SO THAT Missions Podcast | FBC Boerne
So that...God's ways may be known on Earth.
"So That" is an FBC Boerne podcast focused on what God is doing around the world with missions and through FBC Missions partners.
SO THAT Missions Podcast | FBC Boerne
Episode 56: BONUS Uganda Trip w/Pastor Stephen and ARM
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Join Pastor Chad and John Nipp for an unforgettable trip to Uganda, where we visited refugee camps housing South Sudanese refugees and experience the vibrant spirit of a Dinka tribe's church service. Alongside Pastor Stephen from Africa Renewal Ministries, we recount a humorous experience where Pastor Stephen was recruited into the women's prayer team. You'll feel the pulse of the energetic, rhythmic worship that filled the dark, windowless space, giving you a sense of the heartfelt atmosphere that enveloped us.
Have you ever wondered how cultural elements can become powerful tools for sharing the gospel? Pastor Stephen also dives into the mission and vision of African Renewal Ministries, founded by Pastor Peter, and how leadership and Christ-like character are pivotal for societal transformation in Africa. This episode emphasizes the importance of humility and respect for cultural practices in fostering genuine connections and bringing joy to refugee communities.
Discover the multifaceted approach of Ugandan ministries in empowering the next generation through initiatives like the Loving Hearts Baby Home the Equipping Leaders program. Hear expansive church planting efforts led by Gabba Community Church. We discuss the potential global impact these initiatives could have, especially for refugees who may move to other countries. Tune in for inspiring stories of transformation and empowerment that demonstrate the profound impact of ministry in the lives of individuals and communities in Uganda.
Visit our website at www.fbcboerne.org for more stories, information, and service times.
Cultural Exchange in African Church
Speaker 1Hey everybody, this is Pastor Chad with FBC Missions so that Podcast. Today I'm with our friend, pastor Stephen from ARM here in Uganda. We hope that you enjoy. God bless, hi and welcome to Season 4 of FBC Missions so that Podcast. This is an encouraging place to hear how God is working in and around us. We know that he blesses his people so that they can bless the world around them. Why is God working in our life, church and community? It's so that, through us, the world will know that he is near. Hey everybody, so glad that you have joined us today. We have a fun podcast in front of us. I'm here with our friend We've had him on the podcast before John Nitt. How are you doing, john?
Speaker 1Doing great it's great to be in.
Speaker 2Uganda again.
Speaker 1I'm so glad that we're here and we have another friend with us, pastor Stephen from ARM Africa Renewal Ministries. So how are you, brother?
Speaker 3I'm good Pastor Chad. What a blessing to be here.
Speaker 1Oh, thank you. Thank you. We had a little bit of a mishap. We recorded this podcast already, but I never pressed the record button. So you guys are going to get round two. But let me tell you we have a funny story to start with today. We've had an incredible day.
Speaker 1Yes, we have and I'll start with this funny thing I everyone thought I was sunburned about middle of the day and I was surprised when I wiped my face. My face was red, but it wasn't because of the sunburn, it was because of the amount of red African dust that had come in through the window and caked my face, and so it looked very red yeah.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, it was, it was, it was very red.
Speaker 1I'm pretty sure that towel will never be the same.
Speaker 2No needed a baseball mother to get that out.
Speaker 1Yeah, someone's gonna have to have a lot of bleach. Well, listen, so we went and visited these two camps today. They're camps that are refugee camps here in northern Uganda that are housing and caring for many refugees somewhere around a million refugees from South Sudan. They're in 39 camps and we visited two today and so we drove to one and it was incredible, and I'm going to let our friend John just describe a little bit of what we found when we got there. It was an interesting thing. I'll fill in some gaps as we go, but, John, how did you enjoy this church Tell?
Speaker 2us about it. It was very interesting. But to put the story into context, first you've got to know Stephen and of course I've known Stephen for many years. Stephen is a very conservative guy. He is a very professional pastor.
