I can’t believe that it is already a week since I left home.
Yesterday’s meeting was not a revival meeting as I had thought, but a leader’s meeting at Ebenezer Fellowship, one of the daughter churches of East Gate Chapel. A small group, but they were very open and responsive to the word.
Today I am feeling rather shell-shocked. I had been trying to contact our pastor in Cameroon, to finalize the plans for my time there, and had not received a response from him, so I put a post on his Facebook page asking for him to contact me urgently. This morning there was a response saying he has died! I am still trying to find out exactly what happened, but I know he was in Israel and it looks like he might have got caught up in the violence there. A great loss both to our Network and to the Body of Christ as a whole.
Meanwhile, as we have no other pastors in Cameroon, it means I am going to have to rejig the second part of my trip.
On a happier note, this evening I am taking a healing service here at East Gate Chapel. I am believing for miracles on this trip, starting tonight.
Haven’t had much chance to update this for the last couple of days.
On Sunday afternoon I ministered at a cell-group meeting from Apostle Adams’ church, East Gate Chapel. Three cell-groups came together for lunch and the meeting. Some of the people I knew from previous visits, and it was good to catch up with them again, and also to meet some new people.
The meeting was live streamed, but unfortunately the phone ran out of battery power before the end of my message. This is the bit that was able to be captured:
Yesterday morning I had a great time catching up with Pastor Steve Churu. I ministered at his church last time I was here, and will be there again when I come back from Zambia. I love this Man of God’s heart for the Body of Christ.
Yesterday afternoon I ministered at Connect Chapel with Pastor Apollo Juma. It was only a small meeting, but was particularly good to catch up with an American missionary couple who fellowship at Apostle Adams’ church. I haven’t yet had a chance to grab the video of it.
This afternoon I will be doing another revival service, and then tomorrow a healing meeting at East Gate Chapel.
Preached this morning at Apostle Adams’ church, East Gate Chapel, Kitale, Kenya, under one of the strongest anointings I have ever experienced. If this is setting the tone for the rest of the trip, it is going to be truly awesome.
So here I am at 1.40 in the morning, wide awake and writing a blog because of that wonderful thing called jet lag. My computer, which is still on Aussie time, tells me it is 9.40am.
We stayed in a hotel in Nairobi tonight, because Adams wanted me to have a chance to rest and refresh before the long drive to Kitale later this morning. Tomorrow will be a rest day, then Sunday I have the service at Adams’ church. This is the poster he has been promoting it with:
One of the big challenges on a trip like this is to maintain my personal devotional life. I have Communion at the beginning and the end of each day. I love the idea that my days are “bookended by grace” as I remind myself of what Jesus has done for me. The evening Communion is also a time of self-examination as I seek to keep short accounts with God: “Search my heart, O God.”
But how do you do that when you are in a tin can at 40,000 feet with a couple of hundred other passengers? Well, the Lord showed me an answer. Every airline meal comes with a bread roll of some kind. As I ate it, I reminded myself again of Jesus’ body that was broken for me. And since the wedding at Cana all water is potential wine when Jesus is around – so, “Lord, as I drink this potential wine, I thank you for Your blood shed for me.” So I got to enjoy my special time with the Lord, and nobody else would have thought I was doing anything other than eating a meal.
The other challenge is keeping up my Bible reading program (which is admittedly challenging at the best of times.) Sitting and openly reading the Bible in the airport at Dubai, a predominantly Muslim country, was a little daunting at first, but as I got lost in the Word those qualms disappeared.
After 30 hours of driving, flying and sitting in airports, I arrived safe and sound in Nairobi this afternoon. The flying part is not a problem – I love flying, and I slept most of the way anyway. I had good seats on both legs of the flight. For the leg between Melbourne and Dubai, a lovely lady at the check in desk went out of her way to get me a window seat, even though there were none available when I booked in. And for the leg between Dubai and Nairobi, she got me a row by myself. Honey, I don’t even know your name, but I’ll love you forever.
But I hate airports.
Airports are definitely not friendly to older people. Would it really hurt them to put some seating along the miles of walking through the commercial areas? Surely it would actually help business if people could sit and rest a bit, rather that feeling they have to press ahead to the nearest seat some miles in the distance.
Dubai airport is particularly horrible. Go upstairs. Come downstairs. God upstairs again. Come down again. I was starting to feel like a yo-yo. Plus instructions on where to go are clear as mud, and most of the staff seem reluctant to assist.
Small testimony from Dubai airport. At one point I was really exhausted and I prayed, “Lord, please let me find an abandoned trolley” (I can walk much further if I have something to lean on.) Ten seconds later, there was a trolley just waiting for me. Thank You Father!
Nairobi airport was much better. For a start, it is a much smaller airport so not all the miles to walk. Of course, there are still the long queues for Immigration, but one of the officials pulled me out of the long queue and took me over to a much shorter queue, which was supposed to be for diplomats. This happened to me last year, too. I guess there are some advantages in looking old. 🙂
Anyway, the first pic is the outside of the arrivals terminal at Nairobi. The second pic is opposite the terminal. I’m not sure how clear they came out in the pic, but all along the central island of the road there are statues of various African animals.
Kind of a happy/sad day today as I said goodbye for six months to my three church families – my home churches Moe New Life Christian Centre and Churchill Christian Fellowship (Churchill is an outreach of Moe) and my “bonus” church Heart Focus Community Church. All three have a special place in my heart and a bunch of people that I love dearly and will miss.
On a positive note, I have had so much prayer over the last couple of weeks that I feel like I am going out with an army behind me.
On the negative side, there have been a few last-minute challenges that have kept me on my toes.
