Posted_By: Judy
Date: Saturday, January 27, 2007

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Nandi Baptist Bible School

Last Sunday (1/21) after the services at Chemartin, we had a meeting of all the pastors and other church leaders to discuss the beginning of the Bible school.  We adopted the name, Nandi Baptist Bible School, and determined that we would open for classes in April.  A board of eleven members was elected.  I am ex-officio.  As this will be a part-time school, the pastors decided to meet for one week during each of the school holiday periods in April, August and December.  They will be able to get leave from their jobs on the tea estates for that length of time.  Because of their work schedules, it will take them 2 ½-3 years to complete the two-year certificate course.

I talked with the headmaster of Taito Secondary School, which is sponsored by the Kenya Tea Growers Association and which Anna serves as Chairman of the Board.  He has agreed to allow us to use the school and will let us know what the cost will be per student to use their facilities.  They have dormitories so men and women students can stay overnight.  There is also a kitchen which will provide meals, and, of course, there are classrooms.  God is our awesome Provider!

Meanwhile, we will be searching for property where we can build and have our own campus.  I can envision a sign on the main highway that says:  ENTRANCE TO NANDI BAPTIST BIBLE SCHOOL.  What an impact it can have on the Nandi Hills District!  Please pray with us as we seek God’s vision and perfect will.

This report will be very short as time is short, but I do want to give you an update on the recent prayer requests.  Anna’s daughter, Tricia, is still gaining strength for her surgery.  My niece, Jill, received an undesirable final report and learned that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes, so more of them will have to be removed, and she must have chemotherapy.  My brother’s finger was repaired with pins.  It will not be as mobile as it was, but at least he still has a whole finger.  Thank you for your prayers!

Mungu awabariki!

Judy

Posted_By: Judy
Date: Saturday, January 20, 2007

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Nairobi Again

I missed church last Sunday because we (Shikuku, Saina and I) were on our way back to Nairobi so I could be at Immigration when it opened Monday morning.  It seems my request for a Special Pass was denied due to lack of information, although I followed all the instructions given to me.  Therefore, I had to get another letter from the First Baptist Church of Ruiru (a suburb of Nairobi) requesting that they reconsider their decision based upon the additional information I was submitting with the appeal letter.  My visa expired on Monday, which was the reason for the trip, but since the appeal is in process I’m OK to stay in the country until the Special Pass or my Resident Status is approved, whichever comes first.  Actually, the residency should be approved next week, as it has been two months since I applied.  Again, God is in control and I trust Him to take care of it all.

Temso Church had three new members last Sunday!  And remember Kristofer?  He and his wife have been in church every Sunday since he was saved and sober; and his wife, Helen, came to the Bible study last Wednesday.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Cheribisi and Kipture churches have been received back into the fellowship of our Baptist churches.  Our pastors met with some of their members to determine if their motives were pure, and Bwana asa fiwe!, we now have two more churches here in the Nandi Hills Tea Zone Association for a total of eleven.  Both of them were planted by our mission team last July 2005, but were persuaded to join that other group.  Now they’re back with us.

As God is working so mightily here, so is the enemy.  It has recently come to my attention that three of the churches each have one deacon who has two wives.  I’m not sure how that happened in the first place, but as they are growing in the Lord they are realizing that it is contrary to the teaching of God’s Word.  We sought counsel from Linus Kirimi of the Baptist Convention of Kenya, and he or someone he appoints will act as a mediator to solve the problem.  The Kalenjin tradition allows for several wives.  One man I know, who is not in church, has six wives.  Kalenjin is the name for the collection of several tribes in the Nandi area.  Although they no longer live in tribal villages and many have intermarried, there are still those, mostly the older generation—my generation, who hold strongly to the old traditions.  Their children and grandchildren are rapidly moving away from it and becoming more “westernized.”

