MISSION AIMS
We had two objectives to our visit:-

1. To link up three church leaders who head churches across Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Kenya and Tanzania;

2. To encourage a group of pastors in Tanzania through spiritual support and teaching.

NB: This report will sometimes refer to the three church leaders as 'bishops'. The word 'bishop' in Africa is often used simply to mean a leader who has several churches under his headship. It shouldn't be confused with the denominational hierarchy that we're more familiar with.

Bishop Sadiki Zacharie - head of the Family of God churches in Rwanda and other countries around the Great Lakes region. Sadiki has been involved with us for over six years - see the Family of God web pages to see more of his story.	Bishop John Bosco Muchanga - head of Christ Alive Churches in Kenya. We first met John Bosco last December, and assisted him in a Nairobi street crusade in May. Click here to see more about the May visit.	Bishop Hezron Ntizompeba - head of churches across Tanzania, including several in refugee camps. Hezron and Sadiki have been close friends from childhood. This visit was the first time we had met him.

1. LINKING THE LEADERS
The objective of linking up the three church leaders - pictured above - came after a revelation on the opening verses of Isaiah 54. Here God says,

"Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities." (Isa 54.2-3)

The stakes in the vision represent the bishops, working with and supporting each other to hold up a covering for the Kingdom of God over Central and East Africa. Our prayer for these three men was that they would lay the foundations for loving, supportive relationships to help each other's ministries across Africa, and so enlarge and strengthen the covering of God's kingdom over Africa.

Mission accomplished?
Overall, the picture was hugely encouraging. Hezron, John Bosco and Sadiki worked well together, had times of good fellowship and made plans to visit one another in each other's countries, to encourage and inspire each other's ministries.

It wasn't all plain sailing, however - as there so often are in these kind of missions, there were difficulties and misunderstandings. By the grace of God, these problems were an opportunity for 'speaking the truth in love' to one another (Eph 4.15). At some point during the visit we all had to confess a failing or (more trickily) point out a perceived shortcoming in someone else. We saw God using these moments to allow the Holy Spirit to enter the relationships and actually make them stronger. Hallelujah!

2. ENCOURAGING THE PASTORS
We spent two days giving spiritual support and encouragement to a team of pastors of Hezron's churches across Tanzania. Despite some logistical difficulties, the conference really blessed us as well as the pastors. Many of them have contacted Hezron since to express their thanks and appreciation for how it helped. You can read more about the conference here.