Merry Christmas and End of Year Summary

Hello--We are so grateful to each of you who has read our blog this year and it is our pleasure to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We agree with CS Lewis about alot of things, but we disagree with him about Christmas greetings. He said if he didn't have to write so many Christmas cards he would feel alot more "peace on earth and goodwill toward men." Maybe if there had been blogs and Facebook and e-mail he would have felt differently.

Christmas is a "lower key" event in Kenya--decorations don't go up in shopping centers until late November. Employees typically only get Christmas day off work. Most people go "up country" to the homes of their parents for Christmas Day. This post includes a picture of Nan on a visit to Kisii in Western Kenya, a Kenyan Santa Claus, and a Kenyan "clown" at a children's Christmas event in one of the shopping centers.

University Church of the Nazarene will be having a Christmas morning service at 9AM, followed by candy for the children and tea and mandazis (triangular, lightly sweetened Kenyan donuts). At noon, we will be hosting 25 international staff and students for a Christmas dinner in our home. We'll have students from Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, the US, and even two new students from China. Mark will be making chicken stew, rice, cabbage and the Vice Chancellor has donated part of a goat--a local favorite. Some guests will be bringing food from their home country and all guests will be bringing a story or song from home. We're looking forward to it.

Some highlights of the year:

• Completion of Commission for Higher Education Self-study Document--this involved 6 weeks of work for Mark and a team at ANU in preparation for an accreditation visit. One of the things that came out was ANU's success in research, in helping students who come in with some academic challenges to be successful. For example, a student team from ANU has been chosen in a competition with other Kenyan universities, as one of four to represent Kenya in an international competition among Kenyan university students. ANU prepares its students very well.
• Publication of "African Voices" as 2010 NMI book. American Nazarenes should see this book among the set of missionary titles being offered in 2010. It was a privilege to do the interviews and edit the book. We hope you enjoy hearing several of our African leaders "in their own words."
• Trip to Manchester--described below
• Election of Eugenio Duarte as General Superintendent and appointment of Fili Chambo as Regional Director--We have already communicated our respect and appreciation for these men. When you pray, please remember them and the tasks that they are called to accomplish.
• General Assembly in June and early July
• Deputation in July and August--It was our pleasure to connect with many, many of you during our deputation--in Indiana, Idaho, Utah and California, we enjoyed our time with you.

Nan's October and November Alumni Events

As coordinator of alumni activities at ANU, Nan oversaw two significant events in October and November. On Thursday, October 29th, the alumni presented a chapel. They shared with students--in ways no one else could do as well--the importance of making good use of their time at the University, On Sunday, November 1, Nancy and the alumni council sponsored the "Second Annual ANU Alumni Bash", this time held at Osiota ("Stone" in the Maasai language) located at the bridge on Maasai Lodge Road.

In fairly typical fashion, the event, scheduled for 1:30, began a bit late, but once it started, provided a mix of good food, lots of laughter, and stronger connections between the alumni and the University.

A survey distributed to the alumni showed that 97% of them (all but one) are employed--a wonderful blessing in a nation where jobs are hard to get. Also, 87% of alumni indicated that their ANU education had prepared them "better" or "much better" than their work colleagues from other universities. We're pleased at the success they are having and at their satisfaction with the education they received at ANU.

Manchester Trip

In mid-October, Mark took part in a week-long Manchester UK meeting of international graduate theological educators in the Church of the Nazarene.  There were representatives from Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological, NTC-Brisbane, Nazarene Theological Seminary in the US, Brazil Nazarene College in Campanos, Brazil; Seminary of the Americas in Central America; Korea Nazarene University; as well as NTC-Manchester.

Although he had met and spent time with several of these people before, Mark continues to be blessed and  impressed and "taught" bwith the godly witness of these people:

• Dr. David McCullough, the current school principal of NTC-Manchester, served as the van driver for the group during the five days the team was there. He was gracious and patient with the group even though the time included NTC-Manchester graduation and the arrival of his board in two weeks!
• Dr. Herbert McGonigle, a world-famous expert on John Wesley, is recovering from an illness, but Mark noticed what a wonderful, attentive listener he was, and how he made every person feel special.
• Dr. Abraham Im, president of Korea Nazarene University, the largest school in the Nazarene system, was upbeat and inspiring in spite of recovering from the death of his wife just recently.
• Dr. Ron Benefiel, the president of NTS, who had helped organize the meeting with Dr. Jerry Lambert, conveyed by his manner and his words that all members of the team were important and that no one institution was orchestrating the actions of the others.
• Dr. San Young Lee(pictured), a second-generation Korean Nazarene with degrees from Princeton, Duke and Vanderbuilt, and academic dean at the Nazarene seminary in the Philippines, gave us an update on how the seminary became a place of refuge for up to 120 neighborhood people during recent storms and floods. In your prayers, it would be especially good to remember Dr. Lee and the faculty and staff at APNTS as they attempt to return to ordinary.
  

Some other highlights of the trip:

• On Saturday, the group attended NTC-Manchester's graduation in the wonderful Whitworth Hall on the campus of the University of Manchester. Like alot of victorian-era buildings, it was built as an academic building but looks like the inside of a church: at the back and on the sides, 40-foot tall stained glass windows. Roof supported by heavy, dark oak beams. At the front, a two-story structure with choir loft and huge pipe organ above and seating area below.

On Sunday morning, the group attended the Longsight Church of the Nazarene in Manchester, and then had meetings Sunday afternoon and Monday.

On Tuesday, after the meetings had been concluded, the group drove two hours in the van to Epworth, and got to tour the second of two pastor's homes in which John Wesley was raised, St. ANdrews Anglican church where his father Samuel was pastor for 30 years, had lunch at the Red Lion Inn where Wesley had stayed as an adult, then visited the Wesley Memorial Chapel in downtown Epworth.Some additional pictures below.

