A Hunger Rises in the Night

Here is another poem by Phil...

A hunger rises in the night,
A throng of souls aching for the bread of heaven!
They cant wait for morning's light,
Death - the penalty of their transgression.

Anguish fills their hearts,
As they see the dawning of the day.
The executioner shows his darts
Tears are falling as they begin to pray.

A cry fills the morning air,
One last chance to plead for grace.
The judge now takes his chair,
As their hearts begin to race.

He grants them a short delay,
Giving His Church a chance to answer.
The extension is for only a day,
And so to them He raises His banner.

Eternal souls now in their hands,
The Church has heard her Master's call.
Will they move the Gospel from their lands?
Or will they let all those souls fall?

Will the Church bring them the bread of heaven?
Will they take this chance to intercede?
Will they release the captives from their prison?
To the Lord of the Harvest, will they lift a plea?

The day now is coming to a close,
Millions of souls still are left to reach.
Christ's blood is ready to interpose,
Yet it is still our job to go and preach!

Oh dear believer, the night is coming,
And then we can no longer labor.
Preach to those who are drowning,
Never let your purpose waiver!

Their day now is closing - do we have the same urgency as those who would see their coming death?

New Car and Car Trouble

A while back, God provided an amazing tool for the ministry: a Subaru Forester. It was back in October that a missionary was moving back to Canada and was needing to sell his vehilcle. Even the night before the news was given to us, we were praying and asking God to provide for the needs of the ministry.

After a long, drawn out issue with wire transfers, we finally got the vehicle we had been praying for.

Here are some pictures of the car:







We have been using the vehicle to do all kinds of work in te last few months. It has been such a great blessing to be able to use the car as we travel all over the country to preach the Gospel. Just as America`s early circut preachers would travel all over the frontier on a horse to preach the Gospel, we now are using a different kind of horse.

With the using of a vehicle, you always find things which need to be taken care of... Well, it just so happens that we have a few things to take care of...

After the "check engine" light came on, Phil took the car to an elder of the church who is a mechanic. It ends up that te shocks are totally dead, the breaks are nearly worn out, there are some sensors that need to be changed in the engine. All of that, and a few other smaller issues end up costing about $1,000.

Yet, we are praising God because we still have a very reliable vehicle that, once fixed, will take us to people who yet to hear te Gospel of Jesus Christ! We are trusting God to provide for all our needs - cars being the least of our needs.

But God really is providing for us! After prayimg specifically for a couple of weeks, God has brought in more support in the first two weeks of January than in te entire mont of December.

Praise God with us! And please keep praying that God will keep providing for all our needs.

Kaithe Day 2... Continuing the Story

On Wednessday the 10th, we got up and prepared for a full day of teaching and preaching.  We were excited to see everyone hungry for the Word.  Phil was scheduled to teach three lessons and Leah, one.

Phil taught the first lesson on the importance of "Preparing to study the Word."  The second lesson was giving 5 simple steps to "Studying the Word."





After the second lesson, Phil commented on how his shoulder was hurting.  Normally having an aching muscle is not a concern.  But after looking at the shoulder, he immediately called the Doctor who had been taking care of him in Kijabe.

There was a swollen area which felt like a rock under the skin.  The whole shoulder was  blue and had spots of dark red areas.  After calling the Doctor, Phil and Simon did as instructed: get an immedate blood test.



They drove to the nearest town - Meru.  In Meru, they had to go through a couple different clinics to find one that could run the right blood test.  Finally, they found a clinic that could do the blood test and give the results within an hour.  The results from the test were shocking!

In order for you understand the weight of the situation, we need to explain a few medical things.  Phil was taking blood thinners in order to clear a blood clot.  Now, the thing about blood thinners is that it makes your blood really thin (as it should), but if you get a cut or experience some kind of trama to the body, you run the risk of bleeding to death because your blood will no longer coagulate.

The reason why Phil needed frequent blood tests is because the doctors needed to monitor how thin Phil's blood was.  When the test is run, a safe number to see on the result is somewhere between 1-2 (at the high end, 2.8).

Now, when Phil got the blood test in Meru, the result came back as 34.  According to the doctors, this isn't really even possible for Phil to be living and at that number.  But the doctors in the clinic confirmed that the test yeilded those results.  So, Phil called the Doctor in Kijabe.  He was instructed to leave immediately to go to Kijabe.

So, Simon and Phil returned to Kaithe, we all packed our stuff and left for Kijabe.  We sadly had to cut the seminar short, but better to cut the seminar short and to let Phil's life be cut short.  It took us 7 hours to make it back to Kijabe.

We arrived in Kijabe at 10 pm.  We saw the Doctor and he assessed Phil.  But because of the complexity of the situation, Kijabe Hospital did not have all the necissary equippment to treat Phil.  So, off to Nairobi to the nation's best hospital.  We were leaving Kijabe around midnight and were seen around 1 or 2 am in the Aga Kahn Hospital in Nairobi.

