World Music Mission

One of the earlier posts spoke of our invitation to lead worship at Good Shepherd Church in Nairobi. We originally connected with this body of believers through a drumset–when our first team attended the SIMSudan SLC in 2010 we brought a full drum kit with us to Africa. Realizing we had no real need to transport it all the way back home to the US, we asked one of the missionaries to find a place that the drums could be well-used for worship and they ended up at Good Shepherd. Now year after year, we return to SLC, borrow the kit for the week, and re-head and repair as needed. The added joy this year was Pastor Kenn’s invitation to lead worship for the English service (the early service is in Swahili). This is a video clip of “Breathe”–the congregation sounded so beautiful that day!!

One of the most enjoyed parts of the 2012 SLC for both the SIM team and the WMM team of musicians was the ability to give a Christmas concert of carols. We realized that many of these missionaries miss 3 out of 4 Christmases at home and many don’t get carols played with full band like we get year after year in Music City USA. So we worked up some fun arrangements and the missionaries danced and laughed and sang at the top of their lungs, even ending the night with an impromptu group rendition of “Felize Navidad” led by Tito!!

the MacGyver of the WMM

For me, this trip started out with a few bad things: a persistent cough, inadvertently deleting a very important folder of our song database, (causing my workload and stress to increase), having a couple of power supplies fry because of the 220 volts, a very loud hum in the sound system, (which I got rid of), etc, etc… But, life goes on and everything is working. However, all of my “hardships” pale greatly in comparison to the stories these missionaries have and the daily life they lead.
Villages being bombed, huts being burned, being shot at during the night, a plane crashing and being looted by the locals, a missionary dying of cerebral Malaria, babies dying……! Really?!?!? They choose to come here with a longing and a loving heart, willing to serve and minister to the people of Sudan in any way they can.
When I was growing up, in the 60′s and 70′s local churches would send out a few missionaries to Africa and Central America and I would wonder, why? Why, when there are so many needy, poor, non-believers right here in our own country? Over the years I didn’t give the missionary thing much thought. Sure I supported local organizations, such as Campus Life, YoungLife, etc., but as far as foreign missions, not much thought. But after meeting the missionaries who serve in Sudan my eyes were opened to just how special these people are, and the work they do.
“But, what about the need for missionaries back home?” There are plenty of Christains all over the world to fulfill the work that needs to be done. They just need to get out there and do it! Whether it’s in our own community or in the fields of Africa there are plenty of opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. WE need to find our place in God’s story.
We are now home to our own little worlds and to re-enter into our way of life. I’ll settle back into my world, but now with a renewed desire to do a better job, knowing that I have a small part in the larger picture of God’s story.
The verse of the week was 1st Peter 5:10,11. “And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

God Bless them and keep them safe!
Randy

Morning! I trust that you are doing great and that your travel to the U.S. was safe and sound. To Deborah, SIM and World Music Mission on behalf of Good Shepherd Church, Senior Pastor, staff and I want to say thank you very much for the blessing that you have been to us as a Church. Thank you for your fellowship and gifts of skins for drums, guitars, Bass and Electric, different kinds of sticks for the drums, music Cd’s, your ministry and most of all for your fellowship. I am without words for the gifts that you have so generously given for the benefit of the body of Christ. May the Lord richly bless you all as a team and as individuals. I wish that our time together would have been longer but I trust that we will meet again as the Lord wills. Please pass my thanks and greetings to the rest of the team.

