RockTheDesert

168 = Burundi

 
We leave for Burundi in approximately 168 hrs. That's 1 week from today. Dan and I are officially leading our first e3 Partners trip together. It took one year, but I finally finished my CPC training in May. We've been working from home - Dan is in the kitchen-dining area...I'm in the living room-dining area. We text and email each other from our "offices" and then we have staff meetings in the car and at Starbucks. We also observe "casual Friday" attire on, well, everyday.

As always, I'm nervous and excited and looking forward to meeting up with the rest of our team at the airport in D.C. I'm not looking forward to the long flight across the Atlantic to Rome then to Ethiopia then finally to Burundi. I always am relieved and thrilled to be on the ground in Bujumbura. There's just something about that place. We will set up a medical clinic for 4 days. I'm part of the eyeglass clinic. My first time. It should be interesting and fun. Our overall plan is to help 4 churches start 4 brand new churches and strengthen 2 existing churches. We anticipate that our medical team will see at least 1400 patients. We will also be doing HIV-Hope clinics for groups of people.

It's always amazing to watch God's plan unfold. We truly are servants, willing to be used, totally all-in!!

We would love to have people praying for us while we are gone. Click HERE to download and print our current prayer calendar. We will be sending short updates from Burundi, as we are able, via Twitter (follow @berryman & @daninreallife) and Facebook.

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5

Burundi - After Hours

Much to our great surprise, some pretty decent food can be found in Bujumbura, Burundi. Each time we've worked in or near Bujumbura while on mission with e3 partners, we usually eat a couple of meals at The Ubuntu Residence - they have a beautiful restaurant called The Kiboko Grill. We usually begin with a round of Coca Colas or Fruto (passion fruit juice) and a couple of plates of samosas, which are like little meat turnovers. Then we order wood-fired pizza. The margarita pizza is just good old cheese pizza on a thin crust. The napolitan pizza has chunks of salami on a thin crust with cheese. At the end of a long day of bumpy roads in crowded buses, evangelism, preaching, singing, hanging out with the crowds and the translators and the pastors, nothing could be better than this meal, served outdoors under the inky night sky with Lake Tanganyika just a few steps away.
 
By Tuesday night we were ready for a round of Cokes & pizza. So we piled into the van and Manuel drove us to The Kiboko Grill. En route to the restaurant, Dan and Herve started telling stories about the hippos that graze along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Herve confirmed that there used to be a lot more hippos but they were scared away by the war. Lake Tanganyika also used to boast a 22 ft long crocodile named Gustave! FYI, Lake Tanganyika is the deepest lake in Africa and holds the greatest volume of fresh water.

When we arrived at the Ubuntu Residence we entered the courtyard of the restaurant. We suddenly were blinded by flashbulbs from paparazzi. There was a long receiving line of formally-dressed dignitaries lining the sidewalk leading to the lawn. I hopped off the sidewalk and took a short-cut to a table. Dan and the others went right through the receiving line, shaking hands and being greeted cordially by these well-dressed men and women. Evidently, they were there to receive quite a few dignitaries and got some bonus handshakes from a few scruffy missionaries as well! We were told that they were part of a Congolese delegation to Burundi and were there to celebrate the Congolese Independence Day.

While driving back to our hotel, David Mitchell decided to shine his flashlight on the tall grasses along the road, hoping to spot a hippo. He was instantly rewarded with two glowing, yellow, close-set eyes looking up at the sudden light. We could make out the outline of a massive hippo standing there, calmly grazing on a lush feast. We made Manuel turn the van around and go back so we could stare and marvel at this magnificent creature. Herve said it was powerful enough to charge the van and destroy it and us if it wanted to. We tried to capture it on camera but there wasn't enough light from the moon and we didn't dare get any closer to it. Although I'm not an animal lover, I have to admit, it was a pretty amazing sight to see

Bujumbura (Rural)

Our two teenage sons were with us on our recent e3 partners trip to Burundi. They are both such great assets to our team. On this trip Dan and our oldest son, Mike, were on the same team. They encountered a couple of unique obstacles with their church site. The first obstacle was - The Location of their new church. You can see from this photo that they had quite a hike from the bottom of the canyon (where the arrow disappears into the trees) to the place where the church is. This canyon had only a Catholic church on one side of the canyon and a Jehovah Witness church on the other side. Now there is an evangelical Christian church (New Life Church) right in the middle! New Life Church has their main campus in Bujumbura. There are several families, including the new pastor, who live in this canyon. They hike / walk over 2 hours every Sunday to get to church. Sometimes they hitchhike or catch a bus for part of the way. They are overjoyed to have a church planted right in the middle of the canyon!!

The church had a blue tarp roof on Monday, but that was blown off by the wind by Tuesday.

Some new church members gathered at new church building...

The second obstacle was - The River. They had to cross a fast-moving river at the bottom of the canyon in order to evangelize the other side of the canyon. Mike was terrified to cross. He had to be carried across the river by a Burundi national. Poor little guy, look at the size of his legs compared to Michael's legs. I don't know how he made it across! 

On the way back, they found a narrower part of the river to cross. Here's the progression of Mike's second river crossing.

Some of the guys laid big, flat stones down across the shallowest part of the river for Michael to step on.

Mike stepped out in faith...

Mike might be changing his mind about crossing...
His piggyback ride is now his helper...do you blame him?
Sort of reached a plateau...
His team member is cheering him on...
Gathering a little more courage...
A couple more giant steps...
He did it! I'm not sure if he kissed the dry land - I'm afraid to ask him.
I'm proud of him for not giving up and pushing on, keeping his eyes on the prize (the shore) and trusting God (and his team mates) to help him across!

Gatumba - #2

When we go on church-planting trips with e3 partners, each trip is similar yet with unique "could only be God" twists and turns and circumstances and divine appointments. During our 4 days in Gatumba, there was an interesting cast of characters who were transformed by the life-changing message of the Gospel. Each afternoon, we'd return to the church, rest for about 30 minutes then begin a discipleship meeting. We provide printed discipleship materials and Bibles to the church for their use after we're gone. There's usually a few songs, some short teachings from the pastor, teaching from the North Americans, and my favorite part - the testimonies of those who professed faith in Christ that day. On Monday afternoon, I recognized three guys that came in together. I had shared with a large group of mostly young men who were gathered at a bicycle repair shop (bikes/spare parts under a small shade structure). During the testimony time, Pastor Joseph went up to one of the three guys and shook his hand and hugged him and made a huge fuss over him. My translator explained that this young man was known as the local cat burglar. He made a living breaking into homes during the night and stealing / reselling peoples' possessions. He seemed rather sheepish, definitely repentant, and there was no hardness about his demeanor at all. He publicly stated his faith in Christ and his life (and profession) was changed. Very cool. Saw him every day at the meeting. To my surprise, the muslim couple that we shared with on Monday showed up at the discipleship that same afternoon. Their names were Sidfred & Alina. They didn't really participate, but they listened and seemed rather intrigued by it all. They came up to me after the meeting and said they wanted to attend the church and learn more about God. Sidfred said he was a fisherman. That made me extremely happy. I explained to him that when Jesus called his first disciples, he called several fishermen. I told him I'd pray that Jesus would call him out to be His disciple. Tuesday afternoon, Sidfred & Alina were again at the discipleship meeting. They seemed more engaged in the singing and listened pretty intently to the teaching and testimonies. They came up to me after the meeting. They seemed very happy. They said it would be no problem for them to pray to receive Jesus as their Savior! So my translator, Innocent, led them in prayer...love when that happens!

Gatumba - #1

I'm learning the importance of keeping a daily journal on my iPhone notepad while on mission. My last trip was to Burundi, Africa with e3 partners. There are typically so many great encounters, divine appointments, details and feelings that might be forgotten or discounted if I waited 'til returning home to write everything down.

I was assigned to a city called Gatumba. David Mitchell was my team member. This was his 2nd trip to Africa - his 1st to Burundi. It was a privilege to watch God work in and through David. We worked with Pastor Joseph (Mother Church pastor), Pastor Moses (Mission Point Pastor), and Aaron (Associate Mission Point Pastor). From what I could tell, Pastor Moses would preach or talk to the people in Kirundi and Aaron would provide Swahili translation. These guys are so smart! And so passionate about God and the work He's called them to do.

David and I went in separate directions every morning. He headed to the Muslim & witch doctor neighborhoods. I headed downtown and into some highly populated neighborhoods. Gatumba is near Lake Tanganyika but not directly on the water. It's also pretty close to DRC (Congo). I'd describe the area as a tan, sandy prairie. Not so many trees or plants. Just homes made of mud and sand and bamboo sticks. Some really tall, narrow trees that didn't provide much shade. Thankfully, in the afternoons we'd catch a stiff, sandy breeze which would cool us off but at the same time would fill my eyes with grit, sending my hair into frizzy spasms and my skirt swirling and flying. Not the best look for me.

Monday was an interesting first day of ministry. I talked to lots of groups of people. Sometimes 30 people at a time would be gathered, listening to the Gospel via the Evangecube. We went inside a few homes. Sat on straw mats in courtyards. Stopped traffic on the main road. Stopped traffic off the beaten path. There were lots of kids following us everywhere, but they were fairly well-behaved. More than once I found myself holding hands with ten kids at a time practically skipping down the road. Yes, practically.

Pastor Moses stopped to pray for a woman who was ill, sitting outside in the shade outside her home. He asked me to lay hands on her. He placed his hand on her head - I followed suit. He prayed for healing for her. Then he asked me to pray for her too. I asked what her illness was...I freaked out just a little bit on the inside when they said she had tuberculosis. As soon as we left there, I used a hand wipe and a pretty big glob of hand sanitizer. She didn't cough at all so I think I'll be ok.

We stopped outside a house to share the Gospel with a Muslim woman and her friend. Both of them said they wanted to accept Jesus. They both started to pray out loud, but stopped when the Muslim woman's husband showed up. He was not cool at all with us being there and definitely not with his wife becoming a Christian. Pastor Moses made an appointment to return on Friday and answer any questions about Christianity that they might have. Turns out that Pastor Moses was born into and raised in a Muslim home. He said he would use the Bible and the Koran to share truths about Jesus. We invited them to attend our afternoon discipleship meeting at the church. They declined.

Obedience vs. Knowledge

"A sermon is second-hand knowledge. A missions-trip is first-hand knowledge. Big difference between those two. I'm not discounting sermons. It's what I'm called to do :) But let's be honest: most Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience. we don't need more knowledge. we need to do more with our knowledge." Mark Batterson, responding to a commenter on a recent blog post

Mark Batterson's Evotional blog is one of my daily reads. Today's post was nothing extra-ordinary. However, the comments are where the sparks started flying. I rarely post comments, yet today, I couldn't help but join the conversation.

