API USA Blog

It's Friday morning and we are wrapping up the conference today.  It has been a very impactful week for all of us, API team and all the pastors and church leaders, as we have studied the book of Galatians in depth.  But I think all those who have attended this conference would say that the evening session with Pastor Roger teaching on children's ministry has been one of the great highlights for us, mainly because he gets the place jumping with his energetic delivery and infectious enthusiasm.

Our afternoon question and answer sessions have been incredibly helpful and fruitful times for these pastors and leaders.  Our panel is composed of the API team and two of the leading pastors in Lodwar and together we have all gained a greater understanding, not only of the passages we have studied, but of each other and our respective cultures.

It is always difficult to bring these to a close and the conversations always continue outside.  

I want to give a special shout out to the guy who is the hardest worker on the team and makes everything go - Rrrrrob Hostager.

And the guys who make everyone laugh.

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While we have been working hard in Lodwar, there has been a work party laboring to build a church in the village of Namagirat.  Monday, we bought all the materials for the church building and sent it out to the site, and by Thursday the workers had built the framework.

Next week, Roger, Rob, Dan and I will be headed out into the bush to join the church in celebration of this new construction.  I'd like to thank all those who have contributed to the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund to make this happen.

We thank you for your faithful prayers and ask that they would continue.  Pray that these pastors and church leaders would leave with encouragement and joy from the Holy Spirit and they would take the word they have heard and proclaim it to their congregations.

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It is Wednesday evening and we have just finished our second full day at the conference.  We are on a hill with a great view in all directions and the constant breeze makes it relatively cool in 95 degree weather, as we sit inside the hall under a tin roof that tends to radiate the heat. 

Pastor Tim, Pastor Dan and myself are taking the pastors through the book of Galatians, while Pastor Roger teaches them on Children's Ministry. 

One pastor who has had Bible college training remarked that, "I studied some of this in Bible school, but never at this depth. The teachings you bring are much deeper than we have gone before. We thank God for you."

The days have been very full starting at 7 in the morning with team devotions, each team member taking turns leading us in the word and prayer. 

We will wrap up the conference on Friday, handing out the book resources provided by TGC and New Growth Press books.  Keep all of us in your prayers and continue to pray for the spread of the gospel here in Turkana.

It is Monday evening here in Lodwar and our first session has just ended.  Stan and I arrived in Nairobi last week on Thursday and we spend the time before the rest of the team arrived doing prep work for our respective trips, and doing some shopping in the mall with Frank and John.

Stan is headed to Matete to work with Pastor Moses for a couple of weeks setting up a cyber cafe business while Pastor Roger, Pastor Tim Bourgeois, Pastor Dan Mason, Rob Hostager and myself head to Lodwar.  Tim, Roger, Dan and Rob arrived late Saturday night in Nairobi and got part of a nights rest as we took off for Lodwar the next day.

Roger, Dan and Rob all came together on the same flight while Tim elected for another airline and itinerary which stranded him in Ethiopia for 15 hours, but he finally made it to Nairobi. 

We left Nairobi around 2:45 pm on a scheduled 2:00 pm departure. But as they say here "TIK" This is Kenya, and things move at their own pace. The wait was long and hot and finally the legs had to come off and Rob thought this would make a good shot. 

The flight was thankfully uneventful and we were greeted by a reception committee of several Lodwar pastors at the Lodwar Airport and taken to St Teresa's where we will be for the next two weeks. 

Sunday evening we hosted the Lodwar Pastors Fellowship executive team to dinner at St Teresas, and had a wonderful time of fellowship and food.

We will post more tomorrow on the conference.  Continue praying for this conference and these pastors who are coming from all over Kenya to be here.  And pray for us as we proclaim the word of God.

Tuesday April 3, 2018

Sunday Frank and I traveled to Matete to preach at the church there. 

Matete was the first church built by the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund several years ago. We found them first meeting under a tarp.

The first structure was a temporary mud and stick construction that served the congregation well for a few years.

But as the church grew, expansion became necessary and so the church began to make bricks and a few weeks before our arrival on Sunday, a new and permanent structure had been built that is about twice the square footage of the original.

Pastor Moses has also built some housing behind the church for some orphans and vulnerable children the church is helping to house, feed and school.

Pastor Moses Biketi and his wife Judith.

