Missionaries to Mozambique | Dwight Lagore

Learn more about SAM Ministries: samministries.org

Transcript: 

Evangelist Daniel King  (00:00):

Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m excited to tell people about Jesus. Today, I am in Mozambique with Dwight and Lynn Lagore. And it’s so wonderful to be here. Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Dwight Lagore (00:16):

Fantastic to have you here, Daniel.

Evangelist Daniel King  (00:18):

All right. So we are in Mozambique. It’s a little tough to get here. I had to fly to Johannesburg and then fly into Mozambique. And then it’s got some rough roads to get here, but it’s so beautiful to see what God is doing here. How long have you and your wife lived here?

Dwight Lagore (00:37):

So we have been in Mozambique for 33 years now. Yeah. Since the war ended in 1992, we moved into Mozambique in 1993.

Evangelist Daniel King  (00:47):

And your ministry is called SAM Ministries.

Dwight Lagore (00:51):

Right.

Evangelist Daniel King  (00:52):

And tell me a little bit about this base that we’re at and the ministry that you’re doing here.

Dwight Lagore (00:58):

Yeah. Okay. SAM ministry stands for, as I mentioned to you earlier, strategic action mission. And the focus of that is that we believe the most strategic act on the planet was the act of unconditional love in Christ’s sacrificial death for us on the cross. Of course, his resurrection as well. And that is what we seek to achieve here in Mozambique. Our mission statement is loving God and loving people so they have a chance to love God and love people. And our fundamental conviction is that the whole great commission, which you guys are a part of and we are, is encapsulated in Jesus’ great command where he said to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, because it focuses on the purpose of the great commission, meaning relation, loving relationship with God again, the process of the great commission, which is unconditional love.

(02:04):

And I’ll get back to that in a second. And then the power for the great commission, which is of course the power of the Holy Spirit, but who brings about and develops the kind of godly love in our lives that we can’t conjure up ourselves. So that’s kind of encapsulate who we are as a mission. And yeah, here in Mozambique, we were just talking about this before the podcast. We’ve been here since the end of the war, and our main focus has been to develop a mission base that allows us to be able to engage people and their needs in a holistic way because the needs are so great in this country. As you’ve seen as you’ve traveled, Daniel, the poverty is quite extensive. And so that means that there are just a whole lot of different needs, whether it’s health, education, food, just the basic needs, clean water.

(03:06):

And so many of the people, and specifically in the more rural areas, have not had an opportunity for a good education. And as a result, any of the leaders, specifically church leaders, haven’t had much, if any, opportunity for a theological education or training or discipleship for that matter to equip them to best lead their churches and their people.

Evangelist Daniel King  (03:31):

And so really your goal is to have a holistic mission.

Dwight Lagore (03:34):

Exactly.

Evangelist Daniel King  (03:35):

To serve every area of society.

Dwight Lagore (03:38):

Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King  (03:39):

And what are some of the biggest needs here in Mozambique?

Dwight Lagore (03:43):

Okay. Well, let me get to that because

Evangelist Daniel King  (03:45):

I’m

Dwight Lagore (03:45):

Going to get to that by sharing something else. Back in the day, back a number of years, the church growth movement started. And one of the books that was published, and I wished I could remember the author, was called What’s Gone Wrong with a Harvest? And the question came, why are we having such a hard time reaching people for Christ? And that was of course written specifically to an audience in North America. But it pointed out that very simply, the way we reach people for Christ is through relationship. And without relationship, it’s very hard for people to come to know Christ and to become members of his body and disciples of his. And so that connecting point, and even as we do crusade evangelism, the desire is for people who have a relationship with someone else to bring their friend so they can hear the presentation of the gospel.

(04:44):

And it’s often through that relational context or connection that they come to know Christ and they’re able to grow and be mentored in their faith. And so that’s sort of, in a nutshell, kind of where we are as a mission, because when you talk about the plethora of needs that exist here in Mozambique, what that means, and in every place, including right where you are right now in your society, you may not always be aware of it, but there’s all of these different contact points where you can connect with people in your community or the church can connect with people in the community and build relationship, which then provides the avenue for the gospel. And so those are the things that we have done here. And that’s kind of the strategy we have adopted in terms of, first of all, ourselves reaching people for Christ, but secondarily, equipping the national church to be more effective in their ability to reach people for Christ.

(05:47):

So you said, what are the biggest needs? I mean, it’s hard to know where to start.

Evangelist Daniel King  (05:56):

I mean, you have sanitation.

Dwight Lagore (05:58):

Yes.

Evangelist Daniel King  (05:59):

Health.

