Miraculous leading

It was way back in September last year that I planned this years mission work [or at least the dates for them.} I decided to try to combine statutory holidays and holiday entitlements to give me a full six weeks to use for missions in 2011. That made the Easter period vital so I put in for time off during this period. However, there was a problem.

No matter how I tried to calculate it I was left a day short of six weeks for 2011. It just didn't work yet I had a sense that this was what God wanted me to do. I put in an application for two weeks off during Easter and another week off at the end of may to coincide with the bank holiday. The rest would be used at the latter end of 2011.

I felt quite urgently to put the application in at the time although no applications at my work place for 2011 would be considered until the start of January. Again this didn't seem to make sense but I just did what I felt God wanted me to do regarding the Easter application.

GOD SEES THE ROAD AHEAD : Later on in the year the date of the royal wedding was announced. It would be during the time I was due to be away in Kenya! This means that day would count as another statutory holiday leaving me with another day of holiday entitlement spare making my total time I can take for missions add up to six whole weeks!

Now bear in mind my maths is pretty good yet even I can't take into account future changes. Yet God knows all about those and factored them in. Sometimes the things God asks us to do don't 'add up' at the time yet God sees the whole picture whereas we are looking at it from one point in time. God's view is an ETERNAL ONE. That was not the only evidence of God's hand on this though.

Several days into the new year many of us were called into a meeting with our supervisor who told us that all holiday applications for the Easter period would not be considered except for those already accepted! I turns out that many people were trying to take advantage of the numerous statutory holidays of that period to book extended holidays. Had the company accepted all those requests they would have been hopelessly short staffed. Now it all began to make sense. I am notoriously late doing things and am very much a 'late minute man'. To book this time off so early was very unusual for me and I did it only because I felt so stirred in my heart with a sense of urgency to do it. Again I can only thank God who knew and saw the whole picture. God knows what He is doing and I have no doubt that he wants me back in Kenya at this time.

God bless you...Steve

I will be flying out to Kenya in less than a month now and will be preaching and ministering at a series of gospel crusades in and around the coastal city of Mombasa.

A gospel crusade is where a group of christians have a meeting together with the specific purpose of inviting others especially non christians. There is singing and an invited speaker gives an address with an evangelistic emphasis. There is usually a time for prayer at the end especially for those who are sick or ill in some way.

Gospel crusades are usually quite exciting times as the church prepares and prays expectantly in anticipation of God doing something special. Often these meetings are marked by people coming to faith in Christ, reaffirming a commitment they made to Christ in the past and miraculous answers to prayer especially in the area of healing.

I will be working with Bishop Samuel Kazungu who leads Jubilation Ministries in Mombasa and will be working in a few of his churches in Mariakani, Makeni and Ukunda.

The last time I was in Mombasa we saw many wonderful things happen. The people are so hungry for spiritual things and are very open and sincerely responsive to the gospel. This is true regardless of background, whether Christian, muslim or traditional African religious belief. They often have a great faith for miracles of healing. We saw many on our last trip to Kenya. During the five week mission last year only one week was spent in Mombasa but that is where we saw most of the conversions and testimonies of healing. One young girl had a serious heart condition which stopped her from running around with other children. Her family wanted to take her to the capital, Nairobi, for heart surgery. We prayed for her and when I got back to England I received an email letting me know she had been given the all clear and the condition had completely disappeared. An older woman we met in her home in the slum areas had suffered from what appeared to be arthritis for years yet was healed as we prayed for her.

Mombasa is an open door for the gospel and God is clearly doing something remarkable in that city, even by Kenyan standards. One of the things that impressed me was the commitment of the churches to work together. This is something I believe has in part contributed to the favour God has shown them. Tommorow a number of people in our church are meeting together before the service to pray for the mission trip. I am starting to get very excited. Wish I was going sooner.

regards...steve

Here we go again - Mombasa 2011

Yes!!!! I'm going back again!
This time it will be Mombasa for three weeks ministering with Bishop Samuel Kazungu of Jubilation ministries. He is organising a series of Gospel Crusade meetings with lunchtime meetings thrown in. Each week I will be at a different church in the Mombasa area. Hopefully I will see some of the other people I became friends with during my last time in the city. I will be flying over there in April. I'm getting excited just thinking about it. I can't wait to see what God will do.

I will be back on here every several days with more news ect and every couple of days or so during the mission which starts on Sunday April 17th.

God bless you...steve