Frank and I traveled back to Nairobi on Monday, broken up by multiple police traffic stops, produce shopping, and wrecks. 

Frank always stocks up on veggies to take home to his wife and family when we travel.

This semi took a hard left into some shops along the highway.

Fortunately we didn't get arrested this time, but we did end up paying some traffic fees for made-up charges.  It must have been payday for the police because they were out in force.  

Tonight I fly back to the U.S. and I'd like to thank all of you whose prayers and gifts made this mission possible.  Special thanks go to Pastor Rich Hamlin and his wife Lynn, Ben Edwards, and my wife Kim who together with Pastor Shadrack, Pastor Reuben, Frank and John, came togther as an incredible team to minister to the church in Kenya. 

Sunday April 1, 2018

It is Sunday night in Eldoret where I arrived Saturday after flying from Lodwar.  Friday we continued distributing famine relief and one of the villages we visited was Narang'lup where last year we helped them build a new church.

The children were some of the first to show up at the distribution site.

But the adults were not far behind.  And again, Pastors George Lokwawia and Boniface Lokuruka handed out the maize.

You might notice this woman below is wearing only white beads.  Those are an indication that she recently lost her husband and is now a widow.  Here she is cleaning the maize by letting the wind take away the dirt and chaff.

It would be hard to overstate the need these people have for basic staples in this desolate place.  However, the recent rains in Kenya have blessed Turkana as well, and their animals are not dying off as they have been in the past. I want to thank all of you who donated resources to bring food to the Turkana.

Friday March 30, 2018

For several years, the Huruma church near Lokori in Turkana had been meeting under this tree.  This year, through the generous donors to the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund, they were able to have their own building in which to worship.  It will also serve the community as a primary school.

Days after it was built, I was in Huruma to visit the church and deliver some famine relief supplies. Here we are with the church leaders of Haruma.

The church was exuberant in their welcome as you can see in this video.

As we handed out the food, it was gratifying to see the orphans and widows being taken care of first.

In the nearby town of Lokori, Pastor George Lokwawi and I spent the afternoon with the Turkana East Pastor's Fellowship talking about the ministry of API USA.  It was great to see so many pastors from so many denominations gathered together in unity.

After leaving Lokori, George and I traveled to Lokichar where we spent the night at the Black Gold Hotel which has the dubious distinction of having the most incoveniently placed toilet roll. Besides, neither of us wanted to travel another 5 hours on these roads. 

Also, it kind of looked like the wild west out here where it seemed everyone in the bush carried an automatic weapon.  George told me it was the government of Kenya's policy to arm the tribes with these weapons to protect each other from raiding parties. I thought disarmament might be a solution but George said they would just go back to spears and machetes.  The Turkana and the Pokot tribes have a long history of violence towards each other.  You'll notice there are no pictures of armed tribesmen on this post and that is because I thought discretion the better part of valor when it came to trying to wave my camera phone in their faces. 

We returned to Lodwar on Wednesday and then rolled out to Lokaparaparai where we delivered some more food to the church and surrounding community. We bought the maize from Pastor Shadrack who had grown it on his land in Kuria and then drove it up to Lodwar.  Through the generous donations of many, we were able to buy and deliver over three and a half tons of maize to distribute. Pastor Shadrack also donated a half ton of maize himself for famine relief.

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I gave Pastor Lokuruka and Pastor Lokwawi gloves to load the truck because I told them I had to take the pictures since Rob wasn't here. 

This church in Lokaparaparai was started by Pastor Martin Sassy, brother to Pastor Shadrack.

So I had given all these guys gloves for the work...and what did they do?

Currently this church is meeting under this tree and would really like to have a building of their own. Consider giving to the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund to provide a structure for Lokaparaparai.

Friday March 30, 2018

After the conference ended last Friday, we took a day excursion Saturday through the Masai Mara National Game Reserve.  Here are a few pictures of our trip.

