This was the third day of training. On Monday, only half of the students were there to start. Several came later, two came the next day and one more today. We must work with them on the importance of coming at the beginning and staying throughout the meetings. One didn’t show up today and no one knew why.

On Monday, the training went well although the students had not done their pre-assignments mostly because they did not receive them in time. It is difficult to distribute the assignments when no one has mail service or email. We will try to give out the assignments for the next training at the end of this one.

It is quite hot and humid here and the students lose their ability to think well by mid afternoon. We have had to adjust the schedule to present more interactive materials in the afternoon and thinking materials in the mornings. This is par for the course in cross cultural training, always adjusting to the circumstance. We covered the topic of world views on Monday and Tuesday and it was a real struggle for them to understand the concept but I think we finally got through.

Today, Wednesday, was especially frustrating. Several factors contributed. Our main translator brings her 2 year old boy with her and he is a typical 2 year old. He runs all over, gets into the markers, books, notebooks, etc., and cries, pushes chairs around, etc. all during the teaching. At times she nurses him during translation. It really is a challenge all in all. Today lunch was two hours late, throwing the schedule all off. We couldn’t find the marker so the students took forever to write out their presentations. In general there seemed to be a lot of confusion and their work was disappointing. I think it is partially a warfare issue so we talked and prayed together about that. It is really a pleasure to have Eric my partner to talk to and to strategize with. Our Kenyan leaders also are very helpful. In the end, after a very hot and frustrating day, I think we accomplished a lot in the last session. We are cancelling one topic tomorrow and adding a new exercise to help with an area they are struggling with. I trust the Lord to help us make progress tomorrow and Friday. Thanks for helping us in your prayers as we battle for God’s purposes here.

Al

Sunday in Kenya

Saturday was a quiet, restful day for me and was much appreciated. I enjoy getting here a couple of days early so I can adjust to the 9 hour time change before going to work. On Sunday morning, I traveled about a half hour to a local country church for services. It is always a joy to worship with the believers here. They are so open in their worship. I estimated that there were well over 100 people in the small building with over half of them young children. The service started around 10 am and we had singing, praise, prayer and more of the same for over an hour. Then small “choirs” as they call them, sang special numbers, starting with the little kids first and working up to the young people and finally the adult women. That took another hour. Then I preached with translation for about 40 minutes and the pastor added on to the end his own comments for another 15 minutes or so. Then, they had announcements and some more singing for another half hour. We finished around 1:30 pm. That takes some stamina. I was very impressed with the fact that many of the younger children, 8 to 10 year olds, were still paying very close attention to the end. Obviously their attention span is much greater than that of our children. I am forced to wonder if television and video is one of the main culprits in this difference.

On the way home, after dinner under the mango tree, I rode back to the highway on a motorcycle. Then I hitched a ride with two guys in a small truck back to town. They asked if I was a pastor, since I was carrying my bible. They said one was a Christian and one a Muslim and that they worked together in this small business they had. Life continues to be interesting on the road.

The pictures are of the church building, the inside before the service, during the service while a children’s choir was singing, and the pastor’s wife counseling a woman before the service.

Thanks for your continued prayers,

Al

Arrived Safely in Kenya

Thankfully, I arrived at my guest house in Kenya just after 2 am local time, around 11 pm Central time. Only 34 hours from Des Moines this time. I got about an hour of rest from Detroit to Amsterdam, and another hour on the way to Nairobi, and felt like that was enough to get me by quite nicely, although I was glad to see the bed when I got here. I had some significant conversations with a nominal Christian American, a good Christian brother, and a Muslim man from Mombasa.

It is the middle of summer here, high 80’s every day and quite humid. I walked into town today to get money exchange, and to get minutes for my computer modem, and on the way home it began to pour. I was soaked by the time I got home, a good cool shower that I know I will pay for later as it continues to heat up and steam.

I feel so privileged to be here to serve and train these men and women in the Word of God. Pray for us that this week will be significant to their progress, and for their transformation through His Word, and our transformation as well, of course.

