Wed. JUL 23, 08 Kelsey reports from Dulles airport

Kelsey Young wrote:
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:32:21 -0600From: "Kelsey Young" Subject: Writing from DC
Jambo everyone! Mukama Yebizibwe- (Praise God) I am alive after our 17 hour flight from Ethiopia to DC! As I am waiting for my next flight home to Denver, I thought I would fill you in on a few of the adventures!(I wrote this for you all two days ago...enjoy)The KeyThe mist rises up from the rapids of the Nile. The birds sing to the tune of dawn. The fish surface onto the lapping water against the rocks. As I swing in this amazingly comfortable hammock overlooking the Nile, I am surrounded by untouched beauty and I'm reminded of God's intention for earth: Peace. Looking back on our week in the village of Mawanga, I can honestly say that I experienced unconditional love in its purest form. One of the team members asked me, "What gives you the most joy?" I said, "This. Bringing people together in unity under Jesus Christ gives me the most joy." Friends- you have to understand. This was no ordinary team! Two of the "older" :) women recently had strokes. One younger guy, who I didn't even know until this trip, used to be a major drug dealer and believe it or not...be ridiculously racists against blacks. One team member is 14 and she had never left the country. 19 of 20 team members were all were from my home church- which was the best blessing. I had never experienced such unity. Such love. Bringing my home church and my African family/church together was an overwhelming time for me! What did we do? Nothing. the Lord did it all and, well, we just helped. Come walk with me as we peek into a typical day...ready?The rooster seemed to still be on daylight savings time because this year he shouted his beak off around 5am instead of 6. If that didn't wake me up, Brian's singing would! I stepped outside and ran into Tom (team member) grabbing the water basins and cycling down to the water hole with Pastor Paul's kids. Dolly and Laura were already washing dishes with Mama and a young man from the village, Eddy, is out sweeping the dirt! :)Three women from the team would be ready to go visit a widower with 7 children and a new church meeting under a mango tree. Four men from the team would finish breakfast and head down to work on the new ROWAN office building (Rural Orphans and Widows AIDS network). Two nurses from the team would already be at the clinic working hard at building relationships with the Ugandan nurses and assisting a young boy who was bitten by a Black Mamba Snake. His heart had literally stopped!! If the clinic wasn't there with the anti-venom, the boy would have died. The young team members would be out in the front yard playing with the orphans, two of which have full blown AIDS. Laura was in her room preparing her lesson on the Creation story, and when Diane (older lady) wasn't falling out of the latrine in the middle of the night- she was painting Pastor Paul's house green! Dave was on top of the clinic hoisting up a 7 foot Solar panel! And TA-DA! On the third day, there was LIGHT!!!! ANYWHERE you looked, a team member was there building relationships with the people. Where was I??? Everywhere. You'd find me visiting with the teenage girls I have known for years- one in particular just had a baby last week because her teacher decided to take advantage of her...You'd find me walking with Pastor Paul discussing Big plans for ROWAN (a ministry Pastor Paul and I began together). You'd find me in Martha and Ida's small bedroom dancing and laughing about their "girl secrets." You'd find me gardening with the team and the widows, assisting bible studies with the widows and most of all: standing back in awe. I would stand in front of a fully functioning clinic with light- and praise God. i would look at a new office Building for the Orphans and Widows in the community- and praise God. I would see each team member hand-in-hand with the people- and praise God. I would walk down the path and hear, "Kelsey, Jambo!" from the corn fields- and praise God. I would be jumping and dancing at Jane's traditional African wedding in the Church- and praise God.Well if you are STILL reading this, this is the part of the story that blew me away. Earlier this year I was seeking after the Lord one night and asked Him, "WHAT is my role in this world? What is my purpose?" ..............I shut up and listened...........and immediately I heard the Lord speak..."You are a key." I had No clue what that meant. Not until this trip. As I was saying goodbye to Beatrice, a local pastor's wife that I have known for years, she said, "Kelsey. Thank you for loving us. You are the key. God used you to bring these visitors." Her words hit me like a brick. Next day at church, Pastor Paul gets up and tells the Entire congregation: "Today, in 2008, Kelsey has yet received another name. She is: Kelsey Young Namugombe Key. She is the key..." The team had NO clue why I broke down in tears. I blamed it on my cold. :) In reality, it was a moment where I received yet another glimpse of how God wants to use me in this life. Bringing people together brings me joy. And I can see that it brings the Lord joy to use me as a key to unite His people....and that is all I know thus far. But that is enough. :) From the nurses monthly salary, to oxen and plows for the widow's garden, to literacy programs, to university scholarships for orphans- the needs are overwhelming. I fly home with the memories of much laughter, smiles, joy- but also testimonies of daily hardships and challenges.For those of you who have walked with me in Mawanga for the last 6 years- the village greets you!! They know I am supported by you all and I felt your prayers and love this week. thank you.ROWAN will soon become it's own non-profit and we are working on finding medical partners in the states to sustain the clinic. There is much work to do- and plenty of room for more people to get involved. If you want to know more about my trip- or more about these ministries- email or call! I would LOVE to tell you more. :) I will post pictures on my blog this week and you can see for yourself how much fun we had :)I'm off to Denver. Can't wait to hear from you all, and for now, I'll be back in the states until my next adventure! love you all,KelsProverbs 16:9 "The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