A lone waterbuck

Rich and Lynn Hamlin

We saw a lot of lions and lion cubs this trip

Frank hamming it up for the tourists

I had no idea locusts were so big - that's Ben Edwards shoe in the picture

Team shot on the viewpoint

Wide angle showing the hill the Masai call the Sleeping Warrior

Beauty in the Mara

More lions

Ben Edwards and Reuben Lubvanga

Best sighting of the elusive leopard ever! Right by our vehicle

A shot of the rare white Masai and their Kikuyu guides (Frank Maina and John Kamau) and a Luya Masai (Pastor Reuben Luvanga)

The only member of the team not shown here is Pastor Shadrack Mogesi who I think was taking the picture. Our Kenyan brothers were some of the hardest working members of the team and we are grateful for their friendship and dedication to the mission.

It is my last day in Turkana and I'll be flying back to Eldoret to meet with some pastors in Western Kenya, including Pastor Moses in whose church I'll be preaching on Sunday.  More to follow on the events of this past week.  As always, pray for our safety and health as we travel here in Turkana.  I'll be distributing the rest of the famine relief supplies today in some villages in the bush. Thank you for your fellowship in the spread of the gospel here in Kenya.

Wednesday March 28, 2018

It is Wednesday night in Lodwar and I finally got the internet to work properly.  We finished our conference in Oloolaimutia at the Meguarra Church on Friday where we took this photo.  We had 295 pastors and leaders and their wives in attendence for our conference on A Biblical Understanding of Gender: God's Design for Men and Women.  This conference was held for the Maasai churches in southern Kenya, but we also had 24 from Tanzania.  The church was packed to standing room only and there were literally no aisles left.  We thank God for the extremely positive response to the plenary and breakout sessions as well as the Q & A sessions we held everyday. As one attendee told me, "We've never heard this kind of word before. And we want more.  We want you to come back next year and teach the Word like this. This is deep."  

Pastor Rich Hamlin and I taught the main sessions each day and Ben Edwards taught the men's breakout sessions, with Lynn Hamlin and my wife Kim teaching the women's breakout sessions.

The men gave the women the church for their breakout sessions and we men took to the field.

The Maasai are a very colorfully dressed people as you can see and every breaktime exploded with color.

We were honored at the end of the week to be adopted as members of the tribe with full regalia.

One of the highlights of our week was giving out the resources that were donated by Crossway Books, P & R Publishing and The Gospel Coalition. Pastor Stephen gave a ringing endorsement of these resources since he had been the recipient of similiar books last year.  He told the attendees that he treasured these books more valuable than his cattle.  For a Maasai man to say that is really saying something!

Thank you all for your continual prayers to God for us and this conference.  The week began with heavy rains, but by Tuesday the sun was out and we were basking in sunshine for the rest of the week.  There were many good reports but the best one was from a man whose wife attended the conference.  He couldn't attend because of work, but he called Pastor Stephen and told him, "Pastor, when my wife came home from this conference, for the first time in our marriage she kissed me.  Are you teaching the wives to kiss their husbands?"  Apparently the word to the wives through this conference had some practical effects!

Here a few more shots from the conference.

Lunchtime lineup - ladies first.

Lynn and some new friends and sisters in the Lord.

Q & A with Pastor Rich holding forth.

Morning devotions at the Zebra tent.

Again, thank you for standing with us as we minister to the church in Kenya.   

Tuesday March 20, 2018

We are in Oloolaimutia in the Trans Mara region of Kenya where we just finished our first full day of the Pastors and Wives Spring conference in the village of Meguarra, about 7 km from where we are staying at Manyatta Camp.

Morning coffee on the porch

Unpacking with Shadrack and John

We arrived in Oloolaimutia Monday afternoon after a trip delayed and disrupted by the heavy rains and flooding all of southern Kenya is experiencing. We had expected to arrive Sunday afternoon but decided to overnight in Narok rather than attempt to negotiate the treacherous roads at night. Part of that decision was spurred by the sights of recent flooding we encountered on the trip from Nairobi to Narok.  Shortly after we passed through the town of Mahi Mahu, we passed a 50 yard section of the main highway that had been cut last week by flash floods.

The next morning we learned that section of road was again destroyed by flash floods.  We are praying that this gets fixed before we have to return to Nairobi on Sunday.

We did have a restful night and a good breakfast the next morning in Narok before setting off for Oloolaimutia around 10 am.

We took a little time to visit the tourist trap shops at Seasons hotel.

And then packed up for the trip to Oloolaimutia. I still don't know how Frank and John got all our gear in these two vehicles, plus passengers.

Not very long on the road to our destination we ran into a bit of trouble with water.

