Safe arrival in Congo

I just wanted to post that I received a short email from my mom saying that they had arrrived safely in the capital city of Congo. They are staying in a nice facility but got just a few hours of sleep and then enjoyed a day with the head pastor and his wife. They were served a delicious congolese meal of chicken, fried fish and other traditional dishes (2 kinds of greens, plantains) as well as fried catapillers. Tonight they have an all night prayer meeting, so no rest! Congo is 6 hours ahead of Central Standard time in the US. They asked for prayers for "stamina, and Love that overflows and covers a multitude of things."

Anne Lynn
Daughter of Al & Edie

Summary of Venezuela Trip

Our day at the beach on Saturday went well and was very relaxing. We enjoyed talking about ministry issues with Mario and Alexander who went along with us. Thank you for praying with me about the carsickness issue. With some meds, I did pretty well.

The final day in Venezuela, I preached at the church in Limon. I was concerned because the translator that we had used in the conference was a bit rusty. Mario and I were greeting people as they arrived for the service. A young man named Daniel greeted us and we talked. He spoke excellent English and said that he had done a lot of translating in ministry before. He was new to the church and had only been coming for about a month. I jokingly said to him, “You can translate for me this morning.” Mario chimed in and encouraged him to do so. He agreed readily and did an excellent job. It was a great blessing to me and I think helped Daniel get some exposure in the church. He is a fine young man committed to ministry and I think he will be an asset to the church.

The church service was very dynamic and the worship was heartfelt, passionate and loud. It was a delight to be there. I was encouraged as I was able to figure out the Spanish in about 80% of the lyrics of the songs. Most of them I had never heard before. The people seemed to listen attentively and I heard good reports later, although I had few discussions with the people after the service because of the language issues.

Overall, our experience in Venezuela was very positive. The pastors not only listened well, but also talked seriously together about how to apply what they were learning and what the Lord had been saying to them through us. We could not have asked for a better response. They have tentatively invited us back in March to do training during their national conference. They want us to help fill in some gaps in their current training process.

There were a couple of stories that I thought were especially interesting about the trip:

Abdy Pereira Junior (10 years old), son of one of the pastors, went to his grandpa, who lives in apartment above them, and asked if he would let him host a cell group. Then he went to his Mom and asked if he could have permission to start a cell group with the needy kids in a nearby neighborhood. He told his Mom that he knew his parents were busy, but that he was willing do it himself since his grandpa had offered a place for him to host. They gave permission and Abdy hosted a cell group for 5 weeks. Nineteen children gave their lives to Christ! A few weeks later, he asked his mom, Paola, if he could ride his bike over to the neighborhood to follow-up on the converted kids. She said yes, and he went there, spent time with them, played soccer and found out how they were doing. He has done more follow-up. He recently asked if he could host another evangelistic cell group.

Saturday night it poured down rain and the Mario Lopez home was flooded. He was the pastor that organized the conference. It is the fourth time this has happened. The first time the water was 5 feet high and they lost everything. They had some work done to protect their home so this time the water only rose a couple feet. They have a terrazzo floor so no damage was done to wall or flooring but it will take time to get things back in order. And, since the water is infected with garbage, they have to disinfect everything. Please pray for energy and help. They also asked that we pray for their son Timothy (about 8 yrs old) who is experiencing some trauma every time there is a storm. When we met them for breakfast at the church Sunday morning, Madilva, Mario’s wife, was cheerfully singing as she worked to prepare the meal as if nothing had happened, even though they had been up much of the night working on the flooding. They are quite a godly couple.

I spent Monday night in Miami with my teammate Gene and then flew on to Iowa on Tuesday. It was a wonderful trip but I was also glad to be home. Now Edie and I will travel to St. Louis this weekend to speak at a Congolese church. A new adventure cross-culturally here in the US! Please pray that we will be able to communicate well with them on the issue of marriage. Thanks for your interest and prayers on our behalf.

Al

Day 3 in Venezuela, Part 2

Today was my day to teach so naturally I woke early at 4 am and could not get back to sleep. It was just a good reminder from the Lord that I need to trust in Him and He was faithful in helping me through.

