Our African Journey

A Time to be Sick and a Time for Healing

2011-07-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

As of last Saturday evening, we are now back in Kigali, Rwanda. Most of you have been following the details about my health, so I won't bore you by repeating all that.

Suffice it to say that I went to several clinics and saw 5 doctors here in Kigali, had quite a bit of testing at each one, with no clear diagnosis. Honestly, we began to wonder if we would be able to find the needed answers here and we made a pretty quick decision to get to what we thought would be better, more sophisticated health care, after realizing that I had dropped more than 20 lbs in about three weeks time. It turned out that the two hospitals we went to in South Africa were not able to find anything either. What they did do in their testing was to rule out some bad stuff like hepatitis, tuberculosis, cancer, bacterial infections and parasites.

I think it was one of the examples of God's unexpected will and timing that Duane Jenks and Don Box were able to change their flight schedule to stopover with us in Pretoria on their way to Durban to visit and comfort Brother Johnson Ngoyo who lost his wife and his oldest son on the same day. D and D were able to meet with some of the leaders of the Seeiso Street church and Duane did a class one evening on spiritual warfare. This really struck a chord and they want him back for a full seminar.

One of the great joys I experienced during my illness was the beauty of Christian fellowship. Numerous people came by to visit, to pray and to sing. One woman was baptized in the bathroom next to our bedroom. Afterward she came in to introduce herself to us and bid me good health.

On July 15, our 45th wedding anniversary, I felt a little better and we think that was the turning point. Each day thereafter, I felt a little stronger and was able to walk farther, gradually my appetite started returning. On Tuesday, July 19, I was finally able to see a specialist who declared me clear of anything they could identify, and closed my file. In the end, the specialist concluded that the culprit was some unidentifiable virus that had run its course.

On the following days we took time to see more of the kingdom works in the area. Brother Machona took us to see ministries in the Pretoria area, the Downtown church which also houses the Gospel Chariot Mission, which we had become acquainted with years ago. They now have two big specially designed trucks with trailers that they do teaching and preaching campaigns and distribute Christian literature in 11 southern African countries. This church also hosts students preparing for online courses with Nations University. On another day Machona and Tebego took us to one of the youth detention centers where some of the leaders of the Seeiso street do New Life Behavior and other training courses. One of the sisters who helps organize their short-term medical missions obvious has considerable means. The last afternoon we were there, she took us around to her congregation and showed the properties she is personally investing in for kingdom projects, one for the church, one for a women's center another for a Christian kindergarten and elementary school.

Tebogo is the main organizer for many of their mission activities and he is getting a lot of demand to speak at different churches who are interested in becoming involved in missions. I really feel like the Lord used our time in Pretoria to add to what Phil Jackson and I were able to do in March; to continue building relationships between MRN and the churches in the area for the future of missions.

Before I got sick I had been planning to go to SA to do a full DMM workshop in August. While there I offered to do a workshop with them and they are eager for more training, but August happens to be a very busy month for them and they were not sure how they could work it in. They were glad I suggested that Cephas Kwaambiliwa could go with me to co-facilitate the workshop. Cephas is a Congolese brother who lives in Kigali and has growing DMM movements in Rwanda and in Congo.

Overall, aside from illness, I don't think I could a have planned a better way to get to know these brethren on a broader and deeper level. Since I was given no treatment other than rehydration medicines and vitamins, I can only praise God for His healing of my body. I am eating better and gaining some weight, though hopefully not too much. I do have a ways to go to get my strength back and still need to rest some during the day. Thanks so much for your prayers throughout the past month.

Sowing Seeds in South Sudan

2011-06-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

For more than a year some of my Rwandan colleagues have been urging me to organize a mission trip to South Sudan. In June, we made the trip by bus from Rwanda to Juba, South Sudan, with a one-day stopover in Uganda where we were hosted by the Kampala Church of Christ. Besides the three of us from Rwanda, we were joined by a brother from DR Congo, one from Kenya, and a brother and sister from South Africa.

One of our purposes on this trip was scouting, to evaluate our impressions of what the needs are, how receptive the people are to the gospel, how open and cooperative the government would be to outsiders coming to serve there, etc. Our evaluation was at a high level in all these areas. We went to sow some seeds in various ways, but maybe the most significant were the seeds sown in our own hearts: a greater passion to serve the people and share the good news.

We were graciously hosted by a Ghanaian missionary couple, Isaac and Janet Adotey, as well as Peter Ladu, a Sudanese brother, who provided opportunities for us to bless the two young churches they are working with. We did small construction projects to improve their church facilities as well as a local community health clinic. Several home Bible studies led to at least 5 people accepting Christ as their savior and being baptized. Our overall impression of the openness of the country to outsider assistance might be summed up in the expression at least two officials said to us, ‘We want friends!”

Hymn and Literary Tour of England and Scotland

2011-06-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Nancy:
On our way back to Africa in May, we were so happy to be able to join Dr. Jerry Rushford and his group of 35 or so, in a Literary and Hymn Tour of England, Wales and Scotland. This was an inspiring 12 days of singing (225 hymns!) and experiencing the very places where the literary greats of times past and our hymn writers lived and left their mark upon our culture. We felt renewed and gained a deeper appreciation of our heritage, while enjoying fellowship with new and old friends. What a blessing! So grateful to friends and family (Sam’s sister and brother in law) who made it possible for us to enjoy this very special once in a life-time holiday. Can you imagine singing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the church where the composer, John Newton, former slaver turned Christian, wrote it and served as curate of Olney church?

Sam: I was greatly blessed to have been a part of this tour. At times was overwhelmed by the art and architecture, the sheer immensity of scale of the old churches of England and Scotland, not to speak of the equally towering faith exemplified in the lives of the adherents of the Christian religion in this history. But this tour left its mark on me in another, more troubling way.

I can't help but consider the massive amounts human creativity, physical labor and time (250 years to build York Minster) that were invested in the construction and maintenance of these huge churches, not to mention the monetary costs invested in places where so many thousands have come to meet God, when the Apostle Paul said that God does not dwell in temples made with hands of men. Many of these great churches have become monuments to a waning faith in England and Scotland. Worse yet, many are being turned into tourist spots, restaurants and other businesses.

But what bothers me more than anything about all this is what was NOT DONE because the church historically from about the 5th century A. D. onward became inward-focused and building-focused, at the expense of being outward-focused; going to the church instead of obeying Christ's command to go to the world. Except for a few, a very few who 'swam against the tide' and made a small impact here or there, more than 1000 years was wasted in withdrawing from the world rather than taking the gospel to the lost. Where would we be If we had focused on Christ's commands? Would we have completed the task of making disciples of all nations? Would Christ have returned to take us home? It's hard to say. But we can say, it is time to mobilize the church on a grand scale to make up for lost time and to get the job done!

Relationship-building with Seeiso Street Church

2011-03-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

On March 23, I flew out on my way to Johannesburg, South Africa to make some connections with the Seeiso Street church near Pretoria. From Kigali, Rwanda, on Ethiopia Airlines, that means flying Northeast to travel South. I flew to Addis Ababa and spent the evening with Alemayehu, a former student of mine at the Nairobi Great Commission School in Nairobi, Kenya, and Moges, a roving evangelist among the approximately 1000 churches of Christ throughout Ethiopia. These two brothers met my flight and took me out to dinner at a touristy type restaurant. I enjoyed the food and fellowship, but the music and floor show was rather loud and we couldn't really carry on a conversation.

After dinner they took me back to the Church of Christ mission station in the Makanisa suburb of the city. They helped me settle into a room in the guesthouse and stayed for a few minutes. It seemed like the old days except that we didn't have time to really discuss how the church was doing, growing and maturing. I was listening for a need that I might be able to meet or find someone else who could, but I didn't hear of one. Alemayehu said the mission driver would come early and take me back to the airport. It was a quick stop and I was sorry that I would not get to meet the families of the brothers this time. Hope to see these brothers at the Africans Claiming Africa for Christ conference in August, next year.

I arrived in Johannesburg in the early afternoon and who was there to meet me but my friend, Machona Monyamane, the pulpit minister of the Seeiso Street church in Atteridgeville, just west of Pretoria. Machona showed me some of the city and then took me to a mall where we took some refreshment, then later dropped me at the home of one of the widows of the church. That evening several of the brothers came by and we had a nice visit over a delicious meal. I heard from these brothers what an impact the Pepperdine Bible lectures had made on the outlook and ministry of both Tebogo and Machona. It was obvious they had a much bigger agenda for the trip to the U. S. last year than just presenting a class at the Pepperdine lectures. They went to every class they could, networked with as many people as they could and attended the all the evening events they could. Machona told me that he even interviewed the shuttle bus drivers as they drove him up the Malibu hills. The result was that they claimed there time at Pepperdine gave them a global view of the church. They said their Bible study, their preaching, their approach to evangelism and their view of the church as a whole had been all impacted by their experience that week in May. They were excited about the possibility of working with Missions Resource Network to build partnerships that could improve and expand their mission outreach. I went to bed that evening excited by what the next few days might bring.

Machona picked me up early and we drove back to the airport to pick up Phil Jackson, MRN's facilitator for European church planting, who was coming in to work with me in a short introductory workshop on disciple making. Phil had never been to Africa and I had lived here most of my life. What Phil experienced that week was not your typical African experience. We found that this church had a membership of 700 plus and 50+ year history. It was a church that had a significant influence in the area and had planted several other congregations. They were involved in international missions in Asia and Africa, making numerous short-term mission trips to various locations every year. For it's size, this in itself went way beyond anything that I knew of in any congregation in Africa or the world for that matter.

The Saturday morning of our visit coincided with a monthly prayer breakfast when the leaders of area congregations came together for fellowship and prayer. The breakfast this month was hosted by Seeiso Street where 40-50 people met. Tebogo Ramatsui, the missions minister of the church and grandson of the man who planted the church in 1958, took about 30 minutes to share some of the ministries and missions the church was involved in and some of their vision and plans for local and foreign missions.

Our main goal in meeting with this church on this trip was not so much to impart something to them; we hoped the time would come for that. Rather it was to get to know them, learn from them and begin building a relationship with them that we hoped would blossom into investment in the kingdom of God in Africa. And learn we did. We met the leaders of several sister congregations, were taken to a cultural park to learn about the various indigenous cultures of South Africa. We were even treated to an international football (soccer) match between Eygpt and South Africa, which South Africa won 1-0 for the first time ever against Egypt. Phil and I were hosted in the country home of a gracious couple, Kenny and Jemina Mookeng and their family. Their little detached guesthouse with two bedrooms was a great fit for us. Then on Sunday evening, our last night there, the Mookengs hosted a farewell dinner for Phil and me, inviting many of the leaders and their wives to be with us. It was such a sweet experience.

Privately, Phil and I were blown away by our time with the Seeiso Street church. Phil was already begging to come back with me in the future. Frankly, in all my years in Africa, I had never been hosted like this before. But it was the passion and the vision that seeped out all over us at this church that impacted us the most. It was, in our MRN parlance of the day, a ready-made, God-prepared Global Launch Site for missions in Africa and globally. I couldn't wait until I could return and bring Nancy with me. Little did I know how and when that would happen ...

Pilgrimage through the Backroads 6

2010-12-18T01:44:00.000-08:00

... Continued from Pilgrimage through the Backroads 5

I passed through security first. Somehow they didn’t notice that Mustapha had a Sierra Leonian passport and did not have a visa or a letter of invitation to visit Rwanda. They just let him through, no questions asked!

All through this situation, Mustapha had this big joyful smile on his face. He kept saying, Daddy, don’t waary, don’t waary! But it just did no good for me ... I kept on waarying!

We flew to Bujumbura and sat on the ground there for 40 minutes. When I got a chance I moved up the aisle to chat with Mustapha again. I said, 'I think what we should do is, let me enter the terminal at Kigali first and I will forward this invitation letter to you on email so that it will be on your computer in case the immigration officials demand to see the letter in order to approve a visa.' Mustapha said, ‘I think it will be okay, don’t waary.’

As we took off from Bujumbura for the 25 minute flight to Kigali, I rattled on to Nancy about contingencies if Mustapha was refused entry: Who should I call in Nairobi? Where could I find the phone numbers? What should we encourage him to do there? How much would we need to give him for expenses? My mind was racing ... I was still trying to do God’s work, keep God’s promises and I was running down ... I just couldn’t keep this up much longer ... just a few more minutes and we would have the answers.

Nancy and I walked inside the terminal at the Kigali airport and stood in the residents line. Mustapha stood in the visa application line. We went through and waited for Mustapha trying to look inconspicuous. Just then the agent at the counter referred Mustapha to an officer emerging from an office: he was the supervisor, Oh, No! He scribbled something on the application form and Mustapha gave us a smile and a thumbs up, so we moved on to the baggage area. I couldn’t believe it! That wasn’t supposed to happen that easily!

We waited a while for our bags, but only three of our six checked bags came through. Don’t tell me, we are going to have come back to the airport again tomorrow! I stood in line to file a lost luggage claim, but I couldn’t find the luggage tags so I had no proof of lost luggage. I couldn’t believe it. Apparently the check-in lady had omitted to give us luggage tags in Nairobi. Nancy was nowhere in sight, so I couldn’t ask her. And I was exhausted. There was no point in standing in this line for another 40 minutes, then finding I could not file a claim with no tags. I just turned and walked out of the office.

I found Nancy and asked her about the luggage tags and she didn’t know where they were. I was so frustrated, I started rummaging through papers in my satchel, when ... yes ... the satchel slipped off the luggage cart and fell to the floor, hitting on the corner. And, yes, it had Nancy’s computer in it!! We’d have to assess the damage later.

