‘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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Kilimanjaro Chapter members meeting with Damson Samson. Praying for more lives transformed Gregory Nyange Aman’s life has been changed by his association with the Kilimanjaro Chapter. He stopped smoking and drinking, and he testified that all of the “challenges in the family” that resulted from those vices have “completely gone away.” “Now, they are able to pray together as a family,” said Damson Samson, Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa.   Gregory Nyange Aman. Damson’s latest mission trip to Tanza...
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Mount Kilimanjaro summit ridge, 1998. Roots on the rooftop of Africa By Gary Fallesen Founding president, Climbing For Christ Kilimanjaro holds a special place in the formation and growth of Climbing For Christ. As I was training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in 1998, God spoke to me and told me to start a Christian climbing organization. From that encounter on a road outside of Rochester, NY, USA, Climbing For Christ was eventually born. In the original “Mission: Vision,” written in June 2004, Kilimanjaro was identified as a “model mission,” where we could se...
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Damson Samson lives in southern Malawi, but most of his work for Climbing For Christ is done in northeastern Tanzania. He became Climbing For Christ’s missionary to East Africa in March 2014 and has been sent to the Kilimanjaro area seven times from mid-2014 through 2015. Damson is looking forward to Mission: Kilimanjaro 2016, which will occur in August. A Climbing For Christ team will join Damson in teaching and encouraging guides and porters who are part of the Kilimanjaro Chapter (formed in 2008). Team members also will climb Kilimanjaro. This will be our ninth Kilimanjaro expediti...
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Much joy in heaven over sinners who repented By Gary Fallesen President, Climbing For Christ Damson Samson was “terrified” and humbled when our latest Kilimanjaro evangelism training conference kicked off with eight guides and porters accepting Jesus. “I wondered when could they get this marvelous gift if not for this conference,” Damson said on Nov. 30 after returning from Tanzania to his home in southern Malawi. He also wondered how great the celebration in heaven must be for eight souls saved when the Bible tells us “there will be more joy in heaven ove...
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Building something of eternal value Damson Samson had a vision as he was riding a bus toward Mount Kilimanjaro. He was making his fourth trip of the year to Tanzania to work with guides and porters who are learning how to evangelize on and around Africa’s tallest and most attractive mountain. This trip had been delayed as he celebrated the blessed birth of his second child, a daughter. “I saw myself building and from nowhere it rained and flash (flooded) all of the structures,” Damson said about his vision. “I was asking myself, ‘What’s this that I saw?&rs...
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Local ambulance: A Kilimanjaro porter pushes a mobile stretcher used to take seriously ill or injured people off the mountain. (Photo by Gary Fallesen, Mission: Kilimanjaro 2011) Caring for the lost on Kilimanjaro The roots of Climbing For Christ are found in East Africa on Mount Kilimanjaro. This is where God planted the seeds of HIS ministry in 1998 and where He has led us to carry out eight missions (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, two in 2014, and 2015) On the inaugural Evangelic Expedition, C4C team members delivered duffels of gear to the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project in Mosh...
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Photo of the Week: Porters carrying loads to high camp on 19,341-foot (5,895-meter) Mount Kilimanjaro during Mission: Kilimanjaro 2013 by Gary Fallesen. Gary Fallesen’s first big mountain was Kilimanjaro. He climbed it in 1998 – only 1½ years after he took up mountaineering (by climbing Mount Rainier in Washington state). As Gary was running down a road in Rochester, NY, while training to climb Kilimanjaro, God spoke to him and told him to start a Christian climbing organization. From that meeting on a road, Climbing For Christ was born and raised up. [CLICK HERE to watc]...
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A ‘vote of thanks’ from Tanzania By Gary Fallesen President, Climbing For Christ “If you swallow the whole banana, you get problems in your stomach. You have to chew.” – Proverb by Kilimanjaro Chapter member Dauson Chongo Porters carrying gear out of Karanga Camp at 13,500 feet on Mount Kilimanjaro. During Mission: Kilimanjaro 2015 in March we agreed that East African missionary Damson Samson needed to spend more time with Kilimanjaro Chapter members. We could not expect guides and porters to learn how to evangelize and employ their teachings on Mo...
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Growing disciples to work on the mountain By Gary Fallesen Founding president, Climbing For Christ   There are fertile fields around Mount Kilimanjaro. (Photo by Gary Fallesen) Damson Samson emerged from the fifth house after a day of home visits among our Kilimanjaro Chapter members in April with eyes wide open. “I realized how important this trip is,” said our missionary to East Africa, who lives in southern Malawi but is sent periodically by C4C to visit the area around Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania. We are working with guides and porters there to equip...
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Seeing God’s glory on Africa’s roof By Gary Fallesen Founding president, Climbing For Christ   Moving on up: guides, porters and trekkers climbing toward the distant summit in the background. (Photo by Gary Fallesen) The pre-dawn hours near the rooftop of Africa are the coldest. As trekkers and their guides inch ever closer to the summit of 19,341-foot (5,895-meter) Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, temperatures are well below freezing. Dauson Chonjo uses this time to witness to his co-workers on the mountain. “What if you are in an endless pit,” the Kiliman...
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Mission: Kilimanjaro 2015 By Gary Fallesen Founding president, Climbing For Christ Sunday, March 15 Mount Kilimanjaro’s main summit (Kibo), left, with the smaller Mawenzi, right, from the road to the airport. Jordan and I said goodbye for now to Tanzania, leaving Damson to his work, when we flew out of East Africa this morning. Next stop: Nepal. CLICK HERE for Mission: Nepal 2015 Dispatches. Saturday, March 14 The rainy season should be starting. People are ready to plant crops. But it is hot and dry – with no sign of rain. Yusuf, our old friend and Kilimanjaro guide,...
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