Which language would you like to speak? This past week I've been attending an ECC conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. All the leaders of the ECC programs in Africa joined together for 4 days. In all, there were 38 attendees representing 14 countries. The first day of the conference we made a list of the various languages that were spoken by the participants. For the entire group there were 33 different languages that could be spoken.
Today is my last full day in Africa. Dave and I return to Oregon tomorrow afternoon. To make the most of this "day off" I decided to visit a local Lion Park outside Joburg with Rich Yoder, an OMS missionary from Indiana. We decided that he would try his luck at driving on the left hand side of the road and I would navigate. (ie. remind him what side of the road he needed to be on.) By the grace of God we made it to the park and back alive. Tonight I get to go to a rugby game with one of the OMS missionaries from South Africa. It should be a lot of fun and will hopefully serve as a good substitute for college football which I am dearly missing these days.
Once I return home I'll post the remaining photos from this trip. They should be up around the 26th or so.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Africa Trip Update #3
Finding internet connections around the world can be challenging. There have been few exceptions to this rule so far on this trip. I am now in Johannesburg, South Africa having completed a 10 day trip starting in Rwanda, going through Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique and now South Africa.
Now that I’m in South Africa, Dave and I are going to remain here for another week as Dave attends OMS board meetings and we participate in a week long ECC gathering. The ECC gathering will have ECC workers from around the continent of Africa coming together for a week of training, fellowship, and retreat here in Johannesburg.
I should take a step back and briefly explain what we did in Kenya and Mozambique leading up to our time in South Africa. Our stay in Kenya was very brief, only one night in a guest house while we were waiting to catch a flight the next day. We did, however, get to experience a small bit of Nairobi and take in a nice dinner at a restaurant called the Carnivore. Guess what was on the menu? I will only comment by saying that Crocodile and Ostrich meat is surprisingly tasty, and I don’t care too much for Camel.
We spent 2 and 1/2 days in Maputo, Mozambique. While there we visited 4 churches and got a tour of the new OMS seminary that is being built. On Saturday night our group followed along with one of the local OMS missionaries as he went out to show the Jesus film in a community outside of the city. We set up the movie screen in the middle of the street and as it grew dark people started gathering all around waiting for the movie to start. I’m not sure about what the results were that night, but from what I saw, it looked like several dozen people had at least showed enough interest to attend a meeting in a nearby church after the movie was over.
From Mozambique we drove across the border into South Africa on Monday morning. We spent the day driving thru Kruger National Park taking in a bit of the beauty of Africa’s wildlife before finishing the 5 hour drive to Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Now that I’m in South Africa, Dave and I are going to remain here for another week as Dave attends OMS board meetings and we participate in a week long ECC gathering. The ECC gathering will have ECC workers from around the continent of Africa coming together for a week of training, fellowship, and retreat here in Johannesburg.
I should take a step back and briefly explain what we did in Kenya and Mozambique leading up to our time in South Africa. Our stay in Kenya was very brief, only one night in a guest house while we were waiting to catch a flight the next day. We did, however, get to experience a small bit of Nairobi and take in a nice dinner at a restaurant called the Carnivore. Guess what was on the menu? I will only comment by saying that Crocodile and Ostrich meat is surprisingly tasty, and I don’t care too much for Camel.
We spent 2 and 1/2 days in Maputo, Mozambique. While there we visited 4 churches and got a tour of the new OMS seminary that is being built. On Saturday night our group followed along with one of the local OMS missionaries as he went out to show the Jesus film in a community outside of the city. We set up the movie screen in the middle of the street and as it grew dark people started gathering all around waiting for the movie to start. I’m not sure about what the results were that night, but from what I saw, it looked like several dozen people had at least showed enough interest to attend a meeting in a nearby church after the movie was over.
From Mozambique we drove across the border into South Africa on Monday morning. We spent the day driving thru Kruger National Park taking in a bit of the beauty of Africa’s wildlife before finishing the 5 hour drive to Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Friday, September 15, 2006
New Photos Available
Pictures from Burundi, Mozambique, and South Africa are now in my photo gallery.
Africa update #2
“A Muzungu, A Muzungu!” Depending on the tone of voice it’s either an insult or a statement of excitement declaring the unusual event of seeing “A white person, A white person!” Most of the time it is the later coming from children who might see one or two Muzungus a year.
As we drove into villages around Burundi, we heard this phrase hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. Little kids would come running out or their mud huts to yell ‘Muzunga!’ announcing our presence to the rest of the village. I’ve never been a rock star or a famous person, but for a moment I could imagine I was. On occasion, certain groups of kids would decide that chasing our van down the road was a good idea. They would run and run all the while yelling ‘Muzunga!’ When our van would come to a stop, we would instantly be swarmed and the hand shaking would begin. Sometimes you could feel them pinching your skin, as if to test whether you were real or not.
Our trip into Burundi consisted of an 8 hour bus ride from Kigali, Rwanda to Bujumbura, Burundi. We drove over a mountain pass full of narrow winding roads perched on steep cliffs and made our way down into Bujumbura. Once we passed into Burundi it became very obvious that we were entering an area of higher political tension. There were armed soldiers all along the roadway performing regular vehicle checks. The roads also became worse with several areas that were washed away and filled with pot holes.
Our first full day in Burundi we visited two churches and a school. Our second day we visited four more churches. Most of the churches we visited are part of the village church planting program that ECC has in Africa. The uniqueness of this program is that these churches do not have paid pastors and are not forced to meet in a traditional church building. Most of them meet in some sort of mud hut and they all have bi-vocational pastors who work a normal job for their income. At least two of the churches we visited had over 75 members and were all less than 4 months old. It was greatly encouraging to see first hand these new believers and new churches.