Al

A Good End To Kenya Training

We finished the training in Kenya today and were overall satisfied with the results. The pastors we worked with started right away organizing a training session for other pastors, to be held in about 6 weeks. They are very serioius about their responsibility. The week has been up and down. On Wednesday we had a lot of spiritual opposition, crying baby, hard rain, tired pastors, etc. They didn't do too well that day, but bounced back the next. We could really see progress in their presentations over two years ago. It has been good to work with Wes and we have had a lot of good talks planning for the future and discussing things we can do differently.

I am really excited about the whole church organization here and the growth we have seen over the past 4 years. This is my 5th trip to Kenya and the changes are dramatic. The Kenyans are now strategizing about reaching far off places in their country, and in a couple of weeks will be sending two of the men we are training to Tanzania to help with the mission work there and to do training for two years. This is what we mean when we say develop, empower and release nationals to do ministry, multiplying our efforts. Four years ago they had no training at all and were not anywhere near as healthy as they are today. Praise the Lord! Every time we come we take baby steps with them but they add up to giant gains in the kingdom. Thanks for your help in getting us here to do this training. The Lord is blessing our efforts!

Al

Leaving Uganda and Beginning in Kenya

The training ended in Uganda for me on Thursday evening. I was greatly encouraged by the response of the pastors and how the training went generally. We think this could be a possible future training site with great potential. It is possible that leaders from here will join me in Kenya in December to experience the training there and consider a similar training process for themselves beginning sometime next year.

I left Mbale, Uganda at about 5 pm and started the long 5 hour trip to a hotel near the airport in Entebbe where I was to spend the night. I wish it had been a bit earlier when we crossed the headwaters to the Nile, it would have been fun to see that before dark. When we reached Kampala, about an hour before the hotel, we stopped to eat. I put my debit card in the ATM machine and must have done something wrong because it captured it. I needed the card in Kenya to get cash for expenses there. We had to travel on to the hotel and then come back during rush hour to the bank the next morning to retrieve my card. Thankfully the bank eventually cooperated, returned my card, and we were on our way back to the airport. Such fun! The rest of the trip to Kilifi, Kenya was routine and boring and therefore great!

It was good to be in the worship service on Sunday where I preached. Their worship is quite different from ours, but still very honoring to the Lord. Even though I usually do not know what they are saying or singing it is beautiful to watch them love the Lord. One of the pastors we have worked with in the past gave a testimony that last January some men planned to kill him one night. Some dogs outside his house scared them off and he was spared. Unfortunately, they then went to his elder brother’s home and killed him. We do not know what these men face on a day to day basis and yet they have such commitment and joy.

We began our first session this morning (Monday) with only half of the students we expected. A couple could not come because of work including our best translator. One pastor found out just before we started that his father died and he had to leave. We started late to allow a couple more to come and then our translator struggled a bit as we taught. Our one woman student, who is a great translator, arrived so we were all relieved. Soon we found out that she had her 1 year old son with her and he wanted to be with her. So part of the time she translated with him on her lap, at other times while she was nursing, and once while I held him on my lap, although he had enough of that after about 15 minutes. We sense a bit of opposition here, but we won as the men made good progress and really enjoyed it. My partner Wes did well for his first try at cross cultural training and I am enjoying working with him. We are looking forward to a great week.

On a personal note I am so thankful for the privilege of representing the Lord to these people as I train them in studying His Word. It is a great blessing to me. On this trip I feel that the Lord is really ministering to me personally in special ways in spite of the various challenges I have faced. Thanks to you who are praying.

Al

Uganda Surprises

The Lord never ceases to surprise me! This trip to Uganda is just one more example of His surprising ways. The teaching has gone very well with the students listening well and making good progress. They are perhaps the most enthusiastic learners we have had yet. They love to ask questions. It has been fun to teach them, in part because they come from so many different denominations. We are working with a group called Impact Ministries and they obviously have a vision to serve pastors who are not from their association. I had an opportunity to meet with their leader this afternoon to discuss his vision and to consider whether we can work together in the future in the training of pastors. As he discussed his passion to train pastors in the Word he talked about his vision for the effort, describing a process he would like to see. It was almost identical to my vision for training, including decentralizing the training through trainers that are sent out to various parts of the country. I was amazed. As I told him what I was doing elsewhere, he immediately saw that it was what he would like to see here. Certainly we have much more to learn about each other but the future looks promising. He is already working in nearly half the states in Uganda, so the potential for training pastors here is great.

