Traveling for the Institute
In Memoriam of the Late Dr. Lazaro Kiriama
Dispatch Africa 2024: Traveling for the Bible Institute I loved and respected Lazaro Kiriama like a wise and learned uncle. He was well known among his peers as a gentle man of quiet strength. I enjoyed his company and never parted without having gained from it. What follows are a couple of light-hearted anecdotes to […]
Battle for the Streets of Paris
Dispatch France 2015: Traveling for the Institute Another airport, another jet, another flight for the Bible Institute. I think of entering an airport as being swallowed up into the system. Sooner or later, the system spits you out at the other end, usually with your luggage. This time it spit me out at Charles de […]
The Art of Surviving the Lost Suitcase
Dispatch Africa 2014: Traveling for the Institute Last time, I gave you “The Art of the Ice Cold Shower,” snappy tips for getting along without hot water in the wintertime near the Himalayas in Northeast India. This time, it’s surviving a lost luggage situation in East Africa near Kilimanjaro (or, “How I Represented the Bible […]
The Art of the Ice-Cold Shower
Dispatch India 2014: Traveling for the Institute A recent event (this morning) in a far away land (a jungle near the Burmese border) prompted the writing of this log entry. It’s winter here, lows in the 40s. I flew 32 hours, counting layovers, from Houston, was picked up by my regular and able driver, Alem […]
Okay, Questions Anyone?
Dispatch Indonesia 2013: A couple of weeks ago, I was in Indonesia teaching the first session of our curriculum on Soteriology (Doctrine of Salvation) to about 80 aboriginal pastors and ministry leaders. I was teaching through two interpreters. One translated my English into Indonesian, and the other translated Indonesian into the local dialect. When I […]
Nightfall over Jakarta
Dispatch Indonesia 2013: It was the oddest thing. The captain came over the intercom system and said, “It is 6:00pm, you may now break the fast.” Nothing more was said, but a low murmur rippled through the commercial aircraft’s cabin. A young man across the aisle opened his meal and began to eat. I pondered […]
Fire in the Hole!
Dispatch Indonesia 2013: I lobbed the massive IED (improvised explosive device) into their midst. Pandemonium ensued. Everyone ran for cultural cover. It was a Scripture grenade (my lecture on 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14). A sort of Molotov cocktail of truth; a Bible bazooka, if you will. I delivered the expertly-crafted IED with […]
Violence on the Border
Dispatch India 2013: After seven days of very productive work for World Hope Bible Institute (I serve as Associate Director), and basking in the pleasure of having accomplished all my objectives, I sat exhausted in my favorite chair at the home of my hostess, Amenla Jamir, and her extended family. Amenla (uh-men’-luh) serves as our […]
Above My Pay Grade
Dispatch India 2013: Yesterday, the little old man next to the church where I was teaching, a Mr. Ao (as in ouch), asked me to pray for his wife’s poor health. He was a retired evangelist, and he and Mrs. Ao had been preparing the food each day for the students (rice boiled in rain […]
Headhunters
Dispatch India 2013: Headhunters? Stuart! Nobody said ANYTHING about HEADHUNTERS! The village of Tuli (rhymes with Julie) is literally in the jungle. I mean deep river gorges that rise up more than 200 feet to palm covered peaks above the cappuccino-colored muddy waters of the Milak (sounds like “me lock”) River. The heavy green vegetation […]
The Long and Winding Road
Dispatch India 2013: I traveled for 3 days to reach the far northeast corner of India (north of Burma and east of Nepal), just below the Himalayas on the Chinese border. Grueling, I tell you, grueling. I left Houston at 2:45pm on Saturday afternoon and arrived here in Tuli (sounds like Julie) on Monday night […]
Travel Buddies
Dispatch Africa 2013: I mention him enough, so I thought I’d give you some of my keen insights. I promise that everything I am about to say is the truth, honest injun’. The right reverend apostle and prophet, Dr. Stuart L. Sheehan, is president of World Hope Ministries International and Executive Director of its Bible […]
Border Crossing
Dispatch Africa 2013: Crossing the border today from Kenya into Tanzania was a hot, boring, and uneventful affair, except for one exchange with a couple of locals which I feel compelled to confess. While waiting in the car for our papers to be approved by the border agents, or some other such business no doubt […]
Last Night Among the Maasai
Dispatch Africa 2013: I spent the day teaching the Maasai for seven hours on my feet, which included more than 2 hours of impromptu Q&A. Sublime, but I was beat. When I returned to my room at the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Guest House in Kajiado (rhymes with Colorado), I flopped onto the threadbare […]
Turning 50
Dispatch Africa 2013: Well, I turned 50 today (April 15th). I spent the day teaching systematic theology to a group of about 30 Maasai Christian pastors in the bush of southwestern Kenya, toward the Tanzanian border (I am not making this up.). It’s the raining season here, and everything is green in sub-Saharan Africa. The […]
I Met an Old Man Today
Dispatch Africa 2012: (read this one slowly, as you breathe; that’s how I took it in) The deep lines in his thick, broad, tanned face, the sad sagging of his soft gray eyes, and the uneasy shuffle of his pained and lumbering gate belied his exuberance for life, and human intimacy, and Christ. He had […]
The Boys of Botswana
Dispatch Africa 2012: Just a quick update. I am currently in Botswana Africa leading courses for the Bible Institute. Traveling with me is Dr. Pat Knowlton of Creede Baptist Church in Colorado. He is teaching Biblical Interpretation (Hermeneutics) and I am teaching Expository Preaching. The students (24 of them) are soaking it up. The Q&A […]
Disneyland
Dispatch Africa 2012: The Great Rift Valley stretches over 3,000 mi. spanning two continents from Mozambique in southern Africa across Egypt, under the Red Sea, through Israel to Syria in western Asia. It is a geological fracture in Africa’s crust so large that it can be seen from space. It is the result of two […]
Lost and Found in Nairobi and Other Oddities
Dispatch Africa 2012: When we landed in Kenya yesterday, the weather was quite warm, something or other Celsius, and our transport vehicle had no air conditioning. Duh. 3rd world. Stuart and I fiddled with the nameless vehicle’s windows for several minutes to get two of them cracked, just in the nick of time to rescue […]
On Safari in Limpopo
Dispatch Africa 2012: Well, we went from stranded on the roadside and overnight in a dumpy hostel to living the high life at Trophy Game Safaris hunting ranch outside Polokwane, where the wild game gourmet food is fabulous and the African plains vistas, dotted with gigantic termite mounds and leggy acacia trees, are breathtaking. Our […]
Two Nights Ago in the African Bush
Dispatch Africa 2012: Stuart, Johannes (yo-hawn), and I left a successful meeting with Dutch Reformed missionaries near the Mozambique/Swaziland border of far northeastern South Africa. We drove for about an hour through the mountains as the sun set. When we came down out of the mountains and drove along a remote road in the African […]
Zimbabwe is On the Map
Dispatch Africa 2012: Dr. Sheehan and I representing, World Hope Bible Institute, gathered with national leaders from 3 Baptist conventions on a wild game preserve conference facility near Gweru, Zimbabwe in a historic meeting to consider launching a Bible institute to provide theological education for indigenous pastors who have no other training option. The meeting […]
Good Morning, Johannesburg
Dispatch Africa 2012: Dr. Stuart Sheehan and I arrived last night and got a good night’s rest. We leave this morning for Zimbabwe for a meeting to organize a new campus for the Bible Institute. World Hope Bible Institute trains local pastors in 3rd world countries. I am here in Africa to teach systematic theology […]