Missions Blog

We were all thankful to get a good night’s sleep after our long journey and woke up refreshed for our first full day of ministry in Kenya.

From 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., our team participated in three church services at AIC Zion. It was a blessing to worship alongside our Kenyan brothers and sisters in Christ. Matt Gilbert and George Adams each had the opportunity to preach God’s Word, and we’re grateful that the message of the Gospel was shared with so many throughout the morning.

After lunch, we continued to push through the last of our jet lag and traveled to the Mathare community for an outdoor evangelistic event known as a “Crusade.” Joined by the church’s choir and dance team, we spent nearly three hours singing, worshiping, and sharing the hope of Christ with the community.

Several members of our team—Dawn, Caleb, Seth, and Matthew—were given the opportunity to share their personal testimonies over the microphone with the large crowd that had gathered. It was encouraging to see so many people stop, listen, and hear how God has worked in their lives.

We returned home around 6:45 p.m., tired, but thankful for a full day of ministry. Tonight, we’ll get some much-needed rest as we prepare for tomorrow, where we’ll spend our first day with the students at AIC Zion School.

Thank you for continuing to pray for our team. We ask that you pray for strength, open hearts, and that God would continue to use us to share His love throughout the week.

After two days of travel, our team safely arrived in Nairobi around 11:00 a.m. local time. Our 14-hour flight from New York City went smoothly, and we’re thankful that everyone—and all of our luggage—made it without any issues.

After settling into our Airbnb, we fought the temptation to nap so we could adjust to the new time zone. Instead, we visited Kobe Tough, an organization that empowers single mothers and Maasai women by providing meaningful employment creating beautiful handcrafted jewelry and leather goods. They make beaded necklaces, bracelets, leather belts, purses, and other items that help support their families.

We had the opportunity to tour their entire production process, from start to finish, and were welcomed with a joyful song and dance that made us feel right at home. It was an inspiring reminder of how God can use work, community, and compassion to create hope and opportunity.

We’re all feeling the effects of a long travel day, but we’re grateful to be here and excited for what God has in store. Tomorrow we’ll be worshiping with the congregation at AIC Zion, where our team will lead the church service and teach Sunday school classes.

Thank you for your continued prayers as we begin this week of ministry. We look forward to sharing more updates with you in the days ahead!

The Lord gave us a really great house to stay in this year. One that is so much closer to Cabanillas than the small hotel we stayed in last year. And it has a pool so we were able to bless the Alvarez family with a relaxing lunch and swimming on Tuesday. Today was our chance to bless Fede and Lucia's ministry partners, Chris and Rose and their two kids, Suzanna and Austin, to the same relaxing day today. But because we were so caught up in being "present" with them, just like Tuesday, we forgot to take any pictures. 

It was a great time of fellowship and getting to know them. These couples are at the end of two weeks of back-to-back camps and are running short of energy. So we shared our air conditioning with them. Hosted them with a delicious home-grilled meal. And offered them a relaxing time in the pool. All of these things are real treats for families who live in small apartments with no outdoor space.

Ken gave the talk tonight on the fourth "I AM" statement-I AM the Good Shepherd. He did a great job! At Cabanillas church the youth are powerfully fed the Word of God. Each night the message has been 30 minutes long, full of biblical truth and the kids listen without even moving a muscle. 

Then it was off to another local park to teach the kids baseball. Most of them had never really played it but as the night went on, they really started to improve.

And, of course, a good game of baseball always draws a crowd.

Just as the sun was setting around 10:00 pm, Cheryl gave her testimony in Spanish.

It was a great day! One more day of camp tomorrow.