Now it was time to make our way through customs and see if anyone was out front to meet us. Yes, there was Chris’s smiling face. He was in his pickup, not ours as we expected. So what’s up? 'Well, some small car problems. It just quit today and it wouldn’t start again.' Hmmm. Well, that’s something to deal with tomorrow. For now it was dinner at the Shelbys. Wow, good fellowship, good food, good to be home again! After dinner Chris delivered us to our house. As we drove up to the gate the house lights went out. Yes, this must be Rwanda, good to be home. We are Africans, we know how to function in the dark. Our first order of business was prayers of gratitude, that God had brought all of us home safely. Forgive me, Lord, for all my waarying! It didn't solve anything.' And the problems can wait until tomorrow...

pilgrimage on the Backroads ... continued 5

2010-12-16T03:17:00.000-08:00

Continued from pilgrimage on the Backroads ... continued 4
Race for Rwanda The Rongo workshop ended on Thursday afternoon, but we were still a long way from home. Our goal was to wrap up all the last activities, photos opps, handing out notes and certificates, closing speeches by 4:30 so that we could grab a matatu and make it to Nairobi by around mid-night. After saying our last goodbyes, we dropped by to see some old friends, Dennis and Mary Okoth, who had so kindly loaned us their car for the week. They gave us a quick tour of their retirement home before giving us a lift to Kisii town where we met up with others heading home to Nairobi from the workshop. Ten of us arranged for a matatu and left for the city by about 7:30. The group dropped us at the Mennonite Guest House about 12:30 a.m. and went on to their drops in different parts of town.

Nancy and I were settling into our room when I discovered that my wallet was missing. Oh, No! Surely we had had enough drama for one trip! I quickly looked up a name and cell phone number on the workshop participants list. Marube had been on the matatu with us, but he and a friend had already dropped and taken a taxi for home. He said, “Hold on, I will call you back.” He immediately directed his taxi driver to follow our matatu. They caught up with it at the next traffic circle in time to see Julianne alighting from the matatu with my wallet in her hand wondering what to do with it. Marube took it from her and ordered the taxi driver back to our guest house, then gave us a call that he was on the way. At 1:00 a. m. he delivered it to us. Thank you, brother and praise the Lord! What a relief! Imagine losing your drivers license, credit cards, $300 dollars and 17,000 Kenya Shillings on public transportation in a big city ... not a nice thought!!
The Mennonite is a quiet old guest house in the middle of a busy city where we have stayed dozens of time over the past 30 years or more. Friday morning was a leisurely break as we re-packed bags we had stored while we traveled out west.

At noon we headed out to the airport a little early to check in to our flight to Rwanda. The check in lady at the Kenya Airways counter said that our bags were over the weight allowance and we would have to pay extra. We made to rearrange and redistribute the weight among our bag and she finally forgave us for being overweight.

But she said our co-worker, Mustapha Sandi, a citizen of Sierra Leone, would have to show proof that he had applied and been approved for a visa for Rwanda. She said even if she checked him in, they would check him at the gate and would not allow him to board. Don’t tell me! I realized that I had forgotten to remind Mustapha to make his visa application online. Now it was too late to do so for this flight. We had him lined up for trainings beginning two days from now. I got on the phone to Rwanda and asked Charles, our administrative assistant, to call immigration and see what he could do. He said he would need a letter of invitation and that he would need 72 hours for a response from immigration. What to do now ...? Finally the agent checked Mustapha in when I said I would get on the internet and make the visa application. I was on the phone so Nancy picked up our passports, boarding passes and luggage tags.

As we looked for an internet cafe in the ground-level concourse a person of peace ‘happened’ by. She was also a staff person with RwandAir and seeing our anxious faces asked if there was anything she could do to help us. Mustapha explained his situation and she immediately called a contact in the Rwanda Embassy in Nairobi, who told her that if Mustapha had visited Rwanda before and possessed a letter of invitation, that he would likely be granted a Rwanda visa at the Kigali airport. Our person of peace encouraged us not to worry. But ... I was still worried because I had not done something I should have done and thus could jeopardize the mission.

I looked around the airport and couldn’t find a way to get online. We checked through immigration and went upstairs to a coffee house where I sat down and quickly typed out an invitation letter addressed to Mustapha as I intermittently talked with Charles, answering questions and trying to come up with a solution. Charles advised letting Mustapha stay in Nairobi for a few days until we could work on obtaining a visa but on such short notice I couldn’t think of a way to do that. With the invitation letter on a thumb drive I went into an internet cafe to see if I could get it printed, but they wouldn’t accept my thumb drive for fear of infecting their computers with viruses. Give me a break! I use Apple computers and we don’t have such things as viruses! I was forced to give up on printing out that letter.

Well, I had done all I could. It was time to start settling back and watch the Lord at work. But my flesh, my mind, was still whirring with contingencies, names, contacts, possibilities and ‘what if’s.

It was time to check through security one last time and move through to the boarding area. This would be the test: would they let Mustapha board the flight? To be continued ....

Pilgrimage on the Backroads ... continued 4

2010-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

Barnyard Guest House - We arrived at Rongo in the mid-afternoon and were met by Charles Ngoje, a former student of ours from our days with the Nairobi Great Commission school back in the 1990’s. Charles had worked for two tours as a missionary in Moshi, Tanzania and in the interim period as director of the NGCS extension programs. Charles had developed into a respected leader and was now again working both with NGCS extension program and the Winyo Missions Centre.

Charles took us to the local Catholic guest house where we checked in. He recommended that we get settled in, rest and in the evening join others out at the village of Winyo where the workshop and meals would be served.

On finding our room, we discovered that the establishment would have been better named the Squeeze Inn. There was little room to turn around, hang clothes or towels. However, it did have clean sheets, running water and mosquito nets for which we were very grateful.

The place had a number of cows tethered on the grounds and thus had a strong barnyard odor that wafted into our room. One cow was within reach of our bedroom window. She seemed to have a strong urge to join in fellowship with us in our room. Bossy, as Nancy nicknamed her, insisted on trying to enter through the window on several occasions, the ring in her nose rattling on the glass.

God blessed our four days at Rongo. It was hot the first day of the workshop, but as is so often true in Africa, the heat was bringing on the rain. The second night a heavy lightening storm moved in and it rained most of the next day, a great blessing for the area farmers who had experienced a long dry spell. The downside of the storm was that the power was knocked out for most of second day, forcing the staff to use wood to cook our meals.

Thirty-two people came in for the workshop from as far away as Kisumu and Nairobi. Some of these were people were former students of ours at the Nairobi Great Commission School back in the 1990s. Others were were leaders in other churches and ministries who were dissatisfied with the status quo and ready for new perspectives and principles that move them on to a new level in missions. Some had been missionaries in other countries and were still infected with God’s compelling call to reach the lost. Of the groups we have trained or recruited for training over the past three years, none had represented more diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender and religious background and none had been more obviously prepared by God for this training at this time. It was a tremendous encouragement to work with such people.

Going back to the Bible for the principles of disciple making is a challenging process. It forces us to reexamine views and practices that we have accepted and taken for granted and been vested in for a long time. Accepting the new perspectives that come from this process requires a willingness to count the cost and pay the price of change and to sacrifice vested interest, control and to focus on our God-given role while trusting the Holy Spirit to do His work. To be continued ...

Pilgrimage on the Backroads ... continued 3

2010-12-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

No, Not More Bad News! - During the week at Siriat, we had worked out a way to configure a borrowed modem that would work with our computer so that we could at least download email and check on our family on Facebook, hungering for news about Marcus’ condition. Shona had written a long detailed email of the what happened, apparently dictated by Marcus, recounting the story of the accident and the events that followed and God’s obvious protective and provisional hand in it all. How sweet it was to get that message! What an answer to so many prayers! Nearly all of our children wrote something in the thread of messages that followed and all of this was so precious to us. Now all of that was locked in the dead computer.

But we managed to get Nancy’s computer online long enough to download some messages that evening. One message, titled ‘little issue’, caught my eye immediately. It was almost as if I was expecting some more bad news. Our teammate, Caleb Beck wrote in part, ‘It looks like someone may have broken into your house [in Rwanda] and stole at least one computer...’ My mind raced over the possible implications of this ... investigations, police reports, assessing what had been taken. We had not been home in over two months ... we knew so little. Immediately, we and our friends were in prayer about all that we did not know and could not do anything about.

Later that evening we heard from another teammate, Chris, who had spent hours that day working with Vicent, our guard, changing a door-lock and assessing what had happened. As it turned out, Vicent, a student who was working on his major senior project, had been working on a borrowed laptop until late at night, then went to bed in his separate quarters. The burglar/s had come in and apparently only taken the equipment Vicent had been working on. Nothing else in the house had been disturbed. It was a very mysterious incident and the first time this has happened at our house in Rwanda. While we knew Vicent would greatly disappointed at the loss of his research project, we were relieved that it was not a greater loss than it was.

It had been a stressful, tiring week; one in which we felt the Lord has tested us and the devil had tried to discourage and/or to distract us from the mission at hand. I began to think we must be threatening Satan a little for him to be lining such an array of worrying and distracting events in an attempt to keep us off balance. Mustapha and our Kenyan friends were such an encouragement to us and we were able to sweep the worries away and resolved to remain focused on the mission.

On to Lake Victoria Our hosts at the Siriat Bible School, Joseph and Christine Bett, were so gracious and generous to us. They provided ample meals for us and while the prevailing diet and lack of indoor plumbing was something we had not experienced for a while, the hospitality and warmth of their home was so much appreciated. On Friday morning we said our goodbyes and Joseph accompanied us to Kericho where he helped us find a connecting minibus on to Kisumu 70 miles further on the east shore of Lake Victoria. Dino met us at the central bus station and took us on to the Dew Church Drive Hotel that our host, Jared Odhiambo, had reserved for us. The hotel room was small and dark, but it was clean and air-conditioned. Overall it was a restful weekend that included a tour the Ringroad Church and orphan day school and clinic, a visit to the shore of Lake Victoria and a couple of nice meals out on the town of Kisumu. On Sunday we worshipped with the Ringroad church before packing onto another matatu shuttle for the two-hour ride to Rongo in South Nyanza Province.

Pilgrimage on the Backroads ... continued 2

2010-12-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

Leading the Blind - On the first morning of the workshop, I dropped a contact lens from my left eye. (This happens about once a year on average). Nancy helped me search for it and it took about 30 minutes before we turned it up. But the next morning during our prayer time I lost the lens from my right eye. My lens often slips off my eye because I can’t pray very long with shedding tears. The right eye is the most critical to my vision and we looked for it for over an hour. Then I had to go on to the workshop, but Nancy kept searching for it for several hours, completely cleaning our room. But it was gone. Wow, that was discouraging. I wasn’t sure how I could continue and Mustapha carried a big load of the training for the next two days until I adjusted to using one eye.

Is God Calling me to missions? - The participants began to open up interact with us more by the third day. It seemed they were ‘getting it’ and eager to learn more. However, the basis of the training is not just to learn more but to obey what you know now.

For me the highlight of the five days in Siriat was the determination of our 20 participants to implement what they know in the home of the communities they come from. Two or three of the men said they felt the desire to go elsewhere on mission for God. I was blessed in particular by a 62-year-old retired teacher who said he thought God wanted him to move to another country to share the gospel. I asked him if his family was aware of his sense of calling to missions. He said he needed to talk it over with his family. I suggested that he pray about the matter for some time and see if God confirmed the urging he was sensing.

Computer Crash Crisis - On the Thursday after the final sessions of the workshop, we rushed around producing and printing copies of the workshop notes, participant lists and certificates. In our closing ceremonies Nancy passed the certificates and congratulated the participants on their faithful attendance and study. We took the official photos of the groups and were saying our farewells to all when I went back into the classroom to wrap up my materials and pack my computer. Then what every laptop computer user fears happened ... I bumped my laptop off the far side of my narrow table. It fell flat on the concrete floor ... aaaagh!!

I picked up the computer like it was my brain. All my files and communications for over two and a half years were on that hard-drive. There didn’t appear to be a scratch on the outer case. I opened the lid. That Apple Macbook was still running with no apparent damage. I couldn’t believe it. But it was low on power so I shut it down. As soon as I could I returned to my room to charge and restart the computer. No way. Now the computer would not read the hard-drive even enough to boot up.

Fortunately, back in Kigali, three months ago, I had backed-up all my files. But those were not accessible now here in Kenya. What were we to do? Well, we had completed the first workshop, that was good. And we had a three-weekend before the next workshop in another location. But I had only hard-copies of the materials and some files of notes from earlier workshops on my thumb-drive. Also we had Nancy’s computer, so we could still function. It just meant a lot of work to prepare for the next week. To be continued ...

Pilgrimage on the Backroads ... continued 1

2010-12-05T04:56:00.000-08:00

Matatu Sardine Can - A taxi deposited us at a bus loading area in downtown Nairobi where we squeezed into a 14-passenger van designed for 10, along with most of our hand luggage under our feet or between our seats. Our one suitcase was strapped on the top of the van as we waited 20 minutes for recruiters to flag down more potential passengers to fill the van. In Kenya, a matatu is never quite full it seems; ‘there is always room for one more.’

Soon our over-filled matatu was climbing to edge of the Great Rift Valley, then down to the valley floor and across the plains to Narok along the north side of the Maasai Mara. By shortly after noon we arrived at Kaplong, one kilometer from the Siriat Bible School. David Tonui met us at the gas station and took us to the home of Joseph and Christine Bett. Actually, it in the process of becoming their home the afternoon we arrived. David had lived there for 13 years as the director of the school and was loading a pickup of personal things to move to his little farm in the area.

You Should have Brought This Training Sooner - The next morning leaders and evangelists from the churches among the Kalenjin sub-tribes and the Kisii people began filtering in from as far as over 100 miles away. The group seems very formal and quiet, a persona we were not used to. Joseph was under a lot of pressure with the transition of his family to Siriat, so the first day of the workshop was a little disorganized, but it soon came up to speed.

Joseph was excited about the content and processes Mustapha and I were introducing. He said, ‘we needed this training 25 years ago. You should have brought it before the other evangelism methods.’ But I encouraged them, ‘we are also learning; we did not know all this before. But also, you were not ready to hear these things long ago. God has worked in you and prepared you for this time. Remember, we are not here to condemn or destroy the past; rather we are building on what you already know. Now you are hungry for more because your churches need revival and a new challenge for this time.’ To be continued ...

Pilgrimage on the Backroads of Kenya

2010-12-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

Let the reader beware, this is going to be a rather long and detailed post in several sections. It will also be rather reflective about where I am in the struggles of the kingdom.

Shangri-la on the Kenya Coast - Nancy and I arrived back on the Bright Continent on November 22, 2010, after several weeks in the U. S. After one night in Nairobi we flew down to be with our old friends, Jim and Laura Reppart for Thanksgiving in Malindi on the coast. It was a relaxed time to catch up on each other’s lives, experience some of the Caris Foundation’s programs there and get over jetlag before moving on to western Kenya.

Thanksgiving with Jim, Laura and Jane

That Friday afternoon, we flew back to Nairobi in time to meet our friend and co-worker, Mustapha Sandi of Sierra Leone who has been working in Zambia for the last couple of years. We stayed two nights at the Mennonite Guesthouse in Westlands as we have so many times over the past 30 years or more, so we could do some repacking as we prepared to head west on Sunday morning for a four–day workshop on disciple making and church planting.

Then late that night, we got a one-line email from our older son Dan in Arizona. The subject line was ‘Marcus Accident’. The message said, ‘Marcus [our younger son] has broken his femur – prayer please. He is in good spirits. In surgery now. More details to follow soon.’ Details were slow in coming and because of the time difference, it was hard to find a time we could talk. We didn’t have a phone that could work internationally. We did manage to get Dan on Skype the next morning but he knew little about Marcus’ condition. All we could do was pray. We knew as we left the guesthouse there would be little opportunity to email or even find an internet connection for most of the next ten days. So our anxiety level was high. To be continued ...

African Leaders I have Learned from Lately

2010-10-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Arise my brothers! The task is not complete. This is Africa's time. It is time to take up our responsibility to further God's kingdom business in our continent! - Thomas Simubali

To workers in Rwanda: I am praying for you ... I believe God is doing something great and will let your dreams come through before the expected time. You are indeed consumed by a great passion which is commendable before God; but you can only accomplish what God has purposed through you. - Mustapha Sandi

White man, be careful when and where you go! Now is the time for us (Africans) to lead the mission on the ground. Otherwise wrong expectations will arise and the mission may be spoiled. - Cephas Kwambiliwa

We are tired of being controlled by outsiders. Africa has been called the dark continent. Yes, Africa is dark physically and economically. But Africa is the bright continent in spiritual things. - Lawrence Oduro

I had my doubts about Augustine. He had agreed to teach a workshop with me, but every time I called him he sounded sleepy on the phone. Later I talked with him about that. He said, "Well, yes, I go to sleep early in the evening; then I get up at 3 a.m. every morning to worship and pray for three to four hours." - Augustine Kawah-Jones

We have established a mission in Equatorial Guinea. Soon we will begin a branch of our company there. Recently we visited China. When we returned I felt a burden for the people. I believe that God wants us to do something in China. - Douglas Boateng

Allow the Little Children ...

2010-04-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I was privileged to be part of a mission to the village of Rutare in the south eastern corner of Rwanda. It was literally a few minutes walk from both Burundi and Tanzania. The purpose of the mission was partly to follow up and evaluate the progress from a previous mission to Rutare, but it was also part of an effort of our mission to initiate a Global Prayer Movement for Rwanda. The Bible studies for the day were to emphasize that God wants us to prayer for our neighbors and others that do not know Christ. While the classes were going on, two groups did some 'prayer-walking' through the village, praying for the community and for those meeting at the local church. The Result: the leaders of the church poured out their voices and their hearts in confession to God that they had been neglectful in not praying for their community and sharing their faith with their neighbors as they should have. We may look back in years to come and say that the Global prayer movement for Rwanda began last Saturday in the village of Rutare!!!

I have never been the greatest worker with little children, but there was no way to avoid it at Rutare. Jesus said, 'Allow the little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Pray no only for the children of this village, but also that the adults will have the child-like hearts needed to receive the kingdom.

Me and Contact Lenses ... it has been a long walk

2010-03-22T04:11:00.000-07:00

About an hour ago I was taking my wife to the airport as she is flying to Kenya for a retreat with other missionary women. On the way my right contact lens popped out of my eye. It was gone! We looked in my eye, no trace. We looked on my sunshades, all over the seat, the floor of the car. Nothing!

Usually about once or twice a week one of my lenses will slip off my cornea and into my upper or lower eyelid. Not this time. Gone! Well it was time to get on to the airport. In the parking lot, I slowly got out of the car, examined the folds of my clothes, the folds of my paunch, shook out the floor mat, examined the area on the car floor around the seat. No contact. I kissed Nancy goodbye and headed home.

I started wearing contacts lenses forty-five years ago. Back then the only kind were hard lenses. They were uncomfortable in my eyes, but they were much better than nothing. They often popped out of my eye, fell on the floor or the ground. Most people don't believe these stories, but it was amazing the way I lost and found my lenses over the years. When I got to Africa the roads were bumpy and dusty or muddy. I used to ride my motorcycle to town or to teach in the school. Once on my motorcycle, the wind blew out one of my lenses. Now get this. I stopped quickly, got off my bike and walked back along the dirt road and found my lens lying there in the road. On another occasion I was riding a bicycle to school on a rainy muddy day. I dropped my lens on the muddy road, stopped my bike, got off and went back and found the lens right next to a mud puddle. Many times I have lost and found lenses in my bed, on the floor on the ground, in many strange places. Nancy is always patient and kind to help me devise ways of finding lost lenses. In 45 years, I have only totally lost 2 lenses.

On our first furlough, my eyesight was really getting bad. In 1971, I walked in the office of a young optometrist in Abilene, TX. He was shocked at what he saw when he examined my eyes. He said, "I have never seen eyes like yours, my machine will not even measure them. You are going to be blind in 6 months." It was my turn to be shocked. The doctor offered to refer me to an ophthalmologist who saw me later that day. He said, "Yes, you have a condition called Keratoconus and you will need corneal transplants in both of your eyes. There is a nine-month waiting list for corneas."

When I heard this news I was devastated. I had nowhere to turn except to the Lord and to prayer for answers. Fortunately I was at a meeting to form a mission team for Africa, so was among friends who prayed for me. I had a wife (Nancy) and three very young children. I had no job, I had borrowed money to come to this meeting and then was told that I would be blind in six months. I couldn't get an operation for at least nine months. Even if I could have, I would not have been able to afford the surgery. But God hears and answers prayers. A doctor friend arranged to have an eye surgeon perform the surgery. A friend from college wrote all of our classmates and raised the money for the surgery.

I had a cornea transplant on my right eye in 1971 and another on my left eye in 1981. The left one failed and had to be replaced in 1998. Because of the nature of the cornea grafts, I have never been able to wear the soft lenses of today. My lenses are hard plastic; they are very small so that they fit inside the scar of the graft. They often slide off the cornea or pop out of my eye. But what can I say? Thirty-nine years ago, I had only six months until I would be blind. Today I have almost 20-20 vision. I am truly blessed.

... Well, I prayed on the way home from the airport this morning, that God would guide me to find that lost lens. I carefully got out of the car, searched my clothes and the seat and floor of the car again. Nothing. Then I went to my bedroom to search in my eye with a mirror, because that is where I usually find my lens. Nothing. I carefully retraced my steps to the car with a flashlight. After some moments of careful examination, there...between the handbrake and the driver's seat... there it was!! Praise God! I feel like the woman in Jesus' story of the woman who lost a coin. She swept her house until she found it. Then she called her friends and said, Rejoice with me; what was lost is found!

Resting in a Quiet Place

2010-02-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is just good to get away to a quiet place and rest for a while. That's true even if it takes while to get there. Last week was just such a time. Five men of our team in Rwanda, joined by a couple of visiting friends, traveled from Kigali all the way across Uganda 450 miles to western Kenya for three days of rest, renewal and recharging our spiritual batteries. We met at Rondo, a Christian retreat center in the Kakamega National Forest. It was a quiet time to spend in the word, in prayer and reconnecting with God's creation.

We joined other 20 other missionary men from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for a time of fellowship, sports, table games, discussions of our ministries, worship and spiritual nurturing from the gospel of Matthew. Dr. Mark Love of Rochester College led our times in the word.

DMM Retreat

2010-02-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a powerful and historic event for our team in Rwanda. We met for two days of prayer and beginning the development of a five-year plan for making disciples of Jesus all over Rwanda and beyond among the Banyarwanda, that is the people who consider themselves of Rwandan origin. They are about 20-25 million people worldwide.

The eight families, several singles and visitors added up to 39 who met to pray, to join one of four 'taskforces' to develop our objectives to reach every district (30) in Rwanda with some form of service, training, empowerment and the good news of salvation and hope in Jesus.

Now you are probably wondering, 'What is DMM?' Well, it is what we pray and plan will become a 'disciple-making movement.' Rwanda is highly 'churched', but we believe that we and many others whom God shall call, need to become true obedient disciples of Jesus.

'I Will No Longer Trust in Suits ...'

2010-01-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we held a second anniversary celebration of the Xtra Mile Ministry, one of our programs under our Africa Transformation Network, NGO. On the program along with songs, prayers of thanksgiving and several speakers, were representatives of the ministry from various districts in the Rwandan countryside. Mostly these were young people in their 20s who are leaders or prospective university students in Xtra Miles' education program. Many of these young people are sole surviviors among families of six to eight parents and siblings. Others have one or two siblings who survived with them.

Various students were given two or three minutes to talk about their experiences with Xtra Mile. Some of them talked of how unimpressed they were at their first introduction to the Extra Miles leaders. When they heard that ATN was coming to their district they expected 'big people' to arrive in a Landcruiser dressed in suits and other accoutrements of big money with the promise of well-financed programs. When Charles Kabeza showed up in work clothes after a long bus ride saying that he represented a small NGO that had 'a big heart and a small pocket', they were quite disappointed. They expected failure and that his words and plans amount to nothing.

Now months later, after numerous visits, discussions, seminars on hope and leadership training, these young people had begun to develop a vision for their future. For me, the classic line of the day among the speeches came from one of the young women who stated that she 'will no longer put her trust in suits, but in the power of God.'

Disciplemaking in Bukavu, DR Congo

2010-01-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I spent four very interesting days in Bukavu, DR Congo. I accompanied Cephas Kawambiliwa who arranged and organized the trip. We left Kigali at 6:30 a.m. by bus and arrived at the Congo border about noon. It took about an hour to cross the border as I had to apply for a visa which cost me $50 for a week. Brother Jeff met us and arranged a taxi to take us to the guest house for visiting professors at a local university. Cephas would be teaching a short course at the university, so he arranged free housing and almost free meals for me as well.

After lunch, we rested a few minutes before taking a taxi to one of the departments of the university where there was an available classroom. Cephas had arranged for some of his 'Christian family' leaders to attend a training on concepts and processes relating to disciple-making. I introduced myself as someone who is a hunter. I am hunting for a few people who are tired of religion as usual and are desperate to share their faith with others.

CREIM Leaders

Several at the meeting had attended our August training workshops in Kigali. They have started doing discovery Bible studies in their house churches that they call 'Christian families.' They have also initiated at least three new house churches. On Sunday, Cephas and I taught about 6-7 hours. In the afternoon session we opened the floor to issues and questions relating to disciplemaking and church planting movements.

Monday morning we visited four or five of the Christian family meetings, prayed with and encouraged them. They greatly encouraged me to see their faith and commitment in the face of dire poverty and joblessness for some of the evangelists. On Monday afternoon several pastors from some of the Bukavu churches attended the training. Some of them are tired of the religious situation there and are seeking some training in disciplemaking.

Bukavu is a crowded little town. I had last visited here at the end of 1993, just three months before the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. In the past fifteen years people have been forced to crowd into this little town as the result of insecurity in the rural areas, the refugee crisis resulting from the genocide and subsequent wars in eastern Congo. Cephas told me that very little street maintenance had been done since the Belgians left. That was in my senior year of high school, 1960!! (After my visit to Bukavu, I have resolved to stop complaining about the sloppy, muddy street I live on in Kigali!!). Much of the housing in the town is built on very steep slopes. Houses are encroaching on the streets so that on some you can travel by taxi for a while; then by moto-taxi a little further, and finally the street is so narrow there is only room for pedestrian traffic. Though this is the rainy season, we had prayed for no rain this weekend as it would have prevented people coming to the training sessions. It was raining when we arrived at the border post but thereafter the weekend was almost completely dry except for a short shower. The day after the training, we had heavy rains right up to the time to return to the bus station.

My prayers are that there will be at least one if not several movements of churches under the passionate leadership of Cephas Kawambiliwa.

Omar's Dangerous Dream

2009-12-20T22:39:00.000-08:00

Last night Omar had a dream in which he saw someone standing in the corner of his room. The person he saw in his dream had scars in the palms of his hands. Omar identified the person as Jesus Christ. He said Jesus instructed him to read Ezekiel 12:1-3 and then to find some Christian to explain to him the meaning of this verse. Early this morning, Omar arrived at a local church and told his story to two of the church leaders. They met outside because Omar said he could not go into the church building.

Until this morning Omar was a sheik in one of the mosques in the city. He had studied the Kur'an in Medina and was now a teacher in the mosque. After visiting with the church leaders he said he understood that his people were unreceptive to hearing from God. He said he believed that God wanted him to leave the mosque and to follow Jesus. He accepted Christ as his savior.

Then Omar drove back to the mosque and turned in his car and his books. He left his house and returned to the church toward the end of the Sunday morning service. He said that the leaders of the mosque then burned all of his belongings. One of the church leaders told me his version of what happened earlier. Then I met Omar and learned more of his story.

He said he was married to a woman and that he had a second wife who was 'a spiritual wife' that he been given to him by 'majini', the spirits. It was this spiritual wife who communicated with him and told him that his belongings had been burned and that he should go into hiding. Omar was waiting for the church leaders to decide what they could do to help him find a place to stay. The church leaders were caught in a dilemma. They were not sure of the truth of Omar's story and wanted to check it out further. On the other hand, they did not want to shun a person who had just accepted Christ. I don't know how this will work out.

Omar's story has a familiar ring to it. Many Mus1ims have come to Christ because of what they saw in a dream or vision. If his story is true, Omar will pay a high price for his decision to follow Christ. He is in danger of being killed because of what he knows. He will be disowned by his family and will likely have to live in hiding and maybe move to another country. Pray that Omar will have the faith and courage to follow the course he has chosen and to be a witness to others.

A Time of Life When You Say "... I'll see you later"

2009-12-02T02:47:00.000-08:00

Bill and George were boys who were born in Africa as missionary kids as I was. The three of us were about the same age. We grew up together on the same 'mission station' in Northern Rhodesia in the 1940s and '50s. Bill and George were my best friends. As young boys we played Red Rover, hunted antelope and shot at crocodiles along the Kalomo River; we explored much of the African 'bushveld' on the mission station.

George was an amateur biologist and a consummate prankster for as long as I can remember. He would sneak around and drop a frog in your pocket if he could get away with it. But he couldn't keep a straight face ... his face gave him away on every trick.

Bill was a dreamer and a storyteller. He would launch into to his old African or other stories whenever their was a lull in the conversation and someone looked like they might give him their attention. He amazed you with all the details of the events that he could remember. I could never recall those details even if I had been a major character in the story.

After grade school we went off to boarding school in Lusaka, the capital city. There we grew to become young men who felt our independence at a pretty early age. The British boarding school made us tough and responsible for our own lives. With no parents around we had only our friends to rely on. We learned to swim, play rugby, bunk out (leave the dorm after hours without permission), walk six miles to the movie theater on Saturday afternoons and ride the old steam-driven train home overnight on holidays and long weekends. Oh yes, and do some studying too.

In the early 1960s, all three of us traveled to the states and attended Harding College together. After college, our lives took different directions. George went on to become a medical doctor who practiced in Northeast Arkansas. Bill became a professor who taught languages at McMurry University in Texas. Both became well-respected in their professions. And I returned to a life in missions in Africa. Thereafter we would only meet occasionally and get a chance to catch up on each other's lives.

Is this when you begin to say to your friends of faith, "You go on ahead ... I'll see you later"? George went on to be with the Lord a few years ago after a difficult struggle with cancer. Bill and I were both able to be at George's memorial service.

Then Bill died suddenly of a heart condition last month. Nancy and I happened to be in the U. S. and were able to attend his memorial service. We heard some of those old stories again from Bill's friends and more we had never heard before. And we were blessed to meet some of Bill's family we had never known.

It must be that time of life ...

Planting more seeds of disciplemaking

2009-08-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

In our time in Rwanda, I would say that August 'was the month that was.' And the third week of August was the week that was. I think the week-long training workshop in obedience-based disciplemaking had a tremendous impact on at least ninety-five people from 19 countries who met in Kigali, Rwanda.

Sentences like, 'Unbelievers do not want your religion' and '...we don't do personal evangelism...' or 'The two greatest killers of church planting movements are paid pastors and church buildings...' challenged us to the core and forced us to 'unlearn' many of our cherished opinions and practices. The teaching text is the Bible only, not the Bible plus. After the first day of the workshop, Peter Donkor of Ghana said, "I am here for two purposes: 1) to unlearn ineffective practices and 2) to learn a better way.

From the planting of the fresh seeds of disciplemaking the way Jesus taught his disciples, may God by the power of His Spirit bring forth abundant fruit all across the Bright Continent.

You'll be Safe if You are Covered in the Blood

2009-08-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those 'heavy days' among my experiences here in Rwanda. When we have guests and there is enough time, we try to give them feel and and taste of where Rwanda is right now...how the people feel about life, hope and the future. Usually at least one stop is a memorial site. Dottie Schulz and Dale Hawley have been visiting and I took them south of Kigali to the Catholic Church of Nyamata, now an official genocide memorial site.

The dark and dusty blood-stained clothing of thousands of people is still stacked in piles on the pews of this church that would seat perhaps 400-500 people. Nearly 7000 people were slaughtered in this now serene silent sanctuary; another 4000 were killed on the grounds surrounding the building. Thousands of bullet holes riddle the corrugated iron roofing sheets.

Our guide for the tour of the site was Charles, a young man about 23 years of age, who speaks very good English. He began by thanking us for coming to visit Nyamata. He said, 'you have come from far because you understand the value of life, and yet very few Rwandans visit this place to see what happened here.' Charles wanted to tell us part of his story. He said, "Sometimes I cry when I tell my story, but I am not traumatized." Charles was an eight-year-old boy on April 7, 1994 when the killers came to Nyamata Church. He and all of his family had come to find refuge in the church.

Most of the people in the building were killed that day. Others lay mortally wounded or tried to bury themselves among the bodies so as to appear dead. The blood of the dead flowed forward toward the altar and stood in pools. Charles' older brother forced him to lie down and 'sleep in the blood.' "You'll will be safe if you are covered in the blood," he said as he splashed blood over the little boy, who then lay there asleep for hours. The next day the older brother found that their mother, father and Charles' twin brother had all been killed just a few feet away.

Charles showed us the mass underground graves where the remains of thousands of people lay in coffins neatly decorated with flowing fabrics and stacked 12-14 feet high. Most of the remains are unidentified, but Charles showed us the coffins that hold the remains of his parents and other family members.

Before we left Charles thanked us again for coming to pay our respects to the dead and to listen to what happened at Nyamata. And we thanked him for exposing himself again to the many painful memories of his past as he has re-told his story to perhaps hundreds of people over the years.

A Different 4th of July

2009-07-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an interesting and different kind of 4th of July for us. While some of the rest of our team went to the U. S. embassy for the annual luncheon and games there for Americans in Rwanda, Nancy and I attended the Rwanda Liberation Day ceremonies at the national Amahoro Stadium. A friend had given us a special invitation to the celebration. The special program was commemorating the 15th anniversary of Liberation and the ending of the genocide against the Tutsi people. It was quite a moving experience to watch and listen to the singing, the parades of the army and the police, the bands, the national ballet, etc.

For us the highlight of the day was hearing the speeches of those Rwanda was honoring for supporting them during the war to liberate Rwanda and stop the genocide (1990-1994). The honorees included the widow of President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, President Zenawi of Ethiopia and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Some of these were African leaders whom we have heard of and read about for years. It was historic to hear them recount what happened as they helped each other lead their countrymen to break free of the indignities of colonialism and succeeding despotic regimes.

We are really proud of what the Rwandan leaders are doing to stabilize their country, repatriate all Rwandans refugees, put Rwanda on a track for greater prosperity in the future. It will be a long road, but they are determined and we honored to join hands with our friends to make whatever small contribution we can to the task of spiritual and physical reconstruction. It is a time of hope in Rwanda when it seems there is not enough hope to go around in Africa.

An Audience with President Kagame of Rwanda

2009-06-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a very interesting day. Last night we got a call from the leader of a Pepperdine student group who had completed a study course in Uganda and were touring Rwanda. Through some weird connection they had arranged to have an audience with the President of Rwanda and the Minister of Education. Bobby Garner invited Nancy and me to join them for the event.

This morning we met with the Minister of Education, Madame Daphrose Gahakwa at the Heaven restaurant for 'interviews.' We talked about how Pepperdine would like to build a closer relationship with Rwanda. Dr. Gary Selby filled in the minister on some of the desires of Pepperdine to make a difference in the world through its students and its programs.
About noon we moved on to the compound of the president's office. We were seated in the circular cabinet room where each of the inner seats had a microphone. At about 12:45 the president joined us and introductions were made by the Minister of Education. Bobby Garner introduced the group and told of their purpose. Gary Selby then explained the desire of Pepperdine University to become more involved in serving in East Africa to make a difference and in particular to do more in Rwanda. Bobby went on to explain the establishment of Africa Transformation Network and its partnership with Kibogroup who intend to do projects that will assist the people of Rwanda and the region. An example of this is Kibogroup's plan to build a factory in Rwanda to produce MANA (Mother Administered Nutritive Aid) products to help save children from life-threatening malnutrition. Then floor was opened for students and others to ask questions of the president. Some of these were very thoughtful and the answers very enlightening.

At one point I got a chance to remind His Excellency, that Dr. Mike Oneal, president of Oklahoma Christian University had invited me to offer a word of welcome to President Kagame and his entourage on the occasion of his visit to OCU to inaugurate the Presidential Scholar's program for Rwandan students in April 2006. I had been distinctly honored to do so and appreciate that he, the President and his government, in turn, has been very welcoming of those of us who have come to serve the people of Rwanda. I offered to serve as a liaison between our networks in America and the government of Rwanda to make a difference for the nation and people of Rwanda. At this point, the president turned to his minister and said, "You should be working with this man." To which she responded, "I am working with him."

The President went on to say that he was scheduled to be at Oklahoma Christian University to be the commencement speaker for the first class of Rwandans who will be graduating in April, 2010.

The whole group of us were greatly honored that the President gave us a whole hour and a half of his time on what he called his 'day of rest.' The president commented as the meeting came to a conclusion that none of the women had asked any question or made any comment and he did not want to be accused of being 'gender insensitive.' He said, "It is not my fault!" to which there was a hearty round of laughter. Then we adjourned for a photo opportunity and some interviews by the press.
I feel that this meeting really opened the door of opportunity for our Christian schools, universities and other organizations to do significant service in Rwanda. The government here has been very intentional about creating a healthy climate to make this happen, be it business investment or not-for-profit development. It is very purposeful about not allowing a culture of dependency on foreign aid to develop in Rwanda. The government recognizes that it needs partnerships in development in the short term... so that it will not need aid in the longer term. In the time we have lived in Rwanda, Nancy and I have been deeply impressed with the quiet committed determination of the national leadership at all levels to serve the people and overcome the devastating effects of their tragic history. Who will come and join them in their quest to redeem Rwanda?

See also:
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13927&article=16587

Race Across America

2009-06-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

... Well it felt like a race, anyway. From April 14 to June 9 we slept in at least 24 beds, traveled in five states, visited and spoke at three of our four supporting churches, helped to host 6 Africans and 8 future African missionaries at the Pepperdine Bible lectures, collected numerous resources for our ministries in Rwanda, helped to host a Church Planting Movements seminar, did some training with a mission team destined for Angola, networked through conference calls and face to face meetings to promote kingdom work in Africa and Rwanda in particular.

It was especially fun to host our Rwandan colleague, Charles Kabeza, at several churches and Christian Universities. There was great interest in the Xtra Mile Ministry that Charles founded in 2007 and which is now serving 600 genocide orphans in five districts of Rwanda. We are praying that new partners will join in supporting this work that is giving new hope and a future to so many.

Then the last week, the highlight of our time in America, was a family vacation. Our two boys' families live on the same street in Anthem, Arizona and they housed and fed all fifteen of our family. There were outings with the grandchildren, projects with the grandchildren, a trip to the Grand Canyon. And each night after the little ones were in bed, we took the chance to hear in turn each one's life story and to recount the ways we could see in retrospect the marvelous works of God in our family. For Nancy and me it was a time of learning about how children and especially Third Culture Kids experience the world around them as they are growing up. The effect of those times of sharing was to draw all of us together in a deeper, richer relationship as a human family and a part of the family of God. Lord, thank you for this time of life when we learn so much from our kids!

“Covering Kigali With Quilts!”

2009-03-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

The ladies chosen for our pilot project are now into their 6th week together learning the art of traditional piecing and quilting. All eight women are experienced seamstresses already, and some of them have their own businesses either in dress-making or crafts. The idea behind this class is to bring higher value to what they are able to produce, thereby increasing their business potential. We are meeting four days a week and the women are enthusiastic about what they are learning, some arriving early in the day for extra time in making their quilt blocks.
After about the second week, one woman began taking the simple designs home to the tailors who work for her with the idea of producing and selling them right away. Now I think they all understand that these are just the basics we are learning, so that they will have the skills to design something on their own which will be unique and Rwandan in flavor. I call it, American traditional quilts meet beautiful African fabrics. We will use African fabrics to make beautiful wall hangings and other crafts.
Time is set aside every day for sharing what is going on in our lives and reading the Bible and praying together. The group is assisting each other as needs arise and great friendships are being formed around these sewing machines.

Eventually we would like to help with establishing wider markets, since the tourist and local market here is not very extensive. We believe with high quality workmanship and attractive designs, we can make a difference. One of the ladies who manages two crafts shops in town was recently heard saying, “I’m soon going to be covering Kigali with quilts!”

ATN Begins to Touch a Community

2009-02-15T21:06:00.000-08:00

God is bringing together a growing mission/service corps in our part of Kigali, Rwanda: more people, new ideas, fresh energy and greater service in our neighborhood and the nation.
The Xtra Mile Ministry has been reaching out to communities of genocide orphans for more than a year in various districts in different parts of Rwanda. The ministry has become 'family' to many who have no biological family by showing these young folks that they are not forgotten. Last month the Xtra Mile Ministry introduced its Educational Initiative to assist genocide orphans in funding their university education by arranging employment and scholarships for them to go to school part time.

The government of Rwanda has mandated that all primary and secondary school teachers from Grade 1 and up must be able to teach in English beginning in January, 2010. This has produced a huge incentive to learn English, and an opportunity for Africa Transformation Network to assist teachers and other professionals in attaining English proficiency.

This week, under Nancy's direction, ATN unveils a sewing course pilot project aimed ultimately for marginalized women who need sewing and craft-making as well as business skills to develop income-generating small businesses and cooperatives.
By April 1 we plan to begin offering three levels of courses in Computer Training led by Murphy Crowson and small business courses organized and taught by David Kimbrow.

Each of these ministries is designed to attract and empower people who have the potential to impact others in holistic ways; to effect transformation of individuals, families and neighborhoods spiritually, socially and economically in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ. By serving we gain the right to speak.

A water station on the road

2009-01-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday was a big day for us. I got my passport back from Immigration and in it was stamped a work permit, being legal permission to live and work in our 'adopted' country, Rwanda. What an honor to gain this legal status in the land where Nancy and I sensed our call from the Lord to serve here more than five years ago.

It is has been a long journey since we determined this was the direction the Lord was leading us, the formation of a 'board' of missionaries and Rwandans working together to form an entity that could be recognized by the government, the process of application, gaining district registration, finding, remodeling a property, ordering furniture, pushing on to provisional national registration ... and now the first work permit to be issued under Africa Transformation Network. It probably isn't very significant in the overall scheme of things, but it is to us - because it is an indicator of God's strong arm and his faithfulness to us.

As I write, Nancy and I are sitting in the Kigali airport at 4:30 in the morning, waiting for a flight to Zambia, to take a break and to encourage my sister and brother-in-law who seek to serve the people of Zambia, but are facing similar hassles of a bureaucratic nature. Sometimes a break comes at just the right moment, a time to get away from the fray...a water station on the dusty road.

More Reinforcements for the Task

2009-01-02T00:35:00.000-08:00

It was back in November 2005 when four missionary men from Togo came to Rwanda to visit for the first time. They were Murphy Crowson, Marty Koonce, Matt Miller and David Reeves. They came to confirm the sense that God had called them to Rwanda to serve him; and they came to scout out the land. During the course of the time they were in Rwanda they determined that God was calling them to settle in the Muzanze area.

This week, over three years later, two of those men, Murphy and Marty have returned with their families to settle in Rwanda and learn how to relate to and become a blessing to the people of Rwanda. Others will follow when their work in Togo is completed.

Marty and Louise Koonce, Murphy and Christine Crowson and their boys

It is great blessing to have these seasoned and experienced missionary families join the work in Rwanda. They will live in Kigali for some months as they acclimate to the language and culture of Rwanda and complete the processes of gaining legal status as residents, clearing the shipment of their belongings etc. They are welcome reinforcements for the mission task the Lord has for us here.

Arrival of Rwanda 08 Team

2008-12-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

It was a journey that began in July 2006. I received an email titled, 'This Burning in my heart.' It was the story of a boy who as a high student had watched part of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and had never gotten over it. He prayed to God that day that if ever God wanted to him to serve in Rwanda, he would go. The email on my computer glowed with red-hot passion. By phone I suggested we might get together in the next couple of weeks, but that wouldn't do. It had to be ASAP. That Thursday night six people sat with Nancy and me on our living room floor and we watched the Spirit at work as words and tears and prayers and fears flowed.

This week, the boy, now a man and his wife and son and daughter arrived in Rwanda ready to serve. And another man and his wife and son and daughter arrived to work with them.

Chris and Jill and Fred and Tess and... David and Lori and Ian and Lola... walked off a plane... to begin their life in Rwanda.

And then in a few months we expect to see Heath and Rebecca and (as yet unborn) Pete walk off a plane to join them. This is a good day and that will be a better day.

First Attempt on Karisimbi

2008-12-02T02:34:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I experienced my first attempt to scale Karisimbi, Rwanda's highest mountain. Was it too much pie for Thanksgiving? Was it old age? Was it being in too poor physical condition? Was it the wrong season of the year? Probably a combination of all those and more. But Karisimbi wasn't playing around with the ill-prepared? In a word, it 'defeated' me.

Six friends and I took this journey together. The expedition was planned as a spiritual retreat and ended up as a fight for survival. We knew it would be a physical challenge, but there was much more that we didn't know. We didn't know the effect Karisimbi would have on our bodies trying to climb to nearly 15,000 ft. in less than 24 hours, through deep slippery mud, in wind, rain and 40-degree weather and on very limited rations.

How did it compare with Africa's highest mountains? There was no comparison in my experience. I've topped both Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro and neither came close to the bitter struggle of climbing Karisimbi. Will I try it again? Hmmm. I will have to think that one over for quite a while!

Towards a Christian School of Excellence in Rwanda

2008-11-26T00:13:00.000-08:00

Nancy and I were pleased to host a delegation from Greater Atlanta Christian School and Oklahoma Christian University over the past few days. The group's primary purpose was to meet key Rwandan government leaders especially in the field of education and to present a proposal for a school of excellence to help train the next generation of Africa's leaders in Central and East Africa, thus the acronym 'CASE' for Central Africa School of Excellence. At each meeting the GACS/OC group sought the wisdom and advice of Rwandan leaders to help shape the dream to fit the African and Rwandan cultural context and the educational needs of the region.

CASE is designed to be a boarding school with a projected enrollment of up to 2000 students. It will be a 'sister school' to Greater Atlanta Christian School and will feature a teacher and student exchange program to foster both excellent education as well as the forming of lifetime friendships between Africans and Americans. The project would also feature a university-level teacher training college to produce skilled teachers both for CASE and for Rwanda's educational system. A third component of the proposal is an agricultural training program to offer the best in innovative and environmentally-friendly farming methods for Rwanda.

Meeting with the Minister of State for Agriculture

The size of the project is going to require a significant amount of land. So a second purpose of the delegation's visit was to seek the Rwandan government's help in identifying potential sites for the school. Some sites were considered both in the capital, Kigali, as well as in surrounding areas.
The people from GACS/OC were deeply impressed with the dedication and commitment of Rwanda's leaders to sacrificially serve their people and to use all resources at their disposal to overcome their recent tragic history. They were also grateful for the warm welcome they received in Rwanda.

Hosting Harding's HIZ Group

2008-11-15T03:16:00.000-08:00

After two months of study in Zambia, Harding University's HIZ (Harding in Zambia) group arrived in Rwanda by bus for a brief visit and survey trip on Tuesday this week. The group consisted of 22 students and 9 faculty sponsors, mentors and staff. They were hosted by five missionary families and two guesthouses in Kigali.

Their visit included an orientation to Rwanda and tours of schools, churches, hospitals, genocide memorials, the national museum and the national university both in Butare. On the return from Butare they visited the traditional king's palace at Nyanza.

For all 31 in the group except one, this was their first visit to Rwanda. Our hope is that from such groups as these, God will call some to serve in Africa to make a difference in ways that will represent the kingdom of God well.

A Great Send-Off for a Rwanda Mission Team

2008-11-12T03:43:00.000-08:00

It is with great anticipation that Nancy and I await the arrival of what has been dubbed the Rwanda08 mission team. I was privileged to be present at Richland Hills Church of Christ on a Wednesday night two weeks ago for the presentation of all the RHCC missionaries on furlough or about to enter the field for the first time in long-term missions. They were prayed over by Duane Jenks, the minister of missions.

Ten days later, on Harvest weekend, the missionaries were again prayed over as the congregation gave and pledged toward an overall goal of $1,278,000 for missions in 2009. They reached about 80% of their goal that weekend.

Most of the team expect to arrive in Rwanda in early December, 2008, followed three weeks later by two more missionary families who have been serving in West Africa for about 10 years.

Major Milestone for Africa Transformation Network

2008-11-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

One of the main projects we have been working on this year is to register a local non-governmental organization. To obtain a national Certificate of Registration for such an organization is not easy to achieve. But God in his grace, granted this to us yesterday.

This does not mean we have arrived. But it does mean we can begin our service with motivation and with confidence that we are recognized by the government as legal. We are motivated by our desire to serve people but also by the accountability that the Rwandan government expects. What we have been granted is a provisional registration. We will be watched and we will be held accountable for what we committed to do in the objectives and plan of action we submitted.

I have often said lately that of all the nations of Africa I am aware of, only the Rwandan government requires us to do what Jesus commanded us to do and what we have so often failed to do: serve those in need. In Rwanda it is not enough to speak words of truth; we must accompany them with works of compassion ... works that demonstrate the words we say. It is our belief that we will have earned the right to speak when we have offeredserviceto the people of Rwanda.

Please rejoice with us over this major milestone!! And also pray that God will provide the wisdom and human and financial resources needed to stand and deliver what we have committed to do.

District leaders declare ATN officially open!

2008-10-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

It was a quiet, low key, celebration yesterday as community leaders and friends, joined the founding members of Africa Transformation Network to officially open our ministry center in Kicukiro district of Kigali, Rwanda. About 45 people listened to a presentation of the purposes and goals of African Transformation Network and then remained for refreshments and a tour of the facility.

The center will house the offices of ATN and Xtra Mile Ministries. A variety of ministries and projects will be based at the center including blessing our community in Jesus' name though projects for marginalized women, youth and sports programs, outreach to orphans in Kigali and in the provinces and English language courses for school teachers in the district. Early in 2009, it is anticipated that computer training will be also be offered.

ATN now a reality

2008-09-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

We are very happy to announce that yesterday we received a letter stating that Africa Transformation Network has been recognized and granted provisional registration to operate in Kicukiro District of Rwanda.
We praise God for His guidance in this process so far. Now we are pursuing permission to operate at a national level. Please continue praying for us.

Gratitude for God's Protection

2008-08-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

God is been very gracious to me today. Brothers in Togo helped me get a Togo visa extension and a transit visa for Ghana all in one day. They say that is quite rare, but again God intervened to make my trip arrangements work out so that I could get into to Ghana and catch my return flight home tomorrow night.

Then on the way from the Togo border this afternoon on my way toward the Ghana capital of Accra in a little local bus with about 12-15 other passengers, we were passing through a small town at about 60 kilometres an hour when the brakes on the bus failed. The driver, in order avoid hitting a stationary car swerved off the street to the right narrowly missing the car, ran between two large logs just about a car-width apart. The driver maintained controlled of the bus while the front and back right wheels dropped into a drainage ditch. He managed to keep the bus from rolling over and then veered up and out of the ditch. The bus rolled to a halt 150 yards on down the street. No cars, buildings or people were hit and there were no injuries in the bus. It was surreal. Everything happened so fast, no one even screamed. It was as if this was normal driving that happened every day. After repairs were done, we were back on the road in one and half hours.

I cannot remember when I have been this close to being in a car wreck. I was sitting in the right front passenger seat and of course there were no seat-belts in the bus. Thanks be to our merciful God for his protection over what could have been a terrible accident.

Sam

Healers who train healers

2008-07-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

God's timing is always amazing! We just finished lunch and Nancy sent me to the store to buy bread and milk for the fellowship we will have in our home later this afternoon. On the way home, I was saying to myself and to the Lord, I need to find and encourage a medical team that has a vision for this part of Africa. Where do I begin?

So ... I get home and three minutes later I sit down and open a message from Sky whom I have met once. Frankly, this is not where I would have begun. Why? 1. Because I didn't know Sky was a premed student. 2. Because I didn't know Sky had Rwanda on his heart. 3. What I do know is that God knows these things. And at the right time, when it is on my heart, God brings this message from Sky to me. That is very encouraging; praise God for his timing. Who knows what God will do with this.

With all of Africa's health issues, what Africa needs now is not more foreigners who will come and 'practice medicine.' With all due respect to a great man, today is not the day for 'the Dr. Albert Schweitzers' in Africa. Today is the day for healers who will train healers, servant-healers who will invest their knowledge and skills in African people and communities and do this in the name and in the spirit of Jesus.

So Sky ... and Louisa and Brian and Luke and Janice and Theron and Jordan ... let's see who God will raise up for such as time as this.

When Men Pray, God Works

2008-07-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

When we were told by our district officials in Kigali, that we would not be able to register our mission until we actually began our ministry projects, we were jolted into action, mainly prayer action. According to our logic, we were not allow to begin these ministries until we had at least a provisional registration in our hands. Immediately we began looking for a property and soon had two possibilities to consider. Some of our mission group looked at these options and decided that they were not adequate for what we envisioned.

Last Monday I was to leave for a training workshop in Zambia. Before I left Charles, Caleb and I prayer-walked through our neighborhood asking God to show us the property we could use that would bring Him glory! We also brainstormed a little on what we could do to bless the youth of our community. After sometime, we left Charles to continue the search, while Caleb had an assignment and I needed to go home and pack for my trip.

Hours later I was in the Kigali airport waiting to board my flight when I got a call from Caleb. He said that he and Charles were looking at a property they thought would work for us. I suggested they call Nancy and get a third opinion. By the time I arrived in Zambia the next day, Nancy was urgently trying to get in touch with me to get my approval because two other parties were interested in the property. I said, 'I trust the judgment of you who have seen the property; if you think this is God's answer to our prayers, go ahead and make the necessary decisions.' They immediately put down a deposit.

I was so impressed by God's timing. He confirmed our faith; He answered our prayers the same day; He got me out of the way so others could step in and take responsibility for important decisions. The result: ... we all feel greatly blessed and encouraged!

God's Care in the Little Things

2008-07-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

In the last few days we have been reflecting on God's care over His children in the little (and not so little) things. Nancy and I did some traveling stateside in the months of April and May. And we have been counting our blessings of God's protection over our mistakes and misjudgments along the way.

In California we checked into our hotel and then dropped by a local fast food restaurant for a hamburger. Without me knowing it, my wallet containing several hundred dollars and some credit cards fell out of my pocket on to the floor. I didn't miss it until the next morning which was Sunday...church...Bible class...visiting with friends...and then...a race back to the restaurant!! Praise God, the wallet was found; and thank In and Out Burger for its honest employees! Nothing was missing from my wallet!

In Texas, I filled our loaner car with gas...and forgot to replace the gas cap! Duh! We then drove 12-15 miles in city traffic to a friend's house. Guess what...the gas cap was still sitting on the trunk lid of the car!! Now that wasn't my careful driving! Just ask Nancy. No big deal, right? Right. Just His protection in the little things.

In Louisiana we were driving on the freeway on a hot day. We were concerned about our tires that weren't in good condition. On a car just ahead of us we saw a front tire blow out. At freeway speeds this could have caused a major accident, but the driver managed to pull off safely. 30 minutes later we exited the freeway to go to a friend's house and what happens? On a neighborhood street OUR front tire blows out! We are traveling at 20 mph...300 yards from a gas station!!
Praise God for His protection in the little things... that in our life, could have been big things.

Another Step of Faith

2008-06-30T02:43:00.000-07:00

Those of us in Rwanda are seeing God's hand at work in ways we never anticipated and we are blessed to be part of God's purposes for this nation. There is obviously growing support for our application for our mission organization. We have been developing good relationships with officials and their input has been extremely helpful, from the mudugudu (zone), cell, sector and district level offices. We are also having to make changes and do rewrites of some of our documentation to fit the requirements of the different departments. We are making good progress however.

One thing we have become convinced of in the last three weeks of pursuing our Africa Transformation Network registration is this: We will not get the registration approved by our local district until we start work, until we have a physical location of an office and work space and until we demonstrate that we are actually doing what we listed in our plan of action. From the beginning we were under the impression that we needed the registration in order to have permission to begin. But in fact, we must begin in order to secure the registration. So... let the work begin ...

One of the major decisions we made last week was to bring Charles Kabeza on board to work with us full-time as an administrative assistant. He will begin his role with us on July 1. Charles graduated from university last year with a degree in economics. He has recently, on his own initiative with encouragement from some of us, begun a ministry to genocide orphans which demonstrates that he is a man of faith and compassion. (See http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158310~Ministry_to_help_orphans_in_Rwanda ).

A second decision was to find and rent a property to serve as a center from which to work and to house our ATN offices. In addition to what already is being done with Extra Mile ministries, we have the resources to begin two or three of the projects in our plan of action. We need to get those projects up and running as soon as possible.

Personally, I feel both excited and challenged. Decisions that were made in our meeting last week have pushed us to a new level. I believe it is going to take a higher level of commitment and a greater degree of faith for all of us. It is a little like walking on water; we are not sure about the water, but we are sure about the God who called us and is faithful to sustain us.

The budget we formulated and presented to Kicukiro district is for $94,960 in our first year. We only have 30% of the budget raised at present (half of that committed by ATN founding members). But we trust that God will provide the funding that is lacking.

The Call of God to Sudan

2008-05-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

Sudan has suffered through two lengthy civil wars since 1956. In January, 2005 a comprehensive peace agreement was signed to end the Second Sudanese Civil War, develop democratic governance countrywide and set a timetable by which Southern Sudan would have a referendum on its independence. The referendum is scheduled for 2011. The Sudanese people I know have high expectations that national independence will become a reality at that time.

I believe NOW is the time Christians should prepare to serve in 'New Sudan.' There is now a huge need for a holistic approach to meeting the various needs of the people of Sudan. Physical and institutional infrastructure has been severely degraded and millions of people have been displaced as a result of recent wars. Church planting and supporting services are priority, but they must be accompanied by assistance in the fields of health, education, agriculture, trades training and small business training, etc.

Nancy and I hosted day of prayer and planning for missions in Sudan at the Richland Hills Church of Christ in Fort Worth, TX on May 17, 2008. The meeting was attended by 21 people representing teams in formation, Sudanese nationals, leaders of interested supporting churches, missionary candidates and others considering missions in Sudan. The purpose of the meeting was to hear reports on recent missions to Sudan, to share plans for service there and pray the Lord of Harvests to raise up and send forth workers to the fields ready and ripe for the gospel. For more information, contact me at missions@mrnet.org

Disciple-makers are disciples in the making

2008-04-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

My task last week was to teach 22 Zambian Christian school teachers a course on Missions in Africa. George Benson Christian College has been training school teachers for 20 years or so. Of late the Zambian government has not been hiring all of the teachers that the college graduates. So a fund has been set up to provide these teachers a minimal stipend and place them with schools in northern Zambia where there is need for churches to be planted.

When I heard about this my thought was, 'Why not educate some of these teachers in the principles of missions, cross-cultural communication and church planting, then challenge those whom God calls to such work, to become vocational missionaries in nations where English and school teachers are in demand?' This was the goal of my course at Mapepe Bible College near Lusaka.

In telling about mission opportunities I focused on Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sudan. Six or eight of the students showed great interest in these possibilities. Some will attend a church planting movements workshop in July.

Another of God's Surprises

2008-04-12T02:26:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago my sister Claudia and her husband Jerry arrived from the U. S. to visit Nancy and me in Rwanda and then to accompany us to Zambia. Why had they come at this time? It was another of God's many surprises. Claudia said that Jerry, who is retiring this July from more than 30 years of teaching medicine at the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, abruptly said to her one day, "What would you think about us going to work in Zambia for a while?" She was taken aback as he had never indicated any interest in doing such a thing before. Apparently Jerry was thinking about some way to serve others in his retirement years.

Of course, when I heard that they wanted to visit us in Rwanda on their way to doing some fact-finding in Zambia, I immediately hatched a plan to recruit Claudia and Jerry for Rwanda. We set up interviews with individuals in the medical field and various health institutions including the medical school at the National University in Butare and others in Kigali. We toured facilities and asked a lot of questions.

Then we flew to Lusaka, Zambia where Jerry had contacts and appointments with health officials at the University Teaching Hospital there. For two days he worked alongside an ENT doctor (Jerry's specialty) examining patients in clinics in the hospital. Then he was given a strong invitation to join the staff there where he would be able to teach candidates in the field of Ear, Nose and Throat surgery. After comparing opportunities to serve in either Rwanda or in Zambia, Jerry felt that he would actually be able to use his skills and accomplish more by teaching at the University of Zambia. So he decided to accept the invitation.

Nancy and I would have loved to have Jerry and Claudia live near us in Rwanda, but Claudia was born and grew up in Zambia, so perhaps it is fitting that she and Jerry will get to serve the people there again at this stage of their lives. I hope their example of retirees who want to continue using their skills to serve people for a few more years, will inspire others to venture out to the places in the world where opportunities to serve are many and where needs are great!

Jacqueline, tell us who you are!

2008-03-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

The neighborhood clean-up day here once a month provides an opportunity for people to spend a Saturday working on a particular project or simply filling in some holes in the roads. It also gives the Zone Leader a chance to meet with people to assess any problems or needs. Showing up late for our first meeting with shovel and rakes in hand, we found about 60 people gathered on the hillside already finished shoveling but reading out names and taking care of business of the neighborhood. Our arrival was noticed, being the only 'wazungu' (white people) around, and we were given a warm welcome and introduced.

Unknown to us, our neighbor, Eron, had already let it be known that we needed someone to work in the house, and the matter was brought before the Zone Leader at that time. The next day Eron appeared at my door with Jacqueline and informed us that this lady would release me from my broom and dish cloth and allow me to get on with more important tasks, while I would be providing someone employment, a single mom raising four girls, ages 8, 10, 11, and 14.

We learned a little of Jacqueline's story, but only weeks later heard more: that she and her family had escaped to Burundi during the genocide of 1994, and that her husband had fled to the Congo soon after that upheaval, and she has not seen him since. Already a trained teacher, she returned to Kigali after the genocide and managed to get a job with a European NGO and was trained in French tailoring and began teaching orphans and widows how to sew. Unfortunately the project closed because of lack of funds and the Europeans left, but gave Jacqueline a sewing machine and equipment to continue her own tailoring business. She managed to support her girls and pay their school fees while building a reputation for making beautiful traditional dresses for clients as they brought their own fabrics to her. Only recently however, a thief took her sewing machine and all her equipment, and that is why she stepped forward that day at the neighborhood meeting, seeking a job.

No one in our neighborhood could have known that I have had it in my heart for months and even years to help teach skills to women and now older orphans who have been left behind in their education, and that sewing was one of my first dreams to begin with! What was God saying to me by bringing this beautiful lady so skilled in this area to my home? I am sharing this with you as only the beginning of the story. We cannot predict how God will continue His work He has for us.

God's Amazing Work in Rwanda

2008-02-25T01:12:00.001-08:00

Sometimes missionaries like to have fun. Last Saturday we borrowed a couple of kayaks and went down to Lake Muhazi. A very bumpy road and 2 hrs journey-- I think we got on the wrong road, we were told it's a 45 min. drive. Anyway we had a great time. Took a picnic, and I found a good tree to relax under and read a book while everyone else took turns kayaking. As we finished our picnic on an empty lot by the lake, the owner of the lot next to us invited us over to see how he was developing his property. I said a silent prayer that this would be a ‘God-connection.’ We met Emmanuel who could speak English and we mentioned in passing that we were considering looking for a lakeside property we might develop as a youth camp and training center. He said he was a Christian and immediately began casting a vision for exactly what we were thinking of. Emmanuel said he would like to help us look for a site. We are constantly amazed and humbled at the evidence that God has been at work in minds and hearts long before we got here.

In Rwanda, the last Saturday of the month is known as Umuganda (community work) Day. Men and women in a neighborhood gather to work on a community project or clean up the neighborhood. Though this work is not required of non-Rwandans, we find it an opportunity to meet people in our area. Last month they had a organizational meeting after the work and the zone leader whom we had already met asked us to introduce ourselves. After the meeting, we had numerous people introduce themselves to us. They have been so welcoming and helpful to us. At our last U day about 100 people turned out. Our zone leader, Emmanuel, is the export manager for a coffee company here. He organized us into work parties to repair some bad places on a neighborhood street. After greeting me he said, “I have heard that you have worship and prayer in your home. Is it okay if I join you for that.” You can guess my answer! At the end of the meeting Chris and I walked up the hill in a line of people and when we got to our street, a big man introduced himself and welcomed us to the neighborhood. He pointed to his house about 150 metres away and said he would like to have us over for tea soon. He asked us where we were from and when we said the U. S. A., he said, “Oh, my daughter is in the U. S. She is studying at Oklahoma Christian University.” Okay!

2007 Mission to Raja-Boro, Sudan

2007-10-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

It was one of the most complex and faith-stretching experiences I have ever been involved with. It was a mission to serve Darfur refugees in Jesus’ name. One of the greatest challenges was defining where and how the mission could and would take place. Another was coordinating the planning, funding and communications with 22 men from 5 countries, some of whom we didn’t have direct connection with until hours before departure on the mission from Kenya.

While some of our team were gathering in Nairobi from Bangkok, St. Petersburg, Lusaka, Zambia and Accra, Ghana, others were leaving from Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. We all gathered in Nairobi to finalize our documentation to enter South Sudan. On July 17, our team began the journey north in two shifts to arrive on consecutive days at our destination in south-western Sudan where we had heard there were refugees needing help. But we had no ‘hard’ information about the place (other than that the runway was short and the rains were heavy) and no communication with anyone in the area. I felt like we were ‘flying blind.’ So we had a contingency plan to do a quick survey before landing and be prepared to take off for another location if there was a hostile reception in Raja.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people were praying for ‘people of peace’ (Luke 10, Matt. 10) to receive us when we landed. The first group to land were met by the leaders of the town and the county and immediately taken to the offices of the Commissioner of the Raja County. They were introduced, welcomed and assigned a place to camp on the edge of the town of Raja: the compound of the Red Crescent. The ‘green light’ was given the second half of the team to fly in the next day. I was on that second flight and was surprised when I was met by Edward, the acting Commissioner of Raja County who said, “Are you Sam?” When I said yes, he said, “Please your transport is over here.” He immediately bundled us all into two pickups and took us to the county offices. It was hard to believe the warm reception, the cooperativeness, the offers of help, the desire to understand our mission, the provision of bedding and transportation put at our disposal ... all of this, without any advance notice that we were coming!! It was a huge encouragement to all of us. At the same time, it was disappointing that the refugee camp was 63 miles away and by some reports inaccessible by road. We saw serving Darfur refugees as a primary purpose of the mission. How could we possible get there? The first few days in Raja were spent setting up camp, organizing ourselves into teams for different tasks, getting to know the town of Raja, prayer-walking through its streets(?), surveying and serving in local medical facilities and, very importantly, meeting and beginning to build relationships with a stream of people who came by our camp to greet us and find out what our mission was. We also interviewed local U. N. officials, other aid missions, the police, army and local government departments to find how get to and serve in the refugee camp. It was decided that we would need to send out a scouting team to the area to check out the condition of the road and living conditions in the camp.

We sent out our ‘Caleb Corps,’ a team of young men, guides and police guards who made the arduous 5-hour trip to the camp by motorcycle over a rugged forest track through rain and marshes. Their mission was to make a brief survey of the needs in the camp and to determine the feasibility of the larger team getting there and doing something to help the 'internally displaced people' there. The corps arrived there late in the afternoon and checked out conditions and needs in the camp. They surveyed what they thought we could do and what it would take for a larger crew to get there. Because the security situation was unclear, this team of scouts was under orders to return the same day. So the any set off on their return journey about 4:30 p.m. already close to exhaustion from exposure to the tropical sun and physical exertion. They dragged into Raja a little after 9 that night completely worn out but optimistic about what our mission could do.
That weekend we began to plan in earnest for a mission to Boro-Medina. The hospital, the police and the Islamic school in Raja each offered to loan us a vehicle to get to Boro. Our friend, Isaac Suliman, the chief of police arranged an armed guard to accompany us. Our part was to provide fuel for the vehicles and food for the drivers and guards as well as all the supplies we would need.
On the Monday, after many delays and much indecision, we set off for Boro-Medina. It was an arduous four-and-a-half-hour drive. We arrived a couple up hours before dark and immediately went to work setting up camp. Some slept in the camp director's office area, others had tents in the yard.
The next morning Dr. Mike Smith and Glenn Berkey left camp early to set up and organize a medical clinic. Other members of our team served as assistants, interpreters and maintained order in the lines of people. That day more than 500 hundred patients were interviewed, examined and treated. Some of the common diseases were typhoid, tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments and a number of cases of epilepsy. Others of our team did prayer-walks throughout the camp, prayed for mothers and their children. We found that there were few men in the camp. Surveys were made of the local school, available housing, water supplies, airstrip, medical facilities, roads and availability of food. We had previously made arrangements with local World Food Program directors in Raja to help with distributing food supplies to hungry people in the camp. The WFP had a large tent in Boro that was locked. There were food supplies in the tent, but no arrived during our time in Boro to unlock the tent and make food available to the people of the camp. We actually spent on parts of three days at Boro.

The Journey...
In my view, the most important story of our journey was the many small and great acts God did in response to prayers of so many of our friends who were in regular intercession for the mission. As an example, one small act of God that blessed me in a big way was the woman from Gibraltar who sat next to me on our flight from London to Nairobi. As we walked up the jetway in Nairobi, she pulled me aside and asked me to accept a $100 bill for our Sudan mission. Wow! A complete stranger (angel?).

For me personally, the greatest struggle was inside of me; my personal struggle to truly trust God in all this. I had never taken on the responsibility of leading so many (over 20 men including my two sons) from so many places, to such a remote location with so little knowledge about what was there, what the mission would be and whether we could actually even land a plane there.

Two Milestones on the Road to Rwanda

2007-07-01T01:54:00.000-07:00

We are praising the Lord for two major milestones on our road to serving God again in Africa.

These two events took place last Thursday. First we loaded a 40 ft. container with three other families planning to serve in Rwanda. Most of the shipment was books and other supplies for the new mission in Rwanda, but it also included personal effects for the families going. It was a hot and rainy day, but we got the container loaded in about 6 hours.

The second milestone was more important to us personally. For some weeks we have been agonizing over whether to sell our house or make it available to missionaries on furlough on a month to month rental basis. We thought we could leave our house furnished and our furniture in place. Through prayer and advice from others we decided that was not a workable idea, so we put the house on the market. Quite honestly this was a big struggle for me: to liquidate everything again for the fourth time in forty years and to again be homeless. Knowing also that we are in a real estate slump we anticipated that we would likely take a huge loss on the sale or worse yet, get on the plane for Rwanda with an empty, unrented, unsold house on our hands.

A week ago Wednesday night we asked the prayer group we are a part of to pray for a miracle as the house went on the market; to pray for a buyer who wanted the house as much as we needed to sell it. God blessed these prayers and the step of faith! Again this Wednesday night our friends were praying with us for our house to sell. The next day, the fifth day the house was on the market we got two offers for the house, one for the full asking price and the other for $1000 less.

We accepted the latter offer because it is a cash offer and the buyer agreed to delay the closing day until August 13, two weeks after I return from a mission to South Sudan. That will give us time to pack and move out. How gracious and kind our Father is!! Please praise God with us!!

Remembering William Siang'andu

2007-03-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Nancy and I have been joining many others in mourning the loss of William Siang'andu to malaria. William came from humble beginnings and supported his family as a bricklayer and builder. He was educated through the 10th grade and later studied at Manzini Bible School in Swaziland where his potential and vision for ministry in the kingdom was nourished.
William and Eness traveled with us over lake and land last summer for five weeks from Zambia through Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Their purpose on the journey was to learn all they could about how to care for orphans which has become a huge need in much of Africa as a result of war, genocide, AIDS and other diseases. It was a great joy to us to see their vision for ministry grow as a result of their experiences on that journey.
Only weeks ago, William had accepted a position on the staff of Mapepe Bible School where he would have the opportunity to influence many for missions in Zambia and beyond. He fell ill to malaria as he has so many times in the past, before Eness and his children had actually joined him at Mapepe.
I am left to wonder what can be done about one the scourges of Africa: Malaria. How can we continue to prepare soldiers for the battle and then see them fall before they reach their potential to a debilitating disease that is so hard to eradicate, but so easy to control?
For now, we want to say that we join with many others in the family of God in expressing our deepest sympathies in what is a loss for all of us, but especially for Eness and their children. May we not forget to hold up our sister Eness' hands during her time of grieving. Our prayer is that she may somehow be able to carry on with their dream of caring for orphans in the nurture of the Lord, and that God will provide for her in this important ministry.

Doing Something about Darfur

2007-02-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I woke up in the morning with Darfur on my mind. I had recently read a news story that George Clooney had said that the United States ought to do something to ‘Save Darfur.’ Well, I agree, but think about it. Does the United States have any interest in Sudan? Not really. Maybe to prevent some terrorism or to get some oil. But Christians ought to care enough about the genocide going on there to care and to do something.
Let me go back a few years... to 1994. I was teaching at the Nairobi Great Commission School and hell was happening in Rwanda. I went to interdenominational meetings to discuss how we should respond to the horror in Rwanda. Ken Bolden and I talked with our faculty about what we ought to do. Should we shut down the school and take our students to Rwanda or Tanzania and help in the refugee camps? Well, in the end we did nothing. I have regretted that decision for a long time.
And now there is genocide in Darfur. There are Arab Muslims killing, raping and burning the villages of Muslims who are black. Can Christians stand by and do nothing about this? How am I going to feel 12 years from now if we do nothing? Of course, it's not about me or how I feel. It is about the NAME ... the Name we wear. What would Jesus do?
I proposed going into the area with multiple small teams prepared and accompanied by experienced spiritual mentors late this summer. The purpose would be two-fold: 1) to serve the suffering by demonstrating Jesus' compassion, and 2) to learn and teach what it means for African and western Christians to work together in a context of suffering, servanthood, submission and simplicity with Spirit-led lives. These teams would arrive at different times overlapping with others, would devote a minimum of 10 days in the area, be prepared for unpredictable circumstances and rough conditions, and would work under the supervision and planning of local leaders. More to come ...

I Choose to Suffer

2007-01-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

On January 16th, the Jinja, Uganda mission team experienced a tragic loss when Adam Langford and Moses Kimeze, died as a result of a vehicle accident. They and their driver were hauling coffee beans from Mt. Elgon for the redemptive business at the Source Café, when the vehicle lost
control and rolled 50 meters down a steep slope before hitting a tree. Witnesses arrived at the truck moments later and found Adam's body near the vehicle-he most likely died instantly in the crash. Moses, a young church leader and director of the Source Café, died a few hours later in a nearby hospital. We covet and seek your prayers in this overwhelming loss. Pray that God’s presence will be among Adam’s family, friends, and team in their grief and as they travel to be together. Pray that God’s presence and provision will be with Moses’ family and the many people his life touched, but especially his wife Irene and three children – Rachel, Tyler, and Zach.

"... we need more people who are willing to enter into the suffering of others whether they can help or not. I ... choose to suffer for the sake of others." - from Adam Langford’s last blog entry.

Adam’s body was returned to the United States accompanied by the whole Jinja mission team. Meanwhile, former Jinja missionaries, John Barton and Mark Moore flew to Uganda to comfort Moses’ family and to attend his funeral with the Christians there.
I was among those blessed to attend Adam’s funeral in Oklahoma, to meet the family and to celebrate a life well-lived. It was obvious that Adam had made a difference in people’s lives wherever he lived. My thought now is, “Where are the young men like Adam and Moses, men of integrity and passion, who will step up and take their places? Who will live lives of service with a readiness to suffer for others, so that our friends may not have died in vain?” Moses and Adam made their choice. What will you choose?

We Can Do it Too!

2006-06-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

One of the most vision-expanding experiences for those traveling with us this summer was to see Kenyan missionaries at work in Tanzania. They were active in ministries that include both urban and rural church planting, World Bible School follow-up, a weekly radio broadcast and a vision for a Christian school, to name a few. It dawned on our team, “Hey, we can do this too!”
When the team returned to Zambia they reported the highlights of our trip to the national annual lectureship. The enthusiastic response was, “Okay, how can we get involved?’

Significant Quote “On this trip you have come with the Shewmakers. Next time I want you to come with your fellow-Zambian missionaries.” – Tim Talley, missionary to Tanga, Tanzania.

God has Wowed us Again!

2006-06-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

Whenever Nancy and I make such a trip it is full of many imponderables and questions all along the way. We always have to pray for people of peace who will receive us or treat us kindly, give us advice, introduce us where necessary and show us around their area. We asked you to join us in praying for these blessings and it has been a joy to see God at work making provision for us in marvelous and unpredictable ways with many surprises. He has wowed us again!

In the last two weeks we have traveled with our Zambian friends to the north of Zambia by bus. There we boarded the Marine Vessel Liemba, a ship on Lake Tanganyika for the 4-day, five hundred mile journey to Bujumbura in Burundi. On board we learned that our ship would not travel all the way and we would have to stop off in Kigoma, in Tanzania overnight and look for another ship. In the harbor, we ran into the first engineer of the Bwiza. He offered us passage on his small cargo vessel, a sixteen hour run to Bujumbura.

In each of the new countries we traveled, we had to deal with new and unfamiliar languages, customs and currencies. Finding accommodation, changing money, negotiating transportation arrangements around the towns all had to be worked out through tedious attempts at (and breakdowns of) communication.

As one of many examples of God's provision of unlikely and unknowing angels, we found a young man named Cyprien checking his email in an internet cafe the day after we arrived in Buja. He had lived and studied in Canada for 14 years and had his own software company. When he noticed that we spoke English he immediately introduced himself, began translating for us and assisting us toward our goals in other ways. He borrowed his sister's car and became our driver for the next two days, introducing us to religious leaders and officials that helped us learn about missions needs and opportunities in the Burundi, even advising us on evangelistic strategy for planting churches though he did not claim to be a Christian himself. By the end of our three days in Burundi we had people calling us and coming to where we were staying to visit with us, including someone from the university and another from the ministry of finance, encouraging us to send people to serve in that nation. The timing of our visit there came just after the signingof a peace agreement that many are very hopeful will signal the end of a 12-year ethnic conflict.

Your partnership in prayer is vital to the success of what we are doing this month. The development of our mission here in Rwanda is unique in my experience in Africa. In less than one year, God has provided a legal registration and local governments around the capital of Kigali are offering us land for churches and other ministry development. The government estimates the cost of this land at under $1000 an acre even in strategic locations in the city. All this has occurred before even one church has been planted by our people. Praise God for his provision and grace!

Leaving from Lusaka

2006-06-06T17:06:00.000-07:00

Nancy and I are in Lusaka, Zambia gathering our team for an overland mission journey into the heart of Africa. Praise the Lord that on Friday he provided the passports for the Zambian brother and sister that were lacking them.

Our plan is to take a bus to Zambia's port town on Lake Tanganyika (the longest and second deepest lake in the world). We should board ship this on Friday afternoon and reach Kigoma, Tanzania on Sunday morning. There we will survey the town and district for mission possibilities and then find land transportation if possible to Bujumbura in Burundi. We have no missionaries in Burundi, so we will survey the prospects for one or two teams to enter that country. From there we will take a bus to Kigali, Rwanda.

Please pray for 'men of peace' (Luke 10) along the way to be advocates and guides for us in places where none of us know the languages or the laws and conditions in the countries we are going for the first time.

Pray that God will give us 'spiritual eyes' to see the realities and needs that call for the mission of God in those places and in the hearts of the people we meet.

Some of you have been aware that we have to been planning and praying that we would be able to accompany three prospective missionaries, Nathan Holland and Danny and Katie Reese on a survey trip in Angola this summer. God's answer to all these prayers for the Shewmakers is: Not Now! We have run out of time waiting on the necessary documents from Angola.

However, we would request that you keep praying that the door will open for the others to get their visas. They have a plan B that will allow them to leave two weeks later and we are praying that God will open that door of opportunity.

Rwanda's President Kagame visits Oklahoma Christian

2006-05-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

Christian Chronicle

BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD Tall, slender and unassuming, Rwandan President Paul Kagame spoke softly about rebuilding his country and investing in its key assets — the Rwandan people — during a recent visit to Oklahoma Christian University.

It was hard to envision Kagame, 48, as a military commander who served in a revolutionary army in Uganda and later led the Rwandan Patriotic Front to end the 1994 genocide in his home country.

But Oklahoma Christian President Mike O’Neal compared Kagame to liberators such as George Washington and pledged his school’s support of Rwanda’s education goals.

“This is a family of faith,” O’Neal told Kagame after a question-and-answer session with the school’s students, faculty and visitors from other states and the United Kingdom. “We want to be your friends and brothers, as we are all God’s children.”

This fall the Oklahoma Christian will provide five full scholarships for Rwandan students, on the condition that they return home after graduation to help their country. The university plans to add two scholarships each year until the total reaches 11 students and will offer additional half-tuition scholarships for Rwandans.

Kagame thanked the school for its decision to “actively support our drive toward our vision.”

“Oklahoma Christian is an institution known for academic excellence, anchored in Christian faith ... and service to its students,” he said.

Kagame, who won a landslide victory in 2003 to become Rwanda’s first democratically elected president since the genocide, visited the 2,000-student school after attending an education conference in Montreal, Quebec. Kagame accompanied his wife, Jeannette, Rwandan ambassador to the U.S. Dr. Zac Nsenga and a number of cabinet members from the African nation.

The president answered questions from students about how Rwanda is promoting unity after the devastating, ethnically charged genocide that claimed an estimated 800,000 lives 12 years ago. Kagame’s government has attempted to redraw lines of political districts and downplay the distinction between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis that sparked the conflict.

One student asked what steps the president has taken to avoid the corruption that plagues other African nations. Kagame said that Rwandan law now requires everyone — including the president — to disclose their income and its sources.

"Corruption has been a very serious problem in countries on my continent," he said. "It has hindered economic development in other countries and we recognize that."

After speaking at a luncheon and receiving an honorary degree from the school, Kagame addressed a joint session of the Oklahoma Legislature and met with the state’s governor. Gary Bishop, president of church-supported World Bible Translation Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and his wife Donna presented Kagame and the First Lady with embossed Bibles.

