Story number 3 for 4 Feb 2000

Although Mozambique is no longer in civil war, the many years of turmoil have
taken their toll. The country is one of the poorest in the world, both economically and
spiritually. SIM missionaries Jay and Amy Smoker are involved in an
agriculturally-based ministry where they’re teaching new business techniques to the
Makua (muh-KOO-wa) tribe. “Mozambique has been through a very difficult
period-17 years of civil war-[there’s been] a lot of breakdown of infrastructure. We’ve
taught improved grain storage-many people like to sell their produce right at harvest,
even though that’s the time they get the lowest prices, and we’re trying to teach them to
store their grain and sell it later.” Smoker adds that the other part of their work has
gotten enthusiastic response. “We started a small prayer group and we started showing
the Jesus Film. We were able to show this film 36 times this year, and exposed over
83-thousand people [to the Gospel]. We always went into a local church setting or
with the Farmer’s Association and we never took it in unless we accompanied it with a
seminar on prayer or spiritual powers.”