We found ourselves stalled in a long line of vehicles attempting to pass through this raging river running over the road.

Eventually however, a trip that should have taken 2 hours ended up taking five.  

We thank the Lord that we came to Manyatta Camp without any serious delays or trouble.  I know that many of you were praying for us and we would ask that you continue to pray.  We began the conference in earnest Tuesday morning and enjoyed a long day of hearing from the word of God and developing new friendships and renewing old ones.  I particularly enjoyed renewing my relationship with Pastor Daniel whose church is hosting this conference.

Registration begins with Frank and Shadrack welcoming the delegates.

We will post more soon so stay tuned for updates.  Thank you all for your support and prayers. 

It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm back in Nairobi after a long circle route that took Frank and I from Nairobi, south to Narok, west to Kilgoris, north to Kisumu and Kakamega and Matete, west again to Bungoma, and then east to Eldoret and finally back to Nairobi.  We had meetings with several churches and pastors along the way, renewing old acquaintances and establishing new ones. We met with Maasai Pastor Stephen Muntet in Narok to discuss details of the conference in the spring of 2018, and then we sped off to Kilgoris to meet with several pastors there.

One of the pastors was Sailas Makalluh who has planted several churches in the Kilgoris area. API helped construct a building for the church in Magena last year.

Since then, Sailas has planted two more churches that need buildings.  The first is in Muntenkuar where the church has purchased a plot of ground. There are no other churches in this village and they are in need of a building in which to worship. We gave them some funds to begin construction from the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund, and we hope to send more soon.

The second church is in a place called Kiango which is on the border of Kisii County and Narok County.  One of the reasons Sailas chose this place to plant a church is because of the continuing friction between the Maasai in Narok County and the Kisii in Kisii county. His prayer is that this would be a church of peace between the tribes. There is a very long history of violence and war between these two groups and Pastor Sailas is convinced the only way to peace is when these tribes come to Christ.  Right now, they are worshipping in the open air when the weather is favorable.

The church of Kiango was given this plot of land by the owner who came to Christ after he was healed from a very serious sickness when Sailas and the church prayed for him. His testimony was that it was a very small thing for him to give this land to God who healed him and saved him.

Frank and I were invited to dinner at the home of another pastor friend of ours, Benson Ntuntai and his wife Ruth.  

They again expressed their thanks and the thanks of his entire church for the construction of their church and the installation of a concrete floor through the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund. They are now also using this building as a primary school.

Since this will likely be one of the last posts for this trip, I thought I'd leave you with a few random shots that didn't make it on the previous posts. Here are some from our trips to the villages in Lodwar.  Below is the village of Namagart.

Food for the village of Naotin.

The village of Moruese.

The village of Juluk.

We also handed out audio bibles and flip charts and gave many gospel presentations in these villages. Pastor George gives a very dramatic and effective presentation.

The kids were always curious about the muzungus (white guys)

They also like the lollipops we handed out at every stop.

Getting water is a daily chore for these people. These women have dug a hole in the river bed to get water.

And the termite mounds are everywhere.  For some reason they fascinate me. Some of them, like this one, are massive.

Thank you all who have partnered with us for this trip.  Your prayers and financial support have been invaluable. To God be the glory.

It's Friday morning in Nairobi and I'm putting on all the warm clothes I have. Coming from 90+ degree temperatures in Lodwar, it feels like winter here. The past week in Lodwar I spent delivering food and audio bibles to several villages. Thanks to the generosity of many, we were able to deliver around 5 tons of food to this drought-stricken place. From Monday to Wednesday, we reached nine villages with these desperately needed supplies of food.

I don't know why, but these massive termite mounds are a continuing source of fascination to me.  They literally dot the landscape in Turkana.

Before I left on Thursday, we took another run out to Nareng'lup to view the progress on the church building.

Note the OSHA approved ladder.

Almost done.

We were a bit disappointed that the work was not yet completed but perhaps it was due to the fact that the workers had less than desirable living conditions.  Below is a picture of their campsite.  A scrawny thorn tree and makeshift windbreak provide what can only be described as bleak comfort. They are actually sleeping on the doors they brought for the church.