African Lives #3: John Yual

John Yual 

      John Yual was born in 1973 in Southeast Sudan near the Ethiopian boarder among the Nuer tribe. He and his brother and sister were raised by their mother after the early death of their father. John was not allowed to attend school because, at the time, education in Sudan was reserved for Muslims. His family sent him to Ethiopia to protect him from the Sudanese army. There he connected with the Church of the Nazarene. After working as a trainer and church planter, he has been appointed as district s for Sudan, shepherding over a thousand pastors across nearly a million square miles. An early European writer, travelling in the Sudan, called the men of the South Sudan the "natural gentlemen of Africa." This seems a good description of John: tall, intelligent but soft-spoken, communicating a quiet wisdom. In May of 2008 he received his bachelor of theology degree from Africa Nazarene University.
      At the age of 15, John’s uncle Gatkuoth Toang shared from the Bible with him.
      “He told me about the gift of life through Jesus Christ, that Jesus died for my sins, and that when I give my life to Him He will liberate me from being a slave to idol worship. I was amazed at the fact that somebody died for me, and so I tried to know much about the reasons why.”
      In 1989, when John was sixteen, life changed dramatically for him.
      “I was in a cattle camp, and when the troops came they said they attacked our village because there was a rebel. So the Sudan army came at night to attack the place, and one of them said it is better for you young guy to run for your life, don’t be here. In Sudan there are some places where one can only travel at night and not by day for security reasons. The place I was living was not very far from the border of Ethiopia, and I managed to cross to the other side within three days. I was with my friends--a group of young men--and we carried some cattle with the idea that when we reached Ethiopia we could sell the cows and find money to survive.
      John ended up in a refugee camp, and though life there was extremely hard, it was there that he was able to receive schooling and learn to read for the first time. 

      Another turning point happened for John in 1995 when a group of Sudanese friends told him about a new church in Addis that had English services. Since he was interested in learning English, John started attending the Church of the Nazarene. What captured his thinking was the doctrine of holiness. At first it brought multiple questions.
      “Does it mean other churches are not holy? In Ethiopia there is the Orthodox Church, and they call themselves the most holy people, and this other holiness I am hearing, is it the same or there is a difference? These were my questions. Finally, I got the message that it is not just an outside adornment but an inner transformation that is revealed outside.”
 John joined the Church of the Nazarene in Addis Ababa and began working with the youth. Gradually he was given more responsibility. Although he did not see himself as a minister, when the other pastors at the church immigrated to the United States and Canada, John experienced the grace of God giving him more interest in ministering.
      “My first time to attend district assembly, some church leaders met with us and said we want a person who will train pastors in Ethiopia and some day go to Sudan and start the church. I said, ‘OK, I don’t have a person like that in mind.’ We took a course, and the leaders say they checked the criteria of who will be fit for this job and decided it would be me. They ask me if I would be willing to train pastors, and I say, ‘If it is the plan of God.’ They ask me, ‘What is your priority while you are in the refugee camp?’ and I tell them, ‘To go to America or Australia or anywhere in the world because the life in the camp is terrible.’ I prayed and decided to train pastors, but at the same time my wife’s uncle sent us visas to go to Australia. I say, OK, this visa I was wanting for many years is here . . . what is going on? I prayed about it, shared with my wife, and we say we will go ahead and train pastors. People in the camp say, ‘Are you out of your mind?’

      “In 2003, during the regional conference in South Africa, I was sharing with my field director that in Sudan we do not have a church there. So I asked him, ‘What about we start a church there?’ He said that it was a good idea, but the question was how can we go there? There was no transport, no means of communication, no security . . . how can we go there? He suggested that we can wait until peace prevails, then we can go. I said, ‘Peace may come any time, but our people need Jesus before peace.’ He said, ‘Ok, I cannot stop you.’ After we had finished our course it was February 2003, and by March 2003 I was on my way to Sudan. I went to one of the towns, Gambella, which is on the border, and waited for some people who could walk with me. One could not walk alone because it was insecure. You must be accompanied by people who have their own guns for protection. I found some fifteen young guys who came from Sudan for trade. After talking to them they said it was OK, I can join them, and we went. We had to walk for seven days before we reached the Sudan border. There were robbers who would organize themselves to disturb the border so you could not cross any border without seeing trouble. Even the local tribes were fighting each other because of Arabic influence, and there was no government at all. On our way we found more than twenty people killed who had been walking ahead of us.
      “In my mind I said . . ., ‘OK, the church is not here, how can I start it?’ I said to myself that I must start it by teaching. I called some guys under the tree to talk to them if they were willing to listen to me. I talked to them about what the Bible says they need to do and whether they could accept God.”
      For one-and-a-half months he traveled the countryside, teaching beneath a tree to whomever would listen. In that time he started thirteen churches. That was 2003, and later on in October of that same year thirty more churches were planted.
      “When peace came we were already there. That is how the church came to existence in Sudan.”
      Though today there are more than a thousand Nazarene churches in Sudan, there continue to be challenges with developing and communicating with leaders in the field.
      “Even today in Sudan there is no good communication, especially in southern Sudan where I have been for ministry. Most of my churches in south Sudan I cannot reach them using my car; I must walk with my leaders to visit the churches there. I think God’s grace is how come, without communication, the church is growing. It is something that I myself . . . cannot understand; it is God’s grace that makes all those things to happen. I get letters saying, ‘We have started a church here,’ but I did not know this people, they said that they heard about the Church of the Nazarene so they decided to start one there. They invite me to go, so I send some pastors and my assistant to go and see those places and organize and teach them. What I can say is that it is the grace of God all this happening.
      “The only thing you do as a church planter or an evangelist is to pray, ‘God, if I meet three people, show me one . . . someone who can really buy this vision. If I find ten, give me two.’ Because of this prayer He gives me people, and even when there are many He helps me to identify one. When you want to plant a church you do not ask for qualified leaders, you just ask for people who are willing to serve God. And when you talk to someone, the Holy Spirit will help you to know that this one is real, genuine, and this other one is not serious. The Holy Spirit gives you discernment to know who is who.”
      As district superintendent of three districts in a country that is nearly one million square miles, John has a major challenge communicating with the one thousand pastors he shepherds. However, through the use of strategically placed satellite phones, John can call the pastor with the phone who will then send out letters to the other pastors to gather for a pre-arranged call. It takes some pastors two days to walk to the gathering, but the call from John serves as an encouragement and a planning tool for the pastors.
      John was asked to share his insights on the following topics:
·  About holiness: “When we came for the first time in Sudan we started the message of holiness. They actually didn’t just want to know about holiness, but they also wanted to join the Church of the Nazarene. In Sudan we have been going through difficult times because of civil war, and so people need love. When they see you showing love and living a life of love they get encouraged and are attracted to know what is happening there. I think people are interested in those who walk the talk. In Sudan our problem is peace, peace between neighbors. We need a solution where believers can live in peace with our Muslim neighbors. When they see us living in peace, love, and unity then what we preach is able to make sense to them. We don’t preach hatred against the Arabs. To win Muslims we need to spend time, develop a friendship, show love and care, then once we have a good relationship with them, they will want to know more about the gospel.”
·  About Africa: “Before coming to Africa Nazarene University, when I thought of Africa I thought of my country only. Now, even if I am doing well in my country, I know that there is more that needs to be done in Africa, in the entire church, and for the sake of the Kingdom.”
·  About contextualizing the gospel and church organization: “If we go through the Church of the Nazarene manual, there are parts that do not make sense to Africans. An example is the issue of associate members. In my community you cannot tell people that you are a full member and the other is an associate member in the church. That says to the associate member that ‘we do not need you here.’ We need to remove that part of the manual and differentiate between leadership and membership.”
·  About how the global church can pray: In the last twenty years conflicts in Sudan have resulted in more than four million people being displaced and two million deaths. A peace agreement signed in January 2005 gave southern Sudan autonomy for six years, which has resulted in an uneasy truce.
“If war comes, where will our church be during that time? What will be the future of our church if another war breaks out in Sudan? This is the first priority that we need prayer for our people, that God may bring peace because He is the only one who can bring the peace that we need in Suda