Interested in weighing in?  Here's the blog post: 1 Mission Trip vs. 52 Sermons

Burundi in 140 Characters or Less

This is my husband, aka, @daninreallife. Through an unfortunate positioning of the picture frame, you can't see his other 2 fingers - this is his "gang" signal - it's supposed to be E3. Can you picture it? He has been twittering daily on his epic 25 day trip to Africa. Our sons and I were with the team for the first 1/3 of the trip. Now we're home, relying on his cryptic msgs for progress updates. I decided to compile all 76 tweets here. I recommend you start at Update #76 and work your way up to #1. Will make most sense that way. Go ahead...scroll on down to the bottom of the page now!

1. Almost morning in Burundi, waiting for "drip drip drip" sound & water. Cannot wait for my cold shower!
2. Going to bed tired, filthy & sweating in Burundi. Good day 5-Americans, 11-Burundi & 2-Tanzanians shared Jesus w/ 1201-people, 472 prayed
3. Almost out of "hand wipes" they go fast when water is out at hotel. 12-days to go in Africa. :-)
4. Prosper is my translator this week. Philemon is here too. They both love Mike. Yves is in Rwanda. Who should I give pod to?
5. In Cibitoke hotel lobby watching Michael Jackson Memorial. Did I enter alternate universe? Team torn between donating to starving kids or MJ
6. In Burundi, met old woman on street, she looked & sounded like Yoda. She tapped my bag w/ her cane. She wanted food... she got it.
7. In Burundi, 15-yr old boy (half the size of Steve) accepts Jesus.
8. Shared Jesus w/ woman. She quoted scriptures w/ translator. She was pentacostal. She already shares Jesus w/ others. We gave her e-cube.
9. In Burundi, on hill surrounded by cows & people. 3-gospel presentations going @ same time. Cool!
10. In Burundi, missionaries & hotel workers came to breakfast singing. God is good.
11. In Cibitoke, encountered large, fast spider while walking to bathroom down the hall. Come to Jesus moment w/ me, spider & a can of Raid.
12. In Burundi, our bus driver, who became a Christian last week, went w/ e-cube & led 6-people to Jesus!
13. Finished our day in Cibitoke. 30- Burundi listened to Mark 1-7 on "Proclaimer". They loved the stories of Jesus & the beheading of John.
14. In Burundi, shared Jesus w/ a Christian family. Children sang songs for us (new for me). We prayed together. We left the kids our lunch.
15. Sharing Jesus w/ many Muslims. 1-prayed for Jesus. We prayed that the others would have dreams of Jesus.
16. In Burundi, just shared gospel w/ soldier. Trained him on e-cube & gave him one. He promised to share w/ other soldiers.
17. Sunday, Day 1, 2nd campaign, 5-americans, 2-tanzanians, 17-burundi shared the gospel w/ 510-people & 304 prayed for Jesus.
18. I love Africa. I can pick my nose in public and it is socially okay
19. Sun has set over the Congo, cool breeze blowing, God is good.
20. Eating at pastor's house in Cibotoke. Please pray Luke 10:17-20 over the team.
21. Love my translator. Choir dancing (not singing) in front of me, translator leans in & says, "They dance". Uhh, thanks, I'm not blind.
22. In church in Burundi watching offering collection, mostly cash and 1-chicken.
23. July 5 in Burundi, we are eating water melon for breakfast to celibrate American Independence. Yea, a day late in Burundi is on time.
24. This time in Burundi we remembered our drivers: inviting them to diner, giving them gifts like the gifts for translators. 1-driver prayed.
25. Sunday in Cibotoke: we are beyond internet connection, I can only transmit via phone. We also learned water is not on 24-hrs but whenever.
26. Hotel room in Cibitoke has no bathroom or internet, but it does have bugs & mosquitos...and power... Haven't had power in a while.
27. Comfortable mission trip just got harder. Cibotoke is a little less modern than Bujumbura.
28. In Burundi at the pastor's conference, Tricia spoke about the godly qualities a woman looks for in a man. All prayed she would be married.
29. We have just arrived at Cibitoke. Waiting to check into hotel.
30. Today Burundi pastors got good lessons on how to value spouses & to use ministry to glorify God & not the pastor.
31. African women told David, "now try cooking like this everyday & in the rain..."
32. In Burundi: just finished pastor's conference. David cooked African style - outside, over fire, limited water... He loved it.
33. In Burundi at 1-day pastor & wife's conference. Swahili, English & Kirundi.
34. Hotel in Bujumbura is nice. It has hot & cold water. In our room, hot water in the shower (only) & cold water in the sink (only).
35. Early morning in Burundi. Marina left & ~ got new roommate. Hotel has 1-bed per room. Being the leader, I got the floor. Floor was firm.
36. Mike & I worked in the hills outside Bujumbura. Catholic & JW churches @ each end of river valley. Now a new Bible church in the middle.
37. ... It was hard to drop off 15-yr old son & single 20's woman at old camp, but hundreds prayed to Jesus & new church was started in Burundi.
38. In Burundi, Steve & Tricia worked at the site of the rebal camp that battled government for 12-yrs...
39. In Gatumba, Burundi, Marina & David worked amomg Muslims & witch doctors. Churches were strengthened, hundreds prayed for Jesus.
40. Sun has set over Congo, sky darkening. Sipping tea in thick humid air, reflecting on Burundi church planting campaign.
41. Eating meat sandwiches, buying oranges & peanuts, dodging traffic on the dusty streets of Bujumbura. Join us next time for the adventure.
42. In Bujumbura cental market buying vegtables for pastor's conference tomorrow. Crazy!
43. In Burundi, at pastor's house, watching Christian TV in French about Armagedon. Weird
44. Greater Bujumbura evangelism results: 3014-gospel presentations, 1499-prayed for Jesus, 5-new churches, 1-church stregthened.
45. Long day in field just got longer. Burundi cell service broadcasting wrong time.
46. Mission team ate pizza at lake. As we were leaving, David shines flashlight along the shore to find a hippo. Auto sized hippo 20ft from road
47. Last night, in Burundi, our stick & tarp church fell apart in the wind. Tonight the church is made of sticks & palm leaves.
48. Sharing Jesus w/ Burundi, almost done when interrupted by the cheif. Everyone, even pastor was afraid of him. He listened, argued & prayed.
49. "...from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows..." this describes our walk today.
50. Evangelism continues, Mike & I had to cross the river. I jumped across rocks. Big Mike was carried across by a 110-lb Burundi. Photo soon.
51. people in USA, thank God for your brews. village brew is nasty. Toddlers, men, nursing mothers...all had drinks while we were sharing Jesus
52. ... The brewmaker's name is Desire, he prayed to receive Jesus. He wants us to pray for strength to quit his lively hood...
53. ...we shared Jesus w/ a drunk brewmaker. He did not want to hear, but we asked how to make the "beer" and told him what we were sharing...
54. Our new church is on top of hill. Today we desended down a deep rocky, rutted path that is lined w/ banana trees into the depths...
55. woman w/ baby on her back, load on her head for market just prayed to receive Jesus. load was so heavy that she could not lift it herself.
56. 2nd day wirthout internet in Burundi. Hope phone is posting.
57. Favorite song today in English was Burundi children's choir, "weeee luj Judas" (we love Jesus)
58. What God did in Burundi today w/ 6-Americans: 572 gospel presentations, 114 prayed for Jesus (including 1-Muslim & 1-town thief).
59. Burundi pastor summed our day best: "We did it African style, without a plan & ovecame every obsticle. God worked perfect". Me: "????"
60. I love my church plant children. They thought that my 19-year old son was my dad!
61. Finally beginning to feel human again after slight airsick attack. Bring on the paper work. Day 3 in Burundi over.
62. All those walks up Piestua Peak have paid up. Our new church site is on top a steep hill east of Bujumbura center.
63. Went to "mother" church in Bujumbura this morning. Worship louder than a rock concert. Think I'm deaf.
64. No internet today.
65. Sunday morning in Bujumbura. Sipping coffee over looking lake. A break from the heat. Hope it rains hard & purges smoke out of the air.
66. Restful day in Burundi? Prayed for 20-year old encephalitis victim & visited orphanage in hills (short drive but hrs away). Team exhausted.
67. Mike converted culturally to African. He ordered coffee then filled cup wirth creamer & sugar. Best coffee he ever had.
68. Breakfast on veranda overlooking lake: coffee, tea, croque madame & fruit salad. Life is good. Thank you, Jesus.
69. Spent Thursday night in Addis Ababa. Hotel Rivera had bigger, better bathroom than we do at home. Bummer. Africa 1 - Team Berryman 0.
70. Starting 2nd day in Burundi. Got air sick last 30-minute flight. Still dizzy, but looking forward to dominating the day.
71. 1st for me: 6-team members loaded into small hotel elevator, bells rang, lift was overloaded (Riviera Hotel, Addis Ababa)
72. Arrived at the top of the world in Ethiopia. We will spend the night and continue our journey to Burundi tomorrow.
73. Last news story before leaving USA: Iran & twitter
74. Oops... Forgot vitamins... Need prayer to skip sinus infections this trip. Vitamin B helps me a lot. I think God can beat B.
75. Waiting to board Ethiopian flight to Africa. We leave at 8:30pm & arrive at 8:30pm... Bummer...
76. On mission to Africa. As I was leaving house married daughter & son-in-law moved in for unlimited xbox.

Is God Asking You To GO?

When I think of our E3 ministry partners and friends in Africa, specifically Rwanda & Burundi, I have to smile. We have had some pretty incredible, intense moments of worship with them. The reason I love this picture of the drum kit is because it unapologetically reminds me of their dignity and determination to worship God in spite of debilitating poverty, unspeakable circumstances of civil war, and lack of resources that we would consider essential - like proper stage lighting, musical instruments that are in tune, music charts, etc. I'm telling you, you've never worshipped until you've been travelling down the road at 120 kilometers per hour in a toyota van packed with 16 people, singing at the top of your lungs, using every part of the van as a percussion instrument, all the while watching the veins start to pop out of the neck of the hired muslim van driver...

It's like this time of raw, passionate worship paves the way, lights our path, allowing us a glimpse of heaven even before we get to the town/village where we'll be sharing the Gospel, seeing literally 1000s of people turn to God for the first time, watching the Light intersect the darkness and the moment of illumination that means eternal lifechange for these individuals - when we proclaim God's name to the ends of the earth, we get the privilege of watching His creative hand at work. We've seen God do incredible things in those countries, drawing people to Himself in a magnificent, overflowing, can't-believe-this-is-happening sort of way!

Short-term missions, long-term missions, whatever it is that you are divinely appointed to be a part of - just do it, ok? If you're waffling, right on the edge of going or not going, worried about how to pay for it, wondering if you'll still have a job when you get back, or even caught up in how this will impact you once you return (oh, and believe me you'll be changed forever), let me just help you find the answer you're looking for - it's Yes. Go. Don't hesitate. God is in control. God's mercy will be over you. God's path will be under you. God's Spirit is in you. God's will is in front of you. God will never leave you or forsake you. God's ultimate love has already been expressed for you and I and every person on the planet. Let's not wallow in a self-focused gluttonous intake of that love with no outlet for expression of it - let's see the world through His eyes, offering His love through our open hands to a world in desperate need of His love, His redemption, His gift of salvation.

