I recently received an email from one of the universities that I attended, stating that I was a “lost alumni.” Fortunately, one of my friends was able to give the school my email address so I could be found again! As I read the letter, I laughed to myself because of the understated irony that statement contained. Indeed, to many people I have been lost for quite some time now. I assure you though, that I'm not lost!
June and July have proved to be very busy months. In the weeks leading up to the OMS conference I worked some very long days trying to get everything done. In the end though, our department managed to produce and edit 8 videos, several power-point presentations, and a host of other "small" projects within our deadlines. I've copied a few of the videos we created below for you to check out. Enjoy!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Missionary Month?
If May is the month for speed in Indiana, June might as well be the month for Missionaries. At least within the world of OMS. Every year, during the month of June, OMS holds it's missions conference and many of our missionaries come home to represent the work happening in their respective countries. Added to all of this, the OMS board of directors always meets in June which means every department is responsible for putting together it's board reports. It makes for one very, very busy month around the headquarters.
The communications group is particularly busy with all the happenings. These days I find myself sitting in on planning meetings for the conference(we are providing all the audio, video, and lighting support), working on producing videos(6 of them) for the conference itself, along with continuing our "normal" work.
Speaking of normal work, I'm continuing to slowly process my video footage from my trip to Africa. As soon as the month of June is over, the next big task for our department is to begin focusing all our efforts upon getting a new DVD produced for OMS. We have been given a January deadline for this to be finished so there is a lot of work ahead.
The communications group is particularly busy with all the happenings. These days I find myself sitting in on planning meetings for the conference(we are providing all the audio, video, and lighting support), working on producing videos(6 of them) for the conference itself, along with continuing our "normal" work.
Speaking of normal work, I'm continuing to slowly process my video footage from my trip to Africa. As soon as the month of June is over, the next big task for our department is to begin focusing all our efforts upon getting a new DVD produced for OMS. We have been given a January deadline for this to be finished so there is a lot of work ahead.
Speed Month
The month of May in Indiana is commonly referred to as "Speed Month" among the locals and for good reason. Every year, hundreds of thousands of spectators turn out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the world famous Indy 500 race. I grew up watching the race as a kid and I've had an interest in racing all my life but one thing I didn't know was just how many events there are leading up to the actual race itself. As a new resident to Indiana I've been really surprised by it all.
One event I got to attend was the Pole day qualifications. I was given a free ticket by a friend to attend and I must say it was almost as enjoyable as the race itself. I did end up attending the race with a friend of mine from work. All in all, it was a fun month that lived up to it's name as it was here and gone in no time at all.
I made a little video of the race day itself. Click here to watch it.
One event I got to attend was the Pole day qualifications. I was given a free ticket by a friend to attend and I must say it was almost as enjoyable as the race itself. I did end up attending the race with a friend of mine from work. All in all, it was a fun month that lived up to it's name as it was here and gone in no time at all.
I made a little video of the race day itself. Click here to watch it.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Reflections on Africa
I recently arrived back home in Indiana from a 5 week trip that I took to Africa and I've been struggling to process all that happened on my trip. I had intended to make frequent updates to my blog while I was gone but I should have known better than to think I could do that. After all, I was heading to Africa...a land that struggles to provide water and electricity, never mind the internet. Anyway, I kept a decent journal of my travels while I was gone, and I've gone back over them to put together the story of my trip. The blog entries are back dated so that they appear in the chronological order that I wrote them. If you want to read about my trip, take a look at the posts beginning in March 2009!
Friday, April 03, 2009
Heading Home
I've been in South Africa for 4 full days now. I reunited with Andre and Warren and they took me on a trip about 5 hours southeast of Joburg to the city of Howick to visit the ACAT (African Co-operative Action Trust) organization. ACAT has over 30 years experience working in South Africa teaching people about sustainable development. OMS has entered into a partnership with ACAT and we hope to being using their training materials to implement a program throughout Africa where we can train our church congregations how to care for themselves better.
One of the interesting aspects of ACAT's ministry is that they firmly believe that poverty is as much a spiritual condition as it is a physical one. I could spend a long time explaining the reasoning behind this but I'll save that for anyone who is interested enough to ask me. They also distinguish between a person being poor and impoverished...they are not the same thing. As a result of these view points, almost half of the training that ACAT gives to people is centered around the bible and it's teaching. This is an aspect that, while it might seem obvious to Christians, is lacking in almost every other organization that works in these types of projects in Africa. Time and time again, humanitarian organizations neglect to address the spiritual issues related with poverty and only try and treat the physical issues. ACAT (and I would agree) would say these organizations are only treating the symptoms of poverty, not the root causes of it.
From Howick we traveled on to the town of Ladysmith where we visited a Zulu area and see some of the ACAT training being put into practice. We visited a business center where a group women are making clothing and also selling food and have started a catering business as well. We then traveled up the mountain side to visit a village and an agricultural project. The couple who are running the agricultural project shared about how their lives have changed since getting training from ACAT. Both of them have received Jesus as their personal savior and their farm is producing wonderful crops. They have even had a surplus of crops that they've been able to sell to their fellow villagers. They have also begun to host a church in their home and are sharing what they know with those who are willing to learn. These programs were very impressive and I believe ACAT has a good program going. I'm excited for the day when OMS can begin implementing a similar program and can witness similar results throughout Africa where we work.
A women shares how her crops have improved because of ACAT's training
One of the interesting aspects of ACAT's ministry is that they firmly believe that poverty is as much a spiritual condition as it is a physical one. I could spend a long time explaining the reasoning behind this but I'll save that for anyone who is interested enough to ask me. They also distinguish between a person being poor and impoverished...they are not the same thing. As a result of these view points, almost half of the training that ACAT gives to people is centered around the bible and it's teaching. This is an aspect that, while it might seem obvious to Christians, is lacking in almost every other organization that works in these types of projects in Africa. Time and time again, humanitarian organizations neglect to address the spiritual issues related with poverty and only try and treat the physical issues. ACAT (and I would agree) would say these organizations are only treating the symptoms of poverty, not the root causes of it.
