Pauline Baptist Church

Moses and I had Class on Tuesday without Juma. He had stayed up very late getting things ready to sell in his kibanda (small shop that sells snacks). Moses and I continued on with our class. It was a rainy day so we worked in the office most of the day. Silas was still not quite 100% but did come out to the office in the afternoon to help with some planning. I had some good time in the scriptures before turning my attention on some planning issues. I was able to get a rough schedule together for the next three months.

Moses and I spent some time talking about the church. I told him I thought we needed a day to just fellowship together. The last time we had a fellowship was back during Christmas before we even started the church. He agreed that it had been too long. I really feel that we have lost our momentum and need to get together so we can regain our momentum. We will have a special day on July 5. I plan to preach on unity in the church, then we will stay after church and cook food together and eat. In the afternoon Moses will preach another message on unity and being a church family. I told Moses I was not sure if our people could bring much since work is so slow and money is short so we could ask the church to use some of its funds to help if needed. We put a budget of what we would need together and decided to present it all on Sunday to see what everyone thought.

Silas joined Moses and I and I went over the plan for the next few months including the time that we will be having visitors from the states. We have four coming from our sending church in July and our good friends from Indiana will be coming with their family the end of July and beginning of August. We went over the plans and talked out some details. It was a good time to get the big picture. Silas and I talked a little more and he shared something with me that the Lord laid on his heart concerning Bible covers. He noticed that everyone who had Bibles was using a plastic bag or newspaper to cover it to protect it. He asked about putting covers on the Bibles, what the cost would be, and if it would be a good idea. I told him that was an excellent idea. And we would look into the expense here and see if we thought it would be better to have someone bring them from the states or if we could make or buy them here.

In the afternoon Moses, Silas, and I made a trash run and passed by Telekom Kenya to buy some internet credit. While there I bought another modem that is suppose to be faster and looked into their packages on Internet. They are starting to get some options in Malindi for some other internet services. I hope soon we will have a good connection but for now we upgraded a little.

6/17/09

A technician from Mombasa came first thing in the morning and maintainanced our copy machine and gave it a good cleaning. He worked on it all morning even until after lunch. I had Moses run to town to check on prices of Bible covers and availability of material that we might could have them made. He found out that we could have them made for 150/= ($2.00) and the material was available if we wanted to make them ourselves. I talked to Silas about the cost and we agreed that we should get them here. Silas talked with his parents and another church he used to attend about making the Bible covers a project. We also talked about asking Godfry to make the covers with his sewing machine. It would give him work and us the Bible covers. The only question was if he could do it and if it would be worth it to him after we bought the material. We found a man who already does this work in town and makes them for 150/= so the question was can we do it for the same price and Godfry make a decent profit after the cost of material.

Once the copy machine guy finished I put the machine to work cranking out some Bible studies, tracts, and books. Unfortunately we had a computer crash while I was going to have Silas do some document scanning. I will have to send the computer to Nairobi for repairs. Thank the Lord we got the new computer when we did! While I was running some books and things we also edited some of the others.

Moses and I went to visit Favor at about 5:30pm. It was a really good visit about several things. I did not know what we were getting into when we had our visit but we were able to work through several things I think. We did not leave Favors until after 10:00pm. It was a late night but a good visit. Pray for Favor that the Lord will help her heal from some hurts that she has inside. I pray the Lord will help us as we minister to her.

6/18/09

Thursday Godfry stopped by and we spoke to him about the Bible Covers and showed him a sample of what one looked like. He said he would try to make them and bring us a sample to Bible study in the evening. I told him we would rather pay him to make them rather than someone we did not know. He was excited about the work. He and Moses went to town to pick up the materials to get started. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining. It was nice because it had rained all week so far. Silas seemed to be feeling better so that was a blessing. I thought it would be great for us to all head to the beach for the day and just have a fun day. So we took off and were on the beach by 11:00am. We had a lot of fun. The highlight was the sand castle that we built, although the waves came in a close second.

I think it was good for all of us to take the day off and gave Silas a chance to see the beach and the ocean. We ate lunch at Chariba and went back to the house. I prepared for Bible study and then we went to Bible Study. We are continuing to work our way through 1 John. When I finish with 1 John I have asked Ricklynn to pray about teaching a series of lessons. He did a great job filling in for us while Moses and I were in Mazeras. Kenya said he was really comfortable and when Moses and I spoke to him about it you could see how excited he was. We will see what the Lord does.

Bible study was good and we had a good discussion afterwards.

6/19/09

Friday morning we continued to run books. Then Ricklynn, Moses, and I made a trip to Temboni and Kilifi. Silas stayed at he house in Malindi and worked on folding and stapling books and tracts. When we reached Temboni Mbuvi was not there but we found his wife. We made a plan to return next week to visit with them and discuss how things were going and how we could help. Mbuvi's daughter was making some Makuti for the roof that the folks in Mangangani are trying to put up. They were lacking some Makuti for their roof and are trying collect the remaining amount. It was a good visit with Mbuvi's wife.