Mega-update: Back in Kenya Section

OK, so what's this about Nancy speaking in a Hindu temple? We'll get to that in a minute. When we got back to ANU, or shortly thereafter, some things had changed. Here are some key items, good and bad:

• LACK OF RAIN--When we left, it was green and lush in Kenya. When we returned, it was brown and dry and lots of people were suffering. Only yesterday, we saw two dead Maasai cows in a ditch on the way home. The herd of goats, cattle and sheep that used to pass at a distance from Mark's office window, isn't doing so any more. People and animals are really struggling. Please pray for rain and for enough food for the people to survive until new crops can be planted or harvested.

• WATER AND ELECTRICITY RATIONING--Because some electricity is generated by hydro-electric dams, the lack of water is creating a lack of electricity. Here's another instance where good planning on the campus insulates us from challenges: the University dam on the Mbagathi River means the plants and grass get watered and the generators fill the gaps in most electrical coverage. Nairobi is a different matter. People in the city often have electricity only every other day and are dealing with water rationing as well.
• TARMACK! It's true that it's on the street to the LEFT of the front gate not Maasai Lodge Road, and it's true that the treatment is kind of "thickness challenged", but it's black and smooth and we're really pleased. (Pictured below: white metal ANU gate to the left. Black tarmack beyond the barrels directly ahead.) Keep praying that Maasai Lodge Road is next.

• ZEBRAS--No question zebras are cute and we're seeing lots more of their cuteness these days--up until we left, we'd seen zebras from our balcony a couple of times--and at a looooong distance. Since we got back, we're seeing them directly across the canyon and perhaps a football field and a half away.

• MORE INTERVIEWS--We had explained in this blog earlier that we did 10 interviews with current and future Nazarene leaders in Africa as part of editing a book of interviews for Nazarene Missions International. Without going into much detail right now, we're being asked to do more interviews. Dr. Filimao Chambo, our new Regional Director, has agreed to be one of these, so "watch this space" for more interviews with current and future Nazarene leaders in Africa.

OK, now about that speaking engagement in a Hindu temple: We've mentioned earlier that we've struck up a friendship with Mr. Vayas, an active member of Arya Samaj, which means kind of "Aryan community." Last week, Mark got a call from Mr. Vayas inviting us to a celebration of their 106th anniversary as a religious community in Nairobi and a request for Nancy, as an ordained Nazarene minister, to be part of a panel addressing the question, "What can the world religions do to encourage peace in Kenya and the world?"

Before the time of the panel, we were invited into their religious service in another part of the building: religious songs being sung by groups of 3-5 children, women and elderly people sitting on mats around firepots raising aromatic smoke. After that, a world-class cute group of kindergarten and pre-school children presented a one-hour variety show. There was singing and dancing and recitation of what we used to call "pieces." Also, though, in the "we're not making this up" department, one of the features was a 5-year old dressed up like Ghandi and giving advice to the audience.

The panel was the last item of the morning. The other panel members included the chairman of the Hindu Council in Kenya, the education director of the Seventh Day Adventists, a pentecostal bishop, the chair of the department ofr religion at the University of Nairobi, and three other Hindus. Nan (Mark is saying here) did a really wonderful job, and got a big round of applause when she said we were going to have an Indian daughter-in-law in August.

After the panel, we were invited to a great, spicey vegetarian meal. Anyone who thinks vegetarian food has to be wimpy and flavorless hasn't had really good Indian food.

Soooo--that brings us up to date on our own activites. As promised earlier, we'll follow up with our interview with John Yual, DS in the Sudan. We love what we're doing, but if you're reading time is short--skip what we say and read what John Yual says.

Have we mentioned to you lately how much we appreciate your prayers and reading (at least some part of ) the blog? Over and over during our home assignment you reminded us that you are praying for us and the work we've been called to do. Thanks so much. Regarding things to pray about: as we mentioned earlier, please pray for the good American pastors and churches we visited on our home assignment. Please join us in praying for our children. It's hard to be a young (or old) adult these days. Finally, please pray for rain, and in the meantime, for the rural people in Kenya. We know of a bi-vocational pastor who was counting on a sugar cane crop that has failed because of the lack of rain. We have student families who are struggling more than usual with school fees because crops that were the source of payment have failed.