From Howick we traveled on to the town of Ladysmith where we visited a Zulu area and see some of the ACAT training being put into practice. We visited a business center where a group women are making clothing and also selling food and have started a catering business as well. We then traveled up the mountain side to visit a village and an agricultural project. The couple who are running the agricultural project shared about how their lives have changed since getting training from ACAT. Both of them have received Jesus as their personal savior and their farm is producing wonderful crops. They have even had a surplus of crops that they've been able to sell to their fellow villagers. They have also begun to host a church in their home and are sharing what they know with those who are willing to learn. These programs were very impressive and I believe ACAT has a good program going. I'm excited for the day when OMS can begin implementing a similar program and can witness similar results throughout Africa where we work.
A women shares how her crops have improved because of ACAT's training
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Crys of Sweet Success
It's my final day in Mozambique. I have enjoyed my time staying with the Dedricks and have seen and heard their heart for the people of Mozambique. The work here is challenging and there are many struggles because of the lack of man power and also because of the extremely young church denomination here. Palavra Viva was officially registered as a church denomination only a few years ago and the leadership of the church is still very young and maturing. As such, there are growing pains that are to be expected but I believe God has great things in store for these churches. Last year alone, nearly 91 new churches were planted in Mozambique by the Palavra Viva denomination. In the northern regions of Mozambique, many people have been giving their lives to Christ and many new churches have been planted. These are the rural, unreached areas of Mozambique. Despite the difficulties the church faces here, God is still working through them.
Yesterday I attended church at Khongolote. I got off pretty easy there not having to speak but merely getting up front and shaking everybody's hand. It reminded me of being at a wedding reception, only it went much much faster and there was no crying involved on anybody's part. After church I spent some time video taping a group that meets regularly to pool there money together into a savings and then distributes loans among the group members. It's commonly know in the OMS circles as the Village Savings and Loan program (VSL). There have been a good number of sucess stories where people have been able to take a small loan to better their lives and then repay the loan to the group. This would be very difficult for the average Mozambican to do on his or her own.
Standing in church waiting for everyone to come through and shake my hand
The VSL group counts their money and keeps good records
Before leaving today, we stopped by the T-3 church which was restarting it's preschool program today...the first time in nearly two years that they've been allowed to have a preschool. At one time the preschool here was thriving but then the government came and shut them down. For two years now the church has been trying to meet the stringent requirements of the government and reopen. Today I got to witness the hard work payoff as the first group of children were here. Never has a group of crying children sounded so good! I can only imagine how sweet it was to the women in the church who run the preschool and have waited so long for this day to come. I believe this is the second preschool operating in the Palavra Viva churches. Khongolote also operates a preschool and recently got a new "school bus." The leaders are still deciding about whether to keep the "bus" or not, but apparently the kids love it!
The "school bus" for the Khongolote church preschool
The first day of preschool at T3 church!
Yesterday I attended church at Khongolote. I got off pretty easy there not having to speak but merely getting up front and shaking everybody's hand. It reminded me of being at a wedding reception, only it went much much faster and there was no crying involved on anybody's part. After church I spent some time video taping a group that meets regularly to pool there money together into a savings and then distributes loans among the group members. It's commonly know in the OMS circles as the Village Savings and Loan program (VSL). There have been a good number of sucess stories where people have been able to take a small loan to better their lives and then repay the loan to the group. This would be very difficult for the average Mozambican to do on his or her own.
Standing in church waiting for everyone to come through and shake my hand
The VSL group counts their money and keeps good records
Before leaving today, we stopped by the T-3 church which was restarting it's preschool program today...the first time in nearly two years that they've been allowed to have a preschool. At one time the preschool here was thriving but then the government came and shut them down. For two years now the church has been trying to meet the stringent requirements of the government and reopen. Today I got to witness the hard work payoff as the first group of children were here. Never has a group of crying children sounded so good! I can only imagine how sweet it was to the women in the church who run the preschool and have waited so long for this day to come. I believe this is the second preschool operating in the Palavra Viva churches. Khongolote also operates a preschool and recently got a new "school bus." The leaders are still deciding about whether to keep the "bus" or not, but apparently the kids love it!
The "school bus" for the Khongolote church preschool
The first day of preschool at T3 church!
Friday, March 27, 2009
My First Day of School
Today I visited CAM (Christian Academy of Mozambique) school in downtown Maputo. When I first arrived in Mozambique, I was asked to speak in the chapel service that they have every Friday. Internally was excited at the opportunity to speak, but I was also very unsure of what to speak about. My audience would be a group of students ranging from kindergarten to 12th graders. That's a large age group to try and prepare for. I also knew that my time would be limited so I struggled trying to prepare. As it turned out, I decided to keep it simple. I told them about who I was and how I got involved in missions work and doing the photography and video work for OMS. Then I shared a little bit with them about living the Christian life and putting your trust in God. Once chapel was over I spent the remainder of the day popping in and out of classrooms getting pictures and video of the students.
I also enjoyed meeting the head secretary at the school, Xena, who is originally from Russia but has married a man from India. She shared with me her testimony of how she became a Christian and how her children recently accepted Christ. Her husband is still a practicing Hindu, but not strongly and Lord willing not for much longer.
After the kids had been dismissed from school I was able to get an interview with Larry and Susan Weil, two of our missionaries in Mozambique. Once finished at the school, Larry and Susan took me to dinner at a nice restaurant that overlooks the Indian ocean. It was a great way to end the day.