Dwight Lagore (05:59):

So that’s right.

Evangelist Daniel King  (06:00):

Education.

Dwight Lagore (06:01):

Education.

Evangelist Daniel King  (06:02):

What else?

Dwight Lagore (06:02):

Exactly. Well, so things like the basic needs of life, of course, are food and water and housing. And all of those are precarious in this context. And so making sure that people are equipped to better provide for themselves, specifically grow better food, better crops, making sure that they have clean or access to clean water, potable water, making sure that they have good education, or at least in our context, we have a school and we provide Christian education, solid education, but with a Christian focus. And our goal is helping pastors as well engage the schools where they are to ensure that the church isn’t divorced from the educational system and can be engaged to the degree they’re able in their local context. So education is another one of those. Of course, going beyond that, there’s the health needs. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries on the planet.

(07:08):

And as a result, the resources the government has for the health education, but the health services, especially right now we’re seeing is just that there are no medical medicines available. Simple things like malaria treatment because malaria is endemic in Mozambique. We see so many people die needlessly because of malaria. It’s just a terrible, terrible disease and it’s not yet controlled here. And so simple treatments are one of the things that not only can help people survive, but can be one of those relational contact points to say, “Hey, we care about you. Christ loves you and we’re here to help you know what he desires for your life.”

Evangelist Daniel King  (07:57):

And then you’re also training pastors. Exactly. And you have an entire curriculum that you take them through. What are some of the key lessons that you’re training local pastors?

Dwight Lagore (08:10):

Okay. Well, so –

Evangelist Daniel King  (08:10):

And explain how your whole training system works.

Dwight Lagore (08:14):

So we’ve developed, as I had mentioned, a program, what we call extension leadership training, mainly because we want to be able to train leaders where they are so they don’t have to leave their communities and their homes and their churches and their fields and try to go somewhere for training. And then if they want to try to go back home, it’s almost impossible because now their church may be falling apart. They certainly don’t have a farm anymore. Their families can’t survive without them. So they don’t have the place to go back to. So what we’ve done is developed a program of training that allows us to identify leaders in a community. Then we bring one of the key leaders out of that community, provide intensive training to them, and they become our trainer in that community. We then partner with them and that community in ongoing program of training that takes them about seven years.

Evangelist Daniel King  (09:18):

Do you help to sponsor the trainers?

Dwight Lagore (09:20):

We do. We sponsor the trainers to do all of their own training. And then what we do is we also, to a degree, supplement the training of the individual leaders that are enrolled in the program. They have to also contribute so that they feel like it’s valuable and they have ownership, but we have what’s called a scholarship program of $35 a year for a leader to be able to study with us. And that allows us to make sure they have the materials as well as the visits that we can provide to ensure that they’re on track with the

Evangelist Daniel King  (09:57):

Training. And over the years, approximately how many people have gone through the training?

Dwight Lagore (10:01):

Wow. I should know the actual answer to that, but there’s been literally hundreds. We probably have well over 300 graduates now

Evangelist Daniel King  (10:11):

In the

Dwight Lagore (10:11):

Country.

Evangelist Daniel King  (10:12):

I saw a picture recently you sent me of six new graduates that just graduated.

Dwight Lagore (10:16):

Yes, exactly. That’s right. And in fact, this last weekend we just had 14 more graduate graduate in the city of Tet. And so yeah, there are many, many who have graduated and many of those have risen up to become very effective national leaders in their own churches, but also denominational leaders. We have at least as many as eight to 10 who are now denominational leaders who provide leadership to their whole denomination. And as a result, because they have taken the training and they believe in what we’re doing, they then invite their leaders to take our training and engage them. So yeah, so it’s been a blessing to see what God’s done and just how the program has expanded. In fact, we always have communities on the waiting list to get into the program simply because we just can’t cope with the quantity of leaders that we’re dealing with.

Evangelist Daniel King  (11:19):

Yeah. If you were asking people to pray for Mozambique, what are some of the key things that you would ask them to keep in their prayers?

Dwight Lagore (11:30):

Okay. Well, honestly, Jesus said at best laborers for the harvest field. We not only as a mission ourselves do we need missionaries to come and help us serve in a variety of ways. And because we work holistically, we’re talking people in the healthcare field, whether it’s pilots, whether it’s educators, whether it’s Bible teachers, a mechanic, someone who knows how to build things because we’re always building things. In fact, we’re building a bridge this week. And that hearkens back to what I was saying, building bridges with people is really what it comes down to.