Thanks again for your faithfulness. We are honored by your interest and by the privilege of working and serving in Africa

Mega-update--General Assembly Section

OK, at one level, we've failed miserably in the last three months. You haven't had an update since June. At another level, we've just been doing the "Africonnection" in person rather than on the blog (how are we doing? Are you persuaded?). Since we left campus in mid-June, we've spent a couple of enjoyable days in Switzerland, participated in a historic General Assembly, done two months of deputation and visited family. Some highlights and pictures of those events:

Switzerland was great. We decided kind of impromptu to spend a couple of days there when the "best fare" took us via Swiss Air through Zurich. We travelled, at IBOE chair LeBron Fairbanks enthusiastic and correct recommendation, by train and then riverboat, up the Rhine River to Schaffhausen (picture of Schaffhausen church clock tower) and Stein am Rhine--beautiful midieval towns near the border between Switzerland and Germany.We went BY  European Nazarene Bible College, but were not able to stop this trip. Maybe next time.

It was a wonderful privilege to be part of the General Assembly when so much history was being made. We came a couple of days early to help set up the ANU booth (picture of Nan getting our picture display ready) in the exhibit hall and to prepare for the ANU luncheon. Both were very successful. If you stopped by the booth, thanks so much for doing so. The use of the new IBOE booth "passport" meant that many more people stopped by, and although some of those primarily wanted their passports stamped, many stayed and shared memories of time they had spent at ANU or communicated their hopes that they could come. The maasai bracelets we handed out were a huge hit, and it was all we could do to keep the basket full until all the bracelets--over 800 of them--were gone.

The ANU luncheon was also a historic event. It's program centered around honoring Dr. Harmon and Beverly Schmelzenbach, and announcing a new scholarship program in their honor. Dr. Schmelzenbach gave another memorable speech, encourging those attending the luncheon to support the new scholarship program, and at the end, University President Professor Leah Marangu and Council Chairman and East Africa Field Strategy Coordinator representing ANU, and Drs. Eugenio Duarte and Fili Chanbo presented gifts to the Schmelzenbachs (picture of Professor Marangu and Rev. Gardner presenting gifts).
One of the pleasures of our time at ANU has been meeting the many, many American Nazarenes who feel a special bond with Africa Nazarene University as a result of Work and Witness trips, but also as a result of volunteer teaching, visits from headquarters personnel and other connections. Many of those people were in attendance, including out-going General Superintendent Dr. Nina Gunter, pictured here with Professor Marangu.

Early the following week, we were privileged to witness the election of Dr. Duarte, whom we had featured in our June blog entry, being elected the first "international" General Superintendent. With typical determination and typical modesty, Dr. Duarte accepted the election of the General Assembly. We praise God for this historic moment in denominational history! As we asked "old-timers" what struck them most about this General Assembly, they mentioned this election more than anything else. As we saw African friends and acquaintances after the election, it was clear they felt we had entered an important new era in the church and were overjoyed. We might say that, with the appointment of Dr. Filimao Chambo as regional director, we feel the significance of strong, African leadership is making itself felt in the denomination. 

When General Assembly was over, we began our series of deputation services. We'll update you on this in the post that follows this one immediately. Oh, and make sure you read FULL set of blog entries we post so you get a chance to read about Nancy being a guest speaker in a Hindu temple...

Mega-update--Home Assignment Section

After General Assembly, we began six weeks of more traditional home assignment. We want to thank the great pastors, NMI presidents, people who hosted us in their homes, and members of congregations for your kind words and support. Our typical home assignment presentation was basically a brief report on ANU, and then sharing some of the insights about holiness that we've gotten from our interviews with current and future African leaders.

The Africans don't all agree about a single definition of holiness, but they DO all agree that it is something to be "incarnated", to be implemented, to be reflected in their lives. They also agree that holiness provides a highly relevant response to issues such as corruption, violence, HIV/AIDS and poverty. We have been inspired by the deep commitment of Church of the Nazarene in Africa to the message of holiness.

What we saw on our visits to churches was American Nazarene pastors and churches working hard, attempting to impact their communities, faithful in the work of the church, doing Work and Witness, finding ways to engage their youth. We have great memories of the lilting harmonies and guitar-playing of three men from the 1st Hispanic Church of the Nazarene, of the membership explosion at Zion Community outside Bloomington Indiana as a result of Upward Sports and of their new educational wing (pictured) , of warm fellowship and great food at Spencer, Payette, Parma, New Hope; of an inspiring Celebrate Recovery service at Nampa First, our home church; of the great new church in Hemet California and the group of Work and Witness folks just returning from Hungary to the Highland Avenue church in California. Our time in Hawthorne CA and Brazil IN with family in attendance were also memorable. We continue to pray for the pastors and churches we visited.

In between deputation services, we got to spend time with family. That was wonderful too. We celebrated Mark's birthday in Indiana with a county fair, midway barbecue and turkey legs, and a demolition derby--what could be better!?  County fair pictures just below and then more narrative...

 

The Nampa visit was equally pleasant and WARM in more than one way--temperatures several days above 104! We stayed with our friends Ray and Teresa Burwick, pictured, and enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of our churches on the Intermountain District. Mark got to spend some time on the NNU campus, hearing about improvements in the library and in the music department and about new programs that have been submitted for approval. Nancy got word the second day we were there that the kids were dealing with a family crisis in Seattle, and she went to be with them. Without going into detail about that, it was a time of some tragedy for the kids, but also a time of healing and affirmation. Nan and the kids felt the prayers of the churches that knew about it and were remembering them.

After Idaho, and a brief "personal" time with Nan's sister and her husband in Seattle area, we went to California to be with all of the kids and it was a really wonderful time. Ben drove us to our first California service in Hemet. Thanks to you, Pastor Mike, for the special introduction and attention you gave to our son. You modeled for us how important it is that we lift up and affirm each other's "kids!" Three of the sons are buying a house together, and we have memories of several barbecues on the patio on top of the garage((daughter-in-law Birge, son Ben and Mark pictured) as well as announcements of an impending marriage for Nathan and his fiance Marli (Nancy pictured with Nathan), and of a child for Andrew and his wife Birge. Ben and Isaac and I visited Gene Autrey's Museum of the West where they posed on a recreated performance stage (Isaac and Ben pictured).