A rare picture of me working
Kids playing during lunch at CAM
I also enjoyed meeting the head secretary at the school, Xena, who is originally from Russia but has married a man from India. She shared with me her testimony of how she became a Christian and how her children recently accepted Christ. Her husband is still a practicing Hindu, but not strongly and Lord willing not for much longer.
After the kids had been dismissed from school I was able to get an interview with Larry and Susan Weil, two of our missionaries in Mozambique. Once finished at the school, Larry and Susan took me to dinner at a nice restaurant that overlooks the Indian ocean. It was a great way to end the day.
A rare picture of me working
Kids playing during lunch at CAM
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Roll Out The Red Carpet!
My arrival in Mozambique yesterday was quite an event. I'd like to think it was for me, but it wasn't. The runway was lined with anti-aircraft guns, and there was a red carpet lying on the tarmac, and soldiers were everywhere. A military band also sat under a group of nearby trees obviously trying to stay cool in the heat of the day. I later found out that shortly after my plane arrived, the president of Australia flew into the airport for diplomatic meetings with the president of Mozambique.
Dave and Ann Dedrick picked me up from the airport and immediately we drove to the OMS prayer meeting. Every week, the missionaries get together for a time of prayer and fellowship with one another. This was my first time being with other Americans since I had begun my trip so it was good to hear a familiar accent once again. Once the prayer meeting was over, we had a really nice meal that was a most welcome change. Taco soup. Most of my meals for the previous three weeks in Rwanda and Tanzania had consisted of plain boiled rice, fried potatos and boiled chicken. I had nearly forgotten that food could have flavor!
Today we visited a church in an area known as Picoco. A well was recently drilled there and had just become operational a few days before my arrival. The church allows members of the surrounding community to use this well free of charge. The only other well that is close by belongs to a Mosque and they charge for the water unless you want to become a muslim.
The story of this church is interesting. A group of Mozambican Youth for Christ students had been challenged to raise money to build a church. These students had successfully raised the money and built the church but there was no pastor to preach. They found out about OMS and our church planting ministry and asked if we could help provide a pastor in exchange for having the church join the denomination that OMS partners with in Mozambique (Palavra Viva). OMS accepted this offer and now there is a healthy church that is growing steadily in size.
A local woman gets good use of the new well in Picoco
Dave Dedrick speaking with leaders of the church
Dave and Ann Dedrick picked me up from the airport and immediately we drove to the OMS prayer meeting. Every week, the missionaries get together for a time of prayer and fellowship with one another. This was my first time being with other Americans since I had begun my trip so it was good to hear a familiar accent once again. Once the prayer meeting was over, we had a really nice meal that was a most welcome change. Taco soup. Most of my meals for the previous three weeks in Rwanda and Tanzania had consisted of plain boiled rice, fried potatos and boiled chicken. I had nearly forgotten that food could have flavor!
Today we visited a church in an area known as Picoco. A well was recently drilled there and had just become operational a few days before my arrival. The church allows members of the surrounding community to use this well free of charge. The only other well that is close by belongs to a Mosque and they charge for the water unless you want to become a muslim.
The story of this church is interesting. A group of Mozambican Youth for Christ students had been challenged to raise money to build a church. These students had successfully raised the money and built the church but there was no pastor to preach. They found out about OMS and our church planting ministry and asked if we could help provide a pastor in exchange for having the church join the denomination that OMS partners with in Mozambique (Palavra Viva). OMS accepted this offer and now there is a healthy church that is growing steadily in size.
A local woman gets good use of the new well in Picoco
Dave Dedrick speaking with leaders of the church
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Praise The Lord For Drivers Education
I survived driving with Mark*! It's a T-shirt that I might need to have made up once I return to the United States. Maybe I should make one up for Andre and Warren too, since they also survived. This wasn't because Mark didn't try his best to kill us though. Over the course of the 6 days we traveled with Mark, Warren and I spent much time debating about whether Mark had ever driven before this trip; if he truly had a drivers license; and if he'd ever driven off a paved road before. I don't think we ever came to any firm conclusions but we were leaning towards saying no, no, and no. I could mention many of the fine points about Marks driving, but I think one story in particular sums it up best.
On our way home from Mbeya to Dar-Es-Salaam we decided to split the 17 hour drive back into 2 days, spending the night in a wildlife park at the halfway point. The second day we got up and decided to spend a few hours driving around the wildlife park taking some photos before we proceeded to Dar. (Does that qualify as work? Maybe, I once had a giraffe picture make it into the OMS Outreach magazine.) As we were driving through the park we came across a herd of buffalo. Mark had never seen buffalo before so he was quite nervous about the experience and he was eager to keep driving down the road. After assuring him that the buffalo would leave us alone if he just stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine he finally did so. But not without locking the doors first. It didn't last long though as Mark remained very nervous. We were soon making our way down the dirt road again where we happened across an adult male lion. Well, if the buffalo were scary I'm not sure what Mark thought about the lion. Fortunately for Mark, the lion was making his way off into the grass land to get away from the spectators so we didn't see him for long.
As we began driving down the road again the road began to get a bit more bumpy and something inside Mark's head told him we should turn around and head back. The only problem was that on either side of the road was this deep sand which doesn't work so well for turning around. To his credit Mark did try backing up for about 10 seconds but it quickly became apparent that backing up wasn't one of Mark's better skills. (Put one check in the column betting that Mark had never driven before this trip) So Mark, against all good judgment decided to attempt turning around. Somewhere around point 20 of our 40 point turn we got stuck.(put another check in the column betting that Mark had never driven off pavement before) The lion we had seen was only a few minutes down the road, hidden in the tall grass, and we were suddenly forced to exit the vehicle and push, and push, and push. By some miracle of God we got the car unstuck. By another miracle of God we didn't become kitty food.
