Jon on Echo Peak in Lee Metcalf Wilderness, southwestern Montana. Nationality: American. Occupation: Account Manager for Zinpro, a livestock trace mineral company. Missions with C4C: Kilimanjaro 2018. How long have you climbed? I spent a lot of time hiking and hunting in the mountains with my dad growing up. It really became a passion in 2014 when I started guiding youth with Lat45 Adventure Ministries. I now spend over 20 nights per year in the backcountry of Montana’s wildernesses. Type of climbing you do: Hiking, mountaineering. Highlight of climbing career:  Echo Peak, my firs...
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Hillida Mtui with her four grandchildren. (Photo by Damson Samson) “Hillida Mtui, a 73-year-old widow looking after four grandchildren, gave her life to Christ,” said Climbing For Christ’s East Africa missionary Damson Samson. He was invited to Hillida’s home in Marangu during visits with members of C4C’s Kilimanjaro Chapter. She is part of a family of one of our porters. “She was very happy and more excited to have this wonderful time,” Damson said. Damson made his quarterly visit to Tanzania for evangelism training with Kilimanjaro Chapter guides a...
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Sowing seeds, transforming lives By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ As Damson Samson was preparing for our Kilimanjaro Chapter training in March, he had a dream. Thieves came and took away what he had gathered. “It (the dream) happened twice,” our missionary to East Africa reported. “I was asking, ‘What could that be?’ Then I was led to Matthew 13, where I read the parable of the sower.” “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his hea...
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Adam on Pico de Orizaba in Mexico.  Nationality: American. Occupation: Civil engineer. Missions with C4C: Kilimanjaro 2018. How long have you climbed? 16 years. Type of climbing you do: Hiking and mountaineering. Highlight of climbing career: Climbing Pico de Orizaba (18,491 feet/5,636 meters) outside of Mexico City. How long have you been a Christian? My entire life. Type of ministry you are blessed to serve in: Family (husband and father of two boys, ages 5 and 4). This will be my first mission trip. Favorite Scripture verse (and why): Matthew 7:1-2. “Do not judge, or you to...
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Forde (pronounced “frOO-duh”) on 11,382-foot/3,470-meter Mount Nyiargongo in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo above one of the world’s largest lava lakes. Nationality: Norwegian. Occupation: Network engineer. Missions with C4C: Kilimanjaro 2018. How long have you climbed? Since 2008. Type of climbing you do: Mountaineering, rock climbing, hiking. Highlight of climbing career: Nevado Pisco (5,752 meters) in Peru was definitely the hardest and most challenging climb that I have ever undertaken. Had it not been for my climbing mates and guide that encouraged me and ...
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Nationality: American. Occupation: Children’s Pastor. Missions with C4C: Kilimanjaro 2018. How long have you climbed? Since 2000. Type of climbing you do: Rock and ice. Highlight of climbing career: Climbing Dairyland (WI5) in Munising, MI, USA. How long have you been a Christian? Since 1982. Type of ministry you are blessed to serve in: Children & Family ministry at a church in the community I grew up in (Hope Community Church, Manitowoc, WI). Favorite Scripture verse (and why): “Tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has ...
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Click on the attached PDF to read HIS story for Mission: Kilimanjaro.

Mission: Kilimanjaro 2017 By Gary Fallesen, founding president Climbing For Christ Thursday, Dec. 7 Damson returned to his home in southern Malawi and Elaine and I finished up at the Finishing the Task Conference in southern California. Louie Giglio provided the send-off message, quoting Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” “This (conference) is happening so that can happen,” Giglio said at the start of a stirring 45-minute message. He concluded as he often...
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The view from the New Shira Camp at 12,600 feet on day 2 on Mount Kilimanjaro in 2016. (Photo by Gary Fallesen) Mission: Kilimanjaro 2017 is underway. CLICK HERE to read daily Dispatches from Tanzania.

Mountaintop experiences in Tanzania Damson Samson has been to the mountaintop. He stood on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro on Aug. 28, 2016. He was a rare African standing in rarefied air on the rooftop of Africa. Damson descended off the mountain, but he has been back there many times as Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa and he really hasn’t come down from that mountaintop. He has joyfully overseen the growth of C4C’s Kilimanjaro Chapter, an association of guides and porters that was organized in 2008 but didn’t really begin producing fruit until after ...
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Impact, not size, is the measure of Great Commission success By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Kilimanjaro Chapter meeting. (Photos by Damson Samson) Damson Samson was teaching about the Great Commission at our Kilimanjaro Chapter gathering in September. He wanted to remind our brothers “why we spend time and a lot of money training them.” Before the lesson, he asked the group to pray for 30 minutes for Climbing For Christ and all who put their support in this Great Commission ministry. “In the course of the prayer I saw variations of two...