Speaker 2He is a pastor that any mainstream Christian would be very comfortable listening to. Well, first of all, what Chad didn't bother to tell you was this particular camp that we were going to in the church was from the Dinka tribe in South Sudan, and if anybody knows much about basketball, you know that the Dinkas are very, very tall people.
Speaker 1Yeah, they're very tall. How tall do you think we're talking, John?
Speaker 2You know it was very common to see 6'5", 6'6", 6'7" among the men, 6'3", 6'4" among the women. You're not even kidding.
Speaker 1We're both fairly tall people and we were not tall in that room no uh, there were multiple people we walked by that I'm looking up to and, uh, and they were shoulder height to my eye level, even the children. There were some very tall kids let me, let me just say from their knee to their ankle seemed extraordinarily long, like like it doesn't look right. It's long enough to think that doesn't seem okay.
Speaker 2They're extremely tall. So, anyway, we drive up to this church and I'm looking around at the people going in and out of this church and I'm thinking you know, stephen, we're in the wrong church, this is not where we're going. And he assured me yeah, this is it church. This is not where we're going. And he assured me, yeah, this is it. So we enter this church and it's a very large building and it's packed with believers, but, as tall as these believers are, you have to duck down this hole to go into this very short door to get in, and when you get in, it's very dark inside. There's no windows, uh, there's no fans, it's hot, and so your eyes have to adjust, and when they do finally adjust, you notice that, oh, it's a lot different, you know this is not your first Baptist church, no, no, no.
Speaker 1So let me just fill in a little gap. So as we pulled up again, the building is large and it looks like the doorway is almost like a cave. You can tell it's dark inside and the doorway is too low to walk through. You have to duck down and these people are very tall so they're ducking like double, they're bent over at the waist to go in. And at first they're so welcoming, everyone's greeting us outside, but the music you can hear it inside, it's thumping, it's pretty loud, it's pretty rhythmic, and you're like this is going to be interesting. And you can tell that the windows there's like portholes. There's just a few portholes but there's no windows like we would call windows, and but there's no windows like we would call windows. And so you're like this is going to be hot.
Speaker 2We know it, and it was.
Speaker 1And so, john, you walk in and you're in the middle of this mass of jumping, excited energy people, this rhythmic music, boom, boom, boom, you know, and they're jumping with it and you're like what is going on, you know?
Speaker 2I've been in africa many, many times and I've been to many, many church services in africa. This was not like your normal african jumping happy celebration uh, praise worship. This was very cultural. This is very Coptic. This is very old school, old world symbolism and stuff.
Speaker 1You should think about old world traditions with modern music kind of technology. You've got a loud, bass, rhythmic, tribal kind of chant type song singing back and forth, repeating the leader sings the line and then everybody repeats the line. And, yeah, you've got everybody dressed in certain kind of garb. You know, they've got white sashes and all the women have their heads covered. So you walk in knowing that this is a very traditional space, but it doesn't look anything that you would think is traditional, not from an American concept at all. But enough though that people are holding crosses in their hands. Again, you can see that there's some very strong convictions that are built in some sort of deep tradition.
Speaker 1Oh, absolutely Just something that we don't know, right? So let's go. We get to the front. They put us in these almost. They have the plastic chairs, but they've covered them in these really nice covers, so you feel like you're being honored. They kind of put you almost like we're in these thrones in the front of the church. They weren't the big thrones like some churches, but you could tell they've given us seats of honor in the front and that's a little uncomfortable for Americans. We don't tend to want to be in any way on the stage for no apparent reason, and yet you know like they would do. They began to introduce different members of our team and Pastor Stephen got to be the guy to introduce us, and things took a little turn. So tell us about that.
Speaker 2Well, again Stephen, very conservative man, so of course you know this is his first experience in this particular church also and he's a little taken back.
Speaker 1You don't speak, dinka, do you?
Speaker 3I don't speak, dinka, do you? I don't.
Speaker 1So the whole thing is in Dinka, so we don't necessarily know what they're saying.
