Chavakali - Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him

This past weekend we took another evangelistic trip to Chavakali. Chavakali is a very small town located about 6 hours from Nairobi in western Kenya almost to the Uganda border. Driving there we passed through Kisumu, which is the town where Obama's grandmother still lives, but we missed seeing her. We arrived Friday night, checked into our motel, had dinner and headed to bed.

Saturday morning we went straight to the Chavakali Baptist Church and met with the pastor and some of the church members. We divided up into teams and headed out into the town to visit in homes.

We had many great visits. In one home, we met four sisters who were living with their widowed mother. They were explaining to us how difficult life was for them with no men in the house. We shared Bible stories with them from creation to Christ and all four sisters prayed to receive Christ.

In some homes the family members were already saved but they would always want us to stay and pray for them and their needs. Here is a young lady who was caring for her elderly grandmother.

Jeff was fascinated by this grinding machine. People would bring their maize here for the owner to grind into meal. Their main staple good is called ugahli and it is made with ground meal and water. They eat this everyday and it is very filling.

All of the children loved to follow us around because they rarely see a "mzungu" which is a white person.

After lunch we gathered back at the church for a time of reporting. Among all the teams there were a total of 37 people who prayed to receive Christ through the home visits. Praise the Lord!

The afternoon was spent in Bible teaching. Pastor Mike led the local pastors and church leaders. Dee taught the women how to sew an apron and a handbag hoping they might could make some in the future and sell them. Jeff and Jan worked with the children. We had over 80 children gather in a field under a tree where we taught them the story of Noah and the ark.

After the story, we gave each of them a picture of Noah and the ark to color. Apparently they do not have the opportunity to color very often and they loved it. We were limited on our crayons and it was such a joy to watch how they all shared the crayons with each other.

When the story and craft were finished we resorted to play time! We brought a jump rope and 4 bright colored Frisbees. The girls did the jump rope while the boys chased the Frisbees everywhere.

We gathered them back together again at the end of the afternoon and Jeff led them in singing some songs and then he told them a few more Bible stories.

But the day was not over. As the evening approached, we set up a large screen in the field and prepared to show the Jesus Film. We began showing the film around 7pm with around 50-60 people there. But by the end of the film hundreds had gathered to watch. When the film was over 77 people came forward to pray to receive Christ. Please be in prayer for these new believers as the church prepares to follow up with them.

Sunday morning the church was packed to overflowing. Jan and Dee had SS for the children, while Jeff led the youth, and Danstone shared with the adults. Then Pastor Mike preached during the morning worship service. As usual there was plenty of singing and the children did a wonderful dance routine for us.

After church we hit the road to head back home. It was a rough trip and we saw many tractor trailers that had crashed along the side of the road. This is a Petrol truck that had overturned.

But there was also beautiful scenery as we went up and down over the mountains. We traveled through many lovely tea plantations along the way. We also saw some of the tallest corn we have ever seen!

All in all it was another wonderful weekend in the Lord. Please continue to pray for the people of Kenya.

Machokos - He Who Has Ears, Let Him Hear

This past weekend we traveled with Mike and Dee Dameron to a small town in the Machakos district. We left early Saturday morning and arrived at the church around 11:00AM. After the usual greetings, we divided up into teams to go into the town to share about Christ. This trip was a little different in several ways. This church was located in a small town instead of in the bush and the church was much larger with cement floors instead of dirt, real wooden benches and even had electricity! Our teams were much larger this time. Besides the missionary and their interpreter, we also had about 6 others to go with each team to observe how we were doing evangelism. This was to help them learn how to do it on their own after we were gone. Another thing was we went into the market place in the town instead of going to individual homes. Many people would tell us they were too busy to stop and listen. But there were others who stopped their work to listen to the Word of God. At the end of the day there were 35 new brothers and sisters in God's Kingdom. What a praise.

We returned to the church for lunch and had the usual meal of goat stew with rice and cooked greens prepared for us by the ladies of the church. In the afternoon, Pastor Mike lead 3 hours of Bible study teaching for local pastors and church leaders.

On Sunday we met back at the church for Sunday School and worship service. Dee and Jan led the children through the creation story and a craft while Jeff led the youth through a session of how to do Bible storying.

Before Pastor Mike preached the sermon, we enjoyed different groups as they praised God through song and dance. The children were amazing as they performed precision movements along with their songs, sometimes even using tambourines and drums.

The guys did a quick set up and following the worship service, everyone stayed to see the Jesus Film presentation. It is always fascinating to observe how people respond to different portions of the story of Christ. Many times at different parts of the movie when Jesus does one of His miracles, the entire crowd will break out in applause. God is so good and He speaks to His people in so many different ways!

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.