Tommy Nelson Center Next Phase

Dear friends,

We hope you are doing fine and the Lord has been with you since our last update! First of all let me just thank you all for your wonderful responses to our last update on the Tommy Nelson Center at the SERVE Compound. We praise God for your reassuring emails and for your excitement about what the Lord is doing here through our lives and ministry! 

Many of you have prayed, given and promised to give and we PRAISE GOD for your partnership in this adventurous journey of building the TNC! To read more about TNC please click here!

We are happy to inform you that the first phase of the Tommy Nelson centre project [foundation] is finished and we are ready to begin the second phase, God willing, towards the end of this month (May 2012). 

In our last update we shared with you some pictures of the beginning of the foundation and in this update we would like to share some of the end of the first phase of this very awesome project!

After the building of the partitions for the ground floor were done , it was time to pour the slab. But before the slab could be poured we had to fill the spaces with large boulders. 

The boulders are then packed really tight before the concrete for the slab is poured . 

Here are some pastors looking on during their training at SERVE at what will be there future centre for Biblical training!

After all the boulders are put in and packed up nicely it is time to cover it with sheets of  large polythene  papers to keep the moisture from coming from the ground through in to the floor and making it damp.

Once the polythene paper is in place iron wire mesh is then laid on the ground before  the concrete slab is poured. Concrete is strong under compression, but relatively weak under tension. The reverse is true for steel. therefore when the two are combined, one makes up for the deficiency of the other.

Once the polythene and Wire Mesh are in place it is now time to put it the electric conduit pipes for putting electrical wire through.

And finally it is time to organize the workers to make sure that the work starts, is done and finished in one single day. The reason for this is that dry concrete does not adhere well with fresh wet concrete, therefore pouring it in multiple days causes cracks and therefore leaks. (Too much information, I know, but this is exciting!)

Then comes the time to haul in wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of concrete for 8 hours straight  (In America the concrete pouring truck would have done the work in less than 2 hours). 

And after all is said and done,Voilà! the foundation is done! That brings the first Phase to a close. 

Thank you for reading and for praying and for giving towards this amazing project! The second phase involves building the walls on the ground floor costing approximately $15,000 in material and labor costs! We are glad to announce that since the last email we have received a total of $5,000 and we praise God for His provision and thank you very much for your very generous donation! 

PRAY that the Lord will provide the remaining $10,000 soon so that the project does not stall. If the Lord is touching or speaking to you to give to TNC please write a check to DENTON BIBLE CHURCH and put this number on the MEMO line 9690-51. (If mailing, please mail the check to Denton Bible Church ATT: Missions Office, 2300 E. University Dr. Denton, TX 76209).

God bless you as you pray and give towards this noble course!

New Project going on at SERVE Kenya Ministries

At the end of 1996, in the neighborhood I grew up in Mombasa, I met Chris Bransford, who discipled me for about one year and introduced me to Tommy Nelson tapes. My life was never to be the same again as I listened to these tapes and preached from them a lot. The love for the Word of God was conceived in me as listened to this passion-filled, Word preaching servant of God - Tommy Nelson.

Chris and Tommy believed in me when I was nothing and then planted a seed for the passion of the truth of the Word in me and that small tree is, has been, and continues to grow in me as I teach it weekly and many times daily! (if you would like to hear more of my testimony I shared a few years ago you can listen to it at: http://www.grahambible.org/media/1111_GBC_09-30-07.mp3)

SERVE Kenya, to a large extent, began because of the belief of these men in me and from what I learned from Tommy when he gave me the chance to learn the Bible under him in 2001-2002 in Denton. A lot of what and how we do ministry here stems from my time and tutelage under Tommy and great men in Denton Bible Church. 

For this reason, we would like to call the new administration and class block at the SERVE Compound the "Tommy Nelson Center", in short TNC.  In the coming months we will update you on the progress of the building with pictures, prayer requests and information on how you can give towards the same. It is a huge faith project that we believe God can see us through. We look forward with much prayer and anticipation on how God is going to use this new addition to meet the needs of the increasing number of pastors, not just in  Kenya, but in  East Africa, that come our way.

TNC will consist of three floors; the ground floor which will accommodate offices, a kitchen and two classrooms that can be converted into a mini-hall; the second floor  will consist of two 2-bedroom apartments (where out of town pastors and guests will stay) and the third floor which will be our big open meeting hall.

