Last week a post over at Sneakers and Books caught my attention, Nader was highlighting a BBC “Extreme Pilgrim” program featuring Fr. Lazarus Saint Anthony.  Back in the summer of 2000, I got to spend several weeks with Fr. Lazarus on a mission trip to Kenya and Tanzania.  At that time he was serving as a monk priest in Musoma, Tanzania.  At first he came off to our mission group as a strict ascetic , but as time passed, we all warmed up to him and looked forward to hearing his stories and wisdom at our nighttime gatherings.

Thanks to Mixahl at OrthodoxFathers.org for finding the video.

Happy Thanksgiving!  While we are are on the subject of giving thanks, I am going to highlight this wonderful campaign, Advent Conspiracy, that is working to bring back the true meaning to Christmas.  The vision: Christmas was meant to change the world. It still can. Worship more. Spend less. Give more. Love all.

Watch the video, it hit home with me and I am sure it will for you. This season is a wonderful time to think about how I can give more to those who have less.

This summer my wife and I will be joining a group touring the Northeast, Canada and California visiting churches to learn about the gifts and talents God has given each of the churches and how they are used for His glory. We hope to take what we have learned and share them with the church as a whole. Please keep this tour in your prayers. More details on the tour blog:

Coptic Learn & Share

“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His Harvest.” - Luke 10:2

Coptic Hospital in Nairobi

Do you have a medical degree or experience in Hospital administration?

With the mission of providing the best quality care to those who otherwise could not access it, the Coptic Hospital offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient care, including specialized services.

Hope Center for Infectious Diseases

Do you have management experience?
Are you interested in fighting the AIDS epidemic in Kenya?

The Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases has initiated fully comprehensive and free HIV/AIDS management to over 8,000 clients. Treatment includes delivery of comprehensive care services in the form of 3 sessions of adherence counseling, nutritional counseling, social work services, clinical monitoring for complications and semi-annual lab-testing.

Do you want to use your skills and talents to serve those who are in need?
If interested, please send your résumé to jobs@copticmission.org.

December 28 - January 4: Tanzania

Ministry in Tanzania is tough. We’ve been to Tanzania several times before and its always been tough.

Tanzania is primarily a Muslim country, at least by name. The Muslim prayers and sermons are prayed/spoken over the speaker system for the whole country to hear them. Tanzania is also paralyzed by witchcraft. Many people believe and go to witch doctors and believe that curses have power over them.

Somehow, every time we go to Tanzania, the group of missionaries with us feels sick and tired. They struggle to wake-up in the morning. They struggle to stay awake during the day. They don’t have energy to do the work that needs to be done. They can’t stay awake during our evening devotional time together. Somehow, everyone in the group feels week.

Language is another stumbling block in Musoma, Tanzania. It is very rare to find someone in Musoma, Tanzania that speaks English. Primary schools in Tanzania don’t teach English and most people don’t make it to Secondary school. Of all the deacons in the Tanzania church, only one knew English well enough to translate and he was out of town the entire time we were in Tanzania except for the last few days. When he came back, he had his fiancée with him and was pretty busy with her.

But somehow, He “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20) Some examples:

