting a Nation

Bibles for Angolans

Four baptisms last Sunday!

Helena, Jamba, Georgina, and Domingos are now dead to sin and alive in Christ! See pictures in our Facebook album

Pray for Us

Prayer Requests:

Pray for your new brother and sisters in Christ - Domingos, Helena, Jamba, and Georgina. 

Pray for the Hollands during this time of travel and separation. 

Pray for Umoyo's visa process. Umoyo will be traveling to Zambia (she is a Zambian citizen) for her Angolan visa process in the near future.

Pray for the congregation in São Luis. Pray for César, Adelaide, and John as they lead. 

Many people in the São Luis neighborhood struggle with alcoholism - pray for release from addiction.

Pray that the new bodies of believers will learn how to address the problem of alcoholism in the church.   

Pray for the Bibles for Angolans initiative

Pray for the Angolan people. That they would become disciples of Jesus Christ.

Pray for the Angolan Christians. That God would use them to reach the nation of Angola in a powerful way.
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