Coming home to Kenya has been quite wonderful. We arrived on Sunday February 8th to our base in Butere, Kenya. Our place was in desperate need of cleansing as it had remained empty for a couple months. Renee worked & fussed over it until she deemed it acceptable.
We had to make a run into the city, Kisumu to have my infected foot examined at the hospital & to get groceries. I got blood tests, x-rays & an examination. The conclusion was a bad infection caused by me pricking my foot on 'something'. It had gone into my heal & made its way up to my knee swelling my calf up like a balloon & eliminating any sign of bones in my foot like ankles & joints. I was put on the strongest antibiotics & cough medicine.
While in Uganda, I had received an email from a pastor from Winnipeg, Manitoba; someone (Pastor Vince Rattai) who had been on missions to Romania in the 90's with Rev. Mike Jones. He was coming on mission with a team from Canada & the US. We spoke briefly on the phone & made plans for him to hook up with us after arriving in Kenya.
Pastor Vince spent the first week with his team in Eldoret, a city over 4 hours from us in Butere. They did non-stop ministry from the moment they arrived without catching their breath from jet-lag. The team is
Christian International (CI) & they are in Canada & the US.
What was interesting is the leader, Alex Florence is a guy Renee & I met while camping at his campground in Edmonton 4 years ago & for him to be here & connected with Vince was a divine connection.
Full on ministry began on the Thursday. Vince & I went to a village called Shitsitswi, just up the road from Sabatia, the next town from Butere where we live. We began with an afternoon open air crusade in the marketplace where over 30 came forward at the call for salvation. We continued like that for 3 days netting over 150+ souls for Jesus! It was an amazing move of God. Sunday, we planted a new church with Pst. Peter who has been a friend for many years. He was so excited at what God had done in this area as he's been praying over it for some time. He's got a lot of follow up work to do now.
Tuesday, February 17th we met with some pastors & leaders we are working with to lay a good foundation for moving ahead in ministry. I spoke first & then Vince; I pulled some statistics from the internet regarding the religious demographics for Kenya. It says there is 88.5% Christians in Kenya & my view was that if that were true, there wouldn't be the corruption, poverty & problems that there are in this nation. I shared more that once people are saved, foundations of character need to be built into each & every one. I carried on in that vein; Vince added to it with laying good foundations for apostolic ministry teams. We met for lunch & shared for about 3 hours. We heard back from the leaders that it was the most positive & effective leaders' meeting they've been to. We will be continuing to build on that.
On Thursday the 19th we went to Masaba where IMS has planted a church & have been doing more crusades & evening revival meetings. It's been extremely fruitful & enjoyable. There is something really special about this area & we look forward to our continued relationship there.
Tomorrow is Sunday the 22nd & we'll be busy with a service at Butere Boy's school, which is almost next door with a service beginning at 7am. Next is Butere Girls' school at 8am, then Masaba church at 10am with a teaching, then a preach finishing off around 1pm. Then we're darting back to our home in Butere to pick up our suitcases & bus it to Kisumu overnight so Vince Rattai can fly to Nairobi, then back to Canada.
It's very busy here but extremely rewarding. God is utilizing us in a variety of ways & is speaking to us about our focus in ministry.
Things are becoming clearer & always more exciting. We continue to be grateful for all the prayer support we've had & ask that all who pray would continue asking the Lord for protection for us, good health, provision & clear direction. God bless you all so much.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Back from Uganda
Almost 2 months in Uganda (Dec.18th to Feb.8th) was really wonderful & rewarding. Our team consisted of Renee & myself, Sally Omundi (from Kenya) and John Abesiga (Plunkett) from Uganda.
1st Week > with RED (Revival, Evangelism & Discipleship) ministries in Kampala. First time with Pst. Joel & Pamela. Did a 4 day believers’ conference & finished off with a Sunday service. All in all a very enjoyable time.
2nd Week > headed NW in Uganda to Kaihura for 3 weeks at Bringing Hope to the Family, a ministry we’ve been affiliated with for 5 years. The first part was celebrating Christmas together with about 60+ orphans at the Home Again Orphanage. Renee & I were the original sponsors of the first 2 kids there, so we’re known as Papa & Mama to all the kids. We had the great pleasure of presenting a Nintendo Wii Game system to the kids, (a contribution from Nigel & Julie Rowe & family in the UK). The kids had a blast boxing, playing tennis & the other sports games. There was a youth conference as well that involved about 300+ kids. We also did 2 days of a couples’ conference teaching the 5 love languages to many excited couples.