Speaker 3I don't know what they're saying I like the, the rhythm of the worship. It's unique, it's new. Um, I'm like, wow, this sounds beautiful. I don't understand it, but it sounds beautiful. Yeah, they make yeah, you kind of refer to it a bit of the Ducks, ducks II kind of thing.
Speaker 1It was some kind of form of worship it was yeah, and you can hear the hallelujah. There were some words, so once you hear those two, you know you're probably safe. You know, it's not bad, it's just different. Yeah, it's just different.
Speaker 2So, anyway, stephen is our lead pastor at this church Gets up and he's introducing everyone. He makes a comment to the prayer ladies, who all are dressed in these vestments and robes, that he loved their dresses. Well, he no sooner got that out of his mouth that they started dressing him and they had him in a red dress and a white sash and a hat, and then the hat didn't fit, so they put like this ninja warrior scarf on him.
Speaker 1Okay, john may be exaggerating just a little bit, you know, but it was. It was hilarious, because the second, the second, he said you're, you're, you're, look, these ladies look beautiful.
Speaker 1The guy with the keyboard hit the keyboard, the music is on, everyone's singing and these ladies are are dressing steven they're dancing up to steven and they're taking their white sash and put on him, and then they realize he's got the wrong color shirt. So somebody found this red shirt. They put a red shirt on him. They tried to put the white hat. I don't know if it didn't fit, but they ended up tying a ninja scarf around his head and put a belt around him. The belt tipped in the front, so he's looking great and we're all just going.
Speaker 1Is this normal? What's happening? And then they put a cross in his hand and then this is what I got really fun to see what starts dancing. Steven just started swaying with them. He's just dancing along with them. He's got the cross in and out, putting it out towards people, and he's just dancing, having a good time and and this went on for five minutes, at least five minutes and they're just singing and chanting and having a blast and we're like, look at Steven, like this they're just singing and chanting and having a blast.
Speaker 1And we're like, look at Steven, like this guy is just rolling with this and it was amazing.
Speaker 2It was actually very impressive on Steven's part. Because, he came across as a very loving, caring, open-minded person that was not there to judge them, was there to engage with them.
Speaker 3While it was funny to watch.
Speaker 2It was almost kind of disturbing to watch at the same time, because you weren't really sure what was going on. You hear stories you hear stories you know, didn't know if animal sacrifices were going to start here soon, or what? But it's calmed down and Stephen hit it out of the park with his comments once he was dressed and the music finally stopped.
Speaker 1So tell us what's going on in your mind, Stephen, because this went all over the place, yeah it was interesting, but you know, one is when we were watching them worship and hearing.
Speaker 3You know I don't understand Dinka, but there was Anna the Hallelujah. I'm like God is so in in in nature. He's an amazing God and these are his people, and so when I stood out there and these women moved to me, that was funny, of course. Uh, I'm like I've gotten myself into trouble because I told them you look great, you look amazing, I like your dressing. And they just ran up to me and, you know, got me dressed up. I don't know how they picked the right shirt that fits me.
Cultural Ministry and Leadership in Africa
Speaker 3I just surrendered and said God you're in control, you know what's going on. But you know, when we were coming to a Germany, we're having a conversation with you of how God, pastor Chad, of how God puts a key in every tribe of them being able to seek him and connect with them, and how, when you discover, that key becomes an opening for the gospel. So when they dressed me up, my brain was beginning to think about what does that look like? What does this represent in line with the gospel? So it took me to the part of me being able to explain to them about the red as the blood of Jesus Christ, the cross, you know, reminding us of the price he paid for us, you know, for our sins. And the white you know he talks about us coming to him. You know he cleanses us with his blood, that we are white as snow. So for me that became an opportunity to share the gospel and to you know, refer this back to them that every time you look at this, remember the gospel.
Speaker 1So it was beautiful. It was beautiful and there was a number of reasons why, but probably the biggest one that stands out to me is your heart. You know there are people who would have been, who would have felt that it was undignified to let these ladies put these clothes on them. You didn't just let them put them on you, you wore them for the rest of the afternoon you know, like you had them on that.