Evangelist Daniel King  (12:13):

So you’re actually literally building a bridge. We’re literally building a bridge. Because you told me that it crosses a river that a few years ago, a couple of kids got attacked by crocodiles. They were killed. And were killed by crocodiles. And so you’re building a bridge across the river.

Dwight Lagore (12:28):

And the bridge allows the kids to come to our school, a health clinic, and also the other services we provide as well. But just in terms of praying, the bridge from North America, at least to our world or other parts of the world to hear is prayer. And

(12:48):

That bridge really is such an important one. We really need to pray that God would continue to raise up Mozambiquan leaders who we have already seen raise up, but men and women of integrity, men and women who will be able to hold onto the truth and not be deceived. As I was saying, we have so many different religions and cults and whatnot moving into Mozambique and they have moved into Mozambique over the years. And for those who aren’t as well trained and well established in their faith, it’s much easier for them to be drawn away,

Evangelist Daniel King  (13:30):

Either

Dwight Lagore (13:30):

A way to those or even drawn back to their African traditional religions, especially at times of stress.

Evangelist Daniel King  (13:38):

Well, you have a beautiful base here in Mozambique and there’s lots of opportunity for people to be involved. And so if someone feels called to missions and maybe they’re called to train leaders, maybe they’re called to be a mechanic, is there a place for people to come and be involved in what you’re doing here?

Dwight Lagore (14:02):

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. We have a broad range of needs and if you go onto our website, our website’s just www.samministries.org and we have a number of positions that are allocated there, but even if the position that you feel you can fill isn’t there, there’s always a need. We have numerous short termers that come anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or two months to a year at times to serve. So there’s a whole broad range of ways in which you can connect and be involved.

Evangelist Daniel King  (14:42):

Let’s talk a little bit about your history. Tell me, how did you come here and how have you seen the ministry develop over the years?

Dwight Lagore (14:52):

Well, how we came here was that God led us here. As I talk to different people, I think it’s the one thing I tell young people all the time is that you can be most certain if you say, “God, I’m here and I’m available at any cost anywhere to do anything,” then God’s going to take you up on that and he’s going to lead you. And he leads you in ways that you will understand. Other people will think you’re crazy, but he leads you in very specific ways. And so I guess my conviction is that God knows how to lead people to exactly where he needs them and where he wants them. And you were saying, can you just rephrase your question for me?

Evangelist Daniel King  (15:43):

Well, what’s the history? Your wife’s parents were missionaries in Brazil. Right, exactly. And your parents were missionaries in South Africa. And so you have two missionary kids, God brought you together, and now you’ve given your lives to serve Jesus. And so what have you seen God do over the years?

Dwight Lagore (16:07):

Well, the first thing God did – Bring you to where you are now. As I shared with you is God changed my heart because I swore I’d never be a missionary. And he put in my heart a calling into ministry, which meant going to Bible college and then seeking him for direction. But during that time, even at that time, people thought I was crazy. They told my wife and I that when we had said we felt Mozambique was where God was leading us, they said, “Well, not only are you going to die, but your kids are going to die of malaria. It’s a war torn country. It’s a terrible place to be.” But God confirmed all the way along and especially spoke to my wife very specifically that this was where we should come. Even though she lost a brother who died on the mission field, she still was willing to say, “Okay, God, I’m willing to go where you want us because that’s the safest place on the planet for us.” And so I guess over the years, we’ve just seen how God has just proved himself so faithful, Daniel, in not only allowing us to take the steps of faith necessary, the grace to persevere and not give up and go home, and then the joy of seeing the fruit of that as a result of the lives that have been transformed literally here.

(17:30):

So yeah, that’s in a nutshell. We came in more detail. We had this calling on our lives to come to Mozambique after the war. It seemed impossible, but in fact, in praying, it felt like while the war was going on for 15 years or 16 years by that time, would it ever end? And so weren’t sure when that may happen, but praying about it and just feeling like the Lord still asked us to stick with the program, we did. And just at the right time, the war ended and

Evangelist Daniel King  (18:07):

Got up in the war. What year was that that the war ended?

Dwight Lagore (18:10):

In 1992 was when the war, in October September, sorry, was when the peace accord was signed. And by early 1993, we were able to move into Mozambique.

Evangelist Daniel King  (18:21):

And you’ve been here ever since. And

Dwight Lagore (18:22):

We’ve been here ever since, that’s right.

Evangelist Daniel King  (18:24):

And you’re also continuing the ministry in Brazil?

