Sunday, April 25, 2010

Breaking the Silence

Dear Friends

We are so sorry for the lengthy silence. Things are well but just very busy here in Mombasa.


Family Update:

Our family is healthy and we thank God for that. Anjela's vocabulary is really improving and she talks a lot. Many people think she is older than she really is because a lot of kids her age here are not as vocal and articulate. She is very social and wherever we go she is always the life of the party - that's fun most of the time:):)

Anjela's next adoption hearing is this Friday the 30th and we pray that the Judge's ruling will be in our favor. Please pray with us specifically this way. This has been a long journey of faith that we are ready to finish and yet we ASK that not our will but His be done!

Here’s a very encouraging quote we got from another dear friend who has gone through the adoption process.

"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous.

Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." Derek Loux


Here is a picture of Anjela and Allison during our recent family vacation. It was a very much needed 5 days of rest at a very nice resort near our home.

If you want to see more pictures of the family vacation please click here and here



SERVE Center!

The Ukunda property continues to be a huge blessing to us and the community around us. We praise God for the many of you who made it possible for us to buy it and for those who continue to support the running of it through your many prayers and generous giving.

We are taking advantage of this rainy season to plant as much grass as possible. For those who have visited and were here for the graduation, you know its very dusty and sandy. The plan is to cover as much of the property as possible with grass, to not only make it beautiful but to reduce the amount of dust being blown in the windows all the time. [No Air Conditioning here:)]

From the pics you can see its all sand and no GRASS!

For more pictures of the improvements taking place at the center please click here




The Water Tower:

In March, Alan Chamberlain - an elder at Denton Bible Church - came with several other men from Denton Bible Church to participate in the big BTCP graduation and to dedicate our work at Serve Kenya to the Lord. While they were here we were able to officially launch the SERVE water to the community project. We built a water tower in the Serve property and put a tap outside the wall so that all the villagers around us can get FREE water in the morning and in the evening.

The women around the village walk long distances to fetch and buy water and during times when there is water shortages the lines at the "water hole" are longer and the prices go up. Since we have our own well at the Center we provide water to them at no cost. This has given our ministry a lot of credibility and we pray that it would farther to open the doors of the Gospel to the many Muslims that live around the SERVE center!

To see more pictures of the Water Tower please go here


BTCP:

Graduation: In March we had our THIRD BTCP (Bible Training Center for Pastors) Graduation which was held at the SERVE Center in a very colorful ceremony. We watched and praised God as 24 Pastors and Church leaders Graduated!

We had Alan Chamberlain (Denton Bible Church Elder), John Brown (Director Missionary Training Institute, Denton Bible Church), David Brown (Friend from Denton), Dean Hufstedler (Graham Bible Church) and Gayman Helman (Missions Pastor Oak Hill Church in Argyle, TX) as our guests of honor and we were very honored with their availability during this beautiful occasion. May God bless you guys and refresh you as you blessed and refreshed us!


Please join us in praying, as John Brown preached/challenged the students on that day, that all the Graduates WILL ABIDE in Christ wherever they are serving.


For more graduation pictures click here.





New Classes: We are happy announce that both our new BTCP classes have started and are going on well. We have a class of 6 in Ujamaa and another class of 18 people in Ukunda at the SERVE Center. Our teammate James is teaching at the Ujamaa Class and he and I are teaching together at the Ukunda SERVE Class.

This is James introducing his first BTCP class - James is a dear friend and disciple of mine that I met in 2004. He joined SERVE Kenya Ministries in early 2009. He also is a graduate from the last BTCP class and is now teaching with me in the two classes we have in South Coast. James is married to Jacinta and they have one baby boy named Daniel. James and Jacinta live at the SERVE Center and greatly help with the management and running of the training center. Pray that the Lord can use James and his family to be a blessing to the many they come in contact with through our ministry.


James’ class meets every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:00am to noon!


If you would like to write James and encourage him and let him know you are praying for him as he teaches his very first class ever you can do so at jmuthee@serve-intl.com.


Ukunda Class: The new Ukunda class has 18 students and meets every Tuesday and Thursday nights 6pm to 8pm. Only two students in the class are pastors and the majority of the class is comprised of school teachers, businessmen and people in other secular employments We are so happy that most of the students are regular attenders at our church. This creates wonderful fellowship and learning and allows us to follow up with them much easier. The students are then able to observe what they are learning through the teaching, preaching, and life of their teachers in church. Allison and James’ wife Jacinta have also joined the class as a students so they too can learn and interact with the many ladies in the class.

We are currently teaching BTCP book 1 (Hermeneutics) taught by Dennis on Tuesdays and BTCP book 2 (Old Testament Survey) taught by James on Thursday. Please pray that all the students who have started will persevere and commit to finishing. All of the students live very busy lives. (Pictures of the class will follow soon).


Word of Life Fellowship Church

Along with facilitating the Serve Training Center and teaching BTCP we continue to pray for God’s wisdom in leading, shepherding, and trying to put structure to Word of Life Fellowship church. For many of you who know about new church planting or church development, you know the challenges that come with this. We praise God for all the amazing things we see HIM doing. We are so excited to be part of it. Dennis has ben preaching a series on the many Parables of Jesus and its been so neat to see how easily Kenyans can relate to and apply these stories to their lives. Last Sunday Dennis taught on the parable of the Unmerciful Servant and many stood and came forth in repentance asking for prayer and help in their struggles in forgiving others. We praise God for this. Here’s just one testimony and response from a girl in our church. “Hi pastor, the sermon was great yesterday…for the few months I have been I word of life, I can clearly tell the difference between the gospel preached in other churches in ukunda and word of life…it’s the first church that made me think about my life as a Christian after every Sunday service…I can say am a better person.”


God is at work in the life of our church that’s for sure. Allison continues to lead the ladies in Bible Study on Saturday mornings and Jacinta has started an intercessory prayer time on Sunday mornings before service. The Men’s Bible Study on Wednesdays continues but with a much small number of faithful attendees. Many things are happening in the life of our church. Please pray as we move forward and as our current church leaders prepare to gather for two days next month to begin the hard task of officially writing a church constitution and organizing structure.


NOW...To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 24 - 25



1 comment:

Mischia said...

Praying before and on your 30th.

Mischia