You’ll often find Rick and I watching the TV show, The Amazing Race, on Sunday nights. We hurry home, pop some corn or fill a cereal bowl and sit down to tour the world. We laugh with one another: “You’d take this challenge” or  “I think I’d do this one” as we watch contestants eat bugs in Africa, scale the outside of hotel towers or fly through shark pools in Dubai.  It’s our way of traveling vicariously and enjoying God’s great world.

In the past few years, we’ve tried a bit of the Amazing Race personally, and we’ve learned it’s easier to watch a race on TV. The many challenges of traveling are much more exhausting when one actually has to do them personally.

During the final (cold) week in Africa, I (Linda) tried to find a hot tea in a nearby guest house. Looking around, there was no tea, but a rare TV displayed the sight of two women trying to finish a marathon. Both were within yards of the finish line, but their legs simply would not carry them.   They literally crawled to the finish line.

During our final days in Africa, this picture often came to my mind (without laughing). The “race” of this summer had worn me down. On the final day in Africa, we attended a Sunday service (twice as large as The MET with wonderful African leadership) and then stopped to repair a flat tire (and enjoy Kenyan coffee). After resting, we headed to the airport, only to have another flat tire (different tire). Needing to make our flight, it was a real opportunity for prayer. A policeman flagged over another driver and insisted that he help us. Kenyans are so relational that we were able to depart on time.

Weary and sleepless, we flew all night over Africa, Greece and Albania towards Switzerland. A brilliant red sunrise tinted the Alps with glory. At a most unexpected and exhausted time, we saw the Alps. High, lifted up, and glorious.

God’s glory is often most brilliantly seen when ours is gone:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord,
sitting on a throne, high and lifted up…
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts,
the whole earth is full of His glory.
Isaiah 6:1

Where are you today?  In a time when life seems like funerals and flat tires? Crawling?

We’ve needed a few weeks to wait quietly by still waters. Tonight, after taking our final malaria pill we reviewed our photos from Africa (and the Alps). After all, the Amazing Race is best enjoyed right here at home!

We’ll let you travel with us – right from your home:

View from Double View Hotel in Dar es Salaam – (see post on The Double View)

Monkeys outside the window of our room

Kazuri beads (birthday day)

Africa International University

Dolls (Thanks Hugh and Val) for orphans
This pastor has taken in five orphans!

Always a joy to be with Maasai believers

We saw the Alps! (from downtown Zurich)

It’s good to be back home in Ottawa, although our bodies aren’t sure what time zone they’re in. Last Monday we had meals on three continents: a midnight dinner in Kenya, breakfast and lunch in Switzerland and dinner back in Canada (at Tim Horton’s)!

Looking back, we can see God’s goodness in so many ways. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• training some stellar African pastors and wives (between us we taught more than 15 times and met individually with dozens of pastors/wives).
• worshiping God with believers who speak a different language but have the same love for Jesus. Communion was special.
• spending time with Dr. Ramesh Richard and the rest of the teaching team.
• seeing God’s power shine through us when we felt weak (2 Corinthians 4:7-9).
• reconnecting with an African couple we had met two years ago (Pastor Moses and Eunice).
• giving Study Bibles and theological books to each of twenty-six pastors in Kenya.
• enjoying Kenyan coffee (some of the world’s best).
• knowing that our church family and friends were praying for us each step of the way.

“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.”  (Psalm 96:1)

Now that we’re back home, we’re able to reflect on what we experienced in Tanzania and Kenya. One of the lasting impressions we have is how these believers could sing!

Singing is one of the hallmarks of the Christian faith. Wherever you find Christians gathering to worship God, you’ll hear singing. Our African brothers and sisters excel in this area. They love to sing; and we loved to hear them.

In Tanzania we never had musical instruments, but that didn’t seem to matter at all. Hand-clapping provided the rhythm section and voices added all the harmony you could ever want. (The link below will give you a sampling of what we heard.)

Most of the pastors and wives we met live under constant pressure and face daunting challenges. Many of them work several jobs just to barely survive. Some have taken on the care of orphans in addition to leading a congregation. One couple we met have moved to the coast to start a church where there are very few Christians. The wife has developed painful health complications due to an allergic reaction to the salt in the water and the air. But they carry on, bringing Jesus’ love and Gospel to those around them.

In spite of their hardships (or maybe because of them), they sing. They express their devotion to God for His goodness (a common theme of their songs). They thank Jesus for dying for their sins and giving them new life.

Looking at them and listening to them as they sing, our hearts were both humbled and strengthened. If they can sing praise in the midst of their pain, what’s stopping us? If they  can “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4), what holds us back?

