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Archive for May, 2010

African Mission Post 6

Monday, May 24th, 2010

As I write it is just striking 1AM Tuesday morning and I am wide awake fighting a bad case of jet lag today sleeping from 6:30PM to 7:30 then eating dinner followed by another nap and now I am ready for the work of the day. This makes since to my body which still thinks it is now 2:00PM on Monday. Please pray for me to get on a better rhythm by Wednesday as that is when most of the preaching and teaching begins to pick up. Usually I do not suffer to much with the change of time until my return but I didn’t sleep the night of departure and only cat napped on all three flights. Thankfully Anna is doing great sleeping sound all last night and not even taking a nap today. This I believe is largely due to giving her half of a doctor prescribed sleep aid which allowed her to sleep for about 7 out of 8 hours on the flight into Uganda which was a night flight. I did not take one as I am in protect mode, but am wishing now I would have conked out as well. We all get up at 4:30AM to depart for our one adventure on our itinerary to Victoria National Park which was originally scheduled for Monday but had to be moved because of our Sunday delay. Our trip is about work but I wanted to take Anna on at least one trip to see the African wildlife. This we be kinda like going to Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon only with fences around the Baboons and any Cats that may be present. It should be a great trip and the missionaries where glad to take us which I think is pretty common to do when they have guest. Matt Stensaas is our guide for today. He is the brother to Keith who ministers about three hours away and son of Bryan Stensaas who is here in Mbarara. Matt is just one year older than I and after meeting today I hope to get to know him better during our stay.

Today I had the privilege to meet the team of Independent but co-laboring missionaries at their weekly team meeting which they allowed my the opportunity to participate. The group included Missionaries Bryan Stensaas, Pastor Robert (a nation pastor/church planter) Matt Stensaas church planter, Jeff Bassett (who works with the refugees and was in the Ivory Coast for 19 before coming here in 06 he reaches many french speaking refugees from the Congo, and Rwanda as well as others from the Sudan and occasionally Somalians) Tom Tracht, Edgar (faithful leader in the church) and another new missionary James Huckabee form St.Louis.

The meeting was first to review a very successful Medical Teams visit that ended Sunday after treating many hundreds of people with one major heart break which was being blocked do to mudslides from getting to their final destination with an unreached group of Pigmy people that I can tell are heavy on veteran missionary Bryan Stensaas.

Next the men set to work on the very important week of training next week which includes Farming Gods Way and now Fathering Gods Way. The curriculum they are using has been used successfully throughout Africa and has been a huge help teaching more effective principles from Scripture regarding farming which is the way over 90% of the population subsist. This group of 40 is almost exclusively pastors or pastors in training who will have a huge opportunity to influence many others not only with better farming but great dependance on God and His Word.

Please pray for my part in teaching on Fathering God’s Way as I am now going to be producing a curriculum to give out along with the Farming God’s Way material as this will serve as a resource for them as part of their library. That being said I have a short time to produce a ton of material that is ready to be translated and printed before Monday. My portion will include about 18-20 hours of instruction over 5 days about half of which will be the interpreters translation during the teaching the other 2 hours (I know many of you are laughing right now thinking that should be sufficient for me to conclude with my introduction for each lesson of the week.) The Fathering God’s Way should be able to tie in very nicely and I am trying to use some of the agricultural terms used in the Bible for parenting and since my lessons follow about six hours of instruction from the other missionaries with God’s I should be able to illustrate each day with things that have already been taught. As I shared with the church before departing this is the main purpose of the trip which probably the most possibility for long term effect upon the churches of Uganda. That being said I am excited about every preaching opportunity wether in existing churches, villages or the refugee camps as it has the potential to transform lives for eternity by the Gospel.

Church family I want to give you something to pray about regarding the work here in Mbarara which includes several missionaries involved in church planting, pastor training, and now a new orphanage that is being constructed that Brother Tom is heavily involved in seeing built. They have just under $15,000 to finish the construction of this two story building that will be able to house a large number of orphans. Because of your faithful missions giving I want to make a proposal on Sunday to help out in a significant way with completing this project. May we be a people that never forgets what pure religion is. James 1:26-27

Lastly I have heard great reports about the messages from Sunday services at Westside Baptist Church by Pastor Jason Saling and Brother Scott Bennett. The only thing that would have made it better was to hear them myself.

When the pastor is away it is vital for the people of God to remain faithful as Westside is the Lords Church. Please be in much prayer for this coming Sunday as a good friend of our church Pastor Joel Boyce will be preaching in both the morning and evening services.

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

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Tags: Africa, Missions, Pastor

African Mission 5.1 Beta Version

Monday, May 24th, 2010

First let me try and recap what I originally wrote in blog post number 5 that was accidentally erased somewhere between finishing the text, taking a sip of coffee, passing out for an instant, wiping the drool away and hitting the publish button only to find that it did not publish but went into the blog abyss.

We call this portion African Mission Post 5.1 which will replace the unfortunate bug that caused the damage in the Alpha version.

