August 17, 2008, Sunday - Travel home
As you continue to pray for our team on this trip, here is the flight itinerary for their trip home:
Jim Watson departs Nairobi Tuesday morning August 19 around 8:00 am (Colorado time) and arrives back in Colorado Wednesday afternoon.
Jim and Kris will spend their last few days in Africa with Merle and Claudia back home in Tanzania. They depart Dar Es Salaam Thursday morning August 21 around 10:45 am (Colorado time) and arrive back in Colorado Friday afternoon.
Plan to welcome the three of them home and receive their first report in person next Sunday, August 24th.
- Your Outreach Board
August 12, 2008, Tuesday evening - The Team
After dinner and a long day, the training team just sat and visited. We talked about observations from the day's experiences, our families, churches, and how we arrived at this point in time and place. We have quickly bonded into a good and flexible team. I credit God first and then God again because of the gifts that he has distributed to each of us. They express a micro-picture of how the church is to function. Each of us has room to freely use what God has freely given.
Thank you Canon City E-Free for giving our training team the gift of funding for the conference. By doing so, you are God's tool to provide us room to freely use our gifts. You have provided us with this opportunity to work in concert with each other at just the right time. I know I am speaking for all six of us. It is quite obvious to us, that this is in God's time. It is now!
Greetings to all the saints there from Jim and Kris, Merle and Claudia Wiens, Mark Wold and myself.
We walk easy in this place because you pray.
- Jim Watson
August 12, 2008, Tuesday - Conference Day Two
Jim Thulson started the training today. The pastors have been assigned to five study groups. Each afternoon, the study groups work on assignments. Jim assigned a small section of scripture for the pastors to outline, formulate questions, and record insights. Each group presented a report on their work so that Jim could work through the process with them. There was tremendous back and forth between Jim and his students. Jim really got into it and became comfortable with the process of using an interpreter. The pastors have an incredible eagerness to learn all they can.
Mark taught his second session on Bible Survey in the morning and Merle taught leadership training in the afternoon. Kris and Claudia met with the women in the afternoon. Their session was taught by a Christian lady colleague of Daniel's from the university. Kris and Claudia both commented that she is a gifted communicator and teacher. Kris wished she could have video-taped the session for the women in Canon.
I am so humbled by the sights and sounds of the training conference. We are truly doing a good work here. The pastors have what can only be described as an intense hunger for training. The training team is the right mix of personalities, experience and talents. Daniel and the leaders here have prepared so well for the event. God is in this place. I am humbled that God would use my hikes into the villages to build a bridge for this communication to take place.
The EFCA can be proud of the Reach Global men here; Merle and Mark. Reach Global aims to multiply healthy churches by building healthy leaders. This is done using healthy training and missionary teams. They mean what theyl say. Merle's leadership training Tuesday was on 'Intentional Living'. These men lead intentional lives, redeeming the time because it is so short. I am blessed to have them as mentors.
Many of the pastors are wearing glasses you provided. We have set up a protocol for distribution. Francis Thoya is charged with the responsibility of matching the right lens power to individual need. The pastors will come to their next monthly pastor's meeting and report on the needs in their churhes for glasses. Francis will then be dispatched or set up a time to meet people in Mtondia Village.
Some of the tea has been given as gifts to churches we have visited. The remainder will be distributed among the women that are cooking and serving meals this week.
The FGP Youth Association is holding a conference in a week from now at the Kwa Upanga church. We decided to give the frisbees and soccer balls to the Youth Chairman to be used for games at the upoming conference and future gatherings.
The mini-mag flashlights will be gifts to each of the interpreters that are working very hard to be accurate. "The Word is a lamp unto my feet."
- Jim Watson
August 11, 2008, Monday - Conference Day One
The pastors are excited and ready to hear from the trainers. Mark and Jim Thulson shared the day with Mark teaching the "Bible Survey" and Jim teaching "How To Study The Bible Effectively" in the morning. Mark taught in the afternoon on leadership. Merle and Jim will teach on leadership on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It was a very good day. Bishop Daniel and his conference committee have done a very good job preparing. Jim's and Mark's teachings were delivered well and received with open hearts and minds by the pastors.
The FGP women met for a session taught by Beatrice Mambo. Claudia and Kris joined them. The women sat in on some of the men's sessions and want to receive all of the training. Mark has agreed to meet with the women and begin the Bible Survey class so that they can catch up and then sit in on the rest of the Bible Survey classes with the men.
