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

Thoughts from Anne

At the end of our first week here, I am at a loss for words. (Imagine that!!).  Jami has done such a wonderful job of sharing our thoughts and pictures, I have decided to take a different path.    
        
God's Other World - Tanzania and Kenya

The Beauty:
Mt. Kilimanjaro, lush green tropical areas, acacia trees, manicured gardens, morning glories, multicolored bougainvillea, God's animal world.     

God's paint brush and color pallet has been here.

The Unexpected:
cell phones and motorcycles everywhere, modern gas stations - "a thousand cars here and gas prices at $7.00 a gallon", cornfields and sunflowers (seeds made into cooking oil), overwhelming number of small Christian churches, herds of
cattle and goats along the highways and remote bush areas, extreme cultural differences, unbelievable numbers of out door markets, bags of homemade charcoal for sale stacked along the roads.

The People:
warm, friendly, welcoming, beautiful, smiling, fearful eyes, many cultures - Muslims, Maasai and different African tribes, each displaying their traditional garb and life styles.

Sight's That Touch One's Soul:
extreme poverty, living conditions, a sign reading "Tanzania for Tanzania Wealth of the world", babies carried on mothers backs for warmth and comfort, small children's laughter and innocence.. people with so little being so grateful.

Mile after mile of slum like conditions, heavy auto traffic, hundreds and hundreds of pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, outside markets, woman carrying wares on their heads, children following after....

This is God's other world, and HE IS HERE.

Day 7 - Havin Some Church up in Here

Sunday greetings from Arusha!  Fantastic day today as we were able to visit 2 churches and bring them some New Harvest love! 

We were picked up early (6:45am) this morning by Pastor William Msuya from the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church. (Yep, Mitch going back to his roots!)  He took us across town to the church he pastors.  What a delightful man with a sweet spirit!  When we arrived, church had already started........worship that is!  We entered the building and took our places in the front row. 
 

Mitch with Pastor William

We were really trusting God to bring us an interpreter who could speak good English and worked well with Mitch.  It's very different preaching with an interpreter.  GOD CAME THROUGH!  Pastor James Kesanta worked with Mitch and did a fabulous job giving the people Mitch's message in their native tongue, Swahili. 
 






Mitch encouraged the church with message of finding God's purpose in their lower story to fulfill His upper story.  If you have been attending New Harvest, this isn't a new concept!  It was received wonderfully and really impacted Pastor James and led to some wonderful post-church conversation!

 

What a blessing to be a part of people who worship with their whole body! 

 

After church, we went to Pastor William's home where his wife, Mary had a wonderful meal for us.  We shared some African tea (with milk & sugar), a peanut butter sandwich, avocado, hard boiled egg, sausage (aka hot dog), and banana.  Their hospitality was so beautiful! 

 

 

Afterwards, we got in the car and traveled to our 2nd house of worship -  Njiro Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church.  Pastor Steve Gobrey greeted us and took us inside.

 

 

 

 

 

Mitch, Pastor James (Interpreter) & Pastor Steve

 

Once again, AMAZING!  This church had a very young feel to it!  The worship team was made up of teenagers, including the keyboard player and bass player.  We heard from the kid's choir, and the teenagers.  It was so encouraging to see the YOUTH leading the charge!!  Before we got there, they did worship that consisted of HYMNS so the people were getting a great taste of all generations!  I was very impressed with the 1st row of kids under the age of 5!  They had to be at church for at least 3 hours.  They were SO well behaved and absolutely adorable!

 

 

I hope these videos give you a good taste of the incredible morning we had!  I picked up a few good moves from the younger kids and Mitch can dance with the best of them.  Anne was movin and a shakin AND even Lee was tapping his toes!  There's something so refreshing about freedom in worship! 

After the worship service, we went to Pastor Steve's home where his wife, Paulina prepared a wonderful meal for us!  The food is never ending here!  We had beef stew over rice, spinach, watermelon, bananas, oranges, and avocado.  Again, wonderful hospitality! 

Pastor William then came to pick us up and off to the hotel we went.  Tomorrow, Mitch is leading a Leadership Conference at that church for all the church leaders in the area.  We are looking forward to seeing our new friends again tomorrow!  Good night!

Day 6 Back to Tanzania

Well, it feels good to be completely caught up with our story!  Today was a travel day from Kenya where we spent the last 3 days, back to Arusha, Tanzania.  It was hard to say good-bye to our beautiful accommodations and friends we have met.  The people are so friendly and always smiling! 

 

The Amboseli Sopa Lodge was very spectacular!  We had a wonderful view of Mt. Kilimanjaro at every meal from our dining room.  These pictures really don't do it justice!! 

