Though Rwanda and Uganda were tough months for our team, I saw each person shine in their giftings and passions in at least one way in these incredible months. Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls I present to the All Star Team Olive Tree.
Caleb Dawson
This man’s passions and gifts shined very early on in our ministry in Rwanda, while we played games with the kids. Caleb was a children’s pastor back home and he spent almost half of his life doing children’s ministry in his church and I can tell you that it shows very evidently in the way he is with kids. If you have spent much time with Caleb and kids, you know how good he is at not only just playing games and acting silly which anyone can do, but also coming up with impromptu games and narrating stories. The energy he brings to a crowd of kids and the confidence he has, I am sure points kids to Jesus as well as pushes me to break beyond my comfort zone with kids.
Jacob Ormonde
In Rwanda, it gave me great joy seeing his pursuit of wisdom, specifically on how to achieve his dream of starting a technical school for people in Africa who couldn’t afford university, but still wanted a specialized education that gave them more employment opportunities and options than they would normally have. Our hosts in Rwanda started their own secondary school from scratch and I remember how much time he spent asking them questions about how they did what they did and documenting it all in his journal. He is also very entrepreneurial and was concocting several ideas in his head on how to make a business to fund his ministry of the school as well as putting together business plans for the purpose of building a school that will impact lives. It was through that it occurred to me that love is not only the external expression of interest and care for people, but also the application of the mind in looking for innovative ways to meet people’s needs and improve people’s lives. Jake is very gifted at planning and being innovative and applying his deep well of knowledge for the betterment of people’s lives.
Joseph Cronin
I had the privilege of going on home visits with him, during the first week of ministry in Rwanda and I remember seeing his spiritual gift of exhortation really come alive when we encountered a woman whose husband and child were killed during the 1992 Rwanda genocide and who was having difficulty having children which she desperately wanted. I remember him just bringing encouragement to this woman’s life and her just breaking out into tears just by our presence there and how hopeless she was feeling, but he helped her remember the hope she has in Jesus. In addition, during our time in Uganda, whose sole job was to take rocks and break them into pieces and sell them. After Joseph had the opportunity to visit his home and see how he lived, he felt so much compassion for him that he went and bought him so food and brought us all to his house so we could pray for him. God burdens his heart for people who are suffering and gives him opportunities to bring encouragement and generosity to their lives.
Colby Wayenburg
My favorite part of spending the month of Rwanda with Colby was seeing him come alive in his passion, gifting and I believe calling to create awareness and honor God through his photography. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, Colby helped our host set up a website by taking individual portrait pictures in order to help the kids get sponsors. It was truly amazing to see him get the opportunity to excel at what he wants to do in the future for an NGO like World Vision or Compassion. I know as God continues to shape and mold Colby into his vessel, that he is going to use him in mighty ways to help bring awareness as well as the necessary help and support to social issues.
Will Schneider
This man blew me away in Uganda with some of the most memorable experiences I have had on the race. The month of Uganda was our ask the Lord month, which means that we did not have a ministry host giving us ministry to do every day, instead we needed to find ministry based on time we would spend with the Lord that morning asking the God what he wanted us to do that day. We would wait for a response and then we would go and do whatever we heard God say for that day. From the beginning, Will heard that he was supposed to go talk to some fishermen on lake Victoria. He tried a few times to go out there and every time it just didn’t work out. Then, on one of the last days of ministry, we went out on the lake found a fishing village, Will got to share his story and Jesus with them and we had the opportunity to give some of the guys we met some bibles. No one in that village had ever owned a bible and they were so excited to have one that we had a bible study right there as soon as we brought them. All because Will had the faith and boldness to pursue the ministry he felt God calling him to from the beginning of the month.
As the race is coming to a close and I reflect on all God has done in and through these guys, I wouldn’t have chosen anyone else to spend the last 6 months with. Though it was far from perfect, I believe we all grew tremendously over the course of our time together as a team and became what God wanted us to be from the beginning. I was only able to sum up briefly how I saw each person contribute to our strength as a team.
