Final Africa 2015 Update Dear friends, We ve been back in the US for several weeks, and now that the dust has settled, I wanted to give you a summary of this year s Africa trip. So much transpired in the almost 5 weeks I was in Africa. Our teams witnessed and often experienced a wide range of events and emotions intense joy and deep pain, hope and mourning, Satanic attack and divine miracles. I believe our whole team would summarize the trip with one phrase, a sacred, humbling privilege. Our Congolese, Rwandan, and Ugandan brothers and sisters blessed us beyond words by pursuing Christ in the face of incredible daily challenges, suffering, and loss. It is so humbling to see their faith and their costly obedience. It is a sacred honor to walk with them as they wrestle with God over the trauma they have and are suffering. It is a sacred privilege to carry each other s burdens (Galatians 6:2). This year we felt led to dramatically expand our work even though we weren t sure how God would provide the many resources needed. It was amazing to see how God did this most of the provision coming in 4-6 weeks before we left for Africa. So many of you supported this trip through giving and praying. So, we have prayed you would truly
feel that your partnership with us has made an eternal difference in the lives of thousands of people brothers and sisters you will someday meet in heaven; brothers and sisters who had been praying for resources to deal with the losses they and their neighbors have experienced. Here are a few of the many great things God accomplished this year through our teams and our supporters: 1. Almost 300 ministry leaders were given close to fifty hours of trauma training. Very few of these leaders had ever received this kind of extensive training. Very few have had the opportunity to specifically address their own traumas. Over and over we saw God move, touch, comfort, and continue to heal these amazing servants who have suffered unspeakable trauma. Most of them have suffered layer upon layer of trauma throughout their lives. One of the most painful things we heard many times this year in the Congo was, how can we practice healthy lamenting described in Scripture (especially in the Psalms and Lamentations) when our losses keep coming? As soon as you begin to recover from losing one child or spouse, you lose another loved one. As soon as you begin to recover from one rebel attack, another group burns your village. How do you heal when the losses never stop? While it was extremely challenging to teach such a traumatized group, we had the joy of seeing God move in a most powerful way. As each of the three trainings progressed, we could plainly watch the Spirit moving in hearts throughout the conferences. Many of the attendees told us they had never dealt with their traumas the way they were able to that week. They were incredibly thankful for the trainings and way God had ministered to them. 2. In the Congo, we were able to train leaders from 18 different districts, particularly the districts which were suffering the greatest atrocities. It is hard to adequately describe how unique and strategic this was. Congo continues to unravel. Just when one major rebel group is defeated, another rises up. Over the past eight years, we ve watched the violence continue to spread throughout the eastern part of the country. I receive reports almost weekly
(including one yesterday) from Katavo of new atrocities/mass killings in this region. There are huge areas now where outsiders (including other Africans) cannot go due to the instability and violence. (One of the most alarming new developments is a new Muslim terrorist group is slaughtering people in this region. This group is apparently receiving weapons, funds, and training from Al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia.) So, we were able to bring leaders from these regions to Goma for these trainings. Their travel was dangerous for them, but to the best of our knowledge no one suffered attack or robbery coming to or going from the conferences. 3. In Rwanda, God allowed us to train some 50 Africa New Life leaders all of whom are extremely influential children and youth ministry leaders. Africa New Life runs four Christian schools in Rwanda and sponsors over 6,000 children. Their schools get some of the highest test scores in the country; so, they have great influence. That makes training their leaders very significant. And, most of these leaders had also not had an opportunity to directly face and address the traumas they had experienced. Again, they were so appreciative of the six-day training they received. 4. God allowed us to finish By His Wounds: Trauma Healing for Africa, translate it into three African languages, and bring 1,300 copies for the conference attendees to use in their ministries. It seems that Satan knew how strategic these books would be. There were complex, even bizarre problems with the book printing, trials faced by the translators, and nine boxes of books were lost by the airlines; but, God allowed us complete the project and eventually all 1,300 books were delivered. This will allow those we trained to go into their various regions, train thousands of other Christian leaders, and provide 1,000 trauma books to various churches and ministries in the region. Less than two weeks after we had finished the Congo conferences, Katavo emailed me to tell me about some follow up trauma ministry trainings already being conducted by those we had trained. And, in two weeks (late May), they will launch the faraja (comfort) campaigns in the areas where the new terrorist group is located. For the first time, we also have an African Mending the Soul trainer, Jumah
Patrick from Uganda, who will be conducting follow-up trainings in the following months. For many reasons it feels that the 2015 MTS Africa trainings launched the beginning of a much deeper level of ministry impact in East Africa. Again, this could only happen through great partnerships with faithful African leaders and faithful American supporters. Since so many of you have prayed (and continue to do so) diligently for our Africa work, I want to share a quote I recently found in a wonderful book on prayer: "Prayer is h ow God gives us so many of th e unimaginable th ings h e h as for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of th e th ings we most desire. It is th e way we know God, th e way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply th e key to everyth ing we need to do and be in life. Prayer: Experiencing Aw e and Intimacy w ith God by Tim Keller In summary, we praise God that together, largely through prayer, we saw God do the unimaginable in Congo and Rwanda. Prayer Requests Here are a few things you can specifically be praying for: 1. Katavo, our primary Congolese contact, emailed me last night with the following report: Again last night, two dozen more people have been violently killed with axes and machetes near Oicha just after the short visit of the Vice Prime Minister in charge of security and interior affairs who promised to the population that adequate measures have been taken to secure the area. Katavo went on to say that a large portion of the population between Beni and Oicha has fled and are now sleeping in the bush. Pray for God to stop this Muslim terrorist group. Pray that the Congolese authorities will know
how to respond so that the violence will stop. Pray for this traumatized population, many of whom are followers of Jesus. 2. Pray for those we trained in March who, in another week, will be going to this very region to conduct comfort campaigns. They will be using the training and materials we gave them to bring Jesus comfort to these terribly traumatized people. 3. On a separate note, we received very sad news yesterday. Alex Villarreal, one of our MTS advocates in Portland, passed away very unexpectedly. He had been having health problems but didn t let any of know how sick he was. He was only forty. He experienced some of the worst imaginable abuse as a child and ended up on the streets as a teenager and young adult. He was one of the most broken people we have worked with. We saw God bring him much healing, though there was still so much pain in his life. He loved Jesus deeply. His life was dedicated to helping sex trafficked and homeless youth. Now in the arms of Jesus, he is experiencing the peace he always longed for. Please pray for Isaiah, his roommate, who found him. Pray for those of us who loved him who are grieving. Pray that God will use his unexpected death in redemptive ways and that Satan will not have a victory in this. Our hearts are heavy right now. We are so thankful for your partnership. Your kingdom partners, Prayer is rebellion against the status quo of an evil world. Tim Keller Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God (2 Corinthians 3:5 NASV).