I wish I could say that was the worst of Mark's driving adventures but it wasn't. Sadly, I don't have enough space or time to write of everything we experienced in his vehicle. The next time a missionary asks you to pray for safe travels, remember there are many other people out there just like Mark driving in third world countries. As Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians, Pray without ceasing!!
*names changed for security reasons
The friendly lion we saw shortly before getting our vehicle stuck in the sand
On our way home from Mbeya to Dar-Es-Salaam we decided to split the 17 hour drive back into 2 days, spending the night in a wildlife park at the halfway point. The second day we got up and decided to spend a few hours driving around the wildlife park taking some photos before we proceeded to Dar. (Does that qualify as work? Maybe, I once had a giraffe picture make it into the OMS Outreach magazine.) As we were driving through the park we came across a herd of buffalo. Mark had never seen buffalo before so he was quite nervous about the experience and he was eager to keep driving down the road. After assuring him that the buffalo would leave us alone if he just stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine he finally did so. But not without locking the doors first. It didn't last long though as Mark remained very nervous. We were soon making our way down the dirt road again where we happened across an adult male lion. Well, if the buffalo were scary I'm not sure what Mark thought about the lion. Fortunately for Mark, the lion was making his way off into the grass land to get away from the spectators so we didn't see him for long.
As we began driving down the road again the road began to get a bit more bumpy and something inside Mark's head told him we should turn around and head back. The only problem was that on either side of the road was this deep sand which doesn't work so well for turning around. To his credit Mark did try backing up for about 10 seconds but it quickly became apparent that backing up wasn't one of Mark's better skills. (Put one check in the column betting that Mark had never driven before this trip) So Mark, against all good judgment decided to attempt turning around. Somewhere around point 20 of our 40 point turn we got stuck.(put another check in the column betting that Mark had never driven off pavement before) The lion we had seen was only a few minutes down the road, hidden in the tall grass, and we were suddenly forced to exit the vehicle and push, and push, and push. By some miracle of God we got the car unstuck. By another miracle of God we didn't become kitty food.
I wish I could say that was the worst of Mark's driving adventures but it wasn't. Sadly, I don't have enough space or time to write of everything we experienced in his vehicle. The next time a missionary asks you to pray for safe travels, remember there are many other people out there just like Mark driving in third world countries. As Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians, Pray without ceasing!!
*names changed for security reasons
The friendly lion we saw shortly before getting our vehicle stuck in the sand
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Far Away But Not Forgotten
It seems like I've been out of civilization for a long time now. Not having any access to the internet, and not even any TV has left me feeling out of touch...yet strangely I have enjoyed it. We are on our way home from spending 4 incredible days in the villages outside of Mbeya, Tanzania. We made the trip up on Tuesday morning and after about 14 hours of driving we spent the night in Mbeya and then drove an additional 2 hours into the mountains on Wednesday morning where we stayed until now. We have been living in a small village home that happens to be owned by the brother of the local church planter. There have been so many interesting things that have happened I could write pages and pages and the only reason I haven't up until now is that we have had no electricity so my computer was dead. The lack of electricity alone was a big hurdle to overcome seeing as how all my camera equipment is dependent upon it. Anyway, we found a villager who had a good solar system and he allowed us to charge my camera there so we could keep filming. He did charge me $1 to do the charging though. Unfortunately I forgot to get a receipt to put this on my expense report! It would have made for a good laugh in the finance department back home.
The number of testimonies I recorded was amazing, and all of them told of the same life transforming power of having a true encounter with Jesus. However, It was a few things that happened outside of the churches that I want to write about now.
The first regards our driver whose name is Mark*. He is from Dar-Es-Salaam and as his name suggests, he is Muslim. On the long drive to Mbeya, I know that David and Paul* were speaking with him regarding his salvation. He didn't want to hear much about it. His first night in the village he managed to find himself a bar and get drunk, coming back late at night and waking many people up in the house. Over the course of the next few days we invited him to attend the church meetings with us and during those times he seemed to be touched by God. If my understanding is correct through the translation we got, he has expressed an interest to Paul about becoming a Christian once he returns to Dar-Es-Salaam.
Secondly, as I mentioned before the man whose house we stayed at is the brother to one of our church planters. He was not a believer and in fact, it was he whom Mark had gone to the bar with and gotten drunk the first night we arrived. The day before we left, Paul had a long talk with him and he decided to accept Jesus as his savior. So, our two drunks ended up changed on this trip!
To add to that, just down the road from the house we were staying is a hospital. We stopped by one afternoon to see if we could pray with the patients. After praying with 4 or 5 patients we talked to the nurse on charge that day, a young girl named Mary. David and one of the church planters had a long conversation with her and she ended up accepting Jesus right there! It was awesome to be a witness to this. Even though I couldn't speak to these people because of language barriers, I found myself interceding on their behalf while they were listening to the gospel message and I believe that God heard my prayers and answered. I thank God for allowing me to be there and pray for them during that crucial time of decision making in their lives.
Getting to spend a few days living in a real African village was just awesome. Seeing how they cooked, ate meals, and just lived life was so insightful and a truly unique experience that not many foreigners ever get to have. One day we walked to a church because the roads were impassable by car. (The previous day we had gotten our vehicle stuck in the mud over 15 times trying to get to a church.) It was crazy to see the narrow footpaths they used to walk up and down hillsides, through fields of corn, and into the forests. I will never forget that journey as long as I live. The paths were so slippery and Warren was having the worst time of anyone keeping his footing. In one place, we were descending into a valley and on both sides there were many women working their fields. As Warren fell down you could hear the chattering among the women on the nearby hillsides. Paul turned and told me that they were all laughing and talking about the white man who keeps falling down! What was truly amazing though was looking out over the hillsides from a vantage point high up on a hill. As we looked out, Jackson pointed out the various villages that had churches. Nearly all of them did as far as one could see! God's word is spreading, and it is awesome to see every village reached with the good news in these remote areas that are all but forgotten to the rest of the world. Yet the Lord has not forgotten them!
