Home At Last

Thursday night, the team that went to Migori, Kenya from Titusville returned home. Because of lack of internet access I was not able to provide an update about our trip since the Monday, 14th of April.

Pastors Conference
Tuesday the 15th, the Pastors Conference at the Suna Mission Church was begun in the afternoon. Because most attendees were from the Luo tribe, translation was done from English into Luo (not Swahili). I began my sessions on insights into the worth of God taken from the Lord's Prayer. Phil Taylor began his sessions on the worth of Jesus. As the week progressed more and more pastors and ministry workers were able to attend. When we finished on Friday, there were more than 200 in attendance. Probably the one thing that impacted me the most, was their reverence for the "word of God" and the men of God who preached His word. They were very grateful to receive fresh insights into who God is, and His heart for them and the world.

MSOMI Academy
Throughout the week, the rest of the team (Josiah, Matthew, Allison, Kelly and Brandon) invested their time with the children at the academy/orphanage. There are about 150 kids, 50 of which are orphans (6 because of parents killed during the recent political crisis, most from parents who died of AIDS). The rest come from single parent homes where the parent is too sick and/or too poor to provide for the children, or have both parents and are too poor to provide for their children. Eighty percent of the people of Migori are unemployed, and the many of those who have some type of job, get paid very little and are desperately poor.

Thomas is one of the children whose parents were killed in the recent political turmoil.

Each day the team had an hour or so teaching a Bible lesson through skits and puppet shows for all the kids, they attended some of the kids' classes and in the afternoon they played with the kids with kites, jump rope, blowing bubbles, playing soccer, frisbee and kickball. On the last Saturday, additional kids from the community came for "World Changers Day" where all of us helped with teaching, showing part of the children's Jesus Video, a Bible study, Bible lessons, and playing different games. At the end of the day together, we gave sodas to all the kids (many of the kids from the orphanage had never had a soda in their lives).

Currently, the academy is looking for people to sponsor children at the academy. I have papers on almost 50 children for whom the ministry is trusting God daily for provision. To sponsor a child through the Migori Worship Center is only $35 a month which helps to cover some of the daily expenses for the kids (including food, clothing, school materials, etc.) If you are interested in sponsoring a child, you can contact me for more information.

Migori Worship Center
On our first Sunday our team met with the leadership team for the Migori Worship Center. There were around seventy people who represented leadership from their 14 church plants, the school/orphanage administration, the Bible School leadership, the pastoral leadership, the praise and worship leadership, and the women's leadership.

On the following Sunday, Phil was able to preach at the Migori Worship Center, and then he and I traveled to and preached at two separate church plants (Phil to Ragana, and I to Stella/the Cannan Worship Center).


These are some of the people from the Cannan Worship Centre, a recent church plant 10 months old and about 9 km away from Migori. (Before the church was planted, some people were walking 15 km to church. Now they only have to walk 5 or 6 km.) They have a small fellowship of about 15 to 20 people. They are currently trusting God for provision for materials and labor for a church to be built on a tract of land recently donated to them. They are also praying for musical instruments for their worship team, and a PA system. They have a heart to see the people in the Stella area won to Jesus.

We are in Migori

Saturday we traveled to Migori. What an experience! I thought the roads in PA were bad. But these are crazy. We arrived in Migori around 9pm. No way to communicate unless we go in town to an internet shop (dialup on their computers). We are trying to get a pay as you go phone to work that we purchased so we can call home a little, but it isn't working yet.

Sunday we had a wonderful time of sharing with the youth and children for Sunday School. Matt worked with Kelly with a younger class, Josiah helped me with the high school class. Phil taught 4-5-6 graders and Alison and Brandon taught another younger class. After some worship I taught for a half hour or so during thier "Bible Exposition" and Phil preached in their main service. In the afternoon we met with their leadership of about 70 people, and were entertained by the orphan children singing, dancing and a monologue. I will post pictures when I get home.

Monday (today) we traveled to Bishop Okinda High School (built on property donated by Pastor John Okinda). Josiah, Matt and Brandon got to play soccer with their team. It was a blast! The Migori church has a church branch that meets their at the school and we met briefly with their leaders.

