Up Country Crusade

April 23 2010
Hi again; I know, three blogs in a week, what’s going on!!??
An update on the CRIB kids with Malaria:
The 5 kids that have it are:
1. Kwizera - 80% - at home, seemingly not much improvement yet
2. Francois - 80% - hospital, much, much better today than when we visited him two days ago
3. Clavier - 50% - same as Francois
4. Claude - 70% - at home, improving
5. Jacob - 70% - wasn’t responding well to meds. at home, so he was admitted to hospital last night; looked better already today.
Keep praying for them please.
Honda has invited Isaac and myself  to preach at a crusade that he is organizing for up-country for Friday, April 30 - Sunday, May 1. Previous years there’s been about a thousand people in attendance. One evening “The Jesus Film” is being shown. On top of preaching two times (with a translator), we are likely to be involved in personal prayer ministry. We are very pumped about this weekend and can hardly wait to see how the Lord is going to advance His kingdom.
We will be in a very poor area; showers, if any, out of a bowl, behind some palm leaves. Bed - on the ground, with a straw “beach” mat is what will be provided, but praise Jesus, the day before we left Canada  I was getting a few last minute necessities at Superstore, and I for some reason (thank you Jesus) bought 3 thin camping mats that are a scant 1/2 of an inch thick, so that will be luxury compared to just the straw mat.
This year Honda wants to try and drive further than previous years so the hike up the mountain to reach our destination isn’t so long and strenuous. It’s in a very remote area, so to carry all the gear up is quite taxing; this includes a heavy generator to power the mics. and movie projector gear. We will also be bringing basic things like soap that will be given away. Thankfully, the sponsoring church sends guys down the mountain to meet us to carry the brunt of the load. Honda said last year a guy carried the generator on his head, whereas normally it takes two people to carry it!!
Please pray for Honda, Isaac, Colton and myself for a rich anointing, empowerment of the Word. Pray that the people will come hungry and expecting to meet with the Lord in a very intimate way. Pray for protection, both in transport and from the transference of evil, especially in personal prayer times, This is Africa, and as you probably know, witchcraft and occultism run many generations deep  in many people.  Just this past Sunday afternoon at a function in church we witnessed two women get delivered from the clutches of Satan. It took four people, three of which were men, to restrain one women. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom, insight, knowledge, understanding, discernment, an increase in faith, perseverance in prayer……
…….energy, good restful sleeps, tolerance of the food - I tend to lose my appetite once I start chewing on rocks or sand left in the beans; Isaac and Colton can generally resume eating after picking the extra roughage out. Some of the African cuisine is pretty awful. Seriously!! Sombe is very common - a cooked, mushy, deep green dish  which tastes like what I imagine fermented silage/grass clippings to taste like. Tiny fish with heads intact - bulging eyes and all, the infamous bugali - the maize type is not bad, almost entirely void of taste actually; it’s basically just mass to fill an empty stomach. However, the cassava bugali is awful - texture, taste…. Ugghh!!!  And we’re not very picky eaters. Honestly!! And thankfully!!
April 26
So… an accurate update, straight from Debbie the head teacher, on the school riots.
The group that came to Primary was much bigger than I said earlier; there were in fact about 500 secondary kids in that group. And they weren’t overly concerned about Primary, since it only goes to year 6. They’ve been out of school now for two months, and things seem to be at a stand still. The possibility of all the grades having to be repeated next year is looming very real on the horizon. Please continue to pray that this issue will be resolved in a peaceful manner.
Our internet connection, or lack thereof, is very problematic as of late. I go on Facebook for a bit when I go online to see what’s happening in our friends’/families’ lives, and once I try to email the connection usually cuts off. The norm lately is that it automatically disconnects every few minutes, which is so time consuming with the system that we have here, to constantly log back on. This is very frustrating - please pray for better internet connections.
We thank you for your support in prayer.
April 27
As long as I can’t post this blog because of internet issues, I’ll just continue it.
All the CRIB kids are well on their way to recovery from malaria; everyone’s out of hospital, one’s back at school already, the rest are just basically regaining their strength. Malaria takes a lot out of a person. Thank you so much for your prayers for these kids. Love and blessings to you, our family and friends.