After two good days of careful training by my teammates it seems that the Lord called me to inspire the men from the Word. I taught on the centrality of the Word in our thinking, on the necessity and joy in suffering, and on our unity in Christ. The Lord seemed to speak though these topics and the men responded well. Someone said they would have been disappointed if they had not been encouraged in this way before they went home. The Lord is good because when we came I did not know anything about the pastors and their needs, but He did. We have been asked to come back in March to do specific training for all of the pastors at their denominational meetings.

Tomorrow we go to the ocean traveling on a winding road through the mountains. Car sickness may be an issue for me. Sunday I preach in one of the churches and I have chosen Col. 3:1-4 as a text.

Thank you for your interest and prayers for our ministry here. You have partnered with us in this good work.

Al

Day 3 in Venezuela

Yesterday went well. Mark Wold did a fine job teaching about church health. The pastors are very warm and responsive. They love to get into discussion groups and are very serious about working on good ideas. We have been impressed with the overall maturity of the pastors attending the conference. We have about 35 total, about 1/4 of the total denomination.

Last night we heard from Daniel, a missionary from Venezuela to India. He had great stories to tell of the good work God is doing in bringing Hindus and Muslims to Christ. It was good to see the Venezuelan commitment to missions.

One interesting thing that happened yesterday is that a very large iguana fell out of a tree near the building we are meeting in. There were three or four of them in the tree. It was an unusual sight for a Iowan to see.

Pray for me today as I teach on the centrality of the Word in our thinking, the necessity of suffering and our unity in Christ. Thanks for standing with us as we serve the Lord here.

Al

Day 2 in Venezuela

Yesterday was a good but frustrating day. All of the teaching and discussion were conducted in Spanish with no translation. I could get about 1/3 of the teaching but none of the discussion. It makes your brain hurt to try to understand all day. After a full day it makes you feel rather inadequate not to be able to understand anything but we praise God that he is our adequacy.

The pastors here seem articulate and mature as far as I can tell. In the evening we had a general discussion with all the pastors and I could not understand anything that was being said. It turns out that the time was a great blessing as all the men were responding so well to the teaching and encouraging one another to band together to do more church planting. It is apparent that God was working although he did not include me until later when it all was explained to me. Pray for Mark today as he teaches with translation and for me tomorrow that God would work through us as well. Thanks for being partners with us in serving Him.


Al

Day 1 in Venezuela

We arrived last night and everything went well. We flew first into Coracao, part of the Dutch Antilles, and then on to Valencia. I had a little trouble filling out the visa form, it was really small print and my glasses were in my luggage (I know, I should be wearing them all the time). The other guys, all with glasses, helped me out.

It was a short drive on over to Limon where we will be staying and teaching. Our room was a step up from Africa, but had air conditioning that worked well. It is warm and humid, coming into summer sooner than we are at home. We are at the edge of the mountains as far as I can see, it is very hazy, almost foggy here.

Mario met us at the airport and seems to be a fine brother, one of the leaders of the EFCA here. If I can figure out how, I will try to send some photos later. We have internet in the eating area of our small hotel. Hopefully I can write often.

Al

Home Again

Dear Friends,

We’re home and beginning to think back on all God has purposed and planned for the Pastors of Burundi and Kenya. As you step into the ravaged, impoverished places of Bujumbura and Kilifi, it’s a wonder how people are so friendly. When you meet the people of God, you can’t help but see a glimpse of the character and Grace of God. Men and women, who do not have the books, education, a comfortable physical environment or cultural and political advantages we do, are growing, vibrant Christians. God is simply amazing in what He can do in the hearts of His people according to His grace.

We had gifted men to translate for Alan, in ways that the Africans would best understand. The narrative approach to teaching systematic theology, that Alan worked on before going, was well received beyond our expectations. The African believers were able to see how these concepts come out of scripture and how they relate together. Also, there was a huge and unexpected impact on their marriages and families. We are thankful to God because it was so helpful and blessed the African men so much. In fact we were told how they appreciated the fact that Alan got deeper with them and that they were learning so much and were thinking hard together about how they needed to change as a result of what they had learned.