Another area where the enemy is attacking is rebellion on the part of one pastor and one man who is studying to be a pastor.  The pastor is the one who was disciplined for causing division and strife in his church in October and told to stay out of the pastorate for at least six months while he searched his soul and sought the Lord for guidance.  Our pastors have been working with him to make sure he knew he was loved and we were praying for him.  Well, he is starting a new church elsewhere tomorrow.

The pastoral student is causing problems in one of the churches with his gossiping and arrogance.

People are the same everywhere.  They have the same strengths and weaknesses that we read about in God’s Word.  That’s why the Bible is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16) everywhere in the world.  Please pray for us on this side of the world as we seek God’s direction in dealing with these problems.  We know Jesus is already the Victor, the enemy is already defeated and the war is already won.  We just have to get through these minor skirmishes in our earthly life.  It surely helps to be certain of the promise of the glory in Heaven after this life!

As always, thank you for your love and prayers.

Mungu awabariki!

Judy

Posted_By: Judy
Date: Saturday, January 13, 2007

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A Happening Week

The total now is about 9 new churches that we have been requested to help start in this area.  Four more new requests came to us this week.  People are hearing how God is working in the Nandi Hills district and they want Baptist churches in their communities.  Bwana asa fiwe!  Praise the Lord!  Our pastors will be meeting with these groups to determine their needs and we’ll go out from there. 

A pastor has been found to lead the new church in Nandi Hills town, so they will begin meeting as soon as they find a place.  They may have to rent a building in town, because the town council closed the local government primary school to church use.  We’re not sure why, but we do know that the Muslim influence is growing and there is a mosque in town.  In fact some of the banks in Kenya are giving special concessions to them out of “respect for their faith.”

Last Sunday at Temso was a special day for the two pastors who graduated from Mukhuru Bible School last November.  They were presented with gifts, and as people lined up to congratulate them, money was pressed into their palms.  It was a precious time for all of us.  And, not to be outdone, the ladies who attend Bible study gave me a beautiful kikoi (the all-purpose wrap-around) and a very nice cardigan sweater, all of which was totally unexpected.  Then we all went to my shamba to look over the progress being made and had prayer.

TEE, Theological Education by Extension, will begin on Sunday afternoons the end of this month.  This is the program everyone told me about when I arrived.  When the pastors met, they decided to have three separate locations meeting simultaneously to facilitate everyone who wanted to take part.  Facilitate means that no one will have to walk more than 30-45 minutes to get to a location.  This is an exciting giant leap forward in their Christian growth and Bible knowledge.  Our prayer is that many people will participate, not just the pastors and church leaders.

Before I came to Kenya God told me what He wanted me to do:  share the gospel, teach the Bible and sew and teach them how to sew.  Sharing the gospel and teaching the Bible happen almost every day; however, what I understood to be sewing hasn’t materialized.  I bought a treadle sewing machine and was ready to start on some clothes, but was told by several people, even a lady who owns a material shop, that it is much cheaper to buy clothes at the second-hand store than it is to buy material and make them.  I found out they are right, so I haven’t begun to sew anything on the machine and even wondered if I misunderstood what God said.

Then on the Sunday morning we were at Kapsabet and the ladies gave me the African-style outfit, one of the ladies told the congregation that I had taught them how to sew the necklaces and bracelets.  That was a word from the Lord to let me know I had not misunderstood what to do, just what medium to use.  It is a prime example of how God reveals things to us based on where our understanding is, and then takes us from there to where we need to be.  Only God knows us and our hearts that intimately and completely.  We serve an awesome God!!!

Here’s an update on Tricia, Anna’s daughter.  She is home from the hospital, resting and gaining strength so she can undergo the necessary surgery to correct the problem.  Please continue to pray for her healing and wisdom to make the decision to either stay in the U.S. or return home to Kenya.

May I add two more requests?  A niece in Louisiana, Jill Rushing, had a double mastectomy on Monday and is now home and doing well.  Preliminary tests so far show no lymph node involvement.  My brother, Sel Warren, was shot in the finger by an intruder who entered his apartment.  He had surgery this morning to either insert pins to repair the damage or to amputate it.  And he’s been so concerned for my safety in Africa!

