Another week and there seems to be a lot of things on the "To-Do-List" this week!
There are a number of tasks which need to be completed this week. Here in Northern Ireland one of the big tasks is finalising our programme for the Sunday School with the Kenyan children from England which will take place in a few weeks time. We are hoping to confirm everything this week so that we have the remainder of the time for preparation. We are excited about this opportunity and ask you to really pray for us as we get ready for this. Pray on for Joyce and her family in Uganda. We have been having some problems reaching her and ask you to pray that all is well. The phone network isn't that reliable in her area so we are trusting this is the issue. Pray on for us as we finalise new insurance cover etc. We need wisdom in selecting the correct package. We are also contacting other companies this week in regard to other necessary "cover" that is needed and we ask for your prayers as some of these issues are just so complicated! We have become aware that there are some specialised aspects of the work that require a lot of attention and we feel that perhaps we need specialised people on the ground to take over the responsibility of these issues. Pray for us as we work through these issues. As always we are still being asked when we are returning to Africa. We love people to show an interest, but sometimes this question can frustrate us. Of course we are keen to go out again, but as always there are different issues to consider both here and in Africa; in the work and in our personal lives; and it is important that we know God's timing. Another big issue is God's provision. We can't book flights until we have the funds to do so. When God provides the funds, this in itself will be a large part of the guidance that we need to show us it is time to go. Pray on that we will know the Lord's leading, a peace regarding the time, patience when we don't seem to have the answer that people require and the provision to make it possible. Because of holidays, family time and a different routine in these days, our blog is a little irregular in being posted. We hope you will bear with us over the holiday time and keep checking back for updates. We still try to update it at some point each week. Daily prayer points can also be found on our facebook page so don't forget to "like" our page if you are on Facebook. Keep praying. We appreciate your prayers, support and encouragement very much!
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Our blog is later than normal this week. Monday and Tuesday were holidays here and William and I had two lovely days together. We also had a great day away last Saturday so all in all it was a great few days. The week has felt a little topsy turvy since and we hardly know what day it is.
Work has continued as normal in Kenya and Uganda. Pray on for our team there. Because of the holidays we haven't quite finalised where the Bibles will be distributed but we are hoping to have this all confirmed quite soon. We've been spending quite a bit of time this week trying to sort insurance for FML here in the UK to include some new activities we are hoping to introduce over the coming months. We think we have finally found a company able to meet all our need. We have had good news from a publishing/printing company regarding our materials. We are still discussing a few things and deciding what is best, but we are hopeful that we will soon be able to print a sample of our first teaching pack of visuals and resources. Making these available to Chidren's Workers feels a step closer. Yesterday we were contacted by a Christian worker in Africa with whom we have a good friendship and working relationship. They were putting an idea to us and in many ways it ties in with how William and I have been feeling led as well. Please pray with us as we all pray regarding this possibility of ministry. This is really only the beginning of praying about a long term project so we are just taking it a day at a time and seeking the Lord's will. Finally, over the past few weeks and over the holidays we have been meeting various people and I have been asked a number of times the slightly strange question "Do you work?" We've realised that quite a lot of people don't really understand our set up or are clear on what we do and perhaps think FML only operates when we are in Africa. So, here, in a nutshell is a little explanation. FML operates daily in Kenya and Uganda. We have local people there, a few who receive allowances and a large number of volunteers. There are those who work in our offices and those who mark and distribute lessons. Lessons are distributed, marked. Records kept in offices. The Gospel is taught to boys and girls and we train children's workers. We have a small library in Nairobi also. This is ongoing every day. The question "Do you work?" is usually directed to me! My work is mostly FML work. There was a time when I looked after my nephews while their parents were at work. The oldest no longer needs a babysitter! The younger is now 11 and he comes to our home before and after school and in school holidays. While he is at school my work is in the office for Feed my Lambs. In school holidays I work FML work around the hours he is with me. I