In the next section, we'll talk a little bit about what's happened since we got back. Even looking over these pictures and reviewing the events of recent month, we'd appreciate your joining us in praying for the Kingdom work of these churches and pastors, and for our kids. In each case, and in our own lives, the challenges of the day require wisdom and discernment that only the Lord can give.

African Lives Update

Well we already shared with you the article about Fidele Senga from Rwanda. Fidele graduated from ANU last week and was honored with one of two "Character and Leadership" awards. If you were going to buy stock in a person, Fidele would be a "stock to watch."

Beyond that, Bwana Asifiwe (Praise the Lord!)--The glory and work of graduation are over. We graduated a record number (225) students and gave honorary degrees to Michael Ranneberger, the US Ambassador to Kenya and to a wonderful Christian lady named Ingrid Munro who has started a very successful self-help ministry to street people in Kenya.

We've finished editing the other interviews we've had over the last several weeks with the people for the book: Regional Director Eugenio Duarte; Central Africa Field Strategy Coordinator Paul Mtambo; French Equatorial Africa FSC Chanshi Chanda; Horn of Africa FSC Ermias Choylie; Recent ANU graduate and new Kenyan Nazarene Jackie Mugane; Benson Phiri, a wonderful B.Th. student from Malawi. Even as we speak, our ANU boss, Professor Leah Marangu, is putting the finishing touches on her article. In the next few weeks--especially since the work is done--we'll be sharing pictures and stories of these people with you. Would you do this? Would you pick one or two of them and make the Lord and yourself a promise that you'll pray for them and for the prayer requests they made at the end of each article.

We'll be at General Assembly in a couple of weeks and will be working part of the time at the ANU booth. We'd love to see you either their or on our deputation tour in July and August. Blessings on you all. Read down to the two additional posts: one for Eugenio Duarte, our great Regional Director, and for John Yual, the district superintendent for Sudan.

African Lives #2: Eugenio Duarte

On one of the last days of the Africa Region Leadership Conference in April, Eugenio Duarte took time from his very busy schedule to come for dinner at our house. Because he's a Cape Verdian, living most of his early life on an island, we had fish.

Dr. Duarte is a wonderful listener and a very gentle but strong man. We are honored to have him as our regional boss. In what follows, his words are in italics. Here's his interview...

Dr. Eugenio (ew-JEN-eeoh) Duarte (dwawrt) Africa Region Director for the Church of the Nazarene. He was born and educated in the Cape Verde (vaird) Islands and served as a pastor and district superintendent there before being appointed to field and regional leadership roles. He and his wife Maria Teresa have three grown children, and live in Johannesburg, South Africa where the regional office is located.

Infant mortality was a problem in Cape Verde, and it affected Eugenio Duarte’s family. In Cape Verde, medicine was not developed well enough so many children died. When I was born I had some health problems. I don’t think they thought I would survive, but I made it. We were five children, however before I was born I am told that there were eight children. So four of them had died and I am the last-born in our family.

My mother was a very hard worker who taught her children to be the same. She taught us to earn our living honestly and to give the best of ourselves to others. My father was a man of peace. He was a builder with people working for him. One day one of his workers offended him. He was hurt, but he did not tell us. A little later, the worker knocked at the door. When he was let in and shown to my father, he said, “I came to ask for forgiveness, for what I did to you.” And my father said, “Oh, I forgave you before even you came.” That is one of many situations that make me think of him as a man of peace

When Eugenio was six, his eighteen year old sister Magdalena (mag-dah-LAYN-ah), who was attending the Church of the Nazarene, was the instrument of a turning point in his life. It was

announced in church that a school was going to start, and they would like Nazarenes to bring their children. Magdalena decided that she would talk to my parents so that they would allow me to go to a Nazarene

school. She went and did my registration and they took me to school and that is how my connection with the Church of the Nazarene started. To prepare me for school, my mother had crafted a gray school bag for me. It was precious because my mother made it from some fabric she had received from my aunt in the US. I remember the first day of school, I grabbed the bag, because I did not want anyone to mess with it because it was so precious.

A meaningful illustration helped this island boy see his need for salvation. We lived in islands surrounded by ocean, and most of the time the ocean was not friendly. When I was 12, a missionary, Clifford Gay, came to visit the island. That day he was asked to teach in my Sunday school class. The lesson was simple but impressive. The missionary presented salvation as what happens when you are crossing the ocean and the boat sinks. Even if you have no one around who is able to save you, when you have a life preserver, you are safe. That’s how he presented Jesus who is there and ready when you need him. And so I found myself lost and I went to this little room with four other boys and we prayed for our salvation. And that changed my life forever.

When he first heard the message of holiness a devotional classic helped him with the question of earning salvation. At the age of 17 I was in Mindello (meen-DAY-loh) and heard a message of holiness. I was reading The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitehall Smith. One passage made it clear to me that Jesus has already forgiven me and I asked myself, “Then why am I bothered so much if Jesus has done it?” In that room alone, I said, “Lord it is now. I want to leave it all in your hands.” That was another turning point in my life.

Dr. Duarte’s sense of God’s saving and sanctification was clear, but God’s call to the ministry was hampered by a sense of inadequacy. He had talked to his pastor about attending Bible college, but instead of enrolling he first applied to join the Portuguese Army, then worked in business, and finally took a government job on Maio (MY-ew) Island, where he met his future wife Maria Teresa in the local Nazarene church and applied for a government scholarship. It was at this point that the true course of his life was about to be decided and two new chapters of his life began. I had applied for an engineering scholarship from the independent Cape Verde government. I was going to Russia, and everything was set: invitation, passport, visa, and airplane tickets. The day before my departure I took my wife and went to say goodbye to friends. We passed by the Nazarene Church and empty parsonage. I had the keys so I said to my wife, “I feel like going inside and praying.” I asked the Lord to bless me. I said, “I cannot go if you do not bless me,” but he did not. He said, “If you love me, then stay here.” When I said yes I felt that I was a new person again. I stood and said to my wife, “We are not going to say goodbye to anyone because I am not going anywhere.” So, we went back home and I sent a telegram to my DS who had been my pastor when I was growing up. The telegram said, “Do you have a place for a student this October? I will want to join.” I got a reply from my DS who said, “I have been praying for this day for years. I could have not gotten any better news than this!” I went to the capital, to ask them to release me, and the man who was in charge said to me, “You Protestants think going to Russia is going to hell.” I said, “No sir, none of that came to my mind, I have a reason but I know you will not understand.” He asked me what my reason was, and I explained to him about my call to ministry. He said, “Oh, you are crazy! How can you miss this opportunity for higher education?”