Frank and I are traveling to Narok today to meet with Maasai pastor, Stephen Muntet, to plan our spring conference in Olulaimutia and discuss the progress of those students from the village. We travel on Saturday to meet with pastors in Kilgoris.  Thank you all for your support and prayers.

It's Sunday evening in Lodwar and I'm here in my bungalow at St. Teresa's as the monkeys are playing rugby on the roof. Tim, Rob, and Roger flew to Nairobi yesterday afternoon after we had a wonderful lunch at Pastor George Lokwawi's home. He had his son prepare the goat we were given in Nareng'lup and he was tasty! Tim stayed at the airport in Nairobi to catch his flight home to the U.S. later that night, and Frank picked up Roger and Rob to spend the night in Nairobi before heading down to Olulaimutia and the game park in Masaai Mara.

Before they left we had a wonderful graduation ceremony at the conference site Friday night with three graduates – Pastors Peter Ewoton and Christopher Tioko both graduated with a Bth and Pastor Reuben Luvanga graduated with an Mth. Roger Johnson gave the commencement address and we had the recently elected local Minister of Parliament for this region in attendance.

Saturday morning, we went back out to Nareng'lup to check on the progress of the church building before lunch at George's and checking in at the Lodwar airport.

Of course Roger never misses a chance to be with the kids.

And this is a common sight, rolling containers of water home from the water hole.

And carrying them on your head.

Sunday morning, George, his wife Grace and I headed out east of Lodwar to a village in the bush called Lokurumka to attend Sunday morning worship at one of the churches planted by George and deliver food to the village.  Because we were so overloaded with food, one of the tires went flat, but thankfully this was only a minor hitch in our plans. George and I have changed a lot of tires together and in no time we were on our way again.

The service was well-attended and after George shared the Good News with the audio bible and flip charts, and I gave a short gospel presentation, 12 of the villagers stepped forward to trust Christ. Again, we were amazed at the number of men that came forward!

We brought over 1/2 ton of food with us and with very willing hands to help distribute it everyone in the village got plenty.  Thank you John-Mark and all who gave so that we could give out.

Thank you all for your continued prayers for the work here.  We have several more villages to visit with the gospel and food so keep praying.  God is at work! 

It's Thursday evening and we have just finished our fourth day of the conference. We expected a few more than 90 pastors and church leaders, but we have 133 here as of Tuesday. Needless to say, this is a great blessing but also a great challenge as it strains our budget. But God has been faithful to allow us to feed and house all the extra people by stretching the ugali, sukomoweke and goat meat to feed everyone!

The response to the exposition of 1^st and 2^nd Peter with myself and Tim, and Roger's training on Children's Ministry has been tremendous. We are having conversations everyday with pastors who cannot thank the team enough for coming to share these truths with them. We have pastors who have traveled from long distances to get here and they have told us has been worth every effort to come. One pastor shared with me that he came back this year because of what he got in our conference last year. He said the ministry of API has revolutionized his church as he has put into practice what he learned during our Shepherd to Shepherd conference last August. “These teachings have challenged us and changed us as a church and as leaders as we have begun putting things in order according to the word of God we learned from you.” Thanks be to God!

The training has also sparked lively discussion groups after the sessions.

We will end the conference tomorrow night with a graduation of three of our API School of Ministry students who have earned their degrees.  Here are some random pictures from the conference. I actually got a picture of the elusive Rob.

Camels on the way to market

Mbuzi (goat) on the way to lunch.

My new shower friend.

Pastor George and his faithful Land Rover

We have also begun the construction of the new church building at Nareng'lup where we were this pasto Sunday. We hope to be finished by the first of next week. A special thanks to all of you who have contributed to the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund to make this happen!  Here are a few photos of the ongoing work.

Thank you all for your prayers. Continue in them for us. God is doing great things through your prayers.

It is Sunday evening here in Lodwar and it's starting to cool off from the heat of the day. The bats and bugs are out and we are in our wonderfully air-conditioned rooms. The team arrived in Lodwar Saturday afternoon and we are staying at the St. Teresa Pastoral Retreat Centre where we have stayed many times before.

Saturday evening we hosted a dinner for the executive team of the Lodwar Pastor's Fellowship which has graciously invited us for the past four years to hold a conference for the pastors in the region.