We are building it in Phases:

1. Phase one: Is the foundation which will cost approximately $20,000. Since the SERVE compound is completely sandy and there are no rocks we had to reinforce the foundation well in order to carry 3 floors without the danger of collapsing.
2. Phase two: will be the walls on the ground floor which will cost approximately $15,000.
3. Phase three: will be the ceiling of the ground floor which doubles as the floor for the second floor and this will also cost about $20,000. This cost is high because of the amount of material - cement, re-bars, sand, reinforcing timber etc
4. Phase four: Construction of walls on the second floor.The cost of the walls on the second floor is going to be higher since there are more rooms there that in the ground floor. The cost here will be about $17,000 to $18,000.
5. Phase five: will be the ceiling of the second floor which doubles as the floor for the third floor and this will also cost about $20,000 as well. 
6. Phase six: Construction of walls on the third floor. The cost here will be about $10,000 to $12,000 since it will be an open hall with few or no partitions at all.
7. Final phase: will be furnishings of the entire building which includes, windows, doors, tiles, kitchen and bathroom fittings, electricity etc. The cost here will be about $20,000 to $30,000. 

So the total cost for the entire project comes to about $130,000 from start to finish. The first phase will be coming to completion this month and then we begin to raise funds for the next phase. These amounts will increase or decrease depending on the fluctuation of the dollar to Shilling exchange rate which can drastically affect the price of the materials.

Praying and giving towards this project:

Please trust God with us in prayer to raise these monies and if the Lord touches you to give towards this project please write a check to Denton Bible Church and indicate on the Memo line "TNC Kenya Project." (If mailing please mail to: Denton Bible Church, Attn: Serve Office, 2300 E. University Dr. Denton, TX 76209)

God bless you as you pray and give towards this very noble course. Here are some pictures of the project:

The ground is cleared and ready for work 

Making final decisions before the work commences 

The measurements done and drawn on the ground ready for excavation  

Excavations begins 

Materials starting to come in - these men are offloading cement into the storage room

Re bars made ready to be laid in the foundations and erected as pillars and beams for the structure   

The trenches for the foundation were 6 feet deep dug by hand for about 14 days 

Starting to put it the re bars into the foundations 

they had to put it all round to make sure the building does not sink - oh and they had to lay concrete base  at the bottom of the trenches before laying the re bars!

Once all the re bar is in then concrete walls are built to the floor level

At the floor level concrete and re bar beams are tied around the whole entire building before the  floor  work begins.

You wonder where the sand mountain went, it went back where it came from :)

Thank you for reading through this very long email and for your prayers and support!
 - We pray it was helpful as you pray!

Dennis and Allison Omondi

SERVE Kenya TEAM

Dear friends,

It has been long since the last time we sent you an update from Kenya and we sincerely apologize that we let the busyness of ministry take its toll on our regular communication with you. I wanted to use this first email correspondence of  this year to reintroduce our team and ask you to pray for us here in Ukunda, Kenya. 

This is our whole team together taken at our annual SERVE Kenya retreat in Tiwi

When you hear of SERVE Kenya and when you pray and give to our ministry, these are the people that you give to and pray for. This is the team that the Lord has put together to SERVE and accomplish his purpose here in Kenya and the surrounding countries. Thank you for your regular prayers and generous giving as we SERVE our Lord Jesus here in Kenya. 

The Omondis: Allison, Anjela, BJ and Dennis

Allison and I are blessed and so privileged  to lead such an amazing team to work with here in Kenya!

Our family is doing well we praise God. Last year we began the adoption of our son B.J and I am sure most of you have heard of his miraculous story. (to read it visit our blog at www.theomondisinafrica.blogspot.com) We are still persevering, praying and waiting for a court date so we can complete his adoption and he can legally be declared our son - we know God's timing is best so please keep praying with us. Anjela on the other hand is growing so big so fast and is enjoying and learning a lot from her first year home schooling with Allison. Allison continues to disciple Betty, lead Bible Study and work with the women at Word of Life Fellowship Church. I am busy with Church  and teaching at night in our Ukunda BTCP/L classes. Also we have been kept busy with a lot of marital-conflict counseling in our church - there are many marriages going wrong in our community and if our church is anything to go by, may the Lord have mercy on Ukunda!! 