Speaker 1It was this funny thing you everyone would, everyone from our team was playing with you and you were so kind about it that there was so much pride among those women that even later, when they took us out and we watched the kids dancing, there were people coming over and just so happy to see you wearing your. I mean, I think you joined the ladies prayer team I think that's what you officially are part of the women's prayer team at the church. Unknowingly recruited, unknowingly, you're maybe the leader of the team.
Speaker 3now, I don't know.
Speaker 1But it was fantastic.
Speaker 3But you know, pastor Chad, again it comes back that these are God's people. Where they are is not where they desire to be, it's not their making. They're coming from a community, a country where there's been war, people have been fighting and they've come to find refuge here and they're holding on to their faith. As that, one thing of hope for them and just relating with them is to let them know that God loves you. We love you, we recognize you.
Speaker 1You are fellow human beings yeah, we see the dignity that God's placed in you and I think what you said there is perfect, like this is maybe the one thing that's familiar from their life before that they brought with them. Yeah, yeah, right. So it's a different form of worship than you're going to find, definitely in the United States, yeah, at least among American Christians. It's very different than what I've seen among my Kenyan friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and the same thing when I've been to churches in Uganda.
Speaker 1I haven't seen it look like that and so this is a unique expression for them of how they worship and I haven't seen it look like that. And so this is a unique expression for them of how they worship and it's so, I mean, amazing. I mean, if you've seen or thought of, like the Maasai tribe in Kenya and the way they jump, the Dinka tribe is like, at this point, the Sudanese version. They're jumping, they're dancing, it's really quite precious.
Speaker 3If we went to the Maasai, I would leave that job to John.
Speaker 1Yeah, we can let John be the Messiah. So when you're not dancing with churches. I don't think anybody wants to see that. So, pastor Stephen, we've introduced you as the prayer lady dancer at the church, but tell us about your role. What do you do for ARM?
Speaker 3Well, I serve with Africana, minist African ministries and and again African ministries has been around for most, now 35 years, founded by pastor Peter Cassie rival, I think. John, now you know how to pronounce that. How do you say, sir, perfect, you're doing much better than when you started.
Speaker 3Yeah, and you know, the heartbeat of Pastor Peter has always been leadership.
Church Ministry
Speaker 3And you know, just referring to what John Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership and he believed that and he believes that Africa's problems can only be solved if we have men and women in leadership, that model, the character of Christ, you know. So that's why our vision as a ministry is to see Christ-like people reaching out and renewing society, transforming their society for Christ. They can't do it without that. So you know, with that, pastor Peter has been able to again inspire us and encourage us for the things we're doing as a ministry. And part of that we're doing it in three things. One, we talk about embracing children, and embracing children that is why we have the sponsorship program, the Loving Hearts, babies Home, we have the Bethany Village. But we say, you know what, as we talk about embracing children, really we are talking about embracing the next generation, it's embracing the next church, the church tomorrow. If you look into statistics, you realize that Uganda is actually number two in the whole of Africa having a young population the biggest young population.
Speaker 3That's a big opportunity for the church here in Uganda. If we embrace it and, you know, be able to use that to the glory of God. So, even with our sponsorship program under the embracing of children, we don't just take children to school, we have to take them through a discipleship program, a process, so that we can equip them to be the leaders tomorrow that God is going to use in their spheres of influence.
