Last day in Kenya!

We have had a great trip, but it's time to leave Kenya today. Yesterday was another great day, including some prayerwalking in downtown Nairobi, prayers with the Deputy Mayor, and spending a little time with Wilson Mambeleo, one of the "fathers" in intercessory prayer in Africa. We pray we will see him again before too long.

Now about today -- we are packing and getting ready to leave and-- no hot water! No water at all, actually. We washed our hair in a bucket of warm water brought up by housekeeping, and are making the best of it. Today we are having a fun day going up near where Deb lives in the Karen area, and Margaret is going with us.

We arrive at the airport at 7 for our 10pm flight, and need to change seat assignments and make a few other adjustments. We need traveling mercies for the day and of course we pray for divine appointments all along the way. Please pray us home; we are looking forward to reuniting with our families and friends!

Love to all from the Kenya team.

Wednesday in Nairobi

Today we started our day at a Christian school; Hope Christian School. We gave out the pencil cases Michelle brought to the kids and they were sooooo excited! Unfortunately we may have sidetracked learning for the whole day but it was really fun. They sang "Jesus Loves Me" with us and went back to class. Not all of the children are from Christian families so it is a school and outreach all in one.

Currently we are in downtown Nairobi doing some administrative things and waiting for our meeting with Pastor Mambeleo. I think some prayers and prayerwalking will be happening this afternoon, so add your prayers to ours as we seek our Father's will for Nairobi, Kenya, and Africa.

Tomorrow is our final day -- it has been a great trip!

Kayole on Monday

Today is a beautiful day in Kenya! We had a great time at church yesterday under the HOT HOT HOT tent! They are due to start the new building next month -- there is a fundraiser scheduled at Saddleback on Sept. 30th to help financially. Bishop has some visa issues to be worked out, however, so please pray that God's will is accomplished in the scheduling of all that. He knows what's best.

Today will be spent in Kayole slum area visiting Carol's home and some slum schools. Michelle brought these great pencil cases that look like little stuffed animals and we have "stuffed" them with candy, a pencil, and an eraser. It will be so much fun to give those out to the school kids.

We have to be out of the slum by dark (6:30ish) so the day will go quickly. We are on Africa Time; if you get there you're not late!

Love to all,
Kenya team

Noah and Betina's wedding!

We just got in from the wedding -- 8pm! It was a great day; some similarities and many differences from an American wedding.

Of course it started on "Africa Time", which was good because we were still at the Nakumatt getting gifts at the time it was supposed to start. Not too long after we arrived a caravan of cars pulled into the church property, bearing the lovely bride and her relatives. The crowd circled the bride's car, dancing and singing songs before she actually got out.

Some highlights of the wedding ceremony were when the brides family and the groom's family marched them together at the altar and everyone started cheering! After they said their vows, their relatives and friends flooded the front of the church and the ladies carried the bride around the sanctuary and the guys carried the groom. When the Bishop said that Noah was a pastor and needed to set a good example and so--- he should kiss his new wife the congregation went wild! There was wave after wave of dancing and cheering all afternoon at this wonderful celebration!

Everyone was fed a full meal of rice, chicken and beef, salad and chipati! Then we went back into the church for everyone to individually present their gifts to the happy couple. After all of that, it was time to cut the cake. It was a little crumbly, but hopefully everyone got a taste.

There were speeches, blessings from all the visiting pastors, and a (short) sermon from the Bishop. It was an amazing day for all of us!

Yes! There are pictures! But -- we are at the hotel and somehow we can't get pictures to load from the blog at the hotel. So next time we are in downtown Nairobi, we will send them out!

Prayer Meeting

Thanks for your prayers; things went well today at the meeting! Reverend Mambeleo was teaching about intercessory prayer at Pastor Julius Suubi's church in Nairobi and invited us. Dr. Khris was the guest speaker at the lunchtime service and also at the evening service - her message was recieved so well. Reverend Mambeleo described her message as providing "the honey". We were so honored for him to pray for us after the service.

It was a great time in the Lord. Pastor Julius and his pray-ers have a strategy for praying for the city that they have been implementing for several years now and they are seeing much fruit! They were so kind and welcoming to us. We can't wait to see them again.

We are meeting with Rev. Mambeleo at least once more before we leave town-- we want to glean all we can from this great man of prayer before we leave. He's been praying for Kenya since before Kenya became a nation; he has so much wisdom to share and has been so precious to us.

We are working on our schedule, so please pray for us to continue our divine appointments. Wedding Saturday, Church Sunday, leave for home next Thursday, We have at least four more home visits to make and several meetings that all have to fit into Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. We need to walk where God would have us walk to accomplish his purposes in the time we have left. Blessings to everyone at home!

Here are some views from the balcony in Kayole. It is a bustling place, full of people, animals, kiosks, and unfortunately trash! God is showing Daktari the abundance even in the slums. There is roasted corn, meat hanging in the windows, and fresh fruit. It's not like that all the time, in times of drought things are harder still, but right how food is available.

Amazingly, it is very quiet in people's homes. Maybe because they are constructed of stone and block. People are much more respectful of each other and so things are pretty quiet in the stairwells and on the street.