am in daily contact with Africa, emails, administration work, accounts, writing new materials, keeping the website and Facebook pages running, planning for next trips, going through reports from workers in Africa, organising materials, Bibles, preparing to speak at meetings here, planning for future activities here. William is very much called to the work of the Lord and to Feed my Lambs. We make the decisions together. On a daily basis I will have things to share with him when he returns from work and we have decisions to make. The responsibility sometimes could overwhelm us. As things stand, most of the FML work here in UK is office based. Therefore William works in a secular job on a farm. This does provide some income for us but we still have to trust the Lord for our needs as my income is minimal. Many Pastors look after their flock while their wives work. They are both considered to be in the work of God. Somehow with us, people see William as a farmer and me staying at home all day doing nothing except keeping my nephew for a couple of hours. This is certainly not the case. We are both called of God, we are both in His work, we are both doing His will and we both eat, sleep and breath Feed my Lambs. We may be farmers and childminders for some hours of the week but we are also evangelists/missionaries or whatever title you wish to use for even more. Of course we are also a husband and wife with a home and all of the responsibilities which go with these roles. We are both thankful to God for the privilege he has given us of serving Him. I am also thankful to my husband who works so hard in order to bring in some income for us and therefore frees up FML funds; and who supports and encourages me so much in my everyday work. I realise I have been quite direct in how I have tried to explain this. Time and space limits me in going into too much detail, so it does come across quite blunt but our aim is simply to answer the question that we are often asked. We hope this helps. Joyce made the journey to Kampala at the end of the week and collected 350 Bibles from our supplier there. She has kept 100 to distribute in Uganda and forwarded another 250 to Nairobi for distribution in Kenya. However, one of the officers at the Uganda/Kenya border confiscated a Bible. He said he needed it to check if it was genuine. Pray that he will read it and that God will speak to him through it. That leaves 249 that will be collected today in Nairobi.
Eunice; in our Nairobi office; yesterday sent me an up to date list of all centres which have children waiting for Bibles and also a list of those children who will very soon reach the stage of needing a Bible. We hope to go through it over the next few days in order to finalise where these particular Bibles should go. Pray for wisdom in this as it isn't always straight forward. We thank God for this latest supply of Bibles and pray that God will speak to the children through His Word and help them as they continue with the remaining lessons. Pray that we will continue to have sufficient lessons over the incoming months until such times as more are printed and arrive in Kenya. New centres have enrolled over the past few weeks in Kenya and I have had a few email enquiries which I have referred on. On Saturday, Joyce was also visiting a new centre in Uganda. We thank God for the hunger there is for the Gospel. One particular area in Kenya is causing challenges for us at the moment due to one of our helpers no longer being available. Others are willing but are not known very well to us. Though they have assisted in the past we need to be sure we appoint the right person. Meanwhile, we are having to try and manage quite a bit ourselves in that particular area, which obviously isn't that easy from the other side of the world. Pray that the Lord will really make the way clear and help us to get things back on track. Thank you for your prayers. As mentioned in last week's blog, we had a clothes collection last Wednesday. We have just heard today that it raised just over £285.00. Thanks to all who contributed to this collection. We should receive the cheque within the next few days.
Funds for the ordered Bibles have left our account and we are waiting on confirmation of receipt from the other end. Joyce will be travelling to Kampala to collect the Bibles within the next few weeks. She will keep 100 for distribution in Uganda and 250 will be sent on to Kenya. Some of these will be held for the School which partnered with the Sunday School over here and the remaining will be distributed amongst other centres. I (Pamela) enjoyed being involved in the Holiday Bible School in our home Church every evening last week. It was great to be involved with playing the organ, doing a quiz and helping some of the children with their workbooks. The Lord really helped and blessed in every part and the children were left in no doubt about their need of salvation. We pray that the seed sown will bring forth fruit in the coming days. God also blessed at the Children's Day services yesterday. We thank God for His continued help in every aspect of the work and we continue to pray for His leading and guidance especially concerning our next trip. We have no definite dates organised as yet. Thank you for your ongoing prayer support.
