Wedding delayed

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. I asked you to pray for the wedding of Mandara and Anna last week. Apparently, the Lord saw fit to have a mother show up on the scene. Mandara’s mother, a Muslim, has caused us to delay the wedding for 3 weeks so that other friends and family can come. Actually, this is a reasonable request and one I am happy to accommodate.
On Saturday I sat down with the couple, a friend and Mama Mandara to discuss the wedding vows. The vows are very well written explaining the faith that the couple has in Jesus and that they plan to raise their family according to the Bible. It gave me good opportunity to witness to Mama Mandara. I asked her why she chose Islam. She said she didn’t choose, she was born into the family of Muslims. I asked what Muslims had to do to go to heaven. With a look of embarrassment she said she didn’t know. I mentioned the five pillars that the Muslims base their faith upon and compared it to what the Bible says. I questioned her, which would you rather depend upon, your good works based on these five pillars or the work that Jesus did on the cross? She made a few excuses for her faith and I left it at that, trusting that I would have another opportunity to witness to her again. Please pray for her salvation.

Sunday’s sermon was all about the names and attributes of Jesus mentioned in Isaiah.

Is. 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
The message was received well and 3 people came forward to pray. While I know my Swahili needs a lot of polish, it is obvious that the Lord is giving me ability to communicate sufficiently. I am really amazed at how long it takes me to write one sermon however. Please pray for me in this area. I would like to spend more time with the people than at my desk writing and translating.
Please pray:
For salvation of Mama Mandara and others who may attend the wedding Dec 19
For direction and ability from the Lord for preaching in Swahili
For growth of our church spiritually and numerically

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with 10-15 other missionary families who all gathered in Nairobi on Thursday. Unfortunately, Daniel and I were very sick for about 24 hours. Actually, Daniel recovered much more quickly and with much less drama than I did. I think we must have picked up some food poisoning on our trip to Nairobi because no one else got sick. Nevertheless it was a good time with friends.

Last Sunday I preached about the 10 lepers whom Jesus cleansed from their leprosy. Only one returned to give thanks. Nine went to the temple to follow the Old Testament law to be declared officially cleansed. The other one who gave thanks received more than just a cleansing. Jesus said, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith has made thee whole.” (Luke 17:11-19) He also received salvation by Faith in Jesus. It is very interesting how thankfulness and salvation are connected in this passage of scripture.

After the service we made plans for the wedding of a newly saved couple in our church. Please pray for the wedding to go well. This will be my 2nd wedding but since it is all in Swahili there is a lot more stress on me. This will also be a great opportunity to be a witness to their family. This couple is getting married after living together for 2 years because now that they are Christians, they know they should obey God and live according to His word.

We now have less than 4 weeks before my favorite time of the year, Christmas. Believe it or not we already have all of our shopping done and thanks to Cathy’s mom, the gifts are in the mail heading our way. Now we just need to pray that they make it on time without being stolen.

Please pray:
For the wedding on Sunday Nov 28
My continued growth in Swahili
Others to be saved
Homesickness during the holiday seasons
Our gifts to arrive safely and timely

A great Sunday sets the stage for Salvation on Monday!

Sunday was a great day at church. In attendance were two men who have been absent for several weeks. We also had another man visit for the first time. His “wife” was saved and baptized in our church. 

Brother Greg preached a great sermon and afterwards the church honored him with testimonies and gifts. It was Greg’s last day at our church as he and I move on to start a new work in another area. I will be preaching at our church in Kingereka every Sunday while Greg takes the preaching load at our new church plant. After the services were over I talked to our visitor (named Mandara) and set up a time to meet with him on Monday.

That Monday afternoon meeting happened just a few hours ago. As we began to talk I found out that he was a devout Muslim for quite awhile. He began to see things in his religion that really bothered him. He explained that it had been almost 1 year since he quit practicing Islam. I began to explain the details of salvation by grace through faith and how that Jesus did all the work necessary for our salvation when He died on the cross. I explained that it’s humanly impossible to do enough good works to earn forgiveness. After showing him a few verses from the Bible, he bowed his head and prayed, confessed that Jesus is God and asked for forgiveness of his sin! Amen!

I told Mandara that there are many things to learn in the Bible. He interrupted me and said that he was going to read the Bible. I continued and told him about being baptized and becoming a member of our church. But there was one matter that preceded these; he and his “wife” needed to be officially married. He agreed. He told me that they have been living together for 2 years now and that it has been too long without being married. I told him that I was available even as early as tomorrow to help them with this matter. He asked, “What about this Sunday?” His wife said that was too soon because a certain someone would not be in town. She said, “Let’s do it in 2 weeks.” He agreed! Wow! That was easy.

It’s true that when a person gets saved he becomes a new creature. He changes his actions and instead of living to please self he lives to please God.

Please pray:
For Mandara and his family (wife and 1.5 yr old) as they grow in the Lord.
For more souls to be saved.
For the new church plant (beginning Feb 6 2011)
For good morale during the holiday season. It often gets very lonely during the holidays.

