Kenya Missions Update

16 February, 2004

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord, Jesus the Christ!

Praise report from Ian Shelburne who is a missionary in Mbale, Uganda. He attended a meeting in December that I was not able to attend here in Kenya. He writes, "At the Kenya national fellowship meeting, 21 Kenyan evangelists volunteered to go as missionaries to make disciples in new areas—without foreign support."

In Kenya things are a bit different as far as marriage goes. One has to have both families meet and agree about the marriage. At some point the subject of bride price will be mentioned. Each tribal group does it a bit differently and even within the tribal group, families will do or demand different prices. Some Christian families will not demand any bride price. Of this bride price, some may be demanded up front and the rest paid over time.

Joseph and Phyllis Mohoro have three children. Joseph is the evangelist at the Navillus Church of Christ. He wants to legally marry, but the problem is money. He has been praying about it. Last year someone said that he would give him Ksh. 5000 ($67) to buy a cow to take to Phyllis’s parents. The only stipulation is that after this he has to marry Phyllis formally in a church. God also provided someone else to give Ksh. 4000 ($53), so they bought two cows and took to her parents. Has anyone ever heard of someone else paying your bride price for you? This is the first that I have ever heard of it, truly an answer to prayer.

Today, we hope to make the last shots for a short furlough video that has been in the works for several months. One of the people you will see in the video is Moses Liambera. He is a young man whom we have known for some years. He is presently staying in the Navillus area, being trained as he wants to one day be a church leader. His family home is about 9 ½ miles from Navillus. His dream is to one day go back home and revive a church in his area. While at home, his eye caught the neighbors sister who came to visit her sister. (I am convinced that this is one way for a young girl to get married, you go stay with a relative. This way, you meet guys outside your own village). After praying about it, he asked two ladies from the Navillus church to go with him to meet the parents. A date was set up, and all was in order for the event to take place the first part of January. We had not gone to the Navillus church for several weeks, so did not know what was going on. Moses called the other day and wanted to come talk to us. We told him to wait and we would be there on Sunday.

Sunday, yesterday, he found us before church and wanted to catch me up on what had been happening. In a short time, I found out that the parents of the girls decided not to allow Moses to marry her. So, he asked Edith, the sister of Phyllis Mohoro (mentioned above) to marry him. She has been at the Mohoro house helping especially since the birth of their third child. The church leaders gave their okay and asked Phyllis to go to her parents and see what they think.

Grace and Keith talked to Moses before church and expressed several things that we were concerned about. It was rather quick… was Moses responding to rejection… will Edith ever feel like she was his first choice? etc. More importantly, Moses who wants to be a future church leader needs to have the Lord help him choose the wife for him, who can really help him in ministry. We know a wonderful evangelist, who married a woman, (they have a good marriage) but they do not work well together (yet) when it comes to church work.

To make a long story short, Moses agreed with us to be patient and see if marriage between him and Edith is from the Lord. Phyllis will not go and ask the parents just yet about them giving their daughter to him in marriage. And on Wednesday, Keith will go and mutually discuss with the leaders of the church and Moses and Edith and will express our (Keith’s and Grace’s) point of view on the role of leaders in helping young people who are deciding to marry and what it means to call upon the Lord and to hear from Him! It is always nice to get words of encouragement, here is one from Paul McMullen. "Keith, you were in my thoughts today. Nathan and I are both in a class with Dr. Evertt Huffard about missionary anthropology and we were talking about agricultural missions. I remembered much of the work you've done with improving the crop performance for the people there in western Kenya. I'm thankful that we learned much about wholistic missions from your example the summer we interned with you. God bless!"

Special events to pray for:

1. Keith as he talks about marriage at Navillus on Wednesday, the 18th of February.
2. The video as we finish editing it.
3. All the things that need to get completed before furlough.
4. On furlough we will stay for 6 weeks in my fathers house in Michigan, but we need transportation during that time.
5. From May 17th until December 21st, we also need transportation in Abilene.
6. From August until December 21st, we need housing in Abilene.
7. Sammy Kibet and Charles Luvanda as they go to Kapkeno church on 19th – 20th Feb. to build a bread oven and hold a meeting on the night of the 19th. They will do the same at Benjamin’s house in Tendwo on 24th – 25th of Feb.
8. Elders meeting that will take place on 27th – 28th of Feb. at the Langas Church of Christ.
9. Spots for Kirsten and Ruth schooling in Abilene in the fall.
10. For the 23 evangelists who have agreed to go to new areas to preach the Word of God!

Kirsten and Ruth Korner

We have decided to send both Kirsten and Ruth to school just down the road from us. This is mainly for them to have fun and to meet their social needs. They are loving it! They bring home wonderful papers, with Excellent and Very Good written all over them. Because of our sabbatical plans, we really plan for Kirsten to begin serious schooling in January 2005. Schools start in January here in Kenya. School really has changed our morning and night schedules!!!