The Seabourns

Ministry

Distance Learning Project

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The meetings part of my Africa trip are over. I’m partway into the travel remaining. I’m returned from Nairobi, Kenya to Johannesburg, South Africa on the first leg of 33 ½ hours of travel, leaving the hotel at 4:45 am until I touch down in Orlando on Thursday. The reclining cocoons of Business Class sure look nice as I walk past them to the Economy section!

Yesterday, Chris and I met with Dr. Emmanuel Bellon, Vice Chancellor of Nairobi International School of Theology. We were joined by Nicholos Kimolo, Managing Director of Futuristics. Emmanuel’s vision of the need and urgency of distance learning in Africa is motivating. Nicholas seems a very competent consultant and advisor to come alongside and help implement the vision. Emmanuel shared the urgent need for trained leadership to guide the exploding church membership in Africa. Theological education schools in Nairobi do not graduate enough leaders to supply the new churches planted each year in just the city of Nairobi alone. It’s fairly normal for a church to see its trained pastor preach once every 3 months. The interim times are led by lay leaders and women, mostly untrained. There is an urgent need for trained leadership across the African continent.

Emmanuel sees distance education as an effective way to increase theologically-trained leadership beyond what resident schools are able to do. He began working on a plan 3 years ago, and really launched about a year ago. They have contracted Futuristics to help with the technologies needed.

As we talked, we identified several areas where my technology team in Orlando may be able to partner with this distance learning project. We have developed several systems that are needed in this project. It’s exciting to see the Lord enabling the work of our hands to be helpful to this distance learning project in Africa.

In addition to assisting with their current distance learning project, we agreed to a pilot project to test the ability to deliver distance learning in mobile phones. The current distance project seems focused on the centralized components of distance learning. I think the mobile device project can add value by addressing the end-user component of distance learning by providing a way for remote users to be trained without needing to have a computer and a high-speed internet connection.

This has been a very productive time. I am very aware of your faithful giving and praying. Kay and I are privileged to partner with you. We get to be your hands and feet, your personal representatives working with Dr. Bellon and others to develop new ways to help others grow and develop as Christ’s ambassadors.

More photos from Nairobi are online here.

Our September prayer calendar is online here.

On the journey together with you,
Keith & Kay

Springbok and TOM

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Springbok

“We’re having Springbok pie with Chutney for dinner,” said our hostess Marie Dell. Springbok is a South African antelope. It tasted like venison (meat from deer) which I enjoy. But I’d never had it in a pie. A “pie” means a crust, something like a chicken pot pie. Chutney is a spicy relish made from vegetables or fruit. Good dinner!!!

I asked where the Springbok had come from. Marie’s husband Stefan had taken his discipleship group hunting. They had licenses for 5 springbok. We were eating from one of them.

Sounds like my kind of discipleship group! Maybe a transfer to South Africa will be in our future!

South African group

Nicholas and Pravani wanted to learn about TOM and other tools to build movements on their campuses. TOM is our nickname for a Facebook application called Together on Mission. TOM helps build movements through several momentum-building activities like

  • encouraging praying for one another
  • encouraging students to identify their “sphere of influence” whom they hope to influence for Christ
  • sharing stories contributed by students of evangelistic opportunities
  • helping students find a Bible study group and join it
  • reporting statistics of God’s activities on the campus

We recently released TOM version 1. Nicholas and Pravani quickly grasped how TOM could help them with their students. They saw how TOM could be used to launch ministries on campuses where they are not able to go.

More photos are available on our photo site.

Interesting approach to online ministry

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I read an interesting article this morning by Paul Watson, 6 Strategic Elements of Online Ministry and Gospel Planting. Starting from Luke 10:1-12, Paul outlines his 6 strategic elements. Paul’s 6 elements are helpful. Other insightful things for me are:

  • Start with existing communities, listening and conversing while looking for a person of peace (like a Cornelius, see Acts 10:1-2).
  • Work with the person of peace to begin a discovery bible study in which the person invites his friends (as Cornelius did, Acts 10:24).
  • Be willing to move from house to house, or community to community, looking for the God-fearers who want to learn more and are willing to take some leadership responsibility in bring others together.

What do you think about this strategy?

Sponsoring Bibles

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I’ve joined the Bible sponsors, or maybe even the Bible smugglers. I’ve distributed 4 Bibles in 2 languages in the past 4 days. Anytime my computer is turned on and connected to the internet, I’m available to help provide Bibles around the world.

I recently learned of this cool way to help provide audio Bibles to many countries, including those where it’s difficult to distribute Bibles. Click here to read a good article.

In the past, some of our evangelistic websites have been successfully blocked by governments in some parts of the world. This works because the website is in one location and governments can block that specific address. But this audio Bible distribution tool spreads the downloads around to hundreds or thousands of computers. Here’s what they say about it:

The best part is that it’s virtually untraceable. It also is virtually unblockable. The Audio Bible Ambassador is the perfect tool for church planters and evangelists in countries where persecution makes Bible distribution dangerous. Even if government officials catch one sender, they can’t catch everyone when the information comes from a million computers across the world.

Click here if you want to get involved

Block party with a purpose

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magdalenaKay and I tried something last night. Along with several of our Campus Crusade teammates who live in our area of town, we threw a block party for our neighbors. We invited about 30-40 households to a movie under the stars. We set up at the end of a dead-end street. We showed the movie Magadelena – Released from Shame.

Shame is the ball and chain that holds many people to their pasts. The power of shame is broken by forgiveness. Many people no longer feel guilt, but almost all feel shame or embarrassment over things they have done. This movie traces the life of Jesus through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, who experience Jesus forgiveness.

We had guests from two households. Including those of us who hosted the event, we had about 15 people. So the turnout to the movie wasn’t overhwhelming.

But, we have met neighbors in 30-40 homes. We have shown them we are interested enough to walk through the neighborhood and invite them to something. We have identified ourselves as Christians. Like a lifeguard at the beach, when there is an emergency, everyone looks to the lifeguard. We hope that we’ll have opportunities to talk further with neighbors as life’s crises occur.

And, it was a great evening at the movie!