Bungoma jail opens up?

Only yesterday I received news that an opportunity to minister may have come up in a prison at a place called Bungoma. A minister who is an acquaintance of mine ministered there several months ago and saw many hundreds confess Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Now he has told me he may be able to get me permission to go into that same prison to minister while I am in Kenya.
Bungoma is close to the Ugandan border and within an hours drive of Eldoret. This is a fantastic opportunity if it comes to pass. Please pray for me regarding the situation, for God's leading and purposes to come to pass. God is able to open doors no man can shut, even prison doors.

The church in Eldoret.

Initially the trip to Kenya was for a church in Nairobi {more about that soon} but later I received an invitation to minister at a pentecostal church in the eastern city of Eldoret in the Rift valley. The church is called 'Gospel Fire' and has been there for several years and is pastored by Joseph Karanja. Joseph has battled against incredible odds to keep the church going. He was once part of a small pentecostal denomination and was planted out in Eldoret to start a new church. Because of political divisions within the movement he and his church lost their building but continued to meet in the open air.
Around 400 people until recently made up the congregation but because of the violence after the elections many of them have had to flee for their lives. The church was also ransacked along with Pastor Karanja's home. Despite this Joseph's ministry continues unabated and he has also managed to plant out a few other churches in the last few years in Kenya.
Despite setbacks which would have seen some give up in despair, the church continues and reaches out to the people of Eldoret seeing people come to salvation and others miraculously healed. The gospel fire church really is a story of triumph over adversity.
{The picture is of the lake on the outskirts of Eldoret}

Knowing God as Jehovah Jireh

In the book of Genesis Abraham was commanded by God to take his only son, Isaac, and give him to God as a sacrifice. Amazingly Abraham obeyed believing that God was able to raise Isaac up from the dead if need be.

Isaac was the child promised by God and Abraham is commended for his holding to God's promises. He believed that even if his son died, God was able to raise him from the dead and thus keep his promise that Abraham would have descendant too numerous to count. I think God tests us in a similar {albeit smaller}way. Sometimes God will ask us to give up to him that which he provided us and is connected with his promise and purpose and we have to trust that he will still bring the promise to pass.

One small way I have experienced this recently was with regard to the financial provision that I believe God has given me in order to travel to Kenya. Some time after the troubles began I began to feel a deep conviction about doing something more than praying for those who had suffered loss in the country. But what could I do?

My mind went to the money God had provided and at first I questioned whether such a thing would be right. After all hadn't God blessed me for a specific reason and surely it wouldn't be right to use that money for something else. Nevertheless I couldn't shake the conviction that to use that money to help those in immediate need was the right thing to do. There were a few of things that came to mind.

1 - It was given by God anyway and he can decide to channel it somewhere else if he so desires.

2 - A preaching trip is all well and good but practically what people need right now is financial help.

3 - If this trip was of God then the same God who made provision for it in the first place will do so again.

4 - God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. This is a small thing with him. Don't look at the size of the problem, look at the size of God.

5 - He who gives to the poor lends to the Lord. You are guaranteed not to lose anything. In other words I couldn't give it away if I tried!

6 - Jesus said that insomuch as you've done this to the least of these my children you have done it to me. {How could I say no after that!}

Anyway, to cut a long story short I began to sent money by Western Union money transfer and I asked God to meet my needs. One Wednesday I opened my payslip to find I had been given an 11% pay rise for no apparent reason. I wondered if it was a mistake but the next payslip was the same and the supervisor confirmed it. {I've worked there since the early 90's and never had more than the statutory pay rise just like everyone else. I never asked anyone for this and my job hasn't changed in any way. The only one who knew about this request was God.}

Through his experience on Mount Moriah, Abraham has a revelation of God as Jehovah Jireh. {Meaning 'In the mount of the Lord it will be provided'}. As Abraham was in the process of obeyed God, the Lord showed him a ram caught in the thickets nearby which was God's provision for the sacrifice. Isaac lived and the promise of God that Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky was fulfilled.

When I asked God to provide for me I had a sense that this was the prayer God wanted me to pray and it was the one he intended to answer but before that I had to take what God had given to fulfill his purpose and sacrifice it.

I believe God delights to show Himself strong to those who trust Him. I believe He especially likes to answer those who come to Him as a God of grace. {That is, a God who freely gives.} God is no man's debtor and is obligated to no-one yet for those who come to Him acknowledging Him for who he is, God seems to take a special delight. He delights to show Himself strong on behalf of those who trust Him and take Him at his word.

New date pencilled in.

After our initial plans to travel during February were hindred we have been looking at the situation and it looks like we are going at the end of June and staying there into July. This isn't confirmed yet but things are calming down over there following the post election violence.

I just want to get out there. As a child I tried to ignore christmas until a week before the 25th for the simple reason that it was easier to wait that way. I'd go tommorow if I could. {Still, only four months to go....four..long..boring...months!!!}.

I will post a message as soon as the dates are confirmed as well as giving you all an idea of what we will be doing over there. I'm planning to get to an internet cafe during the mission so while in Nairobi I can give people back home a daily report on what is happening.

God bless you...steve

God uses all things for good?

It was just after christmas and I had been laid low with a cold. Normally I just shrug these things off but this took me out. I was in bed nearly all day {I'm pretty stubborn and hate conceding defeat!}. During that day Erwin phoned me to arrange to meet to book the tickets to Kenya. I put him off for the time being. Later that evening I got out of bed and put the radio on to the news that violence had erupted in Kenya. We were due to go out in February. That was now rendered impossible. Typical of me I would have gone right ahead and booked that ticket even if God was trying to prompt me to do otherwise. While at the time I was feeling pretty miserable I look back at it now and wonder if it was divine providence. Without that cold I could have lost the money.

God's provision

It was a number of months ago now that Erwin approached me in church and asked if I would accompany him and his wife to Kenya to minister in a church there. After initially saying I would pray about it I said yes {I jumped at the chance}. Nevertheless I needed to know for sure that this is what God was calling me to. I didn't have the money for the flight and so I asked God to either open the door for me or clearly close it. I aksed God to make a way financially for me to go or make it impossible. That was on the friday evening. The following monday I recieved a phone call which resulted in the money being put into my account by friday of that week.

To be honest I didn't expect God to answer that quickly but he knows what we have need of before we even ask. This has been a great assurance and encouragement to me. If God can do this then what else does he have in store for us when we are there?