Saturday, May 16, 2009
Being a teacher
I love teaching. I love being a teacher. I feel this is one of the gifts God has given me. In fact I have to be careful not to rely on the gift and instead rely on God to help me be the best teacher I can. Well, I have been gone for my students for about 4 weeks. I miss them and want my first lesson back to be a good one. So I opened my curriculum and found the lesson that was supposed to be taught last week. But for some reason it was not. As I started to study for it, I felt like a 2 by 4 hit me across the face. This lesson is not for my students. I know some of them could use it, but I need it as much or more than they do. The lesson is on making sure your speech builds people up. Ephesians 4:29 haunts me. Like I said I love being a teacher. This is why. I know I need my life to be more conformed to the image of Jesus. My heart needs to change; if my heart is changed my speech will be changed. I can be embarrassed by what comes out of my heart. I am just glad that God chooses to use sinners to do his work.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Last Blog from Africa
Well, I am back in the Central African Republic. This trip has gone fast. The youth team has put a lot of miles. I am going to do my best of summarizing our last training stop and the trip.
The last training session was is Boyabo(sp?). Let me just say that this was a humbling experience. We arrived in Boyabo on Monday night. When we were at the entrance of the church driveway the driver let us out. We were greeted with a guy’s choir. We walk through the guy’s choir to the girl’s choir. We walked through the girl’s choir to where the youth were singing. As we walk through each group they followed us to chairs in front of what we thoughts was the pastor’s house. We sat their while the guys choir sang three songs. Then the girls choir sang three songs. Then the band started playing. The youth sang and danced for us. This started at 5:30pm. The band and the dancing did not stop till after 9:00pm. We went inside about 7:00pm for dinner. As we walked in we were told that this house was where we were staying. The house was built because we were coming. We all had separate beds with mattresses and new mosquito nets. They made us our own showering hut type thing. It was so nice. The food was so good as well.
The seminar went well. It was a little tough to do because we had over 300 people attend. That does not include the women and children that were just there to see what we were doing. The people attending the seminar were very responsive. They were a little crazy according to our translator. We would ask a question and they would not answer our question they would ask some other question. When all was said and done the seminar went well. We felt a little like celebrities because a lot of the youth workers wanted pictures with us.
As I sit in my room at the Grace Brethren Mission I am sad my trip is over, but I am ready to come home. I miss my family. I miss some creature comforts. I will miss the people I spent a lot of time with in the Congo. I made some friends. I am sure this will not be my last trip to the Congo. We will have to see what God wants to do. I know there are some in the Congo praying that I come back with my wife.
Over the next couple days I will try and upload some pictures and videos. I will also try to put together a video for our church and load it on youtube so that all of you can see it.
Please keep praying for me. I am not home yet. I hope to be on Saturday morning. Please pray for Cal and I as we process the trip. Pray that God would speak to us.
Thanks again for all of your prayer and support. I will update you all again when I can.
The last training session was is Boyabo(sp?). Let me just say that this was a humbling experience. We arrived in Boyabo on Monday night. When we were at the entrance of the church driveway the driver let us out. We were greeted with a guy’s choir. We walk through the guy’s choir to the girl’s choir. We walked through the girl’s choir to where the youth were singing. As we walk through each group they followed us to chairs in front of what we thoughts was the pastor’s house. We sat their while the guys choir sang three songs. Then the girls choir sang three songs. Then the band started playing. The youth sang and danced for us. This started at 5:30pm. The band and the dancing did not stop till after 9:00pm. We went inside about 7:00pm for dinner. As we walked in we were told that this house was where we were staying. The house was built because we were coming. We all had separate beds with mattresses and new mosquito nets. They made us our own showering hut type thing. It was so nice. The food was so good as well.
The seminar went well. It was a little tough to do because we had over 300 people attend. That does not include the women and children that were just there to see what we were doing. The people attending the seminar were very responsive. They were a little crazy according to our translator. We would ask a question and they would not answer our question they would ask some other question. When all was said and done the seminar went well. We felt a little like celebrities because a lot of the youth workers wanted pictures with us.
As I sit in my room at the Grace Brethren Mission I am sad my trip is over, but I am ready to come home. I miss my family. I miss some creature comforts. I will miss the people I spent a lot of time with in the Congo. I made some friends. I am sure this will not be my last trip to the Congo. We will have to see what God wants to do. I know there are some in the Congo praying that I come back with my wife.
Over the next couple days I will try and upload some pictures and videos. I will also try to put together a video for our church and load it on youtube so that all of you can see it.
Please keep praying for me. I am not home yet. I hope to be on Saturday morning. Please pray for Cal and I as we process the trip. Pray that God would speak to us.
Thanks again for all of your prayer and support. I will update you all again when I can.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Friday's Congo Update
Well I have a lot to write. Yesterday was rather eventful. It started at 3:30am. We got up to go to Budjala. The drive to Budjala was surreal. I seriously thought we were going to get robbed. We were in the middle of no where driving in the jungle. It was crazy. We were in thick jungle. At some places the truck was wider then the road. The road was horrible as well. There were lots of huge wholes with water in them. It took us two hours to get there.