Eugenio’s time at the Bible college was productive and successful, and soon drew to an end. After an initial successful preaching assignment, Dr. Duarte served the church as a teacher at the Bible college, pastor of the mother Church of the Nazarene in Cape Verde, and then as district superintendent, gathering many memories of God’s faithfulness in the midst of challenge.

In 1996 Dr. Duarte was convinced that his time as District Superintendent was coming to an end. He alerted his field director and communicated his willingness to move back into the pastorate. God had other plans, though, and Dr. Richard Zanner called him to be the Field Strategy Coordinator in Central Africa. This assignment was followed in a brief period of time by other assignments to lead the Portuguese-speaking field and then the French-speaking field in West Africa. When I was told I was needed to lead the West Africa Field, I went to my office and did something that I don’t usually do. I took the Bible and opened it randomly looking for guidance. I read Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” It was doubly confirmed when I went to the room where my wife was and she had her Bible opened to Isaiah 41 as well.

Dr. Duarte’s connection with Africa Nazarene University became stronger when he became a Field Strategy Coordinator and as a result became a Board member. It helped me to know Professor Marangu better, to know the great leader she is, and to see her relationship with the students. We do not see that type of thing much in Africa...there is usually a distance between senior administrators and students. God is using her example to train leaders.

1n 2006 Dr. Duarte was asked to serve as the Regional Director for the Africa Region. It’s a job that you do not ask for like any other ministry. When the Lord calls you, you do it. If I did not know Dr. Louie Bustle and the fact that he is able to work with you and empower you I might not have taken the position. I knew that he was someone I could go to when I made mistakes and tell him, “These are the mistakes please help me.” I did not feel confident and that kind of relationship had to be in place for me to accept this position.

When asked for his insights on several topics, Dr. Duarte responded as follows:

• About Holiness: Holiness is a lifestyle where we allow God to make us like him. And for that to happen it has a starting point but it is not just that one event. I think many people have failed to live the life of holiness because they feel that it is something that happens one time and it is done. We bring ourselves back to the Lord continually so he can keep empowering us. For many people in Africa they believe that once you are half religious then you are good. Africa does not need more religion because we have too many religions, we need something that changes people’s life. Holiness changes people’s lives. That is not a message that many people are willing to listen to because they know that Christ paid the price and they are not willing to pay the price. However, those of us who have paid the price can say that it’s a worth price.
• About the African church: The partnership between the church in the West and Africa is growing in significant ways. There was a time when that partnership meant Westerners brought money. Now we are learning that it’s a relationship and it is much more than money which is one of the blessings of the global economic hardship. Now people are learning to understand that we can not wait for the west to give us, because what the west can give us we can also give to the west in some ways. For instance, in Africa we emphasize community rather than an individualistic approach to living. When I go to the US and visit churches people are warm and friendly. They really want you to be part of them and feel at home, but then after the service they do not have time to stay with you because they have to attend to many other things. In America you have clocks but in Africa we have time. In Africa, we make time to be with people and they become part of us in ways they were not before.
• About a vision for the Church of the Nazarene in Africa: We have to have people who live a changed life, who are in revival mode, and willing for revival again and again. The vision that I have for Africa is that the church planting movement that has happened in the Horn of Africa will spread through all seven fields...the whole of Africa. This movement is not about us, it is God’s work. It is about allowing God to use us to make it happen. That’s why I invited Howie Shute to come work in the Regional Office to assist us. As I think about how we will make disciples, it is about people discovering what works in their own culture to build relationships. We cannot make disciples the same way that the west does it. I am an African so I will use a different way. We have some great traditional ways of doing it. We may not call it making disciples, but we bring people along by spending time with them. So I want us to explore those ways that God has given to us, and make use of them. And if we do it the way God wants it then the one million member goal we have for this continent is nothing. Actually, when I mention one million members, I always have someone tell me that number is too small. Now my language has changed; I talk about the first million.
• About how the global church can pray: We need prayer for the vision to happen. We have an ambitious goal to train 20,000 leaders by 2012. Now we have less than 8,000 leaders and not all of them are trained. So we are believing that God will raise up leaders and those who will train, equip, and disciple them. We see ANU as a power house to help make that happen as we create systems that help us multiple ourselves.

African Lives #1: Fidele Samvura Senga--Beyond the Rwandan Genocide

As our readers know, we've been

asked to write a "missionary book" for NMI. It has been a deep personal privilege to sit around our dinner table or on our back balcony overlooking the Athi Savannah talking to committed, faithful people about their lives and beliefs. We'll be previewing some of the chapters with Africonnection readers before they go to NMI. The convention of what follows is that the narration is in BOLD and the words from the interviewees are in ITALICS.

Fidele Samvura Senga, the third child of a Nazarene District Superintendent, was born in a Nazarene church and school compound in Isenyi, Rwanda about 20

miles east of the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After high school, he attended Africa Nazarene University where he will graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree in May of 2009. While a student at ANU, he wrote a grant application for his church's affiliated orphanage and is helping to administer the grant and the orphanage as he completes his studies. (The picture of children and of a building are of the orphanage.)

Because of his work as a DS, Fidele’s father spent many weeks each year away from

home visiting churches, encouraging pastors, and seeing to the work of the district. Even so, some of Fidele’s best childhood memories are of his family and of his parents. Although it wasn’t important at the time, his father was a Hutu and his mother a Tutsi. My father used to be away for ministry but every time he could come he could gather us around the sitting room and ask each one of how the week was. My mother could give him a report both negative and positive and if it is punishment we were to get it there and then, and we moved on with life. My father always gave us a chance to challenge him. He could come and sit all of us around the table and tell us to state what we have seen too extreme on his side, so from there we saw him being like our elder brother than being our father. My mother could understand us more easily than our dad because our dad had to practice justice but my mum could exercise mercy.

