Ryan and Aubrey Curry serve as IMB missionaries in Mozambique.
IMB missionaries Ryan and Aubrey Curry will be moving to live among the Manyika people of Mozambique this month.
Before they were married, both Ryan and Aubrey had a desire to serve on mission in Africa. The couple served separately with the IMB in Africa while single, and their shared desires to serve in Africa were foundational in the beginning of their romantic relationship.
“I trusted that if the Lord wanted me to go and focus on church planting overseas, He would introduce me to a man who had that same desire,” said Aubrey. “And He did.”
The Currys have been in language training in Mozambique and preparing to move among this people group for the past year. Only 0.152% of the Manyika people are Christians, or roughly 375 out of the 246,000 Manyika. The Manyika practice ancestral worship but have also woven the false teachings of the prosperity gospel into their practices of superstition and belief in witch doctors.
An IMB missionary hasn’t been in this region of Mozambique for about 15 to 20 years, said the Currys. They know what knowledge they have about the Manyika may be different from the reality they’ll encounter once they move to the region. However, the couple is eager and ready to dedicate their ministry to this unreached people group in the mountain terrain of Mozambique.
The couple asks for prayer as they move their lives and transition into this new stage of ministry. They know there will be challenges in not only preaching the gospel among unbelief, but also against the false teachings that have staked their claim among the people group.
“It’s a belief system founded on a transactional relationship,” said Ryan. “You can imagine how the prosperity gospel mindset of ‘if I do this, God will give me this’ syncretizes well with their superstitious beliefs in the evil spirits who punish them if they do not complete certain rituals.”
Please pray for the Holy Spirit to work among the existing churches in the Manyika people’s region. Pray also that as the Currys survey the Manica Province, doors would be opened for the Currys to engage with unbelievers. The Currys expressed how blessed they are to know that the prayer of believers and churches in the U.S. are preceding their work.
IMB missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa have a goal to engage 55 unengaged, unreached people groups with the gospel by the year 2025. To learn how you can help get the gospel to these people groups, contact Pray4Africa@imb.org. Visit imb.org/sub-saharan-africa/55-in-5/ to find resources on the 55 people groups.