Kenya Missions Update

August 19, 2005

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

The last 19 days have been action packed and exciting. Thanks for all of your prayers. The Lord heard and blessed our prayer requests that I sent in the 1 August letter to you. Here is a brief report of the last three weeks. I traveled by public transport with two Kenyan brothers to Mbale, Uganda for a meeting dealing with starting an agricultural college there for the Churches of Christ. We had a good meeting. The trip home was long, but we arrived safely. Thomas Kurgat will leave next week back to Texas Tech University to analysis the information to get his Ph.D. from the results of the seeing if there is a need for this college. Dr. David Lawver will arrive in Texas today.

The elders/leaders meeting went very well. A lot of teaching and business was conducted. It was exciting to see how some of the elders are stepping forward and ready to dedicate themselves to helping the churches to move forward into the future. I will not go into detail; or else you will say this newsletter is too long. It was exciting - let me just say that.

On Sunday after church service, several of us were called aside and told to go into a room. Here is what I asked you to pray for on 1st Aug. [There is a brother who is to come and repent to several of us on this day as well. He has caused some problems that resulted in several of the leaders to go to the chief’s office two times. This caused several thousand shillings and a lot of travelling for several leaders. Pray John will humble himself and truly repent from his heart.] John came and repented and they wrote out a letter that he was to take to the chief to finish the issue. We all prayed for John and forgave him. It was a beautiful conclusion! Thanks for your prayers!

Experiment in progress – I was in the hardware shop last month and they showed me a new flashlight that they just got in. It cost about $5, but needs no batteries. It has a magnet and metal cylinder that you shake and creates electricity for the bluish light. I bought one to give to one of our preachers, testing how long this high tech flashlight can survive the bush. Joseph said it is great. He has been able to study in the night with the flashlight. Because he finds it hard to buy the kerosene for his lantern to use at night to study. Especially now that the prices have almost doubled since the price of crude oil has gone up. He said the sermon he preached last Sunday was powerful because he was able to spend more time in preparation study. Also, several in the church commented on the sermon afterwards.

He says that normally it would cost him about $5 every 6 months for batteries for his normal flashlight. So, if the flashlight can go for longer than 6 months, it will be very successful. Just to give you some idea of what $5 is worth in Kenya; a person would have to work three days for this amount of money in rural Kenya.

Discovery of the subculture of Kenyan runners. Our eyes have been opened to a whole new world that exists around us. Thomas Kurgat mentioned above ran for ACU. I understand he still has some records on the books there in the USA. He has run several marathons and won. As results, he has bought several farms and plots here in Kenya. His best friend Joseph Tengeleir also ran for ACU. I hear he also set some records while there. He is here in Kenya, now running his farm. A relative of Thomas brought him from Nairobi to Eldoret, a man by the name of Mike Boit, who now is a professor at a university in Nairobi. I shook his hand and later was told that he ran for Kenya in the Munich Olympics. When I took them to town to go to Nairobi on Thursday, they said look at that building across from were we were standing, Thomas said, "That is the Boston Marathon." What? He said, "That building is owned by a person who won the Boston Marathon."

We used to have a company here in town called Lonhro. They sold all of their properties which included their senior staff houses, which are in a very nice, protected compound. There must be at least 50 houses in there. Well-mowed grass and guards and dogs patrol at night. All of this owned by some runners. There is money in running!!!

We Christians are also running the race of faith. The most exciting part about the race we are in is that we all are winners!!! And the prize is really out of this world – Eternity with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit!

Prayer Requests

1. Pray for the Kapkatoi church to remain strong in prayer. They started four weeks ago meeting on Wednesday afternoons for fellowship and prayer.
2. John Orambo family and Zakayo KipRono families who are prayer warriors. They are ready to go out and teach others about prayer. They wait for church invitations so they can go to teach about prayer.
3. The Lord to give us wisdom in all decisions that need to be made in the next month. We also need the Lord’s favor in some financial areas.
4. Elders and leaders to study the Word of God and absorb it into their lives and be living examples of Christianity in their home

Kirsten and Ruth Korner

School holiday started the first of August and will go until 5th September. The girls are busy with activity. Yesterday the rains were delayed, so they got to play longer outside after the grass dried up. They went on a picnic together in the yard. They slept two nights at a friend’s house last weekend. Next weekend, several of their friends will sleep over. Our little girls are growing up fast. I was informed the other day that Ruth is no longer a little girl, she is now a ‘young lady’!

Be Blessed in the Race,

The Gafner Family

Eldoret, Kenya