As we drove into villages around Burundi, we heard this phrase hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. Little kids would come running out or their mud huts to yell ‘Muzunga!’ announcing our presence to the rest of the village. I’ve never been a rock star or a famous person, but for a moment I could imagine I was. On occasion, certain groups of kids would decide that chasing our van down the road was a good idea. They would run and run all the while yelling ‘Muzunga!’ When our van would come to a stop, we would instantly be swarmed and the hand shaking would begin. Sometimes you could feel them pinching your skin, as if to test whether you were real or not.
Our trip into Burundi consisted of an 8 hour bus ride from Kigali, Rwanda to Bujumbura, Burundi. We drove over a mountain pass full of narrow winding roads perched on steep cliffs and made our way down into Bujumbura. Once we passed into Burundi it became very obvious that we were entering an area of higher political tension. There were armed soldiers all along the roadway performing regular vehicle checks. The roads also became worse with several areas that were washed away and filled with pot holes.
Our first full day in Burundi we visited two churches and a school. Our second day we visited four more churches. Most of the churches we visited are part of the village church planting program that ECC has in Africa. The uniqueness of this program is that these churches do not have paid pastors and are not forced to meet in a traditional church building. Most of them meet in some sort of mud hut and they all have bi-vocational pastors who work a normal job for their income. At least two of the churches we visited had over 75 members and were all less than 4 months old. It was greatly encouraging to see first hand these new believers and new churches.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Africa Trip Update #1
For those of you who like to thumb through books only to look at the pictures, I will start by telling you that I’ve uploaded my most recent Africa pictures into my photo gallery. There should be more in the days to come depending on what kind of internet connection I can find, but for now there are a couple dozen new ones.
I arrived in Rwanda, Africa this past Friday after spending close to 30 hours in transit. My plane ride across the ocean was a great experience for me. I got to sit next to a lady from Ethiopia who is a strong Christian. She has her American citizenship now, but she was heading to Ethiopia to visit family. We talked for hours as she shared her testimony and also filled me in on several aspects of African culture. (In a future post I will go into more depth on this story.) It really helped to pass those long hours on the plane and was a great way to get the trip started.
I am currently traveling with a group of 6 people. My boss and I are leading 4 others on a “tour” through Africa to show them the ministry that OMS and ECC has here. On Saturday we traveled to a remote village where we visited a church that was recently planted. After spending a couple of hours there meeting people, listening to them sing and watching them dance, we headed back to Kigali.
On the way home we stopped at one of the many places where the genocide killings took place in 1994. This particular spot was a Roman Catholic Church that has since been turned into a museum and memorial. At this one place alone, over 10,000 people were killed. The evidence of what happened there was visible everywhere. Doors and walls with bullet holes in them, blood stains across the walls and ceilings, and the clothes. Yes that’s right, clothes. In a room off to the side of the main sanctuary were the remains of the clothing from all the people who had been killed there. A room that was roughly 12’x15’ was completely filled to the 10’ ceiling with blood stained, ragged clothes. It’s an image I will never erase from my memory.
Today we attended church here in Kigali. It was your typical African church service. The singing started around 9am, the preaching began about 11 and by 12:30 things were beginning to wrap up. After church we headed to lunch and then on to visit one of the supporting ministries that ECC has in the area. It was a clothing store where several women were making shirts to sell in the local markets. The profits made from selling these shirts helps support the ECC workers in this area. By all accounts, their endeavor has been very successful so far.
Tomorrow we head for Burundi. Then on Thursday we will make our way to Mozambique for the weekend. If the remainder of this trip goes anything like these first 3 days have gone, I’m guessing there will be plenty more to read here. Or if you just like the pictures, there should be more of those too.
I arrived in Rwanda, Africa this past Friday after spending close to 30 hours in transit. My plane ride across the ocean was a great experience for me. I got to sit next to a lady from Ethiopia who is a strong Christian. She has her American citizenship now, but she was heading to Ethiopia to visit family. We talked for hours as she shared her testimony and also filled me in on several aspects of African culture. (In a future post I will go into more depth on this story.) It really helped to pass those long hours on the plane and was a great way to get the trip started.
I am currently traveling with a group of 6 people. My boss and I are leading 4 others on a “tour” through Africa to show them the ministry that OMS and ECC has here. On Saturday we traveled to a remote village where we visited a church that was recently planted. After spending a couple of hours there meeting people, listening to them sing and watching them dance, we headed back to Kigali.
On the way home we stopped at one of the many places where the genocide killings took place in 1994. This particular spot was a Roman Catholic Church that has since been turned into a museum and memorial. At this one place alone, over 10,000 people were killed. The evidence of what happened there was visible everywhere. Doors and walls with bullet holes in them, blood stains across the walls and ceilings, and the clothes. Yes that’s right, clothes. In a room off to the side of the main sanctuary were the remains of the clothing from all the people who had been killed there. A room that was roughly 12’x15’ was completely filled to the 10’ ceiling with blood stained, ragged clothes. It’s an image I will never erase from my memory.
Today we attended church here in Kigali. It was your typical African church service. The singing started around 9am, the preaching began about 11 and by 12:30 things were beginning to wrap up. After church we headed to lunch and then on to visit one of the supporting ministries that ECC has in the area. It was a clothing store where several women were making shirts to sell in the local markets. The profits made from selling these shirts helps support the ECC workers in this area. By all accounts, their endeavor has been very successful so far.
Tomorrow we head for Burundi. Then on Thursday we will make our way to Mozambique for the weekend. If the remainder of this trip goes anything like these first 3 days have gone, I’m guessing there will be plenty more to read here. Or if you just like the pictures, there should be more of those too.
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