Kenya Missions Update

July 15, 2005

Greetings in the Precious Name of Jesus the Christ!

Did you ever get on the wrong wavelength with your husband or wife? Grace and I did this last month. I walk Kirsten to catch a ride to her school in the mornings at 7:10 AM. Grace walks Ruth to her school at 8:45 AM. Grace came home one day and said that we have been invited to pray for the new baby at the neighbors house. She meets the neighbor quite often and I also meet the neighbor. In our neighborhood most homes in the area have a servants quarters which they also rent out. We were talking to different neighbors, and on the day we were to show up, both were expecting us. So on the 31st, Sunday afternoon after church we will visit the other neighbor.

In the May prayer letter, I mentioned about a meeting we had with younger leaders. We had another meeting with them this month. "We" are four elders and myself. We continued discussions on the mission activities in our area. Two things (of several) that came out of that meeting was that we need to have several groups that meet. So, we have broken it down to 4 groups that meet to help in expressing their opinions and seeing how we can help our movement to gain momentum in church planting and maturity. Those groups are going to be: 20 – 40 year olds who are active in leadership, 40 + men who are leaders but not yet elders, ladies and elders. The second comment someone made in summary was, "If the Leaders (older) will lead, we will follow!"

The ladies also had a meeting on the 9th July. Nine ladies came and presented their views to us. They were in many ways the same as the men above. Solutions they gave of what they saw the direction of the church should take and strongly encouraged us to teach the rest of the men were: Men need to pray! They are not praying and therefore are not being directed by the Lord. Men need to learn to praise and worship and allow the church to worship the risen savior, Jesus. And, forget the stories, preach the Word of God!

Stories – every student who learns about preaching in Africa are told to tell stories. David Kemboi Kibet is a young man who has gone to Bible school. He was hired by 5 churches in the Moiben area. He is doing a wonderful job. And these churches are meeting all of his families needs, without outside help. He said, one of the problems in our churches is a lot of the preachers preach telling cultural stories. He never tells a cultural story, the only story he will tell is one directly from the Bible. The ladies reinforced this, forget the stories, preach the Bible!

Ruth and Kirsten Korner

Kirsten is getting ready for a holiday, as she is considering 5 days a week too long to go to school. It is interfering too much in other playing! She will start her month long holiday on the 5th of August as will Ruth. They are both doing well in school, coming home with A’s on all of their papers.

Kirsten asked the other day when some more people with suitcases will come and stay with us. She says that they can then read her books. She is a reading machine at the moment. Reading some books herself and liking books read to her. Ruth has the memory, she can’t read, but it is amazing the number of books that she has memorized almost word for word!

Thanks for all of your prayers. The Lord has heard each and every prayer and answered. For all the trips with visitors, they went well and in safety. Shadrack had a successful operation to remove his appendix.

Prayer Items

1. Thomas Kurgat will be coming to Eldoret today. Then on to Uganda to do research for about 3 weeks for the possibility of an agriculture and technology school to be part of the Mbale team school of Theology. Pray for his travels and research. This would serve Uganda and Kenya as a place for Christians to go and get training in both areas. Since the majority of the preachers in our churches are also farmers, it seems very important to have this as part of the curriculum. He will as part of his Ph.D. thesis then make the curriculum based on his findings. A school which I might one day be active teaching at.
   
   
2. I sent Sammy and Rachel Kibet to Kisii. They left yesterday to be at the training center there. They will be building a bread oven for the training center and also encouraging them in the Lord. They return Monday.
   
   
3. 24th July I will meet with Wilson Kandie and the churches who are working with him to start the Chepkosom church. Give us wisdom as we talk about how they can help in prayer and financially.
   
   
4. 6th of August is a day when John Orambo and the elders and leaders from churches in his area will sit and talk about how these churches can work together to help John and his family to continue to work with the church that he has started in FLAX center. It is important in that they need not only to give their blessing, but commit themselves to praying for and financially helping in this work. I will also attend the meeting.
   
   
5. 11th August is a meeting of 20 + people who will come for a course on John Maxwell’s Million Leader Mandate. It is a 6 book course on developing leaders. Sammy Kibet will teach the course for me.
   
   
6. 12th – 14th is the annual Elders/Leaders meeting. This year it will be hosted at the Huruma church building. The elders in charge have restructured the program, hoping that more people will attend than in the past. The program has been posted (in Kenya that means the letters have been sent).
   
   
7. 20th-21st August, I and a car load of elders will travel to Baringo. We will meet with the leaders of the 14 churches there. These churches at the present have no elderships. Pray for safety in travel (you have to cross some streambeds and if it rains, you may sleep the night on the bank waiting for the waters to recede!).
   
   
8. Since it is a school holiday for the girls and since we haven’t left Eldoret in 8 months, pray that we can take a couple of days and go somewhere and enjoy one another and get some soul refreshment. Probably the last week of August.
   
   
9. RAIN – we need more. The weather has changed to be sunny, warm and dry. This is not what we need at the moment. The maize is flowering and if we do not get more rain, the yield will be very short of our hopes. Those who planted late will get nothing.
   
   

Ministering to the Saints

Keith, Grace, Kirsten & Ruth Gafner