21 May 2006

watoto

this weekend at hpc we had a children's choir sing - the watoto children's choir from uganda. the children are all AIDS orphans - and if you've read much of this blog, you know that i have a strong interest in ministry to african AIDS orphans. much of my family lives in swaziland, running children's cup, a ministry that is having a lot of success giving hope to AIDS orphans in southern africa.

i posted a couple weeks ago about the 100 days of hope that is going on in rwanda with hillsong, joyce meyer ministries, delirious, etc. that my parents went out to. they met mark and darlene zschech (from hillsong) there and really enjoyed getting to know them, and joyce meyer ministries is a huge supporter of children's cup. well, i learned today that dad met gary skinner while he was in rwanda.

check out what dad wrote in his blog about it here.

dad and ben are planning to attend the "hope for africa's children" conference later this fall at kampala pentecostal church (a 13,000-member church in uganda) where gary skinner is the pastor. brian houston (pastor of hillsong church) is one of the speakers at the conference.

gary skinner is also the founder of the watoto children's ministry.

sometimes it seems like there's someone out there orchestrating all the encounters we have with people. hmmmm.... and it's all for HIS purposes. i can't wait to see how God puts all these pieces together.

a neat thing about it is that all these people are cool. they're not weird. even my dad. he's just a real man, with a real life, with a real passion to help hurting people. and that's what everyone else here is. just real.

and that's real cool to me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Watoto Choir was AMAZING! Absolutely AMAZING! The presence of God was so strong at HPC this morning while the children sang with the utmost passion for Christ. I sat with a deep deep burden on my heart for orphans around the world. As I watched these children the reality is that they are performing because they were orphaned. They have experienced life without a Mom and/or Dad and they are using their stories to bring awareness for the millions of orphans in Africa.

Thank God for the Watoto vision. Thank God for people like your family, Dan.

theinnerprocess said...

I watched the choir online. What a ministry. The problem almost seems like it's too big. But, with God, and everyone's help, difference can be made!

Anonymous said...

The overwhelming reality is that there are way too many orphans in this world and if we look at the numbers it can look too big but if I do my part in taking care of one orphan whether through providing needs or adopting and you do your part then we can make a difference but we have to take that step.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and so I agree with you, "theinnerprocess", with God, and everyone's help, difference can be made!

Dave Ohlerking said...

Minor correction: Darlene was not with Mark in the April Rwanda meetings--she'll be there for the grand finale July 15.

It'll be an awesome meeting--your mother and I hope to be there.

I'm so impressed with the Hillsong team--they do it right!
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