Is God asking you to GO?

So Tired...

Must get some sleep. Romania trip was wonderful. The people. The food. The Hotel Magnus. E3 Partners.

Our team of 32 North Americans along with our talented translators, shared 1200+ Gospel presentations. 330+ first time professions of faith in Christ. I was really happy to be able to do follow up visits with brand new believers, encouraging them, praying for them. I sampled rose petal jelly, sweet-boiled walnuts, fresh fruit off of trees in courtyards we passed through.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I visited with a woman named Neculina. Well, I did a follow-up visit on Thursday. She said she had prayed and asked Jesus to be her Savior after we left on Wednesday. Then she read the Bible - Gospel of John - like I had asked her to. She now wanted me to talk to her husband. She woke him up from his afternoon nap and brought him outside. I talked to him for quite a while. He had a lot of questions and pushed back a lot on the whole salvation by faith alone (no works required for salvation). I gave him a Bible and a pair of reading glasses. Then I used those free gifts to explain to him the free gift of salvation. He finally got it. Prayed to receive Christ. We showed him how to read and study the Bible. He was extremely grateful. His name is Marin - 78 years old!

More later - I'm so tired...

WCW - Snapshots of Romania

Today is Watercooler Wednesday at Randy Elrod's Ethos blog. Join me and other imaginative bloggers around the watercooler for fun, enlightenment, and entertainment. Click HERE for Randy's post called "When Nature Screams."

My life is all about Missions right now. I'm in the CPC training process with e3 partners ministry. That means that I get to experience on-the-job-training on two separate mission trips. That, in addition to boot camp, will conclude my training process. So, if my blogging is infrequent in the next few months, it's because I'm struggling to find a decent internet connection somewhere in the world.

**Before you continue reading or move on to another blog, please leave a comment and answer these 2 simple questions: have you ever been on a mission trip? if you could go on a mission trip anywhere in the world, where would that be?**

OH YEAH, one more thing, I'd appreciate it a lot if you'd pray for our team from July 11-19. Click HERE for a printable prayer calendar. Thank you!!

I just finished packing for my first training trip. I leave Friday morning at 8am, heading to Romania. I will join the rest of our team at Dulles airport in Washington D.C. We should be in Bucharest at 1:40pm on Saturday. Then we'll board a bus and head north & east to Galati (pronounced Galatz). Alyssa and I went to Galati on our first e3 mission trip 3 years ago. I'm excited to be working with the same church, Emmanuel Christian Church. Check out their website. It's written in Romanian, however, there's a button to click that translates it to English! Pretty high-tech!!

I'm not so excited about the bus ride from Bucharest to Galati. The bus is comfortable enough, but we'll have to stop for dinner about half-way there. Last time, we stopped at "McDonalds." Everything was kinda similar and kinda not. More toward the "not" side.

Galati is located pretty much on the banks of the Danube River. Industrial shipping is a main economy for the area.

Here's a view of the Danube at night - I found this pic using Google - we were nowhere near the Danube after dark - e3 policy!!

An interesting component to our trip in 2005 and to my upcoming trip will be the mobile art team. Ted VanNatta is an artist who sets up his easel in various locations in the villages - near the town square, along a busy road, near a popular market, etc. He draws beautiful depictions of Bible stories while his other team members engage groups of bystanders in spiritual conversations.

Here's a typical afternoon discipleship meeting.
In 2007, the new church was able to build a brand new building and it was immediately filled to over-flow capacity!

Rwanda Stories - It All Adds Up

Dan (being a true engineer at heart) decided to work up some interesting numbers for me to post.

First and foremost:

• 1 true, living God drawing people unto Himself through the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed boldly in love...

In no particular order:

• 27 North American "missionaries"
• 5 states represented
• 28 Rwandan Ministry Partners
• 850 lbs of ministry materials crammed into:
• 16 additional suitcases (Evangecubes, tracts, clothes, crayons, bubbles, proclaimers)
• 3 lbs pancake mix, 144 slices pre-cooked bacon (breakfast food for two days in Kigali )
• 56 feet of laminated Creation posters
• 10,309 air miles each way
• 51-1/2 hours travel to get to Rwanda
• 35 hours travel to get home
• 288 Kinyarwanda Bibles
• 1800 beaded Gospel bracelets
• 1200 liters of drinking water
• 8 Mother Church Pastors
• 8 Mission Point Leaders
• 1 day ministering to 300 orphans in Celphar Orphanage
• 4 days in Ruhengeri at EER Guest House
• 344 Rwandan villagers whom we trained in evangelism and discipleship for the new churches
• 8 brand new churches planted
• 95 yr old man - oldest person to receive Christ
• 8960 Gospel presentations
• 3872 1st time professions of faith in Jesus
• 872 Follow-up discipleship visits
• 4 youth group/weekly Bible studies strengthened in 4 secondary schools (high school)
• 2000 secondary school students attended discipleship at schools daily with our youth teams teaching, preaching, encouraging, sharing life, discipling fellow students
• 600 dollars given to each mission point for roofs

It all adds up to 1 incredible, life-changing, e3 mission trip...the details are incredulous to look at - the numbers seem almost exaggerated and certainly out-of-proportion - that's because God's numbers are His work, His miracle, for His glory. We would love to have you join us on an upcoming trip!   We're heading to Burundi in August, Rwanda in January, and Burundi in March.Think about it. Pray about it. Then just do it!!

Rwanda Stories - In The Red

It seems that from every e3 mission trip I go on, a memorable theme emerges. This time, for me, it was all about God's provision. He is, after all, Jehovah-Jireh, God our Provider. He definitely intended for us to really know that about Him by the end of the week.

Before we left for Rwanda, we knew that our trip was over-budget by over $4000. This was mostly due to out-of-control airline costs which seemed to go up every day before we finally had funds from everyone to purchase them. Also, a few months after setting the final price for the trip, we found out that part of our budget needed to include leaving behind $600 per church site to assist with the cost of putting a roof on a new building. Great. Another $4800 in the red. Dan and I decided that we'd pull that amount out of his support account when we returned home. We were prepared for the trip to be even more in the red due to fluctuating prices and a lot of unknown expenses that we might incur. We knew that God would provide for our needs. He had already provided an incredible team of North Americans and Rwandan ministry partners. We'd had safe travel. All of our luggage arrived with us. These were all small miracles. Then God started to get really creative. He made Toyota Land Cruiser available for Dan to drive which meant that we could cram 6 team members in that vehicle with him and save over $2000 by not having to rent another van. He ended up spending $110 on fuel. That's quite a savings! Somehow, with God's provision, the budget ended up in the black AND we left that additional $4800 for roofs. That was a huge miracle!!  When God provides, He provides generously, abundantly, without holding back, and all for His glory!!

  More on God's provision in my next post...

Philippians 4:19 "You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes." THE MESSAGE BIBLE

Rwanda Stories - Sunday

Our E3 trip to Rwanda is an epic tale of God's faithfulness. God's plans were carried out according to His will and purposes. We were the message-bearers, the servants, the foot-washers, the encouragers, the hill-climbers, the disciple-makers, an eclectic team called together for 10 days of travel, ministry, partnership, and celebration! Each team member was a blessing to the team in various ways throughout the week. From words of encouragement to chocolate and popcorn, to cold medicine, to smiles, to hands clasped in unity, to utter silliness, to despair and fear, everything we brought to the table was ultimately for God's glory and to make His Name known to the Rwandans we encountered.

I was the leader of Team #1. This is a picture of Team #1's Mission Point church site. Our task for the week was relatively simple: share the Gospel with everyone we met while walking throughout the village, invite new Christians to a discipleship meeting in the afternoon, equip the new church with materials and resources to continue the ministry after our team is gone, and help to establish a brand new, baby church by the end of the week!!

The church plans to rent this site until God provides a way for them to buy the land and building...asking price is 1,000,000 rwandan francs - about $2000 US dollars. On Sunday morning, we worshipped at the Mother Church which was several miles away from here. On Sunday afternoon, our team met with the Mother Church Pastor (Charles) and the Missions Point Pastor-in-training (Jean Claude), along with a group of about 50 church members (from the Mother Church) at the Mission Point for a time of prayer walking. We walked over the entire site, praying that God would do a mighty work in this village during our four short days of sharing the Gospel and building His church. By the end of the first day, we were humbled and amazed to see how abundantly God began to answer our prayers!
My two team members, Rachel and Sara, along with their ministry partners Jane & Maureen, are telling the story of Creation and using a 7 ft wide laminated poster to share beautiful, bright pictures which show what God created each day!

Summer of Missions

We leave on Wednesday, June 18 for Rwanda, Africa. God has assembled a team of missionaries from Arizona, California, Texas, Alabama, and Florida to do His work in Rural Rwanda, partnering with e3 partners and their incredible team of trainers, translators, nationals, and local churches. I'll be posting as frequently as I can from Rwanda - can't always guarantee the internet will be operational in the area we'll be staying. We took this picture right outside of Ruhengeri which is where we'll be working again. Rwanda is incredibly beautiful and lush and green. It rains every afternoon in this region. This is actually a golf course at a lodge near the volcano area where people climb up to see the gorillas in their natural habitat. We went to the lodge for our final dinner together as a team before leaving for the USA in the morning. I believe we were standing on Jack Hanna's porch (he wasn't there) while taking this picture.

When we return from Rwanda, I'll wash my clothes and re-pack them so that I can leave for Romania on July 11. I'll be part of another e3 partners team of 33 missionaries from across the country. This trip is one of 2 training trips necessary in order for me to become a Church Planting Coordinator with e3. Romania has a very small percentage of Evangelicals Christians. There is a fairly large Orthodox influence, but only in a very religious, dutiful way. Although the percentage of Evangelicals is small, Romania still has one of the largest group of Christians in Eastern Europe. Alyssa and I went to Romania with e3 on a missions trip in July 2005. I'm very excited that I'm returning to the same region that we worked in and working with the same 2 mother churches! Here's Alyssa in a massive field of sunflowers - they grow sunflowers, not for the seeds, but for the oil!!

I'll be back on July 19. I'll once again wash my clothes and re-pack them in preparation for our August trip to Burundi, Africa. I'm really excited about this trip because my friend Kelly is going with us!! This will be Dan's second e3 partners mission trip that he plans and executes all on his own! We are actively recruiting for this trip right now...it will be here before we know it!  Click HERE to find out more details about the trip and to sign up to join us!!! We are planning on staying at the same, beautiful hotel as last time we were there. It's very close the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Lots of rain here, too. Very lush, tropical paradise juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of the capital city, Bujumbura.

