The Mozaic Upliftment team
Meet the Team
The team: Geraldo, Narcisio, Daniela, Lulu, Tina and Junior.
History of Mozaic in Gaza and Inhambane:
With 2006 MOZaic Upliftments started networking with 3 different church denominations and assisted them with church planting and leadership training. Land was purchased to build a base and an office. In 2008, Geraldo, with several volunteers joining the team helped develop an agriculture resource base in Manjacaze from where research is being done on plants, varieties, nutritional values and propagation techniques. With the help of support teams from South Africa, MOZaic build churches in very isolated communities and with different church denominations.
In 2010 God answered prayers and provided resources to construct a training centre in Manjacaze. In 2010 and 2011 Mozaic financed several construction projects to create facilities in three communities from where training can be provided. In 2012 the training of trainers started in 11 communities.
From 2012 to 2019 Mozaic expanded their influence to bring training to 24 communities, training church leaders in Bible training and personal leadership training. We also launched a new program to train children’s ministry teachers in very isolated communities. 181 churches were influenced through training and equipped with Bibles. This was a period of serious expansion where we spend months in the bush training rural areas while support teams from South Africa came to assist with church construction and the construction of playgrounds to reach children through play.
When covid hot us in 2020, we had to shift our focus to safe the income generating projects. Training wasn’t allowed for two years and even support teams were not able to come to Mozambique. During this period, with the help of our support network we managed to expand our Marula Oil brand, developed new products, expanded our market and improved the quality of production.
By 2024, MOZaic is involved with 32 church plants in different communities and our network has expanded to 35 communities. With a new strategy to train trainers more sustainable we hope to continue to assist Mozambican church leaders to disciple their communities and equip congregations to raise the standard of living through income generating projects.
Founder & Project Coordinator
Gerhard 'Geraldo' Erasmus
“He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30)
Growing up as a missionary kid, regularly hearing prophecies of God having great plans for him, Geraldo Erasmus rebelled against his path for as long as he could. But by the age of 17 he had succumbed to fate- he had given his life to God and became a devoted follower by studying theology for 5 years and now serving 13 years in full time ministry. He started first by working as a youth minister in Johannesburg and later planting churches in townships alongside African leaders and developing youth ministries in the townships.
Yet he sensed God as preparing him for missions in Africa. These plans developed on his first outreach to Manica, Mozambique in 1997. When he graduated from Bible School he founded MOZaic Upliftment Trust to do community development through local churches in Mozambique. In 2002 he moved to Mozambique and worked alongside Mozambican pastors, farmers and other missionaries, learning a lot about African culture, agriculture, construction and various needs and skills needed in rural African life. Until God called him to the Gaza province.
He started networking with the Assemblies of God- Back to God church, whilst doing his research on Leadership Development in Mozambique. While interviewing numerous leaders from different church denominations, missionaries and Bible schools and pastors along the way, God showed him the need to establish a support base for rural church structures in the interior of the Gaza province. In 2006 Geraldo and leaders of the Assemblies of God church, travelled the rural parts of Gaza, visiting 26 communities where they ate and slept in the local communities and got first hand insights into rural living in Gaza. There were so many needs, mostly related to food-, water-, and health security. “I was shocked! I asked people what they ate as I couldn’t see any production on the fields…” One man replied: “Aqui não comemos”- “Here we don’t really eat”. Visiting communities, agricultural offices, schools, clinics and churches, Geraldo quickly came to the realization that there was hardly any support for spiritual and social development in the province. It was isolated and unreached.
It was also on this trip that he met Pastor Eduardo from the Apostolic Faith Mission. At the time Geraldo knew God had a plan to attend to the primary needs of Gaza, but was still not sure what God had in mind. He knew God had called him and made the move to Gaza with only one church supporting his vision. He lived in a tent under a cashew tree in Manjacaze for six months while finding land and built a reed house. His hope was to serve the local community by living like them and try to understand the local community and its needs. Within a couple weeks God send more churches to connect with Geraldo and buy into the dream. Within 2 months a Dutch Reformed Church from Weltevreden in Johannesburg came on outreach to help Geraldo build a reed house and a rural church structure for a local congregation.
“The way God sent churches to get on board confirmed to me that God was completely in control.” From these humble beginnings, MOZaic has grown annually to realise the vision. The vision has never changed…
MOzaic has become a network of churches that support Mozambican church leaders to realize their visions. Currently five South African churches are committed to the calling and serve on the board of Mozaic Upliftment.
It is a ministry based on community empowerment where specific local Mozambican communities are helped to attain their own vision, as the incentive of all projects have to originate from within.