At the end of August, we took a survey trip to Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city, to see the need for churches. While many churches have the word Baptist in their name, I visited 10 Baptist churches and could not find one that was of like faith. It became clear that the opportunity for future ministry is wide open. We visited local markets, looked at real estate, visited Lake Victoria, tried local food, and saw hippos in our backyard. On our next trip, we hope to visit the equator, which is about 40 minutes away.
God protected us in many ways during the trip. The night we arrived, I left my backpack with our passports and much cash in the back of a cab. When I realized what I had done, I left my wife and children at the plaza to go find the cab. Praise the Lord for honest people! After two hours, I had my bag back. Those men might have been the only two honest people I met in the city. Kisumu also has the highest risk for malaria in Kenya. We are thankful for God’s protection; although we had many mosquito bites, we did not contract malaria.
Just after Kisumu, I took a trip to Nymira. Geoffrey drove as part of furthering his discipleship. We went to visit a pastor who was asking us to give money toward the purchase of land. While in conversation with him, it became obvious that he was making little effort to reach his community. He admitted such and committed to do more. On Sunday morning, I was able to teach the Bible-study hour and encourage the people to go soul winning and invite people to church. I was able to use my experience with Geoffrey to help encourage them. I am happy to report that twice a week, the pastor has been visiting his people and going soul winning. He has also had one person join the church.
Please continue to pray for Geoffrey. I have seven men I am currently discipling; Geoffrey is by far the most faithful. Through his influence, his brother Charles has come to know Christ and has begun the discipleship program. We had Geoffrey and his fiancé Doreen over for dinner earlier this month and hope to see Doreen attend church with us. Last week, Geoffrey and I went soul winning together, and glory to God, he led his first soul to Christ! We plan to start discipleship together with this man.
Here at home in Nairobi, we have seen tremendous growth in the Children’s Program through our weekly outreach! When we arrived at BBC, there were only 6 children attending Sunday school. We now have 35-40 children attending regularly, and we started a Junior Church to accommodate them during the main service. Since the ages range from 1-12 years old, we’ve begun splitting the class into 2 groups, and I started the discipleship program for ages 10-12. Many of the younger children do not understand or speak English. Elizabeth has been able to involve a couple of teenage girls to help in translating the Bible stories for her. Each week she and our children make pancakes or popcorn as a treat for the church kids. Our children love helping out, and the church kids can’t get enough of the snacks.
I’ve begun teaching Foundations of My Faith in the adult Sunday school. In addition, I’ve been able to encourage the pastor and three other men to go out on visitation. It’s a start, but I hope, as time goes on, to see much more involvement. Most of the children live in a small neighborhood within arms’ reach of the church. Our goal is to encourage their parents to start attending. Deacon Tom and I were able to see one boy’s mom, Emma, led to Christ last week. Her work schedule did not allow her to attend this week.
Prayer Requests
• Outreach program at BBC to grow
• To be able to reach the parents
• Geoffrey and Doreen
• Language studies
• Foreign Nationals ID number to arrive to allow for the purchase of a vehicle
• Continued good health
In His service,
The McDonalds
Your Missionaries to Kenya