*names changed for security reasons
Andre follows our guide through the endless fields of Corn
Walking through the country side African style
The number of testimonies I recorded was amazing, and all of them told of the same life transforming power of having a true encounter with Jesus. However, It was a few things that happened outside of the churches that I want to write about now.
The first regards our driver whose name is Mark*. He is from Dar-Es-Salaam and as his name suggests, he is Muslim. On the long drive to Mbeya, I know that David and Paul* were speaking with him regarding his salvation. He didn't want to hear much about it. His first night in the village he managed to find himself a bar and get drunk, coming back late at night and waking many people up in the house. Over the course of the next few days we invited him to attend the church meetings with us and during those times he seemed to be touched by God. If my understanding is correct through the translation we got, he has expressed an interest to Paul about becoming a Christian once he returns to Dar-Es-Salaam.
Secondly, as I mentioned before the man whose house we stayed at is the brother to one of our church planters. He was not a believer and in fact, it was he whom Mark had gone to the bar with and gotten drunk the first night we arrived. The day before we left, Paul had a long talk with him and he decided to accept Jesus as his savior. So, our two drunks ended up changed on this trip!
To add to that, just down the road from the house we were staying is a hospital. We stopped by one afternoon to see if we could pray with the patients. After praying with 4 or 5 patients we talked to the nurse on charge that day, a young girl named Mary. David and one of the church planters had a long conversation with her and she ended up accepting Jesus right there! It was awesome to be a witness to this. Even though I couldn't speak to these people because of language barriers, I found myself interceding on their behalf while they were listening to the gospel message and I believe that God heard my prayers and answered. I thank God for allowing me to be there and pray for them during that crucial time of decision making in their lives.
Getting to spend a few days living in a real African village was just awesome. Seeing how they cooked, ate meals, and just lived life was so insightful and a truly unique experience that not many foreigners ever get to have. One day we walked to a church because the roads were impassable by car. (The previous day we had gotten our vehicle stuck in the mud over 15 times trying to get to a church.) It was crazy to see the narrow footpaths they used to walk up and down hillsides, through fields of corn, and into the forests. I will never forget that journey as long as I live. The paths were so slippery and Warren was having the worst time of anyone keeping his footing. In one place, we were descending into a valley and on both sides there were many women working their fields. As Warren fell down you could hear the chattering among the women on the nearby hillsides. Paul turned and told me that they were all laughing and talking about the white man who keeps falling down! What was truly amazing though was looking out over the hillsides from a vantage point high up on a hill. As we looked out, Jackson pointed out the various villages that had churches. Nearly all of them did as far as one could see! God's word is spreading, and it is awesome to see every village reached with the good news in these remote areas that are all but forgotten to the rest of the world. Yet the Lord has not forgotten them!
*names changed for security reasons
Andre follows our guide through the endless fields of Corn
Walking through the country side African style
Monday, March 16, 2009
Preaching in the Schools
Yesterday Warren and myself were asked to preach in church at a local secondary boarding school where they have a weekly church service for the approximate 180 kids. I would estimate that maybe 100 students were present along with a handful of the teachers and staff. Warren and I talked things over and decided that Warren would preach and that I would open with a word of encouragement and greeting. As it turned out, I spoke about 15 minutes on the differences between believing in Jesus and having faith in Jesus. Then, Warren got up and preached about how we can only be saved if we have faith in Jesus, and nothing else. He also spent time encouraging the students to actively share their faith with others. He concluded with a call for anyone who wanted to put there faith in Jesus and there were many students, maybe around 20 to 30, who made a commitment. The exciting thing for me was that I noticed the headmaster of the school raised his hand to accept Jesus. He had seemed rather disinterested in our visit when we arrived, but once the service was over his whole demeanor had changed. He was smiling ear to ear and even told Warren and I we could return anytime we wanted, no advanced notice needed. He told us to just walk right in if we ever were in the area. It was interesting to see and I believe his was a genuine profession of faith that he made that day.
Tomorrow we being a long 17 hour road trip across the country of Tanzania to the mountains outside of Mbeya. We will be spending 4 days visiting village churches there and conducting interviews with the local people. Andre, Warren, and I will be traveling with Paul* and David, two of our brothers from Tanzania who are helping to translate for us. We are also taking Jackson with us, who is the head trainer in Mbeya and had been attending the training sessions with us in Mlendizi. Altogether there are 7 of us making the trip together.
*name changed for security reasons
Tomorrow we being a long 17 hour road trip across the country of Tanzania to the mountains outside of Mbeya. We will be spending 4 days visiting village churches there and conducting interviews with the local people. Andre, Warren, and I will be traveling with Paul* and David, two of our brothers from Tanzania who are helping to translate for us. We are also taking Jackson with us, who is the head trainer in Mbeya and had been attending the training sessions with us in Mlendizi. Altogether there are 7 of us making the trip together.
