Pauline Baptist Church

Week of July 6-12

Ok so I am cheating a little this week with the update and giving you a week all in one entry. This week has been an extremely busy week but our focus has been preparation for the group that is coming from our sending church, Pauline Baptist Church. There are five members of Pauline coming to be with us and we have been working diligently, setting up appointments and making plans for their visit. Silas, Moses, Gertrude, Kenya, and I have been working hard on folding, stapling, and printing tracts and books for distribution and use in our outreach efforts. We also had to make some visits to some schools to talk about us handing out tracts and donating some Soccer balls.

Moses, Silas, and I also designed and built a screen frame so we can show the Jesus film in Mazeras and Mangangani while the group is here. Kenya sewed and made the screen for us. When we put it all together it turned out really good. The screen will mount to the front of our Land Rover that we will also use to get power to run the projector and the sound system through an inverter.

We had some technical difficulties this week with the copy machine going down and my old computer still not being fixed. The copy machine has done a lot of work but we have had to put work into it also. Our old computer is still in Nairobi being repaired. We have been using it for the kids, Kenya, and Gertrude. The kids use it for playing games, Kenya uses it for email and homeschool, and Gertrude uses it for translating. Needless to say we are missing the old machine. Hopefully they will get it fixed by next week.

Kenya has the house pretty well ready to go for the guests. She stocked up on some food items and we have shuffled the kids into our room so we can use their rooms as hotel rooms. We are so excited that everyone is staying with us! We had to do some modifications on the kids' beds to get them adult ready but it is all ready now. We could have put the group in a hotel near by but with the group being smaller it made since to stay together plus we love guests! The kids are super excited and the Lord has blessed us with a house that has plenty of room to accommodate everyone.

Moses, Silas and I also worked on getting camping gear together for the group and making sure we have all that we need to stay in the village one night. We have a roof rack being made in Mombasa and should be ready the first of the week. I also am having a hitch welded on the back of the Defender(Land Rover) so we can put a rack on the back also.

We also had some great breakthroughs this week in the midst of the preparation work.

During our Bible study we got a call from Salim in Mazeras letting us know they met for the first time and had 8 attend the meeting. They prayed and started reading through the doctrinal lessons that we left for them to study. What a huge step of obedience and desire on the part of the believers in Mazeras and for Salim. I am praying for Salim that God will continue to groom him and grow him as a leader both mentally and especially spiritually!

After Bible study Silas and I went to Gertrude's place to greet her husband Jeff (who we have been praying for) and to carry out a small generator for them to use. We visited with Jeff for a couple hours and had dinner with him. He really opened up about spiritual things which is a first! We usually just chit chat and he says he will be coming to church and that is it but this visit he shared about his spiritual pursuits. He said that his folks are staunch Seventh Day Adventists but that when he got old enough he stopped going to that church because of all the rules and regulations that he did not understand why they followed them. He said that he has been a part of seven or eight churches but never found the one for him. He said they all had rules and ways you had to be but that most of it was just denominational or religious "administration". He said he knew God was there, the Bible is his Word, and he had some issues in his life to work out. It was awesome for him to open up and share. I did not talk a lot but listened mostly and prayed. He said that he appreciated me not giving up on him and coming by from time to time. Please pray for Jeff! I hope that as we continue to build our relationship that he will allow me to open the Bible along side him so he can see the truth from God not from all the religion that he has seen. The conversation with Jeff may seem small but it was huge and a step forward in reaching him. He said in our conversation that he was a Christian in our conversation and I asked him if he had ever accepted Christ as his Saviour. He said he did that once a long time ago. I did not push in to find out the details but pray that God will give us another chance soon to talk more.

I talked to Gertrude on Friday and she said that she was amazed that he opened up like he did. She knew about when he went forward in a meeting but she said that the pastor asked all those who were not saved to stand up and Jeff stood up. Then they had all those who stood up come to the front and the pastor led in a "repeat after me" prayer of salvation. Jeff told Gertrude later that he was just being honest, that he was not saved but that he just did what they told him. To her he has never made a personal decision to accept Christ especially since he never went back after that service. He was coerced again like when he was a child to do a religious thing. Jeff is a thinker and the Lord is working on him.

Saturday Kenya had her ladies meeting and Silas went out on visitation with the men at the church. I stayed home with Samuel and Sarah because they had fever and were not feeling well at all. Kenya said the Bible study went great and Silas had a good time on visitation.

Sunday was a great day of ministry break through also.

Moses and Silas went to Mangangani to do some teaching and preaching. Moses was finishing the doctrinal studies that we did last week and Silas was preaching the morning message. After everything was done Brother Mbuvi asked how many were ready to receive scriptural baptism and they had five that are ready to go! Two of the older men were not present that are leaders in this group. We still need to see where they are in everything but I think they are on board also. One man's grandmother passed away and the other was out of town working but we will continue to work with them. Lord willing we will baptize in Mangangani next month and start a church there. We will be showing the Jesus film there next week in hopes of helping identify the group that is meeting there and announce the opening of the church. Silas has really enjoyed seeing the Lord work and be a part of it at various stages.

At First Landmark Baptist Malindi, Ricklynn taught Sunday School and I preached. Ricklynn did a great job! He a gifted teacher and really prepares for his lessons. The Lord is growing Ricklynn in several areas of his life and I am loving watching it! I have given him some lessons to study and to start presenting on Thursday evenings when I finish First John. He is really excited.

Gertrude taught the children's Sunday School class because Kenya had to stay home with Samuel and Sarah. She did a good job with the kids and is always willing to jump in when she is needed. We had five first time visitors in our worship service. Two were results of our visitation we do on Saturdays! It is so good to see all the young men in our services. The men out number the ladies right now in the church which is very unusual for Malindi, where most churches are 80% women. Joseph, Ajabu, and John all had spoke to me earlier in the week about baptism and they all will be baptized next week! In my message I spoke about knowing what God wants and then just doing it. During the invitation we had three men come forward. Jared who has been visiting with us for a while and has been talking with me about membership came forward to join the church and we received him. Jackson one of our visitors came forward and said that he had been saved a few months ago but came forward to follow the lord in baptism. Another visitor Harrison came forward about joining the church. I told him I would visit him this week and gave him some material about our church and Baptism. After the services I visited with Harrison and Jackson about their decisions and scheduled to visit with them this week. It was an awesome service!

In the afternoon Moses, Silas and I met about how it went in Mangangani. Silas and I went to Bible study at the church at 5:00pm until 6 then we came home and listened to brother Chad with the family. Sunday was an intense day!!

James Taylor

East Kenya Missions