Trouble in the Congo

I am finding myself troubled by the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Around 18 months ago I visited the border town of Gisyeni/Goma in north western Rwanda/north eastern Congo. We met with a delegation of around 20 Congolese pastors and church leaders who travelled from their villages and from Goma, across the border into Rwanda, simply to greet us and to pray with us. It was quite a moving experience.

We didn't share their language and interpreting was difficult. I was asked to pray for them, which I did - I don't know if they understood the words. Some of them then prayed for us. They didn't ask us for anything, except to remember them.

We spent a few more minutes together, shaking hands and exchanging hugs before they gathered their things and disappeared back over the border into the DRC.

I do remember them. I find myself wondering what their lives are like right now. How the fighting is impacting them and the people they serve. I wonder if any of them have been killed.

I feel, right now, that I would like very much for us (through Day 4) to be able to do something but I know that, in reality, there is little good that we can achieve. We're too small and fundraising has been incredibly slow this year. But we can pray. I also promised those Congolese pastors I would remember them, and I would ask you to look closely at their faces (you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it) and remember them before God too.

3 is enough

"3 is enough" groups are an initiative of Todd Hunter. They remind me a little of something called "prayer triplets" which have come in and out of vogue here in Oz (and I guess elsewhere around the world) from time to time. However 3ie groups have some distinct differences.

Here's what Todd has to say about them:

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Three is Enough Groups are a simple way to practice following God in the way of Jesus. They are not an end in themselves. Their focus is on God and others and the spiritual transformation such a focus brings.

As an important byproduct, they are an antidote to the massive image problem currently ascribed to Christians and Christianity. This unfortunate viewpoint keeps many people from entering life in the Kingdom as a follower of Jesus. Spiritual transformation into Christlikeness has always been the true goal of Christian faith—now it is utterly strategic.

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Everything you need to know about the concept and about getting a group of your own started is on Todd's blog.

Back from Africa

We arrived back home early Friday morning after a 7 hour flight from Thailand.

Things got off to a bit of a scary start on take off from Bangkok - the plane began climbing at full thrust as usual, until, about a minute into the climb, the pilot leveled out and throttled down. There followed a deafening noise and the plane began shuddering violently.

Alyssa and I were sitting in an exit row with the two flight attendants in their jumpseats directly in front of us. When the noise and shuddering started they stopped chatting and gave each other worried looks and exchanged glances with two other attendants on the opposite side of the plane.

When the emergency exit lights came people around us started making noise. My reflex action was to grab Lyss' hand and begin praying in here ear!

The noise and shudders lasted about 30 seconds and then the pilot increased thrust and began to climb again. After about an hour of climbing the pilot came on the intercom for the first time, without mentioning anything about what had happened. To say the rest of the flight was a little nerve-wracked is probably an understandment.

While not completely sure what happened, my own flight training and flying experience tells me the most likely source of the problem was the undercarriage which possibly did not properly lock in place after take-off. This would explain the throttling back, leveling off and the horrendous noise (resulting from the drag caused when the undercarriage was put down and back up again). It also explains the emergency exit lights as these come on automatically when the landing gear is extended.

While it wasn't a serious issue, it would have been nice if the Thai Airways flight crew had explained over the intercom what was going on. The whole incident left quite a few passengers obviously rattled - Lyss and I included.

It's good to be back and to see the kids. And also to reflect on the last 2 weeks and things we have seen, heard and participated in.

Kenya - Another story

As is so often the case, the true extent of the violence and suffering is often not the same as that seen on the television news and is often not more fully known or understood until well after the events have taken place - think Rwanda.

Through my work with Day 4 I am involved with a ministry - City Harvest - which works among the slum dwellers of Nairobi, improving living standards, training and providing access to retroviral medication and AIDS/HIV clinics. When the violence broke out in Nairobi at the start of January I knew that Edward Simiyu and his team would be affected and would also be involved at the heart of the relief effort. With this in mind we launched the Day 4 Kenya Appeal to raise funds to send to City Harvest to use in the relief effort.

The reports we have been receiving from Edward paint a picture of disaster that is much more wide spread than that seen in much of the media reports coming out of Kenya in recent weeks. More than half a million men, women and children displaced from their slum communities and left without food, water, clothing, shelter or security. To the north of Nairobi homes, schools and churches have been destroyed and many people killed.

2 weeks ago Edward and a number of other local Christians embarked on a journey through roadblocks manned by armed youth - bent on violent retribution in what many in Kenya have likened to the early days of the Rwandan genocide - in order to supply humanitarian aid to those in remote areas, unaccessible to most other relief organisations.

Edward's report of the convoy's journey paints a picture of corruption, disaster and dispare. The military, sent to help those affected by the indiscriminate violence, were demanding money in exchange for protection, schools churches and homes were looted, ransacked and burnt and bodies left to rot where they lie, providing a source of food for scavenging dogs.

Here are some photos from the road to Eldoret.

Refugees sleeping in the opening with all their belongings in plastic bags

All that remains of Kondoo Shopping Centre

Wrecks of elite forces vehicles, sent in to stop the violence. The troops were repelled and then their vehicles burnt and thrown into the river.