*name changed for security reasons
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Tough Questions
Yesterday we packed up from our first stop in Tanzania and headed for the city of Mlendizi which is inland about two hours from Dar-Es-Salaam. Today we began the first of three days of training sessions with the group of church planting trainers. Andre and Warren have been covering a variety of topics from the need for rapid church multiplication as well as practical teaching techniques. Many of these trainers have a good knowledge of the scriptures and theology, but they are not proficient in teaching other people. We have discussed various teaching techniques such as using role playing, group discussions, debates, hands on projects, etc... One question that came up today just blew me away. What do you do if you witness to an African who has two wives, and they all accept Christ? Should the man divorce one of his wives? Do they continue to live together? It's just one example of the many difficult questions these trainers face. Praise the Lord they are learning in an environment where they can share information and ideas with one another and encourage one another.
Andre leading a training session
Andre leading a training session
Thursday, March 12, 2009
First impressions of Tanzania
The rain is pounding down outside so this is as good of time as any to sit and write for there isn't much else going on. I've been in Tanzania for 4 days now and it has truly been much different that I could have expected. First, it seems like we've left Africa and landed in India or maybe the middle east. The population here is 99% Muslim and there are many people of Arab decent. There are still many people here who are African, don't get me wrong, but it is just such a different feeling than what I've become accustom to in Sub-Sahara Africa. I've connected with one of our Into Africa workers named Paul* and he is going to be traveling with me for the next two weeks while I'm here. I have also joined up with Warren and Andre, two guys from South Africa. Warren and Andre are responsible for overseeing Tanzania and the work that is going on here. In a few days they will be conducting a 4 day training seminar in Mlendizi.On Tuesday we traveled to a village to visit a church where I discovered that OMS' video camera has stopped functioning. I'm not sure what could have happened, but I believe it is spiritual warfare. I've felt so spiritually oppressed here, much like I do when in India. Also, that same day, Paul's Toyota wouldn't start when we tried to leave the village church. It had been running perfectly up to that point and has continued to work perfect ever since. A few other things that happened were: Andre's phone stopped working, one of the filters on Warren's camera was smashed and broken in some mysterious way, and he also lost all the documents off his computer including some of the training materials that were to be used. It seems like we've been under spiritual opposition since we arrived here. Nonetheless, God has been working here during our time. We've heard reports of churches growing, people being healed and the spirit of God being poured out upon this land.
*Names changed for security reasons.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
The African Way
Today was a day of rest as Rukema put it. Indeed, compared to the previous two days it was as I did little more than hang around my room at the guest house. Yet, Rukema and I did manage to get some work in translating the many testimonies that I video taped the day before.
I should speak briefly about yesterday. We traveled to one of Alexandre's training centers and visited a church. The group of church planters (about 15 of them) were so excited that we came to visit, as Alexandre had made two previous promises about coming but he never came. We recorded several testimonies and I got a great interview with the head trainer for the training center. At the end of our visit to the church, I gave Rukema some money and asked him to buy drinks (Coca-Cola and Fanta) and bread for all the church planters. We headed back to the training center and had a time of fellowship that was fun. I got to share briefly about the 2008 statistics for ECC and I think it was an encouragement to them to know that the work they are doing it part of a much larger movement of God.
On the way home we had an interesting experience. During my time here Rukema has been insisting on having us travel using the public buses. That part is fine, but he also insists that I sit up front with the driver which is considered the prime seat. More than a few times it has been awkward as people who are already sitting there are asked to move so I can have the seat. I wish Rukema didn't do this on one hand, but on the other I know that I would be miserable (so would the people I'd be sitting on top of) if I had to squeeze into the tight confines of the back of the bus. They routinely put 15 to 20 people in a space no larger than an American sized mini-van, the kind of vehicle that we would put 7 people into, maximum! I also know that Rukema is doing his best to take care of his foreign visitor.
Anyway, as I was saying we were on our way home. We were standing by the side of the road waiting for the bus to come by when all the sudden two appeared almost at the same time and they were both going to the same place. The second bus was nearly empty which shows that the first bus was collecting all the passengers just ahead of the other one which must clearly be frustrating to the driver! Anyway, the first bus pulls up and it turns out Rukema knows the driver! Well, his bus is almost full and the front seat is taken of course. As they negotiate a price and the removal of the two people sitting up front, I began to wonder why we did just hop into the empty bus? After all, the conductor of that bus was yelling for us to get in and it seemed he even would be willing to give us a cheaper price. It was to no avail, however, as we ended up getting into a crowded bus and the Mazungu(aka. white guy...me) got to sit up front! All of this got me to thinking about the value of relationships here in Africa and for that matter around the world. The relationship here is often the most important factor in decision making. I wonder if that might not be a character trait that the United States could learn from. In a culture where everything is about what you can do for me, we treat people horribly and destroy our relationships with little regard. Certainly within the realm of missions, relationships are the key to anything we do. Anyway, all of it struck me funny and in a small way, the whole situation sums up how things work here in Africa. To an American, it seems inefficient and cumbersome, but to the African they wouldn't have it any other way.
I should speak briefly about yesterday. We traveled to one of Alexandre's training centers and visited a church. The group of church planters (about 15 of them) were so excited that we came to visit, as Alexandre had made two previous promises about coming but he never came. We recorded several testimonies and I got a great interview with the head trainer for the training center. At the end of our visit to the church, I gave Rukema some money and asked him to buy drinks (Coca-Cola and Fanta) and bread for all the church planters. We headed back to the training center and had a time of fellowship that was fun. I got to share briefly about the 2008 statistics for ECC and I think it was an encouragement to them to know that the work they are doing it part of a much larger movement of God.
On the way home we had an interesting experience. During my time here Rukema has been insisting on having us travel using the public buses. That part is fine, but he also insists that I sit up front with the driver which is considered the prime seat. More than a few times it has been awkward as people who are already sitting there are asked to move so I can have the seat. I wish Rukema didn't do this on one hand, but on the other I know that I would be miserable (so would the people I'd be sitting on top of) if I had to squeeze into the tight confines of the back of the bus. They routinely put 15 to 20 people in a space no larger than an American sized mini-van, the kind of vehicle that we would put 7 people into, maximum! I also know that Rukema is doing his best to take care of his foreign visitor.
