Adventures in Africa: Blog of the Month

I ran across a fascinating blog called Adventures in Africa.

It chronicles the happenings of President Mike and his wife Pam Headlee who are assigned as the second mission president in the Democratic Republic of the the Congo in Kinshasa.  The couple both served together after he retired from selling insurance as humanitarian missionaries in Africa prior to their call in 2009. 



I found it fascinating that as a newer mission that they have had to find some unusual ways to drum up business.  In a recent post he met with a few Burundi ministers Paster Paul, Paster Hatungmana and Pastor Belanwa  and visited the members of their Christian churches in some remote places in Burundi.  I like to see the vitality of President Headlee who at 58 is still vigorous and willing to go out in the field and do some actual missionary work.  A lot of mission presidents administer in the field rather than set an example of proselyting.  So it is refreshing to run across someone that makes things happen through practical ways who isn't afraid to get out in to the field.  I am not denigrating mission presidents that use the motivational approach I am just stating an infinity I have for the movers and shakers.

President Headlee shared this about his visits:

Today we visited the province of Cibitoke, approximately 60K from Bujumbura, accompanied by Pastors Paul and Johnson and two others.  We traveled into the mountains to small villages to discover numerous small congregations who were waiting for our arrival.  Another pastor came along with Johnson who manages and leads an additional six congregations with memberships of between 50 and 90 faithful. (450 in total)  We spent the entire day with pastors and their people.  We were exhausted following our long day on the road....

We next went to the home of Pastor Paul and accompanied him and his family to his small church.   We attended their worship service, which was a most interesting and spiritual experience.  It was inspiring to witness the spontaneity of the little children as they clapped and sang along with the adults.

There will be numerous changes in the way meetings are conducted in the near future in this small congregation of between 40 -50 and I am confident they will welcome and accept these changes.  We sang, clapped and praised the Lord together with this small faithful group.  Their desire to worship and praise our Lord is heartwarming and encouraging.  At this meeting we met Isidore NDUWONKIJIJE who was baptized a member of the church in 2000.  He was asked to translate for us. 

I was also impressed that he didn't try to curtail their exuberance for the gospel by trying to fit them in a mold.  If you want to read an exceptional blog that describes history being made then check out this blog.  It really was a refreshing approach to missionary work.