Sunday 13th
This was probably the most extraordinary and memorable Lord's Day I have had in Africa, and I have had many! It started off fairly normally - a powercut through the night resulted in no airconditioning or fan which made it quite difficult to sleep. There was also no internet restored before I left the hotel at 9, having enjoyed the usual breakfast and had some time for final preparation - both of self and sermon.
Caleb collected us and drove us to AIC's Town Church in Adjumani for the morning service. We were greeted by the familiar and welcoming faces of Bishop Tito, who had returned from Gulu for the day, and Pastor Joseph Gama, one of the conference organisers and the senior pastor of this congregation. A few others who had been at the conference were also there. It wasn't a large congregation - perhaps around 60 - and there were also, for the first time in this trip, three Muzungus present. Muzungu is the Swahili word for white person. These were AIM missionaries, though I had not met them previously.
The first significant element of this service was the fact that, at very short notice, and due to a number of clearly God-ordained circumstances that I won't weary you with, included in the service was to be the ordination of Santos, a brother serving in Arua and who had been a faithful attendee at the conference. He is originally from this area and was to be ordained as a Minister in AIC, with Bishop Tito present to do the necessary. At the appointed time, now clothed in his bishop's regalia, he invited Santos to come forward and answer a whole series of questions put to him by the Bishop. He was then asked to kneel and the other AIC ministers present gathered around him to lay hands on him and, quite unexpectedly, I was asked to join them! I am apparently now considered as an honorary minister of AIC South Sudan. Wow, what a joy and privilege!
These believers take rituals and symbols very seriously, in the very best way, and so having answered all the questions, and kneeling in front of the other Ministers, Santos was fitted with his clerical collar and given a red gown; what we in UK would once have called a preaching, or Geneva gown, but not nearly as colourful as this one. Then, even more surprisingly for me, I, of all those present, was invited to pray the ordination and commissioning prayer for this dear man of God. I confess it took me a few moments to gather my thoughts as I asked the Lord to give me the right words to say. Each of the Ministers then warmly embraced Santos and assured them of their love and prayers. I know these men too well to think that they asked me to do this because I was the Mzungu; I cherish the fact they asked me out of genuine love and respect. Santos told me afterwards that he believed his ordination had been postponed, in the providence of God, from the original date earlier in the year until today, so that I could be present.
By now, the service has already run for over two hours and the preacher hasn't even got going! So, while they sing some praise, I take the opportunity for a quick toilet break in advance of preaching. By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with African church services, there is always a considerable amount of coming and going by various people and it is not in the least disruptive, so my disappearance will not have raised any eyebrows. If you don't mind me saying so, you can't expect a man of my age to sit through all of this and then preach on a full bladder.
I need to explain the context of the second extraordinary aspect of this service. Often in church here, visitors are asked to stand and introduce themselves and bring greetings. One of the small handful of people who were visiting this morning was a lady called Mary, who turned out to be the Manager of the conference centre we had been using this past week and where some of the delegates had been staying. She said she was not a church goer but was intrigued by what she had heard - my loud voice! - and seen over these past days and so had asked some of the delegates if they would bring her to church.
I then preached from Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-15 with the very unimaginative title of 'Look and Live!' My three points were The snakes on the ground, The snake on the pole, and The Saviour on the cross. Why am I so much better as a preacher in Africa? I say that entirely to the glory of God, but I had such freedom, use of appropriate illustrations and unprepared Scriptural references. Mind you, it was exceptionally hot in the church, around 40+ degrees and with no fans operating, and yet even dressed in my newly gifted African shirt rather than a shirt and tie I was extremely hot. At the close of the sermon, Bishop Tito asked if anyone present wanted to repent and commit their lives to Christ; something that is not commonly done in my experience. Guess who came forward? Mary from the conference centre, publicly, before the congregation, confessing her need of a Saviour and trusting Christ for salvation. As the Bishop remarked, there was great celebrations in heaven at that moment. I must confess, as I prepared and prayed for this conference, it never occurred to me to pray that God might use it to the salvation of someone.
An interesting and humorous followup to this happened as some of us enjoyed lunch together afterwards. As ever, as they say here, the church people had prepared "a small amount of water" for the guests, by which they mean a good meal. We sat out in the shade of some trees and ate well. As we chatted, Pastor Joseph reminded me that during the conference, as we spoke about the length of sermons, I had made the comment that my average time preaching was 42 minutes, and very, very rarely preached more than 45, though it has been known to happen. Apparently, he had decided to time me this morning and, including the help of a translator, I preached for 41.5 minutes. He was very amused.
Having had a relaxed lunch, we began our long journey south to Kampala, grateful for the careful driving of Caleb as he negotiated the usual hazards of African driving, and after 9.5 hours on the road, I was dropped back at the Adonai Guesthouse at 11.45pm.