In Him,
Pastor Kenn Ochola
Good Shepherd Church

12:05 pm Eastern time as we fly home somewhere over the East coast of the US (or almost). We’re working our way home from Kenya. We still have about 6.5 total hours of TIME left to travel today as I am borrowing Paul’s ipad. When all is said and done, April 23rd will be a 31 hour day for this World Music Mission team.The subject of TIME is on my mind at this exact second. This is now my third TIME to be blessed to lead a team to serve the missionaries of SIMSudan in Nairobi. I never take that for granted. I don’t take their invitation to come for granted, I don’t take the generosity of friends and family who donate the funds for granted and I never want to take the gift and use of my gifts for granted.
Since the last TIME any of us have slept properly in a bed, we have: eaten a breakfast of African raised eggs and milk and instant coffee, walked one and half miles with guitars on our backs to worship with the most beautiful Kenyan congregation at full volume, blessed that same congregation with some new instruments that we did not truly need nor planned to even bring back home, walked again to shop for a few minutes like Kenyans at the Massai marketplace at the YaYa Centre, ate a final meal in Africa–Ethiopian food rocks–with our host missionaries the Crowders, worked our way through security and customs at two international airports (with two more to go), read books and Bibles and magazines, rocked our ipods down to 15%capacity, managed some head-bent-to-the-side-pain-in-the-neck catnapping, ate more airplane food than anyone ever should, and watched a bunch of in-the-back-of-the-seat movies!!!
The movie is what got me….I just watched “InTime” a futuristic flick where TIME is Money. When you run out of TIME you instantly die. There is an urgency to everything, at least everything when you are TIME poor. Lest I take this analogy too far and get too heavy handed in my preachiness, I was encouraged by Chris Crowder the last 5 minutes before we all 10 left his house to go to the airport. He encouraged us to take TIME to let all that we encountered in Africa really get into us. He told us that no one can go to a place like Nairobi and not be shaken to their core. We drove by Kibera, a slum of 1.5 Million people. That’s not a typo…. 1.5 MILLION in a what is just a small part of that city. We also heard base reports and watched photos and videos of the work all over Sudan that involves war and natural disaster. And as we took TIME at the conference to help the missonaries refresh, news came of new hostilities between Sudan (North) and South Sudan. But with all this not one of the missionaries we encountered seemed worried or hurried. It’s almost like they have all the TIME they need. We joked about Africa TIME always seems a few minutes later than the agreed upon hour on the clock. But it’s not anything flippant. I tend to think it is more of a confidence, a confidence that these missionaries have in a BIG GOD doing big things working out HIS will in HIS good TIME.
No summary to this but I will be taking the TIME to let all this soak deep into me….
Joal

When you are first asked to go on a mission trip, would your first response be YES, sure, no problem, where do I sign up, my wife will LOVE this!!!?

For me it was NO, really, I’m good. Why? It was fear the first time I was asked about this trip–fear that I could not do this, fear of leaving the family, fear of I’m not a missionary and on and on.

As a musician, it should have been easier as I was asked for a musical mission trip to Africa but my immediate answer was (again) No, I’m good. And again it was part fear, I’m not ready to go, I do not feel or hear a calling. Also I asked myself if I even had anything to offer these missionary people. So I said I could not go.

I was asked again now for a third time to go to Africa on a mission trip and my answer this time was Yes! The Lord had given me a peace about it, as well as giving my wife a peace. After talking with Brent Cundall and Joal Devendorf they told me that playing percussion and drums would be a HUGE blessing. By giving the gifts I’ve been given by God to some very tired missionaries I would make a big impact on their lives, spiritual condition and overall health.

I’m writing this from Nairobi,Kenya, Africa having nearly completed my first mission trip. All I can say is I can not wait to do it again. Here am I, Lord send me. Amen!
Paul

Who is in Charge?
I have always struggled with God’s timing. I want to make it mine; I want to be in control. God has MADE me trust his timing in more obvious ways than ever on this trip, especially in the small things. I learned to trust in many ways from needing enough supplies like goldfish crackers, beach balls, powdered drink mixes and bags to put all the goodies (that were graciously donated by a lot of the people reading this blog). It was humbling to think I thought we had too much of one thing or not enough of another, but it was always the perfect amount of everything and the perfect timing of when we found it. God is in control.

The most moving reminder of God being in charge happened during the women’s spa night. Some would say it was a SMALL thing, but in God’s economy nothing is small or insignificant. After we presented the ladies with their pink grocery bags filled with goodies, one of the ladies came to Beth and me with an idea. Three families were unable get to the conference and she wanted to know if we could possibly piecemeal a few bags together for them. She offered up her goodies because she is heading to the states soon for a visit. While she was asking and explaining this, my eyes were drawn to three EMPTY bags and three packages of pepperoni sitting under a table. After telling her what we had available Beth and I asked her to join us in packing up the three new bags. Once again God showed us He is in control.
Shelly

Two missionaries-two mothers-two worshipers who were able to fully enjoy the Spiritual Life Conference because 4 women from Nashville left home and family to lovingly care for about 15 missionary children. These are just two of a larger number of fathers and mothers who were blessed by this complimentary ministry of the World Music Mission. Listen in as Deborah and Beverly relay their thanks…