Air Tanzania mucked up my internal flights. In Tanzania, I am going first to Kigoma and then to Mbeya, which means travelling via Dar Es Salaam. (See previous post, https://africa23-24.kogmii.com/16-days-out/) The first leg, from Kigoma to Dar Es Salaam, was cancelled and they rescheduled it for the day AFTER the second leg, from Dar Es Salaam to Mbeya. Since I haven’t yet mastered the art of time travel, to be able to leave a place before I arrive there, there was some back-and-forth with Air Tanzania to get it fixed. In their favour, they were very helpful and polite about the whole thing, but the end result is that I now have a full day layover in Dar Es Salaam. Hmmm … I wonder who it is the Lord wants me to meet there.
Another challenge was Togo, where some unforeseen situations mean that I now won’t be going to that country, but instead have brought forward my time in Ghana and Liberia. We have just had a new pastor affiliate from Siera Leone, which is right next to Liberia, so I might see if I can use some of the extra time in Liberia to pop over the border and meet him.
And just to top it off my Associate Minister, Linda, who has been doing some renovations in her house, tripped over a bed and managed to break her ankle in three places. She had surgery yesterday, and will be in hospital for a while for rehab. Please pray for a speedy recovery for her.
Well, we are getting to the pointy end. My food choices over the next 11 days will not be about what I would like to eat, but what is in the fridge and freezer that needs to be used up before I go. That basically boils down to lamb chops every day (because I bought a whole new tray, forgetting that I already had a full tray’s worth in the freezer) and fish (a whole pack of frozen fish fillets, a free test product from a supermarket product testing group that I am part of, which also came at a time when I already had a full pack of exactly the same fish fillets in the freezer.) On the other hand, maybe I’ll just give the chops and fish away, and live on eggs and cheese (which also need to be used up.)
The packing list has been done, but I never do the actual packing until the day before I go. That avoids the problem of unpacking because I have discovered I need something that is already in the bag.
My first lot of visas and air tickets are on hand, and because most visas have a validity of 90 days from the date of issue, I can’t apply for any more until closer to the time I need them. Organizing pastors in 14 different countries to get them all on the same page is a bit like trying to herd cats, but we are getting there and I am very grateful to our African Co-ordinator (and my spiritual son) Apostle Adams Sabila for all the work he is putting in to it.
Meanwhile, back in Oz, tomorrow I will be doing my last preaching ministry before I leave, and Equip Church Leongatha and Philip Island. Really looking forward to being with those guys.
Tuesday night will be party time. Once every couple of months Churchill Christian Fellowship has a social night, and this time it is going to be a farewell/birthday celebration for me.
So, things are almost sorted for the first part of my trip. One concern was getting a visa for Tanzania. They wanted a return ticket, but I will be going on from Tanzania to Malawi, and since there are no air connections between the two countries I will have to make that part of the journey either by bus or by private car – so no return ticket. I ended up giving them my overall ticket (return to Kenya) plus my invitation to Malawi and my Malawi visa, to show that I was not intending to remain in Tanzania. It worked, and I now have my visa, praise the Lord.
So these are the plans for the first part of the trip: I will leave Australia on 1st November, arriving in Nairobi, Kenya on 2nd. I will be ministering with Apostle Adams Sabila in Kitale till 9th November, when I will go on to Tanzania.
Unfortunately I have an 11 hour overnight stop-over in Dar Es Salaam (black dot on east coast of Tanzania) so it looks like I will be sleeping at the airport. Then I go to Kigoma (black dot in north west, just south of Burundi) to minister with Pastor Peter Sambo.
On 16th I will go back to Dar Es Salaam to connect through to Mbeya and Pastor Philip Mahali. (No overnight at the airport this time, praise God.)
On 23rd I will travel by bus or car to Malawi, to Pastor Thomas Mapira, and then on 29th to Zimbabwe to Pastor Samson Tegwe.
From Zimbabwe I go to Zambia on 6th December. This will probably be another bus ride – there is a flight, but as far as I can tell it goes half way round the world. I’m hoping that while I’m in Zambia, as well as ministry I might get to see Victoria Falls again. Last time I was there (in 1991) I thought I had taken a whole roll of film (those were the days before digital cameras) only to find when I got home that the camera had jammed and I had taken 36 exposures on one frame!
After Zambia I will head back to Kenya on 13th December to spend Christmas with Apostle Adams and his family and minister to our pastors there.
Apostle Adams and family.
So, it’s just three weeks today till I am up, up and away! I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown as I have been preparing for this adventure.
Since this is my first post, I’ll backtrack a little. When the Lord first spoke to me about doing this, the first issue that came up was not about the time overseas, but about accommodation while I am here in Australia. Obviously, it was not going to be practical to keep a rental house going when I am going to be out of the country for half of each year.
I tossed around a few options. Boarding with someone – even a friend – did not appeal at all. I am too fond of my own space and my own way of doing things! My son suggested a caravan, but the cost of keeping it at a caravan park would have been more than the rental on my house. If I could find someone who would let me keep it on their property, that was a viable option.
One of my friends saw a Facebook ad for a cheap van, and after considerable wrestling in prayer (even though it was cheap it was still a stretch of the budget), I woke up one morning knowing, yes, get it.
It lived for some months at the property of a friend, but I was not able to live in it there. As the time for the end of my lease grew closer, the prayer was “Lord, please give me a home for my van.” One possibility looked very promising – until we measured the van and found that it was too high for the space available! More prayer, and at last another friend provided the perfect solution, and I moved into my new little home.
Then the focus moved to actually organizing the trip … but I’ll talk more about that in another post.