Planning our Return Trip to Africa and a New Church Building

Beth and I are just completing an excellent season back in America and are busy planning for our return trip to Africa. We leave on September 2nd and will come back to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas in America and then return to Africa for another 90 days which will take us up to mid-April. It is a bit difficult for me to envision what we will be doing beyond May of 2025.  I’m getting better at living each day as it comes and avoid focusing or worrying about what happened in the past or what may be coming our way in the future.   

My time when I am back in America is primarily spent on maintaining the great relationships and friends of our ministry with phone calls and personal visits. Our ministry has grown to the extent that it is becoming difficult to spend quality time with all the folks who bless our ministry and the children we are serving.  At the end of the day, that is a good thing, and we are so blessed to have great staff in America who assist me in doing that with excellence.   

When I am not busy with meetings or regular tasks in our Iowa office, I spend as much time as possible riding my bike on our beautiful bike trails. I typically am able to ride 2 to 3 hours each day and get in 30-plus miles on most days.  I have completed all my usual routine medical tests and have a clean bill of health from my doctors.  I have good energy and minimal pain or discomfort thus I am a happy camper.  Spiritually, I feel closer to God than any previous season of my life and that is a really good thing.  

The number of churches that are desiring to partner with our ministry continues to steadily grow month by month.  I’m more visionary than a numbers person, but 3-5 new churches have chosen to partner with us each month, and that is amazing when it goes on monthly.  

There are many things that our ministry does that excite me day in and day out.  By far the one thing I love the most is planting and growing thriving churches in Africa that will long outlive the work that I put my hands to. 

I will turn 80-years-old in February of this year and our son Dustin, and I have the vision to complete the construction of a new 450-seat church to replace the school hall that Pastor Johanney’s church has been meeting in for the past 8-plus years.  My wife doesn’t like it when I commonly use the analogy that it is growing like a bad cancer but as a physician, I often think in medical terms.  In this case, growing like a bad cancer turns out to be a really good thing. Eight years ago, we had 30 people attend our church, and now most Friday evenings and Sunday mornings we have more than 300 people in the church and it is standing room only.  In America, too often people would simply look for a different church rather than stand for a couple of hours. Our parishioners are typically singing, dancing, praying and moving about rather than sitting stoically during our church services anyway. 

Our philosophy has never been to borrow money to plant a church or do any of the ministry we do.  We simply pray and seek God’s direction of what He is calling us to do; we then start doing the ministry and He has always proven to be faithful in abundantly providing all the resources we need.  In America, this new church would cost about $1.5 million to complete.  In Africa, we fully anticipate that we will accomplish this for about $350,000.  Incredibly, we already have funds and solid pledges for over $300,000, so in early September we will break ground with a goal of completion by February 4th.  We will have a really big celebratory dedication in Africa, and you are all invited to come and join us in what God is doing.    

If God happens to be speaking to any of you to be part of this and help get over the finish line near the end of this year go now to our website and hit the donate button and let us know that your gift is for this new church in Africa. 

Prayer request: Please continue to pray for our daughter-in-law Alex who continues to suffer from back pain and frequent falls.  She is still helping with our workload in Africa but has cut way back as she heals.