Well this glorious week has come to an end! The pinnacle for me this week was the closing message by missionary Roy Comrie in which he exhorted the attendees to persevere through difficulty and to cling to the truth of the Scriptures and the love of Christ, even as we discovered that North Sudan had declared war on the South that very day. The call to serve is a very serious one that can have vast implications for the families that place themselves in harm’s way. Their love for other peoples and cultures, their love for God, and their obedience to a distinct and overt call in their lives have made them abandon six-figure incomes, comfortable homes and respectable reputations. These are normal, loving and capable people like you and I who are doing the unthinkable by trying to change the world for the glory of Christ. I will not be the same for having met them and am honored to call them “friends”.

As a result of this trip, I’m going to have to rethink this ‘American Dream’ thing some more. It seems to me that the payout that we get on our acquisition of ‘toys’ and status just doesn’t have the return on investment that we have been told is the truth. The pace we run as Americans just to sustain what we believe is the basic acceptable level of living is killing our joy and our love of life and others, not to mention our spiritual health and the reason we exist to begin with- which is to know and enjoy God forever. I know this-and so do you…

As a believing Christian who has already made somewhat of a commitment to limit my worldly pursuits, it has taken my stepping outside of my own culture to see my own excesses and weaknesses. What would it really mean to find a calling worth all of the comforts and securities I currently tell myself I can’t live without? Is there really such a thing as “treasure hidden in a field” (Matt 13:44) worth all that I call my own? Most importantly, would I be willing to act on such a calling if I truly believed God had such a mandate on my life? What if the way to true, authentic satisfaction is the way away from this subtle, presupposition we carry beneath the stream of everyday life we call the American dream?

I am convinced that when Christ said that He came that “(we) may have life and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10) he was speaking to the true joy and fulfillment that mankind was purposed and destined for: to know and reflect the image of God in our own lives and to see the greatness of God in Christ. May God make this true in your lives and mine as I have seen displayed in the lives of these joyous and free people this week…

Soli Dei Gloria- Bill

I started writing my blog this afternoon, but I kept getting interrupted, so I erased what I had written. What I think I really want to say is that there is a lot to think about and to process. I know that there will be moments after I get home when I will question what I am doing for the Lord in Franklin TN. The contrast between what we have seen here – the sacrifices that these missionaries are making, the poverty in and around Nairobi – and the life I live in Franklin is so huge. We have talked about this as a team and I know that several others are also blogging about the contrast and how/what to do about it. I will only speak for myself and share my thoughts, but as we were just now discussing this as a team, I thought of several conversations I had with some of the missionaries. They talked of how much they appreciated what I am doing by coming to Kenya and caring for the children and how much Spa Night means to them and the delight they had as they discovered the treats in their gift bags, and on and on. What a blessing the World Music Mission team was to them! Over and over, they affirmed my calling and service to the Lord. They said that what I do is as important and valid and meaningful to the Kingdom of God as anything they do. Now, I am not saying, Hey look at me, I am a rock star in the mission world. But what I am saying is that God is glorified when I am obedient to do what He calls me to do. We do not glorify God because we are living in huts in the desert. God is glorified when we/I obey His Word and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I can do that wherever I am. I am going to keep thinking about this for awhile, probably for the rest of my life, but I hope that my heart will be more attentive to the Holy Spirit. I hope that each time I sense the Holy Spirit prompting me to do something that I will respond and take that next step. I hope that I will seek to know what the Word of God says, and then that I will obey it. I hope that God will be glorified in everything that I say and do.This week has been amazing–I keep trying to think of another word to describe it, but that is the only word that comes to mind!!

There have been some difficulties, lots of laughter, serious conversations, and new friends celebrated. The food has been sometimes weird and the weather has been incredibly hot and then cold and then rainy. Electricity has been off and on (literally!) dozens of times. We were even blessed to go on a safari today and saw 3 lions, 2 lionesses and lots of zebras and giraffes. We then went to AIM Air and saw the planes that ferry the missionaries around Africa. I went to a grocery store and learned a little about what life is like for a missionary living in Nairobi. It’s been amazing and I am so blessed that I have been here. God is good…all the time!

Love and blessings, Marilyn