• On the 29th, we planned to go and do visitations/market preaching around the church compound, but we didn’t have anyone who could translate for us. We prayed and waited at the entrance of one of the homes in the church compound. All of a sudden a very young boy shows up and starts speaking close to perfect English with us. He mentioned that he had just come to greet Bishop Paul and us. His mom used to teach at the school that we used to operate in Tanzania. We asked if he was free for the day and he said that he was. God had answered our prayers! We collected the deacons, prayed and headed out for visitation/market preaching.
• On the same day, shortly after we began the visitation/market preaching, a teenage boy began speaking to us in perfect English. We asked him who he was and from where he recognized us. He said that he was a deacon at the church. We asked him to join us for a day of visitation/market preaching and he agreed. We split into two groups, one with they young boy and the other with the teenage boy. We spent the day doing visitations/market preaching and returned back to the church with little hope that there was much fruit because people were pretty resistant. When we arrived, we told Bishop Paul about the teenage boy that we met. Bishop Paul told us that there was no such deacon in the Tanzania church and we never saw either of the boys again. Only God knows who they were. God must have arranged for them to meet us and freed them to go with us!
• Shortly after we returned from the visitations, one of the boys that we had visited came and brought two of his friends with him to the church. We spent sometime speaking with us. He and one of his friends came and spent New Year’s Eve with us in overnight prayers. He and his friend stopped by the church every other day thereafter. His friend also brought his family member to the hospital.
• One of the visitations that we did on the same day was to a Muslim family. We visited a widow, her children, and her mother. Her brother showed up shortly into the visit. She knew a little bit of English. Her brother knew a little bit of Arabic. The fact that he knew Arabic scared us at first because it meant that he was probably actively involved in Mosque activities and may even have some Middle Eastern background. We spoke with them for a while first to get to know them and their family, then we asked if we could share a message from the Gospel with them. They hesitantly agreed, but the brother indicated he had to leave because he had to be at work shortly. We said our goodbyes to him and shared the Gospel message with the rest of the family. We invited them to the church and prayed for them. We had little hope that the message we spoke had any impact because the grandmother began to joke about her daughter finding a husband before joining any church and if she finds a husband at the church then she could convert. Little did we knew … the next day the brother came to the church and invited us to his home to share the Gospel there, the widow came to the hospital, was treated, and visited with us…
• On the 2nd, we planned to go visit in one of the areas that has church members, but is a little distant. It was the only area, we still had not visited during our time in Tanzania. Things were busy in the church compound as we were trying to finish all the details related to the Coptic Medical Center and the Doctor’s apartment in preparation for our departure. Everyone was working around the compound, but we knew that God wanted us to go visit the area. Once again, we prayed for a translator. The deacon that was suppose to come first thing in the morning to translate for us still had not shown up at 4:00 PM. Around 4:15 a young man who finished secondary school and knew English perfectly well walked into the church. He was a church member, but not a deacon, and we were not expecting him. We asked him, if he could spend some time with us visiting the area we still had not visited. He gladly agreed. We drove to the area hoping to meet up with some of the church members. We knocked on one door and no one was home. We went to another home and the owner said that the members in the area did not have a fellowship meeting that day and were not prepared to meet with us. At that point, we weren’t sure what to do. We stopped and prayed and asked God what He wanted us to do. We knew he had sent us the translator for a purpose, but now, we needed to understand what that purpose was. After our time of prayer, the translator suggested we go to the market and preach there. We arrived at the market to find approximately 25 men sitting around talking and joking. We joined them and asked if we could introduce ourselves and share the Gospel with them. They agreed. While we were sharing the Gospel with them, the group continued to grow. By the end of our sharing there was approximately 75 men there. They were engaged and had a lot of educated questions for us, some of which caught us by surprise (Why do you worship on Sunday? How do we know you don’t worship Sunday? The Bible says, if our eyes cause us to sin, we should pluck them out, should we really pluck our eyes out?). We spent at least an hour, if not more, with them. We answered their questions and invited to come and visit the church and medical center. Some of the men followed us to the car and continued to ask us questions. After the tough questions and because of the distance (about one hour walking), we weren’t confident that anyone would come. The next morning 4 of the men had walked more than hour to come and visit us at the church.

These are just two of the days we spent in Tanzania. We saw God do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20) each and every day in Kenya and Tanzania. “…To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20).

I hope to share with you how He worked “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” (Ephesians 3:20) in our own lives sometime in the near future.

When we arranged the dates of the trip and Sherry’s new job we knew it was right around our five year wedding anniversary. We planned to return to the U.S. on January 11 and take a family and/or anniversary vacation after we return. We weren’t quite sure how things would work out financially, considering I would not be paid for more than two months and I would only be paid for the vacation time he had accrued. We didn’t really know what would come of it, but we prayed about it and trusted that God would do what is best for us.

We would check on our bank account every couple weeks from Africa, just to make sure the mortgage and monthly bills would clear. We got to a point where we weren’t quite sure we would clear the January or February mortgage and we thought for sure we wouldn’t be able to take any vacation. We prayed and trust God with the situation. We put our desire before God and submitted ourselves to His will. We said…this is what we would like God (a special five year anniversary vacation celebration), but your will, not ours because we know you have the best plan for our lives… Little did we know what God had in store for us!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had to change our tickets so that we leave from Dar El Salem instead of Nairobi. We wanted to leave on January 5 because that was the same day that Bishop Paul and the rest of the missionaries that were with us were leaving. British Airways told us they didn’t have any flights that we could take until January 7. A friend who was helping us change the reservation from the U.S. told us that they didn’t have any flights that we could take until January 7. But we wanted to get home…what were we going to do by ourselves in Dar El Salem for two week days? We didn’t know anyone there. There was no church there. When we arrived in Dar El Salem, we saw a sign at the airport that said British Airways was flying directly from Dar El Salem to London on the 5th in the morning. We were really excited! We would get to leave with everyone! We asked at the airport about the flight and they didn’t know anything about it. We called our friend in the U.S., who is a travel agent. He said that the the status of that flight was undeterminable and there was no information on the flight because it arrives at Dar El Salem after it stops in Nairobi. At that point we realized, we had no choice. We would be stuck in Tanzania until the 7th. We prayed and asked God what he wanted us to do for the two days in Tanzania.