What struck me one the journey south, especially as for the last 4 hours we drove in darkness, was that every town we went through was bustling and busy. Rows of small shacks and shops lined the main road through each town, and there were crowds of street vendors and traders until late into the night. Even driving through the countryside between communites there are people walking along the side of the road in the dark. Coming into the suburbs of Kampala at around 11pm, it was as noisy and busy as a rush hour! Extraordinary.
For the first time on this trip, because of lack of internet access, I had spent a whole day without any contact with Caroline, so sent her a quick message before I turned in, knowing she would get it as soon as she awoke.
Saturday 12th
I have to admit the day didn't get off to the best of starts! I had a fairly sleepless night because of a powerful thunderstorm that rolled on right overhead for about 2 hours from midnight. Then, from about 2-4, there was loud, amplified music and shouting going on somewhere near by, and just as the music stopped the cockerels started, even though it doesn't get light until about 6.30!! I was still awake at 5 and woke up again at 6.45 which is ridiculously late for me here. The power went off at about midnight and for some reason didn't come on again until about 7.30., but I survived and managed a quick nap in the afternoon as becomes someone of my age.
Today was “the last day the feast, the great day” (John 7:37) and it definitely, in a good way, had a sort of celebratory, end of term feeling about it. Numbers were a little reduced because some folk had already had to leave because of travelling distances and circumstances, but there was no dilution in the enthusiasm and appetite of those remaining.
Bishop John was responsible for the closing devotions, and brought a great message of encouragement to persevere, based on 2 Timothy 4:7-8. My final ministry session followed the ‘breakfast’ break and, having spent the week encouraging the delegates to pray, based on The Lord’s Prayer, I wanted to give them a final encouragement by reminding them of The Lord’s Praying in Hebrew 4:14-16. It was one of those occasions when, without any collusion on the part of the preachers, the two messages by the two Johns perfectly complimented one another.
Folowing the minstry there was an extended time of praise and worship, with the usual blend of open prayer when all pray together out loud, exuberant singing and some very powerful, more reflective, praise. In fact, they sang one of the most moving renditions of 'I surrender all' I have ever heard. There was then an hour when folk were generally milling around before lunch. In the midst of all this, I observed one young Pastor, a very thoughtful and serious man I had met during the week, as he sat on his own, in the middle of the crowd, quietly singing and prayng with his eyes closed for the best part of 40 minutes.
After lunch it was back to the hotel for an afternoon of rest and final preparation for preaching tomorrow, and then this evening I enjoyed a very relaxing evening meal with the four Kongis and Pastor Francis. And so to bed, and I am praying it will be more peaceful than last night!
PS. I have just realised I haven't shareed with you, as promised, some exciting plans we are formulating for building on this week and going foward. I will do so in the morning if I have time before breakfast, church and travel.
Friday 11th
The day started slightly differently. I didn't sleep well, mainly becuase my brain wouldn't switch off for various reasons and I had too much to think about. One of the things that was preoccupying me was the fact that I wasn't as well prepared for my morning session as I would like to have been . All week, as I have been training them to preach, I have been stressing to need for good and full preparation, so I decided this was a good teaching opportunity! Instead of heading in with the Kongis for the usual 8.30 devotions and recap slot I stayed behind in my room for an extra hour to do some further preparation. I also sent my apologies to Bishop Clement for missing his devotions. Then Caleb kindly came back for me in time for the 9.30 'Breakfast' slot. After that, I began my session by explaining the reason for my late arrival which had, of course, been noted, and teaching point made! Of course, you don't always get the chance for an extra hour of prep, especially at that late stage, but it helped to underline the seriousness of being prepared to preach.
My afternoon session was focussed on Preaching Christ from the Old Testament; but inevitably, given I only had an hour, it was a basic introduction. I emphasised the fact that any faithful sermon will point people to Christ; an idea that was clearly new to some of these good folk. The two areas I introduced them to was that of the 'types' in the Old Testament, and the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ as "the angel of the Lord". There was real excitement as reflected in the recap session on Friday morning.
That was a great teaching point for me, in this regard. I have experienced this in previous seminars in Africa but it was refreshing to re-experience it here. When you teach these folk something new from Scripture, they receive it with open hearts, with both hands, and without question. So often, in a UK context, people will raise doubts and questions and objections, usually - at least in my experience - because it contradicts or challenges some false ideas they have been exposed to. Here it is like sowing seed into virgin soil and they lap it up and delight in it. Now, believe me, I fully realise, that is an immense responsibility on the teacher's part, but it is also an immense privilege.
One of the huge challenges for these folks is that most of them have no training at all to teach and preach and lead their churches. One or two of them have done one or two seminars, while one or two others have done a fairly basic Bible study course; but for many of them there has been nothing, and it has been a huge joy to watch their faces as they drink in the little I have been privileged to bring them this week. But it is but a drop in a vast ocean of need and tomorrow I will tell you what my thoughts are as I go forward from here.