Perhaps it is a small thing but our accommodations here have also been a surprise. Usually spending two weeks in Africa is a bit of a challenge due to the housing and food. It is usually adequate but tiresome. I was anticipating enduring two weeks during my training and thinking I would be ready for my own bed and some good American cooking when I got home. I am sure that is still true but the housing and food have been very good here. We are actually enjoying our meals. I consider that just one more of God’s gracious gifts to me to prepare me for a little more austere living in Kenya next week.

Al

Safe Arrival in Uganda

Our ministry time in India ended well and we were encouraged by the prospect of future training in the area. We become close to the three leaders there who initiated the training and treated us so kindly. We look forward to working with them in the future. We had a relatively uneventful flight from Trichy to Chennai and on to Mumbai. At Mumbai we got our luggage very quickly this time and then waited in line for the bus to transfer us to the international terminal. We loaded our luggage under the bus and headed around the inside of the airport to the other side. Half way around the bus stopped and other buses started going around us. One of the passengers asked the driver what was going on and he said we had a flat tire and would have to wait for another bus. Sometime later another came and we had to transfer to it. It was raining and Edie rushed over to the other bus, leaving me to carry 4 suitcases in the rain. She wondered why I was being so slow. She didn’t realize that we had to transfer the luggage ourselves.

Once inside the terminal we began to have problems. Because she was going home to Minneapolis and I was going on to Uganda we had different airlines to get boarding passes with. My flight was 2 hours later than hers so my ticket booth was not open. We had to sit for two hours before she could go into the area where the eating places etc. were. She finally went ahead alone and I went to get my boarding pass. I then found out that my flight would be 2 1/2 hours late, leaving at 5:30 in the morning instead of 3 am. This meant I would miss my connecting flight in Nairobi to Uganda. When I finally got into the terminal and found Edie, I had misunderstood and could not find my gate. The had told me they put me on another flight, but I didn’t realize it was on a later flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda. When we finally got all that straightened out I waited with Edie for awhile until her flight left for MN, and then waited two more hours until my flight left. I was thankful that I was able to move to an exit row seat so I had more leg room for the nearly 6 hour flight to Nairobi.

In Nairobi, I just missed the original flight to Uganda and had to wait three hours for the next flight. When I finally checked in and went into the waiting area, they came in and said the flight would be two hours late. I had no way to let the people in Uganda, who were to meet me, know any of this. I finally arrived in Entebbe around 5 pm, or 8:30 pm India time. The driver had been at the airport since 9 am and I do not know who was more glad to see that I had arrived, me or him. He gave me a big hug and was so warm and welcoming that it eased some of the hangover from the day. He joked that he was worried that he had somehow missed me and “let a big fish” get away. We drove then about 6 hours to my final destination in Mbale, Uganda, arriving around 11 pm, nearly 44 hours after I had gotten up in India. Needless to say I slept well. I arose still tired but the Lord was with me as I preached this Sunday morning. It was interesting to me that Edie arrived in Minneapolis about 3 hours before I arrived in Uganda, which is about half the distance. Again, traveling is part of the cost of ministry. Thanks for praying for us as we travel as it can sometimes get to me. Praise God for His abundant grace.

We were blessed with the people here at the service and are expecting a good week training pastors. The service this morning was very dynamic, with lots of singing and dancing in the African style. The pastor asked how everyone was doing saying, “In Africa we ask ‘how are everyone’s chickens’”. We got a laugh out of that. I am staying in a nice hotel with a beautiful view of the mountains and greenery around here. The hotel has internet service but it is down today, so I am writing in hopes that it will be up tomorrow. Maybe, as the Lord wills. If it comes I will write more about the ministry here as the week goes on.

Al

Traveling to Uganda

Our time here in Trichy, India has been extremely fruitful. The people has been very responsive to the teaching Mark and I have presented and the women have loved what Edie has done with them. We are so thankful. On Thursday I taught on our identity in Christ from Romans 6-8 and on God’s design for marriage. Afterwards there was a time of testimony from those attending. A couple of the older pastors gave impassioned responses. One said that in 50 years of hearing preaching at conferences and elsewhere he had never heard teaching like this. One older man hugged and kissed me almost in tears as he expressed appreciation for what he had learned. The people here have treated us like celebrities in spite of our protests. Little do they know that we are little, unknown people that God has chosen to use to teach them. We count it such an awesome privilege to serve in this way.

