RockTheDesert

Lots of Tar

I went to bed at 2:30am (too much caffeine and too much to do). Steven went to bed at 1:30am (sleepover). Michael went to bed at midnight (18 hr day including school, football game and 5 hr shift at Chick-fil-a.) We woke up at 5:30 am this morning. Saturday morning. All for a good cause. Definitely. We hit the road but not before stopping at WalMart so I could buy tennis shoes. I forgot until right before I got out of bed that I had thrown my shoes away after our Rwanda trip. My remaining closed toe shoes = 1 pair of high-heeled, black, leather, half boots and the brown and gold shoes I wore to Alyssa's wedding. We did happen to also drive thru Chick-fil-a because it is practically in the WalMart parking lot.

Properly fortified for our day of hard labor, we trekked off/up to Cave Creek. We joined a group of around 30 people from Fellowship North Church along with the future homeowners of 3 of the homes. These homeowners each have to log in 200 hours of sweat equity as part of the deal in exchange for their very own, brand new home.

My first assignment involved tar and duct tape. I, of course, wore cotton gloves to protect my hands from the tar. The one time I removed the gloves so I could get a better grip on the duct tape, I somehow managed to get tar all over my knuckles, fingers, under my fingernails, etc. I retired from that job and moved on to true manual labor - shoveling dirt and rocks by hand for the next 4 hours.

Luckily, I remembered that I had a camera in my purse, so I was able to sneak away for a few minutes every hour just to wander the job site and take pictures.

My hands didn't get quite as coated in tar as Debbie's hands did. She worked with a long-handled roller just about all day, rolling two layers of sticky, smelly tar over the retaining walls.

Mark, being a seasoned professional, brought work gloves with him to protect his hands from blisters and tar.

  Randy was here, there, and everywhere, digging, measuring, leveling, motivating the troops.

  Emily and Ruth worked the Caterpillar with precision and grace. They were focused on their task but never too busy to pose for the camera.

Billy really came through with a powerful jackhammer, compressor and miles of extension cords.

Tar is fun for everyone!

I'll post the rest of the pics later...great team - great day!!

Habitat

Tomorrow morning from 7am to noon we (Michael, Steven and I) will join a group of volunteers from FNC and from around the valley to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity. This should be an interesting experience. We've been told to wear clothes that we wouldn't mind getting tar on - tar??? I wasn't aware that homes had tar in or on them. Maybe I should dig ditches or pick weeds or something non-building related.

I recently read about a really cool and practical ministry at a church in Arkansas - evidently, sometimes the new home owners (of Habitat homes) have no idea what it takes to maintain a home and keep it in good repair and certain Habitat neighborhoods had fallen into a pretty dismal state of disrepair. So some church members decided to start a ministry designed to teach new Habitat home owners take care of their homes and their yards and neighborhoods. The church is committed to being an "irresistible influence" in their community. I think this ministry definitely falls into that category!

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

Another Sudan Update

Sounds like they wil be leaving for Sudan for Kenya in just a few hours. Received the following update just about an hour ago (4pm Phoenix).

Since it was raining in Sudan, the team had trouble getting through to my phone, but thankfully they were able to reach my friend, Cindy Sherman, when there was a break in the rain.  Thanks to Cindy for the report below. 

Michael Norris reported the following....

Prayer Requests for today:

Major Prayer Request - David Kaya (their leader in Sudan) is now leaving to go home to his family.  His wife, mother-in-law, and 2 of his 4 kids have pneumonia.  He is driving to Kanpala, Uganda and will be traveling with 7 other men (he will be dropping them off in Kajokeij).  The rainy season starts tonight and he will have to cross 58 water crossings to get home.  They expect the journey to take a couple days 

Answered prayers -
They have had no rain until tonight.
They had 6 translators today in Kormachi, which was the exact number they needed!

Prayer request - Moses and Meshach are the new leaders for Kormachi.  Pray for God to lead and direct them as to what their role will be.

The team will begin traveling home tomorrow, but will call from Kenya.

FYI:  Their devotional reading for today is from Acts 20:17-38.

Thanks for keeping these prayer requests and the team in your prayers!

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.

This Week At FNC

This week's set list:

1. 1000 Hallelujahs - Mark Roach
2. I'll Stand - Michael W. Smith
3. I Stand In Awe of You
4. Amazing Love
5. Mighty To Save - Hillsong
6. Love The Lord - Lincoln Brewster

Message series is called "Without A Doubt" and today's message was on Biblical Authenticity. After church, we had a food and family activities on the patio. David Mitchell made 4 deep-fried turkeys - let me just say - it's all about the skin!!! We also munched on corn on the cob and homemade chili - it was fantastic!