I must be an optimist, but I'm thinking I'll have time to hit the CA beaches sometime this summer too! That will be a personal mission trip, made up of frozen yogurt with fresh blackberries, ice-cold watermelon, sun-splashed skin, shockingly cold, salty, seaweedy waves, sweeping me off my feet, restoring my tired body, refreshing my California spirit! We used to camp at San Clemente State Beach every summer while growing up. Some of my best childhood memories are of these summery, sunburned, family times. I'm sure my mom needed a vacation by the end of the week after cooking 3 meals a day and sweeping sand out of the tent constantly. Good times!! (I'm wrapped in the blue towel)

Last full day of Recreate

Wow. What a day. There was a shift today to a more personal aspect of being on the front lines of worship leading, planning, etc. Lots of cool elements today - CCLI shared about their new and improved services. You can actually upload video performances (original songs) to a designated section of their website. That's a very cool feature I'll be checking out soon. Mark Roach led us in worship. We sing a lot of his songs at Fellowship North. They really resonate with our team and our people.

Mike Lewis, the Jesus Painter, led us in an incredible time of worship - visually thru painting giant canvases focused on Christ. It was a magical unfolding of splashes and splatters and random lines and then you'd see it - the face of Christ as clear as anything right there on the canvas. Amazing. We shared communion during his painting time. Very moving and beautiful.

We heard from Mark Stuart from Audio A. He shared about personal stuff and about his involvement with Hands And Feet which is a very cool project in Haiti. Audio A and their fans have created a village - they house 30 orphans right now, but their plan is to house 80 kids. Their vision is to grow them up and nurture them and educate them and love them and then they will have raised up a new generation who can make an impact in their native country. They've built bunkhouses that can accommodate groups coming in on mission/work trips. It sounds amazing. I liked Mark so much. Click HERE to read more about Hands And Feet. There's a lot of cool details I'm leaving out because I'm dead tired and trying to get to bed. But I might, no, definitely WILL have more to say about this in the near future. Because missions and music are the two things I'm passionate about - and when you combine the two together, watch out - it's gonna be strong!

Ken Davis spoke to us - he got really vulnerable when sharing his story. More about this later - I related so much to his 3 points - I got out my laptop and typed fast & furiously during his talk.

Then we got to visit Kalein. Oh my. Breathtakingly beautiful. So many details about this coming later. Let's just say, adventure, vision, blessing.

Capped the day off with a great night of dinner and worship sponsored by Word. I can't WAIT to listen to a couple of the CDs they gave us - let's just say - the girls rocked the house! Such authority and passion in their words and the delivery rocked my world - I'm still thinking about it!

Much more later on all these topics. Off to bed!

Story behind photo #9

Friday was our last full day in Burundi. We finished all our evangelism and church planting activities late Thursday night with a celebration service and dinner at one of the mother churches. Friday, we met at the shores of Lake Tanganyika for a baptism service. It was planned by Bishop Independance and his team. I've got really great video footage and no way to upload it. Someday it will be posted here - as soon as I figure out how to change it from .mov to .mpeg4. Uh, yeah.

Anyway, there was a huge worship celebration going on when we arrived at the lake. There were rhythm instruments - big metal shakers and a big drum. And lots of voices singing praises to God. It was really glorious. Then a short message by Independance. Then the baptizing began. The singing never stopped, it only got louder and included lots of cheering as the newly baptized Christians came up out of the water then returned to the shore. Bouquets of flowers were handed out and those robes came right off and were handed to the next person waiting to be baptized. It was so great to join this celebration because it really brought home the fact that lifechange did happen in a big way during our time of ministry. Each person wearing a robe was witness to the fact that our God is Big. He's Huge. And He showed up and poured out His power and love and grace and blessing over Bujumbura, Burundi in a spectacular way. I look forward to how God will use this movement of spiritual awakening and revival to impact this city and the other cities and villages in Burundi. I've been invited to do a women's conference in Burundi. Not once, but twice by two totally different, unrelated people. I'm praying about that opportunity. That would really be a branching out experience for me.

After 4 trips to Africa in 10 months (Dan's been on 6 trips), I've got a lot to think about and pray about. My world has changed a lot. My life has been marked with permanent marker - I'm not the same person I used to be. And that's a good thing. The words of Romans 8:28 are not so vague and out of reach anymore. The tapestry that can be is starting to come into focus. Could it really be that personal and true - that God works ALL things together for good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose... 

Story behind picture #8

This is one of my favorite stories. Simon, my translator, is on the left. Odette is on the right. On Thursday, our last day of ministry, we set out to make every minute count because we had to be back at the church site by noon for our final discipleship meeting before the end of the campaign. We shared with many groups of people. Lots of people prayed to receive Christ. Time flew by. By the time we checked on the time, it was already noon. We started walking back to the church. Along the way we were stopped by a young man sitting in the shade on a street corner. He wanted to know what we were sharing with people. We shared the Gospel using the Evangecube. A crowd immediately gathered. Probably 30 people. When it came time to pray, the man who initiated the presentation walked away, not interested in praying to receive Christ. But a lot of other people did pray. By the end of the prayer another crowd had gathered so we shared again. More people prayed to receive Christ. Another crowd gathered. Still more prayed to receive Christ. I noticed a teenage girl in the crowd who was white. Then I realized she was albino. No pigment in her skin. Her face was sunburned bright red. She had yellow-white hair. She had a few brown freckles on her face. Her eyes were watery blue - very pale. I didn't take her picture because I thought she might feel uncomfortable and singled out. At the end of the third group presentation, a young woman, Odette, came up to Simon and asked for prayer for a difficult situation in her family. I couldn't hear her talking because there were a lot of people all around me. Simon and I prayed over her. He prayed in Kirundi, I prayed in English. We prayed out loud, fervently, for healing and restoration in her family situation. I prayed that God would use the situation in her life to bring glory to Himself, whether by healing or by giving her grace to endure the trial. We probably prayed for 5 minutes. At the end of the prayer, we again headed back to the church. Odette came with us. She wanted to see where the church was. We stopped one more time along the main road. A shopkeeper called us over and asked us to share with him. Another crowd gathered then a bus dropped off a large group of high school students - they all stayed to listen. I'm telling you, God takes care of providing the people to listen - they show up from out of seemingly nowhere! Anyways, we finally made it back to the church. We worshipped and prayed and encouraged the new church members. Then Pastor Hurbert asked for testimonies. Odette stepped forward to share her testimony. She explained her family situation. Evidently, her husband had attempted to strangle her. She survived but was unable to speak. She had permanent damage to her vocal chords. She went to several doctors. None of them could help her. She was told she would never be able to speak above a whisper. She reported that while we were praying for her, God healed her throat. That's why she was able to share her testimony with the church with her full voice. That's why she wanted to follow us to the church - she couldn't wait to be a part of this new church! It was an amazing miracle of God!! I pray that God will use her testimony of healing to bring glory to Himself and that He will make Himself known to many others because of this miracle!

Story behind picture #7

These kids made me smile. I spent at least 30 minutes sharing the Gospel with a man and his family and a friend inside their courtyard (see pictures below). They had a surprisingly nice home. They had water from a pump in their courtyard. They had a concrete floor in the house. I saw a cushioned chair inside and a nice wood cabinet against one wall with dishes stacked in it. There was a big iron gate to give us a little bit of privacy. The kids all knew not to come in until they were invited. And they weren't invited in until I was done sharing. Then they came streaming in excitedly.
They saw my camera and started pointing and smiling and pushing their way to the front. I managed to snap some pretty big smiles I think. I never ran into a shortage of smiles in Burundi. And each time I showed the picture screen to the kids (and the adults too for that matter), they just went wild with joy! It's like our kids who find great joy in playing with the box the toy came in at Christmas time - these kids never got tired of me taking their picture and showing it to them!

The house with the courtyard belonged to this man. His name was interesting but I forgot to write it down. He prayed to receive Christ. So did his wife and his friend. He asked a lot of great questions. When we were done sharing with him, I gave him an Evangecube. I really felt like he was someone who would use his influence to share his faith with others.

Here's his wife and their youngest child. I saw a few more kids in the courtyard and house that I'm pretty sure belonged to him, but they sort of got mixed into the crowd.  One more picture...

I had to include this picture. This man also prayed to receive Christ in the courtyard that day. I tried to discreetly take a picture of his t-shirt. If you look closely it says Black Mt. Brewery Beer Drinking Team. At the bottom of the shirt it says Cave Creek, Arizona. The middle of the shirt shows a picture of a beer mug, full of frosty beer with lots of foam on top. In the middle of the mug it says "The Satisfied Frog." By now, those of you familiar with Cave Creek might be mildly amused that this t-shirt somehow made its way to Africa. The school that I taught at last year was located in Cave Creek, practically inches away from The Satisfied Frog! This man didn't speak one word of English. It is so random that someone would donate this shirt and that it would end up in a small neighborhood near Bujumbura, Burundi, Africa! Small world, don't you think???

Story behind picture #6

I love this little girl. I'll tell you why in just a minute. Part of the cost of our trips is in-town transportation. We usually assign 2 teams per van. Let me just say for the record: "Toyota makes an incredibly tough van!" We've rented these same vans in Rwanda and Kenya. They appear to be indestructible - they're not much too look at, though! The seats in our van were all rotted away - most of them were down to just the bare foam cushion which looked all chewed up. The van creaked and groaned and shuddered. But I'm telling you - these vans go right through deep mud like it's nothing. They also manage to maintain speeds of 80 mph while dodging traffic, passing slower cars on 2 lane roads, swerving around pedestrians, bicycle taxis, motorbikes, and goats! Every day our team got dropped off first. Then at the end of the day we waited for the other team to come back and pick us up in the afternoon. On Wednesday, the van came to pick us up without the other team. We got to go on a road trip to the other team's church site. We careened through the city streets then turned right on a 1 lane road with 2 way traffic along with all the usual street traffic. Oh, it was market day so there were tons of little mom & pop shops lining the road as well. I think we hit every pothole with all 4 wheels. The seats in the van are high off the ground so you can fit your luggage under the seat - that means tall people like Dan get their head bumped repeatedly. When we finally stopped in front of the other church site, we were pretty rattled. We settled in to wait for the other team. Dan looked a little bit green. He closed his eyes and was kind of dozing off. I was sitting in the very back seat. At least 50 kids swarmed around the van. They all were waving and smiling and trying to talk to us in broken English. They are taught some English in school. They all can say, "what is your name," "what is your country," "how are you," "my name is..." It was pretty fun to talk to them and see their response. Dan, meanwhile managed to fall asleep. The kids kept trying to get his attention, but he was out. A few kids started laughing and singing a song that included umuzungu (white person) in the lyrics. The girl in this picture was very inquisitive and friendly. She seemed very intelligent. I think her name was Alene. After she exhausted her English phrases, she started talking to me in Kirundi. Simon translated for me. Alene told me I was beautiful. Those simple words made me feel not so tired. And made me realize, again, the power of words of affirmation! She made my day.   

