On the Way Home

I've not been able to get online since Sunday afternoon your time. I'm now at Heathrow Airport in London. I've been traveling 24 hours so far on my journey home!

Here's a brief update. On Monday, we ministered to pastors again at a pastor's conference in one of the refugee camps. I opened it up for a time of questions and answers, and we had a lively time! Questions ranged from how to stand when it looks like your prayers are not being answered, to what to do when you are older and can't read the small print and feel really tired by still have the preach in you, to questions about marriage and family issues and even about the meaning of Revelation 12! They were greatly encouraged and felt the love we had for them. We fed these pastors every day of the conference, which was Thursday through Monday! Staving bellies have a hard time hearing what you're saying.

Monday afternoon we held another evangelistic crusade in yet another refugee camp. We stopped on the way to pick up several large bags of food for the pastors at the camp to distribute. We bought enough to feed 1000 people. They were overjoyed!

I preached in this crusade. We have thousands in attendance. We were encircled by people on all sides. I preached on being ready for death, on the reality of heaven and hell and the after life, and the coming judgment for those who do not know Christ. It's hard to count them all, so I will say that well over 2000 people were saved! We had a time!

After some brief exhortation for those who were saved to pray and attend a church in the refugee camp, I ministered briefly on healing and offered prayer for the sick. God's compassion is very real in these settings, and when you preach, you can feel His presence so strongly! As I offered a mass pray for healing, God's power swept through the place and hundreds raised their hands to testify of being healed! It was just amazing. They jumped for joy! We had time for only a few testimonies of healing and had to leave so we would have time to cross the border to get to our hotel in Rwanda.

On Tuesday we visited a Pygmy tribe in one of the refugee camps. We bought enough food on the way to feed this tribe of a thousand or so for 1 full week! They did not know we were bringing food. The important thing to note here is that Pygmies are looked upon as the scum of the earth, even in a refugee camp. And they get the last morsels of any food distributed. When they saw the food we brought, they danced and danced for joy.

A news reporter from a Nairobi paper tagged along with us for this trip to the Pygmies, and was thrilled to see what we do. He also writes for the LA Times. He told us he would send us a copy of his article on what we were doing in the camps.

We hurried from the Pygmies to a University in the center of Goma. There, Bruce delivered 400 Bibles in Swahili and French. The students were very appreciative.

We left on our long journey home your time on Wednesday at 2:00 AM.

I'll be home at 4:10 pm on Thursday! Thanks for praying for us. We were alerted that fighting broke out again in Goma on the Tuesday night before we left. Please pray for these people, that the violence would be stopped, and that peace would return to this troubled town in Congo!

I'll post some pics of my trip when i get back to the States!