Thursday, Feb 28, 2019

This morning I woke up and waded across the room to the bathroom. The AC has a two flex hoses put together to funnel the condensation through the wall to the bathroom drain. Only, the two hoses were not connected. So, all night long the water trickled out on the floor. Thankfully, my one suitcase has a hard bottom and the other one was standing upright on it’s wheels. So, the only things that got wet were all my dirty clothes on the floor.

After a time of devotion, Justin and I went to eat breakfast, which was a salad. I ate everything, except for the lettuce. Once back in the room, Justin appeared at the room with a woman, who was very excited to see me. Justin said that she was the owner’s daughter and that she had become a Christian. Her name was Kristen. We encouraged her, and she helped us with our luggage to the front of the hotel where Justin had arranged for a taxi to pick us up.

We ended up each having to pay for a 2nd bag when checking in for the Kenyan Airways flight, and they almost didn’t let me take my backpack as a personal item, because it and the backpack weighed 19 kg, instead of 12kg. But I took a few clothes out and put them in my bag and said, “There. The rest of the stuff is electronic.” After paying for the extra bags, the manager was gone, so we just went to the gate. Going through immigration the man clearing my “other passports” line was slower than a turtle. I must have stood in that line 40 minutes to clear 4 people! TIA.

Once on the plane, which is packed, the man sitting next to me just happens to be returning from a Rick Warren conference in Rwanda. He was the president of the Alliance Association of Churches in CAR. Imagine that! :) His name is Rev. Nicolas, and he is good friends with Edet George, who originally opened the door for us into CAR some 3 or 4 years ago. Rev. Nicolas has asked our coordinator in CAR to call him this afternoon. Wow! God is again going before us and setting things up for “GREATER IMPACT” (a term that our Nigerian coordinator said at our WACA team meeting in 2015). It has stuck with me! He said, “I’m not interested in impact; I’m interested in GREATER IMPACT!” Hallelujah! Above and beyond all we could ask or think (Eph 3:20)! Working with the Lord and letting Him lead is such an adventure, and it is so AMAZING TO BEHOLD ALL THAT HE IS DOING! I stand in awe of Him! HE ALONE IS WORTHY!

“You couldn’t write a book” as amazing as what God has done on this trip alone!

I will be interested to see what God does as a result of this “coincidental” sitting next to the president of CAR Alliance!

We got to our hotel, Hotel du Centre, which is the same hotel I was in back in the October where I had chest pains every night for a month before returning home and having a stent put in my heart a week later. As Kathy said, “Not this time, baby!”

Last night we went to Abraham’s and met his wife, Giselle, and many of his 7 children. One of his children, Deborah, was hit by a vehicle last year when I was in Chad, and he was an LDA student. They are still waiting for the infection to subside, and then plan to re-brake and re-set her leg. O Lord, have mercy on Your daughter. I use the authority of the name You have given us, Your Son Jesus, and tell the infection to leave and her to become whole.

We gave him funds for the PM today and a DP for the FT that begins the next day. They expect 300-350 pastors today and maybe 500 for the FT. O my. We will see. “Jesus always knows what to do!”

I woke up thinking about 1Ti 1:5 (NASB)  But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

This is what I want to share on with the pastors and go from there.

Friday, March 1, 2019:

Morning Sermon: 9-11am

“The clothes of authentic discipleship are not the purple robes of an emperor, but the crown of thorns of our Saviour. It is about a cross, not a throne. It is a life laid down for others.” (Gumbel)

Love as the motive for missions.

1Ti 1:5 (NASB)  But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

1Ti 1:18 Timothy, fight the good fight of faith!

1Jn 4:16-21 (NASB)  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  17  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  19  We love, because He first loved us.  20  If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  21  And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

James and John, sons of Zebedee, asked Jesus a favor... (bribes). Jesus asked the disciples what they wanted (Mk 10:35-36). They gave the wrong answer.

Jesus asked blind Bartimaeus what he wanted. He was healed for his faith.

Mar 11:17 (NASB)  And He began to teach and say to them, "Is it not written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS'? But you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN."

God’s intention; His purpose; His vision: EVERY NATION, TRIBE, KINDRED AND TONGUE.

Mar 10:43-45 (NASB)  "But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant;  44  and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.  45  "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

LOVE GIVES; LOVE SERVES; LOVE DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN.

Php 2:19-21 (NASB)  But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition.  20  For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.  21  For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.

Love gives itself away.

FAITH RECEIVES; LOVE GIVES.

It is better to give than to receive.

1Co 13:13 (NASB)  But now faith, hope, love, abide in these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Are you seeking to GIVE or are you seeking to GET?

Let us repent.

Mat 9:35-10:1 (NASB)  Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.  36  Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.  37  Then He *said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  38  "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."  10:1  Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Making Disciples versus making converts:

Mat 28:18-20 (NASB)  And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  20  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

2Ti 2:2-5 (NASB)  The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.  3  Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  4  No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.  5  Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

Show the math of 1 person making 2 disciples who make 2 disciples in their lives with each new generation of disciples made occurring within one year of that disciple being born again. The 7.4 billion population of the world would be reached between 32 and 33 years! Here we are still not there almost 2000 years after Christ! Focus on making disciples who make disciples (2Ti 2:2).