Here is a closer view of Agnes and Gracious, mostly for Sandy. (S.Hahn, I have not been a baby hog because I didn't know how she felt about Mzungus. So you you are only missing seeing, not snuggling. :-))

Maybe we will find a way to convey the honor and privilege of being in these precious pastors' homes. In their Kenyan way, there was always a formal greeting and a formal response, and they almost all offered us some form of refreshment. For almost all of them it was the first time their Bishop had been in their homes, and the first time a white person had been in their homes! All wanted pictures which we will send back with the Bishop in October, and we know those pictures will be proudly framed and displayed. It is so humbling to be sent there as a representative of the Lord to show his kindness and provision. Of course there will be oppoortunities for sharing the Gospel as their neighbors ask about the visits and the pastors can testify how "their God will supply all their needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus!"

Love,

Amy for the Kenya Team

Visiting our friends!

What a thrill! We have finally gotten pictures to post! It took almost five minutes for these to upload, but we have a strategy now, so brace yourself for more. The top picture is at our friend Agnes' house. We went there first thing yesterday morning, and so had some time for a visit with her and her huband, Ben and their beautiful daughter Gracious. Agnes is one of the pastors at Gospel Lighthouse and is a mighty minister of the Gospel. We love her! We will be meeting with her later in the week for some sharing and serious prayer time so please lift up that meeting to the Lord so that we will all be prepared.

Below is a picture of one of our little Kayole friends. He was just hanging out on a normal day, eating his snack of roasted corn, until the Mzungu showed up. We still make the babies cry!

More later,
Kenya team.

From the internet cafe... again!

Good morning! We are at an internet cafe in downtown Nairobi working on getting the pictures uploaded. It doesnt work like it does at home... also our personal computer consultant is available at home to get us out of any jams. Thank you Brian!

for the last two days we have been visiting pastor's homes. Hopefully we CAN get the photos going and then you will really have a treat. We had such a great time meeting with the pastors in their homes, and I don't think any of us have ever been recieved with such graciousness and appreciation. They were days none of us will ever forget.

We had powerful times of prayer in the homes, and God came near to us!

Today we are spending some time this morning working on this, and then we have a meeting with our beautiful friend Ellah around noon. This afternoon we will be going back to the Kayole slum area to visit the orphanage with some toys! It is going to be another blessed day.

Thank you for your prayers; we are feeling an outpouring of the love of God for the people and getting blessed ourselves. We're almost halfway through -- however-- God has us on Africa Time and we have been able to get many things done! Amen!

Love to all,
Kenya team

trying to get a picture on here!

Sunday in Nairobi

Wow! We had a great day in Nairobi - we went to church with our friends at Gospel Lighhouse. They are meeting in a tent because their church was torn down AGAIN! Unfortunately, for the third time in six months. But God has been working behind the scenes and we are seeing the changes coming to fruition!

We had an awesome prayer time last night and Khris and Michelle brought messages from the Word today. Afterwards, we prayed for some people from the congregation.

We don't have a high speed connection at our hotel so we aren't sending pictures at this time, but we are looking for an internet cafe tomorrow to get some pictures put up!

Keep checking; we are still figuring out the blog technique -- pictures soon!

Greetings from Nairobi!

Hello everyone from downtown Nairobi!

We have arrived safely and it is afternoon here. Bishop and Margaret send greetings-- they are well! We have exciting news to share regarding the church and the expansion of ministry at the church property. God is in control and has been working in a mighty and powerful way which is now being revealed to the rest of us. His ways are not our ways but they are for our good. It is cool and rainy, giving the city a freshness which is not usually here.

Our flights were blessed, not too crowded, and we are preparing for the upcoming days. We will be doing home visits to the Gospel Lighthouse pastors and their families, encouraging their faith. We hope also to pray and bless the mayor of Nairobi next week. God is opening doors!

Just wanted you to know that we arrived safely and are settling in to do what God puts in front of us. Please continue to pray that God will use in a mighty way.

Much love from the team!
Khris, Bert, Michelle, Amy

Kenya Team travelling to Nairobi in two weeks!

Please be in prayer for the team who will be going to Kenya in September. Their trip dates are September 12 - 28th. Pray for divine appointments and a God-ordained schedule during their time in Africa. Dr. Khris and Bert, Michelle, and Amy will be going this time. The plan is to do medical clinics in Matunda and Nairobi, meet with the church for prayer, street evangelism as God leads, and whatever else He puts in front of us to do...

Our Family Church

As the sign says, "Welcome to our family church". One location of over 300, ministering Gods love and power in humble circumstances to the poorest of the poor in Kenya, East Africa.

Meet our Kenyan friends!

The happy couple in the center of this photo are our African Bishop Justus Wanjala and his beautiful wife, Margaret. On the left is the pastor of the Nairobi congregation, Josiah Syundi, and on the right is our "Daktari" and team leader, Dr. Khris Basham. The congregation in Nairobi showed their love and affection for the Bishop and Margaret by giving them a suprise wedding service in celebration of their anniversary. It was a precious time of celebration and fellowship for us all.

KARIBU - welcome - to our blog!

We hope that this blog helps you share the view from our window into what God is doing in Africa, India, and the world beyond!