As mentioned last week, God had provided for us to purchase some Bibles. A small quantity is now ready for collection in a Bible Bookshop in Nairobi and the remainder will be sent out in a container.
We have made great progress with the illustrator/artist this week and it seems that everything that was discussed has now been agreed and we look forward to getting to work on our materials in the coming weeks. The market was steady this weekend and we thank God again for His help. It will be closed next weekend due to holidays here in Northern Ireland. We had hoped that we would have been in Africa by now, but unforseen circumstances have hindered us from travelling. We are seeking the Lord as to when we should go and will keep you updated. I will be out of the office for most days over the next few weeks on my annual leave, but hope to still reply to most emails and keep the blog updated. Meanwhile, the work continues in Africa. Below are two photos that Pastor Aringo sent to us yesterday. One shows some chidren receiving Bibles and the other shows one of our workers marking away in our office.....with the Kenyan and Ugandan flags proudly flying! (Click on each photo to enlarge them)
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Thank you for your prayers over another week, we always value the support of God's people.
I was able to make really good progress with our email course this week. Due to computer problems and other issues, we had fallen behind with the course, but I was able to get everything up to date this week and sent out the latest assignment. I was also able to write a later section of the course and to contact each student individually with a review of their marks up to date and also tried to encourage those who have missed sections to complete them as soon as possible and get them submitted. Please pray this course will continue to be of benefit to the students. We had a strange week at the market. It was very quiet and there weren't many people around as we enter into holiday season, but we sold a number of bigger, more expensive items and so financially we did better than the past few weeks. We would especially give thanks to God for His provision this week for Bibles. We received gifts from a few people which were designated for buying Bibles. These gifts will allow us to purchase around 340 copies of the Word of God. Most will be purchased from Every Home Crusade and sent out to Kenya in their next container. It will probably take a few months for them to arrive. We also hope to purchase a small amount in Nairobi. Although these are more expensive it will mean that some will be available for immediate use. We are so excited at this development. We have been making some progress this week in regard to getting pictures illustrated in order to produce our own teaching materials for children's workers and are quite excited that this will be the next big project for us. Pray that I will know for definite which Bible stories to use for our first set of lessons. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to press ahead in regard to purchasing land in Kenya. These past few days we have began to feel that the Lord has been making things a little clearer for us in regard to this and we appreciate prayer for wisdom in every decision which is made. Finally we would ask you to pray earnestly and urgently in regard to our next trip to Africa. We are praying that we can travel quite soon. We have run into a problem with our flights and are desperately trying to rebook with more suitable flights. Please pray that God will provide our every need and bring us there in HIS time. This week we were able to get our latest prayer letters printed, put into envelopes and posted. We thank God for His provision that enabled us to do this. Some Churches will probably only distribute them during the incoming week, but we trust that those who have already had the opportunity to read them, will be encouraged by what God has been doing.
We will shortly be sending out the email version. If you would like to be added to our mailing list for hard copies or to receive it by email, please don't hesitate to contact us and let us know. Please pray much for our forthcoming trip. We have great financial needs and our flights need to be confirmed, but, we are pressing ahead one day at a time and trusting God to bring us to Africa if it is His will. Please pray We thank God for an encouraging week with various bits of news from different areas. Please pray for Moses in Nakuru as he has an average of 16 centres returning lessons each week. This is a lot of marking. He needs help with marking as does Joyce in Uganda, so please pray that God will guide us in recruiting more markers in the days to come.