This Sunday at The Met we’ll get to join in singing praise to the Lord. As we do, we’ll be remembering the example of the believers we met in Africa.

Click here to enjoy a sample of African singing.

We have safely arrived at home today and we are delighted to be here. We’ll post a complete update soon. Thank you so much for your prayers for us.

Whenever you go on a trip – there’s always the unexpected. But on this trip to Africa, it’s mostly The Unexpected.

We packed for Africa in July.  Hot – wouldn’t you imagine? After all, we’d be right near the Equator, or just slightly south of it. Surprise, surprise. The “slightly south” part puts us in the southern hemisphere, and so it’s actually winter here. In Tanzania, we laughed as men wore Canadian coats while it was in the 70’s, but here at Africa International University, tucked up in the hills of Karen, near Nairobi, it has been chilly all week (low 60’s with rain). It wouldn’t be so cold if we had packed our Canadian clothes!

After wearing everything we had (all at once), we were so surprised when this morning the students presented us with Masai blankets as a birthday gift. As they wrapped Rick in the beautiful red plaid wool blanket, they said, “He’s like a Masai elder.”

When it comes to our meals, we have not often been surprised. The meals are similar to what we had on our last visit. Both lunch and dinner include rice, a little meat, and sometimes greens (like a spinach). Today, we were so thankful to be served mashed potatoes (of sorts). A happy surprise!

I (Linda) had a chance to share with the students my delight to be in Africa on my birthday; how as a little girl I had  a little African doll that I often held and hoped someday to go to Africa (see image on left). To celebrate, we enjoyed one of the best Kenyan coffees ever, on our way to visit the place where the beautiful Kazuri beads are made (by single mothers and widows). You’d be surprised at how incredibly beautiful they are.

We’re coming to the end of our trip. We’ve so enjoyed the twenty-six pastors who are here, we look forward to meeting their wives tomorrow and, well – whatever surprises lie ahead.

“Thank you!”

That’s the message twenty-six pastors asked us convey to all of you at The MET. I wish you could have seen the smiles on their faces as they held the NIV Study Bibles that The MET’s generosity provided for them.

Earlier that day, Pastor Moses had asked the pastors how many of them did not have a Study Bible (that’s a Bible with study notes included). Fourteen of the twenty (six pastors) raised their hands. At the break, Linda and I went to the campus bookstore and asked if they had Study Bibles. Guess what? They had fourteen in stock. Using the money The MET had given us for the trip, we were able to purchase all fourteen. We added a commentary or theology book for the other pastors who already had a study Bible. So every one of these pastors received a resource that will help him teach the Bible to their congregations.

As the Bibles and books were passed out, the joy in the room was contagious. Several of the men spoke on behalf of the group, asking me to convey their thankfulness to the people of the Metropolitan Bible Church.  Then we all went outside and posed for pictures, each man holding his newly received Bible or book (we’ll provide photos next week).

This morning I was thanking the Lord for all of you that make up the church family at The MET. Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers captures my heart today: “I thank my God every time I remember you…because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now…” (Philippians 1:3-5).

A generous heart for the world has been part of The MET “from the first day until now.”  On The MET’s opening Sunday (September 13, 1931), a missionary was the guest speaker. That heart for people around the world has continued “until now.”

So thank you from the twenty-six pastors here at the conference in Nairobi. And thank you from both Linda and myself. Thanks for sending us to serve these weeks in Africa. Thanks for providing funds that blessed these pastors with study Bibles. Thanks for your partnership in the Gospel. Asante Sana (that’s Swahili for Thank You).

Each afternoon at the Pastor’s conference in Tanzania, Linda and I led a three-hour seminar on marriage and family issues. At each seminar, 20-40 pastors and wives would join us, sitting on plastic chairs on a covered walkway.

We wondered how things would go. We didn’t speak Swahili (we had a translator) and we were coming from a very different background than our Tanzanian friends. We had no desire to import Canadian ways or impose our cultural patterns of marriage on them.

So here’s what we did: we taught from the Bible. We began in Genesis 1-2 which speaks about leaving father and mother and cleaving to one another. In a culture where clans and families stay together, we had interesting discussions. We reminded ourselves that the most important human relationship we have is with our mate. Genesis 3 challenged us all to consider the ways we ‘blame others’ instead of taking responsibility, with the result of finding ourselves in conflict.

From Proverbs we considered our spoken words as well as the important subject of marital intimacy (Proverbs 5 and 6 – with suggestions to read the Song of Solomon).  After a break (which sometimes included beautiful Swahili singing), we reviewed the concepts of love and respect from Ephesians 5 and closed with the loving reminders found in 1 Peter 3 to consider each other’s value and vulnerability.