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That is what I shared on until about 11am. I focused on making disciples who make disciples and showed them the math of just making 2 disciples in my life, but training them to make 2 disciples, beginning within a year’s time, teaching them to in turn make disciples who make disciples. The result is that mathematically, the entire population of the world would become a disciple somewhere between the 32nd and 33rd year! And here we are almost 2000 years after Christ with UPGs and UUPGs still unreached! We need to focus on making disciples rather than converts, like Jesus and Paul did.

We had a good time of ministry after, asking the Lord to remove forgiveness and bitterness and heal the hurts in our hearts that we might truly trust Him and experience His love, that we might not be able to contain that love but give it away.

Afterwards we took a break and then I introduced Justin. I gave a brief summary of what LS is and turned it over to Justin to unpack LS to them for the rest of the day. I’m not sure how many are here yet, but I don’t think 300. How many is no matter to me. We are trusting the Lord to bring the pastors that are supposed to be here and use Live School.

At the break a man told me that the CAR Church is not missions minded as a whole. They focus on blessing, marriage, family, etc... but not fulfilling the Great Commission. That is why we are here.

Justin was tired after preaching on Vision, so I facilitated the next session. These pastors are not well taught at all about missions. It is like “ground 0.” During the discussion afterwards, for a long time I felt like I was looking at “deer in the headlights.” But finally, they became engaged, and we had a good discussion. Like Hezekiah, I feel like we are here to “rebuild the walls,” and establish the foundation. It will be interesting to see how many show up tomorrow and if they bring any disciples... They are taking notes, but not knowing French or Sanga, the local dialect, it is hard to know the impact. However, they are still here at 2:45pm after a break. So, that is a good sign. Lord, have Your way; love Your church; raise them up to their potential in Christ. Establish them in Your ways, O Lord.

CAR is largely Christian, but it is in name only... May LS be used to renew, strengthen and cause the fire of the Holy Spirit to revive the Church here and raise up laborers to reap the harvest. Send us the pillars of the faith here, Lord. Raise them up. Wake up Your Church in other places to help our brothers and sisters here.

Mat 9:36 (NASB)  Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

Justin and I planned on leaving 5 LS units here. It is a good thing that Justin took 10 from the EEC in Congo, giving five of them back elsewhere in Congo, so that we have 5 extra we should be able to leave here. Wow. So glad that the Lord knows our need for LSU funding and is moving on peoples’ hearts to join us in His work through giving!  Lord, give us your wisdom and lead the way. These people are mostly “poorer than dirt.” I pray that Farming God’s Way has a huge impact here and that the church use Live School to rebuild the spiritual foundations of the Church and expand the kingdom even into the treacherous north and the rebels in the east, not to mention the west... Lord, help us help them possess their land!

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Saturday, March 2, 2019:

“It is said that, ‘The first to apologise is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.’

...if we have leaves, we need to also have fruit’.

In Rabbinic literature, ‘mountain’ is sometimes used figuratively to denote an obstacle. Jesus seems to be saying (Mk 11:23) that God will come in response to faith to remove seemingly impossible obstacles.”

(Gumbel)

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Yesterday, we had 182 at the Pastor Meeting. Today, is the first day of our Facilitator Training. It seems like there are a considerable number more than that. At the end of the day, we will see how many. First thing, before everyone got here, I counted 61 potential host churches present. But a considerable number more of people have come since then. We now have 73 potential host churches here, and 202 facilitators.

It rained about an hour ago, and now it is still, humid and hot. I think this nation is like a steam room right now:)

So, in Africa it seems normal that there should be a snack at about 11am, which usually doesn’t happen until 12:15pm. And then lunch, which is supposed to begin at 3pm, will probably not happen until the day is over (TIA). Anytime I ask about the plan or schedule, I can tell it is cross grain to the prevailing world view here (TIA).

I did an extra session while we waited for lunch, which came about 4:15 or 4:30. The gave Justin and I gifts which totally blessed us. They gave cloth for Kathy to make a dress, and a painting of me and Kathy that brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t stop them, and can’t now as I’m writing about it. I am so looking forward to being with the love of my life on Friday evening! After we opened the gifts, we took pictures and then ate.

Later that night Justin met with the CAR team. I joined in at the end and blessed them and gave them a little of what the Lord had showed me while in CAR and the other Central African countries. CAR is a nation that is mostly Christian in name only. These disciples will look back one day and say, “Look what the Lord has done!” The harvest is falling off the vine, everywhere we go! It is time to cast in the nets! May the Lord wake up His bride and may many churches make disciples who make disciples in all of WACA... in all the world! We prayed with them, and then I packed and went to bed about midnight, waking up about 5am, an hour before my alarm, ready to fly to Cameroon.

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