Sunday morning we saddled up and drove about 20 km out to the village of Nareng'lup where we held Sunday services. It was a great time of worship and the word and several men who came to see the musungus (white guys) responded to the message by trusting Christ. I've actually never seen so many men respond to the gospel before. Usually it is the women and children, but here we had eight men come forward.

Pastor George Lokwawi demonstrated the audio bible and gospel flip charts we gave to Pastor Paul for his church. These audio bibles are a great help in the church to teach and train illiterate people in the word of God. Thanks to everyone who contributed to buy these tools. We will be visiting many more villages in the coming days to deliver more of these bibles to the rural churches.

After the service we distributed the food we had brought to all the people who came. Thanks again to all who contributed for this. Again, we will be bringing food to all the villages we visit in the coming days. We were able to purchase quite a bit of food because of the generosity of many.

As a parting gift to the team, the church gave us a goat so we could enjoy some nyama chomo (barbecued goat).  The goat wasn't really enthused about the idea, but we loaded him up anyway in the Land Rover and brought him home for a future meal.

On our way home we dropped off some more maize at the pastor's home.

And with joyful hearts, everyone went to their homes with loads of food.

We've been in Nairobi since Wednesday evening. Rob and Roger arrived about an hour before me and cooled their heels with Frank at the airport Java House until I arrived. We then drove to our hotel, the Mayweather, in the Kiambu suburbs of Nairobi. Thursday was spent exhanging money, buying supplies and meeting with a pastor who had contacted us from our website wanting to invite us come and train the pastors in his association.

Pastor Benson Mutulu and his son Isaac

Pastor Benson Mutulu heads up a group of about 35 pastors in the Satellite suburb of Nairobi where they have begun what they call a Leadership Discipleship Institute. Their goal is to train up pastors and church leaders in their area and they are looking to partner with API to do that. Thursday evening we had a great dinner at one of my favorite places in Nairobi, 360 Pizza.

Friday morning we had breakfast at the Nove Coffee Roasters (funny how we always end up in coffee joints!) and spent the morning finishing out our supply list and bargaining for baskets.

The basket market

 Bargaining for baskets

Success!

This afternoon we rested, repacked our books and luggage for the flight tomorrow to Lodwar and worked on details of the conference. Both Rob and Frank, our Kenyan associate, are working through severe colds so we would ask for your prayers for their health and endurance. Pray that neither Roger nor I would catch whatever they have! We would also ask you to pray that Fly540, the airline we take tomorrow, would be gracious to us in their consideration of overweight baggage fees. We have lots of books and materials we need to get to Lodwar and we have to take them with us on this flight.

April 13, 2017

Nairobi

Stan and I flew back to Nairobi last night and we are flying back to the U.S. tonight at 11:55 pm. Love those late night flight times! Tuesday we traveled out to Nakepokan, the village where we helped build a church last August.

We were actually going to visit Nakepokan and another village where we want to help the church put up a building, but we ended up staying in Nakepokan most of the day, taking care of some important church business.

Essentially we were looking to help facilitate reconciliation between two pastors and I am happy to report that God was gracious to us and the brothers were fully reconciled and unity restored. Keep Nakepokan in your prayers as the work is difficult and the challenges are many. Pray for Pastor Thomas Eipa and his congregation. The drought here is severe and the animals are dying, as well as many people.

The meeting here lasted so long that we went right through lunch and by the time we ended, we needed to head back to Lodwar so we wouldn't be traveling at night. But along the way we found a nice place to take a break from the rough road and the heat to picnic. George's wife, Grace, had brought a thermos of hot water to make coffee and tea, and we had some biscuits and crackers, and some beef jerky I had brought along.

I am deeply indebted to Nick Dawson for his contribution to this trip by buying new tires for George's Land Rover!  We've driven many hours and a few hundred kilometers on this trip to Turkana and not one flat or blowout! George is very grateful to Nick also for his generosity.

Today Stan and I are wrapping things up in Nairobi, getting ready to fly home. It has been a great trip for both of us and God has blessed us in so many ways. Stan has a blog of this trip as well, and since he and I were in different parts of the country for many days, you can read about his work in Matete by going to: http://staninkenya.blogspot.com/ 

Here are some random shots of our last day. 

Fueling up at our favorite petrol station.  Thought I might see Chuck.

Stopped at a new coffee Roaster - Nove Coffee.

