MISSIONS 2024 MOTHER SHIP

  This blog post will be updated throughout the week. Stay tuned.  You can also follow our recent journey at our Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest pages:  <curtiles> It’s a word I love:   Journey.   It can be a trip of a thousand miles.  Or in the last two weeks, 2000 km.  That’s a journey. Or a journey can be the distant from …

6 Words that keep my feet on the ground . . . and my grip tight. MY CURRENT words are  1.   My Jesus-Walk 2.   Living Gratefully 3.   Learning Passionately 4.   Connecting! 5/6.  Impact and Influence.    I’ve developed the habit of using 6 words to help focus my life. Africa is no different than America.  There are so many things that can divert our …

How is the grass on your path?   But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private . . . -Jesus  in Matthew 6:6   When an African becomes a Jesus-Follower*, he is taught the importance of having a private place to pray.  They will find a location in …

If you’d like to subscribe to our blog, click here.  The Dinka are best known for their great love of their cattle. We’re looking for some Southern Jesus-loving Cattlemen to come over and share the Gospel with them!   How you can pray this week. I will be travelling with four young men who are moving up into South Sudan …

In our latest Open Hands Africa newsletter, I quote my favorite poem from my best-loved American poet, Robert Frost. I’ll feature it on a future blog as well as my second best-loved poet.  You’ll be surprised. Reminder: Don’t go into the Bush without your light, batteries, and battery-operated fan! Packing Light   “Don’t get on the plane with any regrets.” – …

Tuesday’s Blog:  Remembering and Forgetting     It’s a face only a mother could love. They usually describe Jackson’s Hartebeest as “horse-faced.” That’s not a compliment where I come from. But it’s the most memorable of all of the animals we saw. On our recent game park visit, we saw thousands of animals in western Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park. …

Ground Truthing and Eternity-shaping Decisions   It’s the most difficult par of our job as an Engagement* Team for South Sudan. Which tribes/people groups are truly Unreached?   Whom do we seek to reach first?   What church(s) in America or Africa will commit to stand in the gap for the Unreached Group. Eternal decisions hang in the balance.  Deciding …

Saturday Blog 21 Sept 2013 Thanks to all of you who are praying for my health.  I’m much better today and I attribute it to your prayers. I have a good African doctor (she looks about twenty but knows her stuff) and good medicine. But prayer is the best medicine of all. Also, as I write this, a couple we …

I’m often asked, “What’s your favorite thing about Africa?” I smile. “It’s the people. The warm smiles when they realize you’re not an unfriendly “mzungu” (white man) but a person who has come to build a relationship and learn from them.” Are there things I don’t like about Africa?  Sure. I could make a pretty long list of those also. …

Scroll down through this history to read “Another Iles Comes Home to Sugartown.”   It was once called “The Queen of the Frontier.” There’s not much there now. But it once was the only civilisation between Alexandria and Orange, Texas. It’s called Sugartown.  At one time it was known for much more than just sweet watermelons.   History of Sugartown, …

Daddy   The first time she used the word while praying, it startled me.  I’d never heard the word Daddy used like that.   “Daddy, I want to come to you today in love and gratitude.”   She was a college student working with us at Dry Creek Camp.  For now, I’ll call her “Ty.”   Ty was a great …

Tony’s Hand   Tony gripped my hand as we started across the busy highway.  Vehicles, boda-bodas (motorcycles) and bicycles sped past in both directions as well as on each shoulder.   He carefully guided me across the Kampala-Entebbe Road.   I thought of Solomon’s words in scripture:  “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of …

Posted below is an series of stories about an American group’s work among the Dinka tribe of South Sudan. Called the Nehemiah Team, this student group worked in and out of the Cattle Camps of the world’s newest country. If you’re interested in how you and your church can be involved in South Sudan, feel free to contact us at  …

It’s a good word.  Seek. It’s a double-first cousin of another good word. Search. Seek. Search. Sought. Strive. Hunt for.   It’s a word with a sense of passion . . . maybe even a sense of desperation.   It’s different from looking. Looking can be a relaxed word. Seeking has an intensity to it. Similar words from a thesaurus …