January 2021

Dear Friends and Family,
At the end of the day, we are served afternoon tea. While sitting with one of the pastors, he leaned over to me and put his hand on his chest and said, “For me, this has been transformative!”
That is our objective and mission. We are not satisfied when we take a room full of pastors through our excellent curriculum. We will not be satisfied until the training results in a transformed pastor and church.
Our second day saw our lectures switch from “Ministry” to “Preaching.” But for me the highlight was our discussion of “Faithfulness vs Success” and “Religion and Politics.”

At the end of this first day of ITEM Conference on Ministry and Preaching (I-COMP) a mature Bishop who, according to Nathan, has been throughout the world, came to me and quietly said to me, “This is Dallas level” and he was referring to Dallas Seminary. Another participant said to Nathan that he was impressed because everything was coming out of the Bible and not just what we thought.
These responses are actually pretty typical of the instruction we provide along with what one other leader said when I asked them to “hang in there for one more hour” so we could finish six lectures today. The leaders remark at that point, “This is a cram course.”
It was a good day with good questions and even better comments. Click here to get more details and see the new pictures from today.

I am currently near Embu, Kenya with Nathan. We start our seminar tomorrow, Tuesday. It was a long day of travel after a hard night. But God’s grace is always sufficient.
The hard night was caused by the almost rock-hard foam mattress. I’ve been in this situation before and have been able to soften the top with blankets, pads, covers. . . years and years ago I used bubble wrap but, in that case, it was to put a layer between a thin mattress and wood slats. Last night my efforts did not pay off. When I return to Nairobi at the end of the week, I’ll stay someplace else.
Other than a hard bed and a long drive, there was a cancelled meeting with a representative of International Leadership University to discuss a partnership where I’d donate most of my library and we’d get special consideration when it comes to renting space so we can register in Kenya. I still hope to have that meeting.
Tomorrow we begin a strategic seminar.

According to Wikipedia, “To be, or not to be” is the opening phrase of a soliloquy given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called “nunnery scene” of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse.
That is similar to how I felt when trying to find my way around the Charles De Gaul airport (CDG) for the third time in my 22 years of traveling to Africa. I have not figured it out yet. Ask me and I will tell you it is painful and unfair. Trying to find your gate. Is it 2E OR NOT 2E? The fact that I am now in Kenya means I figured it out but it was not without some angst.