We are investigating whether further training here in the future will be possible. We do not just want to do conferences, but would like to train nationals to train others. There may be some real possibilities here as the leaders have contacts in 6 – 8 cities an hour or two surrounding this city. We could train teams here and send them out to these cities. We will see what happens.

It has been very hot here but bearable since we have air conditioning at night. The food has been equally hot in a spicy way and we are ready for something a bit milder. Edie heads for home tonight and I press on to Uganda and Kenya. I will miss her and her faithful encouragement deeply. But I am looking forward to meeting new brothers in Uganda. I have no idea what to expect there either in terms of the level of understanding, education or even the accommodations. I fly all night and wait for my training partner until about noon their time and then we travel by car 4 hours to the training location. Who knows what that will be like. Once again this role proves to be an adventure.

Al

Strength in Weakness

The verse that keeps coming to my mind is from Ephesians 3:20, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us." As some of you knew, the program for the women was never really addressed so I planned to go with what I had done in Africa with some tweaking. I was told to expect 20 women. The day before we left the US I received a note saying the women have advanced education and are accustomed to in-depth teaching. Also 30 women were signed up. With the help of Amy, my mom & Nicole, I quickly made 12 more craft kits. I had to redo the notebooks by buying the folder type instead of the larger ones. This last minute note required me to cast myself on the Lord once again for wisdom and assurance that He is with me. Needless to say I asked the Lord for how I could make the teaching a little more in-depth, and He gave me a slightly different outline with increased notes to go with it.

Sunday morning Al did a powerful message at the church where the conference is being held. That night the three leaders of this conference came to say that the women want to hear Al's teaching. The plan was for me to teach while he was and the women would be with the men in the afternoons for Mark's teaching. So they were willing to adjust some timing and of course Al is very supportive and cut back on his content. Well... you can imagine how the devil delighted in taunting me with all this (as well as seeing in my mind that black ugly spider staring at me before his demise as mentioned in a previous post). But once again I returned to the truth of God's word and His love for me and just waited to see what would happen. He did more abundantly than all that I asked! The women loved my "different program". I began with a "Drawing Near" time, then the teaching from the Word and lastly a fellowship time. One lady said to me today this is so different from anything we have ever done that they will never forget you! Ha. My prayers have been for rapport with the women...and it has been INCREDIBLE! They are so warm and engaging, and enough speak some English to make my contact with each of the women easier.

We are having to make 6 more craft kits. Praise God, with a great shout of joy! I have a translator who is working as one with me (another answered prayer). We are having such a good time that I know it has to be a witness to the other women. She is going shopping to find some fabric to make more kits. It was a first for many of the women, but they caught on despite the fact they are sitting on a floor crammed into this small room next door to the church.

Al and Mark are also having a great time with the pastors. They have asked Al to repeat the teaching he did in Bangladore where we first met these guys on Romans 6,7,and 8, so he will probably do that Thursday morning. They also want Al to teach on marriage so pray for all the scheduling issues. Tonight we have been asked to meet with a couple who are Hindus that have come to Christ recently and are having spiritual warfare problems and family problems. Another God-sighting: I have asked the women two questions, "How has a woman encouraged you?", and "Share a short version of how you came to Christ." One woman who answered these two questions was a Muslim that recently came to Christ along with her husband. She then later said no woman had encouraged her. Today I talked to her and she said she was very happy and had been encouraged. I took the opportunity when she spoke to tell the woman to be encouraging each other this week as an assignment. I think they must have.

Each evening we are having dinner in someone's home. Our stomachs are set on fire! But we are thankful to have them introduce their culture to us. Thank you so much for your love and prayers for us. God is so faithful with us in the trials and on the mountain tops.

Edie

More Pictures from Thailand

Here are some pictures of the Lahu man named Don that I told you about in a previous post. We begin teaching here in Trichy, India tomorrow and expect around 50 pastors. Pray that we will connect well and be a blessing. Edie will have about 30 women to teach.

