Prayer Request

I wanted to ask you all to pray for a young man in one of my CRE classes. He's 16 years old (in Kenyan Form 2), and I noticed him right from the start of the term because of his willingness to answer questions, ability to think things through -- and his obvious knowledge of the Scriptures when he does answer. Some of the kids are quite shy about answering, and some don't seem to have much Bible knowledge, but this boy stood out to me. I was actually thinking that maybe he was a pastor's kid or that at least he had grown up in a sound Christian family!
I got a chance to talk to him a couple of days ago and was really surprised when he told me that he had been raised as a Muslim until he was 10 yrs old. His father is Muslim, and his mother Christian (nominally at least); his parents divorced when he was 10 and his mother has taken him to a Pentecostal church since that. When I asked him how he knew so much about the Bible, he said he's read it several times. I then asked him if he knew that there was a difference between converting to Christianity nominally and converting in your heart. He said, yes, he knows the difference but he hasn't "done it yet". He said hopefully he will be saved soon. I talked to him a little more before some other kids came in. Please pray for him! Pray that I'll get another opportunity to talk to him soon, and that most of all, the Word of God that he has obviously been reading will pierce his heart and draw him to Christ.

Changeovers in Kenya

Hi all,

Please continue to keep the work here in prayer. These few weeks have been ones of movement and transition for the missionaries. Dave DiCanio returned from Liberia in the middle of January, Noreen McAfee is flying out from Nairobi today on her way home for furlough, and Kathy Walker will be returning next week from her furlough. So I will be handing back the music lessons and some other responsibilities to Kathy while I continue to teach Christian Religious Education in the Academy, take devotions with the secondary students, etc. I'm not sure what other changes will take place in my "job description" :-) but just please pray that I'll have wisdom and help from God in whatever I'm asked to do.

Margaret will be assuming a lot of the responsibility for the running and administration at the Academy while Noreen's away. Please remember her as she has this added burden.

Two young men from Lisburn congregation have joined us as well -- Luke Campbell and Timothy Patterson. They are taking a year out from university and are going to be helping at the Academy for a few months. Pray that they'll get acclimatised soon and that their time here will be a blessing to them and the young people they're working with.

Mom and Dad enjoyed their trip and are now safely home again! It was so good to have them here. Below is a photo of them with all the missionaries who are here at the moment -- the only one missing is Kathy.

Visitors in Kapenguria

Mom and Dad have arrived safely -- they are spending a couple of weeks here in Kenya to visit me and also to see the work. It's really good to have them here! I went up to Nairobi to pick them up last week, and on the way back we spent a day and night at Lake Nakuru Safari Park. It was brilliant! We saw all kinds of animals -- zebra, gazelle, water buck, water buffalo, baboons, giraffe, rhino, warthog, a hyena, various types of birds, and even lions! We had gone out at 6:30am (as soon as we could see) to try to find the lions, but sadly found nothing. But at midday, when we were on our way out of the park -- there were three lions right by the side of the road! One was sleeping in a tree, and the other two just lying there looking bored. It seems to be pretty rare to see them -- word must have been spreading all over the park because all these vehicles full of tourists started pulling up. They looked so docile and peaceful lying there -- even cute -- that it was hard to remember that they are wild animals! They do have pretty strict rules in the park -- you're not allowed to get out of your car except at a couple viewpoints. I got yelled at by the rangers a couple of times -- well, our poor driver got yelled at actually. The rear windows in our car only went down halfway, which was really annoying, so at one point I went around back and sat in the boot (it's a station wagon) and left the tailgate open so I could take pictures. They didn't like that. Then the second time, I was still in the car officially cause my feet were standing on the back seat, while I leaned out the window and took pictures of the giraffe over the roof of the car. But they still weren't happy! But I did get some good pictures!

We're back in Kapenguria now of course, and school is in full swing. I had my first CRE (Christian Religious Education) class this morning -- it went ok I think even though I didn't really know what I was doing. This class is with Form II, and we're studying the Life of Christ. Dad preached on Sunday in the school service at Lityei, and then in the local church next door. The people seemed to enjoy the ministry -- I heard some comments from some of the students especially to that effect. A couple men stayed after the church service to speak to the pastors - pray that a true work of grace will be done in their hearts.

Pray for the new school year

Just wanted to ask you to remember the BCFC Academy as the new school year begins (in Kenya it runs from January to December, with three terms). Classes resume next week so pray for the teachers and students. I'm one of the teachers! (shock) I'm teaching a couple of CRE classes (Christian Religious Education) in the secondary school -- the students will be equivalent to Form 4&5. I'm looking forward to it but a bit apprehensive as well, so keep me in prayer. Then I will be helping with the school choir until Miss Kathy Walker returns from furlough, as well as continuing the piano/keyboard lessons I have been giving.

Miss Noreen McAfee (the school headmistress) will be going on furlough in February so pray for her as she travels, and for the school in her abscence -- that everything will continue to run smoothly.