I wish you could meet these dear saints. I am struck by how young they are - and that's not just because I am old! They are pastoring and leading churches in refugee settlements and small towns, as well as in cities like Juba, Kampala and Adjumani. One pastor I spoke with spent 3.5 years in prison becuase someone accused him of being involved in a murder, but he is thankful to God for the experience because now, as well as pastoring the church in the refugeee camp he has an open door to prison ministry and is leading many in prison to freedom in Christ.
So, there is just tomorrow morning left now for the conference, and we want to finish well. But I have also been talking with the church leaders about what comes next and I'll share some of that with you tomorrow.
Thank you, as ever, for your faithfulness in prayer.
Thursday 10th
I woke this morning to discover that it had been raining for some time, and still was; the first rain here since June, I am told. It stopped around 8am and by 10 you would never know it had been raining at all! It certainly made the first part of the morning pleasantly cooler, but by lunch time it was just about as hot as it has been for the past several days.
Having told you yesterday that I never take the full 90 minutes of the first session, I came close to doing so today. I was speaking on, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors", and spent quite some time unpacking the full significance of that. It clearly struck a chord because following the subsequent discussion session and then feedback to the whole group, the questions came thick and fast about the personal and pastoral implications of the teaching and even how it played into church discipline related matters, and we overran the pre-lunch session by 30 minutes. It was a very stimulating time of digging into Scripture for the answers to the questions raised and I hope will prove to have been really profitable for the churches represented.
This afternoon in the Preach The Word session I was majoring on the need for a clear strcture in sermon construction and then gave the groups a couple of exercises to work on. The results were encouraging, considering that the concept was almost certainly new to the majority of these folk, The point I was trying to get over was that there is no point in putting a lot of effort into your sermon preparation if you then deliver it in a way that doesn't maximise receptivity and impact. I am convinced they got the point and will take it away to develop further.
Something that really struck me today - and I share this to God's glory - is the liberty I have when preaching to and teaching these saints, especially as evidenced in my ability to use words, cultural references and illustrations they will be very familiar with, even drawing from conversations had this week. It is, of course, the fruit of many years of engagement with South Sudanese believers, as well as Christians from the wider African context, and I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me this privilege which is, I believe, bearing fruit in ministry to them.
Another blessing has been the fact that on this trip, for the first time, I have had the use of a mobile phone with texts, whatsapps and all the other things that are part and parcel of our everyday lives. I didn't have this on my last trip to South Sudan all those years ago. Of course, most of the folk here have mobile phones, albeit quite old ones (as is mine, by the way!) and I now have all their whatsapp numbers! This has meant I have been able to keep closely in touch with Caroline at home, both through messages and video calls, and on Tuesday I was delighted to be able to connect with her on a whatsapp video call at the beginning of one of the sessions and get the conference folk to greet her in person by filming them over my shoulder.
We have just a day and a half left of the conference and already my mind is turning to how we build on this vital training these folk are receiving. I am so pleased that my colleague Ramon, EBC's Principal, has enthusiastically agreed to make free tuition to anyone here that is commended by their church leadership, so that's a privilege. Also, I am giving thought to working on a video based training course for preachers, along with study guides that these folk and others can easily access,, and so not only be trained better themselves but also, hopefully, use the resources to go on to train others. I have been discussing this with the leaders here and would value your prayers for the Lord's clear leading.
I am, as ever, thankful to Timothy for taking photos during the conference and you can find them all 999
Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th
My Apolgies for not getting an update posted yesterday, but I simply didn't have a chance. Thank you, though, for your prayers and the messages of encouragement received. Today has been Day 3 of the Conference and it just gets better and better. Let me give you a feel of how the day's programme goes.
I am so grateful for the blessing of this hotel on the edge of the town and just 5 minutes' drive from the conference centre. It's more than comfortable, it's cool and relaxing, and I am generally sleeping very well. I have learned, especially as I get older, to accept some of these what might be seen as luxuries in order to be able to give my best, and, anyway, this provision was at the suggestion and gift of my hosts.
After breakfast, Caleb Kongi collects his parents and me and gets us to the conference centre for an 8.30 start. Most folk are already gathered and are bgeinning to worshp. For the next 45 minutes or so, there is singing, a time of open prayer, and a devotional which is led by one of the delegates. The singing is a mixture of exuberant and expressive worship and some more reflective songs which I find extremely moving to listen to. I have attached some files to the Day 3 album on the Flickr site. The open prayer is powerful; everyone prays at the same time, quite loudly, and in several languages. The devotional is a good opportunity, apart from anything else, for me to get a sense of where folk are at with their preaching style and content. The last 15 minutes of this pre-breakfast session is given over to a recap of the previous day's ministry - not by me but from the delegates who are given a chance to share what they learned and what impacted them most. This is such a profitable exercise and one I find deeply encouraging and gratifying
Breakfast is from 9.30 - 10.00, with tea / coffee / chocolate / porridge provided along with different snacks. Today it was mandazis which I am familiar with from Kenya.
