Travel

Thinking about 2019

December 27, 2019 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Aurea with 2nd generation church planters she is training

Aurea, a 47-year-old woman and mother of 5, learned to plant a church. Kay and I taught Aurea and others in September 2018 in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Aurea says,

“The training has given me power to start church planting. I started with three persons in my house, but it has rapidly grown to 25 members. There have been difficulties and challenges but God has raised three leaders who will soon start second generation churches. My vision is to see churches planted everywhere in my area.”

Anita, a mother of eight, travelled 80 miles to attend the training. She returned to her home in Cogo and planted a growing church in this former center of the slave trade. Cogo is at the confluence of 3 major rivers that ships could easily reach from the Atlantic ocean.

After returning home, Anita began to share her faith using the Four Spiritual Laws and organized a showing of the Jesus Film with 45 watching and 13 making decisions to follow Christ.

Church building in Cogo, Equatorial Guinea on land donated by a new, 75-year old believer

Anita says,

“Cogo is a difficult area. Many people feel civilized because of the colonial influence, but their lives are empty. The people are into drunkenness and loose living. I came back from the training a changed person and was excited about teaching the word of God. One man who received Christ was 75 years old and controlled by smoking and drinking alcohol. He is growing in his faith and has stopped smoking and drinking. This transformed man gave us the land where we have started constructing a church structure.”

Map of Cogo, Equatorial Guinea — Map of Equatorial Guinea showing Cogo town.

Anita continues,

“Cogo is surrounded by rivers. A woman of 65 years received Christ with me but doesn’t live in Cogo. This woman paddles her canoe 10 miles to come to Cogo for fellowship with believers. She stays three days for church service and discipling then returns to her area to minister.”

This is why Kay and I train church planters to connect with the lost and to plant churches that multiply. This is why we develop training curriculum. This is why we develop digital technology tools to expand the scope and engage more people in the Great Commission.

Thank you for our partnership reaching an increasingly desperate world like the people of Equatorial Guinea with the life-saving message of Jesus.

Kay and I look forward to 2020. We will be training and coaching. We will be following Jesus into new adventures. We praise God for the privilege we had in 2019 to minister in 12 countries flying about 195,000 miles and sleeping in 29 different beds. The adventure continues…

Losing Zeal as a Church

March 27, 2016 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Paul warned them. What causes a church to lose zeal? Why fizzle after 30-40 years?

I stood there on the site of Miletus where Paul called the Ephesian leaders. It’s not a big place. The entire town was on a peninsula surrounded by water, a few hundred yards across. In the late afternoon cool, I could imagine Paul warning them. The magnificent center of missionary zeal and church expansion in Ephesus would be led astray, even from among the very leaders to whom he was speaking (Ephesians 20:17-38).

There were 3 epicenters of Christianity in the first century. Missionary expansion began in Jerusalem, then moved to Antioch and blossomed in Ephesus.

A few days earlier, I had walked the ancient town of Ephesus where Paul had visited several times and lived and taught for 2 years so that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”

Ephesus had about a 10 year run of excellence during Paul’s day then another 30 years or so under the leadership of John before his exile, according to tradition. But by the end of the first century when John wrote Revelation from exile on Patmos, the church in Ephesus was losing its zeal. They were still doing “church” but Jesus told them, “you have abandoned the love you had at first.” You don’t burn with my zeal for the lost like you did at first.

Jesus’ warning was in my mind as we sat in the huge stone theater in Ephesus. Jesus must remain the center. Our core activity must remain telling others about the goodness of his kingdom. To cease telling others is to begin to die as a church.

You must wait until tomorrow

March 13, 2012 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

“I’m sorry, sir, there is no flight.”

“Has it been cancelled?”

“No sir, there is no flight from Nairobi to Bamako today. You must wait until tomorrow.”

“But I have a ticket for a flight today, 13th March.”

“Yes sir. I can see your ticket. But there is no flight today. You must wait until tomorrow.”

So started today’s adventure. I got up at 3:45 am. The bus to Nairobi picked us up at 4:45 am as planned. So far, so good.

We got to the airport about 5:45 am. My flight is scheduled for 9 am. The checkin line is nice and short. Only one person ahead of me. Things are going well.

Then I had the conversation with the airline checkin attendant. Things are not going so good, now. She continued, “But I can see it is not your fault. So I will check you in for your flight tomorrow. I will give you a hotel voucher and meals. You can come back tomorrow.”

So, I’m in a nice 5-star hotel in downtown Nairobi.

I have meal vouchers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have internet. It’s a nice place.

But I’m supposed to be in Mali this afternoon. I guess there is work for me to do here in Nairobi today rather than in Mali today.

I’m reminded of a lesson I learned from Henry Brandt: I am going to be in Nairobi today. I have no choice. But I do have a choice about my attitude. I can be in Nairobi as a happy, contented, peaceful person, or I can be in Nairobi as a frustrated, angry person. The choice is mine. But I am going to be in Nairobi.

