Well, I finally have a chance to update. We've started classes and have been learning a lot over the past couple of weeks. We just finished our class on African culture and traditional religion. We just started Diesel Mechanics this week ... a lot of fun.
Besides studying and spending time in class, we keep ourselves pretty busy around here. I'm getting in great African shape ... we hike down and back up the cliff almost everyday ... it's quite a workout. The other day, a dead hippo washed up and we poked it a little with sticks. The Africans came down and cut it to pieces to eat ... one of the most horrible smells I've ever experienced.
Today we had a day off and we went into town to get some breakfast and swim in the pool. Even with baboons trying to steal the food, and the pool being ice cold, it was a great day.
We head out into the villages for our next expedition in a couple of weeks. God really opened a door for us on this next trip. We have an opportunity to help evangelize at a conference for all the headmen of several different villages. Missionaries rarely get a chance to gather all of the headmen (leaders under the chief) in one spot for one event. They agreed to meet on our behalf so that we can evangelize to them. These men have great influence on their villages and leading them to Christ and establishing churches would be a huge step in winning their villages to Christ.
Pray- pray that this next expedition goes well and that God opens doors. Pray that the Lord goes before us and works on the hearts of these village leaders. Pray that through these leaders, God will win dozens of villages.
Pray for the Lord to guide me on what to do after AMT.
Pray for missionaries all over the world who are pioneering the Gospel. The Harvest is plentiful and the workers are few ... there's a lot of world out there that still needs Jesus, but have never had the chance to hear.
Thanks everybody for your prayers and support. I'll try and send more info as soon as I can. God bless!
~Phil.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
From Karina
Wabukabuti!
I don’t know where to begin. I feel so alive here, as well as so stretched. My team ranges in age from 18 to 32 years. About 7 guys and 6 girls. The base is on the edge of the Zambezie. We can see mist from The Falls. I can’t explain how beautiful it is. We have electricity a few hours a day. We have running water from a well. It runs out a couple times a day but for the most part its dependable. We have warm water at night by heating water from a big fire place.
Last Sunday we left for “the bush.” Meaning we went to an unreached village. We were the first missionaries to come to this village that the people knew of. Many villages know of God and Jesus Christ from the time of David Livingstone but it is more a religion. They will go to church in hope to go to heaven but there is no knowledge of the power of God or a relationship with Him. Witch-Doctors are very prominent. The people know that worshiping satan is wrong but they don’t understand that that is exactly what the witch-Doctor does. We camped out in small tents in sight of the village. There was no electricity, running water, or toilet. We started out the morning with praising God, praying, and encouragement from the Bible. We would then walk about 45 min to one of the villager’s fields to work for a couple of hours. We harvested ground-nuts (peanuts) or maize (like corn). Somehow my team was always put in a maize field. This consisted of peeling the husk off the maize not knowing what would fall out of the husk. Usually 5 small roach-like bugs, maybe some spiders, will fall over my feet. For the first day I would toss it to one of the guys if there was a big spider but then I came to the conclusion that its just a bug. We would have lunch at the villager’s home and hang out with the fam. Every group had an interpreter.
In the afternoon we would have a large group gathering for the village and maybe surrounding villages to come to. There were testimonies, singing, preaching, a skit, and last we would pray for those who wanted to become a Christian or for those who needed physical healing. Usually when there is illness the person is also demon-possessed because they go to the witch doctor for healing. The first lady I prayed for wanted prayer for the pain in her legs and poor eyesight. Wezee, one of the translators, came over and started praying for her. He was like “there is a demon in her” and started praying for the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. I wasn’t too convinced but I kept praying. He was shaking her telling the demon to leave. She collapsed on the ground. Her son came over and confirmed that she has been visiting the witch doctor and is demon possessed. When she came to, we asked her about her demon and if she wanted freedom from it. She told it to leave in the name of Jesus. She had a pearl-like necklace and bracelet on. We asked her about those. They were charms for the demon. We told her that she had to take them off so she did. We then explained to her the power of Jesus Christ and the importance of turning to Him and not the witch doctor. She felt much better afterwards. Her name is Ellena. PLEASE PRAY FOR HER! There were others that were freed from demons and had physical healing. The next day, I was praying for a lady who complained of pain all over. Wezee came over and started to speak to her in tonga because she didn’t know English. He told the demon to leave then in a deep raspy voice she started to speak in English, obviously it was the demon. His name is Joseph. We told her that she had to tell Joseph to leave in the name of Jesus. She did. We prayed and counseled her for a while.