 

As you can see, we did have mosquito nets covering our beds each night.  Honestly, I think it's too chilly for mosquitos but we used the nets just in case!!  We did not have Wifi at this Lodge, hence you're getting so many updates today on the blog....it was so quiet and peaceful (no tv and haven't missed it for one second).

 

This is the outside of our room.  Anne and Lee were right next door.  The electricity goes on every morning at 4:00am and then off at 10:00am.  It then stays off until 6:00pm and stays on until 10:00pm.  Flashlights were provided!  Monkeys were EVERYWHERE!

 

We took this picture right before we left.  We are standing in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Most of the days it's been covered by clouds, but today it was clear and we could see the top.  Breath taking!



We said good-bye to William, our Kenyan driver.  He had a great personality and spoke really good English (we really appreciate that!).  We had no problems crossing the border and it was 3 hours back to Arusha.

Tomorrow is Sunday for us and Mitch will be preaching twice at 2 different churches.  One from 7:00am-9:00am and the second from 10:00am-1:00pm (that ought to be interesting). Good thing he has been preparing for this trip all of his life!  I can't wait to hear what God has to say through him! 

No mosquito nets tonight!  By the way, we hear Barak Obama is here in Tanzania. Maybe he will be attending the Leadership Conference Mitch is leading on Monday!  One can only hope!

Maasai Dance Featuring Pastor Mitch

Thought you might like to see Pastor Mitch fitting right in with the Locals :)

 

Thoughts from Lee

As we near the end of our first week here in Africa, I continue to be amazed but that word does not convey the magnitude of what we are experiencing.  I do not have words to describe it. Anything I write can only provide a small insight
to what this experience has been.  Therefore I will simply say we serve an awesome God who is very much visible in Africa.

When we were planning the trip we thought we were going to be Gods hands and feet in Africa.  How arrogant!! The truth is that Gods hands and feet are already here - here in the heart of a young Masai Christian women whose dream is to become a mid-wife and be able to help her people; two Christian believers who gave their testimony and pray for their husbands salvation; a Christian school that gives hope to disadvantaged children (the favorite children are given the opportunity to attend to the goats and cattle and the hated one is sent to school) and there they experience Gods love, Benjamin, who wants to become a doctor, but instead has to care for his mom and five sisters, a teacher there who is a gifted communicator and pastors a small local church, numerous Christian churches which worship for hours every Sunday, a tent revival meeting
in a small town in Kenya, and many more.
The evil one is also present - present in the Muslims who withhold jobs unless the individual converts, present in the way women are treated, present in the Masai village where men take pride in their polygamy and their medicine man remedies.  Yet even there Gods Word is present.

Yes, Gods hands and feet are here and as Henry Blackaby states,  all we need to do is join Him in His work - that is my prayer.

When we planned the trip we did not have expectations but left it open to experience God's presence and we have not been disappointed. 

We do serve an awesome God!

Day 5 Maasai Church

 
 
After we left the school, we went to visit a Maasai church.  The Pastor of the church was none other than GEORGE from the school!  Yes, another dirt road and back into the village we went.  What you see in this picture is their church. 

We went inside and it had backless wood benches and some openings for air to blow through.  Along with Pastor George, Pastor James joined us.  The Maasai people speak Maasai and that's the language James speaks......so he ended up interpreting for George who speaks Swahili who interpreted for Mitch!  Now I haven't seen a double interpretation before and it was SOMETHING!

First, Pastor George explained to the people why we were there and then invited them to give their testimony to us.  EACH person there (there were only 5 people there...1 man and 4 women) stood up and gave testimony to their life in Jesus Christ.  The 1st two women told us that their husbands were not believers so we laid hands on them and prayed for their husbands by name.  It was so amazing!

Then Mitch stood up and gave a Word and it was also amazing.  He shared Acts 6 as a word of encouragement.  It's the story of a conflict in the early church that arose over the distribution of food to widows.  The story really emphasizes two important things:  one, church leadership must stay focused on prayer and the ministry of the Word.  And two, laity needs to step up and serve in strategic roles to bring glory to God.  The Church being the Church!

Lastly, Anne stood up and lead us in Jesus Loves Us This I Know AND THAT WAS AMAZING.  Remember that word, unbelievable?  You are going to hear it over and over!

When we were finished, the women wanted to give us a gift.  Each came and put beads around our necks.  It was very humbling.  Anne and I decided we would do the same and took our cross necklaces off and gave them to the women we prayed over.  Then we gave our earrings to the other two woman. 

 

 

These beautiful children below, sat in the back and didn't say a peep!  His Hands and Feet in the Maasai Village! 



Tomorrow we will travel back to Arusha, Tanzania and try to reconcile everything we've seen and heard so far!  It's nice to have WiFi again...thanks for being patient!