What In The World Is Reece Doing? - Season in Review

Favor with a King:

I think the most amazing moments of my life are when things that I’ve read on the pages of my Bible become real in my life. I’m not just talking about internal revelation or transformation, but also those “oh my gosh, this stuff only happens in the Bible” moments. This year started out like that. I and a few other expedition leaders traveled to Benin on the invitation of a king. Oba Adetutu Onishabe is a king of the Yoruba people. He had come to Overland Missions’ King of Kings event last year and had invited us to visit.

While the welcome alone was an honor, what truly amazed me was the favor he gave to us. While we were with him, he was incredibly open. We discussed what the needs of the people were, what ministry looked like in that area, and vision for how God could move among his people. As if that didn’t display his favor toward us enough, he invited us to hold meetings with local pastors in his palace, showed us land where we could start ministry, and coolest of all, he welcomed us to come and speak into his life. Being able to share a word that God gave me with a king is something that has me in awe even as I write to you now. This is reflective of the authority and heritage of God’s people that we see in the Bible.

Ready for Transformation:

My expedition season started in the Northwest Provence of Zambia in villages that are dotted along the banks of the Zambezi River. Our sector team, who live in that region full-time, has an amazing vision to see revival in their sector. Revival that extends from the Chief to the widow; from the churches to the farmlands; from the many villages to each individual heart. For May and June we got to be tributaries in that vision. On our expeditions we were able to reach areas that were key to future efforts of revival meetings and discipleship trainings. We were able to mark off whole villages on the map as reached with the Gospel and ready for continued contact. During our time on the base in Zambezi we were also able to help with the development of the base.

I used our truck named “Rambo” (DAF YA5442) to move shipping containers down a large hill and staged them as structural components of a workshop and hangar. This workshop will allow our Zambezi base to extend our reach further by being able to maintenance our equipment onsite. One of our expedition teams had the awesome privilege of visiting HRM Mwanta Ishima Sanken’i VI, The chief of Ishima Chiefdom; He’s a really cool guy. His welcome toward Overland Missions was the starting point for our current and future presence and ministry in the region.

A People Ready for the Message of Redemption:

In June my co-leader and I flew into Tanzania and we were received by my friend Alex. Since 2021 He has been laying the groundwork for ministry in the nation for his sector team that would join him soon after our expedition. Our expedition team helped reenforce those ground breaking efforts as we built relationship and ministered in the Maasai village of Lembapuli. Our time there was amazing. Building relationship looked like sharing meals and milk tea with the men, attending ceremonies, and even dressing in traditional Maasai cloth.

These sort of activities are not cultural tourism; but rather, they are a point of access and understanding into the people and culture of the village. Phrases like “now that we’ve eaten together, we can hear what you have to say” and “now you are like the Maasai” are significant in a culture that has been told it has to look and act a certain way to receive the Gospel. Many of the Maasai’s religious traditions revolve around atonement of sin, like sacrifice and circumcision (much like Jewish traditions). That, accompanied by the fact that they were herdsman, meant that much of the teachings of Jesus related to their own culture. It was amazing to preach the gospel with the objects of the parables of Jesus literally all around us.

Pushing Farther:

Our department, Expeditions Leaders from across the world, came together in Zambia to do an expedition that took us around Lake Kariba. Lake Kariba is a lake that sits in between Zambia and Zimbabwe. A department-wide expedition was an awesome opportunity to meet as the whole team and get on the same page with the mission, vision, and direction of the department. Through driving over 1700KM around Lake Kariba, moving our trucks and setting up camp in remote places on our route, we pushed to test our team's ability to reach out and go deeper. This trip reenforced the culture of our department: doing hard things in tough places to carry the gospel to the forgotten and unreached.

Great Lakes Sector:

Now that I have returned to the states, it is all systems go on recruiting individuals to go to the nations. How do we do that? Our department has concentrated teams of Expedition Leaders in key cities across the United States. You may remember that I was in Pittsburgh last year. This year we have expanded to add one more team in west Michigan; I and three others have taken on that new sector as a place to focus our recruitment and stateside ministry efforts. In the last few months this is what we can report: God is doing something great in west Michigan. We have met several other ministries that have been drawn to the area for the same reason. There have been prophetic words spoken, declaring west Michigan as a significant launching point for missionaries to the nations. My team and I are very excited to be a part of what is happening and look forward to many more great things to come.