Stan instructing his Maasai friend on how to use the internet.

Stan and Frank at the mall. Don't they look angelic?

Stan and I would like to thank all those who have supported us for this trip and have been faithfully praying for us.  God has answered your prayers bountifully.

April 10, 2017

Lodwar

It's Tuesday morning in Lodwar and it looks like another hot day in Turkana. Sunday morning I was invited to preach at Pastor Boniface's church, the Free Pentecostal Church, while Stan stayed at the hotel to rest up from his busy week down in Matete. I had flown from Nairobi after our conference in the Mara and Stan joined me when we touched down in Eldoret and we flew on together to Lodwar, getting in around 5 pm on Saturday. Stan immediately felt at home here in Turkana because it reminds him so much of Yuma, Arizona.

Sunday afternoon, we met with pastor's George Lokwawi and Boniface Lokuruka to plan out the week. We have several churches to visit and a church building to put up. We also decided to bring food, as well as building supplies to the church we are putting up in Lorugum because the drought has really raised the price of food around here and many people do not have enough to eat.

Monday morning was spent gathering all the supplies we need to take with us and we eventually set off for Lorugum around 3.

On the way, we stopped at the first church we helped to build in this area, Nataaba, and spent some time greeting the members who had gathered. The church building has become an attraction for people to build their homes around and there is quite a little community now around the church.

After an hour with the people of Nataaba, we continued on to Logurum. We met the pastor, Luka, and the church in the little building they have been renting. Pastor George and pastor Boniface took them through part of the first lesson in the gospel flip charts and they were so excited that it was in their own language.

Then we offloaded the food we had brought and went down the road to the plot of land they had been given for the church.

The fences in Logurum

The building site

As the supplies were being offloaded, George, Boniface, and the funde (contractor building the church), were making final changes to the building plans.

Stan was directing operations.

The funde and his workers will camp here until the building is done.

By the time we had finished, the moon was rising and the light was failing and we ended up traveling back through the desert to Lodwar, arriving around 9 pm.

April 9, 2017

Lodwar

It is Sunday evening in Lodwar and several days have passed since we last updated you all. I finally got to a place where the internet is fast enough to email and post pictures so I'll try to catch you up.

We had a wonderful time in Oloolaimutia with the Maasai pastors last week. We arrived Monday morning where we checked into Manyatta Camp overlooking part of the Maasai Mara game park.  From the hotel open air dining room, we could watch elephants, giraffes, antelope, gazelles, wildebeests, zebras and other wild animals as they moved through the part of the park we could see.  It was a great way to begin the day. 

Home sweet home for a week. 

We began our conference last Monday evening at the Enkitoria Church with about 30 pastors.

The rest of the pastors were with their animals moving their herds of cattle, sheep and goats further south into Tanzania in search of pasture as the drought has hit these people very hard. Their animals are dying for lack of food and water and as a result the people are suffering. And yet the testimony of these pastors remains strong. “God is good and He will provide” they tell me. “Even if times are hard now, He will bring us into abundance.”

By Wednesday, most of the pastors and leaders had arrived to take part in the rest of the conference. Our host, Pastor Stephen Muntet, told me near the end of the week that “the pastors were crying to him to have more of these conferences because they were so helped by the word”.  Give God the glory! According to him, we were the first missionaries to come and hold this kind of conference, and this was the first time so many pastors from different denominations had gathered together in unity. There were 86 pastors and church leaders from 8 different denominations that came to this conference and they all expressed their deep appreciation to us personally at one time or another. The pastors are already planning the next conference and they expect 200 to come this time.  Their hunger for the word of God is amazingly deep and they received the word with great joy.

I am deeply grateful to my longtime friend, Pastor Shadrack Mwita who made several trips to Mara to organize this conference. Shadrack was in charge of all the daily logistics of the conference and he did an outstanding job. I don't think we've ever eaten better at any of our conferences.

Market day in Oloolaimutia.

The pastor who hosted the conference in his church, Reverend Samuel Muntet, the brother of Stephen, is building a new clinic to replace the old one he built years ago. His was the first clinic in Oloolaimutia and he will expand the services of the clinic to include labor and delivery rooms, long-term care rooms, a pharmacy and a lab.

