Kome Island, Tanzania - Adult Ministry and Crusade
They were detained to stay through Sunday and managed to leave at dawn on Monday.  The five additional adults who were supposed to arrive on the island early afternoon did not show up at around 2 or 3 PM, as scheduled.  We heard from Pastor Patrick that there is no boat on Sunday, and the five adult members of our team were coming through Sengerema.  I later learned that Sengerema is at the opposite direction from Mwanza, and it is the closest inland port to Kome Island.  There is a ferry boat between Kome Island and Sengerema that carries people and cars.  Therefore, this is not the most direct way between Mwanza and Kome Island.  Also they have to ride a ferry one more time right before Mwanza because there is a deep bay just outside Mwanza and between Mwanza and Sengerema.  The direct route by boat between Mwanza and Kome Island takes about four hours, but the route through Sengerema takes more than twelve hours due to longer distance and rough roads and the time for waiting for ferries.  The people of Kome Island were gathered together to welcome those five additional member of our team, and they were singing and dancing outside in the open starting about 2 PM, and continued singing and dancing, waiting for those five coming through Sengerema.  They were mostly women.  There is no shade for them, and no building they can wait inside.  They were singing and dancing on the sandy ground.  Our people did not appear even at 5 PM, but they continued singing and dancing.  They stopped singing and dancing just before 6 PM.  A little after 6 PM the five members of our team finally arrived with Pastor Muheta of Sangerema.  As soon as they arrived, people gathered again and welcomed them with singing and dancing.  Our team members had left Mwanza at about 6 AM, and they got stranded at Sangerema because no one in the group could speak Kswahili, and they somehow contacted Mwanza Christian Center and Rev. Paul Kim contacted the Christian Life World Mission Frontier coordinator at Sengerema that happened to be Pastor Muheta.
  I only thanked God that He allowed all five of them to come just in time for the Adult seminars starting the next day.  They had a rough day, both physically and psychologically.  They were also all glad that they made to Kome Island, and that they could rest in their own rooms after a hot meal, even though it is a rough cement floor with a mattress. 

When I observed their singing and dancing while they were waiting for the five members of our team, I felt that the Christians on Kome Island were eager to be fed by the word and love of God brought by people outside the island, just as children would wait to be fed by their parents.  This reminded me of Mat. 7:9-11.   Because they prayed for help, God had sent us over there.  Also I remembered then that some of the pastors on the island had fasted for several days and prayed for Christian Life World Mission Frontier to come and visit them.  When I realized this, I felt that my work on this island is not my own work but is the work God planned and led us perform for the people of the island in His name.  Also I knew that God would lead our way so that we may do whatever necessary for the people of the island.  This thinking gave me a new power for our work on the island.

I have collected $ 150.00 each from the five people arrived for cost of room and board for the next one week.  I have requested one of the ladies to take over the money management responsibility, and Mrs. Sarah Chun volunteered.  I asked Sarah to give $ 90.00 each to every departing young team members for $ 30.00 for VISA when re-entering
 I also asked Sarah to reimburse $ 200.00 for Ms. InYoung Yang who had contributed the $ 200 when the team needed the money at Mwanza.  All other young people contributed at most $ 40.00.  Ms. InYoung Yang had also been an exceptional VBS leader.  She led most of the singing during the VBS ministry.  She contributed $ 200.00 cheerfully for the emergency situation of our team.  When she contributed the money, I asked her whether she was stretching too much because none of the young people could contribute as much as she did.  She answered me that she is only doing this out of her willing heart because she wants to.  She has also a pure heart, untainted by this world, and the children are naturally attracted to her.  Peter Hahn and she were the two most important members for the two weeks' VBS ministry.

During the morning of July 26, Monday, the Kome Island Christian Life World Mission Frontier office rented the largest place in town, the theater, and had a registration of people who planned to attend  the three seminars.  For the first time during my stay in Africa, it rained on that day.  They say that their rainy season starts in August, but a few days earlier than the regular season a good shower came.  It did not rain for a very long time.  Later in the morning all those who had registered were gathered together in the theater, and we were introduced to them, the instruction team for Community Leaders Seminar, Church Leaders Seminar, and Women Leaders Seminar.  The number of people who were registered for the three seminars was about 80 people each for Church Leaders Seminar and Women Leaders Seminar and about 60 people for Community Leaders Seminar.  I was requested to have an opening speech, officially
 I told them that we are doing this because we love them as brothers and sisters.  We are all citizens of the heavenly kingdom, and we all are blessed because of the atoning death of Jesus Christ, and we are to inherit the Kingdom of God.   Also I told them that we want to share what we know so that they can also possess what we know and own.  I told them that the Community Leaders Seminar is to teach how to be prosperous materially in addition to having abundant spiritual life and the Church Leaders Seminar is to teach how to be a better pastors and church leaders and the Women Leaders Seminar is to teach the importance of the women's role in having a healthy Christian family.  The details of the three seminars are separately described later in the article.  I will have more detailed descriptions on how the Community Leaders Seminar was conducted because I led the seminar, but I will have briefer descriptions of the other two seminars based on what I heard from the instructors.