We remembered having a conversation with one of the priests in Kenya and he mentioned that he would love to take a relaxing vacation to Zanzibar. So we said…why not? Let’s research Zanzibar… After everyone else left for the airport, we sat at the hotel and researched hotels in Zanzibar after praying that God make His will clear by either opening or closing the door for us to go. We began calling hotels in the order they were listed on trip advisor…booked, booked, booked…until we got to the seventh or so hotel and they said they had availability. Before we started calling, I had looked at that hotel and said we would never go there because the sandy white beach was a short drive away and not on the property. But God had different plans, and what amazing plans they were. It was the most beautiful hotel, location, and beach we’ve ever stayed at in our life. It was an amazing five year anniversary gift from God. See for yourself…

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…” Ephesians 3:20

This is only one silly worldly example of how God always does exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. I hope to post more about how we saw God’s hand at work exceedingly abundantly above all that we asked or thought in our lives and in the ministry during our trip.

By the grace of God we have safely returned from an amazing two month mission in East Africa. Originally we had planned to split our time between Kenya and Zambia but God had other ideas. Bishop Paul showed up at the mission station in Maseno, Kenya on December 23rd and asked us to stay an extra week in Kenya and postpone our ticket to Zambia from the 24th of December to January 2nd. We spent the week transitioning over projects we had started and work on to longer term missionaries that had just returned from furlough and preparing for an upcoming international conference on evangelism. At the end of the week, the bishop suggested that we take a two day trip out to our mission station in Tanzania before heading out to Zambia. On December 28th, the day after general elections in Kenya, we drove to Musoma, Tanzania, a small town on Lake Victoria.

Sherry and I have previously visited the mission in Musoma in 2000 and 2005, both times we found that the devil was vigorously battling Christ’s work there and the mission was struggling. Thank God, two years ago, He led an amazing couple from Kenya to dedicate there lives to serve the people there. Father Joshua and his wife Pendo moved from Nairobi to Musoma and God through them has brought new life to the mission there. This new spiritual base in the mission has opened doors for the opening of a medical center and HIV/AIDS clinic.

Once we arrived in Musoma, we found the medical center still required quite a few finishing touches before opening for full scale public operations, so we dived in full force and started putting together equipment, hanging curtains, installing fans, etc. We tried to break away once a day and visit people in their homes to share the gospel. The day after we arrived we hear the news from Kenya that the sitting president has called the close election and had himself sworn in for another term. The popular opposition party cried foul and called the people to protest which unfortunately turned into violent rioting.

For the next week, we prayed for Kenya and planned every night to leave the following morning, hoping that the riots would cool down. We were getting reports of roads blocked by marauding gangs who would throw rocks at vehicles and then burn them. Shops and gas stations were set ablaze in Kisumu, the opposition stronghold that is located next to our mission station in Maseno. During the days we continued work on the clinic and began visiting the marketplace where we would preach to large groups of men and women, sharing the gospel and advertising the new medical center as well. Things in Kenya didn’t get better and the Bishop wanted to attend Orthodox Christmas (January 7th) in Nairobi so I hid the SUV in the church and we hopped on a bus to Mwanza, a lakeside city in Tanzania, and caught a flight to Dar al Salaam from there.

We met with some of the Coptic believers in Dar el Salaam (there isn’t a church or mission station there yet), the bishop gave them a bible study at night and in the morning we celebrated the liturgy in the hotel room together. From there we parted ways with the bishop and the rest of our group. They flew back to Nairobi while we stayed in Tanzania because we had rerouted our flight to the USA so that it leaves from Dar al Salaam to Johannesburg, London, then home.

Bishop Paul shared with us some inspirational bible studies which we hope to share with you here over the next couple of days.

My wife Sherry posted “A Day in the Mission” on CopticMission.org.

Read about the DC mission group in Zambia at MissionLifeCenter.org.