We also gave out some audio bibles in the Maasai language along with the gospel flip charts as many people in the surrounding area are still illiterate. On my last trip to Mara, I had given Stephen one of those audio bibles and he told me he has been using it to great effect in evangelism and discipleship in his church.

One of the highlights, at least for the pastors, was the ceremony making Shadrack and I honorary Maasai.

I think I'm a little too white for this. But they insisted. One of my staunchest supporters in the Maasai thing was Pastor Timothy.

Please pray for the churches in Mara that God would increase the love and unity among them and that the gospel would go out in power throughout the Maasai. Pray too that God would have mercy on their land and visit it with rain. 

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Narok

I know it's past time for you all to be updated so I will try to summarize our first week here in Nairobi.

Stan and I arrived in Nairobi late Tuesday night where we were met by our associate John Kamau and taken to our hotel. The next morning we had breakfast at one of the many Java House restaurants around town and spent some time exchanging money and buying some necessary supplies at the Nakumat at Village Market. I went back to the hotel to work on the conference presentations and John took Stan downtown Nairobi to buy vinyl and other printing supplies he is taking to Matete.

Gary, Lesley and their friend George arrived at our hotel late Wednesday afternoon from their time in western Kenya where they were doing some infrastructure work for the medical camps and we got to spend some time catching up and doing some strategizing and future planning. Thursday we all had dinner together before Frank took them to the airport for their flight home.

Friday was spent buying books for the pastor's conference at the ACTS Bookstore and picking up the gospel flip charts for the audio bibles we are taking to the Masaai and Turkana people.

We also delivered some bibles to a pastor who is friends with one of my friends, Paul Moffet, in Puyallup. They had made connections in Israel in 2015 and Paul sent me with a suitcase full of bible to give to him.

Frank, another one of our Kenyan associates, and I took Stan to the airport to fly to Eldoret. Pastor Shadrack picked him up on the other end and delivered him safely to Pastor Moses in Matete.  We also managed to visit the brand new Two Rivers Mall near our hotel - the biggest mall in East Africa.

On their way out of the airport, Shadrack had forgotten to pay for his parking so he was ushered out of the line and back to the pay booth. By the time they had gotten out of the airport down the road a bit, the car that was in front of them as they were trying to exit the airport before they were turned back had been hit head on by another. Shadrack was sure that the Lord had prevented them from exiting the first time so as to miss the accident. A minor inconvenience was a blessing for Stan and Shadrack in disguise.

Frank and I arrived in Narok this afternoon after leaving Nairobi. We had attended the Immanuel Baptist Church in Nairobi this morning where I reconnected with the lead pastor whom I had met two years ago. I'll spend the night here and travel to Oloolaimutia tomorrow morning where the conference will take place, and Frank will head to Matete to be with Stan this week. Because of the weight allowance, Stan left all the heavy bags with Frank to bring with him.

Thank you all for your prayers and support for this work. I know that your prayers are working to keep us full of joy and peace in the Lord.  

Still Thursday September 1, 2016

I mentioned in my last post that after the rest of the team left for the US, I flew back to Lodwar.  I had several meetings with pastors there and handed out the rest of the audio bibles and flip charts that I had had to leave in Nairobi when we went to Lodwar the first time. Although I don't have any pictures of this, the expressions on the faces of the people when they hear the Bible for the first time in their own mother tongue is priceless; and all of them were insistent that I tell those who helped supply the word of God that this was a great ministry to them.  Thank you to all who contributed to this.

On Tuesday I traveled back out to Nakepokan to see the progress on the new church building.  Pastor Thomas was actually weeping as he told me that they had been meeting under a tree for 12 years and never imagined they would be able to have a structure like this. He wants everyone who helped make this happen that they are forever grateful that brothers and sisters they don't even know made a dream a reality. The workers were not quite done when I leftt I was assured that by Wednesday they would have finished.

They even let me drive a nail or two.

Around 1 in the afternoon, (96 degrees in the shade!) we broke for lunch in Pastor Thomas' dining room. Much to my surprise, it was at least 10 -15 degrees cooler in here.

Pastor Thomas is on the left and Pastor George is on the right. George began the work here in Nakepokan and handed it off to Thomas.

Pastor Thomas also told me that now they can have a school in this building for their children, most of whom are not able to attend school because they are so far away.  Thanks again to all those who contributed to the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund to make this happen.