Another week begins. This morning I have sent payment to Africa for 350 Bibles!!! We are excited about this and glad that more children will be able to receive their copy of the Word of God. It's even more exciting that these were purchased by children in a Sunday School here. (See last weeks blog). Bit by bit the Lord is providing and the number of Bibles needed is getting less. Keep praying that God will keep providing and let's get this number down. Please consider making a donation for Bibles now by clicking on the button below. Thank you in advance. (Blog continues after button, so keep reading!)
This past week I have spent a lot of time setting up a new project. We now have a Project Directory on our website. This is a space where Churches, Schools, Children's Homes, Feeding Centres etc. can have some space here on our website to promote their ministry and raise awareness of it. We hope this will drum up prayer support for the many local people who are working hard for the Lord in their own communities and amongst their own people. This is also a way of connecting similar projects in different areas. In order to have a profile, the project must complete an application form and have it approved by FML. For many years we have been contacted by so many good ministries asking us for help. It has not always been possible to help, maybe because we don't have a worker in their country or because all of our funds are allocated. We hope this new venture will encourage and help them. So far we have just a few projects published on our site. These are mainly in Kenya with one in Uganda. Following the links will lead you to different types of ministry in different countries. The one thing each project have in common is that they are trying to bring the Gospel to the children they have contact with. Some are doing this directly, others do this by allowing the children to complete our Bible Lessons. Please take some time to encourage these local ministries by having a look at their profiles. Most will be updated monthly, so please do keep checking back. I am sure you will appreciate the amount of work and effort which goes into these ministries and we trust you will pray much. We have provided a few links below to get your started on your search.
Click here to go to our Project Directory Home Page Click here to go to our Africa Page Click here to view projects in Kenya Click here to view projects in Uganda On a personal note we continue to appreciate prayer for the coming days. Pray that we, (William and Pamela) will continue to know wisdom in the work of FML. Pray for us in all of the every day tasks and work involved with the ministry. Sometimes the huge responsibility hits us and we are reminded of just how much we need the Lord and how this is actually HIS ministry and we are just His vessels. Pray that we will know very clear direction regarding our next mission trip. We are considering circumstances and dates but as yet have nothing booked. Pray for our financial needs also. Financial needs for our next trip and also personally. We have been advised by an electrician that our home needs totally rewired. This is a big job and will mean a lot of upheaval and decoration afterwards. We are praying very much about this and all of the practicalities involved. We appreciate you upholding us in prayer also. Yesterday we were able to be present at Children's Day in the Church I grew up in. Our two nephews still attend Sunday School there. It seems like no time since I was standing up there singing on children's day, though I was always too shy (and scared) to read! My dad would have been very "proud" to see his two grandsons lift the offering at both services. Next Sunday we are looking forward to Children's Day in the Church we now attend. (This is where William grew up). This week is the Holiday Bible School there and I'm really looking forward to being there every night amongst the boys and girls. Pray that little ones will put their trust in the Lord as a result of the teaching. In closing; a final reminder that our next clothes collection will take place this Wednesday 24th June. If you have any unwanted clothes, bedding, curtains, belts, bags, etc. you may be able to get them to us before then. If not, don't despair, just send them when you can and they can go in the next load. Thank you once more for visiting our blog and praying for us. Please keep bringing the children of Africa before the Lord. ![]() These past few weeks have been busy as we have been responsible for sharing in a number of Children's Day Services here in Northern. On Sunday past we returned to a Church in Londonderry for one of these services. We had shared here back in November both in the Sunday School and Morning Service. Throughout the year, the children of the Sunday School have been learning about the work of Feed my Lambs and also what life is like for children in Kenya and Uganda. They also partnered with a School in Nairobi whereby names were exchanged and the children in both places prayed for each other. On one particular Sunday the children completed some of our Bible Lessons so they could learn first hand