This week I was contacted by a girl in Nakuru, Kenya who I have never met. This is a little of what she wrote: "I am a sunday school teacher who uses the Treasure Seekers lessons. They have been so inspiring...I have 45 children doing the lessons...personally, I have also learnt much from the lessons." It is so encouraging to receive messages like this one. Please pray for her and the many other Sunday School teachers who share our lessons with children each week but are also learning so much themselves as a result. I was able to write our prayer letter this week and tomorrow I will collect the hard copies for circulation here in the UK. The email version should follow soon after. Please contact us if you would like to be added to our mailing list. Please make our flights a matter of urgency when you remember us in prayer as we really need to get them confirmed so that we can travel soon. God is in control and we thank Him for that. Keep praying and believing. We were delighted to receive this photo of some children in Nairobi completing our lessons. What an encouragement to see young lives learning God's Word in this way. Their teacher is so keen to bring the Gospel to them and would sincerely appreciate your prayers. We are so thankful for each of these faithful and dedicated men and women of God who have a burden for the children of their country. We still plan, God willing, to travel very soon to Kenya and Uganda. The financial need for this is immense and we really need God's provision for training, practical work, flights, accommodation and car hire. Please pray that God will provide. We hope to be issuing a prayer letter very soon with all of our news. Thank you for your continued prayers. We thank God for His help during another week.
More lessons were brought to the Nakuru area of Kenya and a few more centres have enrolled. Pastor Aringo has also received more enquiries from Mombasa and we thank God for that. As anticipated, our plan to purchase a plot of land met with some frustrations this week, but we continue to trust the Lord for the way forward. We were particularly encouraged this week following a meeting with a representative of CEF. We are so grateful that the Specialised Book Ministry has agreed to give us a large quantity of teaching visuals and materials. We are so excited at this, as these materials have been distributed at our training seminars in the past and very gratefully received by those in attendance. We are currently just finalising numbers and making tentative arrangements for transporting these to Kenya and Uganda. God is so good. I am also excited that, thanks to Tesco coupons and the contents of my money box, saved over quite a period of time, I have been able to get a new laptop this week. I had used my previous one extensively for 6 years and it had become very unreliable and at the end of it's life span. It is so good to have a new one for communicating with Africa and especially one which is reliable for using in meetings. Praise God. Please continue to remember those who are unwell at this time and please continue to pray regarding our next trip as things are very uncertain at the moment. We need something very clear from the Lord so that we know the right steps to take. This has been another topsy turvy week with not much time spent in the office but alot of driving around to meetings and appointments.
William and I had opportunity to visit Billy and May who faithfully helped at our market stall from it's inception. We ask you to continue to pray much for them at this difficult time. We are always encouraged by how positive they are and we know that the Lord is helping them in a great way. We thank God for His provision throughout another week and we give Him the glory and trust Him for the coming days. We are still trusting to get flights confirmed for our next trip. Please continue to pray on for those in Kenya who are carrying on the work. Please also pray for the God's provision to purchase more Bibles. On Thursday, William and I attended a Christian Workers day conference which we had been invited too. The speaker was from Nigeria and was a real blessing to us. I also was asked to play the keyboard at the conference. It is always a privilege to serve the Lord even through the ability to play, which He has given me! These past few days here in Northern Ireland have been very hot. Unfortunately it was just a little too hot for people to buy. Plenty were out walking but just didn't want the hassle of carrying things in the tiring heat. As a result this was a very slow week financially at the market, but it was certainly much more pleasant to be there in t-shirts instead of being wrapped up like we normally have to! This incoming week may prove to be a little frustrating as we envisage a few problems in regard to the land. Please pray that we will have grace and patience to deal with what may lie ahead. We ask for your continued prayers that God will lead, guide and provide for the incoming days. Last but not least, we wish a very Happy Birthday to Joyce's little girl Blessing who will celebrate her 1st Birthday this week! We know that she will continue to live up to her name and be a blessing to all! Thank you for your prayers over another week. God has been good. Following a reasonably quiet day at the market on Friday, it was more than made up for on Saturday and the result was that we made even more of a profit financially than we have done in quite a number of weeks, even though we had already been doing well. I did have to deal with a couple of shoplifters this week, but thankfully I noticed the item was missing before they got too far and I was able to go after them. We thank God for His help in the various unexpected situations that we face and we thank Him for wisdom.
