75 years ago, the Rev. R.R. Brown began the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference. Dr. Brown was a radio preacher of some renown, and since Omaha in August is oppressively hot, the folks at WOW radio had an idea. What if Dr. Brown did 10 days of a conference that could be carried over live radio? And, what if the location boasted pleasant weather? With that, the Okoboji Conference was begun on the shores of Lake Okoboji, a vacation spot of some renown in the Midwest.
Over the years, the Okoboji Conference has hosted thousands of missionaries. Back in the day, there was a “Missionary Parade” (as in, a literal parade), and flags from various nations still adorn the walls of the conference tabernacle. Missions has always played a central role at Okoboji. The stories told by expat missionaries home on furlough shaped the lives of many conference attenders, myself included.
This year at Okoboji promises to be an historic one. The Conference is celebrating its’ 75th anniversary, and for the first time, two of the missions speakers will not be expats.
This year, Pastors Simon Mwaura and Wilfred Lenaisemoi will be speaking at Okoboji. A conference that has heard from, prayed for and financially supported thousands of expat missionaries will hear from indigenous church planters. The fruit of 75 years of faithful praying and sending will be on display.
Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category
An Historic Occasion
June 18, 2009Technology
April 11, 2009This is a topic of discussion that is near and dear to our hearts, as well as to our partners – both on the ground and in the donor community. It is a critical component of our ministry and yet it is the one we wish could be invisible at the same time. As I say to on-the-ground partners, the MP3 player kit we use is just a delivery truck. If there is nothing in the truck, the truck made a wasted trip.
That said – it is the contents of the truck that takes time, understanding of culture/worldview, and a clear view of the needs of oral learners. This is where the true value lies. In theory, ANYONE can purchase technology and put content on it for use in listening groups. [We hope that our God-given understanding of technology helps make the purchase of the RIGHT technology for the application through good stewardship, though.]
This is Matthew Wong and his family. We’ve worked with Matthew for almost 4 years now to handle our purchasing and logistics in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. He and his family are a great encouragement to our ministry and they join us in our faith in God through Christ – it is a blessing to be with them and to share what God is doing through Matthew’s efforts as a businessman to help us reach oral learners in many countries around the world.
Technology
Originally uploaded by t4global
Samburu Partner Meeting
March 10, 2009Recently, a group of ministries working among the Samburu gathered for a meeting at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA. Present were representatives from Water Missions International, Global X (NPCC), the Mission Society and T4 Global. The topic: how can we integrate and work strategically to take the gospel to this least-reached people group?
When asked for a summary statement, Dr. Darrell Whiteman, T4G board member and resident missiologist for the Mission Society had this to say, “The work thus far has been a model for recovering the whole gospel. The gospel is that we are rightly related to God, to each other and to God’s creation. The work in Samburu has done that. We cannot divorce spiritual rebirth from issues of justice and mercy.”
The T-Willy Preaching Model
October 30, 2008
Our methodology of taking training to oral-culture learners doesn’t just have application for the MT4 device. One of our partners in Samburu, Pastor Wilfred, has discovered another way to put orality into play in his ministry. A bit of background information would probably be helpful.
Our Kenyan pastors, much like their American counterparts, have certain preachers they like and emulate. However, the typical literate, lecture-based model of preaching runs into certain roadblocks when used in an African context. Imagine trying to preach to a congregation that has no Bibles, and even if they did have them, could not read them. Our friend Wilfred is a T.D. Jakes fan, but as he learned, it’s hard to do T.D. better than T.D. does T.D.
In the course of developing the content for our Samburu project, Wilfred decided to try the blend of indigenous stories, songs, proverbs and retelling the Bible story in his weekly preaching responsibilities. It was tweaked a bit, in order to include the application of the Word to the lives of the congregation. The results have been stunning: Wilfred (Big Willy) now preaches in a Samburu manner to the Samburu. The gathered congregation is engaged, and participates in the preaching event. People stop him during the week to ask further questions about what they heard on Sunday. Oral-culture Samburus are hearing the Word in a powerful way.
Wilfred called this the “T4 Style” of preaching. We have, however, compromised. It is more than just a style – it is a model of preaching that builds cultural bridges, lets the Word do the heavy lifting, and is authentically African. One of our indigenous leaders pioneered this method, hence, the T (4)- (Big) Willy preaching model.
Nurturing World Christians
June 9, 2008
As a boy I had a love/hate relationship with the High School football season. My dad was the head football coach at our local high school, and I was a practice rat. I would crank through my paper route as fast as my Schwinn Sting Ray would take me and then I was off to the practice field to watch, listen and just hang out with my dad. That part I loved. What I hated though, was that my dad was never home during the season. We ate dinner without him just about every night, drove to the ball games without him and had breakfast on Saturdays feeling his absence (game film to break down and game planning for the next week).
