Audio Scripture Ministries’ Joshua Harrison says the situation in Mozambique is dire after Cyclone Idai’s devastation. “The damage is still being tallied and we’re still trying to see the full ramifications to the infrastructure. It will probably take a very long time before things are normal in Mozambique.”

Idai cut a swath through almost 3,000 square miles of Mozambican farmland. Those who survived the storm now face starvation.

ASM is doing what they can to respond. “We’re trying to encourage people to replant to try for a second harvest, and we’re asking for God’s mercy and help with that — that people would be able to get a second harvest even though it’s late in the season,” Harrison says.

“We’re helping put together some seed packets with 25 pounds of seeds per family with corn, black-eyed peas, bean seeds, a hoe, a bush knife, and an audio Bible — just trying to provide what families might need to get a second start and to have that hope and encouragement in this time of great need.”

(Photo courtesy of ASM)

ASM’s audio Bibles are especially useful for Mozambicans who are oral learners. Also, their solar-powered nature means the audio Bibles aren’t incapacitated when extreme weather takes out a community’s power grid.

“We continue to hear the testimonies of those who are hearing God’s Word in their own heart language, and how that can affect the whole entire family as they’re hearing the hope of God’s Word, even amidst the difficulties they’re facing.”

Harrison shares, “We heard a story of one of our Compassionate Care patients who was listening to God’s Word in her own language through her audio Bible even amidst the cyclone. Even as she was waiting for help, she was listening to God’s Word through her own audio Bible.”

The ASM team in Mozambique just received a new shipment of 2,000 audio Bibles to distribute along with seed packets.

(Photo courtesy of ASM)

“However, it is just a drop in the bucket,” Harrison says. “I mean, looking at the 400,000 to 500,000 people who have been displaced, it will be very easy to quickly distribute those where they’re needed, and we will soon be needing more. So we are praying that we would be able to soon provide another 1,000 audio Bibles or perhaps more because the need is very real.”

Several NGOs are helping in post-Idai recovery, but they will eventually leave. ASM served in Mozambique long before the storm struck, and they will be around long after other organizations pull out.

In addition to distributing seed packets and audio Bibles, ASM is also providing medical assistance. ASM’s Compassionate Care Coordinator Dara Vanden Bosch has been traveling with Doctor Rute — a Mozambican doctor and pastor — to reach people in rural areas who need urgent medical care.

Harrison asks, “Please continue to pray for our team as we prepare audio Bibles for distribution, that we would be able to place them where they’re most needed. There are such incredible needs right now and we have a limited number.

“Secondly, [pray] that God would really open the floodgates for our fundraiser for more audio Bibles for Mozambique in this time. We know that physical health is important and having our daily bread is very important, but having long-term spiritual sustenance [and] having the truth of God’s Word is paramount.

Seed packets with an audio Bible distributed by Audio Scripture Ministries in Mozambique. (Photo courtesy of ASM)

“I would also ask for prayer for Doctor Rute and for Dara Vanden Bosch as they travel and care for patients in rural areas that have been very heavily impacted by Cyclone Idai. We are trying to spread our teams out as much as possible and reach as many people who are in need as possible during this time.”

Just $65 gets one audio Bible and seed packet into the hands of a Mozambican family affected by Cyclone Idai.

Click here to support audio Bibles in Mozambique with ASM!

“The Mozambicans are such resilient, strong people,” says Harrison. “When they can put their trust and hope in God and hear His promises in their own language, it makes it so much easier to cling to the Lord’s promises.”

Header image courtesy of the NOAA.

The Compassionate Care team with Audio Scripture Ministries stands in the gap for Mozambicans who need hospice or palliative care. They recently celebrated their 100th patient — a sobering milestone showing how necessary their care has been.

Joshua Harrison with ASM explains, “Our Compassionate Care team helps distribute God’s Word in audio to their patients, and they deliver basic hygiene products and medicine. They offer compassionate care being the hands and feet of Jesus to people who receive very little hospital care, palliative care, [or] pain medication.”

(Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

The Compassionate Care ministry was started in 2015 by ASM missionary Dara Vanden Bosch in Mozambique. “She saw a young girl suffer with uncontrolled pain and die. As a trained nurse, Dara wanted to help reach out to that need in the community.”

Since then, Harrison says, “She has been training a team of three Mozambican women who now make regular visits to patients.”

There are currently 24 patients being served by ASM’s Compassionate Care team. The weekly journey to see each patient is difficult, and the team has to go “deep into the bush over pretty wild roads, sometimes bringing the supplies, bringing the care, talking with the patients, taking care of basic medical needs, and praying with them as well as seeing what they are listening to on their audio Bible and answering questions.”

The audio Bible distribution is just as critical as the medical care, if not more so. While the Compassionate Care team meets temporal, physical needs, they also address spiritual needs.

ASM records and distributes audio Bibles around the world, and making these resources available to patients in Mozambique prepares them for eternity.

“As people are lying there, many times unable to move from their sick beds and their families maybe don’t even know how to take care of them, we come, we pray with them, we give them some basic medicine, [and] we see how God brings physical comfort as they are listening to the audio Bible and amazing spiritual peace to those who are turning to Him.”

(Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

Last month, ASM also celebrated World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. The theme was, “Because I matter.”

Harrison says, “This resonates with our vision for the Mozambican Compassionate Care team because everything that we’re doing there is because each person is precious to God.

“As believers, we know everyone matters to God. ‘For God so loved the world.’ It’s a basic, underlying principle of why God is doing what He is doing and why He is calling us to reach out and to love people and to bring them into His Kingdom to proclaim the Gospel.”

Knowing this truth — that each person is precious in the eyes of our Heavenly Father — how does that drive us to action?

One thing you can do is come alongside ASM and their Compassionate Care team as they provide palliative and hospice care to beloved men, women, and children in Mozambique.

“We ask you to pray for our team as they make these visits. The travel is often precarious. The situations are often difficult. Many times since many of these patients come when they are at death’s doorstep, a lot of times the team doesn’t have long with these patients. So pray for open hearts to receive the Gospel,” asks Harrison.

(Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“Pray for strength for the team as they meet with and pray for these patients and help their families cope with loss, that God would strengthen our team and also that He would do great things in people’s lives.”

To learn more about partnering with ASM, click here!

Header photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries.