Day 8 - Aftrican Leadership Conference

What an incredible day!  Mitch woke up at 2:30 and felt the Lord telling him to scratch all the material he had prepared for the Leadership training, and just speak from experience.  God gave him 12 Leadership principles that he jotted down (with Scripture) and The Spirit would do the rest.  It's funny how we can prepare and think we will do one thing and then God can give us HIS Plan.  It will be difficult to explain the blessing of this day!

Breakfast was at 8:00 this morning because Pastor William was picking us up at 8:45 for a 9:00 start time for the teaching.  We have come to learn that time is different here in Africa.  When we came down for breakfast, Anne & Lee were waiting and we found out that Lee had been up all night with some kind of stomach issue.........he would not be going with us to the conference, but staying at the hotel.  This was disappointing for us and heartbreaking for Lee.  We were grateful, however to be at the hotel and not on the road with limited access to a bed and bathroom.  We just prayed that God would heal him quickly and he went up to the room to rest.

Pastor William arrived at the hotel at about 9:45 and we were beginning to think perhaps there was a miscommunication with "WHO" was picking us up.  Apparently, he had an emergency at his church that he needed to tend to, so he came as soon as he could.  His wife Mary was in the car with him, as the wives were invited to join us at this Conference.
 
Jami with Mary (Pastor William's Wife)

When we arrived, worship had been going on since 9:00 and we were able to join in!  Anne and I decided to sit with the ladies (on the right side of the church).  The men sat on the left side.  Most of the men were comprised of students from the school.  There were also a few pastors, and their wives, and then other women that might have served in the church in various capacities.  Mitch was seated up front with the Pastors.

Hopefully, I can give you a small sample of the teaching so you can feel like you were a part of the day!

Mitch began a with a basic statement that Church Planting is all about training and equipping others...in other words, EVERYONE doing their part in the body.  That's why leadership is so important!  His whole teaching encompassed the principle and Scripture of The Great Commandment (Matt. 22:14) Discipleship - Loving God (Vertical) and Loving Others (Horizontal) and the importance of the quality of the latter being dependent on the strength of the former and The Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) Jesus commandment and charge for us - GO, Make Disciples, Baptizing, & Teaching.  The style of teaching Mitch used was perfect!  He would teach, Pastor James would interpret, and then Mitch would ask for questions.  At first, the leaders were timid and quiet.  But, as the morning went on, they warmed up and asked many questions!  It was neat to watch. 


Out of the 12 principles Mitch brought to share with the leaders, he taught on 4! 

Principle 1 - Followership
Matthew 4:18-20 - This is the principle, to be a great leader, you have to first be a good follower!

Principle 2 - Living under Authority
Matthew 8:5-10 - To lead with authority, you have to live under authority!

Principle 3 - Reproduction
II Timothy 2:1-2 - Generational discipleship means disciples reproduce disciples.

Principle 4 - Convict-ability
II Samuel 12:1 and Psalm 51 - Leaders whose hearts are soft toward God, own their sin and are quick to repent of it.



I was surprised at the depth of knowledge from the students AND even the women.  It's obvious these beautiful people study their bibles and are serious about their faith!  The daughter of Pastor James (13 years old) even stood a couple of times and spoke from the book of Ezekiel....impressive!  Who studies that book??  :)

At one point, Mitch asked how many wanted to be a "Senior or Lead" Pastor.  I was amazed to see the woman behind me raise her hand (very cautiously).  She would stand and ask questions and I could tell that was hard for her because that's not common or even acceptable in this culture.  I know God is going to use her in mighty ways!  She has been "called" and He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it! (Philippians 1:6)

We broke for lunch and Anne, Mitch and I went to Pastor Steve's house.  His wife, Paulina prepared a wonderful meal and we had sweet fellowship there.  What a beautiful, gracious woman with incredible hospitality!

After lunch, worship began with just the music. Then, 2 men came forward to dance, and lastly, a woman came from behind us to sing and lead.  It was amazing!

 

I love the how many aspects of the day were spontaneous.  As the Spirit moves, so does His people! 

Later in the afternoon, the woman who led the song in the video gave testimony of how her father was a witch doctor.  He had 4 wives and she was the daughter of his 3rd wife.  She spoke of how God saved her family of this generational sin and how out of the 16 children, 13 are believers including one of her brothers who is currently a Pastor.  AMAZING!

The day ended with a time of prayer for our team.  We stood in the front of the church and the leaders laid hands on us.  They prayed out loud, all together in many different languages.  Some in English, some in their own language.  We felt the blessing of God and love from His people!  I thought it was cute that the leaders said they would like to have Mitch back next year for a 2 or 3 day conference!

We were able to take a group picture afterwards and Anne and I handed out our "gifts" to the women.  Thankfully, Mary (William's wife) could interpret for us so the women had some understanding of what we gave them (tea, coffee, and a book mark for their Bibles). 

I felt led to give Mary (the woman called to be a Pastor) my cross necklace and told her I would be praying for her and her husband, Job.  You can imagine how hard it will be for this woman to become a Pastor in this culture (we don't even have that many women Pastors in ours).  I believe it will happen, though.  God will use whom He chooses to accomplish His mission! God equips  those He calls!



We exchanged warm greetings with the people and then we were on our way back to the hotel to check on Lee.  Praise God he was much better when we arrived!  He was able to sleep off whatever bug he had and we could catch him up with our day. 

We will be leaving tomorrow for 3 days to go on Safari.  I don't know if I will have any Wi-Fi, so we might be off-line for a while.  We appreciate your love through prayers (and comments through the blog) while we are here!  It's been amazing so far, and we still have another week to go...... wonder what God has planned for us next?!  Love you all...........Jami