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Spring 2008 Newsletter
Mission Report Thu May 1, 2008, 4:34 pm by Branden Petersen
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Africa '08 Update.
It's been more than two months since we've returned from Africa and I'm finally getting around to sending this report! It was a great spring for all of us at Infusion Ministries and it started with our trip to Swaziland. Thank you to everyone who supported the trip financially and with your prayers! It was truly a dream come true for me to be a part of such a significant international experience.
On February 3, the first group from Collin Creek Community Church left for Manzini, Swaziland, for three weeks of worship ministry. Here is a brief overview of the trip.
Week 1
The first week was spent working with Emmanuel Wesleyan Bible College. Our pastor, Blair Ritchey, spoke for a series of chapel services on "Sunergos Leadership." "Sunergos Leadership" is a compelling spiritual leadership training series that Blair has developed over the past several years. Jenn and I led worship for the services and taught three days of worship classes for the ministerial students.
Also during the first week, Jenn and I did a series of television and radio interviews to promote the concerts the following week. On Thursday, the rest of the group from Collin Creek arrived to begin preparations for week 2.
Saturday Worship Concert
Week 1 culminated on Saturday with a mass concert involving several area worship teams. It was our first taste of African worship. Africans love music! And this proved to be the best way to begin to develop the unity between the teams that would participate in the next week's concerts.
Week 2
The second week started on Sunday with a great worship service with our partner church, Manzini Christian Community Church. Monday was our one day-off spent at Mkaya, a nearby wildlife game reserve. Tuesday was spent passing out 2000 flyers all around Manzini. This was a faith stretching experience for our team! Wednesday was the big "dress rehearsal" day for following three days' concerts. It was a challenge to work through several technical issues, but God helped us to resolve them.
Indvumiso Celebration
Thursday was the day for which we had been planning for two years! The first concert of "Indvumiso Celebration" was held from 4 to 6 pm in Millennium Park in Manzini. It was a rush of adrenaline and a wonderful time of worship. We were actually playing a concert in Africa! Friday followed with another concert, and "Indvumiso Celebration" concluded on Saturday with a full day of concerts in the park (and in the sun!).
Week 3
Our final couple of days started with goodbyes to the team from Manzini Christian Community Church at the morning worship service. It was an emotional time, to say the least. Two teams had become one over the past two weeks, and now it was time to say goodbye to our new friends. Sunday afternoon and evening were spent debriefing the trip and packing. The time went by so quickly, but we were physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. God is faithful, and many Swazi and American lives were changed through our experience in Swaziland. Monday and Tuesday were travel days back to Texas.
Final Thoughts
My life was marked significantly on this trip. This was a five-year dream come true for me, and couldn't have imagined a better team with which to experience it. Ever since my first missions experience in 1998, I knew that God wanted to use me on the mission field to help connect North American artists with what God is doing around the world. Thank you to everyone who supported the trip financially and through your prayers. We couldn't have done it without you!
Branden and the Infusion Ministries Team
Africa Team
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Post #10 Blair's Blog -- I'm With The Band!
Mission Report Sat Feb 16, 2008, 3:41 pm by Blair Ritchey
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1) We knew today was going to be a difficult day -- outdoor concert from 10 AM to 4:00 PM -- sunny summer day in Swaziland. There are reasons why we don't schedule outdoor concerts in Texas in August. Remember that sermon on perseverance? We lived that one today. I was so proud of our team. Talk about over and above the call of duty! Somebody was praying for us -- we were carried on the wings of those prayers. Swazi's love music and it was after 5:00 PM before the last verse of WOW marked the end of the 3-day Indvumiso Celebration. Throughout the day we were able to introduce a lot of people to the ministry of a new Wesleyan Church here in Manzini and celebrate that the Kingdom of God has invaded the Kingdom of Swaziland!
2) We were buoyed this morning with the news that during yesterday's concert, two of the Bible College students who were working the crowd led 2 people to Christ! The layout of the park made it difficult to do a more traditional altar call. So the idea of having workers work the crowd was really effective. Our team had agreed to leave the outcomes to God but we all knew that if 1 person's eternity was changed, the trip would be worth it all. Yea, God for what we will learn in eternity about the fruit of this trip.
