FM Monthly News November 2013

Endeavoring to obey the Word of our Lord...Go ye into all the lands and preach the Gospel to every creature. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Name and Blood of Jesus Last year when we went to Kenya, our team met the Archbishop of the Nambii Christian Church of East Africa and promised to visit and preach at some of his churches. To fulfill that promise, we attended a special seminar this year. This church has many ancient customs and beliefs. Having no idea what to expect when we arrived, God quickly revealed to us to preach repentance and remission of sins in the almighty and powerful Name and Blood of Jesus. Traditionally, their practice of repentance was to sing and chant and try to scare the devil and sin out.  After up to two hours of loud chanting, they beat drums and physically chased the devil, sin, and evil spirits out the door of the church. All praise be to God that after preaching there, these wonderful people heard the voice of the Good Shepherd, causing many coming to hear for themselves that their sins were forgiven in the Name and Blood of Jesus. After the service, the vice archbishop got up and said, "We will now begin to pray and have religious reeducation meetings to study the Word, so that we can begin to preach these truths to our people." God is good! Please pray for this church, and we hope to follow up with a large convention with them next year. Word from the field: For several days our team taught at a Christian school in Kenya (one of many classrooms pictured above) where many of the children are AIDS orphans. In response to a question of what it means to be blessed, one ten-year-old girl responded, "To be blessed is to be delivered from sin, and to be shown how to find the right path to follow God. Another young child said, "Follow God in all situations" in answer to the question of what was meant by the story of the fiery furnace.  We are so thankful that these children are being taught the truths of God! May God Bless them all! Support options  Email or click on the Donate link above for regular support options.   Special projects Only funded with earmarked funds > Church Building for Kenya $1200 > Widow and orphan support in many countries in any amount > The Bible fund is low at the time.  Any amount > Disaster Relief Fund. Any amount (see note about the Philippines under Prayer and Praise below) ALC Churches Worldwide Here is the view from the pulpit looking into the congregation at Pastor Sylvester's church in Kenya Upcoming trips > Trip to India on January 21st to Feb 7, 2014. We have room for one or two more people, if you are interested. > Trip to Myanmar and Pakistan in Fall 2014. > Trip to West Africa in February 2014. Prayer and praise > Please pray for the people in the Philippines who are still struggling after the hurricane hit several weeks ago. If you wish to support the Disaster Relief Fund that allows us to respond quickly to such disasters, contact the FM Administrator. > Praise God for the successful trips to South Africa and Kenya. Both mission teams thank you all for your prayers and support! God blessed the teams with good health (except for some minor stomach issues) and safety. Updates can be found in the blog by clicking here. > Please pray for upcoming trips. > Please pray for the people hearing the Word around the world. > Pray for Bibles for poor Christians around the world. The Word of God is food! > Especially give thanks and praise to God this Thanksgiving Season for all of His provisions and blessings! www.themissionsite.com | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Mailing address for DONATIONS: The Foreign Mission of the ALC 1601 NW 4th Avenue, Battle Ground, WA 98604 Mailing address for CORRESPONDENCE: The Foreign Mission of the ALC 63 Poor Farm Road New Ipswich, NH 03071     unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Schools and churches

Just over a week ago the girls and I made it to the third main area we are visiting on this trip: Pastor Charles’ area near Gucha, Kenya. Here is a recap of our last few days alone before we were joined by Dennis Hilman and John Ruotsala:

We visited two more schools while with Pastor Charles, bringing the total up to eight schools since arriving here in Kenya! Here is the last school where all of the several hundred students gathered out under the trees while we taught them.

We spent a lot of time teaching the children at Pastor Charles’ Bible lessons, but we also had time to just play as well! Here are Fanny and Anna-li playing volleyball with some of the kids.

 We also had time to join in on a few chores…like fetching water from the spring. The kids can easily carry a full bucket of water back on their heads without holding on…we didn’t do so well! Johanna did manage to balance it for this picture, but you can see that she also lost some of her water a few times while trying to get it right!

One of the lessons we taught the children was a basic gospel message. We followed up by making gospel bracelets. Black for sin, red for the blood of Jesus, white because we are washed clean, etc.

After we had been with Pastor Charles’ for four days, John Ruotsala and Dennis Hilman joined us. Here are a few pictures of what we’ve been up to since they arrived:

We visited all three of the churches in Pastor Charles’ area during our time with him. None of the churches have buildings; instead they worship under makeshift shelters made of sticks and leaves. This is the church of Pastor Sylvester who some of you may remember as the pastor who had a tumor removed from the back of his head several years back.

 Here is Pastor Charles’ home church. The girls are singing songs with the children. Pastor Charles hopes to build a permanent church here soon. He already has bricks, sand, and rocks waiting. When they are able to purchase the rest of the supplies, they will begin building.

Here are Dennis and the girls praying for people in the third church we visited. We reached the church by taking some very treacherous roads full of rocks! We were glad it didn’t start raining while we were here or we may still be there as the roads would certainly be impassable! 

We are now preparing to head out to Pastor Fredrick’s area. We ask that you continue to pray for us as we continue to minister here in Kenya.