3rd Week > we went out to Katooke, (a village about a ½ hour from Kaihura) with Pst. Prosper & Jocelyn & my namesake, Greg. We took 6 of the Home Again teenage boys out, along with Sally & everyone participated in ministry. We did a 4 day believers’ conference that had a huge impact on the community & was well attended.
4th Week > SW to Kabale for the first time. We spent over 2 weeks there & were involved with so many churches & ministries. We spent 3 afternoons with Pst. Obed of Word of Faith Church; several days at a street kids drop in centre, (with Eddy, Pam & Ben Ward) where we had the privilege of leading 8 of the kids to the Lord several days at Revival Tabernacle with Pst. Johnson doing services & crusades; many days with Pst. Santu & Pst. Donna of Inward Temple Church having mid-day meetings & a Sunday service; a too short time with Pst. Frank of World Evangelical Ministries, but we’ll make up for that next year. Our host for the entire time was Dr. Mike Osinde who took excellent care of us & looked after our many needs. Our good friend Rev. Richard Zimbalist was the instigator of this visit & coordinated the entire goings on. We were joined by an anointed man of God from Tanzania (originally Uganda) Pst. Fred who we hope to work with more in the future. There were so many highlights during our time in Kabale including a day trip to the deepest (& most beautiful) lake in Africa, with many islands on it (with Donna & Santu Laxman). It reminded me of the gulf coast between Vancouver & Vancouver Island.
Final Week > buses in Africa are truly of the devil – we waited in the afternoon over 3 hours for our reserved seat bus & then watched it whiz by us without stopping. We had to take the late bus that left after 10pm & got into Kampala at 4 am. Our good friend Greg Lempke (a Canadian brother) of Spring of Life Ministries in Kampala picked us up. Sadly, we had to part from John (our Uganda son) as it was time to go back to school. We were thankful for the over 5 weeks we were able to spend with him this time & at the end truly felt like a family. Sally also departed for Kenya, but we will see her very shortly. I barely caught my breath & Renee & I separated as I went off with the SOLMA team to a remote village for believer’s conference & crusades, (another 8 hour journey on top of the all night bus ride). It was extremely fruitful & netted many new souls for the Kingdom of God. Renee went with Greg & Sandy’s daughter Samantha back to the Kienjojo district to a refuge camp of 81 sq. miles with no end of needs. They traveled by boda boda (motorbike taxis) to every corner of the camp. The refugees are from the Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia & a couple other countries. They were on a data compiling mission to evaluate the many needs for the refugees.
During this entire time in Uganda, I have been mostly sick. I began with a convulsive cough Christmas day that required injections to stop it & the sickness continued for 3 weeks. I also got a jigger in my toe which is like a flesh eating parasite. In Kabale, along with Renee & Sally, I got an intestinal infection that came on with a high fever & severe diarrhea for a few days. In Kampala, I arrived with yet another bad cough that continues & the night before we returned to Kenya, I came down with a 39.6c fever which turned out to be malaria. I spent the evening with chills & diarrhea. We got up at 5am to catch the bus & I discovered yet another jigger in my heal. It has developed now into a massive infection in my foot & leg up to my knee that is swollen, red & painful. I spent today at a good hospital in Kisumu City & had prayed for the right doctor & got a very competent & caring Christian doctor. I have been diagnosed with a nasty infection from a prick from ‘something’ I can’t remember happening. I have a bronchial infection & my malaria is cleared up. This has been my sickest year of my life. When I returned to Kenya, the first thing a friend remarked was how much weight I’ve lost; (I call it my African weight loss plan; haw haw). It’s been quite a battle but I thank God who has given me the grace & love for what we do to press on.
We are massively grateful for the prayers that have been petitioned on our behalf. We couldn’t & wouldn’t want to do this without that support.
We look forward to the next 2 months of ministry in Kenya until we return to England on April 7th for 20 days, where we have an outstanding itinerary awaiting us. Our return to Canada is April 27th.
Almost 2 months in Uganda (Dec.18th to Feb.8th) was really wonderful & rewarding. Our team consisted of Renee & myself, Sally Omundi (from Kenya) and John Abesiga (Plunkett) from Uganda.
1st Week > with RED (Revival, Evangelism & Discipleship) ministries in Kampala. First time with Pst. Joel & Pamela. Did a 4 day believers’ conference & finished off with a Sunday service. All in all a very enjoyable time.