Mon JUL 21, 08 a thank you from Eria Nyende

Hi mum it was great to be with the team.the team has done great work towards the people of mawanga i really appreciate for that. i was toled you struggled alot to c that the team could come.
i miss your name though i have the name in my memory otherwise God has a good plan for you.
Thank you 4 allowing Sonia and miriam to come i really enjoy'd there services they did, Time has come to begin miss'g tham and i have now begun my work of praying for them that the com'g year they be among the people who may wise to come though Sonia told mi that it takes alot of time and money. They left yesterday to jinja so i hope your to meet them within faw days
cu mum.

Sun, 20 Jul, '08 ITEM report

Hello Everyone, (See new ITEM pictures HERE )
Kiribu, Kenya (Welcome to Kenya). That is the greeting we are giving to five men (plus one Kenyan) who are arriving to spend two days training in ITEM doctrine, methodology, and philosophy of ministry. I mentioned in a recent report a possible theme of "10 down and 10 to go" or "The next 10." Let me explain for those of you who are not sure what I meant.
THE LAST TEN
I came to Africa the first time in January 1998 to teach one course at the Nairobi International School of Theology. God changed my life. I started coming twice a year to teach at the school and at the invitation of some of my students I was soon helping to plant churches in Congo and help with pastor training seminars in Uganda. On top of that I was doing evening and weekend teaching seminars here in Nairobi.
By 2003 we divided that task between church planting and training pastors. The church I was attending at the time assumed the responsibility of the churches and I began to concentrate on training pastors in basic Bible and theology. And it was in 2003 that this organization/ ministry was born: International Training and Equipping Ministries. The step from half-time to full-time with ITEM was made early in 2005.
For the past three years I have been moving between five countries regularly and two others a few times. But there is too much for just one guy to do and finding men from the US who are willing to raise support to help full or part time is not easy. Only one, Bob Allen, has raised some support in order to make one trip a year to the French speaking portion of Africa.
That generally covers the past ten years, that is "10 down." What about the next ten, and why even think of referring to them as "10 to go"? Let me explain.
THE NEXT TEN
I just turned 60 and it is my vision and goal to turn this ministry over to Africans by the time I am 70. That gives me ten years. For ten years we've been building the base. Now it is time to build the structure.
If it had been a 20 year plan in 1998, the "10 down and 10 to go" statement would make more sense. But who could have known (besides God) where we'd be in this ministry 10 years ago? It blows me away to consider where we started, where we've been, and where we seem to be going. When I stop and reflect, I shake my head and think "God has done exceedingly abundantly above all that I could have even dreamed about."
THE PRESENT HOUR
That brings me to the present hour. Instead of having three seminars on this trip, we decided that in place of one of them we would bring our coordinators from six countries to Nairobi to begin training them in ITEM's doctrine, philosophy of ministry, and methodology. We will also be spending time thinking about strategy. My concern is that we continue to develop ways to preserve the fruit our seminars are producing.
IMAGINE
Look down the road with me to the year 2018 when ITEM will have trained regional coordinators in east, west, south, and central Africa. We are not ruling out the north but as of now we have no strong contacts in northern Africa. See also national coordinators in 15 African countries doing ITEM seminars, and envision 4-5 regional directors based here in the States working with the African regional coordinators. And envision thousands of pastors a year going through ITEM's Bible and theology seminars.
So that is where we are going, Lord willing. Many things must fall into place. It isn't going to happen without prayer and diligence. But I am ready to press on in order that I "may finish the course" (2 Tim. 4:7) that the Lord has placed me on.
Thank you for partnering with us in the pursuit of this vision through your prayers and support. Let's keep moving forward with energy and faith.
By His grace,
Steve

Remember When we were praying for the Medical Clinic to have Nurses?

