Congo/Uganda 2008

Friends... 

It has been too long since I've last written you. Many of you do know that I am leaving the country soon, Thursday to be exact, and many of you have written, sent money, prayed (and hopefully will continue to do so), and called in support of my journey back to Africa for the Summer of 2008. Thank you for that! 

This journey has already proven to be much different than the past times I've journeyed to the continent which I love... but the Lord has been good, as He always is, and has provided not only monetarily for me, but in all the things I need, whether it be the life lessons, time, or just relationships that are going to be crucial to my service in Africa... for that I am eternally grateful and hope that through these emails I'll be sending you will be able to hear and experience much of what God is doing in the African continent. 

As most of you know I am going to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first third of my time in Africa. The opportunity was given to me by Mending the Soul Ministries, an abuse healing and counseling ministry here in Phoenix. Every year they take Pastors, Counselors, a gynecologist (once), and people who love the Lord to minister to the broken people in the DRC, one of the most afflicted areas on the planet. In many parts of the area we will be in, if you're a woman and you haven't been raped, you're the minority. The amount of sexual violence in this area is simply profound. One doesn't have to think too long about how this affects the very social and spiritual fabric of this beautiful and yet tortured land before realizing that this reality changes everything. Rape is being used as a weapon of war.  If you'd like to read up on it, click this link HERE. Our purpose in going is to take our expertise we've been blessed with (more others than me ;-) and bless those in the Congo. We do not go to export our American values, but to share Kingdom values and principles with the common people, the perpetrators of evil, and caregivers. To empower the women and prostitutes to dream and know there is healing and hope. To free the men to understand women's equality and value, which allows them to be men. To free the youth from following in destructive patterns of violence and abuse. To share Christ with a broken world that will simply blow your mind. Specifically for me I am sharing the topics of Abstinence and "Satan's lies about sexuality" (I'm an expert. Just Kidding.) with the youth, and speaking with soldiers about the ethical treatment of women, since they commit most of the atrocities. I'm also the trip photographer and general "go to" guy... I hope they've picked the right guy!

But Satan does not want this trip to happen. Already we've had massive changes come up for this trip. A complete change of location in the Congo at the last minute, to name one of the problems. But God has hooked us up. Period.. and he's in the business of being God now as much as ever. It was brought up today at our final, and hectic, meeting tonight that we have only grown in weakness since we started to work towards this adventure in seeking the Lord in a foreign land. It's been one rough patch after the other... but in our weakness, He is exceedingly strong. As it was pointed out today it says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 " 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." His power, that is Christ's power, is sufficient, and overflowing... that's what we're claiming for this trip, we have to because we're not prepared and we're coming to a place where we have to rest on the Lord, because apart from Him we will inevitably fail. It's beautiful. Also my "anchor verse" for this trip is Matt 11:28-30 which says: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." This is pertinent to me because I am weary and burdened, and leaning on Christ is hard for me to do, but when I do I know peace... 

From Congo I will be returning with the team to Uganda, but not leaving as soon as they will be. I'm staying until the 16th of August. The rest of my summer in Uganda I'll be working at African Hearts Community Organization with Abby, Lutaaya, and 3 Interns from ASU we have convinced (against their will of course ;-) to travel with us to Uganda. Chiefly our initial work is preparing the new land in Ssenge (essentially a village-esque suburb of Kampala) for the arrival of the new street kids. There are over 1,000,000 million street kids in Uganda. That is a lot. Think about that statistic.... our goal is to bring in a dozen of them off the streets and love them to death. This is where it all begins and this is where Abby will be eventually spending the next many years of her life serving these new boys so it is definitely an exciting time! I am looking forward to just being there, grasping the ministry of presence a little more, and further understanding my role in this passionate pursuit of a life-changing environment that we seek, with the Lord's help & guidance, to create at African Hearts. It's hard to step in to it all when you're 10,000 miles away, but when you're there... finally there, you just have to drink it in.... and, again, know peace....

Thank you for your prayers and support thus far, please continue to pray about the things mentioned below

Prayer Requests

-Congo team adhesion and grace for one another and that we make it to Congo, not only safe, but with our supplies and sanity

-The people who we will be ministering too in Beni and for David Kisali of Congo Initiative

-All the people of Goma who are suffering greatly in this time of social upheaval that never really ends

-African Hearts: for the 'old' boys and for the new boys as they leave their marginalized and tragic lives 

-for the Ugandan leaders and interns at African Hearts (Lutaaya, Rosco, Tony, Jr., Jessica, Abby[blog], Myself, and the interns, Sarah, Hannah, & Coreen[blog])

-that the spiritual battles would be fought with us by those of you back on the home front in prayer!

-that I would have a servant's heart and be able to speak His words to those people I'm speaking to

-that my clarity increases concerning my future at African Hearts and my future in general, and that I can trust Him in all those things

-my sponsored boy at African Hearts, Eugene

-Pray for God to do what only he can do, bring hope to one of the most tragic places on our small planet.

Thank you for your prayers. They go before us, paving the way and lighting our path.

Feel free to write me here while I'm gone and feel free to comment too! the other team member's blogs are listed on the left side as well 

My iPod has enough Thrice and mewithoutYou to last me a while, so as long as my Bible still in my backpack, I'm off! Praise be to the Lord! I love you all. 

 ~Dan~

Congo/Uganda

July 3rd-August 17th, 2008