Last week in Africa

It seems like my time in Africa this summer is drawing to a close. I want to thank you all for your prayers. This week we are closing out with a little bit of work on the Auto rebuild business, and then we are flying out on Thursday. I will be getting back to LA for debrief on Friday afternoon, Lord willing. Who knows what is going to happen on this trip.

Bakery snapshot

Here is a picture of the bakery that I have been working with this week. That is Ryan in the foreground for a little bit of scale. It is a tin shack with a lot of holes. It gets very cold inside, so much so that it takes almost an hour longer at night to bake the bread than it does during the day.

Hello everyone,
It has been a crazy week here in South Africa. Throughout the week I have seen the way often strange that God works. Originally EI started a data entry business here. After a few months the way the economy was going forced them to shutter the business. Through this experience the connections were opened to start a variety of other businesses in the area. Opportunities were opened even though the original business failed. The business the we were working with this week, the bakery, is a cool situation. The business itself is not very profitable, in fact it is losing money right now. The cool side is the fact that the lady who manages the bakery was saved, through the ministry of one of the CRM people in the area. In fact her mother, who everyone knows as Granny used to be a witch doctor, and she was saved through the same ministry. Through your prayers you have the opportunity to be involved in what is going on.

TIA(This is Africa)

Howdy Y'all,
Today we came face to face with the reality that we are working in Africa. South Africa may look a lot like the US, except that every house is surrounded by electric fence and razor wire but it is a lot different. The bakery has not been doing well because it has been having a hard time making sales. Today was a different problem. The bakery ran out of bread, and then the power went out. We were all ready to do our different tasks to begin to turn around the bakery but when we showed up today it was not going to be that easy. The electricity went out without warning, and nothing went according to plan...

To be continued...

Township and Bakery

Hello everyone,
The last two days have been good and intense. I got up yesterday morning and headed out to the bakery att 6Am. The bakery is literally in a tin shack about a quarter of the size of a tractor trailer. It is not exactly modern technology. It is a very small operation that sells around 90 loaves of bread a day. Next week we will be working in a variety of different ways to help expand that and make it more profitable. If the bakery is able to make a profit then other ministries in this area have a good source of funding. The cool thing for me is that I am getting a chance to use some of the things at McDonald's, so there is a good use for it after all.

Dubai

I didn't have the chance to tell you much about my experience in Dubai and what I said was a little bit cryptic because the government their monitors the internet. Basically, when I was there it really felt like God was happy to hear someone praying from there. I am not trying to make that doctrinally normative so please don't be concerned. I wanted to say though that compared to Morocco, which felt spiritually oppressive and dark Dubai felt different. I can't explain it any other way than that it was unsettled. It seems like something is going to crack there and that God will soon free that place from the darkness of Islam. I don't know what your eschatolical beliefs are, but I am convinced that Jesus came to save sinners and that when He rose from the grave he tool all the power and conquered death. Join with me and pray that God truly will lift the dark veil of Islam over that place and bring the power of his spirit on that place.

SA Day 1

This morning was an introduction to the area that we will be working. We were shown around the township this morning. It is a remnant of Apartheid, where the government more or less forcibly settled the majority of the Black Population(by the way in South Africa that is just what they say). It is an interesting place, but honestly not as bad as I expected. It is similar to a really rundown trailer park. To the Hartwickians I don't think that it will scare you that badly. To those of you in Tennessee it would be similiar to the back way down the hill. The sad part is not the living conditions but the fact that around 50% of the residents are Hiv-Aids positive.
Tomorrow I will start work around 6AM . I will be working with the bakery that is in the township and helping as they deliver bread and just beginning to get a feel for the business. Please keep me in your prayers and as I will explain in the following post begin praying for Dubai.

Airport

Hello everyone. I want to tell you of my horrible and incredibly blessed airport experience. I arrived at the airport and once again there was a problem with my booking. Through a turn of circumstances, (some call them coincidences others, particularly Mr. Ward call them God-incidences), I was once again stuck in the airport for `12 hours or so. I was upset, and a little put out(I think that is what you call it), but I knew that God was in control of the situation. During the time I was there I was able to spend some time alone with God in the word and in Prayer. That was a huge blessing. In the evening I also met a guy from Canada that had been serving with Campus Crusade in Malawi for the past two months. It was cool to experience the instant bond of being brothers in Christ. I arrived safely in South Africa in the wee hours of the morning.

more soon

So in Kenya we had to pay for the internet. Being the frugal person that I am I was trying to avoid spending as much money as possible. For this reason my posts were few and far between. Hopefully here in the land of the 2010 World Cup, (for those of you who are unfamiliar that is soccer) I will be able to keep you more updated on what the Lord is doing here.

