Friday and Saturday (6/13-14), I spoke at a conference at Breath of Life church. It is a small but growing rural congregation. The children were adorable as they danced in worship. One of the things that struck me was the brilliant colors of the clothes and I believe I was led to weave (pun absolutely intended) that into my messages. Too often, we look at Scripture as a collection of stories, each interpreted and understood independently. What I wanted the church to understand is that, whether Old Testament or New Testament, the threads of the Bible all work together to paint this awesome picture of Jesus Christ and God’s redemptive work. So instead of seeing a red thread or a blue thread or a yellow thread, I wanted them to see a Jesus thread in everything from Genesis to Revelation.
Sunday, I spoke at Jesus Cares church in Mayombe with Pastor Samuel Samanya. Again, I spoke on Making Dead Things Live. Afterward, I prayed for each person in the church. I can’t wait to hear the testimonies of what God did in that service.
On Monday, I began a new conference at Faith in Christ church in Hadoda with Pastor Hillary Oundo. One of the things we wanted to accomplish was to prepare the church for baptism and communion on the upcoming Sunday. Over the course of the day, I spoke in four sessions. Two of those sessions were on baptism and communion. At the end, I entertained some questions and they had some good ones. One mentioned that in the ‘religion’ they were in before, communion was reserved for married couples and if there was strife in the marriage then the couple could not take communion. I don’t know what ‘religion’ they were in before but communion is a celebration of the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ which is open to all believers. Of course, we had questions about believer’s baptism and infant baptism that needed to be addressed as well.
On Saturday (6/14), Sarah was burned by scalding water over her chest area. We got some topical medicine that helped a lot with the pain and healing. The pharmacy also gave us some pills for pain but she could not take them because they are opioids and we didn’t know how strong they were. I made arrangements for her to go home on the first available flight but, until then, she tried to rest in the room. Even in this, God has been gracious and merciful. Sarah has said repeatedly that it could have been much worse. When she arrived back in the US, she went to the ER where she was treated and referred to a burn specialist. (Update 7/3/2025: She has been released from seeing the burn specialist again. Time will take care of the rest.)
Thursday morning (6/19) I went to visit the school in Busia where Pastor Samuel was raised. The director, Bishop Moses is a genuine man of God who loves the students. While it is a Christian school, many of the students are Muslim or have no faith background at all. I addressed the secondary school of 102 students and spoke about making Christ the center of your life. At the end, we had 22 students come forward to give their lives to Christ.
We had planned on visiting another school today, but when I return to my hotel I found that my laptop had been stolen. We spent the remainder of the day with the police. There is a video showing the man who stole the laptop but unlike the TV shows you can’t just zoom in and enhance the image. But, by God’s grace we pressed on. The police determined that the hotel owner was complicit in the robberies and that I was not the only one. The owner was forced to restore the value of the laptop, which he did on the last day of my stay. The hardware has been replaced but there were some lost files and emails that were not backed up.
On Friday (6/20), I began a two-day conference at Nangwe, a home cell group in Nangwe. This group has been traveling 21 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) to Hadoda to fellowship there. Until now they have been either walking or traveling by boda boda (motorcycle taxi) but there are enough people that they are planting a new church. Once again, this will begin as a Mango Tree church – there is no building of any kind and they will literally be meeting under a mango tree. For the conference we rented a tent. The meetings began at 10AM and went until 3:30PM with a break for lunch. I taught four sessions with the emphasis on establishing a church without compromise. The capstone session was on Bearing the Marks of Christ – Paul’s confession that commitment comes at a cost. We are not interested in becoming a church full of casual Christians. On Saturday, we installed the pastor and prayed for the leadership of both the Hadoda and Nangwe churches.
Nangwe had their first service as a church on Sunday (6/29 after I left). I have been part of many church plants over the years. This one, I take zero credit for. I was trying to figure out a metaphor for my role. I wasn’t the attending or even a midwife. I just got to hold the baby and announce, “It’s a church!” Still, I am excited to see what God is going to do here.
On Monday (6/23), I began a two-day Pastors and Elders conference. We focused first on mobilizing the church for evangelism. Secondarily, we talked about creating a healthy, vibrant church by helping their members discover and develop their place in the church. There was a lot of good interaction with the pastors.
We are being asked to provide a week-long conference in 2026.
