London Conference Overseas Personnel

Mission Prayer Partners

William and Karen Butt

Bill and Karen were appointed as overseas personnel from London Conference by the United Church of Canada in 1998.

In February 2003, they were assigned to Quelimane, province of Zambezia, 1,600 km north of Maputo, on the Indian Ocean.

Bill is working with the Christian Council of Mozambique helping to coordinate its work with member churches. One of the projects is Guns to Tools. Through speeches and workshops and demonstrations, pamphlets, theatre skits, community radio they urge people to give up guns, either their own, or illegal guns of others, cached in hiding-spots they’ve heard of. Guns turned in are exchanged for sewing machines, axes, and bicycles, all donated by foreign partners.

Following over a year of drought and then flooding, The CCM is helping people to rebuild their lives and communities. They are giving food aid from the CFGB, raising guinea fowl, giving a female and male to a family who lost their poultry in those floods, and helping to organize to plant trees.

Bill has helped train communication teams. Bill travels to their provinces to work with them. They travel throughout their province, get to know communities and what they’re doing, take photos and write stories and share them via email with the other communicators. HIV/AIDS education is also an important part of CCM’s work.

Karen (Karena in Mozambique) is a primary school teacher working with local church women to help set up an Ecumenical Day Centre for Girls to encourage girls’ education. The program provides training in vocational and domestic skills, English, handcrafts and other life skills.

Karena will also be working with the women of Molumbo, on the border with Malawi, to teach in the Lar (a home the built for the girls) the program already running in Quelimane, of embroidery, art, beadwork, crafts with recycled materials, Bible stories and drama.

Bill and Karen have 2 daughters, Erica and Nadine and a granddaughter.

The Conference web page posts email letters and photos from Bill every 2 weeks about life in Mozambique and the various projects of the Council.

Recent Letters From Mozambique

The Christian Council of Mozambique

CCM is an ecumenical organisation linking 20 mainline and African indigenous Protestant Churches in Mozambique. CCM was established in 1948 to unite and serve member churches and institutions which represent about 3,5 million believers today. The Council is an associate member of the World Council of Churches and of the All Africa Council of Churches AACC@maf.org.