After being seen by a nurse, Phil got another blood test.  We waited for the results... Wondering if this test would confirm the results of the first test that day.  After an hour and a half, we were called into a hospital room.  The test results were somewhat releiving.  Instead of a 34, this result showed a 4.

Now, as I mentioned above, 3 is considered a high number.  So, when the test came back showing 4, it was still a concern (but we were glad to hear that he wasn't dead yet).  After hearing the results, the Hospital staff decided that I needed to talk to a few doctors.  So, we waited -  and in the course of 2 hours, we were seen by four doctors.

We were sent back to Kijabe with note for our doctor here.  We arrived around 5 am.  After taking a cup of tea, we all crashed into bed to rest after such a long day!

The Seminar didn't turn out the way we thought, we had a bit of crazy day with running around the country of Kenya, and we were going on very little sleep.  BUT, God was glorified.  In being a missionaries, we knew that it meant we would face these things.  We knew that it meant sacrificing comfort and convenience for the sake of preaching the Gospel.

We don't know what is in the future, but we know Who holds the future!  And this is our peace, this is our rest, and this is our motivation to keep going.  We are serving the living God!

Kaithe Day 1

We will be very brief in our re-telling of the Seminar in Kaithe.

We are very excited to be in Kaithe. One year ago, we had the chance to teach a brief seminar in this hidden village. Today we are teaching in the same place. This is our first target area and we are looking around this place with excitement and expectation. There is much to be done here, but there are always beginnings... :)

(In an upcoming post, we hope to show you the needed repairs in this place.)

The Seminar we are leading this week is about Christian Leadership.

Today, there were 4 lessons. First was Simon Muhota teaching about developing Christ-like Character.



Second, Leah taught about Servant-Leadership as a necessary part of a leaders character.



Third, Godfrey taught about Shepherding as the identity of those in Christian Leadership.



And last, Leah taught about the necessary work of discipleship by the leaders of the Church.

Tomorrow will be a busy day and many more people will be coming. Please pray for us as these days are very busy - but we praise God for the opportunity to teach people in the Word of God! There is nothing more exciting than the opportunity to teach the Word of the Lord.

Keep tuned... more updates on the way.

Happy New Year!

In 2013 we experienced many "firsts." The most recent of course would be the holidays: Christmas and the New Year in Kenya.

Christmas was very simple. In Kenya, if you are a part of the Church, you will go to a Christmas morning worship service. The Church was very full that morning... and we could not help but rejoice with our brothers and sisters in Christ as we worshiped our Lord, remembering the advent of His incarnation. We also felt a deep sadness. Never in the US could we imagine a group of 600 people getting out of bed on Christmas morning just to praise Jesus... yet this is normal to Christians living in Kenya. While we came here to teach, we are the ones being taught more and more about a genuine hunger for Jesus and a longing for His Word.

After the service, Leah and I made biscuits and gravely for the other Americans who celebrated Christmas with us. Shortly after eating a large breakfast (@ 11:00) we began to roast a goat... In Kenya, it is not Christmas if you don't have Nyma Choma (roasted meat). About 30 people came over to Rev Simon's house. So we ate a feast for our lunch (@ 1:00). Everyone was stuffed and could not image taking another bite! So everyone sat around and talked until it seemed that we could fit a little more food in our stomachs.

After some rest and silence, we sleepily heated leftover goat and potatoes and rice. One more meal, and then it was off to bed.

Over the next few days, we prepared sermons and tried to get things together for our next seminar. On Friday, the 28th, we went to Godfrey's house to celebrate Christmas with his family. We exchanged presents and enjoyed each others company.

On the 30th, Phil preached about seeking God with all our hearts. The sermon ended with everyone on their knees praying and asking God to bring a New Year's Revival.

New Year's Eve, the Church holds what is called a "mini Kesha." This is a prayer meeting that lasts from around 8pm until a little after midnight. The people like to usher in the New Year with prayer and worship to the King of kings. At this event, Leah had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to a group of over 400 people. She spoke about the importance of living for eternity and the nearness and reality of Jesus's return. Many people were challenged by the message and were forced to think about 2013 as a year which must be spent eagerly awaiting the return of their Lord and Savior.

There is no better way to end 2012 and enter 2013 than by preaching the Word of God. We hope that this will only continue! And by God's grace we know it will!

May the Lord bless you and Keep you this new year as you go through the days to come. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and your feet on the narrow path. We pray that God will send His workers into the harvest field... and perhaps even use this blog to encourage others to count the cost and give their entire lives to: seek Jesus, preach the Gospel to the lost, and spend our very few days in order to purchase more glory for God.

(many more updates coming just around the corner!)