Port Reitz church, God's healing power.

Today has been a very good day so far. We had two good services and in our time of prayer a young ladty was immediately healed of stomach pains which was particularly appreciated becuase she was later due to sing for the church.

I also have news on pastor Daniel Safari's father whom we prayed for at hs home on friday. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer which was described by the doctors as terminal. The morning of our visit the mans wife had been crying because she believed he was about to die. He was very thin and barely able to speak. He was no longer eating and would vomit at the very small of food and he could not even take himself to the toilet. Today I am told that after we left he ate porridge and drank tea and is now going to the toilet by himself. His voice has also improved. Please keep praying because something very significant is happening.

I am hoping we get the chance to visit pastor Rose and her son again to pray and see what God has done/will do.

I now have the itinerary for the rest of the week. Tonight we will be meeting at the home of a local pastor which doubles at his church for a time of fellowship and the opportunity to pray for local people. He is very popular and well known localy and I'm told many people have heard about tonight and are coming.

Here is the itnierary for the rest of the week in the Mombasa area.

15th February / Monday : Exodus church in Kanamai {2:00pm to 5:00pm - Alos perhaps the chance of evangelism and outreach in the area which is 25km from where we are based now.}

16th / Tuesday : Salem church {based localy 4:00pm to 6:30pm}

17th / Wednesday : Exodus church in Port Reitz {4:00pm to 6:30pm}

18th / Thursday : Evangelism and outreach at Akamba Handicrafts Industry in Chagamwe {2:00pm to 5:00pm - Don't ask me where that is. All I know is that there are people there and we are sharing the gospel which is good enough for me! Amen!}

Keep praying. I am believing God that the latter end of this mission will be even greater than the former.

God bless you...Steve

First day in Mombasa. {hitting the ground running}

Today is our first full day in Mombasa and I am with Ken Opera {a local minister who has been here for 4 years}. They have a busy itinerary for me and today we went visiting people including the pastor of the church I will be ministering at on Sunday. {psr. Safari}. We prayed with his family and at this moment his elderly father is in the house and has been unwell for some time and is very thin.
We also visited another local pastor. Her name is Rose and we hope to be seeing her family again this week as our visit was only very brief. She has a son named Peter who is suffering from psychological problems after being drugged at a party many months ago. They told me he has shown signs of improvement but he is incapable of helping himself and has to be fed. We will pray for him during the week so please pray with me also and I hope we will see signs of recovery before I return to the U.K.
We also visited a woman whose daughter passed away last monday and she is due to travel up country to the funeral early next week. Please also remember her in your prayers.
It has now been 4 weeks in Kenya but I am believing God that he has saved the best for last. There will be much to do and I am encouraged to hear that many of the pastors in the city meet together and work together. There are many people who have come to the city looking for work who have a christian background or influence but who do not attend any church. Pray also that we will see many of these people come in to our services and events.

God bless you...Steve

last day in Nairobi and heading to Mombasa

Today is the last day in Dandora, Nairobi. We will be traveling to Mombasa early next morning by bus {a nine hour trip}. The money situation has been resolved. It turns out that the emails sent to me were not reaching me. I am very relieved. The meetings are going well and the messages well received. I've not had the chance to go around the churches in Nairobi as expected {except Ngomongu on Sunday} but today should be good as some people from the surrounding churches will be meeting in Dandora today and we will have lunch together before the evening meeting later on. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the people I saw on my travels last time I was here especially the pastor of the church in Joska. The pastor and her church were having a hard time because of local opposition and people were saying a woman shouldn't be preaching or leading a church. I was told by bishop Abednego that now they have completed the work on a bigger stone church building and the church are doing very well. I am very happy about this especially as the last time I was there the sermon I preached turned out to be a very relevant and timely word for them that encouraged them greatly regarding the opposition they were facing. {As I preached I had no idea at that time of what was going on. God has His way of getting a point across, Amen}

Nairobi is maintaining a temperature of around 25 degrees which I really like. {Don't get me wrong. There is much I love about living in England but the weather I left behind is DEFINITELY NOT one of them.} Mombasa is typically 30-35 degrees {way too hot!} and a day later I'll be back in temperatures barely above freezing. Should be interesting to see how I cope with that!

Anyway, do remember the Mombasa stage of the trip in your prayers as well as the minister I will be working with in that area {Ken Opera} who is in charge of the itinerary during that part of the mission. Pray that I will handle the climate O.K [Although some of you are probably thinking 'you lucky so and so! Don't worry, I'll be suffering with the rest of you in 10 days time!} Seriously though, do please pray for Bishop Abednego and his family and they are heading to Mombasa under sad circumstances to attend the funeral.

