vathi va toko wirimu

Greetings one last time from Montepuez!  Our hearts are very full these days, but heavy as well – we leave in less than one week, ending this season of ministry as residents in Mozambique. ...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/11/november-2018-our-last-newsletter-from.html

Greetings from Montepuez! We’re emerging from our winter here in northern Mozambique, putting away our jackets and beginning to wipe layers of dust from everything and everyone.  We’r...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/08/august-2018-newsletter.html

A few months ago, I read Patrick Lencioni’s The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues.  He uses a narrative to present what he believes to be the most i...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/07/stories-reveal-systems-using-harry.html

The “New Perspectives on Paul” has shaped my teaching of the book of Romans in Mozambique. One way to think of it is as a re-contextualization of Western historical-critical scholarship for ...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/06/new-article-in-missio-dei-journal.html

Check out my review of Towards Respectful Understanding and Witness Among Muslims: Essays in Honor of J. Dudley Woodberry  in the Missio Dei Journal.

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/06/book-review-towards-respectful.html

A Christological motif that has the potential to be especially powerful in African Folk Islamic contexts is the idea of Jesus as holy teacher, or Mwalimu for Makua-Metto speakers. Matthew’s Go...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/05/new-ijfm-article-jesus-as-mwalimu.html

This image has meant a lot to me as I've considered how the vocations of Preacher and Parent intersects with the role of Poet and how understanding the power of words to take flight in the l...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/05/story-warren-parent-as-poet.html

Greetings from Montepuez! The rains seem to have finally stopped and the weather is starting to get a bit cooler.  That’s been a nice change as we’ve started wearing long sleeves and ligh...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/05/may-2018-newsletter.html

I was listening to a podcast recently where they talked about how rare it is to find bands that are able to stick together for more than a few years.  They noted that music groups that can stay...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/02/on-longevity-of-bands-and-mission-teams.html

How should we think about poverty’s causes and effects? That question has been an important one for us in our ministry here in Mozambique.  It led me to do research and interviews resulting...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/01/poverty-then-and-now.html

Chickens are a part of everyday life here in northern Mozambique.  Their behavior really is puzzling.  I never fully understood the origins of jokes made at their expense until I began living ...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/01/chickens-vs-digging-for-rubies-and.html

Happy New Year from Mozambique!   Many of our friends have moved out to their farms, the rainy season is off to a healthy start, and we are so grateful.  Ripe mangoes are everywhere, m...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2018/01/january-2018-newsletter-and-announcement.html

The Harding University Alumni Magazine asked a few missionaries serving in different parts of the globe to write a letter to the people they serve.  It was a difficult prompt for Rachel and I (h...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/11/into-all-world.html

Check out my Review of Tod Bolsinger, Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory  in Missio Dei: A Journal of Missional Theology and Practice 8, no. 2 (Summer-Fall ...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/11/review-of-canoeing-mountains.html

Check out my new article in the Missio Dei Journal - When Having a Bad Leader is Good: Processing a Negative Experience and Applying Leadership Lessons from the Kings !

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/11/new-article-in-missio-dei-journal.html

Game playing has been a part of our mission team’s culture from the beginning.  While we were still living in the USA in 2000-2003 we would meet regularly to do team formation activities, wor...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/10/team-missions-as-collective-game.html

>  Check out a new post I wrote for Story Warren, The Soundtrack of Childhood , for some thoughts on what it means for the Islamic Call to Prayer to be a part of our lives here in Mozambique. E...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/10/story-warren-soundtrack-of-childhood.html

Lately, the story of Philip has captured my imagination.  Acts 8 tells the story of his encounter with the Ethiopian Eunuch.  It is a powerful story of the first convert to Christianity outsid...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/10/acts-and-allies.html

I remember clearly the day that we learned the word for coal in Portuguese - carvão. Our mission team was in Lisbon to learn to speak the national language of Mozambique, a former Portugues...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/10/charcoal-and-rejectionredemption.html

We speak the Makua-Metto language, but in the province south of us, Nampula, they speak a different dialect known simply as Macua or Makua.  Most of the villages we work in speak Makua-Metto (i...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/10/counting-and-makua-culture.html

Ty Cobb, as baseball fans are aware, is famous for being an amazing player.  He was the first person voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and still holds the record for having the highest lifet...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/09/ty-cobb-wrath-of-god-and-power-of-fake.html

Hello everyone, We’ve had an intense few months and wanted to share some of what has been happening over here with you.  Back in April, I had surprise hernia surgery – it still amazes me ...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/09/september-2017-newsletter.html

School just started for the kids on our mission team last week here in Montepuez and I’ve been thinking about a video that Abby and I did for the Downtown Church of Christ youth group at the b...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/09/raising-rebellious-teenagers-gospel-as.html

I just finished Stephen Backhouse’s Kierkegaard: A Single Life and enjoyed learning about the famous Danish philosopher’s thinking and influence.  Backhouse frames Kierkegaard in his contex...

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/09/christendom-scholarship-and-kierkegaard.html

Check out my new post at Story Warren: "Embracing a Pigpen Spirituality" Grace and Peace, Alan

http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2017/09/new-post-at-story-warren.html