Holly is on her way home from a few days in the village where she was training the Maasai women in Women's Health issues and solutions. Holly has also been asked by our previous organization, Medical Ambassadors International / Lifewind, to head the Women's Cycle of Life program for Africa. Our current organization (ReachGlobal) has agreed to this part time position through a "Memorandum of Understanding" between the two organizations. This will be a great opportunity to reconnect and work together with with many of our past co-workers.

I will begin the Pilot program of The Bi-vocational Pastor training this Saturday April 14th. This will be a great opportunity for these pastors to to learn how to develop a business plan and then to begin small business's.  The culture here does not understand this concept however these pastors are looking forward to learning to do bi-vocational ministry to fund their work, just as the Apostle Paul funded his ministry through bi-vocational tent making/pastoring. Its such an old concept yet so new to these people. Please be praying that this goes well and that the pastors will grasp this very important concept.

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!

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

Sunset in Zanzibar

ReachGlobal Equipping Team

 We returned from Zanzibar on Friday where we spent the week in meetings with our equipping team and having some good ole Zanzibar fun.

  After 2yrs of developing our equipping team, we are "finally" all together now. Our team consists of people who are very qualified in their ministry areas. From left to right in the picture- Holly and Eric Belz (Eric is our trainer in Pastoral Development and Church Health) Holly and Tony Freitas ( Trainers in Community Health Evangelism),  Mark and Alyssa Dunker (Team Leader and Trainers in more Formal Pastoral Education. Together we compliment eachother to make an outstanding team for equipping leaders so that they can equip leaders.

Diver Devin

We also had some fun while we were there! Devin had a great time windsurfing and discovering scuba diving. Devin and I did an early morning dive with our team mate Eric. (Eric and I are already experienced divers).  The fish, sea turtles and coral were truely amazing. Now Devin wants to get his scuba certification!





We all did some snorkeling, played on the beach and just enjoyed eachother's company.

The Snorkeling Team

Latest Update:

    The fighting in Magwi has ended for now! Pastor Moses said “There are no arrows or gunfire in the bushes now!” The UN Peacekeepers came into the area and put an end to the fighting but the issue of land ownership is going to be a complicated one to resolve. Everyone that returned after the 20yr war are on what they believe to be their family plots. There is no title or deeds, only the word of older relatives. Many more people have lost their lives and many families are homeless because their Tokuls (huts) have been burnt to the ground. Women and children are flooding into Pageri town to find safety. Pastor Moses is scrambling to find food, blankets and places for these people to live until they can return home. Please keep these people in your prayers!

UPDATE!

     My last communication from Pastor Moses, as of 30 minutes ago, said that there were now many more deaths because the South Sudanese Military is involved in trying to resolve the conflict. Unfortunately, the South Sudanese military solves the countries problems through the barrel of a gun. They are the last people that you want to bring peace to a conflict! The end result is more deaths!

Pray that this killing would end soon!

Update: 5 deaths in Magwe as the fighting continues to escalate!