The latest photos from our mission trip to Kenya are up on Flickr.

Over the past few weeks, God has repeatedly delivered a specific message for me, via my bible reading, the books I have read and the people I have met. It stared with two Christian fiction books that I read on the flight from the US to Kenya, Blessed Child and A Man Called Blessed. Ted Dekker and Bill Bright use a suspense filled fictional story to illustrate what it means to have our hearts set on the kingdom of heaven. Christ summed this up perfectly in the following two parables from Matthew 13:44-46 (NKJV):

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Although the two parables are short, there is no mistaking Christ’s intentions - the kingdom of heaven must be our greatest object of desire. Too often the kingdom of heaven is only one of my desires, but not the greatest and without realizing it, I place my fleshly desires above that of the kingdom of heaven. I asked God to show me in a practical way what it means to have the kingdom of heaven as my greatest desire. As I spent time in His Word, these verses helped me gain greater understanding of what he wants from me.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. - Matthew 6:19-34 (NKJV)

After examining myself and what I “worry” about, I’ve found that I spend way too much time focusing on my comfort - eating, resting and relaxing and planning what I want to do rather than seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I need focus on what God wants me to do today.

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. - Mark 12:29-30 (NKJV)

The first of all the commandments has a few strong words, if I am to give God my all, that must mean that the worldly distractions must go. Considering that I work in the ministry, I am often able to rationalize my actions as part of the service wether it be eating out or socializing (outreach), watching TV (relevance to culture/material for videos), or surfing the net (research and keeping up with new technologies). When I look deeply into why I do some of these things, often it is because I want to do them instead of what God wants.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV)

This verse convicted me, I really need to start praying about what Christ’s personal vision for my life is. I don’t want to waste a single minute, so that I am running towards the prize with certainty. Also, I must start to cut back on my comfort crutches (candy, food, etc) that slow me down and distract me from the prize. Defining the vision and cutting back on my comfort crutches will be my focus for the current Advent fast. The nice thing about the mission here in Kenya is that there is plenty of time set aside each day to spend with God.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. - Philippians 4:8 (NJKV)

I am going to actively work on making sure that my thoughts throughout the day are focused upward. I’ll start with the challenge of going each day without complaining and I want to praise something new God has done each day (directly or through someone). I also want to start memorizing at least one verse a week and spend more time in praise and worship. Each night I will examine myself to see how I am doing.

Yesterday, in the liturgy, we read the Gospel where Jesus speaks to the rich young man:

Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” - Mark 10:17-31 (NKJV)

Seeing the contrast between the US and Kenya, one can’t help but think that my middle class life in the US isn’t far off from the life of the rich young man. I know that I strive to obey all the commandments but am I really willing to leave all that I have, take up my cross and follow Christ? At the mission, I see the lives of those who have truly left all in the literal sense to come and share Christ’s love among the Africans, they are an example and an inspiration to me. They work tirelessly to meet the spiritual and physical needs of the people without concern for their own needs. Please pray for the mission and Sherry and me. Glory to God for all things!

By the grace of God, Sherry and I arrived safely in Kenya yesterday.  We got some rest and attended a couples meeting in the evening.  Today, I am meeting with Junae Ndolo, the senior IT professional at the Coptic Hospital.  We are putting together a list of projects that we want to work on while I am here.  Here is the current draft:

1. Configure network to use OpenDNS - This will help resolve downtime issues with their ISP’s DNS servers and also allow for content filtering.
2. Helpdesk Solution - We will evaluate Spiceworks to see if it is a good fit for this environment.
3. Firewall Solution - They are currently using a Linksys router for a firewall, but they need more advanced features.  We are going to try out SmoothWall, but are also open for other suggestions.  Here are some of the things we are looking for:
• Fine grained inbound/outbound traffic rules.
• Restricting per user or machine bandwidth.
• Site to Site VPN
4. LTSP Upgrade - They are running several thin clients and old desktops off of a K12LTSP server, we are going to upgrade it to the latest version (or maybe test out Ubuntu’s LTSP implementation).
5. Design New Network Layout - Currently, they are operating on a single flat network and on one subnet using dumb switches.  We want to design a new segmented network and spec out how many managed switches will be needed.
6. Active Directory Plan - Authentication and Directory Services are not centralized, we want to come up with a plan for moving to Active Directory.

The fun part is that we will only be in Nairobi for a couple of days before heading out for the mission station in Maseno, Kenya.