Session 1 for the day is from 10.00-11.30 which is Bible ministry from me though, believe it or not, I never take the full 90 minutes! I am working through Matthew 6:9-15 and what I call The Five Pillars of Prayer from 'The Lord's Prayer'. I am deliberately trying to preach in such a way as to give them an example of the principles I am teaching in the afternoon session. They are hugely attentive and keen, and taking copious notes. It's such a joy to preach in this situation and each day I have known great liberty.
From 11.30 - 1.00, there is a brief time of praise and then they break into discussion groups to talk through some questions I have set them to help them get more out of the teaching. It's wonderful to hear the buzz of all these voices engaged in this exercise, and then each group reports back to the whole group with their conclusions. Usually I am them asked to comment and add anything relevant.
Lunch is from 1.00-2.00 and we all walk about 100 yards along the road to a guest house complex where some of the delegates are living and where the ladies have been busy preparing good. Don't think of a UK guest house - see the pictures! Everyone gathers in clusters in places of shade; either on the verandah of a building or under the mango trees that are dotted around. I love being with these folk as they relax and joke and laugh with one another.
The second main session of the day is from 2.00-3.00 and my input here is giving teaching on how to prepare an expository sermon, a completely new concept to many, if not most, of them, but they are lapping it up and are clearly absolutely persuaded by my words. I have provided handouts for them so that they can make notes and take them away for future reference, and I have deliberately planned and structured things so that they will go away with loads of material that they can adapt and use in their own church situations. Many of these church leaders have no training whatsoever and the need is great, but no teacher ever had a more receptive and responsive group of students, I can assure you.
My teaching is followed by 30-40 minutes of group discussion, after which reports are given to the whole group. Then the final hour of the day is a time for Q&As to yours truly, and the questions tend to come thick and fast and reveal some great insightful thinking.
Then it's back to the hotel. A couple of times I have enjoyed a delicious meal in my room, but last night I ate with the delegates in the guest hose complex where we have lunch, eating in the dark and sharing good fellowship together.
The temperature here has been in the high 30s each day, maybe even around 40, and it certainly takes it out of you when you are on your feet and speaking for so much of the day, but that's what I came for and I have to admit that I have not found it as tiring as I expected. Ask me again at the end of the week!
I can't thank you enough for your prayerful support. Be assured that God is hearing and answering in abundance.
Monday 7th
I'm sure you know the feeling. For an extended period of time you look forward to some event and then when it actually takes place it turns out to be something of an anticlimax. Well, today, the first day of the Church Workers' Conference, has been in the diary, on my heart and lifted up to the throne of grace by countless believers for several months and I can assure you it was not an anticlimax!
The full number of those registered are not here yet for various reasons, partly because of travelling problems, or one or two folk having been unexpectedly detained at work. A group from Juba who were stuck at the border overnight arrived late morning and there were probably about 40 in all present today with some more expected tomorrow. One of the most pleasing things that I observed during the day was the joy and warmth of fellowship between these men and women who, in many cases, are meeting up with friends they haven't seen for years. I myself met with some folk I haven't seen for many, many years, and it has been sobering to remember that it is now 25 years since my first life changing and life shaping encounter with the Sudanese, and then South Sudanese, Church.
Through the day there have been outburst of exuberant, lusty singing and different church leaders have been leading. The delegates have all been reminded by their church leaders repeatedly that this week is an all too rare opportunity for ministry and training and fellowship and they should take advantage of every moment.
My first session today was on the first part of the Lord's prayer, and my second session an introduction to the importance and nature of expository preaching and the inital stages of preparation. What I particularly relished was the absence of a need for a translator and had great liberty as I preached and taught. We had arranged for there to be discussion groups after each session so that they could talk over what they had learned and then each group fed back to the main session the results of their discussion. The day closed with a Q&A session which was stimulating and encouraging.
Lunch was a very pleasant affair, taken under the shade of other premises just down the road from the main conference centre and where most of the delegates are staying. Meat and rice and vegetables were prepared and greatly enjoyed and these unstructured times are invaluable in an event like this.
Thank you so much for your prayers in the lead up to this conference and now for the conference itself itself. I can assure you that your prayers are being answered. One church leader said today that this conference will change the church. May it indeed be so for God's glory.
Many more photos, mostly taken by Timothy Kongi, will appear on my Flickr page: John Brand’s albums | Flickr
