April 10th, 2010
Shortly I leave for the Kigali airport and the 30 hour journey home. God moved in mighty ways during the Hope Rwanda Festival in Kayonza, Rwanda and in other venues. Jesus truly was “the talk of the town” during our festival over Easter Weekend as attendance was over 50,000 with 700+ people making a commitment to Christ. In addition there were hundreds of young people ages 12 and under who responded to the gospel message. Pastor Augustine Butera and the pastors of Kayonza did an incredible job in preparing for the festival and we now pray for them as they begin the follow-up of those who responded
publicly to follow Christ.
Our season of service project also led to 58 needy families receiving a goat. The goat will be used as an additional income
source and I had the privilege of meeting with 5 of those families personally. Each shared how the goat can help provide
to send a child to school, and one widow, who’s only been a Christian for six months shared that receiving the goat has
helped encourage her faith. Again the churches stepped up in a sacrificial way to help provide for almost half of the goats
that were given away.
It was also a privilege to visit 3 of the 9 churches started in the area since our previous festival in 2008. We were able
to arrange for some bibles to be given to those churches as many families do not have their own personal copy. In one
church I was humbled to learn that the pastor sold his home in order to pay for metal roofing for the church so the
people could sit under a solid shelter.
The Lord also opened a door to share the gospel on 3 radio broadcasts. One in the town of Kibungo and the other
2 in Kigali. One of the women how gave her life to Christ during the broadcast from Kibungo, came to the festival
one day to talk with Pastor Augustine and receive counsel on finding a good church. She also shared a very brief
testimony in one of the churches. We’ve since learned she began to attend a bible-believing church in her area that
is also attended by her sister-in-law. This woman has also thrown away many of the idols her and her husband
received from a local witch doctor. To God be the glory.
Finally, I had the chance to do some teaching on evangelism at a monthly youth gathering in Kayonza. I challenged
them to share there faith with 3 people between now and August. One person asked if they “had to stop at 3″. Great
attitude, I think she’ll probably reach quite a few people.
We thank God, for it’s by His grace that I’m able to share what He did and is doing in Kayonza. One pastor asked me
to let people know that God has lifted Rwanda out of the pit and it is now a country of peace. I’m happy to report that
there is not only peace from the genocide, but the peace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is also spreading
rapidly throughout Rwanda. God Bless you and thanks for your prayers.
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April 3rd, 2010
The first two nights of our Hope Rwanda
Festival here in Kayonza, Rwanda have been
incredible. God has been working and touching
lives. 36 churches have worked together in
humility and unity and an intercessory prayer
group has been fasting and praying. The first
two nights “conservative” estimates on total
attendance has been 27,000. Response has
been good but nothing official to report yet.
Tomorrow we finish up on Easter Sunday as
I’ll be sharing from Job 19:25-27. May the
Lord contiue building momentum through
our final day.
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March 29th, 2010
The Hope Rwanda Festival in Kayonza, Rwanda begins this Friday.
35 churches involved with over 100 trained counselors. May the
Lord Jesus be “The talk of the Town”.
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February 19th, 2010
Heading into our final day in Mexico. We have had a great week. Evangelism Training went extremely well and the stories of the church people who have put this into practice have been encouraging. When they returned from our outreach time, as seems to always be the case they return with joy. (See Luke 10:17) The services have also been very good with good responses especially at 3 local factories. Chaplains are on hand full time to minister to the workers. 20 people have indicated a decision for Christ throughout the week and we look forward to finishing tonight. We will be returning to a local church where we conducted an evangelism seminar last year. By the grace of God we look to finish strong.
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February 11th, 2010
Saturday I’m off to Matamoros, Mexico with Todd Abbey from
Fellowship Bible Church in Ohio. We’ll be conducting Evangelism
Training in a local church and at a Bible Institute. We pray that
God will raise up workers for the harvest who will also be equipped and inspired to train others. We’ll also be doing some smaller outreach services and pray that the gospel will be clear and that hearts will
be opened to Christ. Our host church Oasis of Blessing is in prayer
and fasting for God to work in the outreach service at their church
on Sunday evening February 14th.
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December 31st, 2009
Please pray for the upcoming student retreat I’ll be speaking at, Jan. 1-3 in Minnesota. I look forward
to meeting and interacting with the students and leaders of “The Rock” student mininstries in Mora, MN.
