Wednesday April 9th 2008

The lowest servants in the house...
Beginning with praise and worship through song and ending with hugs and handshakes, this morning we served those who serve. We equipped Pastor's this morning at a weekly gathering of about 30 local area pastors. Our two pastors (Will and Sarnaa) equipped them with discipleship training with talks that challenged the pastors to utilize their youth in building their churches and to raise people to be leaders.

The ladies had a special time of encouragement and fellowship together in God's word. Where they also gave talks and challenged the women leaders and pastor's wives in discipleship and raising up young women who will lead and build up others.

As these pastors gather here weekly, we were welcome as those from "Dr. Stanley's church" in Atlanta. We sat with the pastors, prayed with the pastors, and was also equipped by Dr. Stanley, via DVD, with the pastors.

The look on those pastors' faces when we presented the signed copies of "Living the Extraordinary Life" said it all. Each pastor went home with a signed book, a set of CD's, a creative evangelism method, and equipped to begin discipling their young and old. Although these pastors face the same level of poverty as their people, they remain optimistic, and joyous. They desperately need your support.

Huge welcoming...
We journeyed from the pastors seminar to another part of town where over 100 children were ready to greet us. And greet us they did. As soon as our van pulled up, we heard almost 200 little voices yelling "They're here!" These children were ready and many prayed to receive Christ once the gospel was presented. The pictures tell the full story:

Tuesday April 8th

We truly served the greatest in God's eyes. Today was a surprise. We didn't have anything originally planned for the day and an opportunity arose. A small house church in the area we were staying in, that was founded by our host missionary's language teacher, wanted us to come and help them reach the young kids in the neighborhood. Many children came out.

We worshiped through song, we danced, we put on a puppet show, and we told stories. Today was the day that God really clarified the message he wanted us to preach going forward and it is: "With Jesus in your boat, you can smile at the storm." Or to put it another way, "Always trust Jesus!"

Today is an answer to our prayers, our team is together in focus, in love, and a passion to reach and to teach. But today was different, we were all together and knew exactly what needed to be done and everyone stepped in and pulled together. We had the quickest stage setup, the most organized program, and God honed our message clearly.

God honored our efforts through the many who prayed to receive salvation, and discipleship was reinforced through a spur of the moment creative show.

When it was all said and done God had used us up for the day. The team went for lunch, out to a new area of ministry opportunity where the door was closed in the last hour, and we went back to our guest units to rest.

What is so refreshing about our work here is the abundant gratitude of the children and the adults alike. The ministry we did today helped that church understand how to reach the lost on an ongoing basis and how to creatively disciple their young children.