[This info is from Kelsey's blog - see link to right]
Monday, August 20, 2007
Nurses, Anyone???
JUST got this from Pastor.... Isn't this AMAZING?? Everyone told me working with the government in Uganda will take FOREVER, but PRAISE THE LORD the He works in amazing ways:"Hai daughter,Hope you are doing fine,busy preparing to go back.Greetings from your mum, Thank you for your prayers,God is caring for us.Today i was in the office of the District Health Officer. in our discussion he has agreed to give us the Nurses because he is the person responsible to recruit nurses in the District. So he has told me to write to him requesting for the nurses. He has also given me some one to come and inspect the building. I thank God for this!! God bless."This is a GREAT first step! Pray with us as they begin to inspect the building. I know the road may still be long, but the District Officer's friendly assistance is a Praise!! No word on anything from Pastor concerning the Julius situation. Let's keep praying about that as you never know what can happen-To Acton Faith Bible: (and any others) I just got the HUGE bag of necklaces the widows made, and they are beautiful! Get the Christmas Boutique ready!Kels
Posted by KelseyInAfrica at 5:56 AM 0 comments

Friday, August 17, 2007
On the Up-Side...
Another project we are working on in the Pastor's village is getting the clinic up and running. Missionaries came a few years back and built this beautiful building, and yet it has been standing desolate ever since. This summer when Jessi and I were there, the Lord put it on our hearts to research how we can get this clinic functioning.While I have been in Africa, we have already had one of our widows die of simple causes, mainly due to the fact that she had to ride a bicycle for 17 kilometers to the nearest clinic. Pastor said, "Kelsey, my people are dying!" Something has to be done.Seeing how I have NO clue about how to get government staff in the clinic, I just looked up the Ministry of Health in Uganda online and told Pastor to make an appointment. The meeting there went really well, and they said we need to start at the regional level.I JUST received a text message from Pastor this morning saying that his meeting with the District Health Officer went GREAT- He is going to be Very helpful in this process. The officer even tried to call me to thank me for ???? not sure! BUT he is going to help! And I praise God for that.In the midst of the difficulties Pastor is facing, he continues to serve his people and focus on issues like this. If any of you have any contacts with the Ministry of Health in Uganda (hey, you never know!) or have any advice.... let me know! :)Have a GREAT Friday...... [from Kelsey's blog]

Fri JUL 18, 08 a late report from Sonia Grifith in Mawanga

Friday, July 18, 2008, 12:32 AM
Jambo Dad! ....... We are doing great! Today all the men come back from Jinja. The Pastor's conference is over at noon today. (It's 10:30 on Friday right now) Miriam says that she is NOT tired. :) (but she sleeps really really hard at night) turns out she doesn't like the same foods that I do here. go figure. Today we carried up the materials for the roof of the ROWAN office. Now they are waiting for the carpenter to show up so that they can actually put the roof on the building. Wev'e been just kick'n it during the afternoon, playing cards with Andrew and Shawna, sometimes Tom and Brian
People are surprisingly different than we thought that they would be. Tom is rediculously chipper...all the time. So is everyone else for that matter.
We've been doing VBS with the kids every day. Laura is getting the hang of working with a translater and kids who don't really get many english words. The kids are having fun with all of the toys we brought. Yesterday I was literally mobbed! I made the mistake of chasing down a crying child to give him a tootsie pop and the whole village ran after me. You would have laughed your head off. I ended up screaming for help.
Brian is doing great. They think he was stung by a bee and not bit by a spider. HIs hand is back to normal size, it is just red now.
We miss you all, give Mom and Okla a hug for us. We might not be able to write you again.
love ya Daddy!........
Sonia Griffith & Miriam

Sat. JUL 19, 2008 report from Wayne Wilson in Mawanga, Uganda

Thank you for the information [re: Jon].
It is Saturday, and I have only now been able to get at a computer again. I am at Pastor Paul's school. The wedding of Jane Wafula is starting soon. Everyone is well. Brian healed quickly, and Dave Reed did an amazing job getting the solar panels working at the clinic. Dogged diligence did the job. Patients are coming regularly. Ann Wright has been able to care for some serious cases, such as a baby whose cheek was pierced by a bicycle pedal. Very ugly wound. She treated it. Much more to tell, but we'll be home soon. God bless you all.
AFBC is shining here, and the people here are most impressed by what our little church was able to put together. The conference pastors especially, when they heard about our size, and not having a building of our own, and the car washes and sales, and fund-raisers --- they are impressed. So am I.
Pastor Wayne Wilson

Fri JUL 18, 08 Steve reports on completion of Jinja pastor conference

Dear beloved ministry partners,
We have now completed this seminar in Jinja and I want to use this Friday report to do some reflecting. This has been a very good, well organized, high class seminar. We were willing to spend a little more money in order to put on a top notch seminar. And that is what it was.
(see new pictures at ITEM Picasaweb Album by clicking HERE )

WHAT MADE THIS SEMINAR HIGH CLASS?
1. Room and board for pastors
We have never had a "sleep over" seminar for 100 pastors who stayed 5 days. We were only charged $5/man/day for room and 3 meals. But when you figure there were 100 men for 5 days you see how things add up. In an area like Jinja you can't rely on commuters to fill a conference.
2. Begin on time and stay on schedule
But having them sleep here has its advantages. You start every morning on time! That is a big plus. Things run on schedule all day.