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November 17th, 2009
Last week, I was at the conference for “Luis Palau’s Next Generation
Alliance”, a conference of evangelists and evangelistically minded people. Over 300 people from the US, Europe, Africa, and Latin America
attended. Those attending were ages 16 to 70’s, and had a variety of ministries from Proclamation Evangelists, to skateboard and extreme sports ministries. Not only did we have inspiring teaching, great fellowship, networking, and prayer, but we were also treated to a
Matt Redmon concert on opening night. Matt came to the Lord at
a Palau festival years ago. The conference was called the innovative
evangelism conference and recognized that though their are many methods, there is one gospel, Jesus the Son of God, born of a virgin,
lived a perfect life, died in our place for our sins on the cross, bodily rose from the dead, and will return someday to judge the world and through repenting of one’s sins and believing on the Lord Jesus people of every nation can be saved and have eternal life. (John 3:16, Matt. 1:20-23, Heb. 4:15, 1 Cor. 15:3-8, Acts 17:31, Acts 20:21, 1 John 5:9-13)
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October 19th, 2009
By God’s Grace we crossed the finish line last night in Lira,,
Uganda with the completion of our festival. Once again the
Lord held off the rain and a crowd of close to 3,000 heard
the good news of Christ with 75 people making commitments.
This concluded our challenging but exciting days in Lira with
many people making commitments to Christ. As I write a
follow-up meeting should be taking place between new believers
and local pastors. We ask for prayer for the churches to
continue on in the making of disciples.
Today we returned to Gabba and will travel to Iganga tomorrow
to meet with Pastors and assess the possibility of a Festival
in that city for 2010. We ask for wisdom to discern the will
of God.
All Glory to the Lord as we thank Him for taking a tough
start in Lira and working things for good and His glory and
thanks to all of you for your prayers. We fly home on
Oct. 21.
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August 4th, 2009
We arrived safely and were off and running on
Sunday where we all preached in different churches.
I spoke at Bread of Life here in Kinshasa. It was
a great church with a lot of enthusiasm and 4
people indicated that they received Christ.
Monday was a day of meetings with a key organizer
regarding the potential of doing 3 festivals in
3 different zones around the city. A lot will
depend on the pastors in each zones and
if an official invitation is received to go forward
with this in 2010. May the Lord’s will be done.
Tuesday (today) Dr. Bill, myself and an evangelist
from France named Bruno and his wife Marie were
all interviewed on a television program. The potential
audience is 15 million and we thank God for this
pleasant and unexpected opportunity.
This evening Dr. Bill and I will participate in
the first night of a four night evangelistic
campaign. Dr. Bill and I will work together on
the first two evenings and Pastor Emmanuel
and Bruno both from France will take the reins
on Thursday and Friday. May the gospel be
clear and hearts opened by God to believe on
the Lord Jesus. Thanks for your interest and
prayers. Blessings, PJ
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August 7th, 2009
As the week goes on here in Kinshasa what began with promise has hit some snags. The preliminary schedule coordinated by our organizer has changed dramatically. We do not know all the circumstances behind these changes
but it does help us in our assessment of a cities potential for future festivals. Knowing that the Lord brought us here for a reason I’m looking for the “Macedonian Call”, (See Acts Ch. 16:6-10) to make the most of the opportunity while here in Kinshasa. (Eph. 5:15-16) Now for the good news.
1) The campagin which scheduled for 6 nights but cut back to 3 and is now completed. We believe it has and will bear fruit. Although crowds were small the PA was powerful and we know the gospel was proclaimed and even those not in official attendance, but walking by and listening from a distance heard about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All four of the evangelists here were allowed opportunities to participate. I shared my testimony the first night and I also shared a small warmup message for Dr. Thomas the second night from the Book of Acts Chapter 19:18-20. I did so because witchcraft and the occult is very active and alive in African nations and it’s been said that some believers worship the Lord on Sunday, while still hanging on to idolatrous practices out of fear of evil spirits. As time goes on and I minister in other countries I’m learning more and more of the need to communicate to believers that greater is He that is within you than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4) Though the meetings were attended mainly by believers there was a small response for salvation and rededication the second night.
2) I had the chance to attend a youth camp yesterday and share the gospel with about 200 teens age 14-18.
It brought back memories of my many years ministering to youth and was truly a blessing. Similar to the
campaigns those in attendance appeared to be primarily Christian youth but I still sensed that I should
present the gospel and about 3 or 4 students indicated that they received Christ for the first time. Afterward
I was able to counsel with a couple of young men who came with issues they were struggling with. One young
wanted to openly confess what he had done. I pointed out 1:John 1:9 and that he can confess directly to Jesus,
which he knew, but he wanted me to pray for him. I won’t go into details, but may God grant him the grace to
now go and make things right with the people that have been affected by his sin. I shared with him that this will
be difficult but that God gives grace to the humble and will enable him to go throught this process.