Al

Traveling Adventures

Whew! What a unbelievable last few days! We left Thailand for the long trip to Mumbai, India on Friday evening. Our flight started out late and then on arrival had to circle for an hour, getting us on the ground around midnight. Then we had to wait 2 hours for our bags. We do not know why, as you know they have had some bombings in that city recently and perhaps that is the reason. We heard that there had been a threat at the airport. At any rate we were tired when we reached the hotel at 2:30, or 4 am Thailand time. We were up at 7 am to eat and head to the airport to go to Trichy. We mistakenly had our driver take us to the international airport because we did not know that there was a separate domestic terminal. About an hour before our flight we found that out and had to rush over to the other terminal, about 15 minutes by taxi. We made it on time and had a good flight. On arrival we collected our bags and went outside to meet the pastors who were picking us up, but they were not there. We were surprised but waited patiently for about 30 minutes. Finally we thought maybe they were at the international terminal in that city and I walked over to see, it was only a few blocks. No one at all was there. When I returned, they still had not come. I went over to a cab company office and asked if I could use their phone and called the pastors. The person at the office spoke in the language of the area and I could not tell what the conversation was but I assume she asked them where they were. They were at the airport waiting for us, just not the airport we were at, not even in the city we were at. We had flown to the wrong city! They were 440 Kilometers away. The names here are so long and difficult that we had failed to notice that we were headed to the wrong place. We had to rent a car to be driven to the right city, about 8 hours away. We were going to get to tour a large part of South India, something we had not planned on. On the way it started to get dark and I felt a critter crawling on my neck. I grabbed it and flipped it on the floor of the car. We turned on the light but could not see it. About a half hour later Edie had the same sensation and she gets a little more excited when things crawl on her in the dark. She flipped it off and this time we saw it, a large spider. We were able to kill it and no harm came to any of us but the spider. Edie actually maintained pretty good composure given the circumstances. The highway we were on started as a winding two lane but eventually connected with a very good divided highway. Still, occasionally we found others driving on our side of the highway in the wrong direction. It tends to make you a little nervous when it is a truck or bus coming at you. But by God’s good grace we arrived in Trichy around 9:30 safe and sound.

I mention these adventures not to complain, although we were tempted to do so at times. I mention it to show you what missionary life is sometimes like. These were not really ministry days, just travel days, but still they were a part of what it means for us to travel in order to do ministry. I spoke this morning in the church here and used this adventure to illustrate to them that God does not always take away all of our problems, but is always with us in them. At the conference my supervisor had said in a message he preached that we should not ask, “What is God trying to teach me?”, when we encounter troubles. Instead we should ask, “What does God want to show through me to others?”. Hopefully we are showing trust in an almighty great God who loves us even when we go to the wrong city!


Al

Pictures from Thailand

Here are a few pictures from the day today:

A Good Day

We had a great day today. My interview in front of the group went very well and I had another great lunch appointment that shows real promise of more training opportunities. I remain amazed at the opportunities that God is opening up for us. My seminar went very well also, with several asking for samples of materials. One missionary in transition asked about the possibility of joining our training team. All in all it was a very fruitful day. Tomorrow I present the seminar once again and have another lunch appointment. Thanks for continuing to pray.

Tonight we had the privilege of traveling about an hour out of town to a training center ReachGlobal partners with that serves the Lahu hill people of Thailand. They have about 35 churches and about 3,000 believers in the group. At the center they train young people for ministry. Many have to learn to read and write and do the course work, all in three years. We were so impressed with their hard work and the joy that seemed to accompany their efforts. I had the honor of saying a few words of encouragement to the group and praying for them. My translator was a very small man, probably 1/3 my size. We had some fun playing that up together. I picked him up once and he later leaned against me and rubbed my belly. The whole place roared. What a joy to rejoice with a brother from a totally different culture. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, everyone who knows us will not find that surprising. But some others got pictures so we will try to get some and post them if possible.

Al

Encouraging Opportunities

We are praising the Lord that Edie is feeling much better today. She is pretty much back to normal except she is having some challenges adjusting to the time change. We can go to bed easily but wake up around 2 or 3 in the morning and then can’t go back to sleep. Such is life on the other side of the world.

