What a great start in the DR!

Abby and I have been getting to know Pastor Miguel and his wife, Persida, a delightful couple!

We weren't sure what to expect when we left home for the Dominican Republic. On the one hand, we knew we had a great team leader in Steve Hopper, one of our GTN colleagues. But, we hadn't met our other team members, Michael Brogna and Ann Yorty, or our hosts, Mesa and Mary Taveras. Well, what a wonderful few days it's been! Our hosts are awesome, our team has meshed beautifully and Steve's doing a great job leading.

We've been training in a great church in Cabrera and the training's gone very well. Abby & Ann, with Mary interpreting, have been training about sixty women and Michael and I, with Mesa interpreting, have been training about thirty men. 

Preparing the whiteboard for training! (The chart at the top is © 2017 by Michael Brogna.)

Abby & Ann have focused on the family and Michael and I have focused on the Old Testament, both per request and the teaching has been well received.

The response from the students has been great with lots of interaction. Mesa says the students are "on fire" about the training and are already asking when we'll return to do more!

Persida cooked an amazing lunch for us today!

We ate an amazing lunch today at Pastor Miguel and Persida's home. Persida's quite a cook and we feasted on roast chicken and pork, cucumber & avocado salad with salsa dressing, rice, beans, plantain balls stuffed with cheese, and papaya for dessert! Wow!

All in all, we're grateful for such a terrific start. Thanks for your support and prayers. Please keep praying!

Dominican Republic

Abby & I will be training pastors and leaders in the DR from October 22 - November 5!

When Steve and Toby Hopper (GTN colleagues) asked Abby and me to consider joining them in the Dominican Republic as part of a training team, we were excited to say, "Yes!" The truth is, we'd been praying about this for a year, ever since they'd mentioned their work in the DR at our GTN annual training event in February of 2016.

Most people think of resort vacations when they think of the DR. We certainly did and it's a great place to vacation, for sure. Apparently the golf resorts are amazing, not to mention the fishing, diving, beaches and whale watching!

But the DR, according to steve and Toby, is also a place where pastors and leaders are hungry for sound biblical training. We've talked with a couple of other people this week who've been to the DR on mission trips and they've confirmed the hunger and need for training like ours.

While I'm sure we'll enjoy the beautiful surroundings, we're looking forward most to meeting and training about 200 key leaders in four locations over our two week trip. We'll be training in Rio San Juan (10/23-25), Cabrera (10/26-27), Barahona (10/30-11/1), and Azua (11/2-4).

Abby will be teaching the women Family Systems and I'll be teaching the men the Old Testament and Discipleship. We typically teach men and women together in Africa, so this will be a new experience for us. We're excited to have this opportunity!

Would you please pray for us, our team members Steve, Michael, Ann and Sandy, as well as our hosts, Mesa & Mary. Pray that the Holy Spirit will unite us as a team and empower us to teach the Word in a life-changing way! Thanks!

Hey, it's good to be back home again!

August 1-3: The trip to Livingstone had been hot and bumpy, making the eight hours seem much longer. Still, we were grateful that we'd be arriving soon to Fawlty towers, our old, comfortable and welcoming lodge. It would be good to see Miriam, Ernestine, Wilkin, Elisa , Joy, Timothy and other staff who are always so good to us.

Regrettably, as we drove into Livingstone, Abby came down with the stomach flu which was to sideline her for several days. She was really quite miserable and unable to join me in the scheduled training which made her pretty sad. I, also, was to get a milder case over the weekend, but I was able to teach in between rests.

Pastor Fred leads worship at Kingdom Impact Ministry.

August 4-6: Pastor Fred of Kingdom Impact Ministry welcomed Percy and me on Friday evening (see video above). Fred had worked with YWAM for some time, but in recent years has been planting a church for the "broken and confused." His worship center was donated to him by a night club owner who had became a Christian and Fred's congregation has many young people in it. We had a great time of worship and training with about 10 young Christians, focusing on the Gospel's power to deal with our guilt, shame and fear.

Saturday evening, Percy and I met with Fred's elders and the focus was on Christian leadership. We pushed them as we discussed how Jesus turned the traditional understanding of leadership as power upside-down. We used John 13:1-17 as a paradigm for Christian leadership, as Jesus takes the lowest position and washes the disciples feet. The elders were extremely open and responsive. It was a worthwhile session.

Sunday morning, Percy, Muyunda and I worshiped with Kingdom Impact Ministry and I preached on the nature and cost of discipleship. Again, we were well received. The congregation was lively and responsive. Interestingly, Pastor Fred is spearheading an effort to plant a large garden on a couple of acres on the church grounds to help make the church sustainable.

John Zulu, one of our amazing students, now leads an interdenominational prayer ministry.

Sunday afternoon, Percy and I traveled to our old student, John Zulu's interdenominational prayer gathering. This group of 30-40 Christians from a number of Livingstone churches meets every Sunday afternoon from 2-8pm for teaching and prayer. John launched this ministry after our training last year and it's going really well!

John had asked me to teach the group what I had taught in my keynote at The Rise Missions Conference earlier this summer when I had taught on the nature of discipleship. John had been able to join us in South Africa and had heard my talk there. So, I did. According to Percy, they were still talking about what I taught for several days after the meeting. Apparently, I struck a chord and John was spot on when he asked me to address this topic. I am grateful.