Speaker 3So, we have Embracing Children. Then we have another part in the ministry which is called Equipping Leaders, and under Equipping Leaders that's where we have the Transformational Leadership Training, next Generation Leadership Training, and again these are youth. Young people we are equipping, but also people in the market space. Again, under that we talk about the university, afrikaner University, which has actually been chartered. We currently have about 13 nations over Africa that are bringing their students to be part of our university. It's clearly a Christian university. The influence there is amazing, the people who have come out, some of them. Actually, we had a bishop who was ordained in South Sudan, who was trained in our university. You can begin to see the ripple effect of some of these things when you begin to look at what God is doing. Then, lastly, is the community empowering of communities. Under that we have again what we're doing, the relief. We have what we call mercy centers. We also, beyond that, we have Wayne's Medical Center Again describing that programmatically, wayne's Medical Center. You all know, dr Martin, when you visit Wayne's Medical Center, the big thing is we believe that Jesus is the greatest physician. I'm putting on a shirt of Wendell Medical Center and behind it says Jesus Heals. You know, when people come to our medical center. We want to know that. You know we want to take care of them, but we also want them to know that Jesus heals. The rest of the job is going to be Jesus' job.
Speaker 3So, again, through empowering community, that's how God has enabled us to be able to reach out to the people in Adjumani. Why? We are six, actually eight hours away from where we stay us, gaba, where the ministry is. But when we heard what's happening here, we said, as a body of Christ, as a church, we cannot afford to just keep quiet and do nothing. God has called us, he's given us a global mandate. And so when we heard what's happening in Ajumma, we said we have to go, we want to be with them. We want to use that opportunity to love on them, extend the love of Christ, but also not only that. We want to use that opportunity to love on them, extend the love of Christ, but also not only that. We want to use that opportunity to extend the gospel. Who knows, when they go back to South Sudan, they may leave some of the things they are trying to work around ABCD, leave them here, but at least they'll go back with the gospel.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's an incredible thing. In fact, it's become a major focus in World Missions. Today we haven't talked about this, but there's a major UN report, probably two years ago, that talked about the number of immigrants moving around the world and how they get stuck, are stuck. What can we do to both meet some of their physical needs, because they're almost always impoverished and then how do we use these as strategic opportunities to share the love of Jesus, to empower them with the gospel, to train them to be fully formed disciple makers, so that they can go back to their country or to whatever country they reside in the future and share Jesus with their friends and family and co-workers or to whoever God may bring them to. And so this is really one of those opportunities here in Ajumani.
Speaker 2I look at it as they're not so much stuck here. This is where they're stationed for this season of their life and we have the opportunity to use this station to prepare them for their next station, because we know they're moving either back or they're going to go somewhere else. But even if they remain, the gospel can transform their lives, transform their communities. The gospel can go. We can use these people to move the gospel to places all over the world, all over the world.
Speaker 3And again, even while they're stationed here, we see it stationed, but for them they may be seeing like they're blind to the future. They see the future as hopeless. Right, they're blind to the future. They see the future as hopeless. You know it reminds me about Jeremiah 29, where he talks about that. You know what I know the plans I have for you. You know it's not to harm you, not to hurt you, but to give you hope, to give you a future. And what John is talking about. How do we begin to engage with them as the body of Christ, that they're able to see their next station and they're able to see their relevance in their next station? And what big you know role and mandate. Would that be other than the gospel Sure, going with eyes of transformation?
Speaker 1Sure, and then there's so much that we could talk about in the details of what God's doing through through the refugee crisis, through what's happening in their lives. But just for time's sake, we're talking about ARM and your role. You gave us just a really good overview, but there's a lot of things that ARM is doing that I just wanted people to know about. So you already mentioned the child sponsorship program. How many kids do you guys have in the child sponsorship program?
Speaker 3So in the child sponsorship program we have I always use the word about but 6,370 children that are being sponsored in the program. That is what we have and yeah. So basically that's what we have under the sponsorship.
Speaker 1And if someone sponsors a kid, it costs anywhere between $40 and $50. You're talking about. Maybe some of the refugee kids are a little bit higher because their needs are more.
Transformation and Empowerment Through Ministry
Speaker 3Yeah, so for children that are coming from communities here in Uganda. So for children that are coming from communities here in Uganda they're born of Uganda $40 is one of those that would be very helpful for us to be able to get them into the program. But for the refugees, we are starting a sponsorship program for the refugees. Again, jeremiah 29,. He says you guys much as I know the plans for you you're going to stay here for a while, begin to build, establish yourselves, marry and the sort While they're here.