When we got there we were greeted with a band and a choir. It was 6:00am and the band was ready and waiting for us. They had a bass and electric guitar with a drum set. They also had a African Drum, one of the big one's. I am not sure what it is called.
Then we had to wait for two hours for our seminar to start. We ate breakfast at 8:00am when the seminar was supposed to start. We had bread, fish and some tea. The fish was good. I did feel sick about an hour after eating it. I blame the fish.
When we started the seminar we had over 220 people there. The crowed was very responsive. In fact when I stood up to give my testimony they all started laughing at me. I asked the interpreter why they were laughing. He said that I had a big smile and was very happy, so they were very happy I was happy. The seminar went well. We were all real tired. The driver tried to take a nap in the truck during the session, but I am not sure he slept at all.
This was the first time since I have been in Africa that people have just kept asking for money. We had two high school students ask us to pray that God would give them the money to go to Bible school. They asked us to pray for them. That was the nice way to ask for money. Right before we left we had a guy come up to us and ask us for a Bible. We said they would have to ask the Pastor that is traveling with us. He didn't like that answer. Then he asked if we could give him a P A system. I said we didn't have one. He didn't like that answer either. He was mad at us when the conversation ended. I was rather frustrated. I blame some of that on the fact that I got very little sleep the night before.
We arrived back in Tandala at 7:30pm. It was such a long day. But it was a good day. I had fun teaching the seminar. It seemed to go well. One of the funnest things we did was to teach them all how to throw a Frisbee. Just image 220+ people playing Frisbee. It was chaos.
Today was not very busy. I had very little to do. We didn't have a seminar. I went to chapel. Brent and I took a tour of the hospital. A big group of us went to where the locals get their drinking water. I tried to carry it on my head like they do, but I didn't do very well. It was interesting. They bathe at the same place where they get water. Let's just say some of the ladies didn't care that we were there. Thema told them that guys were coming down. When we first got their everyone was clothed. But by the time we left a couple of them were bathing.
We also were able to play soccer with the kids. It was fun. I was so sweaty. Today was hot.
Well I think that is all for today. We are off to Kungu tomorrow. The team with be Brent, Tyler, Elissa, Amanda and I. We want to show them what youth ministry looks like. Please pray for safe travel. We will be leaving at 5:00am. I am just making up for all those times I didn't get into work early enough. Pray that the seminar would go well.
If you have any questions please ask. I would love to know what information people want to hear about. As my wife would tell you. I give the as little detail as I can get away with when writing.
When we got there we were greeted with a band and a choir. It was 6:00am and the band was ready and waiting for us. They had a bass and electric guitar with a drum set. They also had a African Drum, one of the big one's. I am not sure what it is called.
Then we had to wait for two hours for our seminar to start. We ate breakfast at 8:00am when the seminar was supposed to start. We had bread, fish and some tea. The fish was good. I did feel sick about an hour after eating it. I blame the fish.
When we started the seminar we had over 220 people there. The crowed was very responsive. In fact when I stood up to give my testimony they all started laughing at me. I asked the interpreter why they were laughing. He said that I had a big smile and was very happy, so they were very happy I was happy. The seminar went well. We were all real tired. The driver tried to take a nap in the truck during the session, but I am not sure he slept at all.
This was the first time since I have been in Africa that people have just kept asking for money. We had two high school students ask us to pray that God would give them the money to go to Bible school. They asked us to pray for them. That was the nice way to ask for money. Right before we left we had a guy come up to us and ask us for a Bible. We said they would have to ask the Pastor that is traveling with us. He didn't like that answer. Then he asked if we could give him a P A system. I said we didn't have one. He didn't like that answer either. He was mad at us when the conversation ended. I was rather frustrated. I blame some of that on the fact that I got very little sleep the night before.
We arrived back in Tandala at 7:30pm. It was such a long day. But it was a good day. I had fun teaching the seminar. It seemed to go well. One of the funnest things we did was to teach them all how to throw a Frisbee. Just image 220+ people playing Frisbee. It was chaos.
Today was not very busy. I had very little to do. We didn't have a seminar. I went to chapel. Brent and I took a tour of the hospital. A big group of us went to where the locals get their drinking water. I tried to carry it on my head like they do, but I didn't do very well. It was interesting. They bathe at the same place where they get water. Let's just say some of the ladies didn't care that we were there. Thema told them that guys were coming down. When we first got their everyone was clothed. But by the time we left a couple of them were bathing.
We also were able to play soccer with the kids. It was fun. I was so sweaty. Today was hot.
Well I think that is all for today. We are off to Kungu tomorrow. The team with be Brent, Tyler, Elissa, Amanda and I. We want to show them what youth ministry looks like. Please pray for safe travel. We will be leaving at 5:00am. I am just making up for all those times I didn't get into work early enough. Pray that the seminar would go well.
If you have any questions please ask. I would love to know what information people want to hear about. As my wife would tell you. I give the as little detail as I can get away with when writing.
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