{"id":3106,"date":"2023-02-05T10:07:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T17:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:01:56","slug":"holly-returns-to-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2023\/02\/05\/holly-returns-to-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Holly returns to Africa!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the Gulu network with my bride!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

11 years ago, the Belz family made a hasty departure from our home, and our life, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa. This was due to health issues Holly had developed, and little did we know it would be many years before Holly would be able to return. However, in God’s perfect time and way, Holly and I have just returned from her inaugural return trip to Africa. “Man plans out his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” (Prov. 16:9)<\/p>\n

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After flying for two days and two nights to land in Uganda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With joy in my heart, I report that she did exceedingly well in all aspects and was able to bless many other women and children from the communities and associated with the networks. She led a devotional time for abused women, led prayer times, encouraged many of the women and children, and \u201ctested the waters,\u201d confirming that she is able to return to Africa and thrive in a cross-cultural context. Praise God with us for this significant answer to prayer.<\/p>\n

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Holly is a magnet for African kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Holly with participants in our Iganga program<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Holly participated in both our workshops as well as working with women and children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Holly with Millie Grace, a coordinator’s wife in Gulu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, Pastor Aaron and I trained in two networks, one in Gulu in the north, and one in Iganga to the east. We taught the Whole Story of the Bible, a workshop our team recently rewrote. The participants thoroughly enjoyed the training, and seemed to grasp the transformative principles of seeing every passage in view of the Whole Story of the Bible, and using the Whole Story to move them from the message to the original readers toward a relevant message for us today. Both networks are actively reproducing the workshops, training other preachers and ministry leaders in their communities and all the way up to refugee camps near South Sudan. A couple of the coordinators shared their testimony: Andrew from Iganga commented, \u201cThis Pathways training is more useful than all the Bible school training I\u2019ve received in the past. It is simpler, more practical, and more reproducible.\u201d Coordinator Charles said, \u201cThis is the best and most important training, more important than anything else I do. (Sidenote \u2013 Charles does a lot of other work.) I could see myself working at this training for the rest of my life as my primary calling.\u201d\u00a0It was a truly positive experience training this network as the \u201clightbulbs clicked on\u201d and the participants gave testimony that what they were learning would transform not only their personal spiritual life, but also their preaching and their ministries. The Whole Story workshop has that potential, so this was very encouraging.<\/p>\n

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One of the highlights of the Whole Story workshop was seeing the enjoyment of the participants as they acted out our one sentence definition\u00a0 of the Whole Story (with gestures we taught them): \u201cThe Bible is the story of God and His progressive plan to redeem a sinful people to Himself, through Christ, by the Spirit, for His glory.\u201d<\/p>\n

http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Whole-Story-in-Uganda.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Praise and worship times during the training were awesome!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Worship-in-Gulu.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

On the way back to the airport, we stopped in Jinja at the source of the Nile:<\/p>\n

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Praise God for His grace in allowing us to return together to our beloved continent and African brothers and sisters. Thank you for your faithful and fervent prayers over the years. God is good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 years ago, the Belz family made a hasty departure from our home, and our life, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa. This was due to health issues Holly had developed, and little did we know it would be many years before Holly would be able to return. However, in God’s perfect time and … Continue reading Holly returns to Africa!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-family-updates","category-mission-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3120,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}