The Newsletter of
SOMA USA

Summer 2003 Volume 18, Number 2

In this Issue:
Humble Ourselves to Learn The Northern Neck Virginia Theological Seminary	Director's Corner A Tale of Two Continents

Humble Ourselves to Learn
by Mr. Ed Speare The Rev. Elizabeth Utugi Kamau, who led the SOMA USA sponsored “Operation Breakthrough” in June of 2002, invited a team to visit Kenya as a follow-up to that spiritual warfare training. Our team of six traveled to Nairobi in May to experience first-hand the powerful prayer ministry conducted by Utugi and Vanguard, an ecumenical intercessory prayer group for the nations. Our team formed a close bond, not only with each other, but also with our Vanguard brothers and sisters in Kenya. This was the first crosscultural experience for several of the SOMA team members, with all the adjacent learning and growing that occurs during that process. As the Vanguard group modeled prayer for the SOMA team, we gained confidence to participate in Kenyan style spiritual warfare and intercession by praying into specific issues as the leader directed and not just in agreement with the prayers of others.

SOMA team members came from All Saints’, Dale City, VA, and Christ Church, Overland Park, KS: Mrs. Judy Cover, Mrs. Margie DeHoust, Mrs. Laura Casper, Mr. Ed Speare, team leader, Mrs. Beth Greer, and Mrs. Sue Wheeler.
The mission was an invaluable validation of the Vanguard ministry and Utugi’s leadership: rarely do we Westerners humble ourselves to learn from our African partners. We were afforded an all too rare opportunity to focus on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit without the normal distractions of daily life in post-modern America. This extended period of time gave us the opportunity to be totally immersed in the powerful intercessory prayer environment of the Vanguard ministry. We stayed in the homes of committed Christians who make depending on the Lord for all things a way of life. This really challenged us to seek to incorporate a greater dependancy on God in our own lives. During our time of corporate prayer and official disengagement from the Vanguard authority, they offered deep prophetic prayer over us. When fully internalized, this will surely lead to significant spiritual intercessory activities by each of us in our local communities.
“The best thing was the people. They give hospitality a new name.” Sue Wheeler	“During this SOMA trip to Kenya, I enjoyed the opportunity to be a giver (ed. note: Judy, a worship leader, gave away her guitar). I received a holy boldness in the Lord and a deeper trust in the Lord. I thank God, SOMA, All Saints’ Church and my intercessors for this opportunity to minister and be used by God. May God receive all the glory!” Judy Cover

Missions to the USA

The Northern Neck

by The Rev. Jeffrey Cerar

How often do we stop and spend time reflecting on the Gospel with our brothers and sisters in the ministry? How often do we talk about the successes and frustrations of our own ministry? The Minister’s Retreat, conducted by SOMA as part of their Mission to the USA, offered us this opportunity on May 28^th. St. Stephen’s in Heathsville, Virginia, was the cornerstone of the mission, in which the Lord built relationship and trust and broke down barriers of denomination, race, and culture.

Twenty-four ordained ministers from our rural, two-county area in the Diocese of Virginia accepted my invitation to attend the retreat, “On the Front Lines… In God’s Hands.” They were made up of men and women, African-American and white, and represented five different denominations.

Ugandans team with SOMA USA
to minister to pastors in Virginia.

Three gifted brothers from Uganda led the retreat. They are Stephen Kaziimba and Jackson Baalwa, both ordained Anglican priests and leaders on the staff of Mukono Diocese, who are completing a year of advanced study in American seminaries, and Paul Ssembiro, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Makerere University in Kampala, who is here for a research fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

As planned for, the retreat included praise and worship, Biblical teaching, personal testimony, and prayer ministry. The challenge was to get the ministers to trust each other and to share from their hearts, so that the day could culminate in personal ministry. As it turned out, the morning teaching by the team incorporated personal transparency, and the Holy Spirit faithfully ensured that all hesitancy and barriers among us disappeared. Even before lunch, ministers in the group were seizing the initiative to pray or testify.

As the afternoon session began with the team singing hymns in their native language, Paul followed with his prepared teaching. But the Holy Spirit moved, and Paul’s presentation did not get very far before one of the clergy asked for personal prayer. Other prayer requests began to surface, one after another. Ministerial relationships were blessed and sealed. Confession and healing took place. There was deliverance and intercessory prayer. The room overflowed with thanks and praise to God.

Virginia Theological Seminary
SOMA’s first Mission to the USA in 2003, a weekend retreat for the international students at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), was a continuation of God’s appointments for SOMA with Episcopal seminaries this year. The weekend of March 28^th was primarily a time of renewal and refreshing for the students. Through worship, fellowship, prayer ministry, and personal testimony, the Holy Spirit accomplished the SOMA mission’s purpose. Six team members ministered to and received ministry from eight VTS seminary students from four countries around the globe. Worship, led by Mrs. Sheila Todd, blended the rich cultural heritage of music from the countries represented and broke down cultural boundaries and brought the group together as one through Him. It was the enthusiasm of the foreign students sharing worship songs from their homelands that enabled the group to bind together quickly, and ushered us into the presence of the Lord. The testimonies of several who attended best reflect what God accomplished in such a short period of time.
	The Rev. Jacob Chimeledya from Tanzania “ It was very precious to me and I needed the worship time. I felt His peace.”