My favorite part has been working with the kids. I can’t tell you how beautiful every child is even though they are in dirty ripped clothes with dirt and body waste on them. I can’t speak more than a few words to them but you can say so much with eyesight, smiles, hugs, singing, dancing, holding hands, and piggy-back rides. These kids are so precious but its like they don’t even have a clean slate to start on. Their parents take them as a baby to the witch doctor to get protection for their health so basically they are demon possessed from the get-go. I was trying to make friends with one little girl about 6 yrs old. I drew some pictures in the sand. It took her a while to get the hang of it but she started giggling after a while. It is common for a child to have no imagination or creativity because that’s not nurtured in them. Most girls older then 6 years would have a younger sibling hanging on their back.
On Tuesday there was a pastor’s conference for some villages about an hour away that Overland had previously reached. After the preaching there was a big soccer game that brought several villages together. After some preaching we had a big feast. During the preaching and game I stayed with the women. My conclusion is that if anyone ever complains of cooking when they have a stove they are delirious. First the guys killed the chickens. Once boiled, I fried the chicken in a big pot of hot oil over the open fire. I feel like so much more of a woman after surviving hours of the African sun with hot oil splashing, tons of tears from the smoke, fire burning my toes, and the African women laughing because they could grab up a hot pot but I would have to use my shatangy (wrap skirt). At the end of the day I let them know that they are my heroes.
I wish that I could write all of you all individually and leave comments on Facebook but our broadband is so limited that it usually shuts me off whenever I try. Sorry!
There are so many stories. The people here are so hungry for the Truth. Please pray for the darkness to be broken, that the captives will be set free and that beauty will be given in place of ashes (Is 61). Pray that the truth of Gods power will be revealed.
Leza Akuleleke (God Bless You)
-Karina
I don’t know where to begin. I feel so alive here, as well as so stretched. My team ranges in age from 18 to 32 years. About 7 guys and 6 girls. The base is on the edge of the Zambezie. We can see mist from The Falls. I can’t explain how beautiful it is. We have electricity a few hours a day. We have running water from a well. It runs out a couple times a day but for the most part its dependable. We have warm water at night by heating water from a big fire place.
Last Sunday we left for “the bush.” Meaning we went to an unreached village. We were the first missionaries to come to this village that the people knew of. Many villages know of God and Jesus Christ from the time of David Livingstone but it is more a religion. They will go to church in hope to go to heaven but there is no knowledge of the power of God or a relationship with Him. Witch-Doctors are very prominent. The people know that worshiping satan is wrong but they don’t understand that that is exactly what the witch-Doctor does. We camped out in small tents in sight of the village. There was no electricity, running water, or toilet. We started out the morning with praising God, praying, and encouragement from the Bible. We would then walk about 45 min to one of the villager’s fields to work for a couple of hours. We harvested ground-nuts (peanuts) or maize (like corn). Somehow my team was always put in a maize field. This consisted of peeling the husk off the maize not knowing what would fall out of the husk. Usually 5 small roach-like bugs, maybe some spiders, will fall over my feet. For the first day I would toss it to one of the guys if there was a big spider but then I came to the conclusion that its just a bug. We would have lunch at the villager’s home and hang out with the fam. Every group had an interpreter.
In the afternoon we would have a large group gathering for the village and maybe surrounding villages to come to. There were testimonies, singing, preaching, a skit, and last we would pray for those who wanted to become a Christian or for those who needed physical healing. Usually when there is illness the person is also demon-possessed because they go to the witch doctor for healing. The first lady I prayed for wanted prayer for the pain in her legs and poor eyesight. Wezee, one of the translators, came over and started praying for her. He was like “there is a demon in her” and started praying for the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. I wasn’t too convinced but I kept praying. He was shaking her telling the demon to leave. She collapsed on the ground. Her son came over and confirmed that she has been visiting the witch doctor and is demon possessed. When she came to, we asked her about her demon and if she wanted freedom from it. She told it to leave in the name of Jesus. She had a pearl-like necklace and bracelet on. We asked her about those. They were charms for the demon. We told her that she had to take them off so she did. We then explained to her the power of Jesus Christ and the importance of turning to Him and not the witch doctor. She felt much better afterwards. Her name is Ellena. PLEASE PRAY FOR HER! There were others that were freed from demons and had physical healing. The next day, I was praying for a lady who complained of pain all over. Wezee came over and started to speak to her in tonga because she didn’t know English. He told the demon to leave then in a deep raspy voice she started to speak in English, obviously it was the demon. His name is Joseph. We told her that she had to tell Joseph to leave in the name of Jesus. She did. We prayed and counseled her for a while.
