One of Confluence’s values is partnering with our family of churches around the world. Through these relationships, our vision grows, and we are encouraged and inspired as we work together toward the same mission: expanding God’s kingdom on earth.

Confluence churches in the Southeast have been partnering with Scott Marques and his team in Mozambique over the last five years. Each year, our friendship grows deeper and becomes more familial. Recently, we’ve had the opportunity to birth a new venture with Scott and his team, called Love Moz.

Below, Rachel Grammatic from Jubilee Church (Atlanta, GA) interviews Scott about all things Love Moz, exploring a few key features of this new endeavor.

RG: What is Love Moz?

SM: Love Moz is a social media campaign aimed at profiling the extraordinary opportunity the church has to influence the culture and livelihoods of Northern Mozambique. According to a recent UNICEF survey, Mozambique is the second poorest nation in the world with 40% of children being unable to attend school. The health network reaches less than 50% of the population and the rural areas are the most affected.

We have an opportunity to build a primary and secondary school that can enable three powerful dynamics to happen:

First, we can enable high-capacity families to come into a very needy area, because their children can have access to education. In other situations, such high-capacity families would not live here if there wasn’t a school for their children to attend. The result of having those families in Nampula is that many kingdom advancement opportunities are able to be facilitated: health, education, business, arts and media, and developments in many areas of society
Second, we are able to raise up children with a biblical worldview, who know and love Mozambique, and will have long-term impact in the nation they were brought up in.
Third, we have the opportunity to set a new and high bar for education. This will influence the national grid and contribute to upskilling the government delivery of education in Northern Mozambique and beyond.

RG: What is the story behind Love Moz?

SM: The story behind LoveMoz is really the story of Newfrontiers churches together on a mission. Carl and Virginia Herrington and Claire and I have had a friendship that goes back to the days when Claire and I planted River of Life Church with PJ & Ashley Smyth in Harare in the late 1990s. Over the years, our friendship with Carl and Virginia has resulted in various activities and kingdom advancing initiatives.

As Newfrontiers multiplied into many spheres, Carl and I started to explore the possibilities of partnering in a more substantial way and possibly even looking at Mozambique, which at the time was a territory very new to us. As we have explored that, it has resulted in three teams coming from the Confluence churches in the Southeast to Nampula and various trips from Nampula to Atlanta. There has been an exchange of gifts, people, finances, resources, and skills, which has been a great blessing and strengthened all of us across the board. (Read more about Confluence teams traveling to Mozambique here and here.)

In 2019, a team from the Confluence Southeast churches came out to Mozambique. Kevin Rowe & Kraig Guffey joined the team that year, both of them having unique skill sets in web design, marketing, and social media promotion. Kevin and Kraig, together with Carl and I, came up with the concept of Love Moz. We wanted to leverage the offering that was being given by the Confluence Southeast churches at their regional conferences by seeing if we could stretch it further. We wanted to reach a wider audience that could also contribute toward this vision.

RG: What is the goal for Love Moz?

SM: The goal for the Love Moz campaign is to raise around $150,000-$200,000 per year, which over five years would be around $850,000 - $1 million. This amount would be more than 50% of what is needed to build the school. This finance would form the backbone to this initiative being brought into action, along with other contributions from the local school itself, which would include fundraising on the ground and contributions from other churches within the sphere. If the Love Moz campaign became an ignition point, others would be able to participle and we would be able to see this school built in five years.

Architect’s rendering of the future high school

Workers have begun construction on a prototype that will help them most effectively build the new school.

RG: If someone wanted to get involved with Love Moz, how would they do that?

SM: You can get involved in the LoveMoz campaign four ways:

Follow - The power of going online and linking to our Love Moz social media would automatically raise the profile of the campaign. Find us on Facebook or Instagram.
Pray - As you follow the campaign, you will find that information hits your newsfeed and you’ll be kept up-to-date with various developments. Those will also be excellent prayer points. Pray for God's Kingdom to come and for God’s church to be effective in spreading the gospel and building up the body of Christ, now and into the future.
Share - Actively post and share the updates on your social media platforms. Giving intentional, personal endorsement is a great way to get the message out.
Give - There is an easy channel on the website that is multi-currency and multi-country, which is a great portal to use for giving. If you feel there is another way you can give, perhaps through time and talent, you are welcome to get in touch with us through the website and we can explore those opportunities.

Be sure to check out www.lovemoz.com, where you can find more details about fundraising efforts and construction plans for the school, and sign up to receive email updates on their progress!