3) Last night Dr. Bill and I were to teach at a seminar. I was preparing to do some evangelism training but
when we arrived they said our topic was “Why I am married”. By the Lord’s grace I gave an overview of
marriage from Genesis and Ephesians 5 (mainly for the men in attendance) and also spoke about being
single doesn’t make you inferior citing 1 Cor. 7. Dr. Bill then spoke from Titus Chapter 2 and the churches
role in helping families. Tonight we are supposed to return to the same church and have asked people to submit questions for us to answer. May the Lord give wisdom and His answers through us.
S0 as we seek to finish strong pray that God will show us where Macedonia is on this trip as we desire to
make the most of our time here. Thanks for your prayers. PJ
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August 8th, 2009
Since our seminar was cancelled today I joined a team from Disciple Making International (DMI) who is working
alongside local churches in Evangelism. I went with one of the local pastors and a participant from DMI and we
had some wonderful opportunites in various homes. 2 men accepted Christ, one named Albert and the other
JP. The ministry to JP was one of the most powerful witnessing experiences I’ve had. JP was so excited to see
us we thought he might already be a Christian. As time went on we listened to JP’s story, which might be a little
too long to write out, but it dealt with questions he had concerning a dream from over 20 years ago. A dream that
that sounded very biblical in nature and also caused JP to be very transparent about his life. After sharing the
scriptures JP, made a statement regarding me and the DMI participant from Canada. He said since we had
come all this way, he couldn’t reject God. JP then invited Christ into his life.
I asked JP for permission to share his story with others, and the thought I was telling him to share his story with
others which he said he was going to begin right away. When he finally understood what I was staying he gave
me the go ahead as it very strong and gospel specific. He then asked the Pastor if he could share his story tomorrow
at the Pastor’s church and the Pastor agreed. If you read this before Sunday please pray for JP. May the Lord
ignite a passion for him to keep telling others about Jesus. Unfortunately I will have to miss it as I’m preaching
tomorrow in another church…please pray for me too. Thanks and Blessings, PJ
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August 10th, 2009
I sure hope the update from Saturday was posted. If not
please check the archives for the story on JP. It gets
better. Since I was already scheduled to preach at 2 services
at a church here in town, (which the Lord blessed and there
was a good response in both services, a few for salvation and
others wanting to pursue the “new things” God has in store
for them) JP did attend the church we were working with on
Sunday and did give his testimony but added something that
really confirms that our time with him was a divine appointment.
I remember when we approached JP’s home a man was there
and he left when we came. JP said this man was a Muslim who
was telling him how he could be helped in understanding his
dream. We thank God for came at the time this Muslim man
was talking to JP. JP said he realized when we were there
that his dream was now something leading him to Jesus.
I’m amazed that we serve such a big God, yet also a God
who can be so intricately involved in our lives, even down
to the exact moments as He showed us in our ministry to JP.
Tonight I finished up our team with a meeting with college
students. About 250-300 in attendance, primarily Christians
some of whom made a public commitment to be missionaries on
their campus which has an overall student population of 26,000.
May God give them boldness and many open doors.
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August 21st, 2009
On Wednesday Aug. 26th, we invite you to join us for a day of prayer and fasting for our upcoming
campaign in Bediarnsk, Ukraine. Consider setting aside some time for prayer and if you feel led
to fast one or all meals as we seek the Lord for this upcoming outreach.
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September 4th, 2009
It’s Friday in the Ukraine, and we’ve now had a chance
to share the gospel at four meetings in the campaign.
We are ministering in an area where there is a lot of
hopelessness. Many are addicted to drugs and alcohol
but God is at work. Several have responded to the
gospel either to commit to Christ or to confess their
sins. A specific note happened the first night when
a man addicted to alcohol came forward at the invitation.
He made a commitment to Christ, and was taken by the
local church to one of the 3 rehab centers that they
operate for ministry. This man spent yesterday with
some of the men there praying and reading the bible.
This morning they found that he had died in his sleep.