Speaker 3Even the government is saying we have to move away from just thinking relief to begin thinking about empowerment, because they're going to be here. And that's why, for us as a ministry, we feel that what an opportunity, because many children are being born in the refugee camps. They don't have resources to take those children to school. You witnessed in Pastor Elijah's church. Actually thousands of children were participating. But hey, who is resourcing them to go to school, school. So we believe that that's an opportunity for us to extend such a service to them through our sponsorship program and also to be able to do other basic things. So for the refugee, the kids in the refugee camp, we do $50.
Speaker 1Yeah, again, you think about the scope of that. $6,000 times $40,000 times $12,000, right, it's a powerful tool that allows a lot of kids to get resources they need. It's 6,000 kids You're talking about some. It's a large population group as well. If all of those were to finish the program and go to college, you're talking about changing a major part of child growth and development for Uganda as a whole, it's a huge number. But that's not all you guys do. You guys do a lot of other things. You mentioned the university, yeah.
Speaker 3And before even we dive back into that, I want to say something here. When we're talking with one of our pastors, pastor Patrick, it was like some of the refugees were moved here and were taken into another country. Some of them were taken to Australia, and you know what? Because of the conflicts here. So you can imagine that some of the refugees eventually may get opportunities to be in your countries. If we start our work now, what if those refugees that get to go in other countries go transformed, go with the gospel? You see, we don't know where they're going to go.
Speaker 3Of course, in Australia they reported a case of a murder of a woman and this had never happened. Gang violence is beginning because of South Sudan refugees there, you see, because then no one attended to them and were taken without being helped. You see that. So I think this is something that I believe that we cannot just push back and say that's not my problem, it will never get to me. It's something that we need to look at as an opportunity for us to minister to, but also we are contributing to the transformation of the globe.
Speaker 3in a way, there's so much.
Speaker 1I think I mentioned in the last podcast we didn't record that there's this UN charter that talks about the movement of peoples around the world and how there's such an opportunity to engage with them, especially while they're in that space, that waiting space. We see that among the Texas-Mexico border, with the Latin American refugees and asylum seekers that are coming towards the US. We see it in places like Cyprus, where so many North Africans are trying to get to Europe, and on and on and on. But that's again let's talk back to yeah, we'll go back to ARM. So there's incredible things happening in the university. You said there's 1,300 students in the university.
Speaker 3We have 1,480 students at the university About. I like the about, just in case I miss a number. Yeah, but out of that we have 13 nations represented.
Speaker 1And you mentioned that it has a certification. Yes, we've just been chartered.
Speaker 3Chartered, yes, we got our charter, which means that when they get their certification, having studied in our university, they can go in any university in any country and they'll be considered. It's amazing, it's a blessing. So this is fairly new.
Speaker 1The university is not even 30 years old, maybe less than that. But if the whole ministry is 35, the university is less than that.
Speaker 3And it just recently got that charter.
Speaker 1Yes, but that puts it on level with world-class universities anywhere. So that's an incredible thing. I know through that there's the medical training and a lot of those people are able to do their practices through the Wentz Medical Center, yes, where you guys have a clinic that's available to the people of Gaba and they're able to get help. You mentioned Dr Martin clinic that's available to the people of gaba and they're able to get help. We we've met you mentioned dr martin. This is a great guy, such a great leader. We've enjoyed getting to know him at first baptist as well. Um, let's see. One of the other things I want to talk about was the church planting church planting.
Speaker 3We have a thousand churches and our fellowship, so we have what we call fellowship of community churches and under fellowship of community churches we have a thousand churches that are under that and in that is where we have a church plant here in Ajumani, which has been here for the last five years. Now think about it, because that did not start there. We started with a church plant from Gaba Community Church. We came while the war in Gulu, the northern part of Uganda, was coming to an end. The Lord Resistance Movement, joseph Kony, was coming to an end and we moved in and we brought the church and we said we're here to build the church of Jesus Christ here and out of that church here in Gulu. We have had 47 churches that have been planted all over the part of the north of Uganda.