This past week, all the former pupils have been trickling back into school, and parents and prospective students have been lining the hallway outside Noreen's office to try to get places in classes. The children have to take a placement exam and have an interview (along with their parents), and then places are allocated. To give you an idea of the volume of children wanting to come to the school, 29 kids applied for a place in one of the classes, 10 passed the placement exam -- and there were only two places in the class! Even though signs are put up outside saying that there are no places left in a certain class, parents still come in and plead that their child would be admitted. Parents have been known to leave the office, having just been told that there are no places in the particular class that they're wanting, and go outside and join the back of the queue again -- only to be told the same thing a couple of hours later. So Noreen's had a long week! We are thankful, of course, that places in the school are in high demand!

Holidays in Kenya

Happy New Year to you all!

The Christmas service went well in Mumias I think. I still find it difficult to speak through an interpreter -- or "interrupter" as it is sometimes called! But I trust that the message got across, and that God will use His Word.

Noreen came down in the evening of Christmas Day -- arriving in time to watch the Queen's speech while we ate our dinner. Noreen and Gillian were very patriotic -- they even stood up for the National Anthem! I managed to make a fool of myself when Noreen texted on her way down saying "ER is on at 6pm". So I figured we were going to watch an interesting program on A&E (Emergency Room) -- I thought Noreen was being very considerate of me, seeing that I used to work there. When lo and behold, it turns out she meant "Elizabeth Regina" was on at 6pm. Needless to say, I was laughed to scorn, and comments made regarding how I was still half-American etc. LOL

We had a New Year's service today (up in the Kapenguria area again) -- a few of the churches got together. The usual Kenyan time pattern -- scheduled for 11am, started at 12 midday, finished at 2:45pm. Then we had chai (Kenyan tea -- very good!) and the kids had orange juice and biscuits! Big treat for them!
Tonight I went over to the Rev. Kendagor's house for dinner -- it was nice to be out and enjoy the fellowship -- and good food! We had rice, potatoes, goat, and chapati (a flat bread that you dip into soup). We always have a time of devotions after dinner at his house -- and the visitor usually gets the honour (??) of bringing the "bread" as Rev. K calls it. I read Deut. 33:25 -- "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." This was actually our motto text in Ballymena in 2005 (some of you may remember). But it's been on my mind all day -- we have no idea what is going to come in the year ahead, but God promises strength for however many days we may have, and for whatever happens during those days. His grace is sufficient for us. I certainly had no idea on New Year's Day, 2009, that I'd be in Kenya on January 1, 2010, but here I am! And God has been giving abundant strength and grace!

Merry Christmas!

I'm heading down to Gillian Gillespie's house in Mumias tomorrow -- I'll be spending Christmas down there. The churches here all have services on Christmas Day. I'm to speak to the kids in the service in Mumias so please keep me in prayer for that. Then Noreen will join us in the evening and we'll have our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day. We're planning turkey, ham, cranberry, stuffing, the works! Yum!
I hope you all have a great Christmas, and thank you all again for your prayers and support.

Update

I'm back. The youth camp finished on Saturday -- both camps went well I believe, and please continue to pray that God will bless the Word that was heard. There were about 130 kids at the teens camp -- quite a crowd! They listened well, and from quizzes that were given after the teaching sessions, they must have taken in quite a lot!

We played some games with the teens in the afternoon, including a water relay. I borrowed the idea from memories of the youth camp I used to attend (when I lived in the States). We had to adapt it a bit, but I think the kids enjoyed it once they got their heads round the concept. It was entirely new, even to the teachers and leaders!

We also had a treasure hunt -- Gillian devised this one, and it took Brian and me a while to get OUR heads round it cause it was rather different from how we would do a treasure hunt at home. But again it went over well.

The theme chapter for the youth camp was Philippians 2, especially verse 15 -- "The sons of God . . . shine as lights in the world." Again, the mornings were devoted to teaching, with usually one session in the afternoon as well. The pastors and missionaries who were speaking covered topics like the young Christian's salvation, mind, character, will, actions, and witness. The young people professed at the end of the week that they had really been blessed by the messages. There was also a question and answer session on Friday, which lasted three hours (double the time that was allocated!) I think it was telling that most of the kids (if not all) were happy to hear God's Word and keep asking questions rather than head outside for the games that had been scheduled for after the session.

I was asked to give a presentation on Liberia at the youth camp -- the young folks seemed to be very interested, and several came up afterwards and said that they would pray for the work there.

Please do pray for these young people -- I really enjoyed the fellowship, and it was good to see signs of growth in grace in some of them. Young people in Kenya face a lot of temptation -- not only to things like immorality (which is a BIG problem here and causes a lot of young folks from the churches to fall, never mind outside) but also to more subtle sins like putting their education or their career before God. Kenyans prize education very highly, and parents have been known to say things like "Well, he only got a C- in his exams, so he would do for a pastor." Whereas the kid who has passed his exams well will be expected and required to go on to university and get a good job to support the family. So pray that young folks will hear the call of God and realise that working for God is the highest calling, and pray also that the Lord will touch the hearts of parents and make them willing to give up their dreams for their kids if that's His will. I do believe, from what some of the young people said, that there are a few to whom God has begun speaking about this matter.