Terry Simpson

Leaving Africa is difficult and joyous, as you would probably imagine.  We are incredibly blessed to spend a lot of time with some very special people and the friendships that get created are very deep, even though the length of our stay isn't that long.

This picture is one of the thousands of counselors we recruit in preparation for the Great Gospel Festival.  Part of aLn’s mission is to “win the lost” and the primary tool for achieving this is the Great Gospel Festival.  But we don’t just spread the word and leave.  The months of planning between Corey, our East African team, and the local pastors in the towns we are invited to be in are all about finding new believers through the message BUT then making sure that the new believers receive the tools they need to pursue their faith. 

Tonight, David, Papa Mac (Corey's dad) and I left with our new friend, Pastor Johnson, to return to his orphanage to meet more of the kids, pray with them, and share stories. It was such a joy to meet them all and sit in their living room for a while and they were very happy that we returned from our quick stop the previous night.

We spent all afternoon with a local pastor visiting schools, orphanages and trekking deep into the Kabale bush to minister to the poorest of the poor.

What an awesome way to spend my birthday!

We awoke and had a decent breakfast and then departed for the orphanages to deliver the crayons, coloring books, markers and supplies.

After a strange wakeup call from a crazy African buzzard, I had a great morning of preaching and promoting the festival at three different churches.  The services in Uganda are filled with passion and the choir singing is awesome.  After a lot of protocol and waiting for our moment, we were called to give a brief sermon and discuss the upcoming gospel festival.   My message was simple:  Christianity is a verb...

Just landed in Kigale, Rwanda after a very good flight.  Considering my last trip home in January took 47 hours, i was ecstatic that this trip only took 20.

It's Friday, July 1st and we are preparing to leave for the airport shortly...It's always a mix of emotions as I contrast the excitement of traveling to Uganda to see our great partners in East Africa and help a needy nation with the pain of leaving my wonderful family.  God never promised it would be easy!  Mission travel like this definitely makes you realize how important family is.  Next stop: Uganda

We left late to go to the festival site for day 3, we were feeling down because for the 3rd day in a row, Rose Muhando is missing and our books for new believers are lost at sea. After Dana announced these 2 setbacks to the crowd, he then got up and gave the most powerful sermon I have ever heard in my life.

 
Randy and i visited an orphanage about 10km east of Gisenyi this morning and it was a very powerful experience.