Although today many Rwandans remember long periods of living with their

neighbors in peace, when the Rwandan president’s plane crashed in April of 1994, it reopened old disagreements between Tutsis and Hutus. In the four months between April and July of 1994, thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Some estimate the final death toll as high as 800,000. Fidele and his family were caught in the violence. When the Rwandan genocide began, Fidele was up country at St. Andrews, an elite Catholic secondary school. After the president’s plane crashed in April 6^th 1994, I had just joined Form One (9^th grade), but when we heard that all the Hutus were to be killed we were called back home. The Catholic brothers used the school buses to take us to the doors of our homes. When I arrived at the Nazarene compound, there were between 70 and 100 young men with pangas (machetes) who came into the compound to look among the 300 students in our

Nazarene high school for those who were Tutsis. My father and some church leaders had just returned from morning prayers and were sitting outside. The young men said that they wanted to see all the invenzi, the cockroaches, which was the name they gave the Tutsis. My father joked with them, saying, “We do not keep cockroach here, we have students!” When some of the young men started threatening my father others started shouting, “This is our pastor! Stop threatening him!” So they went but still the tension was in the air and those who were in the compound had to find their way out of the country.

Outside of the relative safety of the Nazarene compound, the Rwandan genocide continued. As Fidele and members of his family left to find food and try to rescue people and later as they fled to the Congo, they saw disturbing and unspeakable sights.You could walk out of the compound and find people killed, to the extent it was like a normal thing to find a person lying down across the road dead. The place they were calling the District Commissioners place was really a cemetery run by people whose work was to kill people. Those who had cash could buy a bullet for quick death rather than being killed more slowly by the pangas. People were told to dig their own graves and then were buried while they were alive. A military commander who came to the cemetery found a Catholic archbishop and two priests being buried alive. When those burying them saw the military commander, some ran away and others were ordered to remove the soil, freeing the priests. We did not prepare to go to the Congo. We woke up at the middle of the night and joined the masses of people walking toward the border. That distance of 20 miles took us the full day to cross over. We walked tied together so that no one of us should get lost. You could hear many children shouting, “Mum!” because they had gotten lost. There were many people using the same path—perhaps as many as two million who went into exile at some point, including sixteen thousand Rwandan Nazarenes who made the trip under my father’s leadership.

The family stayed in the Congo until 1994 when Fidele’s father was invited to pursue a Master of Arts in Religion degree at ANU. Fidele’s father continued with his studies until 1996. Although it was officially two years after the peak of the genocide, there was still a struggle in Rwanda for leadership of government, business, and the churches. My father felt that he needed to go back, because there were some people who wanted to take over most of the institutions in the country. Because there was a leadership problem, the church in Rwanda was in trouble. In 1996, my father went back to Rwanda to help the church. Then, in November of 1997 as he was making plans to come back to ANU, he was killed as part of the disagreements about leadership of institutions in the country. My mother was with him and was beaten and unconscious for awhile, but they did not kill her because she was a woman. Later, we discovered that prior to my father’s death 14 young people from the church had been killed in the same disagreements.

After Fidele’s mother recovered, she returned briefly to Kenya to accompany the family back to Rwanda. Fidel’s mother was determined to redeem the family’s experience of the genocide, loss of their father and lengthy separation from each other and from Rwanda. My mother adopted a new lifestyle because she felt like she needed to bring us up in such a away we could forget the past and put our mind on God. So she is the one who was much encouraging us to be involved in the church and to understand how far we had come. And she felt that the only way should could is to pray and encourage us to do the same, even now she has set apart Tuesday as the day she prays for all of us as her children. For me, forgiveness has been a matter of accepting and not dwelling in the past and seeking a way of living a new life. So this idea of forgiveness, it took time for me and for the family members, we decided to do it as a family and let what happened be of the past and look forward for a better life.

A chance trip to a Rwandan Peace and Reconciliation conference brought Fidele into contact with an American Nazarene family who were so impressed with Fidele that they offered to pay for his University education and suggested he attend Africa Nazarene University. Fidele credits ANU with allowing him to meet Nazarene leaders from all over Africa and to sharpen his thinking and his skills. As we had done with other interviews, we asked Fidele some questions designed to encourage sharing some ideas from his own perspective as a young African Nazarene leader in training. Here are some excerpts:

· On moving from bitterness to forgiveness: When the genocide and the death of my father were happening, I did not have much understand of who God was. I did know that God was good. We expected the God of love to be on our side but it did not seem to be true. Even the people we expected to be on our side did not seem to be. I came a book that talked about understanding God. The author was saying that our mind is so much limited that we see thing happening around, and we do not seem to understand. It makes it clear that God does not change with what happens to our lives, he still remains God. His ways of doing things can change but for him he does not change. In that situation, it gave me hope, I was able to figure out that my mum could have died with my father but there is a reason why she is alive. The encouragement we get from mum has kept me moving. Faith with God and her involvement in ministry has helped God make sense to us. I know God loves me the same way he loves other people and He regards me as a special person.

· About what the African church can contribute to the global church: I think in Africa we have really responded to the call of the church as a community, which is one of the strengths of the African community. If our definition of a church is the coming together as a family to worship God, and we can see it lacking from our Western brothers because they are more event oriented and we are more oriented toward people and relationships which falls under social wholeness. If Africa can pass on to our Western brothers the real value of community it will be a good thing. It will make us feel that we all need each other. And the idea of where one comes from, or of white and black, will not be there because we will feel we are all the same.