Anyway, as I was saying we were on our way home. We were standing by the side of the road waiting for the bus to come by when all the sudden two appeared almost at the same time and they were both going to the same place. The second bus was nearly empty which shows that the first bus was collecting all the passengers just ahead of the other one which must clearly be frustrating to the driver! Anyway, the first bus pulls up and it turns out Rukema knows the driver! Well, his bus is almost full and the front seat is taken of course. As they negotiate a price and the removal of the two people sitting up front, I began to wonder why we did just hop into the empty bus? After all, the conductor of that bus was yelling for us to get in and it seemed he even would be willing to give us a cheaper price. It was to no avail, however, as we ended up getting into a crowded bus and the Mazungu(aka. white guy...me) got to sit up front! All of this got me to thinking about the value of relationships here in Africa and for that matter around the world. The relationship here is often the most important factor in decision making. I wonder if that might not be a character trait that the United States could learn from. In a culture where everything is about what you can do for me, we treat people horribly and destroy our relationships with little regard. Certainly within the realm of missions, relationships are the key to anything we do. Anyway, all of it struck me funny and in a small way, the whole situation sums up how things work here in Africa. To an American, it seems inefficient and cumbersome, but to the African they wouldn't have it any other way.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Taxi Chasing
Today was a very tiring day. It started early, about 5am with getting ready and then having breakfast. Soon I was off to taxi chasing with Alexandre, which became a common theme for the day. We waited for almost 2 hours at a taxi plaza for Rukema to show up. Then we waited another 30 minutes for our particular taxi bus to fill up before we could leave. Our first stop was at a church. I heard many testimonies and quickly got my feet wet with filming. The cool thing was that the church we visited was very remote and they told me I was the first white person to ever step foot on their hill side.
We climbed a good ways up this hill side to reach the church and I knew Rukema wasn't sure if I'd make it or not. I was breathing hard no doubt, the elevation here is over 5000 ft, but I still made it with the rest of the group and didn't have to stop and rest. Once we finished at the church, there was an old women in the church who wanted us to visit her home, farther up the hill! So we went and she showed us the place where she used to preform her duties as the local witch doctor! She then showed us the large burn pile where she burned all of her idols and ceremonial tools. It's not something that I'll likely soon forget.
The hill side trail
The old woman who lives near the top!
We climbed a good ways up this hill side to reach the church and I knew Rukema wasn't sure if I'd make it or not. I was breathing hard no doubt, the elevation here is over 5000 ft, but I still made it with the rest of the group and didn't have to stop and rest. Once we finished at the church, there was an old women in the church who wanted us to visit her home, farther up the hill! So we went and she showed us the place where she used to preform her duties as the local witch doctor! She then showed us the large burn pile where she burned all of her idols and ceremonial tools. It's not something that I'll likely soon forget.
The hill side trail
The old woman who lives near the top!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
The Journey Begins
I've known for some time now that I would get to take a trip with OMS to help document the work of OMS in video and photos. Our video production team of Mark, Sarah, and myself had divided up the world into 4 regions and had each planned on taking a region to video, with Sarah getting two regions. My portion of the world was Africa which is great seeing as how its always been my favorite place to go. In my plans, I scheduled stops in Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa. However, the obstacles that have come my way in planning this trip have often been discouraging and I had even begun to wonder if the trip just wasn't meant to be. I had trouble making trip arrangements with my contacts in Africa, the prices of airline tickets were sky high, and there were just so many other things that it got me frustrated. In the end, however, all things worked out and so I'm here in Rwanda, having arrived late last night.
Originally I had planned on being here with a delegation of 4 men from India and my former boss, Dave Graffenberger. But 4 days before leaving I found out the entire group was delaying their trip and I would be alone for this portion. I've traveled to Rwanda before, so I knew one of our ECC workers here, Rukema, and I knew he spoke enough English that we would be able to communicate. Yet I was still a bit nervous as this was my first international trip in a long time, and it had been over 2 years since I had seen or spoken to Rukema. Would he even remember me?
As it turned out, I arrived in Rwanda with no difficulties and I quickly found Rukema waiting for me at the airport. I guess I'm a hard person to forget, as he remembered me much better than I anticipated. He also arrived with his co-worker Alexandre. Alexandre doesn't speak any English, and we had never met before, but it was awesome to meet him.
Tonight, after I had finished eating my dinner here at the guest house where I'm staying, Alexandre and his wife showed up for a surprise visit. Neither of them speak English, but Alexandre does know a handful of words and I think he can understand English much better than he lets on. Using the few words he knew, Alexandre told me his wife Esther wanted to meet me because she felt the Lord put it on her heart to pray for me and my family at home in America and also for OMS. How humbling it was to have this woman of God pray over me! I took the opportunity to return the blessing and pray over Alexandre and his wife Esther too. They have 6 children and are struggling to get them all into school. Something that really surprised me was to see how much Alexandre loved his wife and how he openly talked about her. From my experience in the African culture, men and women rarely show affection for one another in front of other people. The younger generation is breaking this trend to some extent, but it is still rare to see.
Alexandre and Esther pose for a picture.
Originally I had planned on being here with a delegation of 4 men from India and my former boss, Dave Graffenberger. But 4 days before leaving I found out the entire group was delaying their trip and I would be alone for this portion. I've traveled to Rwanda before, so I knew one of our ECC workers here, Rukema, and I knew he spoke enough English that we would be able to communicate. Yet I was still a bit nervous as this was my first international trip in a long time, and it had been over 2 years since I had seen or spoken to Rukema. Would he even remember me?