3) Africans love to worship and they are much more comfortable with using their bodies in worship than most westerners. The church I grew up in viewed clapping as inappropriate for church. Africans rarely clap but that's because their bodies are too busy doing other things that express their praise to God. They do it with such grace and rhythm, which is probably why most westerners don't do it -- we don't have much grace and rhythm! Our concerts were a mixture of Collin Creek worship and Seswati worship. They loved our music but they really love their own music. During several of the Seswati songs today, "Congo lines" of women and even a few men spontaneously came out of the crowd down onto the stage level and brought participative worship to a new level! Rumors that white Wesleyan pastors were caught with happy feet will be denied vociferously -- especially if I get a hold of the video!
4) One of the treats for the Swazi's was to have a band of accomplished musicians perform for them. Our band really rocked today. Hit 117 on the decibel meter -- hey, it was an outdoor concert!!!! Mark Spalding had a few guitar solos that brought the house down. Ryan Lipman on bass even did a rare bass guitar solo -- make sure you ask to see ALL the pictures of the band! The Swazi's have a name for our drummer Matt Tinonga: He is now MANDLA, which is Swazi for "POWER." We are trying not to let this go to Matt's head. But during intermission today a man who is a drummer at a nearby church came with his pastor's little boy to the stage. When Matt gave the man his set of drumsticks, the man acted like he had been given a treasure. He even asked Matt to sign them. The pastor's little boy also is an aspiring drummer, so when he got to sit in Matt's seat and bang the drum, you could tell it was a memory for this little boy. Maybe Matt won't need humbling after all! These Swazi's really touched his heart.
5) Edith Toga is the wife of the principal here at the Bible College. She is also an enthusiastic worshiper and the leader of the WOW cult. Unfortunately she is not a very lucky woman, because though we gave away a bunch of CD's, her name was never called. But Edith is also an excellent cook and we were treated one night to her specialty of curry chicken rice and the most wonderful chicken balls on earth. So our resourceful team made her day when we bartered 2 CD's for her recipes! Maybe it is better to be good than lucky!
6) Before we left the States, our missionary Rick Cox asked a couple of us to get an international driver's license. So Branden and I ventured over to AAA and for got an IDL. We didn't have to take a test or anything -- for we can now drive anywhere in the world for the next year. The problem here in Swaziland is that they drive on the wrong side of the road. But it is not politically correct to say they are wrong, so I guess they drive on the right side of the road -- only that's not true because they drive on the left. So you can imagine how confusing this is to somebody like me. But left turns on red are legal here. Right turns on red are a bit more dangerous! When I drive over here I try to make sure I follow the car in front of me, which usually works unless the person in front of me isn't going where I want to go. Sometimes it takes me longer to get where I want to go. But the most common mistake is that when you use your turn signal, the windshield wipers go on. Everything's opposite in the car. I was so proud that not once did I turn the windshield wipers on while making a turn. Unfortunately, I discovered that the windshield wipers don't come on when you use the turn signal! Oh well, there goes my striving for perfection. I think I'll let Jeannine drive home from the airport on Tuesday!
7) Thanks for reading our blogs -- we are so exhausted that we can't seem to fall asleep. But blogging makes me sleepy! See y'all soon.
Thanks for praying,
Blair
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Post #9 Blair's Blog: Throwing a LifeLine
Mission Report Fri Feb 15, 2008, 3:36 pm by Blair Ritchey
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1) Round 2 of the Indvumiso Celebration is now history. A light but enthusiastic crowd braved the hot sun, and in spite of an amp that didn't like the heat any more than the crowd, we managed another great night of praise and witness. We keep adding a few prospects to the church plant and Pastor Jim Machuku is encouraged, predicting that Saturday will be the best day. We go from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, so any prayers you can offer for our stamina would be appreciated. A few clouds and a light breeze wouldn't be too bad either. Knowing this team, we'll be giving it our all. I just hope the rickety stage lasts as long as we do! When the speakers are swaying with the choir, that's a problem! I think the guy built a 3-day stage -- I just hope he didn't cut any corners. A 2-and-a-half day stage would be disastrous!
2) The Swazi's love WOW! By far, the favorite song of the concert is WOW! We save it for the finale, but we've created this cult of African women who started chanting for WOW half way through the concert. Then when we finally did play WOW, they went crazy. The band hit the last chord and they started chanting: WE WANT MORE! A WOW encore ensued. We do this CD giveaway at the end of the concert and when one of these ladies wins a CD it's like mayhem -- they mob each other in celebration. You cannot have more fun at a concert than this little African WOW Cult -- at least not legally!
