Thursday, March 15, 2012
Meeting with a group of pastors in town tomorrow (Friday) to introduce them to the idea of Bi-vocational Pastoring through Micro-enterprise. This will be a very new concept to most African Pastors however, if motivated to proceed with the 8 weeks of training they will learn how to support themselves and their families without looking for outside assistance. Pray that the idea is received well!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Latest Update
Its been awhile since my last posting. Being new to the world of Blogging I am not sure if anyone reads these postings. My motivation in updating the blog is to keep everyone informed with the latest news about our ministry. Writing is not one of my favorite past times but I am sure that it matters to those who read this blog. With all of that said, I need your help! Is there any way for me to track the number of hits that this blog gets? Any help would be appreciated!
On to the latest news,
Many things have happened since my last posting. In November I traveled to Kigoma Tanzania to open a new field of ministry among the Congolese refugees that are living in the refugee camps along the Congolese border. My primary goal is to train a group of 20+ pastors who, in turn, will train other Congolese leaders in the CHE strategy so that when they return to Congo they would have some very useful skills that they could use to rebuild their communities and churches. Pastor Faliala is my key contact who has been working with these pastors for the past 6 yrs. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity. The area around the Refugee camp where they are living is very difficult to get to and has a high crime rate. The area that they hope to return to is constantly at war which adds to the complications. The camp where I will begin the training houses approx. 50,000+ people that are anxious to return to their villages in the Congo when it is safe to do so.
I was scheduled to do our first Congolese Pastors training in Feb. when I received a message from Pastor Faliala that we needed to reschedule the training as the Refugee camp was taking a census during our scheduled training and no one was allowed in or out of the camp. We have now rescheduled the training for June which will be after our rainy season here.
I was also scheduled in Feb to lead a Pastors conference for our Sudanese pastors. This was to be a time of reflecting on their past ministry, current ministries and where we are going in the future. Due to a conflict in their schedule, I was asked to reschedule our conference. This has now been rescheduled for late June.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked by one of my teammates to join him for a training on the island of Zanzibar. He was to do a pastoral training and I was to bring an introduction to Community Health Evangelism. This training was also cancelled and will be rescheduled.
Holly continues to travel into the bush to train the Maasai women in the CHE Women's Cycle of Life lessons. This helps the Maasai women understand how they and their bodies were designed by God to serve a Godly purpose here on this earth and that they are highly valued. Most Maasai women have been raised to believe that their value is less than the value of their cows.
Last month I traveled to the US to speak at a conference on the value of short term teams in the mission field when armed with a sustainable training strategy. It is amazing to see that there is a wave of US churches that are wanting to train their short term teams in cross cultural ministry before sending them to the field so that they can have a sustainable impact in the mission field while helping people around the world without creating dependency in the process.
Please pray for our team:
As of now our team is made up of three families and all of them are under spiritual attack!
Holly has been dealing with severe shoulder pain in both shoulders. This began about three months ago and at times can be debilitating. It has required her to fly to South Africa twice for treatment. She has received two injections of cortisone in one of her shoulder joints. Once it has proven successful they will inject the other shoulder.
Wife of teammate #2 has had allot of random debilitating medical issues that is requiring their family to return to the US for treatment. Their son has also had serious stomach issues that the doctors here cant seem to resolve.
Wife of teammate #3 has just returned from South Africa after a 3 day stay in the hospital. It has been determined that she has a form of rheumatoid arthritis and other medical issues that have kept her in bed for a good part of the past month. She is still in bed until the medicine that she will now have to take indefinitely begins to work.
As you can see, there are many issues plaguing our team. There are too many to be a coincidence which is why we are all convinced that these attacks are spiritual in nature. Please pray with us that these attacks will stop!
We continue pressing forward because we know that God has called us here to work among the African people. Sometimes it is discouraging and uncomfortable but we know that our God is bigger than any trials that come our way.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11 28-30
Tony Holly Lauren and Devin
Its been awhile since my last posting. Being new to the world of Blogging I am not sure if anyone reads these postings. My motivation in updating the blog is to keep everyone informed with the latest news about our ministry. Writing is not one of my favorite past times but I am sure that it matters to those who read this blog. With all of that said, I need your help! Is there any way for me to track the number of hits that this blog gets? Any help would be appreciated!
On to the latest news,
Many things have happened since my last posting. In November I traveled to Kigoma Tanzania to open a new field of ministry among the Congolese refugees that are living in the refugee camps along the Congolese border. My primary goal is to train a group of 20+ pastors who, in turn, will train other Congolese leaders in the CHE strategy so that when they return to Congo they would have some very useful skills that they could use to rebuild their communities and churches. Pastor Faliala is my key contact who has been working with these pastors for the past 6 yrs. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity. The area around the Refugee camp where they are living is very difficult to get to and has a high crime rate. The area that they hope to return to is constantly at war which adds to the complications. The camp where I will begin the training houses approx. 50,000+ people that are anxious to return to their villages in the Congo when it is safe to do so.
I was scheduled to do our first Congolese Pastors training in Feb. when I received a message from Pastor Faliala that we needed to reschedule the training as the Refugee camp was taking a census during our scheduled training and no one was allowed in or out of the camp. We have now rescheduled the training for June which will be after our rainy season here.I was also scheduled in Feb to lead a Pastors conference for our Sudanese pastors. This was to be a time of reflecting on their past ministry, current ministries and where we are going in the future. Due to a conflict in their schedule, I was asked to reschedule our conference. This has now been rescheduled for late June.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked by one of my teammates to join him for a training on the island of Zanzibar. He was to do a pastoral training and I was to bring an introduction to Community Health Evangelism. This training was also cancelled and will be rescheduled.
Holly continues to travel into the bush to train the Maasai women in the CHE Women's Cycle of Life lessons. This helps the Maasai women understand how they and their bodies were designed by God to serve a Godly purpose here on this earth and that they are highly valued. Most Maasai women have been raised to believe that their value is less than the value of their cows.
Last month I traveled to the US to speak at a conference on the value of short term teams in the mission field when armed with a sustainable training strategy. It is amazing to see that there is a wave of US churches that are wanting to train their short term teams in cross cultural ministry before sending them to the field so that they can have a sustainable impact in the mission field while helping people around the world without creating dependency in the process. Please pray for our team:
As of now our team is made up of three families and all of them are under spiritual attack!
Holly has been dealing with severe shoulder pain in both shoulders. This began about three months ago and at times can be debilitating. It has required her to fly to South Africa twice for treatment. She has received two injections of cortisone in one of her shoulder joints. Once it has proven successful they will inject the other shoulder.
Wife of teammate #2 has had allot of random debilitating medical issues that is requiring their family to return to the US for treatment. Their son has also had serious stomach issues that the doctors here cant seem to resolve.
Wife of teammate #3 has just returned from South Africa after a 3 day stay in the hospital. It has been determined that she has a form of rheumatoid arthritis and other medical issues that have kept her in bed for a good part of the past month. She is still in bed until the medicine that she will now have to take indefinitely begins to work.
As you can see, there are many issues plaguing our team. There are too many to be a coincidence which is why we are all convinced that these attacks are spiritual in nature. Please pray with us that these attacks will stop!
We continue pressing forward because we know that God has called us here to work among the African people. Sometimes it is discouraging and uncomfortable but we know that our God is bigger than any trials that come our way.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11 28-30
Tony Holly Lauren and Devin
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