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‘Rejoicing in the presence of angels’ By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Thumbs up for Jesus: Our friend Juma, right, with C4C missionary to East Africa Damson Samson. The faces are familiar, like those found in a family photo album. For years I have seen and walked with the men who climb Mount Kilimanjaro for a living. Some have become dear friends despite the distance and differences between our cultures and faith. Kilimanjaro was where Climbing For Christ began – placed on my heart as I prepared to climb there for the first time in 1998 &nda...
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Mosque in Moshi, Tanzania: “None to be worshipped but Allah.” (Photo by Gary Fallesen) The Muslim world is observing Ramadan. See Project Prayer: Ramadan 2017. In Tanzania, Climbing For Christ kingdom worker Damson Samson is meeting this week with and teaching guides and porters who are members of the Kilimanjaro Chapter. Watch for a “Mission Moments” update on this work in Tanzania. Also, Climbing For Christ is preparing for its 10th mission in 11 years to Kilimanjaro in late November and early December. CLICK HERE to learn more. Mount Kilimanjaro is where Climbing...
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From the valley of dry bones to the Word on Mount Kilimanjaro By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Kilimanjaro Chapter meeting in early April 2017. Damson Samson has learned that before you teach people how to evangelize you need to make them disciples of Christ. He began our most recent Kilimanjaro Chapter gathering, held earlier this month in Tanzania, in “the Valley of Dry Bones” in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. “I shared with them about the dry bones that have life again,” Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Afr...
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Combating violence, hatred, and the many challenges of Islam with love By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” – Matthew 5:44 (NLT) Brother Rachid. Brother Rachid (the Moroccan spelling for Rasheed) has used the power of God’s Word and prayer to deliver “more than 150,000” Muslims to the Lord through a satellite TV show called Daring Questions. Rachid’s own testimony is a miracle of God: the son of an Imam in Morocco, he was angered by the witnessin...
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Gary Fallesen, left, on Mount Kilimanjaro summit, 1998. 1998 While training for his first climb of Kilimanjaro, Gary Fallesen is instructed by God to “start a Christian climbing organization.” This is the beginning of CLIMBING FOR CHRIST, incorporated in April 2004. C4C began doing missions (or “Evangelic Expeditions”) in April 2005. 2007 Gary Fallesen returns to Kilimanjaro for the first time since 1998 and the start of C4C with a team consisting of: Becca Catlin, Tacoma, WA.; Jim Doenges, Littleton, CO; Shawn Dowd, Rochester, NY; Gary’s son Jesse Fallese...
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Hatching a dream for those working on the mountain By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ Damson Samson was traveling to Tanzania for the 10th time since becoming Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa in 2014. He was GO-ing again in late November 2016 to teach guides and porters in our Kilimanjaro Chapter about evangelism. But Damson didn’t have a lesson and he didn’t want to lay an egg. lay an egg: Figurative expression, meaning “For someone to do something bad or poorly; to perform poorly.” He was eager to be delive...
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Feeding needs and hungering souls Story and photos by Gary Fallesen President, Climbing For Christ Turning his eyes up to the mountains: Damson Samson looks up to summit of Kilimanjaro on second morning of trek. Four days later, he stood at Africa’s highest point. In the beginning was the Question, and the Question was with us. Every time a Climbing For Christ team met the guides and porters who were part of the Kilimanjaro Chapter, we were asked: “When are you going to start a trekking company here?” Those who joined the Kilimanjaro Chapter – ...
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Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016 By Gary Fallesen Climbing For Christ CLICK HERE to read the Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016 Trip Report: Feeding needs and hungering souls Wednesday, Aug. 31 Damson, second from right, with the rest of our team and guides (left to right) Saidi, Jim, Yusuf, Gary and Joe on top of Barranco Wall (about 14,000 feet). Our team was at the Mweka Huts on Kilimanjaro, the last of six camps during our seven-day trek, doing daily devotionals together. We were on our way down from the mountaintop. The lesson from a new study written by Climbing For Christ ...
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Living to tell the tale of Jesus By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ   Gary tied into a rope for the first time on Mount Rainier in 1996. (Photo by Kevin Flynn) I was introduced to mountaineering by my friend Kevin Flynn in August 1996. I had written about his climbs on Denali and Aconcagua as a sports writer for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, asking the common question: “Why do you climb?” When I became the outdoor writer at the paper, I decided I wanted to find out what climbing was all about. I asked to go on a tri...
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