I have made several significant contacts with missionaries today and really see the Lord opening doors for future training opportunities. The need is great but many missionaries are a bit hesitant to have just anyone come and teach their people. These face-to-face meetings accomplish a lot in terms of helping them get to know me and my ministry. Tomorrow is a big day in that I will be interviewed in the morning before the whole assembly and then give a seminar on our training ministry in the afternoon. I really want to communicate our desire to serve them and be a resource for them rather than we are just coming with the latest new ideas. Thanks for your prayers for us.

We have had some opportunities to encourage some of the missionaries as we meet and hear their stories. They are just like all of us with family problems, etc., that we all struggle with, but sometimes their support structure is limited. We count it a privilege to encourage and pray with them. We are so often in awe of what these servants endure for the sake of Christ’s kingdom. It is a blessing to be here.

Al

Safe Arrival to Thailand

We arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand safely, if not completely sound. We left Minneapolis around 9 am on Friday and arrived in Bangkok, via Chicago and Seoul Korea, around 9 pm local, or 9 am Minneapolis time, almost exactly 24 hours later. International travel is a bear any way you slice it. We slept well in an inexpensive but clean hotel near the airport and then flew on to Chiang Mai early the next morning.

The conference is going well. I am making a lot of good connections as the Lord puts me in contact with various missionaries on our Asia team. I think some significant opportunities to train pastors will come about in the future as a result. Thanks for your continued prayers as this connections business is not my strength but the Lord is helping me greatly. Unfortunately, by habit, Edie forgot and washed her mouth out with tap water after brushing her teeth and now has some stomach distress. Hopefully it will be short lived. Prayers for her health are appreciated.

Chiang Mai seems to be a beautiful area although we will probably see little of it. We had dinner at a restaurant not too far from our hotel and rode back with a couple from Japan in a Tuk Tuk, a three wheeled motorcycle type taxi. It usually seats only three but I sat on the battery beside the driver and hung on for dear life. We do have some fun with life from time to time.

We count it such a privilege to be around our ReachGlobal missionaries. They are a great bunch of soldiers for the Lord. Our faith is being increased. We always hear some great stories of God’s work. It has also been a joy to reconnect with some of the missionaries we have met in the past. The Lord is good.

More later...

Al

The Cost

We have had two wonderful days of training. Our students are really making progress in understanding the concepts of inductive bible study and the concept of context. We were so pleased with their answers to the home work we gave them to study on the book of Jonah. What a blessing it has been to me to see the gigantic progress since the first time I came 2 years ago. One pastor illustrates the change. He told us at lunch today that he used to go to church on Sunday morning and open his bible to decide what to preach on. Now he realizes that he actually has to study to see what God says in His word and then prepare a sermon on that to give to his people. Others have told us that they are starting to notice how some pastors are preaching passages out of context and making all sorts of errors. They really want to learn how to be faithful to the Word. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to me to see these changes and the sparkle in their eyes as they gain new insights and new skills.

The discussions during the training are lively and the men have a great time critiquing one another in good-natured bantering. They are not at all afraid of being corrected. The really have humble teachable hearts. More than once we have seen the Lord intervene with the timing of questions, etc. to help move the learning process forward. After each session the men continue discussing the ideas in small groups during the breaks. In the evenings they study hard for the next day.

My two training partners, Eric and Brad have been excellent to work with. We are all so different but share the same passion to see our students grow in the Word and in their ability to communicate it. It’s been fun to have a good team pressing forward toward the same goal.

We are concerned with one major aspect of the training process. None of the men we trained last August actually took what they learned and passed it on to other pastors. It is essential that they do this if all the pastors in the denomination are going to learn to study and teach the word effectively. We are really stressing the need to equip others with what they are learning. We will be making some recommendations to the leadership about how they can press this forward. I especially ask for your prayers on this issue.

This has been a very hard trip physically. We have battled the heat, I have some strange rash that started on my feet and gradually worked its way up my back (praise the Lord it doesn’t bother me much), we have had some stomach upset from the food, and sleeping is difficult with a poor ceiling fan, 85 degree nights, and 60 noisy young people staying in our guest house. Edie has had to teach the women in the afternoon when they are all tired and have to sit mostly in the sun. I could go on. I do not say this as a complaint, although sometimes I do complain. On the way home tonight with 4 of us crammed into a tuktuk with wet seats from the rain, I thought about all this. I just want you to know that it is challenging doing this work. We think it is more than well worth the effort and will be happy to come back again in August. But it does take a toll and we covet your prayers and encouragement as we persevere. We are certain of the Lord’s help, “you helping us with your prayers” (2 Cor. 1:10-11). I thought as we rode along that I am happy that it “costs” us something to serve the Lord. What a privilege to do something that requires a little bit of suffering to serve Christ and His church. It doesn’t really compare with what our brothers and sisters here pay but it is our small contribution. Thanks for helping us.