Dwight Lagore (18:27):

That’s right. So the ministry in Brazil that Sam Ministries has on their website was started by my wife’s parents, Earl and Ruth Trukovsky. And they continue to live in Salmonarm, British Columbia right now, retired. They’re still engaged to the degree they’re able to, but the mission in Brazil continues super effectively discipling and educating more than 450 kids. And they have numerous outreach programs, a dentistry, a church, as well as a variety of other sports ministries and et cetera in Brazil.

Evangelist Daniel King  (19:06):

Describe your base for me. You have an airstrip with an airplane.

Dwight Lagore (19:12):

Oh yeah.

Evangelist Daniel King  (19:13):

You have some different outreaches here in this area, including an elementary school. Kind of describe it.

Dwight Lagore (19:18):

So here in central Mozambique, this is where God, again, this is what God put on our hearts was to start a holistic ministry base because many were coming back into the country after the long years of war and were needing a place to resettle, but obviously had all these other basic needs they needed met. So we were strategically based so that we could address a lot of those needs. As a result, we started a grade school. We started health clinics. So we run two health clinics and are engaged in training pastors for health ministry. We have a orphan program that developed. So we have numerous orphan homes that we’ve built and orphans that we care for on a monthly basis to

Evangelist Daniel King  (20:09):

Ensure – And people helped us sponsor the orphans?

Dwight Lagore (20:11):

Exactly, that’s right. And as a result of these ministries, we’ve started sponsorship programs, both an orphan sponsorship program and a child sponsorship program that allows us to finance these ministries. So yeah, that’s another way people can be involved if they’d like to be. And so beyond that, we’ve also got our leadership training program on the base here, which is a thousand hectares or 2,300 acres or so of land, a little less than a thousand hectares. We have a multipurpose training facility, which is where we bring the leaders in for their intensive training times. We also do a whole host of other kind of training, including discipleship times for our kids that are in high school, et cetera, et cetera, medical workers, and for some of the orphans who come in on a weekly basis for mentoring and discipleship. But the leadership training center is there.

(21:06):

We have a literacy program and an arts crafts program so that women can make crafts that can be then sold to help them.

Evangelist Daniel King  (21:17):

Our

Dwight Lagore (21:17):

Ministry

Evangelist Daniel King  (21:18):

Actually, a few years ago, we bought some of the handy crafts that your women had made. Oh cool. And we sent them to all of our friends and partners as Christmas gifts direct from Africa. They were beautiful.

Dwight Lagore (21:32):

Thank you. Yeah. So there’s a whole host, including, as you mentioned, the airstrip, which is I could spend hours telling you about the miracles that God has done to bring about the base that

Evangelist Daniel King  (21:45):

We have here. And so with the airplane, you’re able to get to areas in the country that are very difficult to reach by road.

Dwight Lagore (21:52):

Absolutely. As you mentioned, the roads and the difficulty getting here, it’s just hard. And so we’re able in a short flight. I think one of the best examples, one of the most profound examples is Luawe, which is an island in the Zambizi Delta that we provide leadership training in. And for us, if you had to drive there, it would take you 12 to 14 hours of driving over very bad roads. And then it would take you another 12 hours on a canoe through crocodile and hippo infested river to get to the island. And for us, it takes us barely just over an hour, about an hour and 20 minutes to fly to Moro Mayo and then with our partners in the helicopter another 20 minutes and we’re on the island. So the power of flight has just been incredible to

Evangelist Daniel King  (22:47):

Allow

Dwight Lagore (22:48):

Us to extend our reach into place.

Evangelist Daniel King  (22:50):

Now when you’re doing leadership training, what are some of the key things that you’re imparting into leaders?

Dwight Lagore (22:58):

Well, the program starts very basic, which is steps to the abundant life, which helps leaders understand what salvation is and walk them through the basic steps of discipleship. But I think one of the things that we’ve found to be, a couple things that we found to be pretty profound is we focus a lot on leadership skills and abilities and perspectives. And one of the things we ensure they understand is that God created each of us with the ability to make a decision to decide. We are created with free will. Some of the very fundamental things that God gave us as birth gifts, if you would. And the leaders, once they understand that they aren’t preconditioned to live a certain way because of what the ancestors have dictated, they can actually choose to make a difference in their own lives and for their families and for their communities.

(24:06):

And that God empowers them by his Holy Spirit to do that.

(24:12):

They start to take initiative. And all of us, those of us who are in Christian ministry, and there’s a biblical example that Paul told Caleb and others, and that is, if you put your foot on the ground, then you can claim it. And so wherever you set your foot, wherever you step into, that’s where we see God at work. That’s where we see God’s miracles happen. That’s where we see salvations happen. Th’s where we see transformation in lives happen. And so once leaders learn that this is something that God has endowed them with, that freedom to make that choice and make that decision, it’s so transformational. It’s a paradigm shift. And once they go through that paradigm shift and understand that Christ came to empower them to live, not just to understand that paradigm shift that they have that free gift, but then comes along as a partner to enable them to achieve things that they couldn’t even think or imagine.