I am mindful of the impact my absence has on my own children, not just because I’m their father, but because I have literally sat where they now sit. It’s a frequent topic of conversation and prayer for my wife and I. To that end, our family prays regularly for the work T4 is engaged in all over the world, but especially Africa. Our kids know our partners in Ghana, Sudan and Kenya by name. They can find Mozambique on the map. We are working hard to make them a part of this ministry, because, well, they are. They did not choose to be, but they are. As Stanley Hauerwas wrote, “Family is one of the last involuntary things left in our society. You just wake up one day and you’re related to these people and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
Noel Piper has authored a very helpful booklet entitled Raising World Christians. Amy and I understand that ministry with T4 is giving us a great opportunity to do just that. By God’s grace, we are including our two kids in what God is doing in building His kingdom.
Our indigenous partners understand this as well. On their last trip to the US, one of our Kenyan partners, Simon Mwaura and his wife Lucy visited Gabrielle’s class at the Lexington Latin School. Simon shared a bit about life in Kenya, and told the kids about the Good Shepherd Orphanage. There were certainly more important folks that Simon could have met with: donors, other missions agencies, etc. But he didn’t. He met with a group of second graders. He met with the next generation of laborers in the Great Commission.
Good Shepherd is home to 56 HIV/Aids orphans in the Kenyan highlands. It gets cold at night when you live at 8,500 feet, and the kids at Good Shepherd needed sweaters. The kids and parents at LLS saw an opportunity to demonstrate their love for a group of children they will probably never meet. Just squeaking under the baggage weight limit, I took their gifts to the kids of Good Shepherd.
A funny thing happened in this whole process – my kids aren’t the only ones excited about what God is doing in Kenya and the role they are playing in that story. Parents I don’t know (not unusual for a dad, my wife knows everybody at the school) were telling me how exciting it was to be able to help address a simple need in a direct way. In short, God is allowing us to help nurture world Christians – not just the future generation, but this one as well.
My guess is that if you asked a second grader at the Lexington Latin School about Kenya they would tell you about the day Pastor Simon and Lucy 
came to visit them. They would tell you about 56 orphans in Nyahururu at Good Shepherd. They could find Kenya on a map. It’s a good start.
The Samburu
June 3, 2008
While doing our pre-intervention survey in a village outside Maralal, this group of boys came to investigate the presence of outsiders in their midst. It gets a bit brisk at 8,000 feet, so the kikoi are not just for the Jedi-wannabe look. It is strange to be reminded of Nebraska halfway around the world. How many other folks do you know who like to wear red and herd cattle? (I wonder if their rugby team had an equally disastrous experience with the West Coast offense?) As you can see, the fella in the middle is somewhat suspicious of the white guy with the camera.
Southern Sudan
May 23, 2008Recently Bishop Elias Taban was interviewed describing the incredible impact of the T4 Global project in Southern Sudan. Our pilot project placed 500 MT4 mobile schools in Central Equatorial State.
Bishop Taban calls the MT4 project “one of the most successful projects ever done in Southern Sudan.”
Bishop Taban wants MT4 devices on the ground in all 10 states in Southern Sudan. It would take about 20,000 devices to provide that kind of coverage and they would reach around 6 million Sudanese. We got our work cut out for us, but from the sound of his interview, we have a strategy that is working!
Good Shepherd Orphanage in Nyahururu, Kenya
May 20, 2008
The Bride has Arrived
May 17, 2008
What a celebration it is on arrival! At some point, I may load video here, because a single picture just doesn’t work. This “procession” begins at the bride’s home and the cars honk all the way to the church. Once on the church grounds, the women start the process of singing and dancing around the car. Then a few men join in, jumping, dancing, singing. Compared to how we celebrate weddings in the West – I would say this is a superior way to exhibit the joy of a wedding ceremony. Wow!! So much fun, it’s hard to describe.
Kyle and The Man
May 17, 2008
The man of the day, Wilfred (or as we heard his Samburu mother, who can’t speak English, call him, “Willie”) and Kyle before the bride showed up. As you can imagine, Willie had a grin all day much larger than his face. A great friendship has grown between Kyle and Willie and it’s obvious it will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, our time was cut short, as we had to get one of our party to the Nairobi airport and Kyle was not able to preach at the wedding as originally planned. Let’s face it – when the ceremony is scheduled to start at 10a, but they forget to tell you that this is when the “negotiators” arrive at the bride’s home to persuade the family to release the bride (usually a few more funds are required), you never know when she’s going to show. I think the car arrived at 11:15a – and they weren’t in the building until 11:40a. We had to leave at 11:45a!