While we were teaching these seminars, we tried to show the movie, Ten Commandments, as much as possible during the night.  They advised us that most people saw a Jesus film one way or another, but Ten Commandments, a movie about Moses, was new to most of them.  We showed the movie at Lugata on July 27, and at Nyaruseni on July 29. 

The World Mission Frontier office on the island provided lunch for everyone attending seminars.  There is no restaurant on the island as in a large city.  Some of them had to travel more than two to three hours to come to the seminars.  For this reason, it is customary to provide a lunch for seminars like we had.

One of the major problems I encountered after I started the Community Leaders Seminar was that I received a message delivered in person by Elisha that I was to go back to Mwanza and to teach the Community Leaders Seminar over there for two days and come back to Kome Island.  If I go out once, it is nearly impossible to return in time for Crusade on Friday afternoon.  How about all the people in Kome Island who had been waiting all these time?  Besides the message was a handwritten message by Ms. ChangSook Kim with no formal signature.  Apparently the people who decided that I should go back to Mwanza were not aware of the situation on Kome Island.  I had a discussion with my team, and their view was that I should not go to Mwanza because I was not only the instructor for the Community Leaders Seminar but also I was the team leader and was the only one who can lead the Crusade on Friday and Saturday.  I mentioned this to the local church leaders.
One of them, Mr. Zaburi Fanuel who is the secretary of the World Mission Frontier organizing committee and also the principal of Nyakabanga Primary School, told me that he would die if I left the island without giving the seminar.  I felt that in no way I would abandon these people and go to Mwanza.  But it is nearly impossible to communicate to the people in Mwanza due to the lack of reliable telephone system except the cellular phone that works a few hours at night.  We tried three consecutive nights to contact Pastor Apolonary, but were not successful for two nights because of unstable connections, and finally succeeded talking to Pastor Apolonary on the third night.  Pastor Patrick explained the situation and Pastor Apolonary said it is ok now.¡±

As we were finishing the seminars, we prepared ourselves to start the crusade.  Pastor Muheta would be the interpreter for the crusade.  I discussed with Pastor Muheta what I planned to deliver as the message.  Thinking what I did in China, I had prepared three hour long sermon.  Pastor Muheta told me that it was too long.  It should be about 40 to 45 minutes.  This is an outdoor crusade where people stand in the sun. 
After this discussion, I shortened my speech, and Pastor Muheta and I prayed together so that the Holy Spirit would be with us and we could deliver the message God wants us to deliver.  On Friday, the crusade started at  4 PM and ended at 7 PM.  We were invited to speak a little after 5:30 PM.  I delivered the message that knowing God loves us has power in our lives.  I told them that God loves us, Jews or gentiles alike,  and promised us an abundant life (John 3:16 and 10:10).   I had pretty much followed the pattern of four spiritual laws, but added a lot more substance to it.  I summarized my sermon that our salvation is ¡°by grace through faith.¡±  I ended my sermon by telling them the story of the prodigal son, exhorting them to repent and come to the Father.  I asked to come out anyone who needs the confirmation of salvation or love of God.  More than 30 people came out.  Along with local pastors, we prayed for them.  We also asked to come out those who need healing.  More than 100 people came out.  I prayed for them in English as well as in tongues.  Local pastors also helped me in the healing prayers.  Amazingly more than 50 % were healed and many of them gave their testimonies how they were healed.   We all praised the Lord for His work and healing in the crusade. 

I never knew that I would do the kind of things I did in the crusade, preaching to more than 1000 people and healing so many people.  I realized that this was not my doing but what the Holy Spirit was doing.

Mrs. Oak-Hyun Shin, Mrs. (Hannah) Hai-Ja Jo, and Mrs. Sarah U. Chun, all three ladies, and Mr. Melbin Kim left the island at dawn next day Saturday.  They rented a Land Rover, and went through Sengerema to Mwanza.  Three ladies told us that their husbands were to meet them in Paris and they had to leave then to catch a plane so that they can meet their husbands as planned.  Mr. Melbin Kim accompanied them as a protector.  Therefore, on the second day of the crusade, only Messrs. John Son and Han-Chul Do, and I remianed. (To continue)