Muapula Mission - Mozambique

Ben Joubert qualified as a teacher at the University of Port Elizabeth and felt called to go into missions. He joined Frits and Nickey van der Merwe (see Church Planting and Health) in the beginning of 1997 at Muapula after some time in Maputo. He married Maggie van der Spuy in December 1998 and they have two children. Ben started a school for the local Makhua children, using the Mozambican curriculum. Every year a new grade is phased in. At the moment there are seven grades in the school plus a Grade R (pre-school)

Ben and his family returned to South Africa in 2006 and Grant and Riana Franke took over the responsibilities. There are 5 other Mozambican teachers but the big drawback is that they themselves don’t have Grade 12 and still need a lot of training and attention – a virtually impossible task for one missionary who also has to be principal of the school and teach his own classes as well. This is such a wonderful opportunity for the gospel of Jesus to be communicated daily to receptive young hearts. But there is a DIRE need for missionary teachers to help form a sound core group who can teach indigenous Makhuas to become effective and godly teachers.