- Jim Watson
August 10, 2008, Sunday - Update from Jim Watson in Kenya
All six of us 'wasungus' caught a matatu on the main road in front of Pwani University in Kilifi. I dropped Jim and Kris off at Mtondia to spend the day with Bishop Daniel and preach at his church. The rest of us continued on to Roka where Merle, Claudia, Mark and I alighted. We walked for 15 minutes to get to Tyson Mbitha's church where Merle and Claudia would stay and Merle preach. Mark and I proceeded on for another hour's walk to Alex Kiniki's church where Mark preached.
Mid-afternoon, Mark and I returned to join Merle and Claudia. We then walked out to the main road and caught a matatu back to Mtondia to meet pastors as they arrived for the conference. A meal was prepared for all the participants. This was the first opportunity for Jim, Kris and Claudia to meet the pastors. We had a brief opening ceremony with myself, Bishop Daniel and a close friend of Daniel (a leader from another church group) giving welcomes, greetings, and short talks to the group. We made it back to the hostel around 9:15pm.
August 3, 2008, Sunday - Jim and Kris Thulson leaving this week for Kenya
Pastor Jim will be teaching at the Pastor's Training Conference in Kilifi, Kenya, during the week of August 11-16. This is a joint effort between EFCA ReachGlobal, the Full Gospel Publishers churches in Kenya, and the Evangelical Free Church of Canon City. Jim will be teaching "How to Study the Bible Effectively" and will team teach "Biblical Leadership for the Church" with Mark Wold and Merle Wiens. Jim and Kris will be interacting with the African pastors and their wives and visiting village churches, the Happy Children's Center in Malindi, and the EFCA work in Tanzania.
August 1, 2008 - Update from Jim Watson in Kenya
I have six Bibles to deliver to pastors that I met last year but had no Bibles for. I will visit eight churches in the area. This is the last of my visits until Jim and Kris arrive. I will let them rest a day in Malindi to recharge. Then they will get their first taste of travel by matatu (public transportation). I am taking them to the most distant of the churches in the FGP (Full Gospel Publishers). It will be to visit Pastor Samuel Saro at Lango Baya. The next day I am taking the Thulsons to an African wedding at Daniel Mae's church.
(Pastor Daniel Mae and his family)
I am well. There have been no problems, only blessings. After visiting churches in the Rabai area, Tyson and I traveled through Mombasa on our way back to Kilifi. God had planned for us to be delayed slightly so that we could bring protection to a teenage girl who was stranded with no money trying to get the matatu drivers to take her to her home in Kilifi. No one would help her; in fact, it was obvious that some were planning to take advantage of the girl. Mombasa is no place for a young girl by herself, especially after dark. We intervened and brought the girl safely to Kilifi. As Tyson says, 'the lions will go hungry tonight; they shall not enjoy that girl.'
I renewed friendships with several pastors today as I met with the Pastor's Self Help Committee. Yesterday I met with the FGP Women's Association. The women have planted an acre of cassava (edible starchy tuberous root) as a money-producing project. They shared their plans to use the profits for further economic developments. I was diplomatically informed that the women are much better with money than the men.
Today is the halfway point of this trip. I am missing home but am having a great adventure and am enjoying every minute, learning more and gaining increased insight as to how things African go. There are great opportunities to be of influence here. Pray that I continue to be discerning in my encounters.
July 25, 2008 - Update from Jim Watson in Kenya
My spirit has been lifted by the visits that I have made to pastors. They appreciate the study Bibles so much. I am often questioned about what I and my church believe. I love that these leaders want to test the soundness of my doctrine and if my faith is genuine. They are protecting their people from false teachers. I have traveled with several different men. My favorite companion is Pastor Tyson Mbitha. We have become close. Tyson and I greet people everywhere we go and speak about Jesus.
(Pastor Tyson Mbitha and his family outside their home)
In the villages, people come past the home I am visiting to observe the visitor. This turns out to be a blessing for the pastors. Community members are more approachable with the gospel after I leave. The pastors say people want to know why the visitor came. The people see that God cares for His people by sending other believers with blessings from America.
I had the opportunity to revisit a freind named Stephen Ngumbao. Stephen still has great difficulty walking and has no use of his right arm. He suffered a stroke several years back and his assistant pastor takes care of the majority of pastoral duties. God has allowed him to regain the ability to focus his eyes so that he can read. He spends many hours studying scripture and praying as he sits on the porch of his home. Stephen radiates the love of Jesus with every word he speaks. I have met several of these modern-day Timothys. I am humbled by the man and his faith.
(Pastor Stephen Ngumbao and his wife Elina Sidi outside their home)
Preparations for the training conference are going well. The church has rented four classrooms at a local school to use as sleeping quarters for the pastors. They will have mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets. The new pit toilets are almost complete. The Mtondia church building will be the location of the training sessions. The plans for feeding all of the participants have been fine-tuned.