Without a lot of illustrations or the fun DVD clips we had used before, we wondered how the Word of God would speak across cultures. At the final wrap up sharing session, we heard from many pastors and wives who had been deeply impacted by God’s Word.

For those who are willing, there’s a Word that trumps our words with a message that transcends our cultures.

Shortly after being diagnosed with cancer in 2011, Linda and I spent a week at Mt. Hermon, a Christian conference center in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. It was a time to rest, reflect and pray. One morning, I walked to the top of a tree-lined ridge and discovered a large wooden cross on the crest of the hill. As I stopped to pray for God’s grace and guidance, I sensed God’s Spirit impressing upon my spirit two words: train pastors.

Since that day, I’ve continued to have a strong conviction that training pastors is to be part of my calling as a pastor. Only about 5% of the world’s pastors have had the opportunity of receiving formalized training in a Bible college or seminary.

On this trip to Tanzania and Kenya, we’ve had the privilege of taking part in two training conferences for pastors and their wives. The men and women we’ve met have impressed us with their love, zeal and commitment. Many of them endure hardships that are foreign to us in Canada. Most serve churches that cannot financially support them; they work long hours at other jobs to feed their families. But these pastors love Jesus and are eager to care for the people in their churches.

One day last week, I was feeling rather wobbly. As Linda mentioned in a previous post, I’d been up most of the night due a stomach bug, fever and a loud, late-night wedding. I got up to speak that morning, hoping I wouldn’t have to dash for the bathroom in the middle of my sermon.

But right before I began, I remembered that day at Mt. Hermon beneath the towering cross. I remembered the whisper of the Spirit in my soul:  train pastors. God’s grace carried me through and used the message to encourage these stellar men and women. As I finished up, I was physically tired but emotionally refreshed. My heart was grateful for the privilege of being a pastor at The MET and for the joy of encouraging and equipping pastors here in Africa.

It’s been quite a week. Yesterday we cracked the computer, so this is being slowly typed on Rick’s handheld.

We have finished a full week of teaching but somehow a new conference begins tomorrow.

Let us share a few of our challenges and our joys. As I (Linda) taught on the cafeteria patio, the wind blew so strongly that the plastic chairs blew off the patio. Of course this wasn’t the ones with women seated in them. You can just imagine how the pages of the Bible rippled and the notes flew away. It’s always sunny in contrast to the reports we are receiving from the Guatemala team – lots of rain on their tin roofs.

Last night we hardly slept as a drum beat kept us awake. Evidently brides are sent away on the Thursday night before their wedding with a loud family celebration. We hope that doesn’t include this evening as well. Rick also had a fever which is always a concern. It was a night of prayer.

At 3:00am I began to read “The Bronze Ladder”, a book given to me by a friend. It is based on the true account from the diary of a woman martyred about 200 A.D. This inspiration lifted my heart in the midst of what became an even more challenging week.

Rick rose in the morning determined to still preach and spoke on God’s power in our weakness (2 Corinthians 4) it was really powerful.

Joys. While we were teaching on marriage, there were little ones playing on the tile floor (the cutest kids in the whole world). Suddenly a monkey dropped down out of the stairwell. No one even looked twice. Except us.

As in our previous trip to Tanzania, the music here is heavenly. They sang for us the same song that we posted on this blog the last time we were here. This time we were able to sing along.

We are challenged. Even just to type this. But we are also being changed. As we watch the true African challenges we are grateful for all we have.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us.

Monday, July 9

We are safely in Dar Es Salaam. Though we’ve been in Tanzania before, we’ve never been here. This coastal city on the Indian Ocean is packed with people. There’s people, people everywhere – especially at night. The men wear their neatly pressed white shirts and the womens’ colourful long dresses are beautiful in every way.

The traffic is indescribable…and for this reason we have moved across the city to another hotel this morning (Monday). We would often sit at the traffic light near the previous hotel for nearly half an hour with only slight movement. The concern was that we would miss the conference for the traffic!

This hotel, The Double View, is beautiful. The view inside is clean and neat. Here’s the view out our window. Corrugated tin forms the roof of most homes, with large rocks and used tires holding it in place.  Men roam, sometimes riding bicycles, and women carry burdens in their beautiful dresses. The Universal Executive Inn below us, just off the dirt road, wouldn’t be a place any of us would enter. While another lean-to shop offers coke and candy to all who pass by. Palm trees wave in the breezes while children below squeal with delight – no toys, no bikes, just laughter.

And that’s the same joy we heard at church yesterday. Songs of delight to God. Ardent praise and worship. It makes us wonder if we are the ones who really need the “Double View” of life.