Speaker 1Yeah, so just keep in mind, if you're listening, 35-year-old church. Gaba Community Care Church has planted over 1,000 churches now. The church that they started in Gulu was started around 2007. And out of that there's another 47 churches that they planted in northern Uganda. One of them is here in Ajumani, which is surrounded by these camps where the refugees are.
Speaker 1A really fun story for me today was to meet Pastor Patrick.
Speaker 1Pastor Patrick grew up close to Gulu and he was one of the night commuters.
Speaker 1If you listen or remember the Invisible Children documentary or story, it documented that there was as many as 40,000 children walking at night every day to spend the night in Gulu because they were afraid of being taken by the Lord Jesus' army in their homes. So this went on for like 15 years and he said that he slept on the ground in gulu every night for 15 years and he talked about how many his pastor patrick was, how many people would come and share what they had, and how they gave the children hope, that they felt like somebody cared. Maybe they got a free blanket, sometimes they got a free meal, sometimes they got you know different things he said, but you know it really was a tough time. There's all these terrible, terrible stories that are connected to the way the Lord LRA we'll just call it LRA terrible things to the population and so many of them experienced those things firsthand as well. But now Pastor is leading a church that has over 200 people. He said so many children, 150 children, what he told me.
Speaker 1So he's running a church of around 400 to 500 people in Anjumani that is also outreaching to these camps in the region and being led by a boy who was part of the refugee internal refugees in Uganda for his entire childhood of the refugee, internal refugees in Uganda for his entire childhood. God is using the Ugandan church to shelter the South Sudanese church and so much of what Uganda learned from those IDP camps has benefited these camps today. I got to see both. So when I was in, I was amazed to see the difference in the camps today versus the camps I saw in 2007. And it really just is incredible. I want to just kind of finish up with this, stephen Watching your team today has just been a highlight for me.
Speaker 1It's been wonderful. Karen and her heart for these ladies and these Carol Sorry, carol Her heart for the women in the ministries that are happening all over the place, the kids ministries that we're seeing the opportunity to sit underneath the tree with 60 or 70 people talking about leadership, training and development. What's the next thing that God is calling us to do? As a people, you know the vision casting to this community, the refugee community, that god has a purpose for you that goes beyond just waiting and suffering and, uh, and I just have watched you guys show incredible humility and class and godliness with these people. Um, again, it's funny a story if you put that uh, the prayer, the prayer garb on watching the way that those ladies were so impressioned by, I felt like the Holy Father.
Speaker 1You looked like the Holy Father. All you needed was a golden crown.
Speaker 3I was just waiting for people to come and repent. Father, I want you to repent my sins. Your sins are forgiven, my daughter.
Speaker 2Go in peace.
Speaker 1We're going way out of control. Now, if you're a listener, I want you to know this was our first day, our first full day on our mission trip, and it was unbelievable. I said that it was our actually first day on mission. Yesterday we drove the whole day to get here. The day before we flew the whole day to get there the day before, so it's been a long ways, but it has been incredible.
Speaker 1Already we have a lot coming up. We'll share more in the coming days about how God's using this trip to both impact our hearts. One of the most beautiful things is we get to see God moving. Amen, and I talk about it all the time on the podcast. Why does God bless us? Why does he make his face shine on us? It's so that through us, he can be a blessing to those around us, and so today, if you're listening.
Speaker 1If this has been fun, encouraging, we'd love to hear from you. But more than anything, we want you to draw near to the Lord and be a blessing to those who he sends you to. So that's your task Go and be a blessing. Have a wonderful day. God bless. We be a blessing. Have a wonderful day, God bless. We are so thankful that you joined our podcast today. We would love to hear any feedback you may have for us. Remember Psalm 67 says may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us, so that your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all nations. Don't forget why the Lord blesses us it's so that we can be a blessing to those around us. Until next time, God bless.