Yesterday Pastor Larry arrived safely in Nairobi, the first of several VRBC leaders heading to Africa this week to seek God's vision for potential partnership opportunities in Kenya and Sudan. Larry will spend the first few days with VRBC-supported missionary Tom Stickney, the director of African Christian Outreach (ACO). ACO is a ministry begun by Tom's parents to disciple Kenyan college students, and under Tom's leadership the ministry has expanded to involve the discipled students in community development ministry and global missions in other countries. Above you can see Larry teaching at an orphanage, one of the community development sites where the ACO students regularly serve.
Today (Feb 2) VRBC leaders Todd Szalkowski, Landa Parker, and John and Deirdre LaNoue depart for South Sudan, and Larry will join them en route tomorrow night in Uganda. The team will do evangelism, church planting, worship under a tree, and microfinance visits with e3 in South Sudan from Saturday through Monday. Tuesday they begin their trek back to Kenya, where Wednesday they will hop on another flight to visit schools and foster care ministries with Buckner International. VRBC leader / Buckner staff Jeff Jones will join them at this point in their trip. Thursday night they return to Nairobi; Pastor Larry begins the long flight home to preach on Sunday, while the rest of the group spends that weekend with Tom and ACO, visiting a college campus and then teaching at a leadership development conference for key students in ACO's ministry.
The trip obviously entails a LOT of travel and a lot of ministry. Please cover this group in prayer.
- Pray that God would multiply their rest and refresh their spirits as they make the most of their time in Africa.
- Pray also that God would give them wisdom and discernment as they visit ministries and churches and seek God's vision for VRBC's future partnerships in Kenya and South Sudan. Pray that they would identify ways that we could partner (1) in love, prayer and online communications to equip leaders across the distance, (2) through funding key projects that are capably led by African Christians, and (3) through opportunities that might require our presence and give us a chance of in-person relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters in Kenya and South Sudan.
- Pray for the actual ministry they will do on the trip--for effective evangelism, for powerful teaching, that the Holy Spirit would use whatever they do to bring people to Christ and to strengthen and equip the believers in Kenya and South Sudan.
- Finally, pray that their visit itself would serve as an encouragement to our mission partners in that country. Pray that they could share the love of Christ and of VRBC, that they could encourage and strengthen the believers there, and that even in the short time allotted they could build lasting relationships that would bring glory to God and be a witness to others.
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