Homa Bay - Tellin' The Story

This past weekend we traveled to Homa Bay en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homa_Bay on Lake Victoria for a weekend of sharing Christ's love with those who have not heard.

We traveled over Friday, stopping in Ogembo to deliver the new bunk beds for the orphanage. On Saturday morning we were greeted at the church by several local pastors who were going to be our interpreters for the weekend.

Jeff made friends with the children right off the bat.

Jeff and Jan being introduced to the pastors.

We were then introduced to our interpreter for the day, Moses. Moses is a pastor in the area and also the associational leader for the Baptist Convention.

The morning started off well as we shared with this gentleman, his wife, and friend. All three prayed to receive Christ. After we prayed with them, we encouraged him to get involved in a church and told him to come see the Jesus Film that night. We also told him that now that he knew about Christ, he should share the Good News with others. He then asked us if we would go with him and tell his brother's family what he had just heard!

After we shared with his brother and his wife, they too prayed to receive Christ. What a wonderful way to show how much he loved his brother. How exciting! What a lesson for all of us. Once we have heard the Good News, we need to tell others, especially those we love.

One of our stops during the morning was to meet the lady who opened her home to the church before there was a church building. As the church was forming, they met under this tree in her yard.

We used the Creation to Christ Bible stories to share. Jeff is a wonderful story teller. He did wonderful job of keeping their attention.

These three young men all prayed to receive Christ. We only had a few Bibles to hand out so we told them they would have to share.

After a very productive morning for the teams, we returned to the church where the ladies made us a wonderful lunch of rice, ugahli, sukuma wiki, goat, and pineapple.

After lunch we divided up and spent some time in teaching the adults and children. Later on we showed the Jesus Film, which is always a blessing. At the end of the film, Pastor Mike issued an invitation and 13 people came forward to pray to receive Christ.

This sharp young man is Victor. We met Victor first thing in the morning on the road. He said he already knew about Jesus but we invited him to come and see the Jesus Film later on in the day. After viewing the film, Victor was one of the ones who came forward and prayed to receive Christ as his Savior! We love watching the way God works. He also came back to the church on Sunday morning and Pastor Mike gave him a Bible. We hope to hear more about Victor in the weeks to come.

Sunday, we went back to the church and held Sunday School. Jan and Gail worked with the children while Neal led the adults. Sunday School was followed by the worship service which is always preceded by plenty of singing and praising.

Jeff sharing with the church.

Pastor Mike Preaching with Moses interpreting.

This is Pastor Kenneth, the pastor of the church, with his wife Evelyn. Please be in prayer for them as they have much follow up to do with the 114 people who made decisions for Christ over the weekend!

Sweet Dreams at the Orphanage

This weekend we had the privilege of delivering a wonderful gift to the orphanage in Ogembo. You may remember reading about this orphanage when we went to visited there back in February. Well some friends from Heritage Hills Baptist Church in Conyers, GA read the article and were moved by God to do something to help the children. Since 24 children were sleeping on three twin beds, we felt the best thing was to get them more beds. Since the orphanage has a dirt floor and termites are a big problem here, we had bunk beds for both the girls and the boys dorm made of metal. Brand new mattresses were bought for the beds and then the gift was topped off with new blankets for everyone.

We were able to load everything into and onto a four wheel drive Land Cruiser which worked well since the trip up the mountainous dirt road was a rough one. Even though the ride was rough, the scenery at the top of the mountain was magnificent.

The lady here with the blankets is Evelyn. She is the primary caretaker for the orphans.

We were not able to get a picture of the beds assembled and in place because we were on our way to Homa Bay for the weekend and we still had to get back down off the mountain and travel four more hours before dark.

But we did have time to go into the church and listen to the children from the school and the orphanage sing us a couple of songs before we left.

Many people from the community came to greet us and thank us for such a wonderful gift. Thank you so much Heritage Hills friends. We only wish you could have been there to see the smiles and receive the hugs we received on your behalf.

Just for Giggles and Grins

After a limited survey (my four children), the consensus is to share this on the BLOG.

If you’ve been keeping up with the BLOG, you may have seen the post where the ladies went on a retreat a few weeks ago. While the ladies did their thing, Neal and I rode around the country side. We came up on the "Taidy's Restaurant" in Eldama Ravine. I picked up this brochure. It would appear that someone pulled out the English dictionary and went to the "make me sound smart by using big words" section. Hope you find this as humorous as I did.

This is Africa (You’ll have to add your own Ryan Seacrest voice).

The hotel featured a Mother Theresa wing, a Kofi Annan wing, a Nelson Mandela wing, and (drum roll here) a Barack Obama wing. With the many Barack Obama things seen here in Kenya, you’d think he is the president here.

Evangelism/Medical Clinic in the bush

Last weekend three missionary couples traveled into Maasailand to share Christ's love. The ladies returned to Oltinka Baptist Church in Emali to conduct a medical clinic and AIDS awareness seminar. At the same time, the men traveled out further into the bush to share stories of Christ with different small groups.

The men made their first stop at the home place of a man who introduced them to his three wives. As Neal began to share Bible stories using the Bible Storying Cloth, a small group formed to hear what he had to say. (Because most of the lost world does not read, the storying cloth is used by missionaries to teach people by telling them the stories of the Bible chronologically from creation to Christ. Learn more about the storying cloth at http://www.imb.org/main/lead/page.asp?StoryID=5892&LanguageID=1709

One of the goals of these trips is to help disciple the church leaders. Three members of Oltinka Baptist went with the men to interpret and to learn how to better share their faith. Here you see one of them taking notes on what was being shared.

You have heard of living in mud huts before, well here, that is truly how they live.

The Maasai women are exceptionally beautiful women. We just love this shot.

After sharing at the first home place, the men moved on to another site that was a church beginning to form under a tree. At this location, Mike preached and Jeff sang. One man prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.

The men also carried some Bibles with them to give to those who needed them.

They also carried a rubber ball and some Frisbees. Unfortunately the acacia thorns ended the ball fun very quickly, but they were able to teach them how to throw the Frisbees.

The men ended the night by showing the Jesus Film, using a generator and a large screen they took with them.

Back at the church the ladies were setting up the medical supplies for the clinic. Stephen Juma, the medical director at Brackenhurst Conference Center in Nairobi, came along with us on the trip. He examine patients and administer medications. A couple of the men from the church were there to organize the people and interpret. Each patient would come into the clinic where Jan would take their blood pressure, pulse and age. They would then go see Stephen with their medical complaints. Dee worked with Stephen to measure out and administer any medication that needed. Then Gail would give every man, woman and child a dose of de-worming medication.

We stopped about 30 minutes for lunch. When we returned, Stephen led a seminar on AIDS awareness. Everyone was very attentive and some even asked questions. Their best question was, "When are you going to come back and test us for AIDS?" So now we are trying to obtain some AIDS test kits to return and test them.

After the AIDS seminar, it was back to seeing patients. The men were so gracious to allow the women and children to be seen first, before they came into the clinic. The last patient was seen right at dark. In all, 103 people were treated that day. The youngest was nine months and the oldest was 78 years old. It was a great day in the bush!