As I mentioned in my last prayer letter, we expect that the spiritual battle in the coming few months will intensify as we move towards our departure to Kenya. As expected, that has been the case. It is somewhat refreshing to see your expectations come to fruition, as this means you are most probably on track.
Here are a few examples of what has been happening:
1. On returning from Kenya, my legs were carrying quite a bit of fluid. Then one day I was fine in the morning, walking around as normal, but by 11:00 a.m., my left leg was starting to feel touch-sensitive from my knee down to my foot. That evening I found myself in hospital with a case of cellulitis and on triple intravenous antibiotics. I wasn’t discharged until four days later. The blessing was that I was able to lead 5 hospital staff to the Lord while I was there.
2. Because the swollen legs returned some days later, we decided to pursue the cause of the problem, and I went in for a Doppler scan to see if we could determine if there was any vascular deficiency. The examination went well until I was leaving, when they told me, “By the way, you have blood clots in both legs,” and I found myself back in the ER that evening and on blood thinners. I was not happy, but what could I do? It was good, however, that they were discovered before they could cause any damage.
3. Believe it or not, I recently had another minor case of cellulitis–in Australia.
4. I do have one other issue of a cancer on my tongue. This will be removed by surgery on September 8 at RUSH Hospital in Chicago. The first biopsy has shown this to be a non-invasive, non-metastasizing type of “skin” cancer. Please pray that I will have a complete recovery.
Another blessing is that the video of our ministry that Jared Russ, son of Pastor Tim Russ from Greater Vision Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky, has been completed and is now up on YouTube. It is a biographical documentary and is of excellent quality. He is currently working on another version, reducing the length so that it can be slotted into a service as a missionary introductory video. If you are looking to make a professional video, feel free to contact Jared while he is relatively new to the industry and before he gets too busy. I have found him excellent to work with. If you search for “He Directs My Path” by Jared Russ on YouTube, you should have no difficulty finding it, or you can use the link:
https://youtu.be/ATmIOERW–c.
Although life has been a little complicated of late, I have been able to maintain my schedule of meetings and missions conferences that have been a blessing and have resulted in increasing our support level, which we need to maximize before we leave to take up residence in Kenya.
We were pleased to see the Kenyan elections come and go with relatively minor incidences of violence (about 30 killed) but not without a twist, as I have just heard that the election results were declared void by the Supreme Court of Kenya and that they are now looking to have a second election within 60 days. The accusation by the losing opposition party was that there was unlawful access by unauthorized persons during the transmission and tallying of the electoral votes. This could be good for the future democracy of the country, seeing that the decision to take their grievances to the court and not to the streets indicates that the country wants to accept the law of the land and not take things into their own hands, resulting in conflict, violence, and deaths. We will wait and see what happens over the next 60 days. Please pray for Kenya.
The greatest blessing is knowing that with all that is going on back here with us, the work continues, with the pastors in Kenya still going soul winning, still discipling, and still laboring to build their ministries and plant new churches. We are very excited as we prepare to move to Kenya and look forward to working more closely with these fine men to spread the Gospel throughout East Africa.
We praise the Lord and thank Him for the many faithful churches that partner with us financially and in prayer as we endeavor to spread the Gospel and plant independent Baptist churches across East Africa. We pray that you will see much fruit to your account in Heaven.
We would appreciate prayer for the following:
1. Safety and good health as we travel
2. Resilience as we approach our departure date and the spiritual battle intensifies
3. A full calendar of meetings between now and December—we depart December 11!
4. Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom as we work in a new environment with a new culture and a new people
5. Finances to support an appropriate place to live in Kenya (we need three months’ rent in advance), a vehicle that can handle the rough terrain in Kenya, along with all the initial start-up costs of the ministry
We offer our deepest gratitude to those of you who have supported us in our many years of service working with our Kenyan pastors and give thanks to the Lord for our newest supporting churches as we work together to see the work in Kenya expand while we still have time, as the Lord’s return appears imminent.
God bless you!
Your co-laborers in the work of the Lord,
Peter, Melody and Lindsay Morris
Missionaries to Kenya, East Africa