A little R&R in Mombasa Kenya

There’s no place like home. After 11 days away it sure feels good to be back in my own bed again. Of course, I am not complaining at all because for 6 of those days we were sitting by the pool in Mombasa Kenya. The vacation was a much-needed break from the daily grind and stress.

I was able to do a few ministry things during the hottest parts of the day, however. I worked on writing a sermon and edited many discipleship lessons and on Sunday, we held a church service near the beach.

There are no Baptist churches in the immediate area that I am aware of. This fact is a matter of prayer with Greg and I. Last year during our visit to Mombasa we had the opportunity to hand out many gospels of Romans that include a salvation tract. One of the hotel security guards was saved after reading the tract. He has asked us to come and start a new church in his area. The work is plentiful but the time, money and laborers are in short supply. Pray that God would make his will known about this possible church plant.

We left Mombasa and headed to Nairobi to make some dentist appointments and to do some stocking up on fresh meat. There always seems to be a chicken shortage in our town and our local butcher is located in a building owned by a Muslim man. This owner will not allow the butcher to sell pork products. So we stocked up (154 pounds worth) on boneless skinless chicken breasts, spare ribs, and some ground pork and beef. Now we just pray that the freezer doesn’t die. Ha!

When we arrived in Nairobi on Saturday night, I was informed that our missionary friend, Denny Madory had to suddenly return to the US for a funeral and that I would be preaching in his stead. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season...” 2 Timothy 4:2. We had a wonderful service. It felt really great to preach in English.

Apparently, there is a gasoline shortage in Kenya. I am not sure why but it was a chore trying to find a station that still had fuel. After searching several gas stations for gasoline, waiting in line for 30 minutes and finally topping off, we began our trip home. The 200-mile trip only took 6 1/2 hours in spite of the terrible roads, road construction and detours. The border crossing was uneventful and our house was just as we left it, albeit a lot dustier. We will gladly welcome the rainy season to get rid of some of this dust.

Please pray:
We are focusing our thoughts on the next church plant. We need God’s direction and guidance.
As I schedule furlough meetings this week. It’s difficult to communicate from Africa and a little tricky to get the meetings lined up properly.