Pauline Baptist Church

September 3

      We spent Thursday with brother Eddie Williams who is back in country. We had a good time eating together and catching up a little. We headed to the airport in the evening to make our way to Greece for the Cross Cultural International Missionary Retreat.

September 4-11

      We had an amazing time in Greece with all the other missionaries! I cannot describe in words what this trip meant to our family, especially our children. We had great classes with discussions in the mornings, fellowship and leisure time in the afternoons, and great revival services in the evening. The kids had VBS classes during our class and discussion time put on by ladies from Faith Baptist Church North Little Rock. Josiah has said several times how it was the best trip he has ever been on and he is already counting down to next year.

      We all connected with old friends and made some new ones at the retreat. There is nothing like this opportunity! Some at the retreat that have been coming for many years described it as a family reunion. We understand what they mean now and are proud to be part of this missionary family. We appreciate Lynn and Brenda Rayburn for all they did to organize the seminar and their team. Jack and Pat did an awesome job with accommodations, Shawn did a great job with the music, and our kids are still singing the VBS songs they learned from the Faith North Little Rock ladies. Good times! We also are so grateful to the Magnolia Springs MBC, Theodore, AL and our sending church Pauline BC for providing all the funds for us to attend the Retreat. A-W-E-S-O-M-E is the only thing I can say to describe it all.

      I must stress how great this time was for our family. It is hard for us to connect totally with people here on the field and for that matter folks at home who have not experienced the things we have. I praise God for all the families and their sweet fellowship at the retreat. Indeed we have returned refreshed and encouraged.

      While at the retreat we got the chance to visit Mars hill where Paul preached in Acts 17 and the ancient city of Corinth to see where Paul preached about the BEMA seat. It was so neat to see these places we preach about and read about. The kids thought it was cool. Sometimes the places we read about in the Bible seem so distant, especially to kids, but to get this chance to see things with our own eyes was such a treat.

September 12

      WE made the 10 hour trip back to Malindi unpacked and crashed.

September 13

      We had great services on Sunday with two first time visitors. Things went great in our absence as if we had never left. I like that! Everyone is doing well and Moses did great while we were gone taking care of the people and making visits. He updated me on everything before services. Juma was in Mazeras and had a good Bible study there with 15 adults and 23 kids in attendance. I have yet to speak with Daniel in Mangangani or William in Singuaya but I will talk to them later in the week.

      Kenya had a killer head ache on Sunday but managed to teach her class and make it through services. She spent the rest of the day in bed trying to shake the head ache. The kids and I had a nice day just playing until time for our evening services. I preached for the kids after we sang some songs. After the service Josiah said, "that was awesome". I am not sure if it was because it was short of if he got the message but either way I like to hear that after a service from my kids.

September 14-15

      Monday and Tuesday have been office days and time for catch up on reports and general office work. I spent a lot of Monday working on our monthly report for last month. When I finished it was so awesome to look at the report and say, "oh yeah we did do that!" God has done and is doing so many amazing things all around us! I also worked on our old computer quite a bit, it is limping along I fear that a reinstall may be in order but thankfully we were able to recover some work that Gertrude had done on the computer. Now we will keep everything on flash drives and the computer both.   

      There are about 1000 things I want to do and need to do so pray for the Lord's leadership. We need to get started on more Bible Institute classes so the men that God has brought can be trained. There is a lot of work that we could do but we must work together to accomplish it. I have said it many times but we could use more missionaries here on the coast. There are many un-reached areas and peoples. I am grateful to the Lord for the men and the church here in Malindi who have a heart to reach out and see people saved. Pray pray pray for more to surrender to God and his calling to reach the lost!!!  How about you? Sorry, just a thought?