The Painful Side of Leadership

Recently I began reading a book The Painful Side of Leadership, Moving Forward Even When It Hurts by Jeff Iorg. When I saw the book at the church library I thought this would be a great resource for our university students in leadership in Uganda so I checked it out. As I read the book I knew why God wanted me to read it. Christian leadership is hard and many times painful not only for our pastors but also missionaries, NGO leaders and also anyone who stands for Biblical principles. All are on the front line and will experience criticism, misunderstanding, betrayal of people you never thought would betray you and many other difficult experiences. Life is full of surprises and many times things are not what they seem on the surface so we need to be very discerning and as the guys in Uganda say "observe the actions so we know". They apply this to the ladies they are interested in as they discern what kind of lady they may want to marry.

The book talks about very practical leadership topics from painful circumstances, to painful relationships, to painful choices and finally the conclusion that covers Hope-God's Gift to Hurting Leaders. We all live in a fallen world and don't have things figured out. We do what we can and we also mess up. The book covers many things that are mistakes where we bring pain on ourselves. I'm learning alot. The book covers it all in a real way and I found it very encouraging not to be alone.

As we raise up disciples who are sold out to the Lord wholeheartedly, life will be challenging and we need those around us that share the passion. It is lonely when we stand for principles and leaders need people to stand with them in these turbulent times full of compromises to please man.

In Uganda and Kenya we are constantly faced with corruption, short cuts, inabling ungodly behavior. But it is also in the U.S. and getting more challenging. It may seem too tough as I mention these things but I have been on the wrong side of God's wrath and I have a very strong fear of the Lord and don't want to go there ever again. It is far worse than any pain in ministry.

If you are in leadership in your family, at work, church, in the community or other places I recommend this book because it will open your eyes and give you a sensitivity to the pain leaders experience. Even with one pastor's family, they experience difficulty with a stalker and after several years the law enforcement agency asked them if they wanted to go into a witness protection program with changed identities. They declined. I was horrified that things would be that bad but persecution comes with ministry.

All things being said we are "more than conquerors" and we need to focus on the prize. It is true what the Bible says about the end times and things getting worst before they get better. But to me it is all worth it when I see the joy of the Lord in the faces of those that have a chance for something better.

Thanks for standing with us and allowing me to ramble on about the things that are dear to my heart. We value all our dear friends that are committed to the vision and ask for your continued prayers.

God Does the Growing

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Cor. 3:7)

At The Rock, we have been doing plenty of planting and watering – literally in the fields of Uganda and Kenya as well as figuratively in the lives of fellow African believers.

Even as we see God making things grow, we need a continued groundswell of prayer that the crops of disciples and legumes will increase and amaze.

Here is some of the current harvest:

• Ben Kisiki, a Rock law scholarship student and coordinator of our university discipleship program, has received an internship in the U.S. with the Liberty Institute. He also has been invited into Uganda schools to teach Godly principles as a counter to UNICEF’s campaign to present single sex partnerships as an acceptable lifestyle choice.

• John Mugowa, another Rock scholarship student studying IT, is #1 in his class and preparing to take on Ben’s leadership role in the university discipleship program.

• Pastor Peter Otieno, a young man mentored by our partner Bishop Paul Oselu in Kenya, is blossoming in organizing his small village church and community to launch a preschool and agricultural project. Both of these income producing activities will lead to a home for children in his village.

• Ken Mollo, a Rock scholarship student finishing his undergraduate law degree this month, is serving as coordinator of a Rock partnership with the agriculture department at Uganda Christian University. We are renting land from the university and using their agricultural expertise to grow crops which will lead to a Christian agriculture extension, teaching discipleship and self sustainability to students and other African ministries.

God gets all the glory and we are preparing to share His praise with a bigger audience as Margaret leads a film crew to Uganda and Kenya this month. Dubbed “The Psalm 40 Project,” the team will produce a documentary movie from testimonies of Rock participants illustrating God’s redeeming nature.

We are keenly aware that all of this activity is a direct affront to the enemy who has placed many snares in our path. That’s why we covet your continued prayers, for “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

Putting the Horse Before the Cart

Margaret had one of those AHAA! moments. If The Rock wants self-sustainable mercy homes, why not do it in that order: FIRST demonstrate self-sustainability, THEN build the home.