I decided choose to be contented and at peace because I’m confident God knew I was going to be in Nairobi today. And he has made provision for my attitude through his Holy Spirt.

How do you handle unexpected changes?

Fighting jet-lag

March 10, 2012 by Keith Seabourn Leave a Comment

Mosquito netting It’s 2:30 in the morning. I’m looking at the drape of white gauze mosquito net illuminated by the security lights outside our building. The buzzing of mosquitos is a safe distance away.

As I’m laying in bed fighting jet-lag, I think of a childhood song “his banner over me is love”. This mosquito net is like a banner that I’m beneath. I think of the hedge God puts around us to protect us. This mosquito net is like his hedge.

This is what travel to a far part of the globe looks like for the first few nights. Sleeplessness during the night watches. Can’t stay away during the daytime. I’ve learned a lot about helping my body adjust, but jet-lag is a companion of travelers. God doesn’t seem to hedge jet-lag away from us.

I hear my roommate tossing and turning. He flew in from East Asia. He’s fighting jet-lag also. When I room alone, I can turn on the light and read. But I don’t want to disturb my roommate, so I spend this sleepless time looking at the white gauze and listening to the buzz in the room.

And I pray for Betsy.

Betsy was my seatmate for 7 hours flying from Amsterdam to Nairobi. Betsy loves Africa as I do. She lived in Kenya for a year and comes back frequently. She is married to a writer for National Geographic who is in Tanzania doing a story. She runs a wildlife conservation foundation. We talked of our experiences in different parts of Africa.

And we talked of spiritual things. Betsy grew up in a Christian home, but she’s explored most of the world’s major religions. She converted to buddhism a few years ago. She said she loves the beauty of all the religions. We talked of Christ’s claims which seemed to rule out other ways to God. We also talked of the exclusivity claims of Islam and Jewdaism. She was troubled by these but kept talking about how beautiful the religions are.

Betsy’s conservation group teaches monks in Mongolia to care about the earth. She is attending a conference in Kenya to help religious leaders care for the environment. She is very aware of the good that religious leaders can do.

We had a robust conversation, but I felt unable to help her think more critically. I especially wished I could have connected her with the God whose banner over me is love, who cares deeply about his creation, and who cared so much for Betsy that he sent his Son to pay for her sins.

I was not able to get that far with Betsy.

I was encouraged, though, that I was able to have a robust conversation without bruising the fruit of Betsy’s heart. She commented that she hadn’t had such a good conversation about spiritual things in a while. I am glad that I could be the evangelical Christian who could love things about Africa with Betsy and could talk about God without bruising her.

So I pray for Betsy during these night hours.

Kay in Africa

January 22, 2012 by Keith Seabourn 1 Comment

29 training topics written and prepared. Check!
4000 pages of training materials printed and collated. Check!
32 trainees from 11 countries traveling to the training locations. Check!
Visas. Tickets. Bags packed. Check! Check! Check!

Africa, here I come!

Keith drove me to the airport. Then he drove home. I, on the other hand, flew to Accra, Ghana as part of a training team. A few days later, we will fly to Nairobi, Kenya for a second round of training.

We are embarking on the next step in a massive, faith-stretching opportunity. Our Global Technology Team is partnering with the Go North project to train thousands of pastors and church planters to plant thousands of churches across the Sahara Belt of Africa by 2020.

Karin & Kay preparing training materials

The Go North strategy leaders expressed a need. How do we train thousands of pastors and church planters in thousands of towns and villages in a dozen countries? International Leadership University-Kenya had experience in life-transforming training, so they produced Pastors Training in Leadership. The Global Technology Office had an idea: use the most common communications device in Africa today — a mobile phone. Together we developed the solution to the need.

These next weeks will represent the culmination of 2 years of development, testing, planning, and praying. Mobile phone training using ILU-Kenya curriculum has been tested in several locations for 18 months. Pastors tell amazing stories of how their lives and their leadership have been transformed.

We will train 32 coordinators from 11 countries. In the next few months, 100 to 300 pastors and church planters in each country will be trained. In the following months, we prayerfully expect this training to spread to 20,000 pastors and church planters who will plant 50,000 churches across the Sahara Belt of Africa.

Right where Islam is spreading southward. Right where sectarian violence is growing. Right where people desperately want to know about God’s love and his release from shame and guilt.

So, how does a seasoned missionary and global traveler feel about this next adventure on her own? I am honored to be able to help these leaders learn a new method of training the pastors of their countries. I am excited to be back on the continent of Africa, a place that God has given me a special love for. I feel strange to be leaving Keith behind, but confident in traveling with good friends and co-laborers.

Read co-trainer Karin Tome’s thoughts here.