My favorite part has been working with the kids. I can’t tell you how beautiful every child is even though they are in dirty ripped clothes with dirt and body waste on them. I can’t speak more than a few words to them but you can say so much with eyesight, smiles, hugs, singing, dancing, holding hands, and piggy-back rides. These kids are so precious but its like they don’t even have a clean slate to start on. Their parents take them as a baby to the witch doctor to get protection for their health so basically they are demon possessed from the get-go. I was trying to make friends with one little girl about 6 yrs old. I drew some pictures in the sand. It took her a while to get the hang of it but she started giggling after a while. It is common for a child to have no imagination or creativity because that’s not nurtured in them. Most girls older then 6 years would have a younger sibling hanging on their back.
On Tuesday there was a pastor’s conference for some villages about an hour away that Overland had previously reached. After the preaching there was a big soccer game that brought several villages together. After some preaching we had a big feast. During the preaching and game I stayed with the women. My conclusion is that if anyone ever complains of cooking when they have a stove they are delirious. First the guys killed the chickens. Once boiled, I fried the chicken in a big pot of hot oil over the open fire. I feel like so much more of a woman after surviving hours of the African sun with hot oil splashing, tons of tears from the smoke, fire burning my toes, and the African women laughing because they could grab up a hot pot but I would have to use my shatangy (wrap skirt). At the end of the day I let them know that they are my heroes.
I wish that I could write all of you all individually and leave comments on Facebook but our broadband is so limited that it usually shuts me off whenever I try. Sorry!
There are so many stories. The people here are so hungry for the Truth. Please pray for the darkness to be broken, that the captives will be set free and that beauty will be given in place of ashes (Is 61). Pray that the truth of Gods power will be revealed.
Leza Akuleleke (God Bless You)
-Karina
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A Week in the Village
We just got back from a week in Nyawa, a Tonga village. It was about a 6 hour drive from Livingstone. It was a really great week. The people were expecting us and when we pulled up to the village, the whole village was there yelling and singing and cheering. they sang us songs and gave us a very warm greeting. We set up our campsite and slept in tents the entire week.
God really opened a great door for us the first night. One of the headmen Solomon, said that one of the boys in the village was sick. Jacob (The area manager for Overland) and Tom (Our Zambian translator), went to pray for the boy. He was laying in bed with a very rough heart beat, babbling random things. They prayed for him and after a few minutes, he sat up and told everyone he was fine. A lot of the old women thought he was lying at first.
We spent most of our days serving the people by helping them harvest maze and ground nuts in the fields. One day, a few of us helped an old widow by building her a table for her pots ... cutting down trees with axes, stripping rope from the tree bark ... my hands look like they got caught in a meatgrinder ... but they toughened up throughout the week.
We held two soccer games on separate days and had large meals of Nshema, Rape, Goat, and chicken for the entire village afterwards (We killed and prepared our own chickens and goats). We had the intention of going door to door doing evangelism, but the people were out in the fields all day. That's why we spent most of our time working in the fields along side them. We held several large meetings and gathered the village for preaching. There was already an established church there, but it was very legalistic and didn't stick much to the Gospel. A number of people made decisions to follow Christ or to rededicate their lives to Christ.
At each of these meetings we laid hands on people and prayed for them. I've never seen so many straight up miracles in my life. We prayed for dozens of people and they were all healed instantly. This really opened up a lot of doors because the rest of the week people were being brought to us for God to heal them. I really felt like an apostle in the Bible. Just last night, a group of people brought us a deaf boy and the Lord healed him instantly. There were a few demon possessed people as well, but I stayed away from that, cause I really didn't know what to do .. I just watched. The Lord really did cool things there.
The people bid us farewell this morning with gifts ... we got about 11 pumpkins, bags and bags of nuts, and they tried to give us a goat, but we didn't have room on the truck. We got home this evening and I had a shower after an entire week without one. I really appreciate toilets, too!
There are so many stories, but I can't write about all of them now. The expedition was great, and as AMT continues, the students will get more and more responsibilities on the expeditions. The final expedition, we will lead on our own without any Overland staff members. I'll write more later! Leza Mubotu (God is good!)
~Phillip.
ps. so what's everybody doing in Louisville?
We just got back from a week in Nyawa, a Tonga village. It was about a 6 hour drive from Livingstone. It was a really great week. The people were expecting us and when we pulled up to the village, the whole village was there yelling and singing and cheering. they sang us songs and gave us a very warm greeting. We set up our campsite and slept in tents the entire week.