Story behind picture #5

Our church plant was part of The Church of God denomination. We called our church "Avocado Church" because it meets under this avocado tree. They leased this little piece of land for 1 week while we were in town. When the owners of the land saw that North Americans were helping with the church, they upped the price to $35 per month which is beyond the reach of the brand new little church. Before we left town, they had secured a school to rent instead which we felt was a wise decision. The school is only $25 to rent and it includes chairs and with all the rain they have it will be nice to have a roof over their heads. Simon was my translator all week. He's on the far left. He's married and has two adorable kids. Pastor Nathaniel has the wild print shirt on. He's the mother church Pastor. Pastor Hurbert is kneeling down in front. He's the new church Pastor. To Dan's left is Pierre. He was Dan's translator. He's a Nazarene pastor. He loved the work we did all week, so much so, that he's praying about leaving the Nazarene church so that he can start planting churches! The other two guys are Burundi nationals. They knew the neighborhoods and were able to introduce us to people. They also were well trained on the using the Evangecube and when the crowd around us would grow too large for everyone to hear and see, they would pull a group of people around themselves and start a separate presentation. Together we were a great team!

Story behind picture #4

I don't know this little girl's name. I saw her every day at our new church site. You start to recognize people not so much by what they look like, but by what they're wearing, since they tend to wear the same thing many days in a row. She's wearing two of my favorite colors and I couldn't resist capturing her beautiful smile. There are lots of kids in Burundi. Many are able to go to school. Many others can't afford to go to school. So they stay home and help their mom take care of the other children and work in the fields. It wouldn't be uncommon for a young girl, just like this one, to have an infant strapped to her back all day long and be the primary caregiver while her mom is busy working in the fields or running a business. In spite of the challenges, every child whose picture I took had a brilliant smile and child-like joy when I showed them their picture on the screen. They giggled and laughed and pointed and touched the picture on the screen. Taking pictures is something that I've never been great at. I'm usually digging in my purse for my Kodak while the perfect picture moment whizzes by. This time, since I knew I'd be blogging about the photos, I took pictures with great purpose and surprise, surprise, most of the pics came out pretty good!

Story behind picture #3

Our church site was located right off the main road through town - lots of mom and pop shops lined the same street. We saw welding businesses, little stands where women were roasting fresh corn on the cob, bike repair shops, bike washes, barbers, tailors, etc. We saw a couple of different places where there were piles of white, vegetable-looking objects being peeled and then dried on big blankets. The next step in processing these "vegetables" is to grind them up into flour. Then the flour is weighed and measured carefully into plastic bags which are then sold. The people make bread out of this flour. I found out the name of the "vegetable" is "cassava." We actually saw this same flour in Rwanda. Anyway, the young man in the middle with the white vest on - he prayed to receive Christ on Tuesday. I believe his name is Pierre. I kept running into Pierre each day - sometimes he was covered in white flour from head to toe! This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see a little bit of white dust on his cheeks and arms. Here's the dictionary definition of cas·sa·va (kə-sä'və)

n.  In both senses also called manioc, yuca.

1. A shrubby tropical American plant (Manihot esculenta) widely grown for its large, tuberous, starchy roots.
2. The root of this plant, eaten as a staple food in the tropics only after leaching and drying to remove cyanide. Cassava starch is also the source of tapioca.

Story behind picture #2

This is Gertrude. She operates a small fruit & vegetable stand right along the main paved road. We met her first thing on Wednesday morning. I should explain about our method of evangelizing the area. Each day, our team (Dan, Marina, 2 translators, 2 pastors, numerous local Christians) would meet at the proposed church site (under an avocado tree, facing the main road). We would split up into teams of three. My team always included Simon, my translator, and 1 other national. We'd then choose an area to totally saturate with the Gospel presentation. On this particular day, we headed to the lake side of the road. Our turn-off was at a dirt road in between some fruit stands and a bicycle washing station. We decided to stop at the fruit stands. One was manned by an older woman - probably in her late 60's, early 70's. The young woman at the stand next to her was named Gertrude. They both shook our hands and allowed us to share with them. As usual, a crowd quickly gathered around us to see what was going on. I introduced myself and started sharing about the love of God, using my Evangecube. The older woman listened for about 2 minutes then got up and left. Not at all interested. Gertrude, however, listened intently. The crowd kept growing larger - probably 50-75 people kept pressing in and listening. When I asked people to pray for salvation, many people in the crowd prayed out loud, including Gertrude. She had tears in her eyes and seemed to genuinely grasp the free gift of salvation through Christ. The guys on our team started writing down names of people who had prayed with us. Simon shared a discipleship lesson then prayed a prayer of blessing on everyone. I felt compelled to talk individually to Gertrude. She agreed to walk a little way away from her fruit stand. I encouraged her to grow strong in her faith. I gave her some little tracts to read. I urged her to share them with the older woman next to her and with anyone who would listen. I told her that she was an influencer and could make a difference in people's lives by sharing her faith. We then went on with the rest of our day. We had many people pray to receive Christ and shared with over 150 people. At the end of the day, we passed by Gertrude's fruit stand again. I asked her if I could take her picture. She agreed. I showed her the picture on the camera screen. She was surprised, I think, by her image. Most of the Africans I've met in Burundi and Rwanda don't own mirrors and really have no idea what they look like. I think she is beautiful and I pray that God would use her to impact His kingdom. Pray for Gertrude, that her faith would grow strong and that her business would be blessed and that she would have many opportunities to share her faith with others.

Story behind picture #1

This was my fourth trip to Africa. Each time, I am amazed and grateful for the kids that follow us around and listen over and over again to the Gospel presentation. A lot of times they pray out loud with us. And then they pray out loud again at the next presentation. And the next one and the one after that. I hope that they are sincere in praying to receive Christ. The kids in this picture live in a more upscale neighborhood. Some of the houses actually had a concrete floor. Others had a water pump in their courtyard. I was trying to discreetly take a picture of the boy in the center with the red shirt on. He was rolling his homemade toy along the ground as he walked. I looked closely at the toy. The long handle is a skinny tree branch that's relatively straight. A large, round, plastic lid, maybe from a large paint can or bucket is the wheel. It is attached to the branch with an extremely long nail. You can sort of see the nail sticking out on the left side. Kids in all countries have a way of taking ordinary objects and creating ingenious playthings. As I was trying to show the boy how to stand so that I could get a good picture of his toy, all these other kids came running over and wanted to be in the picture. So, instead of zooming in on the toy, I captured the enthusiasm of the moment! Pray for the kids in Burundi. They are hungry both physically and spiritually. We saw a lot of UN vehicles in and around the city. Saw a huge warehouse that said "World Food Programme" on it, yet we encountered numerous people who told us they were very hungry. It was very sobering.

Baptism in the Lake

Today is Friday. We were all invited to attend a baptism service for those who prayed to receive Christ this week who are a part of Bishop Independance's new church plant. It was an amazing, unforgettable experience. It is difficult to describe the sights and sounds and smells. Having baptism at the lake is definitely multi-sensory, let alone multi-cultural! We all lined up at the water's edge. Those being baptized put on white robes. There were several from our team who were assisting Independance with the baptizing - Auzelio, Jim, Troy, Mike. After a time of worship, a short message by Independance, and prayer, the baptizers waded out about 50 yds from shore. Then those being baptized joined them in groups of five. As each one was dunked then brought up out of the water, there was a lot of cheering and celebration from the crowd. The baptizees (?) would be greeted with hugs and cheering and big bouquets of wild flowers. All during the baptism time, the crowd was singing songs over and over again, accompanied only by a non-stop drum beat. These Burundi drummers are tireless! When the last Burundi had been baptized, much to our surprise, Joan, one of our team members from Orlando, waded out into the water and asked Auzelio to baptize her. Evidently, she was baptized as a child and had never been re-baptized to symbolize her own personal faith in Christ. And as it turns out, after sharing the Gospel daily, multiple times, she realized that she had never personally prayed to receive Christ as her Savior. So Auzelio prayed with her to receive Christ, then he baptized her - talk about a powerful moment! It was definitely an over-the-top experience. I promise I'll have video uploaded as soon as I get back to the U.S. - you'll want to see the celebration!

Sunday worship services

Today each team met for worship at the Mother churches - the churches that will be planting or "birthing" a new church this week. We went with Bishop Bosco to a Church of God. The service lasted nearly 3 hours. It was amazing. We sang songs with the worship team. We DANCED our way through a 10 minute song - definitely an aerobic workout. The choir led worship on several songs. People were called forward if they wanted prayer for salvation. People were called forward if they needed prayer for healing. They took up two offerings - one for tithes, one for the brand new church being planted. Bosco preached his heart out - since he's a Bishop, he's more of an overseer of many churches so to have him preach there today was a treat for the congregation and for us!!

We are still waiting for some luggage to arrive. Dan's missing his clothes and all our food for lunches. Ray & Mary were missing all their luggage but two of their bags arrived this morning on the 1 daily flight from Nairobi - (Bujumbura isn't a hot destination yet) - a guy named Dee is missing all his luggage. He's surviving on borrowed clothes and snacks. I don't even want to speculate about socks and underwear...

Tonight, Dan and I and Ray and Mary and Mike Talley will attend the Presidential prayer and worship service at the President's home. I'm really looking forward to it. The last time Dan was in Burundi, he attended the service and said it was really great. Later this week, Herve's parents have invited us to dinner at their home. And possibly Tuesday evening Dan and I will visit Independence's church. He still wants me to come speak at a women's conference at his church. We'll see about that!

Testing, Testing, 123

Blogging live from London's Heathrow Airport. Testing out our technology capabilities. Cell phone is working. Camera is working. Internet is working. I do believe I'll be able to blog regularly while in Burundi. My goal is daily. I'll really try!

Sitting here chatting with Mike Talley, Steve, Liz, and Carol, just part of our North American team going to Burundi. We had a lot of delays getting here. We were supposed to leave Phx at 3pm. We left after 4. Landed in Chicago. Rushed over to our London flight. It was pushed back 2 hours. Our plane would have been 1/2 full, however, 2 other London flights were cancelled earlier in the day so we ended up taking on all those passengers and we had to wait for the catering company to stock the plane with more food. We then sat on the runway waiting to leave along with all the other delayed planes (due to weather). Then there was a medical emergency and EMT's were called in to assist a passenger. We left after 2 hours on the runway. So, now we're in London, waiting to board Kenya Airways, heading to Nairobi. We'll then transfer to one final plane to fly into Bujumbura. We are all very excited about what God will do this week in Burundi. We can't wait to work together, worship together, share stories together, laugh together, and celebrate God's incredible outpouring of grace together!!

BTW, Starbucks in London doesn't have Iced Tea Lemonade. They don't even have any fruit flavored syrups. In fact, I don't even think they have iced tea. Only hot tea. And hot chocolate. I went with the latter. Made me thirstier. Oh well. I'll go buy an $8 bottle of water now!

