Pressing on

Last Friday I went back to the IDP camp at Magunga with my team where we collected stories and pictures from some of the families living in the camp. Every story was painful and difficult to get through. I wanted to cry the whole time but had to keep my composure to accomplish the task we had. Sunday night I decided I needed to try and process all the stuff that I had to lock away but it didn't go so well. I ended up a complete mess. Totally depressed and useless. Finally, on Monday God walked me through the pain and I was finally able to process the horrors that are the lives of the people in the Magunga IDP camp.

This week we've been teaching and training a group of about 30 church youth leaders. We've been teaching them techniques on how to work with and empower the children they teach. It's quite difficult due to the cultural differences and mindsets these people all stuck in but it's been going quite well. Not only are these leaders going to walk away with new ways to help their kids but the leaders themselves are learning so much about who they are as children of the King.

We have less than a week left in Congo and there is still a lot we would like to accomplish. Today we are going to try and get an audience with the UN and possibly UNICEF to find out more about what they are doing and areas that we may be able to help. So pray that these meetings go well.

Our time here so far has been difficult but very good. We've accomplished a lot and have blazed a good trail for future work here. The pastor that we've been working with is a special guy with an amazing family and it's been a pleasure to work with him. He's known and respected around the city and has been able to get us into many doors.

Congo needs peace. The rebels need Jesus. That's why we're here. Pray for Congo.

God is moving in Goma!

Our youth conference was a great success! We empowered a group of about 30 youth over a period of three days. God is so good and he loves his kids sooooo much! The last day we sent out five teams on a treasure hunt and every team found their treasures! We even have a testimony of a creative miracle from one team.

The clues this team received led them to a mama that was blind. One of the guys on the team saw her in a vision before they went out. I'm not sure of the level of blindness but she couldn't see and she had terrible pain in her eyes. They prayed for her and the pain went away immediately and she could see! So exciting! We are so excited about what God is going to continue doing in and through these youth.

Please continue keeping my team in your prayers. We seen God moving in amazing ways and we've just scratched the surface. Today we will be visiting a child soldier rehabilitation ceter. Can't wait to love on those guys.

Goma Youth Conference

We are starting a 3 day youth conference today! We're all really excited about what God's gonna do at the conference, in and through these youth. Please take a moment right now to lift us and the youth up in prayer.

A bit of randomness

So, I don't know how to wrap up the last few days in a paragraph so...well...here...

Injustice! Grrrrrrrrrrr!

My team is amazing!

Yay for lovely widows! We saw some healings!

Opportunity to take over feeding program for 26,000 people at an IDP camp! Holla!

Hillary Clinton visited the IDP camp with the Congo president. We were asked to leave. Booooo! Although, I do feel honored in a way...a crowd of throusands and we were the ones told to leave.

Give me this. Give me that. Give me cookies. Give me food. Give me money...Arrrrgh! Enough already!

Goma, Congo...Living. Learning. Networking. Teaching. Sharing. Giving. Fighting. Praying. Seeking. Dreaming. Loving.

The Congolese here don't like white people and talk about it freely. We are stuck riding on their laps in the public transportation. All the other white people ride in white Landcruisers.

The Congolese do however like to use the whites and get whatever they can from them.

Discouragment.

Hope.

Jesus!

Love!

Jesus!

Favor!

Jesus!

Gettin Better

Thursday was kinda tough. We we to visit a malnutrition center. Seeing that kind of stuff is always difficult and draining. All day I still felt like I was waiting for the hat to drop. I was told they've been at peace here for over four months now which is the longest time they've seen in many years. Although, it's still very dangerous to leave the city and if someone like me should decide to make that kind of journey it would be like saying "I'm ready to die." So with all things considered it's no wonder there would be a fair amount of edginess amongst the people here.

Our team had some worship time together on Thursday night and I really feel like we got some break through. Yesterday was a great day. We had the opportunity to visit a group of widows that were just amazing. We could feel Daddy's love in that place. After a wonderful lunch at the pastor's house we visited a group of young people that are chasing after God together. We played games, sang songs, prayed together, and I was given the opportunity to speak. We were then provided with another wonderful meal before heading home to a movie and chai.

Goma, Congo

Here's what I tried to post Thursday morning but was unable to...

So I’ve been in Congo now for 3 days…and it’s tough. It’s difficult to get things done in Kenya but it’s proven to be even tougher here. I’ve always been against bribes because I feel that they just feed the corruption and I was always able to avoid them in Kenya. So far we’ve had to pay way too many “government fees” that are pretty much seem to be a bunch of BS. The government workers here get paid next to nothing so they get as much as they can out of us when they have the chance.

Goma seems to be a relatively safe city but I’ve kinda felt on edge here. I’m trying to figure out if all the stories I’ve heard of bad things happening are looming in the back of my mind. Or if I’m picking up on what the people here are feeling. There is a huge spirit of fear over this city and I’m not surprised by that at all. Rebel soldiers in the bush all around the city. A towering volcano that destroyed part of the city in 2002 still sits smoking letting us know it’s not finished yet. Rwanda’s border is on one side and a lake on another. One could easily begin to feel trapped here.

My team and I have spent the week trying to get settled and figure out the city and how things work (or don’t work) here. Today we plan to go visit some IDP camps. We also have plans of visiting a child soldier rehabilitation center, malnutrition center, hospitals, etc. The girls are going to work with a couple of small groups of women that they can disciple and train in leadership. We have our photography project that we may start next week as well. There’s also the possibility of a leaders conference and children’s conference. The opportunities for ministry here seem to be endless at this point so it just depends on where we’re feeling lead, how much money we have and how much we can squeeze into 3 weeks.

Thanks for continuing to keep my team and I in your prayers. Specifically, I really hope to see some mind blowing miracles while I’m here. I’m also feeling like we’ve been trying to run upstream with all we’ve be doing here so you can pray that we come against less resistance.