March in Africa

Hello folks!! These last six weeks have just flown by! I think I must say that every month, but the Lord is working in Africa and we LOVE being able to join Him in that work!! Recently I heard a staggering statistic that 76 percent of the people in Africa are under the age of 31! Can you believe? At J-Life our “target audience” are the youth of Africa and that is 76 percent of them! Wow! It seems almost overwhelming when you think about it, but we serve a BIG God and He is able! We spent most of February getting ready for our J-Life International Summit. Our country leaders and key people began arriving mid to late February. We were so excited to be able to spend time with our people and be able to see them face to face. We had people from 17 African countries, Costa Rica, USA, and Canada. The quotes above are from three of our leaders across Africa. Part of David’s job is using his business skills he has learned over the last 20 years in management. Many of our leaders are trained in the word of the Lord and how to teach that, but they are not well trained in the business of ministry. David spent many hours at the computer getting ready documents of how to conduct the business part of ministry. J-Life is growing and we are super excited to see where the Lord is leading our ministry, but we must continually train, encourage and lead our leaders across Africa. David spent about 2 weeks at Camp Eden during the Summit. It is much easier to stay overnight than drive back and forth every day. This allowed him more time to pour into our guys (that’s my affectionate term for them) and gals. The children and I stayed at home and I went over several days as well as all of us spending the weekend at Camp Eden. It is so inspiring to hear stories of the Lord working across Africa. Mike, from Tanzania, grew up in a Muslim home and came to Christ as a teenager. As you may imagine, he was persecuted greatly and shunned from his family. His family now is the Lord’s family of believers. He works fervently to make friendships and relationships with young people knowing that if they accept Christ, they also will face many of the things he faced. There have been several in the last year come to Christ. This is amazing as Mike continues to use what he has learned about Jesus’ life and his ministry.