My time with the women was equally as appreciated. I addressed what the bible has to say about our biblical role as a believer, wife, mother, friend/mentor and partner with our husbands in ministry. I shared stories of women from the scriptures that illustrated my points. In Burundi, I quickly realized that most of the women were not pastor’s wives and probably had little bible knowledge so I revamped some of my material and was careful to see that the gospel was woven in throughout the time. I was also asked to address issues of child bearing and child rearing. My interpreter was a man who was gentle but impatient with all the children and goings on. He told me he wasn’t very knowledgeable of women’s issues. The Lord just gave me grace and perseverance and I was well aware of His presence with me. Then we went to Kenya and I tasted the delight of teaching women who were thinking with me, eager to apply it practically and asked lots of questions. I praise God for the experience because again when I went to Czech the women were attentive, thinking but not at all interactive, verbally or non-verbally. I am sure it is partly my inexperience and the cultural issues that contribute to responses. I am content to just do as much as I can to prepare my heart and studies ahead of time and leave the results to God. My “social” times with the women were definitely productive and there were teachable moments throughout those times as well.

Of course Satan delights in frustrating our efforts and downright sabotaging what he could in order that the church continue to be hindered. However we could tell his fiery darts couldn’t get very far and that your prayers here in the states were effective in the battle with us. Please don’t take lightly the power and eternal work you do when you pray. We had peace that moved us through the challenges with calmness and assurance that He would prevail. Believe me that is not us in the flesh.

Briefly, Burundi offered no concern for safety. We were busy all day teaching and handing out glasses. The bags and bibles in both places were greatly appreciated. We are so thankful for the opportunity to provide such gifts to them. We knew they had never done something like this and this was our first experience with teaching in Africa so our expectations were low. We learned so much about what to be aware of and how something like this needs a liaison from the US to work out the details. As it was we ended up with significant extra costs for the training to continue. Our recommendation would be for the ReachGlobal Africa staff to work with the Burundi Free Church to help them mature in some of these areas. They have so many needs and they need help in how to manage that beyond thinking money is the answer. We look forward to seeing their progress in the years ahead.

In contrast, the group of churches we worked with in Kenya, the FGP was much further along in their thinking. They have been building a relationship with the Canon City Free Church through a man by the name of Jim Watson for close to 5 years. His wise and patient relationship building made working through logistics much more culturally and biblically compatible. For one thing, the attendees were indeed all Pastors, along with their wives and a few key church elders. We knew our roles and were able to give our all to that. As newbies we also learned how to work with the culture and people through the observation of the church leaders, Jim Watson, and by their interaction with us. It was almost a “too good to be true” experience especially given what we encountered in Burundi. It gave us an invaluable resource to draw on in future planning of training conferences. We anticipate going back next year to do more teaching there.

One of the highlights of our trips to each of these areas is visiting churches. Sometimes Alan would preach if it was a Sunday, but other times we would just take time out to see what is going on in various areas and meet the congregations. God’s people are friendly and warm wherever we go it seems. The children are a plus too, so much fun for us.

It was with great joy that we joined with the Czech City Team to minister to believers there. As much as we delighted to come and serve them by teaching on the Holy Spirit, I think they served us more with their love, encouragement, hospitality and generosity. We are so thankful that God has joined us in a special way with these ReachGlobal missionaries and we anticipate that God has a purpose beyond what we know for the relationships there. A special treat for us was a crossing of paths with Gary and Elizabeth Inrig. They, along with their church, put on the European regional conference and were taking a few days off in Prague. We were invited by the Prague team to join them for a tour of a castle. It was such a good time to renew our friendship with them and of course Elizabeth has had enormous impact on my life, in preparing me for the ministry God has given me today.

Soon we will hit the road again visiting Churches to update you on God’s activities and our participation with Him. We want to share our experience as we continue our efforts to equip the church through the building up of pastors and their wives. We plan to post some more stories and details on our blog in the coming days. Stay tuned!

With hearts filled with thankfulness to our great and awesome God,

Al and Edie Lewis