(25:17):

And that’s been exciting to watch because when people are empowered by God to simply step out of their comfort zones and take the steps of faith they need, and that goes for you guys too are watching this podcast. Wherever you happen to be in the world, I think the worst thing that we can do is become apathetic in our faith, apathetic to the needs around us, but apathetic, I think more less aware of how big of a difference we can make if we simply are willing to take a step forward or step into something that feels a little bit strange or a little unknown to us. So yeah, I think that would be one of the really big, big, big changes that we see when we’re involved in training leaders. I’ll say one more thing, and that is that another thing we have seen is that as the leaders we train come to understand that we aren’t in competition with one another, we are brothers and sisters in Christ, even though we’re from different denominations, different churches, we are part of the same body of Christ and love is what has to characterize that relationship, unconditional love, accepting people even though they think a little differently than we do, even though they sing songs a little bit differently than we do.

(26:48):

And as they understand that, learning that the body of Christ is bigger just than their local denomination, it’s empowered them to collaborate with others in their communities. And you know how powerful that is as an evangelist going in. If the churches get together, how big of a difference they can make when a crusade comes to town and how big of a difference they can make in the lives of that community. And our leaders say that. They say, “We used to think that we were the only church and now we see that we’re only one part of the big body of Christ, of the kingdom of God.” And it’s awesome to see. It’s exciting to watch that light turn on and them engage.

Evangelist Daniel King  (27:32):

Well, it’s so beautiful to see what SAM Ministries is accomplishing here in Mozambique and in Brazil. And I love your little saying committed to serve. Absolutely. You have a real heart to serve the Lord and to serve the people here. And so if people are listening and they want to help to support your ministry or to be a part, maybe even come as a missionary here, either short term or long term. Give your website one more time so people

Dwight Lagore (28:04):

Can find you. Okay. So it’s samministries.org is the website and SAM Ministries is registered both as a nonprofit 501 in the States as well as in Canada. And so there’s donation locations for either country and we provide tax receipts for those. But I think the biggest thing is we just encourage people to pray and to do what God leads them to do. And if it’s a visit, if it’s becoming a longer term, maybe we can be a catalyst in your life for wherever God’s taking you next, whether that’s in business or whether that’s just in your personal life or whether that’s in ministry. And yeah, you can be a part of what we’re doing and hopefully we can be a part of what you’re doing. And so yeah, thank you, Daniel, for the privilege. There’s so much we could say, but thank you for the privilege of being able to share with you.

Evangelist Daniel King  (29:02):

Absolutely. Well, Brother Dwight, thank you so much for being on the Evangelism Podcast. Do you have one last though you’d like to share?

Dwight Lagore (29:10):

Yeah, I guess just what you brought up and that is for even the Son of Man, Mark 10:45 says, “Did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And that is really our motto, but that’s what we believe is the way that this all works out is if we just give ourselves to serving others. And we may not think it’s a big thing. We may think it’s a small thing, but in whatever ways that we’re willing to step out and serve, God uses that and multiplies that effort in incredible ways. And so I want to thank you for being in Mozambique because you’re willing to step out with the team that you’re here and doing the evangelism you’re doing. We just know that that’s going to have eternal impact.

Evangelist Daniel King  (29:58):

Amen.

(29:59):

Well, I love Mozambique and it’s such a beautiful nation, such beautiful people, and it’s wonderful to see what God is doing here, but I know that there is a big harvest here. There’s great need. And let’s pray right now. Dear Heaven Father, we pray that you would send more laborers here to Mozambique. Amen. Lord, I pray that you would send laborers to work in the harvest fields. I pray for great leaders to be raised up from among the people of Mozambique. And Lord, I pray you’d send people from other nations, from Canada, from the United States, from Europe, from different parts of Africa to come here and to serve the people of Mozambique. Lord, we pray that this nation would know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And Lord, I pray a special blessing on Brother Dwight and Lynn. And Lord, I thank you for their ministry and what they’re accomplishing here.

(30:57):

And Lord, I pray that you would provide the people, the resources, the relationships, everything they need to accomplish every part of the vision that you placed on their heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Dwight Lagore (31:10):

Amen. Amen.

Evangelist Daniel King  (31:11):

Thank you for being on the Evangelism Podcast.

Dwight Lagore (31:14):

Thank you.