The kids had a giant inflatable water slide - looked like a lot of fun...the weather was perfect in the shade and in the sun - nice breeze. We sat around eating and hanging out with friends and family for an hour or so. We hated to leave because the patio is just a wonderful place to be on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Back At The Rock Pile

On the first day in our village, once we started sharing by the rock pile, we never were able to venture any farther down the road - we spent 4 hours in that same spot while God continued to call people from all walks of life to stop and hear the Good News. We shared with a group of school children. They had waited patiently and quietly while we shared with group after group of adults. I wanted to share the Evangecube with them in a different way. I decided to quiz them on it since they had heard the presentation at least 4 times already. They were very quick to respond with all the right answers. I talked to them about being an influence to their families and friends. Talked about choosing to follow Christ when they were still young and never losing that faith but praying for a strong and lasting faith. All 12 of them prayed to receive Christ. I had just about run out of Gospel tracts by this time. I had the kids separate themselves into family groups. Then I gave a tract to the oldest child in each family and again encouraged them to read it out loud to their siblings and families and to not keep the tract but to pass it along to someone else who needed to hear the message of salvation.

After I finished speaking to the kids, I turned around thinking we could maybe wind things up and head down the road again. But there was a religious man standing behind me, listening intently to what I was telling the kids. He was a muslim. Had the hat and robe on to prove it. He told us he wanted to hear about Jesus, so we shared. I modified my presentation to include the fact that it was the religious people of the time that hated Jesus because he challenged their laws and made them face the fact that they weren't good enough in spite of their devotion to the law. I emphasized the fact that we were sharing not about a religion but a relationship with Jesus. He was very serious and focused on the message. When I asked him if he would like to receive Jesus as his Savior, he said 'yes." I was truly surprised. I sort of expected him to come back at me with a lot of questions or to tell me I was wrong. But he very humbly prayed a prayer of confession, repentance, and declaration of faith in Jesus Christ. I carefully chose the words of the prayer that he repeated after me. I wanted to make sure that he clearly stated that Jesus Christ was now his Savior and the Lord of his life.

When I turned back to the pile of rocks, there was an old woman sitting there. Very old. Probably not 100, but she looked like life had not treated her well. She appeared sort of dazed and out of it. She was painfully thin and her clothes were totally worn out and threadbare. She was missing most of her teeth. Her feet were all gnarled and her legs had wounds on them wrapped in dirty bandages. We shared with her. She prayed to receive Christ. I had a hard time walking away from her because she had such an obvious physical need, but I had absolutely no means of helping her except for prayer which at the moment almost didn't seem like enough. But of course it was enough.

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.

A Favorite Thing

This painting is one of my favorite things. I purchased it in Rwanda in March 2007. It is hand-painted batik on cloth (at least that's what the shopkeeper told me). I love it because when I saw it, I had an "aha" moment.

The familiar DaVinci version of The Last Supper, with it's aging European-looking men, has never been very inspiring to me personally.

I haven't found one disciple in particular whom I identify with. They are just Jesus' disciples, the ones He called to follow Him, the ones He did life with, the ones who had specific purpose in serving with Him and carrying on His message after the Ascension, the ones who started The Church and ministered to the people just as He did and started spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, just as He asked them to in The Great Commission.

Hmmm. That sounds like OUR job description too. Only now, when I look at my painting, I don't see specific faces and personalities. I see me. And us. We are the disciples Jesus has called to do exactly what the disciples were first called to do. Follow Him. Do life deeply with Him. Live with His purposes driving our lives. Serve people. Carry on His message of hope, healing, justice, compassion, mercy, love, peace, eternal life, abundant life. Be a passionate member of The Church, minister to people through the church and sometimes in spite of the church. Take the Gospel message to the ends of the Earth. In whatever way you possibly can.

Carnegie Hall

I've got this cool friend. His name is Satyam. He owns a music and arts studio called Voices. About 9 months ago he invited me to perform at Carnegie Hall with himself and a group of singers from his studio. I said yes!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the first rehearsal for our performance. We are performing "Requiem" by John Rutter. We will be part of a huge group of singers - about 300 total. We'll perform at Carnegie Hall on March 9. "Requiem" is a pretty solemn piece of music. Beautiful and melodic and haunting. But definitely not upbeat. Oh, and it's not all in English. It has some Latin sprinkled throughout. Should be interesting.

In our spare time, in between rehearsals, we plan to hit Broadway, off-Broadway and probably off-off-Broadway to try to see as many shows as possible in 3 days. I have a friend who sang with a group there once before and she said they managed to cram in 5 shows. That has to be a record! I hope we can get cheap tickets. I've heard the shows can be outrageously expensive.

I might have to take a slight detour over to Brooklyn to check out The Brooklyn Tabernacle. It is housed in a newly restored theatre - formerly The Loews Metropolitan Theatre. My friend, Brenda, visited there on her visit to NYC. She was there for Thursday night prayer meeting. She said it was totally packed out with people praying. That would be amazing! 

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.