As it turned out, I arrived in Rwanda with no difficulties and I quickly found Rukema waiting for me at the airport. I guess I'm a hard person to forget, as he remembered me much better than I anticipated. He also arrived with his co-worker Alexandre. Alexandre doesn't speak any English, and we had never met before, but it was awesome to meet him.
Tonight, after I had finished eating my dinner here at the guest house where I'm staying, Alexandre and his wife showed up for a surprise visit. Neither of them speak English, but Alexandre does know a handful of words and I think he can understand English much better than he lets on. Using the few words he knew, Alexandre told me his wife Esther wanted to meet me because she felt the Lord put it on her heart to pray for me and my family at home in America and also for OMS. How humbling it was to have this woman of God pray over me! I took the opportunity to return the blessing and pray over Alexandre and his wife Esther too. They have 6 children and are struggling to get them all into school. Something that really surprised me was to see how much Alexandre loved his wife and how he openly talked about her. From my experience in the African culture, men and women rarely show affection for one another in front of other people. The younger generation is breaking this trend to some extent, but it is still rare to see.
Alexandre and Esther pose for a picture.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Videos, Videos, Videos
Over the course of the past several months, I have been helping to expand the OMS presence on the great big Internet. One way that we've been doing this is by going through our current collection of DVD's and selecting some of them to upload for viewing on the internet. We started a page where all these videos can be found on the Tangle website, formerly known as GodTube.
One that I'm happy to say is now online is the Every Community for Christ (ECC) video which has consumed my life for the past year...maybe longer if you include all the months I spent traveling to get video footage. Anyway, I've put that video below for your viewing pleasure!
One that I'm happy to say is now online is the Every Community for Christ (ECC) video which has consumed my life for the past year...maybe longer if you include all the months I spent traveling to get video footage. Anyway, I've put that video below for your viewing pleasure!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Confessions of a News Junkie
I have a confession to make to everyone...I'm a news junkie. Whether it's reading articles on various Internet news outlets or watching the daily news during my lunch break, you can bet that a day doesn't go by that I don't do one or the other or both. I'm not sure when I became so interested in the news but it's been for many years now...maybe it goes back to when I would deliver newspapers as a kid? At any rate though, recently I've been taken aback at just how much of the news seems to be gloom and doom though. Not that it hasn't always been negative to some degree, but it seems especially bad now from talk about the environment, to world politics, to the global economy. It's all bad news!
A few years ago this kind of news would have gotten me worked up...maybe not visibly to anyone else, but internally for sure. Things can seem awfully hopeless if you let them. And yet there is almost always a silver lining to the dark days. Lately it's been impressed on me that God is desiring for believers to renew our minds and our thinking about such matters, and to look on these things with an eternal perspective. I hope that the body of Christ doesn't forget that we posses the good news people are looking for!
Recently I was in a prayer meeting here at work, and the subject came up of just how many people were losing their jobs. Being a faith based mission organization, all OMS missionaries are dependent upon raising support, so naturally when economic conditions worsen it causes concern and rightfully so. However, as I listened to people talking I felt God speaking to my heart to recount his goodness to me. He reminded me that it was because of an economic crash immediately after the world trade center attacks in 2001, that I wasn't able to find a job in my field of engineering. Due to that downturn and 7 months of subsequent unemployment, I ended up taking a ministry job working at a Christian camp in Colorado. Undoubtedly, I would have never taken that job had I been given the option of finding an engineering job. Furthermore, I'm certain that I wouldn't have chosen to work in full time missions had it not been for my experience at that camp.
My experience isn't unique either. One of the great men I have been privileged to meet during my time with OMS is Stanley Tam. I've heard him share his testimony several times now. During the time of the great depression, Stanley was absolutely broke and his business was failing. It was during this time that Stanley decided to give God his business. Today, the business still operates and over the years has given many millions of dollars towards world missions.
The times we live in are difficult indeed, but it's my hope that we will all find encouragement in Christ during these rough times. He alone is the only one worthy of putting our hope in. Certainly God is bigger than any economic condition we might face, and his word will go forth throughout the world.
A few years ago this kind of news would have gotten me worked up...maybe not visibly to anyone else, but internally for sure. Things can seem awfully hopeless if you let them. And yet there is almost always a silver lining to the dark days. Lately it's been impressed on me that God is desiring for believers to renew our minds and our thinking about such matters, and to look on these things with an eternal perspective. I hope that the body of Christ doesn't forget that we posses the good news people are looking for!
Recently I was in a prayer meeting here at work, and the subject came up of just how many people were losing their jobs. Being a faith based mission organization, all OMS missionaries are dependent upon raising support, so naturally when economic conditions worsen it causes concern and rightfully so. However, as I listened to people talking I felt God speaking to my heart to recount his goodness to me. He reminded me that it was because of an economic crash immediately after the world trade center attacks in 2001, that I wasn't able to find a job in my field of engineering. Due to that downturn and 7 months of subsequent unemployment, I ended up taking a ministry job working at a Christian camp in Colorado. Undoubtedly, I would have never taken that job had I been given the option of finding an engineering job. Furthermore, I'm certain that I wouldn't have chosen to work in full time missions had it not been for my experience at that camp.
My experience isn't unique either. One of the great men I have been privileged to meet during my time with OMS is Stanley Tam. I've heard him share his testimony several times now. During the time of the great depression, Stanley was absolutely broke and his business was failing. It was during this time that Stanley decided to give God his business. Today, the business still operates and over the years has given many millions of dollars towards world missions.
The times we live in are difficult indeed, but it's my hope that we will all find encouragement in Christ during these rough times. He alone is the only one worthy of putting our hope in. Certainly God is bigger than any economic condition we might face, and his word will go forth throughout the world.
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