3) Africans have cool names. The lead singer of the Manzini worship team is Senzo. How cool would it be to go through life as Senzo! When I go to heaven I hope to have a voice like Senzo's. It's even more awesome than his name. If I can't have his voice, maybe I can have his name! Senzo is assisted by Cosmo and Salviso. Guy's names are cooler than the the girl's names -- I can't pronounce the girl's names.
4) Throwing a LifeLine: 4 years ago I was flying over Africa and God gave me the LifeLine Vision. Tonite I preached about the LifeLine to our Swazi audience. The LifeLine is a cross-cultural principle -- God's Spirit, God's Word and God's People coming together in a park in Manzini, Swaziland. Yea, God!
5) One of the American missionaries has adopted a Swazi orphan. Matthias is a 4 year old who aspires to be a preacher. Today, he stood up in his living room (He has this little pulpit in his house) and informed his mother that he wanted to preach like Pastor Blair. Then he started, "Howdy, y'all. Christ didn't die for the godly -- he died for the ungodly." I like this kid!
6) 9:00 PM is known as "Missionary Midnight" over here. Tonite we are all so tired that we are all missionaries. It's 9:05 PM and time for bed! Thanks for praying, Collin Creek!
Love,
Blair
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Post #8 Blair's Blog: I Know How You Feel, Mr. Wesley!
Mission Report Thu Feb 14, 2008, 3:31 pm by Blair Ritchey
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1) The focus of our trip has been 3 days of outreach concerts in Manzini that got off to a tremendous start tonight. The crowd was enthusiastic and since we had no idea what to expect we were even pleased with the modest numbers. It's hard to get a count in an outdoor park - many people just stopped to listen as they walked by. Most importantly, Pastor Jim Machuku reported about 15 new contacts for his church planting project. That's a big "Yea, God!" We have some good momentum heading into Friday and Saturday.
2) These guys are good! I am so proud of our team. The tech guys pulled off a miracle -- logistics are always a challenge and Manzini, Swaziland is a long way from Plano! The band was hot -- something about letting it all out in the park is sweetness to guitar players and drum bangers! I love how our worship team has bonded to our African brothers and sisters. They sounded awesome tonight. I wish we could bring them all to Plano -- do you think an upper middle class technoburb is ready for this? Collin Creek Community Church: you would be so proud of your ambassadors. These guys are putting it out and God is blessing. Keep up your prayers!
3) The weather prayer worked! We have had a lot of rain the last couple of days and as we were setting up for an outdoor concert, the humidity was building and rain clouds were threatening all around. Just in case you didn't know this: rain is not good for outdoor concerts. I usually save my weather prayers for the golf course, but it was good to see God's mercy and grace as the rain stayed away and we managed to get the first round in. Yea, God!
4) John Wesley made a career of preaching out in the streets and fields of England. What a lot of people don't know is that Wesley despised field preaching. He was a high church man who believed the sacred book belonged behind the sacred desk. But God had other plans for Wesley and the revival that God sent as a result of his obedience in taking the Word to the people is the stuff of history. Today was my first attempt at field preaching. While I am certainly not in Wesley's league, it was great to sense the power of the LifeLine at work here in Swaziland. The Spirit of God, the Word of God and the prayers of God's people made field preaching a joy to this preacher, who was certainly out of his comfort zone today.
5) Seswati Texan: that's what happens when a crazy Texas preacher tries to teach a bunch of Swazi's to speak in Texan. It went something like this: I say: Sunebonani, all-y'all, Swaziland!" They say, "Yebo, Y'all!" Believe it or not, the Swazi's had a blast trying to speak Texan. Wonder if I can teach them how to say "Yunse!"
6) Today is Valentine's Day. Swazi's also celebrate Valentine's Day. This was the first time in 34 years that I've celebrated Valentine's day apart from my Valentine. But oceans and continents cannot separate true love. At our devotional time this morning, Dawn presented us all with a surprise package of cards and notes from our friends and family back in Texas. We were all in tears and it really fired us up for a great day of ministry. Love is a pretty incredible thing. What a privilege to tell Swaziland about a perfect love that has come to heal our broken love. Hope you have time this Valentine's Day to soak in a little of God's perfect love for you (1 John 3:1)!
7) Being on a mission trip with a bunch of artists is weird. When artists are all keyed up they play "Name this song" and sing songs from old movies. I think I'm going to bed!
Love,
Blair
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