3. A full compliment of lectures covering several crucial topics all at the same time
This is only the second time I have presented the ITEM church growth seminar, and the first time in more than three years. That was made possible because I had a team with me who could handle the basic and advanced lectures. And since the church growth seminar took up only one-half of the week, Pastor Wayne Wilson was able to plug in his inductive Bible study curriculum. So we had the basic, the advanced, church growth, and inductive Bible study all going this week. There were 38 lectures given in a five day period. 19 to the group taking the basic and advanced, and 19 to the returnees who attended the church growth/inductive Bible study lectures.

"In a perfect world" (as we say) this is what would take place every time ITEM conducted a seminar. Praying for this is a worthy request. It would take additional teachers at each stop and adequate funds to house the pastors for a full week.

THE ONGOING EFECT OF THE TRAINING
Is the training having an effect? I have good reason to believe it is! This is the third time we've worked with this group. We took about 40 of them through the basic seminar about 18 months ago. Then we came back and took about 60 through the basic and the 60 plus the previous 40 through the advanced. This time we had about 35 back for the third time for the church growth and 75 were here for the first time taking the basic and the advanced.

OBSERVATIONS:
1. As the word gets out and as we return for the second and then the third time, the numbers keep increasing.
2. They guys who are coming back for the third time are giving us evidences that they are doing things differently because of the training.
3. All of this verifies what we have thought for years. Coming back to the same place, continuing the training with the same group bears fruit. You can see the maturity. You can see the growing confidence.

COMMENTS:
*One pastor who has been with us 3 times said he no longer tries to rebuke and bind and cast out Satan every week at church. He commented how seeing the verses about "binding and loosing" in context moved him to stop that habit.
*Another pastor said that the training helped him to see how to exercise church discipline properly and now his church is not filled with sin.
*Another pastor said it helped to see the qualifications for leadership and now they use the qualifications to choose their leaders.
*Several said they no longer preach the way they used to preach. Now they are more conscious of the context and the importance of preaching and teaching the Word only.
*The leader of the women's ministries for the Church of God in Uganda is now requesting a seminar to help the women in their ministries.
*When I shared that with one of our coordinators he immediately said, "Our families are hurting. A marriage seminar would be helpful."
So I am pleased with the feedback and it verifies the importance of continuing the work the best you can with individual groups, and taking them through a sequence of seminars not just one.


QUESTIONS:
1. Pastors are to have one wife but the Bible doesn't say that a man who is not a pastor can't have many wives. What is your comment?
2. How can we know what part of the Bible is specifically for us and what part is not specifically for us?

FINISHING UP
The final lectures today included one on "sermon prep" where I spent a lot of time in Nehemiah 8 showing the principle so expository preaching as they are outlined there, how the people shouted "bring the book," then how it was read, and explained so there was understanding, how the people repented then rejoice, and celebrated because they went away with understanding.
Chris, reviewed the book of 1 Timothy, and I finished up with Titus and 2 Timothy. In the final lecture from 1 Timothy, it becomes a passionate appeal to "keep the faith, finish the course, and keep the faith."

SAYING GOOD-BYE
We concluded with many warm "thank you-s" and some warm embraces. I find myself getting attached to the men we have worked with for three seminars now. And from the words and hugs, I think the feelings are mutual.

ONWARD
Acton Faith Bible Church
The team from Acton moved on to the village they've had a relationship with for a few years. I got a little emotional when I thanked them for their part. Their small church in the high desert of So Cal sponsored about ¾ of this seminar and has helped in the previous two seminars with this same group. They don't have their own building but they are giving sacrificially to missions. "THANK YOU, ACTON FAITH BIBLE CHURCH!"

For me, tomorrow I fly on to Nairobi, Kenya. After a weekend of receiving ITEM coordinators from five countries, plus a man from Rwanda who might become our coordinator, we will spend two full days in sessions planning the work of ITEM in their countries, going over doctrine, philosophy of ministry, and methodology. In ten years I want to be able to turn the ministry over to men like the ones I will be meeting with Monday and Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday I will fly to Nigeria for a four day seminar beginning Monday, July 28. I will be home, Lord willing, August 3.
I am at the end of page two so that is enough for today. There are always more things to communicate than there is time or space. Thank you for enduring all of these pages. I appreciate each of you.

PRAYER
*Continued good health (my back is feeling normal as it always does after a week of standing on cement floors)
*Safe travel to Nairobi
*Good, productive meetings with the men coming to Nairobi
*The final preps for the training coming up in about 10 days in Nigeria.

Thank you for your prayers and everything so many of you do to make these trips and these seminars possible.

By His grace, Steve Van Horn [Intl. Training & Equipping Ministries]