2nd Week > headed NW in Uganda to Kaihura for 3 weeks at Bringing Hope to the Family, a ministry we’ve been affiliated with for 5 years. The first part was celebrating Christmas together with about 60+ orphans at the Home Again Orphanage. Renee & I were the original sponsors of the first 2 kids there, so we’re known as Papa & Mama to all the kids. We had the great pleasure of presenting a Nintendo Wii Game system to the kids, (a contribution from Nigel & Julie Rowe & family in the UK). The kids had a blast boxing, playing tennis & the other sports games. There was a youth conference as well that involved about 300+ kids. We also did 2 days of a couples’ conference teaching the 5 love languages to many excited couples.
3rd Week > we went out to Katooke, (a village about a ½ hour from Kaihura) with Pst. Prosper & Jocelyn & my namesake, Greg. We took 6 of the Home Again teenage boys out, along with Sally & everyone participated in ministry. We did a 4 day believers’ conference that had a huge impact on the community & was well attended.
4th Week > SW to Kabale for the first time. We spent over 2 weeks there & were involved with so many churches & ministries. We spent 3 afternoons with Pst. Obed of Word of Faith Church; several days at a street kids drop in centre, (with Eddy, Pam & Ben Ward) where we had the privilege of leading 8 of the kids to the Lord several days at Revival Tabernacle with Pst. Johnson doing services & crusades; many days with Pst. Santu & Pst. Donna of Inward Temple Church having mid-day meetings & a Sunday service; a too short time with Pst. Frank of World Evangelical Ministries, but we’ll make up for that next year. Our host for the entire time was Dr. Mike Osinde who took excellent care of us & looked after our many needs. Our good friend Rev. Richard Zimbalist was the instigator of this visit & coordinated the entire goings on. We were joined by an anointed man of God from Tanzania (originally Uganda) Pst. Fred who we hope to work with more in the future. There were so many highlights during our time in Kabale including a day trip to the deepest (& most beautiful) lake in Africa, with many islands on it (with Donna & Santu Laxman). It reminded me of the gulf coast between Vancouver & Vancouver Island.
Final Week > buses in Africa are truly of the devil – we waited in the afternoon over 3 hours for our reserved seat bus & then watched it whiz by us without stopping. We had to take the late bus that left after 10pm & got into Kampala at 4 am. Our good friend Greg Lempke (a Canadian brother) of Spring of Life Ministries in Kampala picked us up. Sadly, we had to part from John (our Uganda son) as it was time to go back to school. We were thankful for the over 5 weeks we were able to spend with him this time & at the end truly felt like a family. Sally also departed for Kenya, but we will see her very shortly. I barely caught my breath & Renee & I separated as I went off with the SOLMA team to a remote village for believer’s conference & crusades, (another 8 hour journey on top of the all night bus ride). It was extremely fruitful & netted many new souls for the Kingdom of God. Renee went with Greg & Sandy’s daughter Samantha back to the Kienjojo district to a refuge camp of 81 sq. miles with no end of needs. They traveled by boda boda (motorbike taxis) to every corner of the camp. The refugees are from the Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia & a couple other countries. They were on a data compiling mission to evaluate the many needs for the refugees.
During this entire time in Uganda, I have been mostly sick. I began with a convulsive cough Christmas day that required injections to stop it & the sickness continued for 3 weeks. I also got a jigger in my toe which is like a flesh eating parasite. In Kabale, along with Renee & Sally, I got an intestinal infection that came on with a high fever & severe diarrhea for a few days. In Kampala, I arrived with yet another bad cough that continues & the night before we returned to Kenya, I came down with a 39.6c fever which turned out to be malaria. I spent the evening with chills & diarrhea. We got up at 5am to catch the bus & I discovered yet another jigger in my heal. It has developed now into a massive infection in my foot & leg up to my knee that is swollen, red & painful. I spent today at a good hospital in Kisumu City & had prayed for the right doctor & got a very competent & caring Christian doctor. I have been diagnosed with a nasty infection from a prick from ‘something’ I can’t remember happening. I have a bronchial infection & my malaria is cleared up. This has been my sickest year of my life. When I returned to Kenya, the first thing a friend remarked was how much weight I’ve lost; (I call it my African weight loss plan; haw haw). It’s been quite a battle but I thank God who has given me the grace & love for what we do to press on.
We are massively grateful for the prayers that have been petitioned on our behalf. We couldn’t & wouldn’t want to do this without that support.
We look forward to the next 2 months of ministry in Kenya until we return to England on April 7th for 20 days, where we have an outstanding itinerary awaiting us. Our return to Canada is April 27th.
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