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August 2012

 

Hope of the World Ministry

        Going to the lost to bring them to Jesus

Dear Partners and Friends,

It took six hours on bone jarring roads to drive from Nairobi to the one road town- Oldinero– deep in the bush of the Samburu Region. This would be our base of operation to bring the Gospel to the totally un-reached Samburu Tribe in this area. The driver dropped us off in front of a small hotel and then left to return to Nairobi.

Now as I got out of the car my hip was in pain from an injury– separated muscle– I had sustained in another country and I could tell already that this trip was going to be a physical challenge for me.

Then as I got to my $3 a night room I found that it looked more like a cave than a room. It was 6x7 including what they called a self enclosed “bathroom” with running water and yes — it was running -– out of a make shift pipe—filthy brown and unusable — and mosquitoes were everywhere. The hotel supplied our dinner that night and it consisted of beans and rice cooked in dirty water…and every night after that it was the same…

The next morning we got a call from our regular driver who was suppose to meet us with the Land Cruiser we had rented to go to the bush in — he had broken down on the way and the car was being towed back to Kisumu—we had no driver and no car.

We sent John—the young Samburu Pastor we work with out to find us some transportation. He returned some time later in what looked like a WWII vintage Land Rover — it looked as if it had been pulled out of a river—it was rusted, most of the windows were missing, the seats had no padding and the back seat was so close to the front you had to sit with your legs completely spread apart to fit. But it was all there was in the town so we had no choice but to use it. We paid the driver for it and headed to the bush.

The old Land Rover we were forced to use..

A couple of hours later after an extremely hard ride in the bush– torture to my hip - we came to a village with a few people in it. They told us that some people were working on an irrigation pool deeper in the bush so we decided to go there. We walked for some time through the thick bush and came out to a clearing where the people were — to our surprise there many people there—several villages had come together to do the work. The Lord had gathered them together in one location for us!

The Lord brought all these Samburu together for us to minister to..

We preached the Gospel to them and 68 knelt down and came to Jesus! We spent the rest of the day there and by the time we left they told us they wanted to start a church. Praise the Lord!

Coming into the Kingdom!

We left a Proclaimer– the spoken word of God in their language and they told us they would meet every week and listen to it.

The Proclaimer -- playing the Word of God!

After the ride back I could hardly sit in my chair for dinner—the pain in my hip was bad. I called my wife Mary and she was having problems as well—it had rained and for some reason the water had come into the house—she was in the process of pulling the carpet up to mop up the water. The devil is always doing something to distract us when we are on these trips.

Pastor John told us at dinner that his wife needed surgery to remove a kidney or she was going to die — it would cost $3000. He had left her at home in that condition to work with us to carry the Gospel to his people.

I am praying that the Lord will send the funds to us so we can help him.

The next day we headed out again—three more hours of hard roads in a car that only by the grace of God was making it. We came into a dry river bottom where we found another large group of people gathered together digging down into the sand for water.

Digging into the river bed for water -- but we showed up with water they knew not of!

Now I realized with the car we had—we could have never made it to all the villages represented there —and in the shape I was in I could have never made it to them even if we had a good car.But the Lord was in charge of this trip and He had done it again — brought several villages together in one place!

We gathered them together under a tree and told them about the love of God. When we gave the invitation another 70 knelt down and as I looked our driver was one of them!

They had never heard the name of Jesus before!

Afterwards we laid hands on them and prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost— so many received it! As I laid hands on one man he began to speak in tongues and then he began to preach to the others with a great boldness! It was supernatural — he had just come to Jesus and was speaking as if he had been trained as a Pastor!

The people said they wanted to start a church there and we knew that the Lord had already provided a Pastor for them! We left another Proclaimer there. Before leaving one of the elders asked us to help them drill a well — he said: “Our women have to walk 15 kilometers to get water and when they are 8-9 months pregnant they sometimes loose the baby doing it.”

Incredible!  ---- only Jesus and learning His ways will change them.

Women like this must carry water for miles- even when 8-9 months pregnant -- many loose their babies because of it..

Over the next days we continued to drive through the hard bush in a the old Land Rover. In one village another 80 saved and a partially blind women was healed. The woman who was healed told me that they would make up songs about Jesus and sing them everywhere to her people. In another village the people gathered on the side of a big hill — it was like preaching in an amphitheater- 42 more for Jesus!

 
Afterwards an elder stood up and told us that he had been a drunkard and that he had “caned his wife on a regular basis”. It is common practice in this culture that the men beat their many wives with canes.
 
He said he would never do it again and then apologized to his wife for the way he treated her. Praise the Lord! As we were leaving the village the people were so happy — they were already making up songs about their new Lord Jesus!
Gathered on the side of a hill to hear about Jesus for the 1st time!
 
Now before leaving for the bush that day we had told our cooks to make some fried potatoes to go with our beans and rice for dinner—but when we sat down to eat that night all we had were fried potatoes — they had misunderstood us— but so goes life on the mission field.
 
Showing the man who beat his wife what the Son of God did for him..
 
Then on the last day — we drove three hours into the bush to a large village — John said several villages had come together to do ceremonies there— another place the Lord had prepared for us to so that we could speak to several villages gathered together in one place! Pastor John spoke to the elders for some time trying to get permission for us to preach — there was some opposition.
 
The main elder had a son who had been converted to Christianity sometime before. He got angry at the boy and chased him out of the village and disowned him. He did not want any part of Christianity. But John finally convinced them to let us speak. Then as I preached the Holy Spirit began to move and the people were touched.
 
Over 70 knelt down to accept Him — including the main elder! Then more received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost—including the main elder! And he told us that he wanted John to come back and do a large crusade and that he wanted to start a church in the village. And to top it off he said he was going to call his son back to the village and reconcile with him!
 
We prayed for the sick then and a totally blind man was healed and a partially blind man. Jesus is still in the miracle working business!
 
In one village we had to preach in the middle of this sandstorm!
 
 
Now it began to rain hard on the way back from the village putting us in a very dangerous place. We had to cross a dry river bed that flooded quickly with the rains. We raced across the bush and hit the river bed just as the water began to come up— but by the grace of God we got made it out.
 
This is the Land Rover when we made it out of the river bed and rain storm -- it was a true miracle that we made it anywhere in it!
 
As we headed back to Nairobi the next day we were full of joy at what God did in the supernatural— hundreds saved and filled, miracles signs and wonders and churches started. But in the natural — my hip was also hurting and I am facing surgery in a few days, my wife Mary was having many problems at home and Pastor John was literally crying because of the condition of his wife—and I am reminded at what Paul told Timothy — 
2Tim 2:3– “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
 

Thank you Jesus for allowing us to serve You — what a privilege and honor and blessing!

 

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