Pastors Conference

We spent all day leading a pastor's conference at Gulu Bible Community Bible Church. In some way I felt like God brought me all the way to Uganda to attend a pastor's conference. I learned a ton and had a lot of good reminders about Humility in leadership, Marriage and Family, Spiritual Leadership and church governance. Even the worship time was a ton of fun and I took what I hope turned out to be a really great video of Pete Shambrook leading worship. Everyone was throughly involved and having a great time.

I was sitting next to an 18 year old boy from a nearby village for most of the morning.  A small boy around 2 was milling around and came up to me and I let him draw in my little note book. He was loving to scribble on many pages.  The 18 year old next to me asked for the note book at one point and I thought he was going to draw a picture for the boy which is what I was doing once in a while.  He ended up writing a letter started out reading like a thank you letter to ROCKHarbor for all the support and ended up asking for prayer for school fees. It mentioned that he wanted to take his exit exam so he could move onto the next grade and continue his schooling. It started a conversation and I learned that his father had died two years ago of HIV/AIDS and he was trying to take care of his 13 year old brother, but there just wasn't any money and all he wanted was to go to school. I put my arm around him while he was talking about losing his father.  I've heard this same story many times on these trips, but it still hasn't lost it's potency with me.  I asked him if he had mentioned this to his Pastor (Pastor Richards) and he said no.  I said that he should, but I also prayed for him and we talked alot about his options, but it didn't sound like there was much hope.  I spoke with Pastor Richard afterwards just to make surehe knew what was going on and it looks like his school fees will be covered.

At the end of the conference all the ROCKHarbor pastors were asked to pray for anyone that wanted prayer.  We all move to the from of the church and a mass of people gathered.  It was one of my highlights of the day praying over everyone.  Prayer requests were for church growth, personal and church finance, church partnerships, a couple of people wanted prayer for sickness and a prayer for a job.  It took a really long time for us to get through everyone, but eventually the ranks thined and everyone was prayed for. Over all I learned a ton and felt like the pastors appreciated the learning.

I got to talk with Hibu (Pastor Steven) who was riding his bicycle for a year to Guru Guru which was a really long ride in the bus yesterday.  When RH Mission Viejo did fundraising last year for an administrative position, the first fruits went to pay for some pastors and then had some extra that went to buy him a motor cycle. He was doing amazing things and the fact that he wasn't spending 8 hours a week on a bicycle any longer was a huge blessing to his family and the people of Guru Guru.  I got this picture of him on his motorcycle which after a year has 25,000km which is just a little less than what he would have had to ride on his bicycle.  What a heart!

Tomorrow we have church all morning where Darin and Todd are speaking (prayer please) then we will be visiting a prison in the afternoon.