Sunday, March 3, 2019

“I love to start each day on my knees, reading the Bible, trying to hear God’s voice – asking, ‘Lord, what are you saying to me today?’...
If you want to speak with authority, spend time with God, listening to his voice.” (Gumbel)‍

‍

Though we had to leave for the airport in Bangui early, to still spend some time with the Lord. There is a saying that goes, “I’m too busy not to pray.”

The key word that characterized the day is “wait.” We got to the Bangui airport and waited for the plane. We flew to Douala and waited 5 hours for our half hour jump to Yaounde. When we got to Yaounde, we waited outside for at least 45 minutes. Usually all that waiting would have sent me into orbit, but the Lord’s patience with me must be working on me...or I was too tired to care.

The hotel Tango is the nicest place we’ve stayed in this trip...and the cheapest!

Monday, March 4, 2019:‍

We were expecting 30 pastors and leaders to come to the PM. After 250 pastors and FT’s of 135 and 202, I made the decision that the number doesn’t matter. Indeed this morning I preached until 12:15pm on making disciples instead of converts, disciples who make disciples. I had a great time. Then Justin took over. Bernard thinks there will be about 60 at the FT the next 3 days.

In the meeting, while Justin was sharing, I was tending to administration work, when Daniel called. Daniel is the general superintendent of one of the largest denominations in Cameroon, Full Gospel Mission. Justin set up for him to come by our hotel at 5pm. PRAISE GOD!

I was thrilled to meet a kingdom minded and discipleship focused leader! Oh, what a breath of fresh air. I spoke about training a couple from his denomination to make using LS in Full Gospel Mission autonomous. He is planning on sending a couple Timothie’s to the FT and coming himself a couple hours to emphasize to them how important this is to him. This meeting with Daniel is the reason I decided to stay an extra week and come to Cameroon, which I was just in last November. This one meeting could easily eclipse anything we have done to date! God has been setting things in order behind the scenes! He is so AMAZING!  

Wow! The Lord is tearing down the denominational walls and causing unity to happen in His Body! Daniel even said so. We are living in amazing times!

‍

Yaoundé, Cameroon:
We have been working in Cameroon since 2014. We thought things would fly there and be slow in Chad, but actually, exactly the opposite has been true. We have found that who we walk and work with makes all the difference. Over the last several years we have “re-booted” much of our leadership structure and even the main ministries that we have been working with. In the most needy areas, the north, LS is seeing great momentum. Pascal is now overseeing the north half of Cameroon. When I first went to Cameroon, I met him and my spirit jumped on the inside of me. I said, “I want that guy on our team.” It was 3 years later that he started working with us more and last fall, after he spent 3 months in Chad going through a Leadership Development Academy (LDA), we gave him responsibility to oversee the northern half of Cameroon. I tell you things there are going great now. Praise the Lord!

While Justin and I were holding a Pastor Meeting and training of facilitators in the capital, Yaounde, in the southern half of the country, Pascal was preparing for Paul and Justin to fly there the last day of our meetings in Yaounde to hold similar meetings in Garoua, in the north. Well, the Lord directed me to change plans, and the CamAir cancelled Justin’s flight from early Thursday morning until early Friday morning...which they then changed again to 5pm on Friday. So, Pascal has held two days of the meetings with his team alone he is well able, and yesterday, as I was late driving to the airport, I began praising the Lord, and then found myself ardently praying for the Garoua meeting. I am interested in all God will do in those meetings.

While our meetings in Yaounde were smaller in number than many of the other countries we’ve been to on this trip, our discussions were much deeper with most people being able to contribute and share, which simply couldn’t happen with the larger meetings of 130 to 200+ people.

Bernard has quite a few of his LS students and some LS graduates present whom he wanted there to build team. Our time there was very strategic.

The Lord done so much and convinced me more than ever about the LDA’s done properly building coordination teams (families), which are proving to maintain the momentum that these meetings we hold bring, as they are focused and equipped on continuing the work.