Perhaps we have been getting the cart before the horse by first opening the mercy homes, then trying to assist our partner ministries in Africa to make the homes for needy children self sustaining. Once open, we have found it challenging for our partners to launch income producing activities.

Deliverance Church, our faithful partner in Kenya, gladly has taken on the challenge of creating economic activity to support the ongoing operation of a future home. We are making great strides.

Pastor Peter Otieno and wife Millicent of Deliverance Church in Bouye Kenya are excited to see villagers rallying around the project. They are backed up by Bishop Paul Oselu, also of Deliverance Church in Kisumu, and his wife Perez. Bishop Paul mentored Peter from a boy and was raised in the small village where Peter now pastors.

The Oselus have had a vision of a home for children in the small village for years and jumped at the chance to speed things along by embracing the opportunity to work with The Rock to develop income-producing activities.In the process they are developing a new way of thinking as they develop skills in research, cash flow planning, project management and implementation.

Early this year we discussed starting a preschool for the community; cultivating four acres; and building a home for orphans. Perez and Peter assembled a committee of villagers and church members, including a member of The Rock’s local businessmen’s group, to steer the projects.

The leadership team developed a budget showing income and expenses for the first year of operation of a new preschool. The community donated part of the resources and The Rock donated some of the startup funding. Forty students were required to be enrolled so the preschool could support the teacher salaries from tuition by the students’ parents and fees to sustain it going forward independently. By March they have 50 students enrolled and they are carefully monitoring their budget and the school is doing very well.

Next the team wanted to develop an agriculture project for the four acres of land that was donated by church members to help support a home for orphans. After researching the different types of crops and the potential income they could produce, they decided they could be profitable in the first year if they planted maize and soybeans. Also irrigation plans were made to minimize risks. In March we are planting the first crops which will lay the foundation for providing food and support for the home which we hope to build in the near future. Kingdom Builders Development Group (Kenya businessmen who receive discipleship training and no interest loans as applicable from The Rock) has agreed to help construct the home.

“We are learning many new things and excited about the way forward and the team has taken ownership of the project,” says Pastor Peter. “We are thinking more creatively in the way we do things.“

Catching God's Tailwind in Uganda, Kenya

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I just got back from a whirlwind visit to Kenya and Uganda with our Rock chairman, Dan Vick. So much was accomplished in so little time that I’ve told friends it was as if God put a strong tailwind at our backs. (Actually, I had prayed for a tailwind crossing the Atlantic as we only had one hour for a connection in Paris to Nairobi. God provided!)

Here are the highlights:

· We prepared to launch a joint agricultural program with Uganda Christian University to promote self-sustainable mission projects and teach discipleship at the same time;

· We encouraged and taught our Uganda university scholarship students on accountability while readying the second generation of student leadership to head the group;

· We took decisive action to improve the academic performance of children in Rock-sponsored mercy homes by placing them in an excellent school with a strong emphasis on academics, structure and discipline;

· And we taught Rock-sponsored businessmen in Kenya on dealing with adversity and managing cash flow while also providing individual business and spiritual counsel.

While God enabled us to achieve many practical goals which will have a long-term positive impact on those we serve in The Rock, the things that stick out in my mind are much more personal interactions.

I was delighted to see a marriage completely restored which had been threatened by tribal tensions and violence in Kenya. Daniel Mwangi and his wife (pictured at right) are restoring the business which was destroyed during violence two years ago and grinned as they said that despite their earlier separation during the tensions, their marriage is now stronger than ever. They credit God and counseling from Joseph Musungu, our Rock East Africa program manager.

It was heart- warming to hear one of our newly-wed businessmen share with Dan that Dan’s advice for the young man to call his new bride during the day to tell her he was thinking of her was the best advice he had been given “and it gets me a very good reception when I come home at night.”

We counseled, laughed and commiserated with a couple of our Rock scholars who are facing communication challenges with their prospective fiancés because of their busy schedules. It was a great opportunity to mentor them and discuss God’s design of men and women.

Dan also told of his high school friend and football teammate Bobby to the boys in the mercy home. Bobby always was looking for a good time in high school and never studied. Years later, Dan, who had started his own successful business by then, ran across Bobby, who was working as a laborer on the loading dock. The boys, who needed the pep talk, got the message. Then they thanked us sincerely for loving them and caring about them enough to expect more from them and to put them in a better learning environment.

