Arrived Johannesburg

I spent the day with Dr. Dean Carlson, a career missionary and Africa Regional Director for One Challenge--a organization focused on resourcing African church leaders for church planting, mobilization, mentoring and leadership development. I met Dean in college, and it was wonderful to reconnect after 25 years, and to see how his work strengthening indigenous African Christianity (I want to reflect more on what I learned from him today at a later point on the journey).

I arrived in JoBurg last Wednesday, and Trinity, Monique and Dennis arrived yesterday. The rest of the team arrived tonight, and now we are all together and staying at the Africa Centre Lodge--a clean, safe, quirky, family style Hostel near the airport.

After checking in, we walked about .75 miles to a strip mall of restaurants, and we chose just the right one for our first meal together in Africa: Dreus Beef House. After 24+ hours of transport from home to the Africa Centre Lodge, everyone was surprisingly energized, giddy and ready to celebrate our first day on the Continent. We thoroughly enjoyed what will probably be our last world class meal before returning home, and we savored every bite (Don and I both had Hake and calamari).

Rise and shine will be at 6:30am, to get back to the airport by 8:00 to fly to Lilongwe and on by minibus to Mzuzu where our mission begins. Tonight, we all are safe, tired, excited, feeling well, and in good spirits.

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry, Drew University; and International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book. In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives. Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth. When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gab...

Let the River Flow: Why WorldHope Corps digs village wells

Sunday Sermon at the The Water's Edge in OB , San Diego, CA. "Woman at the Well" (John 4:7-15) When you think about the gospel story of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at Jacob’s well, I’d like you to picture this Woman at a similar well in northern Malawi. Sitting and talking with Pastor Dennis Singini about water. Her name is Nyang'oma, which means "drum." Her Christian name is Mary Botha. She is 85 years old and lives in a village in the Kampenda area of Northern Malawi. She has cared for 11 children, two of whom have died. And her husband has died. When Dennis and I first met Mary in 2008, her village did not have a deep well or access to clean water. Nor did the six surrounding villages with over 1,500 people. Women and children had to drink with animals from shallow seasonal wells or walk about of 5km away to drink from the closest stream. Sometimes they would get sick and complain of stomach aches. Cholera and dysentery were widespread, and m...

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