Things are a little different here

I spent some time with Mose and Elena this week doing some basic Bible counseling before their wedding takes place on Dec 28. They are both very excited about the event. As I ran through the checklist with the couple we were able to mark everything done except one item. The groom has not gotten written permission from the father of the bride to marry her. I told Mose on Tuesday that without the permission slip, there would be no wedding. He explained to me that the father has a business to attend to which is out of the country. He will be home for one day only- Wednesday. I reluctantly made plans to drive with Mose 2 hours away to get the permission slip.

When I showed up on Wednesday morning, there was a crowd of 5 people surrounding Mose as he laid on the ground. In the middle of the night he became very sick. So, instead of traveling to see the father we went to the hospital. They admitted him and gave him a glucose I.V. I am sure he will be alright but we will be praying for him.

After he was admitted I left the hospital (and I use the word hospital very loosely) and went to the seamstress to pay the remaining balance on the brides dress, jewelry and shoes. We made plans to visit the father of the bride on Monday. Hopefully things will go as planned. Pray for us as we travel, we will be driving through an elephant and giraffe preserve and the last time I was there the roads were very poor.

A calm week and wedding plans

We had a fairly calm week last week and for that I am thankful. After some expensive car repairs in Nairobi, I was glad for a restful week.

We had a full house this week in the church services. There were many familiar faces and a few visitors. I made plans to visit with a man named Wilson this week. We had good messages as well. I taught on the temptation of Christ and Greg preached about “the Promised Deliverer”.

After the service Sunday morning the people just hung around for a while. Some were just fellow-shipping while others were discussing the wedding that is coming up. I would be grateful if you would remember to pray for me as I conduct my first ever wedding. Mose and Elena will be getting married on Dec 28 this year. I have had the privilege of baptizing both of them this year, now I have to marry them.

Weddings are very expensive and usually way beyond the means of the couple getting married. Therefore the groom spends a lot of time asking people for help (i.e. donations). In fact, Mose asked me to buy the wedding gown for his bride. I agreed so he went to the seamstress and picked out the cloth, jewelry, head dressing and shoes and then told me how much it would cost. He then asked if I could help pay for his clothes, the wedding rings and the cake. I told him I would help with the cake but that he needed to get his own clothes and rings. He wasn’t being greedy; he is just totally unprepared to pay for anything. Can you imagine?

The men in the church wanted to give the couple a gift from the church. They decided that they would take up a special offering and buy 2 cases of Coke soft drinks. Whenever there is a big celebration it is just about mandatory to serve sodas to the guests.

This week I will spend some time with Mose and Elena discussing the wedding process and giving some marriage advice from the Bible.

Please pray:
The wedding and my Swahili.
Our Christmas Day service

After the morning service last week I was approached by one of the Maasai men in our church and was asked to perform his wedding. This came as a surprise for several reasons. First, he has been living with his soon to be wife for several years and just last month their second child was born. I just assumed they were married already. Secondly, and most significantly, I was surprised because I had never performed a wedding before either in English or Swahili.

Recently, I attended a Maasai wedding and found it quite interesting. Read the amazing story here and view a few video clips. I have to admit that I am a little apprehensive about taking on this huge responsibility. While in the car on the way home both Majaliwa and Anna said that I shouldn’t do the wedding. They said if I mess it up the couple would be stuck with my mistake for the rest of their lives. Oh boy, more pressure. Fortunately, I will have Greg Wagoner’s help and the wedding is not until December so I will have plenty of time to practice and pray.

On Thursday, Mose and I went to visit a man I led to the Lord at our revival meetings several months ago. Unfortunately, he had just left for town to do some business. We stayed for a good hour or more and talked with his wife while she prepared some chai for us to drink. I asked her if she had received Jesus as her Savior like her husband did and after a few minutes of me explaining what salvation is she affirmed that she was already saved. It is difficult to communicate with the Maasai people in our area because they mainly use their own tribal language and their Swahili is not very good. Add my mediocre Swahili to the mix and you have a difficult conversation. Fortunately, Mose (aka Moses) is fluent in both Swahili and Maasai and he made many clarifications for me.

In the Sunday school hour I ran into a small problem: no one came. However, since this is Africa and starting on time is arbitrary I just waited until a few more people showed up. We started Sunday school 50 minutes late and just continued until I was finished! Try that in your Sunday school class. Ha ha. My lesson covered the fact that mankind needs a Savior, God promised He would send the Savior thousands of years ago in the garden of Eden and God never forgets or changes His mind about His promises. By the middle of the lesson we had about 20 people in attendance. During the following service Greg reminded the people that there was a Sunday school class and challenged them to make it on time next week. We shall see.

Please pray:
My preparations for the wedding
My son, Daniel has been very sick
Cathy will be traveling on Wed to Nairobi

Maasai Wedding: 500 guests and 1 white missionary

I was invited to attend a Maasai wedding taking place about 2 hours away. If you are not familiar with the Maasai tribe you can read more here and see some pictures I have taken here. I refer to them as the Amish people of East Africa. They live a rugged and basic life. They generally still dress in the old fashioned ways and live in cow dung huts.

I was not sure what to expect at this wedding but I am always up for an adventure so I was looking forward to it. I was told to meet Mose at our church at 6:00 am. I am becoming well adjusted to African life so I didn't even plan to arrive at the church until 7:00am. After waiting for a few others to show up we finally left Mose' homestead at 8:30 ish. Of course none of these guys thought to buy a gift before the day of the wedding, so we had to stop in town to buy something.

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