Feedback from the Outreach we went on to Burundi/Rwanda...and nearly the DRC.Ps Theo was our team leader and did so with honours!!! The purpose of the outreach was to go and encourage Ps Theo, his church planter co-ordinators, trainers and also the village churches. In my personal capacity I wanted to establish some logistics for Diane and I.
We were 4 guys, Anton Mansvelt, Grant Spence, Theo and I.
We left on Friday the 10th of Oct and returned on Saturday 25th of Oct. We started our trip at Kigali in Rwanda and travelled by bus the next morning to Bujumbura in Burundi. We visited village churches with Ps John in BJ. We also connected with a missionary couple in BJ who relocated from SA this year August. They were very hospitable and invited us to stay a couple of days in their home in BJ. Amazingly God has called them with exactly the same guiding scripture 2 Tim 2:2 and I was able to draw much information from them regarding the journey by road from SA, Border costs, route, visas, import duties, furniture, bank transfers etc. In addition they are primarily going to start teaching the Leadership program called VERITAS, aimed to teach Pastors and Leaders how to interpret scripture in the Bible context and of cause the application thereof. We have both sensed that God has intended for us to journey together some time in the future. They expecting their first born and will return in December to SA for a few months before going back to BJ in March 2009. We agreed to spend more time together over the next 12 months to develop a friendship while Diane I will serve with Ps Charles to learn the language and culture during 2009. I've already mentioned to Ps Charles about the couple as well as possibly running the VERITAS program for his leaders in BJ and Gitega.
We travelled to Gitega in Burundi, stayed over at Ps Charles' house and ministered at more village churches as well as at Ps Charles' main church. God is developing a very special relationship between me and Ps Charles, he has prepared a room for Diane and I to stay on his property, he indicated that he is concerned for our security and the he prefers that we initially stay close to him.
We visited Ps Charles projects and were specifically touched by those children in school. The school is bursting at the seams and in dire need to expand. 4 new class rooms are almost complete but work has ceased due to a lack of funds. About 10 000$ is needed to complete these class rooms. Also what we did not know is that most of these children do not have a proper diet hence Ps Charles is now feeding all 800 children 3 times a week, just so that they have the mental capacity to learn!
We spoke about the brick machine and agreed to rather go for the manual brick machine available in Zambia as this will mean much less maintenance and the cost is about 1700$ or R17 000. I also shared with him some other possible kingdom businesses we can start
1. Chicken farming - Andrew Dart agreed to donate and deliver 100 chicks for Burundi
2. Dried mangos - based on the Zambia project model.
and Ps Charles is very excited and sends his greetings to DJ and Karen!!
We returned to BJ and was hoping to cross the border to Uvira in the DRC......BUT GOD did not give Ps Theo peace to cross over....we received much reports of unrest and Theo decided to rather stay in BJ. This was great because Ps Charles then met me in BJ on Sunday and I was able to minister in one of his 4 churches in BJ.
Some Liberty members have been faithfully giving towards the orphans in the DRC. Grant Small released about R7000 for the Orphanage school. The need this time was stationary and books for the children. We spend all this money buying stationary in BJ and handed over the material to Flory, the Leader of this ministry, this was done in BJ because we could not cross the border. We asked Flory to pls send us some pics when he hands out the books to the children, well he did so and this is the pic appearing in this blog.
We travelled to Cyangugu in Rwanda in the South west of the country right against the boarder of the DRC.....again spend a few days visiting village churches including a village church on an island in lake Kivu. This church could only be reached by boat. The DRC is much calmer here, Grant and Anton were really wanting to cross the border even for just a few hours. Theo allowed them todo so accompanied by one of his senior co-ordinators from the DRC.
Overall the team dynamics were good, unity was always maintained and found Anton and Grant was experienced goers. I know they were both challenged with the ministry as they were used to more practical outreaches. We know many seeds were sowed and trusting God to water them and grow them…. Ps Theo’s ministry continues to grow exponentially and I believe the official number of churches is around 729 for the Great Lakes region!
Thank you once again for sending us, and for your prayers.
Love you guys
Anton
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