We continue to need God's wisdom for the days ahead, particularly in regard to our next planned trip. We have had airline tickets booked since Christmas, however, these are now due for payment and we are a considerable amount of money short of what we need. However, we can't help but feel this is maybe part of God's plan as they have increased considerably in price making them the most expensive tickets since we first went to Kenya. In addition, as we have previously shared, medical issues with those close to us may affect our plans and as dad's insurance was taken out after we became aware of this he wouldn't be covered if we had to cancel or change our flights. As the flights are so expensive this time, this would be a huge amount of money to loose. William and I would be covered as we have annual insurance. We are feeling that perhaps rebooking closer to the time may actually work out cheaper and less of a risk for us, but whether there will still be availability with the flights once we would be in a position to do this is another question. In short, we really need God's direction, provision and wisdom so that we may know which is the right path to take. Meanwhile, we are at peace that God is in control and we continue to make plans for our trip until such times as HE tells us different. We also need wisdom as we deal with the land situation. We have a number of procedures to follow over the next week or so before we can make the next payment which is due at the end of May. Should there be a delay or a problem with these checks, it will make payment difficult which we know will cause a lot of frustrations and issues. Please pray again that God will guide and direct and give us wisdom. Thank you again for standing with us. As a ministry we work in Kenya and Uganda with the children, as well as here in Northern Ireland. However, we thank God for those we have contact with around the world. We have those from Myanmar and Tanzania who enrolled on our email course. Our prayer letter reaches to India, DR Congo, America and many other countries. Our facebook page has fans from Vietnam and Russia and this website has been visited by 30 different countries and over 1200 unique visitors from across the world. By going to our home page, scrolling to the bottom and clicking on the visitor square which contains the flags, you can get more information about the country and visitors who come to this website. Perhaps you would like to click on the red comments link at the top right of this post and mention which country you are visiting from? Whether we are at the market stall in our home town or reaching out through this site, we thank God that people near and far can hear the Gospel through our ministry.
This week I was doing a lot of work on our child protection email course and hope to continue this during the incoming week. William continues to be busy sorting the blocks and coal as well as doing collections of furniture etc. for us to sell. It was really cold at the market on Friday, though Saturday was better. However, we still had a good weekend with good sales. Once again, dad was the record seller! News from Pastor Aringo encourages us that all is well with the work in Kenya and we hope to have photos soon from his recent trip to Western province. 10 new centres have enrolled on the course in the Nakuru area and we thank God for this. Interest continues in our work in Uganda and we pray that God will continue to help Joyce in this area. The latest news from the Bible bookshop in Nairobi is that 200 Bibles are available for us at a cost of Ksh 83300 which is around £640.00. We need every one of these Bibles so please pray for God's provision so that we may bring the Word of God to many boys and girls. Please pray that God will continue to guide us in developing a Sunday School teaching curriculum and that we will know wisdom in this area. Remember that we have a cd of children in Kenya singing Gospel songs in English. Contact us if you would like to purchase one or more at a cost of £10 each. Please continue to pray for us as we organise our programme for our next trip in a few months time. Remember the need for training manuals when we are there, funds for practical work in schools and at the office, the balance of our flights, car hire, accommodation and also the purchase of the land. Every trip costs around £5000 and usually more. God is able. As always we value your prayers for the work of God. Pastor Aringo had an encouraging time in Western province, Kenya. We thank God for the openings we have in this area of the country. We hope to present Bibles to children here during our next visit and also conduct teacher training.
We thank God for His help at the missionary prayer meeting on Thursday evening. I was able to share the powerpoint presentation from our last trip and to share some of our plans for the future. I also shared from the book of Nehemiah and we were reminded of the work that God has for us to do. Those in attendance were keen to take copies of our prayer cards, information leaflets, pens and dvds. We also sold a few copies of our CD. I was unexpectedly out of the office for the week, but trust that we will be back in routine for at least part of this incoming week. Please continue to pray for the work in Kenya, Uganda and Northern Ireland. We continue to value your prayers in the coming days. |
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August 2022
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