Ben Warren

Ben is doing well and is really growing in many areas of adjusting to Ukunda and Kenya at large. He has been an awesome blessing to our team in preaching in Church when I am not there or when I am completely swamped with a lot ministry engagements. I praise God for him. Specifically, Ben together with James, are in charge of BTCP affairs of our ministry here and they take care of scheduling, teaching and following up both the current and former students. 

The Muthees: James, Daniel and Jacinta and baby Esther

James and his family were recently blessed with a new baby girl, Esther Wairimu Muthee. James is a huge and wonderful blessing not only for Serve Kenya Ministries but also for Word of Life Fellowship Church. James teaches BTCP in Ujamaa with Ben every week and also does most of the administration work for both the church and ministry. 

Betty Anyango (with B.J)

Betty Anyango has been interning with SERVE Kenya since April 2011and learning a lot about being a woman of God. I must admit that we are very impressed and pleased with what the Lord has done and is doing in her life! On the side, she has been particularly helpful to our family in the area of baby-sitting and spending time with our kids when we have meetings. She is a wonderful servant anytime we need her:)

The Pytleskis: Mia, Christina, Joe and Noah 

Joe Pytleski is graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in May and will begin raising support full time in preparation to move his family to Kenya to serve alongside us. We are blessed, honored and humbled that the Lord would give us such a godly and wonderful family as part of our team. We praise God for the Pytleskis and we pray that time flies so that they can be here soonest! The estimated time for them to come here is summer 2013. 

Abbie Mitchell and Christina Trimble

Abbie and Christina are support raising and planning to come to Kenya for a six month stint beginning in June this year. Christina was here last year on one of the short term trips for a week and showed interest in coming for a longer time. Now it seems like the Lord is opening doors for her to bring her roommate and friend, Abbie along for six months - What a blessing for our team and we pray that their support comes in quick so they can join us this summer.

Please pray for our team to be one! Please let your prayers for us in the coming months for our team be informed by John 13:34 - 35 and John 17:20 - 21!!

Again we apologize for the long silence and we pray you are doing well and blessed of the Lord! 

Let us know how we can pray for you and your family!!

Thanks for your faithful prayers and continual giving. We couldn't be here serving without you!

God Bless,

Dennis, Allison,Anjela and B.J. Omondi

These two love each other!!

Nothing But Grace- Benjamin's Life Story

And for those of you who would like to read the entire story down to the fine details of how the Lord saved Benjamin's life and brought him into our family I have written it all out here on this link:

Benjamin's Life Story of Grace

There is Life...and then there is New Life

For those of you who would like to see the more detailed version of Benjamin's story as well as the story of New Life Home Trust where Benjamin spent the first 6 months of his life, check out this video...To God be the glory for ALL He is doing through New Life Homes to save the lives of abandoned babies like our miracle son and great gift from God, Benjamin Joseph Omondi.

A Miracle Called Benjamin

Recently we had the opportunity to share Benjamin's story with Jane Wells, at CNBC, who so graciously gave of her time and resources to come to Kenya to help New Life Home Trust in their efforts to see many children like our son be given a chance at life....to God be the Glory for all he has done!! We couldn't thank HIM enough!!  Benjamin is indeed a miracle and a blessing to us. We pray that his life will be a testimony of God's love and grace to all! This is just a short clip that aired on msnbc about New Life Home but there is a longer version to come....so stay tuned...

The Miracle called Benjamin Omondi - A MUST SEE FOR ALL - GLORY TO JESUS our SAVIOR http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc-live-with-bashir/45779541#45779541

‘Tis the season to be thankful

video.msnbc.msn.com

Video on msnbc.com: NBC’s Jane Wells reports why some children are lucky just to receive the gift of life.

Christmas Update

Here is our Christmas Update
We pray you and your family have a very Merry and Christ filled Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving

God has been gracious to send us 16 wonderful people from Denton Bible Church to do a Kids camp at Word of Life in Ukunda. There are a little over 70 kids and camp started tonight. Please pray for the team:

1. They will have strength and that Jet lag will not be an issue. It is very hot in Ukunda at the moment and it tends to make people tired!
2. Pray that the power of the Gospel will be very evident as the team teaches about Jesus and that even at this very tender age the kids hearts will be quickened to love and live for Jesus!
3. Please pray for the SERVE team also for strength as we host the Denton group in the midst of all our other classes and ministries going on at the moment. 

