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Welcome!
We are Kent and Andrea Powell, full-time missionaries to Mozambique, Africa and founders of Release Ministries. We serve to provide economic opportunities to aid orphans, widows, and the elderly. We are stationed along the coast near the former capital, called Ilha de Mocambique.
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Our ministry is situated at the crossroads of poverty and witchcraft & economic development. By cultivating everyday personal relationships with people, we bridge the gap between providing basic economic needs and the gospel message.
Ministry Details.
The villages we focus on are remote and living conditions are poor. No running water or indoor toilets and houses with grass roofs and dirt floors leaving them susceptible to the elements, sickness and disease. Our ministry is very hands on and we personally know talk to and pray with each individual we help. Presently we help sustain 18 families with the basic necessaties of life. All of those families are supported on a monthly bases in exchange for some form of employment. My leader in Mozambique continues to distribute the support each month no matter where Andrea and I are at the time. I transfer money each month to assist these families though it is barely enough to cover the basics of there needs. We see so much more suffering and need on a daily basis and know we could be helping so many more if properly funded. By creating close working relationships with each individual we can learn all the details of their lives, family and needs on a first hand basis. This creates an enviroment of trust and friendship. Through this daily interaction it makes presenting the gospel so much easier. We live among them and share trials and victories with our friends.
Employment for the locals.
GARDENS:
We serve 10 ladies that help bring water to our land and help plant gardens. Raising potatoes, peanuts and onions can be sold to help the economy. We are also in the process of refurbishing the our land with coconut trees. We purchase small sprouts for $3 a plant and add them to mature. We have more than 200 sprouts growing now. Each of the ladies helping with this are single mothers with at least 4 children each. They have no other type of income and life is hard for them. We help them with clothing, housing and a weekly salary for them to buy beans, rice and oil for cooking.
Lodge and Restaurant:
A huge project finally taking form. 3 cabins for guests and a full service restaurant. Providing family sustaining jobs for 4 full time and 4 part time local people.
EDUCATION:
We constantly encourage all the village children to attend school. Children are responsible for much of the chores around the house. A child can go catch a small string of fish the size of minnows to help feed their family and it often takes precedence over going to school. None of them have the money to buy a notebook or pencil. This is the norm for every village we serve in. Each year we provide school materials for over 500 children in our village.
Currently we have 3 boys now becoming men that we supply tuition for schools. We put them in the best schools the area has to offer moving them out of the remote villages to insure proper education. One of our sons is at the university level and 2 others are at the secondary school level. These boys have proven themselves good stewards of these opportunities. Our desire is for them to seek out viable professions and go on to become future leaders of Mozambique to contribute to the welfare of their own communities.
Our Story.
Every day of ministry here incorporates our past for us both. We are both fluent in Portuguese (the official language of Mozambique).
I (Kent) worked in marketing and graphic design for twenty years in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. Andrea was a nutritionist in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We met in a northern town in Mozambique called Pemba while helping Iris Ministries (Rolland & Heidi Baker) start a ministry base.
We worked diligently to launch all operations of the base: building an orphanage, a Bible school, providing housing for missionaries, weekly evangelistic outreaches, and discipleship. In a short period of time, the base grew tremendously and our lives were busier than ever.
Working together gave us the opportunity to know each other better, and we ended up becoming Pemba’s first foreign couple to get married in the city! Rolland and Heidi performed the ceremony on the beach of Pemba, Praia de Wimbe. We saw 20 salvations and 2 deliverances during our wedding! It was great.
What started as a 6-month commitment to Mozambique has now become 10+ years of ministry here. Eventually we stepped out to launch Release Ministries to serve the coastal people of Ilha de Mocambique, about 7 hours south of Pemba.
Current Urgencies!
Now established in this new area we have land that is in urgent need of more construction. We have to show visible improvements to the land to complete the governmental requirements to keep the land.
Necessities:
Fresh Water source. Fresh water Well or reverse osmosis water system-salt water to fresh water.
Time for a new 4×4 Truck
Dream to build a school
Church building
Water tanks and plumbing for houses.
Complete 4 smaller bungaloes for guest that come to minister in the remote region.