Al

Hot & Humid in Kenya

We just returned from preaching at a village church for Sunday service. The service began at 10:30 and I began preaching at noon. The people in the small church were so attentive and appreciative. We spent the afternoon with the pastor talking about ministry and scripture. It was a great day.

This last week has been very fruitful. We had a good training time with Eric, a ReachGlobal staff person from Dar Es Salaam, and Daniel, the bishop of our partner churches here, who we were introducing to the material we will use this next week with the equippers we are training. It is so good to just study the bible together with other godly men. Eric has been a great blessing. He is younger than us and full of energy and enthusiasm. He has a great heart to train pastors so we look forward to partnering with him in the future. Daniel is such a godly and humble leader. We really enjoy working with him as well. Brad, my training partner, and I were able to work out some of the bugs in our training as we worked with Eric and Daniel. Edie was a great help to us in letting us know what areas were unclear to her and might then also be to the pastors. We can’t wait to see the other pastors tomorrow and to renew our relationships.

We continue to battle with the heat and humidity. It gets down to about 85 at night in our room so it is a challenge to sleep well. A large group is here in the guest house tonight so it also very noisy. Thank the Lord for earplugs!

Pray for us as we begin a week of intense training with the pastors. Pray that we will purpose to exalt Christ as we give them skills for understanding the word for themselves. Pray that the men will not grow weary with the long hours of learning. Pray that Edie will be able to touch the hearts of the women with God’s word and practical applications. Al is contending with a scratchy throat so needs the Lord’s healing hand. We ask you to lift him up with that as well.

Al & Edie

Good Morning from Kilifi!

Good Morning from Kilifi, Kenya! It is hot and humid and our prayer yesterday was that we will survive this shocking change. Our praise today is that we have made it through the night and are feeling relatively good today. I know the Lord’s grace is with us because we have a day to regroup and prepare for the good times ahead. We are here at the same guesthouse we have stayed in for the last 2 times in Kenya. We were greeted so warmly by the staff here and it felt like we aren’t so far from home after all.

For a note of God’s continual presence with us and His interest in seeing to the work He has for us, I must tell you of our first miracle. We were in London, had a few hours of catch up sleep and then we were to meet up with Brad, our partner for this training trip. He and his wife came a few days earlier to celebrate their anniversary. We were supposed to call them to set an exact time to meet in London. But it turns out that the apartment they were staying at listed the wrong number on their site so we had no way to connect with them. We had only two options: find their apartment according to the address or go with what he and Al had talked about; meeting at the Paddington station (underground rail system). We found their apartment but had no way of knowing which room was theirs, so we decided to go back to the station and look around. We had prayed that God would somehow join us together but by now that prayer seemed a long ways off and “nigh to impossible”. We decided to walk around the station to see if there was another entrance when lo and behold we ran into each other on the crowded sidewalk! They had given up, gone to eat and then said they would try one more time. I thought, "only believers could have a shred of hope in a situation like that". But really our hope has much more substance than that. To consider the fact that our God who is Lord over all, holds everything together and created everything hears our prayers from anyplace in the universe and answers such a thing as “make it possible to find our friends in London” is amazing to consider. It is beyond my understanding and so we simply praise our wonderful God and trust Him for the days ahead and what He intends to do in the hearts of all of us. More miracles to come!

We didn’t have time to give a report on Al’s trip to Venezuela before we left. The trip went very well and his teaching was well received and stirred a lot of discussion. Al met a ReachGlobal missionary there who may make some connections for future training in Latin America. I (Edie) met Al in Minneapolis after he returned so we could attend our team meetings. Al’s leadership of our Global Training Team is going to take more time in the future so we are trying to figure out how to prioritize our schedule. Thanks for helping us through your prayers.