August 7-9: Abby and I were on the mend and we were able to meet with Percy daily to discuss our plans to reach into Angola with our training next year. On Monday evening, we celebrated Percy's birthday with his wife, Muyunda, and daughters, Natasha, Thabo and Nsala. We had a wonderful evening together. On Tuesday evening, Percy joined us at The Old Farm House restaurant for a lovely dinner around a bonfire. On Wednesday, Abby and I enjoyed a late afternoon trip to Victoria Falls to see the sunset. Amazing, as always! Then, it was a final dinner with Percy before our Thursday morning departure.

August 10-11: Thankfully, our trip home was relatively uneventful and we arrived on schedule. Our dear friends, Robert and Cyndie Howard picked us up at the airport and we enjoyed a meal together. When we arrived home, our Lake Forest Church mission support team members Lisa Hunter and Virginia White had stocked our refrigerator for us which was great. In addition, Cyndie had given them some home grown tomatoes and cantaloupe for us. Delicious!

Please pray for Percy and his family and all our dear friends in South Africa and Zambia. And please pray for us as we sort our our trip and try to discern all the Lord wants us to learn form these seven weeks. And, as always, thanks to all of you who support our work. Your presence on our team makes all the difference! Thank you!

New and Old Friends!

Our Mongu students were great!

It's amazing how the Lord connects Christians to one another. In 2014, we met Joanna Hatton, a member of Centre Presbyterian Church in Mooresville, NC, who grew up on the mission field in Zambia. She enthusiastically connected Percy and us to a friend of hers in Mongu, Zambia, Yuyi "Blessing" Collins Mundia, a young Vineyard pastor. Percy followed through and got to know Pastor Yuyi who asked us to come train his church leaders. So, from Nangweshi it was off to Mongu...

July 28: Percy had arranged with a fellow lodger in Nangweshi to drive us to Mongu. He suggested a two hour short-cut over dirt roads to Senanga from where we could jump on a good paved road for the last hour or so to Mongu. Sounded good to us , so we climbed in to his nice Ford Ranger extended cap pickup truck and off we went.

The short-cut from Nangweshi to Mongu included this ferry crossing.

It was a beautiful drive, highlighted by a short ferry crossing. The vast plains that flood during the rainy season were dry and the vistas along the way were just beautiful. We arrived at our lodge in Mongu a bit dusty, but glad we had taken the short-cut. And, our lodge had flush toilets. What more could we want? LOL!

We ran into a small traffic jam on the road from Nangweshi to Mongu.

That afternoon, we met Yuyi's parents and several of his siblings, delightful people who warmly welcomed us to Mongu. Yuyi's mother looked stragely familiar when we met her and we were amazed to discover that her eldest daughter, Beatrice, was one of our "3 Weeks Intensive Training" students in Sesheke in 2014! Small world!

July 29-30: We spent Saturday training Pastor Yuyi's young leaders, about 15 or so in all, who were excited and responsive. Our class was joined by two of our former students, Live School graduates Bosco and Moses, who have been planting a new church in Mongu. This is Bosco's second church plant since he completed Live school. His first church, deep in the bush, is thriving and he's left it in the hands of capable elders while he launches this new church. Moses recently lost his wife to cancer and had joined Bosco for a couple of months to encourage him and get, as he put it, some refreshment after his wife's long and difficult battle.

Our classroom was at the partially finished Vineyard worship center.

Percy's wife, Muyunda, joined us on Saturday, as well, after a long drive from Mwandi. It was good to see her and fun to have her with us for the weekend.

On Sunday, Abby led Pastor Yuyi's Bible study before worship, then headed to Bosco's church to preach! I stayed and preached at the Vineyard church. Then, following a lovely lunch, I taught a final seminar. Abby had returned by then as had Bosco, Moses and several of their leaders. It was a great day.

Students worked together during break-out sessions.

July 31: We met for several hours with Bosco and Moses to discuss the future of training in Western Province, Zambia and our future plans for training in Angola. Percy and the local Inyambo Mission Center (IMC) board have asked Bosco to head up training efforts on the ground in Western Province while Percy (and we) turn our attention to Angola next year. With the help of three great experienced leaders, Pastors Yamba, Sikute and Lewis, we are confident in Bosco's leadership.

Moses is an Angolan refugee who is about to return to Angola this fall after a seventeen year absence. He was a student in our 2014 Sesheke class. During his wife's struggle with cancer, he had finally been able to connect with his family after all these years who thought he had been killed in the civil war. He will be one of our connectors in Angola as we look to the future there.

Four young and gifted Zambian leaders, Percy, Yuyi, Moses & Bosco

That evening, we had dinner with Pastor Yuyi and his wife, Mercy to hear more about their work and get to know them better. They're a lovely couple and their heart for mission and church planting was evident.

August 1: We traveled to Livingstone, a long, bumpy and exhausting eight hour drive using three different cabs. We arrived at our beloved Fawlty Towers ready for a good night's sleep and a day or two of rest. Sadly, as we drove in to Livingstone, Abby came down with stomach flu.

Please pray for Pastor Yuyi and his family and the Vineyard churches in the Mongus area, and for Bosco and Moses as they plant their new church!