Packing for Burundi

We put the tree away last week. In its place, we've put 4 large suitcases. It's time to start packing for Burundi! Dan and I leave on January 17. My clothes are already packed. I've got a comprehensive packing list sent to me by a seasoned E3 campaigner named Ky whom I met on our last Rwanda campaign. Ky is my hero. If he went on Survivor, he would win.

You can see that Dan has already been working hard on packing the essentials for his trip. M & M's. Tins of butter cookies. Spare pair of underwear.

Click HERE for our Prayer Calendar for this trip. The trip leader is Mike Talley. This trip is Dan's final training trip with E3. After this, assuming he is able to complete the tasks competently, he will be an official full-time E3 Church Planter! No word yet on when my E3 training trips will begin. I anticipate an extremely busy year of music ministry at FNC, combined with at least 2 trips to Africa along with 2 training trips!

Featured Video - Kenya/Rwanda - June '07

Enjoy this video which includes mostly our Kenya trip with a couple of clips of Rwanda mixed in!

The Africans dressed in mostly red are part of the Maasai tribe. They are the cattle owners/herders in Kenya. They are nomadic and still follow ancient tribal customs such as drinking cow's blood. Yuck. They also live in extremely short huts made from dried mud and manure. The Maasai women traditionally build the homes. They are not very tall so they only build the houses as tall as they can reach. Ironically, Maasai men are extremely tall, so they have to hunch way over in in order to move about in their homes. We were blessed to be able to meet with a group of Christian Maasai. We worshiped with them and they let us look inside their homes and allowed us to take pictures of them.

From 53 seconds to 57 seconds, you'll see the green hills of Rwanda. Then from 1:03 to 1:08 you'll catch just a 5 second glimpse of some children in Rwanda.

Going To Burundi

I am going to Burundi in January with E3 Partners. Just signed up last night.
Need I say more?
My post-Christmas to-do-list just grew from 3 non-urgent items to 30 urgent items. Seriously.
I've decided to go on this church-planting campaign not because I have a lot of spare time on my hands; not  because I FEEL like I should go; not because I have $4,000 gathering dust in a drawer, waiting to be spent; not because it's going to help me win "Mother Of The Year"; not because it's the in vogue thing to do...I'm going because I MUST go. It's urgent. There's no guilt associated with this decision. Only confidence that it's what I'm supposed to do. It's a crazy thing, these missions trips we sign up for. Long hours of travel. Challenging roads and accommodations. Sights and smells that are indescribable. But the privilege of watching God at work among His children in Africa - that's also indescribable.
So, I'm going to Burundi.
I am questioning my sanity just a tiny bit more today than when I sent in the application last night.
But that's a good thing. If I could make perfect logical sense of every single decision to be made in my life, then I really wouldn't need God. I could just live my life in a sane, sanitary, safe way. It'd be like driving a 4-door, tan Chevy sedan at 37 mph for the rest of my life. Not bad, not wrong, but, well, sort of boring. I'd rather be in the bright orange Charger with the Duke boys, taking on hell with a squirt gun and living life fully present in each moment with God.

India Church Planting Campaign

My parents-in-law (Ray & Mary) just returned from their first trip to India. Here's an excerpt from their summary letter...The last 10 days in India was a short-term church planting mission with E3 Partners consisting of 21 ordinary people from America to reach out to the Banjara Gypsies near Hanamkonda.  We formed 9 teams and went to over 80 Banjara thandas (villages).  We had a great time; however, it was very tiring and demanding.  We had to get up every day at 4:00 am to get ready to leave at 5:30 a.m. To meet at the Banjara Center for organizing the day's activities and then drive for 2 hours each way to the sites.  The driving was the worst and most dangerous I have ever experienced.  There was no hot water at the hotel, so we had cold showers every morning, and our food for breakfast and lunch was basically what we brought from the U.S.--- granola bars, Vienna sausage, trail mix, etc.  However, we were fortunate that we were able to have dinner each night at a Chinese restaurant (we found Indian food to be too spicy). The good news is, we planted over over 20 new churches and saw over 500 professions of faith in the Banjara thandas.  On the last day there, it was a blessing to see people accept Jesus as the gospel was presented on the edge of Hanamkonda in the shadow of a Mosque.  Some of the ones who received Christ were Muslims.  One Muslim was looking out her door fully clad in the black dress, head cover, and face cover.  Jesus was glorified and the Banjara people were empowered and equipped to continue the work of discipleship and church planting using Proclaimers (solar powered audio New Testament in their language) and other discipleship materials we left behind.  I’ve attached a photo of the Banjara couple that we gave a Proclaimer to so they can have the new believers meet in their hut to listen to the New Testament...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Phone Call

Four months ago, in August, I completed an intensely detailed application for ministry with E3 Partners. I sent it in to the main office in Plano, TX. Then I just started waiting. And waiting. On November 27, I had 4 back to back interviews. 6 hours of questions and discussion. Then yesterday afternoon as I was driving Michael to work, I got the phone call. I'm in! I'll start training to be a Church Planting Coordinator in 2008. This means I'll have a couple of training trips, a mentor, E3 boot camp, support raising, and all else that goes with becoming a CPC. Thanks to all who have prayed for me during this process. This is exciting and scary and a dream come true all at once. Once I'm trained, I hope to be able to work alongside Dan, planning, coordinating, and mobilizing church-planting campaigns. The name "Team Berryman" takes on an all-new meaning now!! Here's a photo from my first trip to Africa - Ruhengeri, Rwanda to be exact - actually, a little village called Musanze was where it all began coming together for me - where I first started felling "the call" to do more than just an occasional church-planting trip!

It was Thursday, the 4th full day of the campaign and I remember feeling totally and fully alive and like every part of my physical and spiritual being had come together for this time and in this place and for this reason. It was quite unlike anything I've ever experienced!

Church Planting

The way I see it, all you need to plant a church is bricks - any size, any shape, possibly some mortar if it's available, and of course, some scaffolding for the hard to reach places!

Actually, we take very seriously the fact that the Church is a body of believers who gather together for worship and community. The church building itself is a bonus. In the rural villages in Africa, people gather for "church" in empty fields, under trees, in front yards or backyards or in the town square or at the top of a hill or in a banana grove...whatever location is within walking distance of "the church" is where they meet.

This is "the church" our team planted. It meets in this grassy green field, right next to the water spigots for the village.

Silly & Not So Silly Stuff

This is Ky. He is a seasoned campaigner. He has the most amazingly comprehensive packing list I've ever seen. Retired firefighter. From California originally. Now lives in Oregon. He was on our trip to Rwanda then continued on to Sudan with Dan and Patricia. While in Rwanda, we had to make our own lunches. We brought loads of peanut butter & jelly & honey. Bread was provided for us. The bread slicer was missing half of its blades. So each loaf of bread went something like - slice, slice, slice, BIG slice, BIG slice, HUMONGOUS slice, slice, slice, GIANT slice, etc. We only had a butter knife to work with and Ky volunteered to cut each thick slice in half. Don't even ask about the crumbs and mangled slices of bread. It wasn't pretty. But when you're hungry, bread is bread, and we appreciated every single misshapen slice.   

I finally finished our Sept/Oct Team Berryman Update newsletter. Click here to see the final product.

Dan is now preparing for his second training trip. This will be E3's first ever church planting campaign in Burundi, January 17-27. He needs to recruit at least 2 more campaigners. Email Dan if you're interested and available those dates. dan.berryman@e3partners.org.

Check out this great website http://www.hisgreatplan.com/. Mike & Mary Wagner are E3 Church Planters and they are very good at what they do. If you've never been on a trip before, you've got to go on at least 1 trip with the Wagners. You'll be hooked!

We are working on setting up dessert parties in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area to give us a chance to share with friends and friends of friends what it is that we've been called to do with E3 Partners Ministry. We'd love to have you join us. Please email Marina at berrymanaz@msn.com if you're interested in attending or hosting. Thanks.

Burundi

Burundi is a little known African country - directly in the center of the continent. It's referred to as "the heart of Africa" and to my surprise, when I looked it up on a world map, it's actually sort of shaped like a heart. Sort of. Or maybe a goat's head. But probably mostly like a heart. You can see from the picture that it's located directly south of Rwanda.

Dan's final training trip will take place in Burundi in January 2008. The first ever E3 trip to Burundi is currently scheduled for January 17-27. According to the promotional flyer, they will be working with 11 or 12 churches to establish new mission churches/cell groups through door-to-door evangelism and evangelistic services in the capital city of Bujumbura. Statistics tell us that less than 5% of the people are born again Christians. Government representatives, including the President, have extended an invitation for E3 to come and evangelize their country.

We all are very excited about this incredible opportunity to share the Gospel in an unreached land. I hope to be able to go with Dan on this very first trip. While in Rwanda in September, we actually met and worked with some wonderful Christian leaders from Burundi. They love & worship God passionately. The pastors/bishops we met will be key leaders on the Burundi campaign. This picture is of Steven with Bishop Independence and Bishop Bosco.

Dan is currently assisting in mobilizing Christians to be a part of this adventure. If you think that this might be the missions trip you've been waiting for, or you know someone who would love to be a part of this, please have them check out the E3 website for more trip details and registration info.

Rwanda Video

Check out this video - it contains brief highlights of our recent trip to Rwanda.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Leaving Sudan

I'm looking forward to seeing Dan and hearing all the details of the trip - I did receive a text message from him - 259 1st time professions of faith in Christ. He said it was the most difficult trip he's been on to date! Thank you to all who have been praying faithfully for him and the team!

This is another forwarded email - this time from Patricia - we met Patricia on our Rwanda trip - she is a CPC with e3partners.

_______________________

Flying home towards Nairobi in our 12 passenger plane. No weight problem on this leg. We have left all of our ministry materials in Sudan. We are all well and have seen the infathomable love of God at work in Sudan.

Yesterday God have me the desire of my heart. When I visited Kormachi in July I met a woman named Maria. She was in the compound of the chief and had more beads on than any of the other women. She had the look of being the Queen Bee. She had the appearance of being in another world very far away and unreachable. It was the face of Maria that motivated me to research, pray and prepare to take the gospel to the most primitive area I had ever traveled to. The Toposa. In Nairobi on our way to Sudan we spent the day with missionaries who had lived 6 years with a similar tribe. They opened their hearts to us and shared all the materials their 6 years of work produced. God supplied all we needed to begin to work with the Toposa of southern Sudan. Did you read about our 5 hours stuck in the mud on the way to Kormachi? Our 1st day we had to turn around. Courageous man of Faith David Kaya was willing to try yet again the following day. The road was such that I had to close my eyes and pray. If you are big on off road driving and mud slides. Sudan will be your cup of tea! Kormachi at last!

