Praise the Lord, we recently held our first Baptism Sunday! Three of our children, nine-year-old Vivian, who is the daughter of one of our faithful men, and a young lady named Yvonne were all baptized to show their decision to trust Christ. We had several other young people desire to be baptized, but their father, being a devout Catholic, sadly would not allow it. Pray for Chris. His family would love to have him join them at our church, and we are praying for God to touch his heart.

Pavil, a young man in our church, started Bible college and is thoroughly enjoying it. He signed up for one semester, per my encouragement, and has since then surrendered to full-time service. He would like to team up with a missionary, who is currently serving in South Sudan, when he finishes college.

We are making slow progress on our church registration, and we are praying that God moves quickly with the remainder of the process. All of our forms have been submitted, and we are now just waiting on their approval. What should have been a month’s process has taken more than three.

We held our first Child Dedication service. This allowed children of all ages, who had not been dedicated as babies, to be dedicated to Christ. Culturally, babies are dedicated by the church at three months of age, which happens to be the age that they first leave the home at all. We had a birth in our church this month, so in a few months, we should be doing another dedication service.

Tragedy struck our church on July 7. Yvonne, the young lady mentioned above, was hit by a car while walking to church with her two younger sisters. We received a call within minutes of it happening, but by the time we arrived on the scene, she was already gone. We’ve had to navigate a lot of new things culturally, spiritually, and mentally through this devastating time. Yvonne was a promising young lady. She was to graduate high school in November and had plans to attend Bible college. Please continue to pray for her mother Irene and her siblings, Gloria and Naomi, who were left behind.

Amongst the regular ministry work, we are actively working on our upcoming Teen Rally. We are so excited to offer this event as an annual occurrence for the youth in our area. The theme of our conference is, “For What Is Your Life?” If you visited Kenya, you would see that there are churches of all kinds on nearly every corner, yet if you take a single moment to look at the moral condition of the people, you know that even basic moral teaching is completely non-existent. The people in Kenya, as in many places around the world, desperately need Christ’s love. They need to know that they are valued by Him and that they have a purpose beyond the day-to-day eat, sleep, and work. God has blessed our church with a steady group of young people, whom we pray we can influence and start breaking the cycle of immorality and broken families.

We have a few new ministries we are praying about and are in the early planning stages of. If you could, pray that God would lead and direct in the ways that He would have us minister to the people here. Pray that He would provide the right people to assist with the planning, as well as the necessary resources.

Regarding the purchasing of land, we were told in June that the land we were saving for had gone under contact and was no longer available. After a week of looking at other properties, we received a follow-up call that the deal had failed and that our land was once again for sale. Praise the Lord! As much as we do not want to rush God’s plans, we also know that we must be good stewards of the opportunities He gives us, or they will pass. Please pray that the will of God will be done as we seek Him and slowly save for our own place.

In His service,

The McDonalds
Kenya, East Africa