A Time of Ministry, Service & Refreshment

-

 



Last month, I had the best time ever!! A church team from Peel Pentecostal Church in Brampton, of 17 people, came to visit VOH Mwanza and Petra church. It was an amazing time of ministry, service and encouragement. What a wonderful group of special people, of all ages and all walks or life! They were all so different, but had one thing in common - they loved God and they wanted to serve!

My role was the logistics person. It began when they arrived at 2 am, after a delayed flight. It was in the midst of a torrential rain storm, with so much luggage we had to hire another van just to carry it all and when we arrived at the compound there was no power. What a welcome to Africa!

Ministry

They came to minister - to the children at VOH and the people in Petra church. At VOH, they had a special play day with the children, a wonderful time of ministry with the house mamas and visited the classrooms - serving porridge, teaching songs, sharing Bible stories and God's love with the children.  

They came to minister - to the children at VOH and the people in Petra church. At VOH, they had a special play day with the children, a wonderful time of ministry with the house mamas and visited the classrooms - serving porridge, teaching songs, sharing Bible stories and God's love with the children.  
On the Saturday morning, we had a powerful time together at a special Ladies session. The church team members, and the older women of Petra (that included me!) had a prayed with the younger women in our church, anointed each one with oil, asked for God's will in their lives to be revealed and had a time of praise, fellowship and fun. For me, it was the highlight of their visit.
That afternoon, we had a prayer walk around the new Petra church grounds, committing it to Him to use it as a place of outreach to our community and beyond.
Service

And they came to work! At VOH, they spent a day doing all sorts of chores and service - like spending time in the classrooms, cooking the porridge in the kitchen and even cutting the grass. One team member (whose background is construction) jumped in the bulldozer to help clear the gravel to make a sidewalk. 

But the hardest work was in preparing the new Petra church ground, to get ready for building foundations to be laid, by removing the branches, debris and tree stumps. I was in the thick of it and tried my best - but believe me, I was exhausted!!!
Encourage

Last, but not least, they encouraged. It was amazing how closely we bonded and built relations in only 10 days. We spent alot of time together when they were here and had special times of worship, prayer and 1-1 ministry, sharing our lives with each other. 

The most memorable was on their last night. As we gathered together, they shared testimonies of how their mission trip had impacted their lives. We shared how they had impacted ours too.

We had a powerful time of prayer as a group, and ended with a special time where they prayed over Julius and me as Global Workers, for God to encourage and strengthen us as we continue on in His work. It truly blessed my heart. I know I'm called here and love being here, but some days aren't easy. I miss home, miss you and having the Canadian team here to uplift and encourage me was a wonderful, unexpected surprise from the Lord. 

Hopefully, I was able to speak into a few of their lives and provide encouragement to them too.
Their trip reminded me that part of doing His work is to take time for relationships, to encourage one other and spur us on in the faith.

As you go about your day today, I pray you will take time to look for the opportunities to be there for somebody, to share an encouraging word and to show you care - just like the team did for me.
 
"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds ... encouraging one another" Hebrews 10:24-25
 
I end with a short video ... it's from the Fun Day the team put on for the children. They played games, sang songs, blew bubbles and more. We do alot of serious stuff here at VOH - educating the children, feeding them, checking their health, teaching them about God and more - but sometimes it's just nice to see them having fun. The sound isn't great (because the kids were too loud in the background!) but I think you will get the picture. It put a smile on my face. Hope it puts one of your face too!

Blessings
Jeanette


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jambo (Hello) from Africa!

-
Image
My first week in Africa has been crazy! A rollercoaster of the finest kind. Power outages, water shortages, thunderstorms, isolation, questioning … making new friends, excitement, learning, laughing … and more. All packed into 7 days! It’s been an adjustment that's for sure. I’ve been to Africa many times but never stayed in a place for $15/night, waking up most mornings with no water for a shower , and sitting most evenings in the pitch dark except for the small flame of a candlelight so I can reach out to family and friends on data (at least I got that figured out)! But it’s also been amazing. I’ve met new friends at Villages of Hope Kitwe. I’m humbled by their passion, competency and laser focus on putting the children first. I've seen the joy in the children's faces and heard it in their robust singing. And I’m learning much - not just about the programs (which have consistently impressed me) but about the motivations...
Read more

No more waiting!

-
Image
Have you ever had to wait for over 50 years for something? I have. As a young girl, I wanted be a missionary when I grow up … I wanted to help people less fortunate than me have a chance in life, grow up and know about God. I even knew I didn't want it to be Africa, because it seemed there were already enough missionaries there so I'd go somewhere else, maybe India. They had lots of people. Or maybe even Kuwait. Not sure of the location, but was confident of the calling. In my teens, I have a couple of great short-term mission experiences. I went to Bible college, and seminary, all to get ready. But, God had different plans for me. Doors to go to missions closed. Doors with not-for-profit organizations opened. So, I went in a new direction. I've been working in NFP and NGO marketing for the last 35 years. It's been great. And much of this was related to helping the poor overseas. But it's not the same as being on the ground, working directly wit...
Read more

My Tanzania work permit was rejected. What do I do now?

-
Image
New Years Eve  morning... instead of getting ready for a hot New Years Eve date (ok, stop laughing), I got an email from the person in Tanzania who has been working on my work permit that read: "I really wish I had better news to report, but I did want to keep my promise to let you know as soon as we heard anything. You will see the attached document from the Labour website - rejected permits. This came out yesterday.  Unfortunately your name appears on page two. It seems our trying to follow up and write to the commissioner didn't make a difference. I'm so sorry, what a journey this has been - and one which we didn't expect.  Things are changing quickly in Tanzania these days when it comes to anything with the government, but especially anything to do with foreigners in the country. They are becoming increasingly strict and rules seem to be changing every week. We did our best to keep up and submit everything they asked for, but apparently they do ...
Read more