Enjoy the pictures and pray in anticipation of for what the Lord the will do this week - thank you so much for your continual prayer and support for our ministry and support.

The team at our home this afternoon listening to our testimony and story of God's faithfulness in our life and ministy 

Camp Counselors introducing themselves

Excited kids singing and praising God in songs and praises to King Jesus!

front View of tonight's praise and worship at Word of Life Camp 

The family at KFC - First American fast-food restaurant in Kenya! It was more of Kenyan Fried Chicken than Kentucky Fried Chicken:) 

Benjamin a few hours after he turned one year old - what a wonderful blessing from our Lord Jesus this Kid is!!

Mama and her little kids - they loved the night out with family!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all - We thank God for you, your love and prayers for us as we SERVE our King Jesus here in Ukunda, Kenya.

Dennis, Allison, Anjela and Benjamin Omondi

Word of Life Fellowship Church

Many of you know that I am a Pastor at the Word of Life Fellowship Church but don't really know the story of how I became one and how this is related to what we do here. 

One of the Meetings outside of classroom setting - talking and discussing life in Ministry with the pastors and Church leaders.

SERVE is known in Kenya as a Leadership Training and Church Development ministry. Most people are familiar with the Leadership Training aspect of SERVE through BTCP/L (Bible Training Center for Pastors and Church Leaders). We have been training pastors in Kenya since 2005. 

Over and above training these men and women of God we have desired to and have gotten involved in their lives beyond the classroom. We don't do it at as often as we would love to because of lack of human resource but we do it as the Lord enables us. (PLEASE PRAY that the Lord will send workers to this harvest field) This is the arm of SERVE Kenya that deals with Church development. We have an active BTCP/L Alumni that meets every month for the purpose of mutual edification and continued learning from us their teachers, albeit informally. 

The Question that kept recurring in our dealings with the pastors and local church leaders here in Kenya was you are teaching pastors but where is your church, are you a pastor?! At first I did not have a clue why they would ask such question but later I came to realize that what they were asking was, "How are you qualified to teach pastors if you yourself are not a pastor?"

Another one of those out of Class reunions

In 2008 God provided an opportunity for me (Dennis Omondi) to become a pastor in Ukunda at the Word of Life Fellowship Church. It was a humble and hard beginning not only because I had never done this before but because I was inheriting a church that had been split and without a pastor for several years because of the former pastor's infidelity. But we have seen evidence of God's Grace and Power in the way the church has increased not only numerically (from 50 people then to almost 200 people now) but also in forgiveness, discipleship, love, giving, mutual edification just to mention but a few. 

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Dennis Omondi, Allison Omondi, Esther Karanja, Ben Warren, Martin Murigi, Godfrey Ikanda and James Muthee.

Today I look back and I realize how God used me for 4 year in training pastor with a lot of knowledge but with great naivety and ignorance as well. It is always a good thing when God reminds us that we are not all that we think we are...it keeps us humble and keeps us fully dependent on Him all the time! God has used our Church and the brothers and sisters above (that help in leading the church) to teach me very valuable lessons in life in Ministry of which I have no time or space to tell you about here - may be at another time! 

Until then, PLEASE PRAY: 

1. That Lord will keep us humble and dependent on Him all the time - everyday!
2. Pray that the Lord will expand His kingdom and the FAME of His Son Jesus through SERVE in Ukunda and beyond
3. Pray for our Church to be a clear example of God Honoring, Christ Centered and Spirit led Church in our community locally and Kenya at large! 
4. Pray for Ben, James and I as we will be teaching in 2 separate conference this coming Thursday (October 20th) in the churches of our former BTCP students. 

Thank you for keeping us in Prayer and Keeping us here through your consistent and generous financial support. 

Dennis, Allison, Anjela and Benjamin Joseph Omondi

New Classes

Dear Friends,

In the last several weeks we have been busy on our knees and on the phone working hard to recruit new student for our next BTCP/L classes. By God's grace yesterday we started two classes in both Ujamaa and Ukunda. The Ujamaa morning BTCP/L class has 8 students and the Ukunda night BTCL class has 12 students. 