-- Mark

The Thrill of Hope

After 19 years, it’s still one of those vivid sensory experiences. It was the moment that the hope of Jesus sparked in my heart. Who could know that the spark would fan into a flame that would lead Margaret and me to launch a ministry and disciple Africans?

I can still feel the dry chill against my face, see the stars over the mountains and smell the burning pinon from the kiva fireplaces as I walked alone past homes decorated for the season in my former neighborhood nestled on the high plain of Santa Fe.

I was not a believer in Jesus, but as I walked and looked up at the crystal clear sky, I wondered aloud, “Is this what the night was supposed to be like when Jesus was born?” A Christmas carol, “O Holy Night,” came to mind. The first verse practically stopped me in my tracks:

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

A thrill of hope! Could it all really be true? For the first time in a long time, I realized I wanted it to be true. God gave birth to hope in my heart. It took time and some difficult family experiences to break me. But among the howling coyotes of the high plain on my walk that night, the Hound of Heaven (as Francis Thompson wrote in his famous poem that C.S. Lewis further popularized) was closing in.

My capture was sure and now my faith and hope overflows. Margaret and I are overwhelmed that God has used us as leaders of The Rock to share the hope of Jesus in spiritual and practical ways with so many people in Africa, of all places. Men are building stronger homes and churches through the business discipleship program, university students are blossoming into strong disciples and role models and young children rescued from the street are cared for in a loving Christian family environment.

The fruit from the simple hope of Jesus is inexhaustible and uncontainable! You have played a big part in spreading that hope through your support of the ministry. We appreciate you and need your continued support. For 2009, Margaret and I met less than half our need in personal support.

Our Hope fluorishes. Please help us as we share the best gift of all: The Thrill of Hope. Merry Christmas!

Mark and Margaret Noblin

As Usual He Exceeds Our Expectations

Before I left the U.S. I prayed seriously for wisdom and discernment about what God had in mind for the Rock's future with the mercy homes and the scholars. Mark and I have felt He wanted us to have more faith and realize He is multiprocessing and many times exceeds our expectations. I have to admit things have been crammed packed with one open door after another.

Just to give you a sneak preview, during the dinner for the graduates the manager of the restaurant told me the hotel does internships for university students and that I should talk to Human Resources which I did Friday and they have agreed to review our scholars for internships. Also I was able to set up an appointment for two of the scholars with Daks Courier/UPS affiliate in Uganda for next Monday after an initial introductory meeting. The ATM machine at Barclay's ate my card Thursday night so I had to meet with the branch manager to get it back and she told me they were hiring university students as contract employees instead of doing internships. She said she was glad to help get their CVs to the Human Resource Department.

And if this isn't more than enough to be excited about we have the possibility of an open door with a commercial agriculture project that could be a large piece of the self sustainability puzzle. God is very big!! Lutaaya, Junior, Ken, and I have our second meeting Monday afternoon to present a proposal so we need lots of prayers. The first meeting all of us prayed in the car on the way to visit a farm manager that God would guide us and open or close the door. We spent several hours learning so many things about crops and livestock, then met the key decision makers who just happened to stop by the main office for the project. Anyway we were all so excited about the comprehensive elements of the project that we could hardly believe God had put this in our path.

Let's pray that God will be in all the details and the proposal will be embraced before I leave Uganda.

A Great Graduation Celebration

Last Sunday night we had a wonderful dinner celebration. Christine, Emma, Sam and Junior are the graduates and blazing the trail for the rest of the scholars. The discussions throughout dinner ranged from who believed in paying "bride prices" when they got married to how many cows they needed to being amazed at how much things have changed in their lives over just a couple of years.

I was really moved as I looked around the table and enjoyed the camaraderie among the group. They have become such great friends. Christine told me at the cottage after the dinner, "these guys are different than any around. They are serious and so focused and treat us like their sisters...so caring and protective." This was such great encouragement given some of the challenges ladies face in Ugandan culture. The teaching we are doing is taking root and exciting.

Thanks a million to all of you who are helping the scholars. I wish you could have been a fly on the wall at the dinner because you would be smiling from ear to ear!