Assignment: CENTRAL AFRICA

November 30 - December 14, 2006

 

Mission Accomplished!

click here for the trip report

 

                                                                      DR Congo flag (from Feb 2006)

                Burundi                                    Rwanda                     Dem. Rep. of The Congo

 

This Winter the Prisoners For Christ Outreach Ministries team left the United States on a short term missions trip to eight prisons in Central Africa. The mission was an extension of Christian compassion, combining encouragement, teaching and practical helps to both inmate and local ministry. The countries attend were The Democratic Republic of The Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. We flew into and out of Kenya (but no specific ministry was scheduled there) with a stop over both ways in Amsterdam, Holland.

  

After being a part of the Christian Community for 29 years, and being a missionary to the jails and prisons of Washington State for 28 years, I embarked on my first foreign field mission trip. I have been preparing for this trip for nearly three decades!

 

My first prison experience was in the late 70s. At the time I and a number of athletes played sports year-round at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, WA. While there I felt a clear call to ministry in jails and prisons. That desire had only gotten stronger over the years. (Look closely at the prison picture in the hyperlink above - notice the athletic field? I was in the outfield - right field - when this call came on a hot summer day.)

 

In Central Africa I shared my testimony and preached to thousands of inmates, and with the volunteers we have in Africa I taught many fundamentals of prison ministry (three different groups in three countries).

 

The Prisoners For Christ Team that I went with are all personal friends of mine and we’ve ministered together for years. In all there were seven of us going; three had made the trip before, for four of us it was the first time. My responsibilities include medic specialist (I was ready for minor surgery if needed and did dispense some medical aid!) and historian and statistician, and "mule specialist," meaning I carried a lot of the monies we used on the trip.

 

The leadership at Prisoners For Christ asked me to attend this trip. To do this I entered into a new dimension in my Christian walk and that is ministry on foreign soil and also partnering with friends to raise support for this effort.

 

The expenses per person were best estimated at $3,550. This included travel (planes, busses, vans), meals, lodging, and the purchase of much humanitarian aid on-site for use in the prisons, as well as Bibles for prisoners. My employer opened the door for me to go by providing to me the time off. To complete the project, I looked to friends who believe in this effort and chose to participate by prayer and/or giving. Never before have I asked anyone for financial support, but now I did, and the response was overwhelming! There was enough excess support to allow more in-country humanitarian aid - Thank You So Much!

 

It is good to let you know that in addition to the spiritual aspect of this mission trip, that we also provide practical helps as well. We provided 1,025 bars of soap and almost a half-ton of food staples (maize, sugar, beans, rice). All of this was joyfully received by the prison administration and inmate alike. Each person on the ministry team also brought a suitcase of gifts to leave with the native pastors - including clothes, reading and prescription glasses (an excellent idea given to me by one of the donors), shoes, assorted items (even candy), and some toys for their children. We even left radios, baseball hats and hiking boots.

 

We visited the Genocide Memorial in Rwanda. Man's inhumanity to man is without limits, but so to is the love of God without limits, and "where sin did abound, grace did much more abound." The land is recovering, and the people have God's good hand on them.

 

I was one of only two persons going on the trip with children at home; all others are “empty nesters.” Yet if I waited until our kids were grown and out of the house, I’d likely never go. And it was in my heart to go. I was asked to go, and I had something to offer. Because of the kindness and support of so many I was able to go and to do some good in a place where a lot of good was needed and was appreciated.

 

Ongoing tax-deductible donations for the people of Africa should be made directly to Prisoners For Christ, PO Box 1530, Woodinville, WA 98072-1530. It can be done on-line at www.pfcom.org.

 

Enjoy the photos below from past PFC Africa Missions Trips! I do hope you'll read my journal from the trip, though long it has a daily account of life on the mission field for this team, including some pictures from this campaign!

 

With kindest regards,

Bob Jordan

 

 

Thank you donors! Your confidence in this project and your kindness and generosity toward me and this work is a tremendous blessing!! 37 Donor Families: RCB, Dr. D&JH, R&MW, B&JW, J&DT, BFM, F&MS PE, DS, N&GH, Rev. LB, CJR Esq., JF, S&CR, J&LW, E&VS, Rev. R&RM, Dr. C&RF, D&KW, SAS, T&BL, G&GF, Dr. PJJ III, Rev R&DC, D&LJ, LB, G&SH, S&DS, D&DS, G&GM, D&MP, M&BM, Rev. J&DE, VA, T&JD, C&JS, R&KD, S&VB... Other dear friends who called or wrote to wish me well and include me in their thoughts and prayers are Dr. H&SG, Ch. GG, Ch. JP, PTB, T&LS, CM, RE, CIA, PAR... Thank you all for your prayers, your well-wishes, and your friendship, one and all, everyone who reads this and who was on the original mailing!

 

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