God bless you all {and stay warm}...regards Steve

Challenges, souls saved and people healed.

It has been a busy and productive weekend. On Saturday evening I went to Robert Muindi's church in Nairobi {All nations church}. They are connected with 'All Nations' church in Northampton. The service went well and Robert expressed his desire that when I return to Kenya I would have more time to be with his church.

Sunday went very well. In the mother church of 'church of the Lord' which is based in Dandora,Nairobi I had the chance to lead the first session which was very well recieved before we rushed off to one of their their churches in the slum area of 'Ngomongo'. The small church was packed full of people and we saw two people who has previously backslidden return to the Lord and a number of others come forward for prayer for healing. We prayed for 5 sick people. One man had suffered from dental pain for weeks after seeing a dentist and was immediately healed along with 3 others. Please pray for a woman who came for prayer. She has contracted malaria. Given how easily and quickly we saw people healed she may be healed already but there is no harm in praying anyway.

The evening saw me back in Dandora for another service and teaching session with a positive response. Today I get the chance to relax until the evening. I will probably be ministering in and around Nairobi through to Wednesday. Thursday I will be travelling with Bishop Abednego to Mombasa {tbc} the spouse of a very close pastor friend has passed away and they will need to be there for the funeral. Please remember bishop Abednego and his family in your prayers as this is something which has touched all of them.

God bless you...Steve

ps : I am reliant on someone from England to send me the money I am being paid week by week but they are already a week late and seem totaly unaware of how difficult this makes things for me. I will need something to pay a deposit to the hotel in Mombasa on Thursday and the balance by the time I leave a week later. It is sometimes difficult to concentrate on what I'm here to do when I'm worrying whether my money is going to be sent on time. {God is helping me to stay calm ....only just!} If they send what they should be sending then everything will be just about covered but as yet I have nothing. Please pray that they would do what I need when I need it.

Church of the Lord, Nairobi

Yesterday saw the culmination of the week with Gospel Fire ministries in Nairobi. This evening I will be visiting Robert Muindi's church in Nairobi before beginning a week of meetings with 'Church of the Lord' in the Nairobi area starting Sunday and concluding Friday. I expect we will be in the main church in Dandora, Nairobi on Sunday morning before visiting many several other churches through the week.

Please keep in prayer the three young men who came to the service last Tuesday and gave their lives to Christ. Also for the week ahead and for Bishop Abednego {head of church of the Lord} as he organises things over this coming week. It looks like everything is falling in to place.

God bless you...Steve

Fantastic Tuesday.

Things really took off on Tuesday. During the pre service time of prayer I noticed a group of 5 young men hanging around on a nearby street corner. I felt quite clearly that God wanted me to speak to them. I wasn't really sure I wanted to approach total strangers on the street but I didn't have any peace until I did it and so I took someone with me to interpret and introduced myself to them. It turns out these guys call themselves tax collecters. {ie : they demand money with menaces from people coming home from work} They had no work and were hungry so said they had no choice but to do this. I had no money so couldn't give them anything to eat but invited them into the church and they all came straight in. {I didn't expect it to be that easy!} By the end of the service three of them responded to the message of the gospel and committed their lives to Christ along with a member of the church who felt the need to recommit herself to the the Lord. It turns out that these men had attended the church some years back but had drifted away for whatever reason and now had got themselves into a bad lifestyle. During the time of prayer and ministry at the end we also had 2 people come forward to be prayed for to recieve healing and both were healed immediately.

The three men in question were adament about coming to the church today and one in particular said the message helped him to see things differently and that he was determined to follow Jesus for good this time. Please pray for these three men that God would meet their needs and keep them from getting back into trouble and that God would help them reestablish their relationship with him. Pray also for the other two men that God's word would stay with them and bear fruit and that we would see them again.

God bless you...Steve

tuesday - gospel fire nairobi - so far

At the moment we are not seeing anything in the way of miraculous healings or conversions {we'll be praying for the sick friday night} but the power of God is being seen in his word. I have been greatly blessed by the times of study and preparation and the church is challenged and encouraged at the same time. Yesterday was particularly good and we had a really good time of prayer before the back to back services. We will continue having back to back sessions with two sermons/messages daily from 3:30pm to 6:30pm through to friday. Please pray that people would bring visitors and for God's healing power to be released on that night.
We prayed for a lady in the church who was sick and on medication but still coming to church. Please pray for her full recovery.

God bless you...Steve