Goma - Day 4

Short night, only about 4 hours sleep, but I started my day with P90X, which got by blood flowing.

Our schedule consisted of the seminar, which I was the guest speaker. We (well, Camille) contacted a Pastor from Heal Africa to come and translate for me. Not all the Pastor’s can speak French so Swahili needed to be the main language. Not many can translate from English to Swahili but this guy was good and passionate. Camille translates when going from English to French, but his Swahili is not good enough for speaking on that level.

The two main sessions went well, over 90 Pastors in attendance. God spoke to me and though me in such a freeing way. I spoke for over an hour at each sessions and the time seemed to fly by for me. I did not see anyone sleeping, so I think it went well for the listeners also. There was a pause café (coffee break) in between sessions and a workshop after the second sessions. There where 10 different groups who had predetermined questions to answer. They spent about an hour in there groups and then where fed lunch. After lunch each group reported their answers to the questions we asked. The two main questions were: Has the church fulfilled its roll in North Kivu? & Have Pastors fulfilled their roll in North Kivu? I was insightful hearing the answers as most said they have fallen short. One group referenced a passage I taught on in Ezekiel 34, talking about the self-serving shepherd. As this women presented her groups answers, there where a lot of sounds of agreement in the room. This time was followed by and boisterous time of prayer. It was a great day 1 of the conference. The pictures are from the conference and the picture of me is at the request of Patrick Peterman, who was with me in Goma earlier this year.

I got to drive right hand drive SUV today. It was tricky enough driving here, but now on the other side of the car I felt all out of balance. Fortunately, not incidents major or minor.

If you have any questions about what you have read, you can comment on the blog and I will get it. Your comment may not end up for public viewing, that’s my option.

Keep praying.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.