Kenya Katchup

Hello Everyone,
I arrived here in Nairobi on Friday Morning. I had spent the previous 31 hours in the Dubai airport. It was an interesting time. The one thing that I couldn't help but think during my whole time there was that something big is about to happen there. It just felt as if even though this piece of the world is under that grip of Islam, God is about to bring His Kingdom there.
When I arrived in Kenya I hit the ground running. I was the last one there due to my flight delay, so when I got there the rest of my team had already had several meetings with contacts and local business leaders. I came right at the end of one in the morning and fifteen minutes later I was with the team heading out for a tour of Nairobi. Nairobi is a city of striking contrasts. There are amazingly wealthly parts, and others like Kibera, that are little more than shanty towns with sewage running through the streets. It is a beautiful city, but there is a lot of brokeness and a lot of darkness.
Friday afternoon, we met with our primary contact here, Judah and his associate Joseph. They are key leaders in the CRM affiliate here is West Africa. They were excited to have us here and especially with the prospect of a business being started that would help to fund their ministries. That is the main focus of the businesses that Enterprise International is involved with. They work to set up for profit businesses that provide funding for missionaries. This is a particularly important work in the Developing World, as sending a missionary out for a three year term can cost something in the $250,000 range, well out of reach of most churches in these economies.
Saturday was a day off and a chance to see a little bit of Kenyan culture. our group went to a museum charged with the preservation of the cultural heritage of the country. There we saw several different styles of villages as well as some examples of traditional dance.
On Sunday we had the great privilege of attending the Nairobi Baptist Church. I have never been in a church that big in my life. The people were very welcoming. It was great to be able to worship God with his children from another country. I think that a lot of times we need to remember that there are other Christians than the small circle that we know. God is working. His is moving and He doesn't lose.
We began to dive into our research of the tourism industry on Monday. We started the morning with an interview with Felix, a local speciality tour operator. From there we went to the tour operator's association and recieved information and contact information about a whole variety of tour operators. After lunch the team split up to meet some tour operators. My group didn't make any good contacts but the other group was pretty successful. Pray that we will continue to have doors open for us and that we will be guided to the right people.

LA afternoon

Hello y'all,
It has been a pretty intense morning here in LA. We surveyed some of the social entrepreneurship groups in the MacArthur park area of the city. We are now at the Innerchange office here and researching further contacts and connections in the section of the city.

LA Morning

Good morning. I spent the Night in LA. This morning I went for a run with John. It was really wild it looked like a South American city. All the shops have signs in Spanish and almost everyone is Hispanic. I am piggy backing with the LA team today as I wait for my flight to Kenya tomorrow. It should be pretty intense. I'll let you know how it goes.

California

Hello Everyone,
This is a photo of the front of the Mills house in the LA area. I have been in the Los Angeles area since Wednesday. I flew from JFK airport in New York City in the evening on Tuesday. I stayed with a wonderful family, the Mills, close to the headquarters of CRM and Enterprise International. There we had three intense days of orientation. I had the weekend off. This was nice because Saturday was my birthday. Today I went to church with the couple that is leading the LA internship. I am spending tonight and tomorrow with them and then I will be heading to the Airport for my 36 hours of travel to Kenya.
God has already blessed me so much on this trip. All my flights went perfectly and then I just felt like one of the family with the Mills. For all of my friends from the east coast I want to let you know that there are at least a few Christians in California.
Dwight

Preparation

Today it hit me. In less than two weeks I will be leaving for Africa. I wonder what the trip will hold for me. I desire to be used of God as I am there, and I also wonder how he will use "there" to shape me. God is truly amazing. The depth of His love for us is impossible to understand. He gave his Son to die so that the people that hated Him could live eternally and be saved from their own wickedness.
It is a anti-climax. The Savior of the world is dead. But here's the catch three days later some women went to the tomb and Jesus wasn't there. He got up and walked.
Jesus bore my sins in his body on the tree and then He came back alive. I am forever in his debt and that is why I am going to Africa, to bring Him Glory