Thank you so much for all your prayers, love and support.  God is working through you!

Mungu awabariki!

Judy

Posted_By: Judy
Date: Saturday, January 6, 2007

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New Year’s Week 2007

New Year’s Eve church service at Koisagat Sunday morning was wonderful with three of us sharing from God’s Word; great testimonies, one of which was from a visitor who said he was joining the church; and the usual good singing with a drum.  That night there was another gathering with a bon fire to bring in the New Year.  They rarely have anything at night for walking safety reasons and they don’t expect me to come, so I missed the fire.  I decided long ago it was too dangerous for me to drive anywhere after sundown because of road conditions and the total darkness.

On New Year’s Day a few of Anna’s friends joined us for lunch:  Dr. and Mrs. David Wasawo and Saina (I forgot his last name).  David, 86, has his Ph.D. in biology and taught at several universities for many years.  He is now chancellor of one of the universities in Kisumu.  Ruth, his wife, runs their coffee farm which is a couple of hours away from Kisumu.  Saina owns a couple of businesses and lives in Cheptabach.  It was a relaxing day visiting with such knowledgeable people.

As it turns out, Ruth and Saina played very important roles in helping me navigate through immigration this week.  Ruth went with Shikuku and I to Kisumu to the immigration office to see about extending my visa until my application for residency is approved.  There is about a 2-3 week lapse between the two events, which means I would have to leave the country until I became an official resident.  The Kisumu office extended the visa only one week as per the law here, so I had to go back to the Nairobi office on Thursday.  This time Ruth and Saina went with us.  Saina had connections and Ruth was going anyway to take care of some business.  She also has an apartment (flat) in the big city which she invited me to share with her.

The Nairobi office couldn’t help me any further and offered no solutions.  Then the Lord impressed upon me to show the officer the letter I had received from First Baptist Church, Ruiru (a suburb of Nairobi), inviting me to come to Kenya to work with the Baptist churches in Nandi Hills.  He then said, “Oh, so you’re a missionary.  You can apply for a Special Pass for an additional month or two which we can approve by next week.”  God is so awesome!

Now you must understand that when we come here on mission trips, we are advised to never mention the fact that we are here to do church work.  We just say we’re tourists.  Well, I have discovered that in spite of the group that is trying to stop Christian work in Kenya, the government is delighted to have us here helping the people.  On the application for residency status, there was the question, “Why do you want to live in Kenya?”  In spite of all I’ve been told, I wrote down the exact reason and attached a copy of the above-mentioned letter and left it in God’s hands.

Nothing is impossible with Him!  (Genesis 18:14 and Luke 1:37)

Remember Kristofer?  He was again at church last Sunday and this time brought his wife.  Also, a lady from another denomination has been faithfully attending one of the Bible studies.  She told someone last week that she wants to join the church as soon as she can convince her husband to do so with her.  This past Wednesday another lady visited a Bible study for the first time from another church “down the hill.”  You must see the hills to understand that “down the hill” could mean many kilometers away!  Little by little God is growing and strengthening these churches.  It is so awesome to watch Him working in so many lives!

Another wonderful story of God’s working is about Mary Magut, a very young widow with two children, a 5-year-old and almost 2-year old.  She came to a Bible study one day and had the saddest countenance.  I found out that her husband had died two years ago before the youngest child was born, and she was struggling to face life each day.  We had several good talks over the next few weeks, and then not long ago she shared that she had finally found joy in her life again and was so thankful.  Most of you realize that God brings us through certain trials in our lives so that we can help others who are going through similar situations (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).  My husband went to be with the Lord 11 years ago last month, and God has given me many opportunities to share with other widows about His love, peace and comfort. 

In John 4:34-35 Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.  Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’?  I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvest.”  God needs more workers in this harvest.  I’m praying for you!

Please keep praying for all of us here!  God is working!

Mungu awabariki!

Judy