God really opened a great door for us the first night. One of the headmen Solomon, said that one of the boys in the village was sick. Jacob (The area manager for Overland) and Tom (Our Zambian translator), went to pray for the boy. He was laying in bed with a very rough heart beat, babbling random things. They prayed for him and after a few minutes, he sat up and told everyone he was fine. A lot of the old women thought he was lying at first.
We spent most of our days serving the people by helping them harvest maze and ground nuts in the fields. One day, a few of us helped an old widow by building her a table for her pots ... cutting down trees with axes, stripping rope from the tree bark ... my hands look like they got caught in a meatgrinder ... but they toughened up throughout the week.
We held two soccer games on separate days and had large meals of Nshema, Rape, Goat, and chicken for the entire village afterwards (We killed and prepared our own chickens and goats). We had the intention of going door to door doing evangelism, but the people were out in the fields all day. That's why we spent most of our time working in the fields along side them. We held several large meetings and gathered the village for preaching. There was already an established church there, but it was very legalistic and didn't stick much to the Gospel. A number of people made decisions to follow Christ or to rededicate their lives to Christ.
At each of these meetings we laid hands on people and prayed for them. I've never seen so many straight up miracles in my life. We prayed for dozens of people and they were all healed instantly. This really opened up a lot of doors because the rest of the week people were being brought to us for God to heal them. I really felt like an apostle in the Bible. Just last night, a group of people brought us a deaf boy and the Lord healed him instantly. There were a few demon possessed people as well, but I stayed away from that, cause I really didn't know what to do .. I just watched. The Lord really did cool things there.
The people bid us farewell this morning with gifts ... we got about 11 pumpkins, bags and bags of nuts, and they tried to give us a goat, but we didn't have room on the truck. We got home this evening and I had a shower after an entire week without one. I really appreciate toilets, too!
There are so many stories, but I can't write about all of them now. The expedition was great, and as AMT continues, the students will get more and more responsibilities on the expeditions. The final expedition, we will lead on our own without any Overland staff members. I'll write more later! Leza Mubotu (God is good!)
~Phillip.
ps. so what's everybody doing in Louisville?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Safe Arrival in Livingston
We saw Phillip off at the airport on Sunday afternoon (May 3). He and Karina (a girl from our church who was also going on this trip) left from Louisville for a 30 hour trip to Livingston, Zambia via Atlanta, London, Johannesburg.
Yesterday afternoon, Phillip posted on his facebook page that he had arrived safe and sound. Then he chatted with me for a few minutes about his trip. He and Karina arrived without incident with all their luggage intact. After all our previous trips to Kenya, this truly is an amazing feat. God is good. Here is what Phillip sent to us this morning:
______
Hey everybody!! I arrived in Zambia today without any problems. I just wanted to thank everybody who has been praying and supporting me on this trip. I ask that you continue to keep me in your prayers. I will continue to update you all as things start happening.
The camp here is beautiful ... right on the edge of a cliff above the zambezi river. In the distance, you can see the smoke rising from Victoria falls. I'll be sleeping in a small one person tent for the summer. I hear that next week we'll spend the week living in a village. I'll keep you all posted and I'll be putting some pictures up soon. God Bless!
~Phil.
Here are some pictures he took.
Yesterday afternoon, Phillip posted on his facebook page that he had arrived safe and sound. Then he chatted with me for a few minutes about his trip. He and Karina arrived without incident with all their luggage intact. After all our previous trips to Kenya, this truly is an amazing feat. God is good. Here is what Phillip sent to us this morning:
______
Hey everybody!! I arrived in Zambia today without any problems. I just wanted to thank everybody who has been praying and supporting me on this trip. I ask that you continue to keep me in your prayers. I will continue to update you all as things start happening.
The camp here is beautiful ... right on the edge of a cliff above the zambezi river. In the distance, you can see the smoke rising from Victoria falls. I'll be sleeping in a small one person tent for the summer. I hear that next week we'll spend the week living in a village. I'll keep you all posted and I'll be putting some pictures up soon. God Bless!
~Phil.
Here are some pictures he took.
Phillip in Zambia
Hey folks. This is Tom LeCompte, Phillip's dad. I created this blog so that Phillip's friends can follow his progress as he spends the next three months in Zambia working with Overland Missions. He is keeping most of his friends up to date on his facebook page and his facebook group (Phillip's African Adventure). Since not everyone is on Facebook, I'm hoping that this blog will fill in the gaps and keep everyone in the loop.
Standby for more...
Tom
Standby for more...
Tom
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