Africa Update 1

ECC African Coordinators Seminar

September 2006

Johannesburg, South Africa

I returned home from attending the ECC African Coordinators seminar on evangelism and church planting, tired, but excited about what God is doing on the African continent.

The ministry of Every Community for Christ exists to evangelize, make disciples of Jesus, train church leaders and start new churches. The ECC ministers in Africa have planted over 1000 churches in the past three years. Glory be to the Living God!

My role was to assist with the seminar logistics, provide personal encouragement to attendees and to speak about church planting in the countries in which I Shepherd.

Thanks for your support so that I was able to minister in Africa.

Rich

Africa Update 2

Johannesburg, South Africa

The country of South Africa is one of the stable countries in Africa, so many from other African countries go there as refugees to escape all the problems in their mother country. This has created an opportunity to train church planters from many nations in one place and send them back to their country as pastors/church planters. In ECC we call this the Into Africa program.

The ECC Country Coordinators that attended the seminar were from 13 African countries. There were about 38 in attendance and there were 33 languages spoken in the group! English
and French were the common languages.

While the evangelism reports were very encouraging, over 1000 churches in just 3 years, it was sad to hear of the problems on the African continent.

ECC team members report going into villages and finding only elderly people and children. All others had died of AIDS. In some countries, men beleive that they can be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin. This belief has caused many young girls to be raped. This belief also leads to tribal wars over access to these young girls. This belief has served to further spread AIDS.

Since rapes and AIDS has created many unwanted babies, many babies are left to die. Churches are working hard to educate people about AIDS and starting orphanages to care for unwanted babies. In one city, a church has created a place for unwanted babies to be dropped off. Some months, this church has taken in 25-30 babies.

ECC teams and churches face interesting situations at times. One ECC Coordinator told of going into what they thought was a village, but it was really just one family. One 83 year-old man with 10 wives and 130 children. The whole family totaled over 400. This man came to know Jesus as his savior, so he started a church for his family and others. How do you counsel this man in regard to his many wives? How can he pick one, and disregard the rest? He can't. However, you don't want the practice to continue to successive generations. Often we need patience, understanding and love.

Africa Update 3

Johannesburg, South Africa

Since the seminar ended Friday evening and my
flight wasn't until 11:30pm Saturday,
I was able to take in 2 events before I had to
leave South Africa.
First, we went to a lion park where they breed
lions. They are so beautiful! This park is very
popular since they have an area where you can
pet lion and hyena cubs. It was great!
It was a wee bit of a challenge to get to the park.
Me and another OMS missionary, Lon Osborn, borrowed a car from a South African. I drove and Lon navigated. The problem was that in South Africa they drive on the "wrong side" of the road! Johannesburg is a city of 8 million, so there was some traffic to deal with.

The second event was a professional rugby match. I was a little worried about getting away from the stadium and getting to the airport, but I was assured we had plenty of time, and we made it on time. The match was in an 80,000 seat stadium, which was about half full.
I didn't realize how physical a rugby match can be, and with no padds like American football. It was a really good game and we enjoyed watching. I think I could watch more rugby.

Rich

September 16-24, 2006: South Africa

ECC supports evangelism and church planting in about 14 African countries. The coordinators from each country will be attending an ECC seminar at a church camp near Johannesburg, South Africa. The seminar will be for a week.

Since South Africa is one of the stable countries in Africa, there has been some difficulty for some coordinator's from un-stable countries to get visas to enter South Africa. In helping coordinate a confernence like this, politics usually comes into play.

However, we will honor the Lord through teaching, group seesions and training on how to reach people for the Lord and to start churches where people are able to find support and stability from a continent that is torn by Aids, war, starvation and other issues. It's where the church needs to be and be the church of Jesus.

Please pray as I minister to our African brethren.

First Step in Moving: Downsize

On September 8 & 9, we had a garage sale so that we don't have so much stuff to move. Right now, it looks like we will be moving into a two bedroom duplex.

The sale went well, we got rid of almost 90% of the items that we put out. Our garage was full and there were many items in the yard.

We don't have much experience in having a garage sale or even going to sales, but it went well.

One step closer to moving to the OMS campus.

Please Pray For

> Safe travel for Rich going to the ECC African Coordinator's Seminar in South Africa, Sept. 16-24, 2006.

>That ECC will receive a license from the US government to send funds to Myanmar so that we are able to support the ECC work.

>That ECC will receive a license from the US government so that we are able to travel to the Carribean and support the ECC ministers.

> Praise the Lord for a license to send funds to the Carribean.