After we left Temboni we went to Kilifi to see Benard Mutanyi. He returned from Western Kenya where he buried his daughter. His daughter was killed by a fellow student in class. His daughter was 11 and the boy who killed her was 14. They were arguing over a book. The teacher was not in the class during the incident and the children themselves took the girl to the hospital but she was dead when they arrived. The whole situation just makes you sick to think of. The school has tried to lie and say it all happened during a break but the students said it was during their English class and there was no teacher in the class. Benard said everything went well with the burial. Moses and I had sent some money to help Benard with everything.

He said that since it was a murder they had to do an autopsy on the body and he had to be present for it. He described in detail how they cut his little girl open in front of him and even removed her skull to check for head injury to determine cause of death. After discring it all to us Benard said that, "we are nothing but chickens." I was sitting there in horror thinking about being subjected to that. The cause of death was determined to be a crack in her liver. When the two started fighting Benard's daughter fell to the ground and the boy basically kicked her to death.

My heart broke for him and even now it aches as I type this. Benard was doing good and he said his wife was well. The case is continuing on with the police and everything, but Benard had to return to Kilifi for work. We all four walked down to The Blue Star restaurant and had lunch together. It was good to just be with Benard. When we went back to his place we talked a little more and he started talking about working there in the area and witnessing. I told him that we would help in any way and encouraged him to start a Bible study to see what the Lord does. I told him our purpose for coming was not to talk about work but was to see how he was and encourage him. His response rings in my ears even now, "for sure I have brothers here". We finished our visit and headed back to Malindi. It was a great visit and I was glad that Ricklynn was able to join Moses and I.

Friday night is still family night at our house. We had pizza and watched movies it was great. Of course all the children piled into our room to sleep. It was a good close to the day.

6/20/09

When we got up Saturday Silas said he had been dog sick all night. He stayed in bed while I went for visitation. Godfry and Moses met me at the church and we made plans for who all we would visit and we prayed and parted ways. At first I was disappointed in our turn out for visitation but then I got to thinking about it and the privilege of serving the Lord and decided I would not let Satan take my joy away in service. I went back to the house and Lydia said that she wanted to go with me so Lydia was my visitation partner and we headed out.

We stopped and invite the man who works next door to us. He told us where he lives, which is outside of town, and we told him he was always welcome. Then we passed by and visited the man who makes baskets everyday at the corner of the road. His name is Paul and he had a friend visiting him named Collins. He lives really close to us and we see him almost everyday. I have spoke to Paul before but really in passing. With our visitation we are focusing on people in our circle of influence and I determined that all my neighbors were my starting point. Anyhow it was a good visit with Paul and Collins. Collins asked several questions about the scriptures and we had a good talk. While I was talking to them one of Josiah and Abigail's Judo teachers passed by and greeted me and said that he had moved close by. I invited him to services also and told him that I would love to come by and see him sometime.

After we left Paul's, Lydia and I went to Alfonse's new place and visited with he and Mapenzi. We had a good visit also. Alfonse took Lydia and I to visit Wilson who used to come to the church but has not been for awhile. When we reached his place he was not home but his oldest son was so we greeted him and prayed for him because he was sick. When we left Wilson's place we went to Titus' house and visited with Titus and his wife it was a great visit. I hope that some day soon Titus' wife will come and visit us. Titus said that he would try to come soon. We encouraged him to get himself back in good relationship with the Lord.

After visiting with Titus and his family we went back to Alfonse's and Lydia and I had some Tea and bread. Then we went back to the house. Lydia did so good and I enjoyed having her with me. When we got to the house I checked in to see if Silas was any better but he was out cold in his bed. I went out to the office and folded and stapled some books while I checked my emai. When Silas did wake up he just asked for a drink and went back to sleep.

He was out for the remainder of the night.

6/21/09

Sunday Silas was still out when we left for church. I woke him and told him we were leaving and if he felt up to it to come on up to the church for services. Sunday services went good. We were a little down in attendance but we had a good service. I preached on boldness and God opening the door for us to preach in Malindi and giving us boldness to go through the open door. Even with our low attendance it was a great day. After services we talked about doing the special day in July and everyone was excited. To my surprise everyone signed up for all the food and sodas except the chickens. It was awesome! I really think we need this day to gain momentum again. I spoke to everyone about needing to do some cleaning work on the plot and fixing up our entrance to the church. We decided to meet on Monday to do all the work around the church to make it more presentable and make our presence known. I had the chance to talk to Jarred who has been visiting us and he wants to join the church. He seems to be a good chap and it will be good to have him.

We had lunch in town and Silas joined us for lunch. He said he had felt horrible the past few days but felt a little better. It was good to see him vertical again. After lunch we went back to the house and relaxed a little. In the evening we had Bible study and then listened to brother Chad preach.

6/22/09

We went down to the plot at about 9 to start working. It was great! Almost everyone came from the church and we worked all day and really made a huge difference on our plot. It was great to see everyone working side by side and having a good time. When the day was finished it was amazing the difference our efforts made. We were dirty and tired when we returned home but it felt good to have spent the day working together.

William Nge stopped in and visited as well as Johnathan. It was good to see them and talk them about a few things. Pray for William I hope that soon we will be baptizing him and he will join the church.