Matthew 16:24 24 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.
I love Jesus’ words – follow me…….follow me & I will make you…….He is so wonderful & gracious.
Renee & I are so blessed to be here once again in Africa serving the Lord in whatever way He leads us to.
First – so many thanks, there are not words adequate to express our love & thanks to all the wonderful souls who contributed to our coming here. There were people who prayed so much for us, others who gave financially, others who looked after us in England like true servants of God, from carting us around to feeding us & looking after so many needs. Being in God’s family is definitely the best! Jesus said (John 10:10) I have come to give you life in ABUNDANCE. We are overwhelmed in His abundance of blessings.
We arrived without incident in Kenya. We shopped in Kisumu for our groceries & got our phones & internet & all that re-hooked up.
We arrived to 2 loving African sons Paul Opanda & Dougie Manyasa helping us coordinate many things & helping us to get back to Butere. We arrived quite tired but had to endure to clean & arrange all our stuff.
We settled in for a couple days, met up with Jim & Cherie Lindsay, 2 friends from the U.S. who have been here a few weeks ealier. We are hopeful to do much ministry together with them.
After a couple days, it was off to Manyalla, a small village with a church that suffered some damage through a pastor who fell away into sin. Our good friend Pastor Enock has taken on the challenge of rebuilding leadership there & has appointed a new dedicated pastor. We went the first day to do a crusade for him & ended up teaching a couple day sessions for believers & then completing the day with a successful crusade with many souls coming to salvation.
The next day we came for the crusade again & saw God’s hand move on the village & more new converts. In the process, I managed to damage my voice – I get so African here & my volume increases with the excitement of what God is doing. I also had picked up a nasty cold in England (thanks Dave! Haha), which created some challenges.
The next day I left Renee in Dougie’s care (he’s a local who lives with us) & went off to a place near Busia which is on the Uganda border for a large youth conference of over 400 attendees.
I was asked if the accommodations & everything would be alright….the conference was at a school & we were accommodated in a large dorm. There were upwards of 50 or so young boys & men staying there. Meals consisted of plain bread & strong tea for breakfast, maize & beans for lunch & ugali (pasty doughy mixture of maize flour & water) & sukumawiki (like pumpkin leaves) for supper. I had no problem with any of it. In the end, one of the ladies in charge said they found me quite unusual, unique in that mzungus (white people) don’t usually take to the food or living conditions. I know that through the challenges I had with sleep deprivation & oversized insects in the pit latrine, that I was fully accepted & made many new friends as a result of not requiring special treatment. Doing as they do & eating as they eat is the best way to friendship here.
Speaking of that – a local church leader invited us out one of those days to bless us with a meal in their home & visit at their church with a few ladies in their congregation. As I was served up my meal, the lady placed a UFO (unidentified food object) on my plate. I asked my close companion, Pst. Alex Miheso what it was & he said it was the gizzard of the chicken which is a great honor they bestow on a guest. I stared at this unique looking piece of anatomy I’ve never seen on a plate before & contemplated shoveling it down my throat. I ate around it & anticipated what this might be like – It almost resembled the Olympic rings minus 2 & the consistency was like a rubber gasket. I did my best & managed 2 bites but my gag reflex kicked in & I failed to consume it in entirety. Hopefully I didn’t insult my hosts too badly.
The youth conference was an amazing success with many salvations, much deliverance & souls being filled with the Spirit of God & enabled, educated & richer for coming. I made many new friends & look forward to the next event with all concerned.
This week, we have only a couple obligations – meetings with locals to help through some issues tomorrow (Friday) & a 1 day youth conference at a university not far from here Saturday. Sunday, I’ll preach in my friend Pst. Enock’s Church, Word of Life in Sabatia. Next Wednesday Renee & I are off to a yet undiscovered area for us called Sondu which is 100Km from Kisumu. We live 50Km from Kisumu & it can take 1½ to 3 or 4 hours to get there some days. Our host Pst. Malaki Dacha is meeting us in Kisumu to escort us to Sondu. We are participating in another youth conference there. We met Malaki at a conference last year. He is a body builder pastor who before salvation used to intimidate & beat up people for their money. Now he uses his body building skills as an outreach to youth, helping them to not only build up their bodies & feel good about themselves, but to build up their faith in Jesus Christ.
We hope to help build up his congregation & the youth in the word of God.
That’s our update to date - Please continue to pray for our health & protection. We are now over our colds, but while at the youth conference I was eaten alive by nasty mosquitos. Malaria is always a concern, as well as typhoid. Some missionary friends, Jim & Doris Lapka who spent 38 years serving in Malawi in Africa told us about an Indian herbal remedy, sardeshan, that helps prevent malaria. We took our rations & it will now be put to the test.
We thank God for you all & look forward to many joining us in the future on the mission field. We would love to get emails from you as it’s so wonderful to hear from friends & family in the west.
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