We began the new year with a trip to Africa where we visited three nations: South Africa, Zambia, and Uganda. What a wonderful time we had ministering to many of the top Christian leaders in these countries. Although we had no formal ministry engagements in South Africa, we were busy the whole time in meetings with the Every Home for Christ staff. Since Delron is helping direct a special project with their ministry, he took advantage of our time in the country to meet with the key players in the project to re-evaluate the progress so far and to lay out some strategies of the next phase of the project. We also had a number of one-on-one ministry opportunities while in the country.
2009
After four short days at home from the Haiti-Dominican Republic mission, Delron was on his away again–this time to South Africa to assist in a multi-national leadership conference sponsored by Every Home for Christ. The national directors of eleven African nations (Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) along with their regional officials from the southern portion of the continent gathered for five days of instruction and encouragement as part of the initiation of a new thrust of EHC’s ministry which he has been privileged to participate in. He was asked to serve communion and have special prayer for all the participants during the closing session of the conference. It was a highly emotional and motivational moment as these great leaders were re-commissioned to the tasks and missions within their nations.
Just before leaving for South Africa, Delron sent out an email prayer reminder about the mission. He was overwhelmed and very encouraged by the tremendous response he received in replies from our friends who promised to pray for the trip. He could definitely see the blessings of the prayers in one area especially. Every Home for Christ was supplying a large shipment of equipment for the leaders from the various nations to be distributed during the conference. When it arrived, we were informed that it would cost approximately $15,000 in duties and take approximately four weeks to clear customs. Although our clearance documents were rejected six times, the final result was that all fees were eventually waived and the equipment was released immediately. Unfortunately, the truck driver went to the wrong warehouse when the pick-up notice was finally issued. By the time he arrived at the correct address, they were closed for the weekend. As a result, most of the men had to delay their travel plans until the following Monday to be able to collect their equipment before returning to their home countries, but they eventually got home well equipped for their new project. I can only imagine what serious problems would have resulted had we not had the prayer team on their knees back home.