Good morning, friends!

I have just returned from spending the past five days at an African conference hosted by Samaritan Strategy. In the conference, about 100 African pastors gathered together to discuss how to blend theology with practice, specifically in the area of community development. Jesus was abundantly clear over and over that for us to truly grasp the Gospel means we’ll be helping those around us in practical ways. In addition, the Gospel advances most effectively when people not only hear about our love, but when they see and feel our love.

In connecting with many African pastors, we were able to stimulate some strategic thinking about how to grow our equipping ministry in Dar es Salaam and beyond through training in these areas. Although this conference was three hours away in Morogoro, we hope to do similar training in our city, and also take it to many other hubs spread throughout East Africa. Transformational development is such a buzz word these days throughout the continent (and maybe beyond), and we would do well to look at a balanced approach for integrating our theology and practice.

By God’s grace, we’ll continue to explore how to love others, not only in word, but also in deed.

Pressing on, Eric