Back from Africa

Can you guess what Wanaume is Swahili for? ______ Hint: Next door there's Wanawake

This little girl doesn't care that Linda is having a bad hair day.

You guesed it. We just got back from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania February 26. The purpose of our trip was to meet church planters and explore ways to work with them. We served by translating in French during the teaching sessions and led a couple workshops. Listening is encouraging and we did a lot of listening and affirming. The teaching went well. That was dialogical and we all learned from each other in the areas of mentoring leaders and church multiplication. Gene and Dave Kiamu went over plans and curriculum design for church planter training in Africa.

The first morning we were awakened around 4:30 a.m. by the Islam call to prayer over the loudspeaker nearby. We plunged in and went on a Vision Trip to see some of the church planters and a school. We were struck by the abject poverty among other things, yet so encouraged by what God is doing through his servants. We stayed with two families that are working among Muslims and preparing lay church planters to reach a tribe called the Zamora. We can't share names or details. Most of the expatriates work sacrificially in tough conditions, especially those who try to reach nomadic tribes like the Fulani and Masai.

It was so good that Linda came! The African leaders also came with their wives and we were able to get to know them as couples. We spent some quality time with Dave Kiamu, the Africa church planting point person and his wife, Lucie. Gene spent hours translating literally 3 inches away from the ears of the French-speaking Congolese leaders, and had lots of side discussions while serving them in this way. One may lead to an open door to work with church planters there.

(Linda and her Congolese friends Claudine Selenga and Jeanette Bosokpale)

God is using the African leaders in amazing ways as well. The ones from Rwanda all lost family members in the recent genocides but are seeing God triumph in the midst of pain. Pastor Esron shared that he lost his mom and 2 siblings. He is leading a church planting movement. Their goal in 2004 was to go from 23 churches to 55 churches in a decade but they will surpass that goal as churches are multiplying faster than expected. The movement in the Congo has evangelized their region and are reaching the pygmy tribes and others on the other side of the Congo River by sending out missionaries. They plead for more training and partnerships to do more. They have formed their own mission organization called ReachAfrica. Gene will be working with two of those leaders.

They use Chronological Bible Narrative because the culture is oral, literacy is low, and stories are the best way to address worldview issues in their culture. That's how they learn. We learned about training and many other things. One of our greatest take-aways is CHE (Community Health Evangelism/ Education). It is a great way to combine compassion ministry with evangelism and lead to church planting. The community leaders "own" the projects. When the expatriate staff had to leave Congo because of the recent war, they didn't know what would happen to the CHE projects. Praise the Lord, they not only survived but their number doubled because they were "grass-roots" efforts. If you are interested in learning more listen to this cool video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYn7lVRtFpg

In the end we spent 3 days in the interior, on the plateau, and in Mikumi National Park. We saw amazing scenery and animals and praise God for His wonderful handiwork. It's totally different to see animals you normally see in a zoo. They are free, in their families, roaming and playing in their natural habitat. We slept in little African huts in the middle of the game park and heard animals during the night separated only by a wall of wood and mud bricks. We had elephants and Cape Buffalo within 100 yards, and could even hear them pulling the grass out of the ground. The last day we saw 8 lions in different settings. The last one was a male eating a fresh kill of Cape Buffalo!

We are filled with excitement in our spirits from all we learned and experienced, joy in our hearts from making so many new friends, burden in our souls from memories of faces weighed down with incredible needs and burdens. Gene's next trip is to Asia in a month but we have some immediate prayer requests.

Prayer Requests

For effective follow-up from this time in Africa. The list is long!

For discerning God's voice and understand His priorities as there is much to do.

Our kids are doing well but please continue to pray for their direction as they will be facing changes.

Please pray for Mario, a Colombian church planter to get a visa for Haiti this week. He is in the Dominican Republic trying to get in.

On March 21 Gene leaves for a 3-week trip to Mongolia, Thailand and India. Please hold him up.

Serving others to multiply kingdom communitites,

Gene