	The Rev. Godson Nzeadu from Nigeria “The weekend was an opportunity to fellowship with people of like mind; a free atmosphere of singing and glorifying God clears my mind.”

Ms. Shelley-Ann Tenia from Trinidad “The fellowship and worship were what I have been longing for.”

Mr. Kevin Seaver, an American living in Japan and sent to VTS from the Diocese of Tokyo “ I was fortunate to have come and spent time with SOMA and the international students. It is good to hear stories, and reassuring to hear how God is working in lives. We were living inside scripture this weekend, taking God up on His promises. The prayer ministry was wonderful…a real gift.”

The Rev. Christopher Mwawa from Tanzania “The temptation to finish assignments almost prevented me from attending this weekend. I needed this time of refreshment and renewal personally.”

General Convention 2003

During the General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, SOMA will be serving the American Anglican Council (AAC):

1) By bringing together two teams of on-site intercessors to pray, one week each, for the convention.

2) By setting up a House of Prayer (a prayer room with stations) near the AAC offices. Stations will include prayer points for the deputies and bishops, convention issues, individual requests, the city of Minneapolis, churches and clergy, and the wider church.

3) By preparing prayer points with scriptures for volunteers who will pray in the convention meetings and other locations.

4) By daily dispersing prayer points over an e-mail list that AAC is gathering. To receive this posting, please contact Linda Huntington at lhuntington@americananglican.org

5) By focusing on prayer and service for the House of Bishops.

SOMA will share a booth with ECMC (Episcopal Church Missionary Community) in the Minneapolis Convention Center Exhibition Hall.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Pv. 27:17

Last year the Rev. Alison Barfoot fulfilled her vision to provide Biblically-based leadership training for young Ugandan leaders (Newsletter April 2002). Alison and Mrs. Parthy Evans, from Christ Church, Overland Park, KS, returned to Kampala in May 2003. They helped the young leaders from last year evaluate and plan the next steps in their field projects and presented the Nehemiah Leadership Conference to another 32 leaders. Participants included a bishop from Southern Sudan, a Moslem convert, students ready to enter business or service in the Church, and those in careers. The teaching team is establishing regular contact with these leaders to continue to sharpen each one and offer support as they work in their various leadership roles.

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A Tale of Two Continents

In January 1989, a team of seven, led by Fr. Brian Cox, SOMA USA’s National Director, traveled in Nandyal, India, at the invitation of Bishop Ryder Devapriam. I was on this team that conducted two conferences, one for diocesan leaders and one for youth delegates (ages 18 to 30). A few interested clergy and two seminarians, Praveen Bunyan and his wife, Veena Grace, whom the bishop had summoned home for the event, became the local team to work with us.

Stories of what happened on this trip will surely appear in a book one day. The vast majority of the 250 youth accepted Jesus as Savior, including several Hindus and Muslims, who had somehow found their way to this “by-invitation-only” gathering. There were miracles of authenticated physical healings: a boy born blind in one eye received sight in that eye, a creative act of God witnessed by Fr. Cox, Praveen Bunyan and me. Praveen was facing back surgery recommended by doctors in three separate cities when he joined us. He returned to seminary with a fully functioning, healed back.

In the years following, SOMA returned several times, mostly to hold youth conferences at the bidding of Bishop Ryder. For much of that time, the Diocesan Youth Director was the newly ordained Praveen. Bishop Devapriam had been elected and served for 9 months as Primate of the Church of South India when his untimely death sent the small rural diocese of Nandyal into shock and upheaval. Veena’s ordination was postponed again, and SOMA’s work there slowed.

In 1993 Praveen and Veena came to the USA for further theological studies. He was welcomed as curate at St. Luke’s of the Mountains in La Crescenta, CA, a dynamic church pastored by the Rev. Dr. Ron Jackson, who was a member of the first 1989 team. The Bunyans pursued graduate level studies in California and Pennsylvania. Praveen became rector at churches in Colorado. Veena received her doctorate and is now an ordained priest.

Today, nineteen of the youth from those first conferences have finished seminary and almost all are priests in Nandyal. Praveen serves as rector of St. James, Newport Beach, CA, the very church that sent me out on mission to India, the church which patiently looked at my slides, heard my stories, and prayed for people that they had never met—people like Praveen and Veena. Ministry and giftings flow in a full circle of sending and receiving: “In Christ there is no east nor west … but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.”