Great Expectations: Follow a Special East Africa Trip

Mike Fox and I have a small team arriving now in this East Africa trek.  Mike Helmuth is with us.  Our two Global Development Managers, Tate Williams and Scott Kice, are here for this work.  We’ll meet up with our E. African Field Director, Alison Barfoot.

We just arrived wheels down at Stop 1, Kampala, Uganda, and are about to de-board.  My rear’s hurting from the flights and I’ve got some other slight discomfort.  (Guy next to me with the aisle seat sleeps real well and apparently need not awaken.)  Fox is all cramped up – he just rode a grueling 56 mile bike race in San Juan – but looking surprisingly fresh.  Lord, we are excited.

This is no ordinary trip for us.  For two years, even through the devastating earthquake in Haiti, we’ve been preparing for this deeper call to the East African region. Now is the time, and so we touch down, back “home” in Uganda, with great expectations.

We’ll spend the next three days in Kampala meetings laying foundation for this new season in GO Project’s commitment to go where the Lord leads.

On Friday, we’ll go to our world’s newest nation in formation, Southern Sudan, struggling in poverty and conflict, but also bursting with promise.  We are here to explore regional expansion through a single, starter seed, longing to help the local church in Sudan care for her children.  Small beginnings.  Big hope.

On Sunday, we travel to Ethiopia to continue the regional expansion journey we’ve worked towards.  We have five days of incredible opportunity.  The Lord has opened so many doors to us here.  Pastor Fred Herron from Vineyard Church is coming to Ethiopia for these meetings, as the Vineyard Movement has delved deeply into Ethiopia.

I will blog daily to keep you posted throughout this trip.  Through the twists.  Through facts and nuance.  Through the leading of our hearts.

We can really use your prayers for safety, discernment, and a vision that sees past limiting fear.

God willing, when all is said and done in this trip, we’ll have an exciting announcement to make.

Time to get out of my seat, to the toilet, and off the plane.  We’ll talk soon.

Joe