The remains of Kamuyu Primary School - looted and destroyed

All that's left of an AOG church looted and stripped back to the frame

One of many homes completely destroyed - more can be seen in the background

The remains of Eldoret church where many people died after seeking refuge from the violence. The church was torched.

The situation in Kenya is dire. Please continue to pray for this country and its people. Please also consider linking back to this blog post and promoting the Day 4 Kenya Appeal on your blogs. 100% of funds donated will make it to Kenya to be used specifically for the relief effort. Please also consider donating - response to the appeal has been slow, yet even small donations add up and can make a big difference to the suffering in Kenya.

I'll leave you with some words from Edward and thanks again for promoting and praying and donating!

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Please pray for Kenya. The suffering and damage is more than what the media has highlighted. More churches have been destroyed than those counted and reported. More churches are likely to suffer the same fate with the precedence now set should unrest continue. The dead are still unaccounted [for] and we are all likely to die if unrest continues. Prices have shot up and calm that was returning is threatened by uncertainty especially this week as more rallies are planned for Wednesday to Friday. They are never peaceful. Two of our HIV/AIDS support group members had their houses torched and are still in trauma. A number ran out of the life prolonging ARVs and now have to change their line of drugs.

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Backyard Missionaries Required for Down-South Ministry

Just over a year ago I published an advertisement calling for interested individuals and families to consider moving to our community in order to work with us (the local church) in order to help serve the community and grow the kingdom of God.

My original advertisement was edited by the leadership team and things about our location (on the beach, close to schools, golf course, etc.) were added in what was seen as necessary incentives to lure people to us. Our hopes, I guess, were centred on reinvigorating our flagging Sunday morning service and adding some new goods and services to our menu of programs.

I knew that Sunday morning services were not the key to our success as a church. I had been preaching and talking about this for several years with our members and leaders, but I allowed myself, for a moment, to fall back into the old attractional way of thinking - maybe if we just gave it one more shot, maybe if we just found a few musicians for our one-woman-band, we might at least be able to attract back some of the local Christians who had abandoned us for the mega-church down the road, or the Christian families who move to town and don't even give us a look in?

The end result of our advertising? One reply - an older guy looking to retire somewhere on the coast, who mistakenly thought we were looking for a pastor and was prepared to offer his services to us free of charge. And that was it.

On the upside our ad sparked a debate on a prominent Aussie blog which made me look harder at something called the "emerging church". Little did I know that the road God had me travelling was very close to that of many others who were now associating themselves with the emerging-missional movement.

Today - well, things haven't changed much, except that I have a new vocabulary which I have been able to share with the leadership team, and I am now on a not-so-lonely journey, with our leadership now among the fellow travelers on this missional adventure. But we are still resource strapped.

So, 12 months on we are trying again - but this time with a revamped "want ad". Feel free to distribute it, publicaly argue about, debate it or slam it!

Are you being called to a cross-cultural mission-field in your own backyard?

If you know the words “missional” and “emerging”, see the kingdom of heaven as something more than just a future event, and understand that sharing the gospel involves living it as much as speaking it, then we would like to hear from you.

Our community suffers from disease and poverty, but our diseases are those of affluence and our poverty is spiritual. Overall our biggest problem is apathy – but we aren't sure that anyone cares?

We are a small number of Jesus’ followers with faith in the power of Jesus Christ to transform our town, however, while the harvest is plentiful the workers are few.

If you think this could be the thing for you and would like more information you can Skype our ministry team leader (Andrew) on deepsky1971, email him at deepsky@oceanbroadband.net, call him during the day on 0413 995 280 or at home on 9720 1215.

Can I Pray for You?

I found this post on prayer evangelism while browsing the Off-The-Map stable of blogs this arvo. (Update - This topic was originally posted here.)

This kind of thing actually scares me silly. But ... there are always opportunities for me to do this, particularly as I work directly with people and their problems.

I have been digging deeper into prayer this last month or so - it is an area I struggle with, more so at some times than others. How to have consistency in my prayer life, how to pray, how to pray when I don't want to pray, how to pray publicly, how to pray spontaneously?

I am reading a great little book on prayer at the moment - I think it is the kind of book you could give to a seeker or spiritually inclined person, as well as read and find value in it yourself. It's called Prayer-Centred Life by Dudley Delffs.

Grab it if you get the chance.

... The sea remains the sea

Dear Lord, today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: 'It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.' You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life; by your love I am sustained; and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success;

but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love.

My only real temptation is to doubt in your love, to think of myself as beyond the reach of your love, to remove myself from the healing radiance of your love. To do these things is to move into the darkness of despair.

O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of daily life, and let me know that there is ebb and flow but that the sea remains the sea. Amen - Henri Nouwen

Joy went to be with her King on Tuesday afternoon. Thank you to everyone who took the time to pray for her and her family and friends. She will be missed but is now free from the struggles of life in Kigali - for that we give praise and thanks to our Master and Rescuer; Jesus Christ.