There is so much need here for sponsors for the orphans, and for high school students who live at the ministry school, it costs more than $35 per month per child for their needs. Churches here are in need of pastoral training, discipleship, instruments for worship, and new buildings.

We are doing well, eating rice, chicken, spaghetti, ugali, some beef, french fries, potatoes, collard greens, pancakes and french toast. We are staying pretty healthy.

Josiah and Matt are enjoying the kids. They are working with them right now, and will work with them all week, with a big gathering on Saturday with several hundred kids.

Phil and I are looking forward to the Pastor's Conference starting tomorrow (Tuesday) and goes until Friday. Many pastors are coming from many kilometers away.

Blessings to all,
David

Nairobi

Hi everyone,

We arrived in Nairobi after missing our connection in Detroit, but getting the next one to Amsterdam (we were all separated for that 8 hour flight) that got us to our connection to Nairobi with very little time to spare. All in all it was an okay flight, just long and uncomfortable. We arrived in Nairobi around 7:15p.m. Nairobi time which is 12:15p.m. at home. We lost three pieces of luggage, Phil's personal stuff, and some gifts for the orphanage. But we are trusting we can pick them up in the morning.

And thankfully, we found that the trip to Migori is only about 7 hours. We are all well but tired. Thanks for your prayers, don't know when I will be back online.

Love you all,
David

Kenya Team 2008

This is the team going to Kenya this month. Please pray for us. Phil and I will be sharing with Kenyan pastors at a pastors conference. Josiah, Matt, Kelly, Brandon, and Alison will be working with 170 kids in the orphanage.

You can join this group in facebook by clicking on the title above this post.

There is no Absolute Truth

Truth is relative. We all create our own truth. All religions are equally valid.

Theses are the much heralded platitudes of society today. In the age of tolerance and political correctness, those who don't hold these views are considered biased, bigoted, hateful, intolerant, etc.

Hmmm... Can anyone see the irony here?

Who Says?
I wonder: "Who says? Who says there is no absolute truth? Who says we all create our own truth?"

And where did they get the idea from? Was there any research done before people started with these remarks? Maybe someone who didn't like the idea of absolute truth, decided one day to believe that truth is relative. How convenient.

And the masses followed.

Proof?
Is there any proof that truth is relative? No. This is a just philosophical belief. Not a proven axiom of life.

Getting back to the irony, Frank Peretti addresses the point of tension in statements like "there is no absolute truth". To say there is no absolute truth, is to say that the statement itself is not absolute.

Ravi Zacharias says that statement includes itself or excludes itself. If the statement includes itself, then that idea itself is not absolutely true. If it excludes itself, then it is an absolute truth, and therefore contradicts itself. Mind-bending.

So who duped us? And why are we so easily duped?

Majority Rules
I actually had someone tell me what their ethics professor taught: "if the majority believes something is morally acceptable, then it is morally acceptable." How many people today actually have swallowed this stuff -- hook, line, and sinker?

Okay, then. Let's just chuck our brains out the window. Is Mr. Ethics Professor telling us that if 10 guys decide it is okay to rape one woman, that it is morally acceptable? Oh please... I can almost hear the professor say, "No, actually it is wrong because the majority of society thinks it is wrong." So what if the majority of a society decided it was right? Where is the logic here?

The reason they shouldn't rape the woman is based on her intrinsic worth as a human being, not because of some subjective, changing mood of the masses.

You caught me there... I guess I am assuming that the worth of individuals is an absolute.

One of My Favorite Worship Songs

Of course this is my opinion, but I love this song: Hosanna by Paul Baloche. You can listen to it at the Leadworship website. Here are the lyrics:

Praise is rising, eyes are turning to You, we turn to You
Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for You, we long for You
'Cause when we see You, we find strength to face the day
In Your Presence all our fears are washed away, washed away

Hosanna, hosanna
You are the God Who saves us, worthy of all our praises
Hosanna, hosanna
Come have Your way among us
We welcome You here, Lord Jesus

Hear the sound of hearts returning to You, we turn to You
In Your Kingdom broken lives are made new, You make us new
'Cause when we see You, we find strength to face the day
In Your Presence all our fears are washed away, washed away

Hosanna, hosanna
You are the God Who saves us, worthy of all our praises
Hosanna, hosanna
Come have Your way among us
We welcome You here, Lord Jesus