just what the children in Africa have to do in order to be presented with a Bible from us. The children worked hard at bringing an offering all year and raised an amazing amount for Bibles. In fact it was one of the biggest gifts ever received in the history of FML. William received the cheque and brought a little update from the work and partnering school and I (Pamela) shared a children's story/talk from the Bible using the Kenyan Safari as my theme. A big thank you to the Church, Sunday School Teachers, Parents and the children themselves for their interest and dedication throughout the year and for their faithfulness in praying for us all. We enjoyed this service and previous children's day services. We are looking forward to attending (and relaxing while others do the speaking) more children's day services for family and our home Church over the next few weeks. Pray for the many children who will hear God's Word and indeed family members who perhaps only attend God's house for these special events. Pray on for Joyce. When I called her a few days ago she was in our office working away marking lessons. I could hear her little boy in the background. She has to mark for many centres and has very little help. One Pastor who marks in other areas in Uganda has been in hospital for a number of weeks now. He is now well enough to leave but cannot be discharged due to the fact he does not have enough funds to pay the bill. Please pray that this need will be met. We currently have 23 centres in Uganda doing our lessons. A centre could be a Church, School, Feeding Centre, Children's Home or other group. Joyce is also responsible for 15 centres in Western Kenya. Just over 700 Bibles are needed for children in Uganda. Eunice has continued to be very busy in Nairobi. Here are some extracts from her report which was sent through for last week: Received Lesson 6 from Church 1 and gave out lesson 7 to them. Received Lesson 1 and 3 from Church 2 and marked these. Gave 20 copies each of Lesson 4,5,6 and 7. Received application form from Church 3 Marked and recorded lessons for Church 4 She has also been counting lessons and doing a stock take on what we still have available as well as welcoming visitors and communicating with myself. Some lessons are beginning to run low and we don't anticipate new lessons to arrive for another 5 - 6 months. This is a matter for prayer. These are just a few of the centres she has dealt with over the past week and some of them have large numbers of children doing the lessons. It is a busy office. She tells me that we currently have 911 centres on our books in Kenya and we need 1170 Bibles in this specific country. In another area in Kenya we need much wisdom as week to appoint a new representative who can co-ordinate the work there. The person needs to be saved and called of God to serve with us; committed; with a burden for children; prepared to live largely by faith with minimal support; willing to be trained and to learn and be good at communicating with our head office in Nairobi and also with us here in Northern Ireland. Pray that we will be very clearly led to the right person. Pray that the Lord will continue to help us personally. William is very busy with work at the moment and I will be helping at the Holiday Bible School in our home Church next week. I also have to prepare a children's talk for a Sunday over the Summer. My nephew will be finishing school for the Summer too, which means a few weeks of not being in the office but doing some work from the house for FML while he is with me. This means I have a lot to do this week before this happens. During the Summer he will go on his family holiday and I will then have longer hours in the office as he won't be in after school. Then there will be another few weeks of reduced office hours before he goes back to school. So there's a bit of juggling over the Summer holidays, but it is always lovely to have some time with the children in our own family too! William and I are also looking forward to a few days completely off work at a couple of different times throughout the summer. Finally, just to let you know that our next clothes collection will take place next Wednesday 24th June. If you are in Northern Ireland and have any unwanted new or used clothes, shoes, bedding, belts, bags, curtains etc. then please do make an effort to send them our way before then or to arrange for us to collect them. If you miss the deadline, don't worry, we collect on an ongoing basis so please just drop them when you can. Many thanks for your continued prayers. Today, for some reason, I have been thinking of numerous people who have passed away and; in lieu of flowers; donations were given to Feed my Lambs. My dad, my granny and a close family friend have been among them. There have been others. We spoke to the son of one man just recently. It was evident there was a sadness for the loss of his loved one as he spoke about recent events. There have been others, who, in their death have helped the work. My uncle and others passed away and their clothes were passed on to us. As a result of this, much needed funds were also received.