Tonight another class will start in Ukunda. This is is a special Church History class for both the current and former BTCP/L students. This class will go on for the next 8 weeks!

Please pray for James (Ujamaa), Ben and I (Ukunda) as we teach these students that they will:

1. Grow in the Knowledge and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 
2. Love Jesus more when they graduate than they Love Him now
3. Look for opportunities to teach others what they are from the Lord through the classes

This the new class yesterday after the orientation - The man on the far right (Oscar) is  Sergent  in the Kenya Police 

James introducing the class in Ujamaa 

Ben introducing the class in Ujamaa

Thank you for your continued support and prayer as we SERVE our Lord Jesus here in Mombasa. 

Quick Update

Thank you for your continual prayers, encouragement and support that you give us as we SERVE the Lord here in Kenya. 

Yesterday the DIMA pastors came over to the SERVE Campus for their monthly Shepherding Shepherds classes. We invited Child Evangelism Fellowship to come and talk to them about the importance of Childrens Ministries in the Local church and they did a superb Job! The 12 students present we so blessed and convicted on how they had unconsciously reduced the childrens ministries in their churches to "baby sitting classes" while the adults were listening to the Word of God!

Please pray that these pastors will not be the Rocky Ground that hear the Word of God and immediately receive it but then when persecution comes they immediately abandon the Word; but they will be doers of the things they are learning from the Lord during these weekends. 

Ben Warren continues today and tomorrow to teach the Overview of the Bible and we pray that the Lord will strengthen brother Ben and make it clear to the pastors that the Bible is one Book with one Author - the Holy Spirit!

On the family front - Benjamin has not been well the last 2 days, he has had high fevers, diarrhea and refuses to eat. Allison is taking good care of Him and keeping a close watch on Him. We suspect he is teething again! Today is Anjela Grace Omondi's 4th Birthday! Can you believe that!?  What a wonderful blessing from God she has been to us and as we see her grow - it is the evidence of God's mercies and Grace not only in her life but ours as well! We are BLESSED to have our daughter Anjela and Praise God the way He is growing her! She is also in her third week of homeschooling and she is loving it. Pray for Allison as she starting on this fun adventure! 

Sorry there is no pictures this time around but we will be sure to send/post some VERY VERY soon!

Baraka [blessings]

THIS IS WHY WE ARE HERE...

Once every so often God shows up in a MIGHTY way to reassure us of His presence in our midst and that our labor in Him is not in vain. Ministry in Ukunda is not a walk in the park, humanly speaking - there are many attacks from the devil that is manifested in various key relationships, repeated sickness in our family, loneliness to mention but a few. BUT God is faithful, He shows up just in time to encourage and to uplift - yesterday was one of those days when we forget about everything and concentrate on Him to worship Him! 

We had our FOURTH BTCP/L (Bible Training Center for Pastors and Church Leaders) at the SERVE compound in Ukunda. This is the second time we have it here but it was very special in two ways:

1. Jerry Clark broke the ground and prayed for the construction of our future Training Center known as the TOMMY NELSON Center (You will here more about it in future updates).
2. We graduated the first lot of students to ever be trained at the SERVE compound since buying it 3 years ago - God is good ALL the time! 

The first Class of the SERVE Compound!

Getting ready to march in

Standing after marching in 

Listening keenly to Jerry Clark's Graduation Message

When the students appeared during their Graduation to sit in front of the gathered crowd, it was like God telling us SERVE team this is why I have you here. All of you who have continually prayed and gave to this work that we do here - THANK YOU - God has used you too to reach the lives of the men and women that you will be seeing in the pictures below. Thank you!

Please pray Ephesians 3 for them - the verse are below:

 ¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

Benjamin Mukabana

Florence Omwenga

Karen Nyoike

Esther Gitahi Karanja 

John Ogot 

Alfred Munyoki

Mercy Onsinyo

Cecelia Nzusu

Margaret Wambua

Maliki Garashi

Charles Kamau 

Tabitha Munyithia 

Peter Kigori

Jacinta Muthee

Judy Mgangai Situma 

Nahashon Wessa

Elijah Maluti 

The American team here:

Left to Right: The Clarks, The Reeds, The Walkers, The Verrets 

Thank you again for your continual support and God bless you! Please click HERE and HERE to see more pictures of the graduation