· About missionaries:. In our church administration class at ANU, we asked one of our professors whether he thinks the church in Africa needs missionaries, and surprisingly he answered that the church in Africa needs missionaries who are born again. I think that was because he has stayed in Africa for long and he knows the challenges that are facing the church in Africa. I think what he meant is people who are willing to forget their identities and learn new ways of ministry; he meant people who can adopt to the fields that they are send into so that they can be more of a support to the fields that they are send into. Without the presence of missionaries one cannot sense the idea of the church being an international church. The idea is for the national church to be able to sustain itself both spiritual and financially

· On the message of holiness in Africa: What I understand about holiness is the desire to walk with Jesus. There are so many things we get from walking with Him. Like the things we get from the Bible, and the people we walk with, and even our community. The holiness theologians will come with many, many theological words explaining what holiness is instead of using a simple word. We are not talking about holiness because it is a denominational requirement but because it is what God expects us to live by. The best witness of our holiness life should be the people who are living around us. They will be able to say that we are Christians and Nazarenes, they will be able to experience and witness about our holiness life.

· About how people can pray for him: I need God to help in the message that I preach to people to be of relevance to them and I may be able to make it simple to them without necessarily complicating their lives.

Africa Region Leadership Conference Report

An Irish diarist wrote a short poem that we've quoted before but that's accurate these days: "A man who keeps a diary pays, due toll to many tedious days; but life becomes eventful then, his busy hand forgets the pen." It's taken us awhile to do the Leadership Conference post we promised because the Leadership Conference kept us so busy!

The Africa Region Leadership Conference was a gathering of 300 Nazarene leaders from all over Africa. Each daybegan with a devotional, followed by a plenary speaker and breakouts in the morning, and plenary and breakouts in the afternoon and ending with a preaching service in the evening. The days were 14-15 hours long, but very rich. Some highlights and pictures:

• The first picture at the top is of our blue T-shirted (mainly) ushers--all ANU "Bachelor of Theology" students, ready to greet our visitors. The next three pictures are of Horn of Africa people. Sudan DS John Yual (left in patterned blue shirt), currently a student at ANU and one of the interviews we'll post later, greets a colleague upon arrival. The group picture is one Mark posted on Facebook, but we're still being taught by the joy of this group that lost eight of its members to Muslim and anamist persecution in 2008. The third picture is of a pastor from Ethiopia who is the "prayer warrior" for the Horn of Africa. Terry Barker, the Education Coordinator there, said this pastor climbs a sacred mountain in Ethiopia for a month several times a year to pray for the work of the Church and the Kingdom in Africa. Each time we begin to complain or to use "entitled" language, we will think of this group that is winning souls and starting churches in the midst of tremendous oppression.

• General Superintendent Jerry Porter preached two really excellent sermons. The first one, more earnest and intense, talked about the fact that Jesus was tempted, and that only yielding to temptation is sin. He acknowledged both the crisis and on-going relationship aspects of sanctification, and quoted 2 Peter 1:3-4 as he reminded the audience that we have access to power as well as purity through if the Holy Spirit. In the second, funnier, sermon he encouraged unchanging principles and changing stratgies. One item: he said--don't you just hate those songs where you have to stand and sing the same words over and over? For example, let's all stand and sing this irritating song which repeats the same word 56 times (and then a pianist accompanied him in the singing of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus!)

• Rev. Balibanga, from French Equitorial Africa, gave an excellent devotional one of the days. He pointed out that even in the 36 African countries where the Church of the Nazarene is active, the economic, racial/ethnic, and health problems of Africa exist. He said that the Church of the Nazarene must present the nations of Africa and the world not just with holy words, but with holy lives, and with a "new world order" built not on economic transformation or social transformation, but built on a testimony of radical spiritual transformation.

• Mark Lowe, Field Strategy Coordinator, quoted George Whitfiled, the famous Methodist evangelist, who said Wesley was right in putting his converts into classes, and observed sadly that his own converts were "a rope of sand." Mark said that without a well-constructed discipleship program, converts from such evangelistic efforts as the Jesus Film were in danger of also being a "rope of sand."

• Chanshi Chanda, the Field Strategy Coordinator from French Equitorial Africa, told the true story of an Imam to whom he witnessed and who was saved in a dramatic way. When he returned to his home as an Imam he was given the platform at his local mosque and preached the gospel there. He is now training to become a Nazarene pastor. His wife is not yet converted and, as one might imagine, is having a hard time accepting his conversion. They need your prayer.

• In a breakout session, Chanshi said that if he were kicked out of the Church of the Nazarene at any point, he would leave everything but the message of holiness. He said, "Some of us treat holiness as a play word. We treat it as a toy to be played with, but the essence of Christianity is holiness." Chanshi studies online with a Jewish rabbi in Toronto, and says that God's intention for the Israelites is that they be holy and close to God. He said, "We need to take our message of holiness to heart. If we are not strivintg to maintain the church as pure as it can be, forget about 'ministry sustainability.'"

• Mashangu Maluleka, the principla of Nazarene Theological College in Muldersdrift, South Africa, preached a powerful, very African sermon, about Moses and the stick. He said that Moses was an African boy. His point was that we need to recognize the resources God has put into our hands, and we need to recognize the "snakes" that need to be killed.

• As you might imagine, there were many, many other good sessions, including presentations by Howie Shute, Dr. LeBron Fairbanks, Fili Chambo and several others.

• We attended (and mainly listened) in fascinating breakouts where DS's from all over Africa talked about some of their challenges: how to make graceful leadership transitions in a culture where the chief stays in as long as he can and historically has killed rivals. How to make disagreements model holiness and encourage learning and growth. How to deal with members or associate members (policy differs across Africa) who have been saved and repented, but are dealing with the consequences of polygamous marriages.

• In between sessions, we did interviews with Dr. Eugenio Duarte and the three FieldStrategy Coordinators who are graduates of ANU: Chanshi Chanda, FSC of French Equitorial Africa; Paul Mtambo, FSC of Central Africa; and Ermias Choliye, FSC of the Horn of Africa. We will be publishing blog posts based on each of those interviews and others we are doing, so we'll save that for a different time.

• Below, some additional pictures "just for fun" (apologies for a couple of slightly out of focus but favorite pictures): Dr. Eugenio Duarte and delegates from Sudan; Rev Paul Mtambo, Field Strategy Coordinator of Central Africa (in tan suit); lady drummer from the Horn of Africa; small part of an end-of-conference group photo; we'll blog more pictures at a later time."