We never take for granted such generosity in a time of great sorrow. We know from our own personal experience that you want to be sure the wishes of your loved one is carried out. We appreciate very much those who have thought of Feed my Lambs in their darkest days. Thank you. The weeks are flying past! Our prayer letter has been well received and we have had very positive feedback as a result of it. Thank you to those who have read it and are praying over the issues mentioned. We know we include a lot of information in our prayer letter. There is always so much to share, it can be a struggle to fit it into two sides of an A4 page. We are often puzzled when we receive one sided prayer letters with spaced out print and lots of photos. We wonder how they have so little to say!! With the expense of printing and postage, we like to make the most of the opportunity!!!
Yesterday, Monday 1st June, was a holiday in Kenya. We trust that all enjoyed a restful day off. Eunice is back in our office today and we have been in contact. She is marking for 4 different centres at the moment and there have been a number of new centres registered within the past few weeks. Pray for her as she continues to oversee the work. Joyce and her family have arrived back in Malaba following their time in the village for the burial of her mother in law. Pray for them as a family as they mourn the loss of this loved one. We have been communicating via text and I have told Joyce that I will call her later in the week when they have had a chance to settle again. Pray on for them. The work in Nakuru area has been a bit unsettled and we are thankful that we are hopefully getting things back on track again. Pray that we will continue to know wisdom as we communicate with people there. Thank you to those who continue to support the work financially. I have a few thank you letters to send and we appreciate very much this ongoing support. The beginning of the months means that rent for both offices, allowances etc. are due. We thank God for His faithfulness. We have been working at updating some of the pages on this website. Some have been unchanged for a while. Please bear with us as we add, subtract and amend some of the details. Eunice has been added to the Meet the Team page and ongoing prayer requests have been updated. We are also intending to add a page with information about Uganda. We are also excited about a new venture involving the website and we will be adding to this over the coming weeks. You may find a few clues as you look around the site. William and I continue to be busy with FML work and meetings and are thankful for God's help in all of these issues. We are continuing to pray regarding our next trip and long term future in the work and appreciate you praying with us also. We are excited by the prospect of new training opportunities for our workers in Kenya and need wisdom as we put various procedures in place. A container has been shipped to Kenya this past week. As far as we are aware, this includes more of our Bible Lessons. We will update you as soon as we have more information. Finally, we hope to be placing an order for more Bibles within the next month, so if you would like to help regarding this, you may wish to consider this over these next days so that as large an order as possible can be processed. Many thanks for your ongoing prayer. By now those of you on our mailing list should have received our latest prayer letter; either by post or email. If you are on our list and have not received this within the past week, please do contact us and we will resend to you. If you normally receive the prayer letter in Church or at some sort of meeting; please bear in mind that those who we communicate with may simply not have distributed them as yet. In this case, please give it some days before contacting us or perhaps you can ask them.
Maybe you are a regular visitor to the blog but you don't actually receive our prayer news directly. We would be delighted to send you our prayer news by email or post. Those who receive by email will also receive occasional updates in between main prayer letters. Please email us if you would like to be added to our mailing list. Our latest prayer letter included a number of photos. Below are just a few of them. If you would like to know the stories behind the pictures, then please contact us now so we can forward our prayer news. Today we would ask you to pray for two specific needs.
Firstly we would ask you to pray for Joyce and her husband Pastor Augustus. Pastor's mother has passed away and burial will take place on Saturday. Please pray for this couple and their two young children and indeed for the entire family circle as they mourn the loss of a loved one. They have had a difficult year due to loosing family members and ongoing sickness. They really need our prayers. Secondly, we would ask you to pray for the situation in Kenya whereby many areas are being flooded due to heavy and widespread rain. We know of homes and schools which have been damaged. Pray for that finances will be available which will enable people to get things back to normal. As a result of the flood water mixing with sewage etc. there is now an outbreak of Cholera. Lives have been lost. This can be hard to contain especially in areas such as Kibera in Nairobi. Pray for this ongoing situation. |
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August 2022
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