Many are saddened by the loss, but as it says in 1st
Thessolians 4, we do not grieve as those who do not
hope, and we are thankfully that God granted him the
grace to repent. The church especially those who
are close to the rehab center have been doing a great
job of ministering to the people on the venue ground
as well as with those who are responding. Please pray
that God will continue to extend His grace and that the
gospel will continue to go forth clearly
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September 8th, 2009
We’re now home from Bediarnsk. Sorry to say we didn’t have
ongoing access to the internet which is why there was only
one update so in this posting I’ll try to give a quick overview.
From an evangelistic perspective, our time in the Ukraine was
beyond what we might have thought. 8 opportunities to preach
the gospel at 3 different venues in the city resulted in many
hearing the good news of Christ with several responding. On the
final night a woman gave her life to Christ who was visiting from
another city. She was staying with her daughter in nearby
apartments and heard the music and came to the meeting. Her
story is reflective of John 4:36-38 on the sower and the reaper as
right before she left to come to Bediarnsk a friend had given her
a bible. By divine appointment her daughter lived close enough for
her to be attracted to our meeting where God touched her heart.
In her story we see sowers and reapers and we all rejoice in what
God has done in her life.
The women’s conference led by Jan Willis and Becky Canterbury was
a huge success, lasting 3 hours as many women stayed after the
meeting to be prayed for. This was a much needed time of ministry
into many hurting and needy lives.
Each morning Pastor Jeff Canterbury led in a teaching on the
Great Commission and the importance of the Word of God in the
life of a healthy and growing church, and last but not least, we
were blessed to work with local church (s) who did a great job
in reaching out inviting people to the campaigns. The host church
is planning to continue with a month long outreach to feed the poor
and continue proclaiming the good news of Christ.
We were all very blessed and ask that you pray for the follow up
of the new believers and the ongoing outreach in Bediarnsk, especially
to those who are battling addictions.
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September 12th, 2009
Please be in prayer for our teammate, Martin Wandira from Gaba, Uganda as he travels next week to do evangelism and counselor training for our upcoming festival in Lira in October.
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October 6th, 2009
On Sunday I’m off to Lira, Uganda for our Festival. Martin
Wandira, a fellow NGA Evangelist living in Uganda has done a
great job with the preparations in many ways. One exciting
note is that Martin has trained over 300 counselors for this
upcoming festival. Please pray for our team of Paul Meduri,
Joseph Kakule and Martin Wandira of Uganda, and Pastor
Augustine Butera of Kayonza, Rwanda
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October 16th, 2009
After 2 days in Lira we’ve had some ups and downs.
First the ups or praises……
Over 100 leaders have attended conferences
over the first two days. With one day to go tomorrow,
and our two school visits have allowed us to share the
good news with over 500 students of which close to 40 kids made commitments to Christ.
Items for prayer. Weather has hurt our festival the first
two nights. Threat of weather caused people to leave
early about the gospel was still heard by about 4-500 people. Sorry to say the rain closed us down tonight.
So we ask for prayer to break down the barriers we’ve
been battling the first two nights as we trust God for
good weather and spritual breakthroughs during our final
two nights.
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October 17th, 2009
A busy, blessed, breakthrough kind of day in Lira.
Our team was able to share the good works of Christ
by providing soap to hospitals and prisons and giving
two cows away. One to a widow and her three children
and the other to the youngest orphan in a family of six
(age 15) who’ve lost both parents to Aids.
We’ve also shared the good news of Christ in meetings
at the hospital and prison and our our Festival this evening.
Althought it rained again for an hour in the afternoon, the
Lord stopped the rain and a crowd of about 2000 attended.
Over 100 people have made commitments to Christ during
these venues and we look forward to finishing strong on
the final night of our Festival tomorrow. Please pray that
God will continue what He’s started today as we sensed a
real breakthrough today.
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February 16th, 2010
Our first few days in Matamoros have been
very productive. The church is excited about the evangelism training, a few have already put things s into practice and tomorrow will be a day in the field.
11 people have also made commitments to Christ though the outreach at Oasis of Blessing Church and at todays noontime lunch. We look forward to
the next two lunches as it truly is a “marketplace”
atmosphere. Tonight we also continue with our
school of evangelism at a bible institute that involves folks already involved in ministry to others who seem to be figuring out a direction. May the Lord edify and inspire as we continue at the school today and tomorrow.
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December 31st, 2009
Looking forward to traveling to Minnesota to speak at the SnowBlast
retreat. I’ve heard many great things about the students involved
at “The Rock” ministries in Mora, MN and look forward to sharing with
them and interacting with them and many of their leaders. Please
keep the retreat (Jan. 1-3) in prayer.
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