Upon returning with the Tracht family from the Airport in Entebbe, we traveled through Kampala which is the largest city in the country of Uganda. About an hour out of town headed towards our first stop at a Church and Orphanage ministry ran by Missionary Keith Stensaas our Toyota Land Cruiser threw two belts and immediately began to overheat and cause the engine to lose power. Thankfully within three and a half hours the mechanic had purchased the needed parts traveled through a huge traffic jam in Kampala and made it out to fix the vehicle which thankfully took the least amount of time. (By the way this was on Sunday, on the road side with no fancy mechanic equipment only the skilled labor of a young mechanic that Tom and the other missionaries have built a relationship with and a Toyota Land Cruiser which in foreign lands is the vehicle to have do to their durability and ease of repair.) This delay caused us to turn our six hour trip getting home before dark to a nine and a half hour trip getting home after dark and being unable to go to the church and orphanage as planned. We trust that God had a purpose even in this delay. We arrived at the Trachts house to a warm welcome from the rest of the family and a sweet time of fellowship before retiring which for me wasn’t working and is when I wrote the original Blog Post 5 that was deleted. I must also thank Garrett Tracht for giving me his room which he equipped as a nice hotel room with towels, wash cloths, hand sanitizer, and other handy toiletry items. The biggest blessing is the fact that his mattress is very comfortable.

One really neat blessing was seeing a heard of Zebras on the side of the road as we neared Mbarara where the Tracts minister. It is quite a bit different seeing these beautiful creations of God in the wild then in the Zoo. The land is amazing and reminds me a lot of Papua New Guinea with it wide variety of trees from palms to pines and many trees you would find in the tropical rainforest regions of the World. The birds are also fantastic and some large enough to carry away small children.

Anna my precious daughter turned 14 out on the road in the middle of SW Uganda during the middle of the day (which if I remember correctly she was born in the afternoon). I am sure this was not what she ever had planned for a celebration but she had a great day of adventure like many will never have. I am so blessed with my ten children and it is a tremendous joy to watch this particular little girl become a women of whom brings great honor and overwhelming thanksgiving that her heart is for the Lord and toward her parents. She will teach Wednesday and Thursday so please lift her up in your prayers.

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Tags: Africa, Missions, Pastor

African Mission Post 5

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Lost it just now and to tired to redo! It was just a brief update and I will try and remember what I said in it tomorrow.

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African Mission Post 4

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

African Mission Blog 4

We finally arrived in Uganda, Africa at 7:00AM Sunday morning after an eight hour flight from London. The flight had been canceled and then reinstated only the day before so it was an almost completely empty 767. Everyone on board was able to move around and take an entire row to get some good sleep. Anna was able to sleep for about six hours and I got about two hours total.

During the flight I moved to a window seat to look out at the night sky over North Africa and the stars looked as if I could reach out and touch them. It was truly an amazing display of the Glorious handiwork of God. Psalm 19 is so very true that the heavens declare the glory of God to all the peoples of the World. But even though the heavens make that declaration it is the Word of God that is perfect in converting the soul which is the reason we have come to this beautiful place.

Upon arrival we flew over Lake Victoria on our approach (if you want to find Uganda on the map of Africa look for the large body of water in the center and you will find it) into Entebee and it is certainly a beautiful sight amongst all of the tropical vegetation.

We made it through customs without any problems and exited into the Airport lobby to find Tom, Cheri, and Kristen Tracht waiting for us at the Airport. What a great joy to be reunited with these beloved friends and missionaries. After loading the vehicle we started our journey to Mbarara which is located in Southwest Uganda about six hours by car. Well six hours that is unless you break down which is exactly what has happened to us. In fact I write this blog post sitting in the Land Cruiser during a torrential downpour. I was taking a nap when Tom pulled of the side of the road saying we had big problems. First because we are in the middle of know where, secondly because the vehicle overheated, thirdly because the timing belt shredded apart. Thankfully Tom was able to get ahold of his mechanic who is on his way and it should only take him a couple of hours to get here. One of brother Tom’s greatest fears as a missionary was breakdowns as he has never been the mechanical type, but thankfully God uses all kinds of men in the work of the ministry.

I am confident that God has great plans for the next 17 days in Africa. Both Anna and I have many opportunities available with more potential ones on the horizon. As a church we prayed together that God would use all things on the trip for good including delays, changes and breakdowns so please pray that our eyes would be open to what God has in store for us in every circumstance.

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African Mission Post 3

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Today we have a 12 hour layover in London where the weather is amazing. Blue sky and sunshine abound, so we decided to spend the day at a conference church planting and missions with a leading Baptist missiologist from the US. The teaching was tremendous and I was very encouraged by one message on the importance of prayer in the work of God.

We are currently sitting in a Starbucks of all places (I know that is hard for you to imagine) next to the famous St.Pauls Cathedral which we walked to from the old church where the conference was held.

Anna thinks the City of London is amazing and has been taking many photos which during our short layover. We leave to finish the final leg of our 40+ hour flight itinerary into Uganda. One piece of good news is that we are now scheduled back on our original flight direct from London to Entebbe instead of two flights through Dubai. This shaves off about 8hours from our schedule of travel. PTL

Please pray for the Holy Spirit to empower the various preaching and teaching opportunities that God may bring our way. WE NEED ALL OF YOU HOLDING THE ROPE FOR US!

Praying for great things at Westside tomorrow with Pastor Jason Saling preaching in the morning and Brother Scott Bennett preaching in the evening.

Together as ONE,
Pastor Craig

PS Anna had a lady sitting next to her on the plane give her $100 toward her work in Africa.

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