Kagame said he chose the school as a stop during his visit to North America at the invitation of O'Neal, who visited Rwanda in November 2004.

Richard Lawson, an Oklahoma Christian graduate and founder of St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software Inc., and his wife, Pat, made initial contact with the Rwandan government and invited O’Neal and his wife, Nancy. Dave Jenkins, then a visiting missionary at the school, joined the group.

Jenkins now serves as the first full-time missionary from Churches of Christ to Rwanda. From his home in the capital, Kigali, he read reports of the visit in Rwandan newspapers. “The Lord is doing something far beyond what any of us could anticipate,” he said in an e-mail message from the African country.

In the summer of 2005, 12 students worked as a mission team to Rwanda. Six more students will travel there this summer, accompanied by Oklahoma Christian faculty members Bryan and Holly Hixson. David Johnson, a faculty member at Faulkner University, Montgomery, Ala., and his wife, Marlea, will teach in Kigali this summer. Kyle and Luz Beard plan to move to Rwanda as missionaries later this year.

Sam Shewmaker, longtime missionary to Africa and facilitator for African church planting for Missions Resource Network in Bedford, Texas, offered Kagame “a belated — though deeply felt — apology that the government of the United States did not come to the aid of the people of Rwanda in their darkest hour.”
“This fact is a stain on our national honor for which we are deeply sorry,” said Shewmaker, who has visited Rwanda and plans to assist church members in future mission work there.

“We look forward to a harmonious working relationship with Rwanda that expresses Christ’s spirit of compassion and service,” he said.

The Rwandan president said that he hopes the scholarship program will be the first step in ongoing cultural exchanges between the Christian school and his country.

“We in Rwanda value these continuing contributions,” he said. “We trust that this is only the beginning of the road that we are to travel together.”

Prayer and fasting for work in Mozambique

2005-03-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

Christian Chronicle, March 2005
Church members pray, fast for work in Mozambique
By Erik Tryggestad

On March 15 church members in Africa and the United States participated in a Day of Prayer and Fasting for missionaries in Mozambique who were instructed to leave their homes by government officials in mid-2004.
“We want to make this a special day ... where we all focus on the Makua team and their push for official permission to move back to their home in Montepuez,” said Sam Shewmaker, a missions professor at Harding University, Searcy, Ark., who has served as the team's mentor.
March 15 marked the second anniversary of the Mozambique Mission Team's departure for Portugal, where team members spent nine months in language training before moving to the southern African country.
The group chose the city of Montepuez, in northern Mozambique, as its mission point. No missionaries for churches of Christ work in the area, and the majority of the Makua-Metto people who live in the area practice a mix of traditional religions and Islam, team members said.
The missionaries moved to Montepuez in March 2004, but in June - due to political tensions in the area - the provincial government of Cabo Delgado asked them to leave and wait in a neighboring province until granted approval to return.
Two of the team's families - Kyle and Ginger Holton and Rusty and Ann Caldwell - moved to the Niassa Province to work among the Yao people. The remaining four families have been working in Nampula and Maputo while negotiating with government officials to return to Montepuez.
“We still feel a strong call to work among the Makua-Metto people and desire to return as soon as possible,” team member Alan Howell said, “but we don't want to keep pushing for a return if it looks like it will be a dead end, though all of our interactions lately with the government have been encouraging.”
The Donelson church, Nashville, Tenn., sponsors Howell and his wife, Rachel. Other Makua team members are: Aaron and Mika Roland, sponsored by the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, church; Jeremy and Martha Smith, sponsored by the Pleasant Valley church, Little Rock, Ark.; and Chad and Amy Westerholm, sponsored by the Cordova Community church, Cordova, Tenn.
“We are very expectant of an answer from the Lord ... that will open the way for the missionaries to return to their homes in Montepuez among the Makua people,” Shewmaker said.

We Will Not Forget

2004-05-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Christian Chronicle, May 2004 » Missionaries move toward open doors in Sudan, Angola
By Erik Tryggestad

After seeing the overflowing refugee camps and under-stocked hospital in Nimule, Sudan, a group of visiting church members and their Sudanese hosts climbed a nearby hill and raised a stone altar — a pledge that they would not forget.
“We prayed that God would bring us or some of our people back to that land to serve and advance the kingdom of God,” said Sam Shewmaker, missionary in residence at Harding University, Searcy, Ark., who led the survey trip in summer 2003.
One year later, missionaries and medical supplies are on their way to the east African country, which is recovering from 17 years of civil war between the Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.
Church members also plan to enter Angola, in southwest Africa, after a 27-year internal conflict ravaged the country.
In early 2004 Michael Campbell, president of Harding’s student government, rallied missions-minded students to help raise $17,000 for a 40-foot container of medical supplies for the Nimule hospital, just north of Sudan’s border with Uganda.
The students partnered with relief ministry Healing Hands International and the Mbale, Uganda, mission team to make the delivery. “Our hope is that this gesture of goodwill and compassion will serve to build rapport with local officials and open the door to a new mission in Sudan,” Shewmaker told the Chronicle.

Earlier this year, the Mbale team selected Kenyan church members Kennedy Obura and David Bikokwa as missionaries to Sudan. The two men and their families plan to move to Sudan this summer, where they will “preach and evangelize ... establish a mission compound and Bible school ... mobilize interested Christians, and start English classes for government officials,” said Mbale team member Shawn Tyler.
The church in Kapkoi, Kenya, where Bikokwa has preached for two years, had a send-off for the missionary and his wife, Anne, in mid-March. Mbale team member Phillip Shero said it reminded him of the send-off he received before he left for Uganda. Shero spoke about the challenges the pioneering couple will face — including different languages and customs.
“It felt strange to warn their bright faces of the hardships that will come. But it was also exhilarating,” Shero said.

The Summer of 2003

2004-02-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

As think over one a part of the Summer of 2003, I remember arriving in Nimule, Sudan in a little MAF single engine plane. We had a prayer on the landing strip and I got a photo of Kevin Shelby in the prayer huddle with one eye closed and the other on the guys holding the AK47s in their hands. It was a particularly scary time for some of us. The first two nights we spent a lot of time in prayer and then about 10 p.m. on the second night, Chad said, "It's over. My fear is gone. I'm okay."

In a couple of days, Chad was saying that he was interested in making the trip to West Africa with us. I said, "Chad, you have at least five barriers to pass through. You don't have the airfare and you don't have visas for the four countries we are going to. Can you trust God for them?"

Rwanda Saga 2003

2003-08-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

It was Friday, the 13th of June, 2003. This was my second trip to Rwanda. I had been there just three months before the genocide rampage broke out in 1994. Driving in from the airport, we had seen the barricades blocking off parts of the city as the U. N. peacekeepers escorted the rebel leaders into the capital city in an attempt to form a government of national unity.

Now, nine years later...

we were back with a group of 22 missionaries, Rwandans and mission interns on a survey trip of Rwanda, a small nation in the ‘great lakes’ region of central Africa. That first night, my roommate, Bryan Harrison, and I invited two Rwandan brethren who were with our group to join us in our room for prayer. Hearing their prayers and cries to the Lord for their countrymen really touched me deeply. They poured out their hearts in grief for loved ones lost in the genocide. One brother said, “O Lord, you know how much I love anyone who loves my country and my people.” He went on to pray that God would send evangelists with the good news for his people.

The next morning, before we had really seen any of the horror of Rwanda, I awoke very early with tears and weeping for the nation. Specifically on my heart were the different young interns who were with us. Who among them would God call to this place in the dark heart of Africa? I prayed for all of them individually.

We began that day with a trip to one of the genocide memorial sites. It is a small country church where it is said that 5000 people were slaughtered. Much of the carnage and personal belongings are still lying on the floor between the low concrete pews as it has lain for nine years. It is a silent, stunning, horrific experience to observe a comb here, a shoe there, a pillow here, among the piles of bones. A man and a woman are there as caretakers of the memorial and to tell their stories. One had lost 12 family members and the other 18 family members in the holocaust of 1994. They told their stories and answered our questions. Tears … groans … sobs … prayers … each of us alone in silent contemplation.

That afternoon, Justin took us to the home of his wife’s relatives in Kigali. They had recently returned from exile abroad. They served us tea and engaged us in conversation about the tentative hope for the future of Rwanda.

Several of us then went up on to a mountain overlooking the city of Kigali. There we prayed for the city, that God would raise up a team of his choosing to come and do kingdom ministry in this city. I had met Justin Rudaswinga at an Africans Claiming Africa conference in Zimbabwe in 1997. One of the goals that had come out of that conference was the targeting and planting of churches in six major capital cities of Africa. Kigali was one of those cities. In the intervening time Justin had corresponded with me and urged me to help raise up a team of missionaries for that nation. On this afternoon, we were here with this man who had been interceding for his people for these six years. In our prayer time on that mountain, we laid hands on Justin, we anointed him with oil and commissioned him as ‘Chief Intercessor’ for the city of Kigali (pronounced Chigali) until God should raise up a mission team from among our people to join the spiritual battle for Kigali and the nation.

The following morning, I awoke weeping again. It seemed the Spirit was downloading a long list of ministries needed in this land. My mind and heart reeled with thoughts and feelings, connecting the needs I had seen with people, spiritual gifts and ministries I knew or knew of, that could be brought to bear in mission on the people of Rwanda. Among these was a national team of church planters who believe in and build a holistic approach to mission that would include counseling healing, educational and other forms of benevolent ministry that take seriously the whole person and whole communities. The vision that developed in my mind as I lay there in my bed was of a Great Tower of Light shining like a great beacon or lighthouse, reaching way beyond that dark land to the other nations of the 'Great lakes’ region of Africa.

That day was Sunday and we met with the mother church of an indigenous church movement begun since the genocide, known as the Evangelical Restoration Church. The movement consists of about 12,000 members in 35 congregations throughout Rwanda. The pastors of this church of several thousand members graciously granted us an interview. To me the clearest point and spirit of the hour we spent with them was the importance of Christian unity. They said, “If God calls you to this country, we will work with you.”

After that interview, we were hosted in the home of a relative of one of the Rwandan brethren in our group. This young man and his family prepared a meal for a group of about 14 of us who sat around his front yard sharing his hospitality. The young man spoke English, but had written out a prepared statement of welcome apparently because he couldn’t trust himself to speak the words without breaking down in front of us. In his statement, read by his cousin, he said, “… we used to meet like this and have fellowship among our friends and family, but we have not done it since [the genocide] because we do not know who we can trust.” My heart cried, “I know Someone you can trust!!”

That day God was working me over. That night I could no longer keep it in. I had to share with our group what was going on inside me. It was hard because the other half of me wasnÂ’t there to share what I was experiencing. Everything I felt and said had to be tempered with that fact. As I recall, I said to the group, “I cannot make a categorical commitment because Nancy is not here, but for myself, if God is calling me to this land to serve him here, I am willing to come.”

Early on Monday morning I awoke again in prayer and tears. Now God was presenting me with a personal challenge. In mind was a two-column blank sheet, the left side was headed, the ‘Pros’ of Sam Shewmaker serving in Rwanda; the right side was headed the ‘Cons.’ The ‘cons’ was a short list. One of the cons was ‘age.’ Could a person my age do this? Would it work for an older couple to team up with a young mission team? I had never seen a mission team diverse in age that worked well!!

But the Pros were many. Learn French? I had had French in high school and college. I could learn to speak it. Learn Kinyarwanda? Reputed to be one of the toughest Bantu languages for English speakers. I had learned one Bantu language; I believed I could learn another. Unrealistic or not, the spirit of Caleb was kicking in! (Josh. 14:10, 11). A committed, willing wife, check. Passion, check. A willing heart, check. Experience, well I had been there, I had seen it, I had smelled it. Who else would commit if those who had experienced it would not? But all of this was not really the point. It is God’s mission. If He was calling me to join Him in His mission in Rwanda, that was the point. Would I obey or not?

On Monday morning, eight of us walked in groups all over the uptown section of Kigali on a prayer-walk. We prayed for the streets and buildings that represented people for whom Christ died. We prayed for the marketplaces and the children. We could hear echoes of God’s concern for another ‘great city’ and of Jesus’ lament for Jerusalem. What happened on our Rwanda trip after Kigali was, for me, anticlimactic.

Big Crowds Expected for Jabulani

2002-06-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Christian Chronicle, June 2002 » Big crowds expected for Jabulani
By Erik Tryggestad

A late July celebration of Africa evangelism will include an appeal to send more Bibles to the ever-growing number of Christians there.
The World Bible Translation Center, overseen by the Richland Hills church, Fort Worth, Texas, will launch another 'Bibles for Africa' project through churches of Christ at Jabulani Africa July 31-Aug.4, said spokesman Roger Massey. The Center, which will be featured on a tour during the Jabulani, provides easy-to-read Bibles worldwide, and distributed 600,000 Bibles in Africa in 2001.
Jabulani coordinator Sam Shewmaker was moving at a frantic pace in June, making arrangements for more than 100 Africans who are planning or hoping to attend. More than 50 of these African Christians and evangelists are on the program for the conference at the Richland Hills church. Africans representing 22 different countries are expected to attend, said Shewmaker, coordinating the event with veteran missionary Wendell Broom.
'Several congregations in north Tarrant County are cooperating to host our African guests ... provide transportation to meet their flights and give them tours of Christian ministries in the area,' Shewmaker said. 'We are expecting Christians from all over the (Dallas/Fort Worth) area to join us at Birdville Stadium for the Sunday morning worship and closing ceremonies ...'
Several area churches are considering joining Richland Hills’ 5,000-plus members by moving their Sunday morning services to the stadium, which seats 12,000, Shewmaker said. A 'Parade of the Nations' multicultural worship service will be part of the event. Childcare will be available for children ages 3 to 8.
'Pre-registration is now at about 400 and climbing fast,' Shewmaker said. Attendees may pre-register online or by calling (501) 279-4058.
'This will help us in planning and logistics,' Shewmaker said. 'But walk-ins will also be welcome.'