nigeria

Only have a couple of minutes to post here in Nigeria with limited internet access...

Been speaking a lot: today was a 2½ hour class at the Jos Evangelical Church of West Africa seminary with churchplanters and pastors. The class was “The Church, Society and Ethics”. Whoa. Spoke the day before about missional churches and will speak tomorrow at the chapel. It’s been very interactive along with Kande Wilson (our outreach and missions pastor) and Emmanuel Itapson (our connection with Self-Sustaining Enterprises/Nigeria). We also drove out to see the Paramount Chief of the Rukuba tribe; from his throne (no kidding) he again expressed how grateful his people are and reemphasized how there has been no infant mortality from waterborne diseases in all the villages that have boreholes. The drilling team has drilled about 90 wells in the area. Amazing.

The Global Leadership Summit that we sponsor in Jos has gone amazingly well; over 300 pastors and leaders here. Thursday we’ll tack on a training session and we’ll talk about outward-focused churches. We’ve met so many people; they are like sponges, soaking in leadership development resources. What’s amazing is the unity that it’s brought to the different denominations.

Friday we’ll go to the well commissioning and then leave at 6am on Saturday to drive a few hours northwest to Kaduna to sponsor and help with the summit there. Sunday morning I’ll speak at a church there and then head back down to Jos. Last, a three hour drive back to Abuja to fly home.

The rest of the team has been doing great grunt work…painting, moving concrete blocks, working with the drilling team. Yeah, I know—my stuff sounds like a wuss compared to them. They’re doing great and fully enjoying the experience. I think a few are getting their world rocked…and it’s all good. They all served the pastors at the summit here in Jos. Very cool.

These moments make me thrilled to be a part of the Vineyard. I think everyone should feel that way about their respective church. I hope you do. This adventure with Jesus is never boring. Ever. I can’t think of anything in the universe better than serving the One who has a plan for this big messy world and invites us to join Him.

It’s all good. See you at the Vineyard in a week-and-a-half!

Short updates from Kande here: http://missionsvcc.blogspot.com/