After picking up a translator at the school we went immediately to the hut of the chief (his compound of huts). The chief was not there but several women and children, Maria and her close friend were there smoking pipes. Such a hardness on her face. That same expression I had seen before that made me wonder if we would ever be able to bridge the gap. Not all the faces had this hard look. Mostly we found warm welcoming faces.

The afternoon and following trip allowed us the opportunity to visit other compounds but the door did not open again for üs to visit the chief's compound until our final day in Kormachi. We had the awesome opportunity to spend an ünrushed 1 hour with Maria and 5 other women, 2 men and a gaggle of kids. I had an EXCELLENT Toposa translator (huge answered prayer) and was able to tell the stories of God's creation that had been taught to me by the missionaries. FAR from perfect but I soooooo believe God used it for His Glory. I hope you too can take great Joy in this divine opportunity. Most of the adults in that circle prayed a prayer to receive Christ as their Savior. I trust in the Lord with all my heart that He heard those prayers and will continue to draw the people of Kormachi and Kapoeta to Himself with cords of human kindness (Hosea 11:4).

Thank you so much for your prayers. God's Grace has been abundant and overflowing!

God bless you

patricia

Sudan Update

This is an email that was forwarded to me today.

Status:

They arrived in Kenya Friday morning. with little trouble – and praise God, all the luggage arrived.  They were very excited.

Once in Narobi, they were picked up by Gabriel from ACTS who gave them a ride to a Presbyterian mission where you met up with the rest of their team including Ruth James (HPBC), Patricia Caroon (e3), Ky Azlein  (Oregon), Dan Berryman (e3) and Todd Szalkowski (e3). Their biggest concern was the weight limit, due to the charter flight from Narobi into Sudan, They felt they were way over the weight limit and began resuffling things to get their weight down. They grouped it into necessary luggage and optional luggage.  After arriving at the airport, the airline, African Inland Missions, had five extra passengers for the flight, so they had to take a 32 person plane versus 12 person plane. Unfortunately, they only flew into Loki and then had to transfer to a 12 passenger plane.  They had to wait 2 hours for the other plane, and felt that they would have to leave their optional luggage. But God was faithful, and because the plane had used up enough fuel flying to Loki, the plane’s weight was reduced, and they were able to take all their luggage.  Praise God.

When they flew into Kapoeta Sudan they were supposed to be met by David Kaya, their pastor there.  They arrived in Kapoeta, Sudan late Friday afternoon, but David was no where to be found.  He had to travel quite a distance over very rough roads so there was concern for his safety. In addition, he was supposed to pick them up and take them to their camp.  God again delivered by giving Jonas, the camp manager at Camp Mango, where they were staying a message.  He saw their plane coming in, and felt told by God that he should go pick up the team.  Praise Jesus for his timing!  At 9:30 pm Friday, David and his translators showed up.  They were delayed 4-5 days due to the rough roads. They also had two simultaneous flat tires along the way.  Satan does not what this team to succeed, but God is delivering them through these challenges.

They are all in good health and doing well.  Their translators are amazing.  At one point they had to translate from English to Arabic to Toposa to Dinka in order to communicate with some people.

Here are some praises they shared.

·        They have shared the with 96 people and 39 made professions of faith.

·        They are going to be able to show the Jesus film at the African Inland Church in Kapoeta tonight.

Prayer Requests:

1)      They really need at least 6 more strong Christian translators.

2)      God will continue to lead them to the people that are ready to hear the Gospel.

3)      Specifically pray for Maria in Kormachi, to prepare her heart, because she seems like a key person in Kormachi that can be critical to spreading the Gospel.

4)      Each person on the team is listening to voice of God and obeying.

5)      Pray that the chief in Kormachi will be receptive to them and give them permission to share the Gospel in his village.  They leave tomorrow morning at 7:30am to begin that phase of their mission.

6)      Pray for safe travel on bad roads.

7)      Pray for health and safety for all involved that that Satan will be bound while they do the Lord’s work.

Thanks to everyone involved in praying, sending, and supporting those who hear the call to go to the ends of the earth to share the Lord's message and reach the lost for Christ.

100

On our first day of evangelism we headed down the road to share with anyone and everyone we encountered. After the 1st house, we climbed back up the rocky, muddy cliff and headed back down the dirt road. We probably went 100 yards when we saw a large pile of rocks - large flat pieces all piled up into a rust-colored "seating area." Then we noticed a young man walking toward us. We stopped him and asked if we could share with him. He agreed.  As soon as we started sharing the Gospel, more and more people arrived and wanted to listen. Some sat on the rocks. Others stood. All who listened were convicted by the Holy Spirit and all prayed to receive Christ as their Savior. I shared the discipleship side of the Evangecube. Wrote down names and handed out Gospel tracts. Still others arrived and wanted to listen to the Gospel. A group of school children arrived. They waited patiently while I shared with probably three or four groups of people.

I noticed an older gentleman sitting on the rocks, waiting. He had a walking stick. His clothes were pretty tattered, but not any worse than the rest of the people I saw. I was finally able to walk over and talk to the man. He listened carefully to the Gospel. He prayed to receive Christ as his Savior. He gave us his contact info. He told us he was born in 1907. That man was 100 years old. My translator, Emmanuel, didn't believe him and questioned him about it. The man said that during World War II, he was already married and some of his children were already out of the house. 100. That's old. That's a long time to wait before making the most important, life-changing decision of your life - becoming a follower of Christ, forgiven, set free, reconciled to the Father through the Son, saved and born again. I don't know his story. Maybe he never heard the Gospel before. Maybe he heard it before and rejected it. Maybe he followed a more tribal religion. Maybe while he was young he never thought about eternal things. Maybe he had a mom who was a Christian and he rebelled against "her religion." Maybe he had a good life and didn't need God. Maybe he was a good person and didn't ever feel the need for forgiveness. Maybe God allowed him to live to be 100 so that he could hear the Gospel yet one more time...

New Believers In Sudan

I received this email yesterday from e3 staff in Sudan. Many new believers are being added daily to the kingdom of God. The team referred to at the end of the email is the team that Dan will be a part of from Sept 19-29. Please keep him and the team in your prayers. Thanks!

[begin email]

Adjumani? Wasn’t that a movie? No, I’m thinking of Jumanji, the movie with Robin Williams. Adjumani is the town (village?) where David Kaya has been on an all-Sudanese church planting campaign. I spoke with David this morning and here is what he told me the Lord did.

It’s as if, once again, we walk into the book of Acts. First, allow me to reset the story for you. A man in Adjumani was possessed by a demon, and he caused terrible problems for the villagers by destroying things. The villagers turned to the few believers in the village for help who, in turn, sent a messenger to David’s home church. The church sent a pastor to Adjumani who, through the power of Jesus, delivered the man of his demon(s). Guess what? Just like in the book of Acts, the villagers wanted to follow this Jesus. Hence, these past three days.

When David and his men entered the village and began to go tukel (hut) to tukel, many people made professions of faith in Christ. When they gathered the people together that afternoon many more followed Jesus. Recall, that a family blessed David with a Landcruiser. David learned that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was in the area, and that vehicle draws attention. The LRA is a rebel military group in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He withdrew from the village that night and slept elsewhere. In the village that same night, the new followers of Jesus worshiped Him and fellowshipped African-style, David’s description. That night the Lord encouraged David to go back to the village the next day.

Go back they did and began to baptize the new believers in the Nile. As darkness fell, they finished baptizing 105 people and were ready to finish the day. Then a wave of villagers came to the river and asked to follow Jesus and be baptized.

[I realize that this sounds so storybook as to be unbelievable, but I’m telling you, this really happened.]

When they finished baptizing them, a second wave appeared asking to follow Jesus and be baptized. Then a third group appeared and were baptized as well.

David was so excited when he shared this story. My favorite thing he said was, “Those demons helped us to open the door.”

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

Thanks for praying and being a part of God’s amazing work.  There is a campaign with U.S. workers leaving tomorrow for another town in Sudan, and David tells me to pray about the rain. It’s rained so much that a dorm at our bible school collapsed and the latrine filled up. Obviously the roads will be terrible.

Back To Normal

Today is a normal day. Both boys went to school. I made breakfast and packed lunches. I'll be doing laundry the rest of the day. I'm thinking of dusting the living room and sorting through the mail. I'll be planning out worship songs for the coming weekend. Grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Sprouts. Sorting through the mail. Replying to email and phone messages.

Thought I'd share 1 story from Rwanda...although I don't have very many pictures to show yet...Dan forgot his memory card for his camera. So before I left, I gave him the card from my camera so he could take lots of Sudan pics.

I was a Team Lead - Michael was on my team. We each had a ministry partner/translator. We also had a Bishop from Burundi on our team named Independence. He didn't need a translator. We had a group of 9 nationals from the Mother Church in Kibuye join us for daily door-to-door evangelism. On the first day, after training on how to use the Evangecube, we split up into 5 teams and headed out to share the Gospel. Emmanuel was my ministry partner. Jane was Michael's ministry partner. We all went in different directions. I headed down the road, led by two nationals. From the road there was a stunning view of Lake Kivu. I was looking straight ahead, trying to spot some houses to stop at. Suddenly our nationals made a sharp right turn and disappeared off the side of the mountain. Or so I thought. I inched cautiously over to the edge and looked straight down. Realized that there were houses built into the side of the cliffs and all along the path down to the lake. There were narrow, muddy trails weaving back and forth all the way down. Great. Just great. Emmanuel went ahead of me, carrying my water bottle, my backpack, his backpack, and holding my hand the whole way. He was very kind and didn't mind when I stopped to re-group every 10 steps. We reached a house. Went inside. It was a small room. Small table. 1 bench. Very clean. Concrete floor. 2 chairs. There was an older gentleman inside. Probably in his early 70's. Very welcoming. Three more adults showed up and entered the room. They probably saw us (strangers) heading down the trail and were curious about what was going on. Two young boys entered the room. I was able to share the Gospel with the whole group. All of them prayed to receive Christ. I did a short discipleship lesson. Gave them tracts to read and urged them to read the tracts to their families and to pass along the message of Christ to others. One of the young boys turned out to be an orphan. He was 6 years old. This was his grandpa's home. He had come to live here when his parents died. His name was Claude. He followed us around the rest of the week and whenever asked could recite the story of salvation and knew the meaning of all the pictures on the Evangecube. As soon as Dan arrives home (Sept 29), I'll post a picture of Claude. He wore a lime green shirt every day. In the villages, people tend to have only 1 set of clothes. It's pretty easy to remember people day to day because you recognize their clothes. 

 

Finally Home

We made it home...finally. Africa is a really, really long way from home. And it seems to take twice as long to get home. Our luggage did not make it home with us. Which is a much better scenario than not having our luggage make it to Africa with us - which happened to one of our team members. His luggage arrived in Rwanda on the day we were heading back to the USA. I got a knock on my door at 1:45am this morning - 4 suitcases needed to be signed for. I can sleep better now, knowing that our dirty laundry has arrived!

