| Someone said that the eyes are a window to the soul. What do you see in their eyes. Our prayer is that the eyes of these kids would be filled with hope.Please pray for us. Josh Cox (2nd trip), Ivan Giraldo (3rd trip), Mike Scheffelin (5thtrip) and I left Tuesday and will arrive in Bukavu, DR Congo on Thursday. We return to Austin on January 25.
We continue to appreciate the loving hand of God as we travel and interact with people. I cannot explain why prayer is necessary, but I have experienced the results of your prayers and are grateful for them. (I have also experienced the results of not asking people to pray; it isn’t pretty!)
Summary:
This email is divided into four sections:
An appeal for people praying for a Bible recipient
Our prayer requests for the trip
Trip summary
Our day to day plans
Pray for a Bible Recipient:
Because of the results that we saw from previous Bible distribution efforts, we believed God was leading us to bring even more Bibles (solar powered MP3 players with the Bible in French and Swahili) – 505, to be exact.
We like for people to commit to pray for a recipient of the Bible and we put their name on the Bible so that the recipient knows that someone is praying. While we are good on the money side of things, we are way short of people praying for the recipients. If you want more info on the Bibles you can go here. If you want to pray for the recipient, just reply to this email. We are praying that you will “blow up” our inbox. Bring it on!
Here’s how you can pray for the trip:
Prayers for Leadership Development:
- Direct Paul in his starting a Leadership Academy for leaders in Bukavu and bring the right people to the leadership retreat during our trip.
- Challenge Solomon in a new way to see how he can be used to help the people of the Congo.
Prayers for Bible Distribution:
- Show Solomon and John how to best distribute Bibles and how to encourage the use of them to help the people of eastern Congo grow in their knowledge of God and how to live well.
- That the recipients would share the Word with many others. That they would listen to God’s Word together, grow together and lead together.
Prayers for Business Formation:
- Give us wisdom in helping the YoungLife leaders, Bernard and others start businesses.
- Lead us in developing a “business in a box” so the students can learn business experientially.
Prayers for Story Telling and Video Production:
- Help Josh and Mike mentor Prince in his desire to teach video production. Help Prince select students for the workshop which will occur during our trip.
- Bring men and women who have a vision on using video to help spread the gospel, make a living and tell stories to change their world.
Prayers for the Trip:
- The Holy Spirit will give us great discernment as to the spiritual battles around us.
- Protect us from any unnecessary health issues before we leave and during our trip.
- Give each member of our team a new or re-energized vision on how we can help accomplish His will for the people of the Congo.
- Give us the words and materials to present challenging new ideas to the young leaders and business owners of the Congo.
- Prepare the hearts of those He will bring to us while we are there and show us whom we should mentor.
Trip Summary:
Background:
This area of the Congo is broken in every imaginable way – physically, morally, emotionally, legally, economically and spiritually.
Guiding Principles:
- Jesus is a Personal and Powerful Provider for His People.
- Subdue the earth.
- Relationships and resources – never one without the other
- Integrating physical and spiritual resources
- Local leadership – global relationships
- Individuals following Jesus will transform a community.
Plans:
- Continue training and encouraging the 11 Congolese YoungLife volunteer leaders trained in business on previous trips. A few have now started businesses. We have had monthly conference calls with them since our last trip; it will be nice to be in one room with them.
- Host a leadership retreat as the “kick off” of Paul’s (a Congolese pastor) leadership development initiative.
- Work with John to develop a shepherding program for Bible recipients as we expand Bible (solar powered MP3 players) distribution through John’s network of church leaders.
- Work with Prince and others to develop story-telling and video production skills.
- Exhort people to trust in the provision of Jesus Christ. When one lives in a society that has been victimized for generations, one ceases to believe that Jesus Christ is personal and powerful.
Trip Itinerary:
Thursday:
Arrive Bukavu
Friday:
Ivan – training the Congolese YoungLife volunteer leaders in business – doing market research in electricity and Facebook usage to help us develop “starter businesses” and communicate and market effectively
Josh and Mike – teaching Prince and others how to produce a short film by shooting a short film
Greg – working on Bible distribution strategy with Solomon and John
Saturday:
Greg and Ivan – talking with Joshua in the morning about brick making, electricity generation and distribution, and internet cafes in remote (poor) areas; teaching a group of college students about leadership in the afternoon
Josh and Mike – more film shooting
Sunday:
Church and YoungLife clubs
Monday:
Greg and Ivan – visiting Frank’s tilapia pond with the YoungLife volunteer leaders.
Josh and Mike – more film shooting
Tuesday:
Ivan – Final business training for the YoungLife leaders
Greg – Consulting with Paul who wants to expand his business of training / employing orphans as they become adults
Wednesday:.
Our day of rest – visiting gorillas in the morning and friends in the afternoon
Thursday:
All – teaching and developing relationships with pastors for possible future Bible distribution. The teaching is four principles out of Genesis related to innovation and work. We will also be conducting more electricity and Facebook market research.
Friday:
Greg and Ivan – Travel to Rwanda for Paul’s (a Congolese pastor) first leadership retreat which will be the kickoff of his formal leadership development efforts.
Josh and Mike – Travel to Rwanda to lead film production training
Saturday and Sunday:
Leadership retreat and film production training
Leave for home on Sunday
That’s it from the Brussels airport.
For the team,
Greg
Matthew 6:33 |