Final report from India

I apologize for not keeping up the reports for the blog. Between internet problems and a very hectic schedule, I have been unable to write. The conference went well in Ahmadabad after the team finally arrived. Everyone’s teaching was well received and at the end several pastors and women were asked to give testimony about what they had learned and how the conference had affected them. Each one mentioned several specific things they had learned from the various teachers, which showed how well they had paid attention. Several mentioned my teaching on marriage and one leader even said he had been struggling in his marriage and asked the whole congregation for prayer that he might implement what he had learned. It is very unusual for any of them to mention such private things and to do so in such an emotional way. I have committed to pray for him and his wife.

I had some good meetings with the leaders of the ministry here about the training network we are creating. They are all beginning to understand the concept and are getting excited about the project. Over the next several months they will be prayerfully choosing the initial master trainers that we will train to start the program. Pray for them that they will choose the best candidates for this position. Much work needs to be accomplished on their end and mine but we hope to get started with the training before the end of the year.

We concluded the conference with a time of simple carnival games for the slum kids who had been coming for the children’s program. They loaded about 130 kids in the back of a truck and brought them each day. The kids were super well behaved, a real testimony to the work that has been accomplished in their lives. Their changed lives is what is leading many of their parents to Christ. It was fun to see them so joyful with each little game we created for them.

We got up about 4:30 on Sunday morning and travelled all day to Goa, a more tropical area on the West coast of India. We were all quite tired by the time we got here. It is very warm and beautiful here and a good place to refresh and debrief from the conference. I have enjoyed getting to know the other team members during this time.

Tomorrow we get up at 3:30 to go to the airport for the trip back. I have a 12 hour layover in Delhi, an 8 hour layover in Amsterdam and a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis. Altogether I think it will be about 52 hours before I am home in Fort Dodge. Pray for my stamina and patience.

Al

Editors note: My Dad will be arriving home sometime on Thursday evening, the 13th.

Pictures from India

The pictures are: The slum houses, the pastor and family serving there, and a typical India intersection experience.

An Interesting Day

Today was an interesting day as we traveled across the city to a slum area where the ministry here, Logos Holistic Ministries, is doing some work. They just built a ministry center and we helped dedicate it. The building is quite small, I think they said 15 by 30. The pastor working there will live in this building as well as use it for ministry to the community. Actually it is bigger than the allotted 10 by 12 homes the government has built for the poor residents. The immediate area houses 20,000 people and the nearby area another 30,000. The pastor started this ministry about 5 years ago and was visiting once or twice a week. They felt that the Lord was telling them to move to the location so that they could better identify with the community. They lived in one of the small houses for three years and have seen real growth in the effort to reach these people. The people were at first very resistant to having them there but they have won them with their love and persistence. They now work with 2,000 children, and as the kids come to understand the message they go home and share with their families. This is just another example of the good work God is doing in India.

Tomorrow the training starts and the team from Valley will be a day late because their flight from Chicago was cancelled. So I might be doing a lot more teaching tomorrow than I expected. But this type of thing often happens and the Lord always helps us through. My internet access is sketchy but I will try to give updates as I can. Thanks for praying for me.

Al

A New Year in India

I arrived here in Ahmadabad, India around 10 in the morning on Sunday. I left early Friday morning from Ft. Dodge and somehow I feel I lost a day in there somewhere. Actually it is 11 ½ hours different, so I lost only ½ day. The trip is always grueling and this one was no different. But I am glad to be here and greatly enjoyed seeing Wilson and Nish’s bright smiles as they greeted me at the airport. I spent about 7 hours overnight in the Delhi airport and it was very cold, around 45 degrees; they do not heat the place. I had not expected that and had some trouble staying warm. Actually it is supposed to be in the 70’s with lows around 50 all week which is a bit cooler than I had expected. I hope I stay warm enough in the summer clothes I brought.

This week I am teaching on taking heed to your doctrine, from I Tim 4. I am reminded of the need to set our minds on the truth and to always be checking what we believe against the Word of God. It is so easy to casually drift in subtle ways away from the truth ,and when we do we always do so to our peril. I am so thankful for the Word and its constant correction in our lives. Pray for me to clearly teach these dear men from that very Word.

Al