We are grateful for the prayers of friends and family. It was an amazing trip. We all had life-changing moments personally too. That was cool.

Kibuye, Rwanda has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world...it's right on Lake Kivu which is an enormous, blue green body of water. We kept our window open at night and could hear the waves lapping the shore gently. None of the photos I took can truly depict its beauty. Hopefully others on the trip were able to capture the sights and scenery...as soon as those photos are available, I'll start building a new photo album for the trip. For now, I'll just post a few photos and start telling stories tomorrow when I can think coherently!

8:25 AM Departure

Our flight leaves at 8:25 am.

We are packed. We are more ready to go than ever before. We've maxed out the weight in our suitcases. Tons of printed materials will go with us and stay in Rwanda. We've got nearly 20 pounds of peanut butter for our team lunches. That won't be coming back with us. We borrowed a laptop from a friend. I'll be able to keep a journal, but I'll have to wait to publish it 'til we get back. So I won't be "Rocking The Desert" again until September 17.

It's getting late. I'm off to bed for 4 hours.

New Cubes

Guess what we got in the mail last week...

These are pocket-size Evangecubes! Dan ordered 100 of them. So many that they actually came with their own retail display case which we proudly have showcased on the sideboard in the dining room! You can see from the picture that Dan spent some serious time designing his merchandise display.

From left to right you can see the entire story of salvation just by glancing at the display. Jesus on the cross. Soldiers guarding the tomb where Jesus was buried. The miracle of the resurrection. Jesus is the bridge - the way, the truth, the life. Choose God's free gift of salvation. He's waiting to take you by the hand, offer you forgiveness & reconciliation with Him as well as an abundant & eternal life. There's even a basic discipleship lesson on the far right. And of course, you can clip these cubes on your belt right next to your phone and/or pager, you can clamp it on a backpack or purse, and if you're just the simple, no-frills type, you can just carry it in your hand.

These are part of our "arsenal" that we take with us to Rwanda. They are an invaluable evangelism tool. Over the course of the week, we will tell the story of salvation multiple times. And each time we do, it becomes even more ingrained in our hearts and impressed in our minds. It is amazing how God is using this simple tool to make His name known in the most remote places in the world. We are anxiously waiting to board that plane on Wednesday. We are so blessed to be able to share this experience with our sons. They are excited about seeing the place that captured our hearts and for which we are giving up life as we've known it for 21 years in order to be "all in" on this e3 journey.

Rwanda in 5

It's Friday. Normally a busier day than most because of all the weekend prep that goes on. Setting the stage. Designing Easy Worship presentation. Music copied and put on music stands. Worship order finalized and printed. All these tasks are familiar and necessary like dots on i's and crosses on t's. But today, this Friday, I've added a new layer of tasks to be completed. I'm determined to not have a terrible Tuesday the day before we leave. So I'm trying to cross huge chunks of items off my to-do list, starting today. I've got guest musicians scheduled to come in on the Sundays I'm gone so I'm finalizing details with them. I'm burning CDs for the worship team and band. I'm putting together packets of music for both weeks. I'm also building the Easy Worship shows for both weeks. I'm buying batteries and Lay's potato chips (long story). I'm re-confirming availability of band and singers. I'm even putting together a contingency plan in case of catastrophic projector failure. I've got lyric sheets ready to pass out to the congregation and lyrics & music for singers and band. Just in case! 

In just 5 short days, we will board a plane and head to Washington D.C. where we will meet the other members of our North American team of Missionaries to Rwanda. We will then travel to Ethiopia and spend one night before the final leg of our journey which takes us to Kigali, the capitol of Rwanda. After we go through customs, we will be greeted by a welcoming committee of e3 trainers and Rwandan nationals. It's a custom they have of coming to the airport to greet us. Then we'll pile our luggage and supplies and ourselves into 12 passenger Toyota vans which will carry us to the Kibuye region. We will check into a guest house. Get settled. Then get started on the work which we've been called to do.

This is a picture of Kibuye and Lake Kivu. I found it on Joshua and Alyssa's photo blog. Click HERE to go to Joshua and Alyssa's photo blog (BrooksAfrica.blogspot.com). They were in Kibuye in May so you can get an idea of this incredible place where we will be sharing the Gospel. Be sure to check out the ONLINE VIDEO of the entire team ministering in Kibuye. It's very inspiring and hopefully will give you a glimpse of why we are so passionate about Rwanda.

Encounter

OK, something totally cool happened to us on Saturday. We took Michael to work at Chickfila. Decided to swing into Sports Chalet to look for last minute travel items. When we went to start up the car to head toward home, we had a sluggish, "the battery is dying" start. Since my knight-in-shining-armor was with me, disaster was avoided and we were able to head straight over to WalMart to get a new battery. The wait was about an hour. We decided to do some more last minute travel shopping. Travel alarm clocks. Batteries. Vitamins. Etc.

Now, in the past, we had noticed that WalMart had hired some African refugees. We even had spoken to one of them before and he said he was from Sudan. So, today we decided that we should look for someone from Sudan and, if possible, strike up a conversation. We chose Checkstand #15. I just had a feeling that the cashier was from Sudan. There was only one couple ahead of us. They were chatting with the cashier and telling him that they were from South Africa. He mumbled something about Sudan. I was ecstatic. I knew he was from Sudan! When it was our turn, Dan started asking him if he was from Sudan. Dan mentioned that we were traveling to Africa and that he would be in Sudan soon. Well, the cashier not only was from Sudan, he was from the very region, in fact, the very village that Dan will be working in, Kapoeta. We decided that we absolutely had to be-friend him. He has agreed to have dinner with us before we leave so that he can tell us all about Sudan and Kapoeta. We are very excited about this "chance" encounter and I'm sure I'll have much more to post after we have dinner. Pray that we would have a chance to share the Gospel with him and that we would establish a friendship with him and possibly others who've been recently relocated to Phoenix from Africa.

Packing, packing, packing

Today was a packing day. Dan spent 60% of the day packing and re-packing for Africa. He is a very thorough packer. He packs all food items in large ziploc bags. He packs sets of clothes in extra large ziploc bags. We are taking a lot of printed materials - discipleship lessons, tracts, etc. We are taking a lot of Evangecubes. We've got MegaVoices in Kinyarwanda (language in Rwanda). We've got Proclaimers in Kinyarwanda. Since Dan is staying and going on a campaign to Sudan after Rwanda, he is taking packs of tuna and canned fruit and granola bars. We're taking gifts for translators. Gifts for people Dan will be staying with. Toiletries to give to translators. Hand sanitizer. Malaria meds. We've got pens and notebooks. Umbrellas. Mosquito repellent and sunblock. We're taking an extra load of stuff for the team - 6 large jars of peanut butter. 6 large jars of jelly. 5lb jar of honey. 500 sandwich baggies. Dan usually loads a bag as full as possible. Then he stands on the scale with it. He deducts his weight from the total to find the weight of the bag. Packing is a lot of work. But it's also a lot of fun. It's exciting to plan and dream and pray for the trip and for the people we will meet and for the churches that will be planted and for the team members who will receive an immeasurable blessing from the trip and the translators who will be loyal, inseparable friends/ministry partners before the end of the first day.

This is Dan with Jean-Marie, his Ministry Partner in Rwanda in March '07. We are hoping he'll be a part of the September e3 campaign. We've kept in contact via email. I'm excited about seeing him. He was just a part of the August campaign in Rwanda. He is a great translator and a student of the Word and a wonderful co-laborer in God's work!

2 Week Checkup

We leave for Rwanda 2 weeks from today...

I'm already mostly packed.
I know exactly how to pack for Michael & Steven.
Dan packs for himself. That way he can sneak in his stash of candy bars, cans of nuts, fast food condiment packets, etc.

My goal is to be more spiritually prepared this time. We've been asked, as team leads, to be prepared to speak for 20-25 minutes each time we are at a church gathering. That means I'll have to be able to impart spiritual truths to both those we do ministry with and the new converts who gather with us every afternoon and at the church service on Sunday. I am intimidated by this task. I know that God will hold me accountable for the words that I speak. I'm also looking forward to seeing God work in me and through me to make His name known.

I don't want to be like Megaphone Man. When we first moved to Phoenix, we were driving west on Camelback Road toward 16th Street. We were in the left turn lane and had the red light. On the south west corner, I could see a white mini-van with a couple of bored looking teens loitering around it, sitting on the bumper, etc. And I could see a man - youth pastor looking guy - with a megaphone milling about on the street corner. We all rolled down our windows to listen to what he was saying. MM was yelling at every car, every pedestrian, the entire intersection - something about hell, sin, condemnation, burning in hell, repent, repent, be saved, turn from your evil lives...etc...etc. Wow. Now that's real commitment, don't you think??? Actually, I was absolutely mortified that someone could possibly think that yelling into a megaphone could actually produce anything but ridicule, anger, apathy and rolling eyes in the passersby.

My prayer is that God would use me and give me words to speak that glorify Him and encourage & challenge both the believers and the non-believers. No megaphone will be necessary.

2 Calendars and a Video

Download prayer_calendar_rw07c.pdf

Click on the link above to download and print our Rwanda prayer calendar.
We would love to have you partner with us in prayer during our upcoming trip to Rwanda. Dan, Mike, Steve & I will travel to Rwanda on September 5 for an e3 partners church planting campaign.

Dan will then continue on to Sudan for another e3 partners church planting campaign which also happens to be his first training trip. I know that Dan and the entire team would really appreciate your prayers as well. Click on the link below to download and print the Sudan prayer calendar. It's actually a combined calendar - our Rwanda trip back to back with the Sudan trip - since there are 3 people on our Rwanda campaign who will continue on to the Sudan campaign.

Download prayercalendarPatriciaSeptember.doc

And finally, check out this video. It was recorded recently in the area where Dan will be in Sudan.

Deluxe Accommodations

Team Berryman leaves for Rwanda on Sept. 5. We return, minus Dan on Sept. 16. Dan will part ways with us at the end of our trip and head to Sudan for 10 days. The Sudan trip is his first training trip. He has been working with a seasoned e3 church planter for the past month or so, figuring out the forms, logistics, finances, communications, and so much more. He is also working with a church planting coordinator who is in charge of travel and accommodations (among many other things). Now, keep in mind that Sudan has been involved in a Civil War for many years. The area where they will be evangelizing has been mostly bombed out and destroyed. Lots of reminders of death and destruction are everywhere. There are no stores. No hotels. Limited transportation. No roads. But there are people in this area who have never heard the Gospel. Ever. E3 is specifically targeting these groups for evangelism.

This is a picture of the place they will be staying in Sudan. The tent was abandoned by the UN when they pulled out of there. Some of the 12 person team will sleep in the tent. A few of them will sleep in one of the two bldgs. Dan always dreamed of being on "Survivor." Now it looks like his dream is coming true!