Delayed Dreams Now in View

To me it is so interesting to follow the special working of God in someone's life. Meet Mission:Kenya team member Jean Howison. God's perfect timing is just that.

Jean’s Journey to Kenya, Part 1

I grew up in a home where Jesus Christ was honored.   I accepted Him into my heart and life when I was 7 years old at a vacation Bible school at our church.  When I was fourteen, a missionary, who was on furlough from what was then the Belgian Congo,  spoke at a missions conference I was attending with my family.  He spoke about his work and about the culture of the town in which he was working.  At the end of the conference that night, I felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit.  Right then, I prayed in my heart, “Heavenly Father, if you ever want me to go to Africa to be a missionary, I will go.” When I heard about the missions trip to Kenya, there was no question in my mind that this was, at last, God’s call to use me for His purpose, in Africa.    To make a long story short, 47 years later, here I go!  

ANSWERED PRAYER AND A REQUEST: This time last week I was a mess. I confess I was not wholely trusting the Lord to be Jehovah-jireh. We had received word from our travel agent the cost of plane tickets. I about lost my cookies. So I asked our team to pray as well as anyone else I met who was breathing. Sunday afternoon the Lord nudged me to realize we could fly out of Cincinnati and somehow end up in Niarobi. I emailed those thoughts to our travel agent, and before the afternoon was over she had us set up for flights costing only $150 more than what I paid in 2007.
Please pray for our concert Sunday evening to provide enough money so we can buy the tickets on Tuesday! I originally told our team we would need to have all the money in by June 30th, but with rising fuel costs we must buy them now!

Save the Date: Sunday, March 6th, 6:30 PM!

We are going to enjoy a wonderful evening of Praise and Worship on Sunday, March 6th, at 6:30 PM. There will be a free will offering taken to benefit the Mission:Kenya trip.

Please join us at River Cities Community Church

4385 Route 60 East, Huntington, WV 25705 

Please Pray: 

•  For this to be a fabulous evening of casting a vision for what God can do through this mission trip.
• For people to be generous in giving towards the trip.
• For visiting choirs and individuals as they share their messages through song. There are many details to be considered and worked out.
• For Christ to be lifted up and each of us drawn to Him in a wonderful way.

Meet Garland Bowen

I am thrilled with how God is calling folks to our Mission:Kenya team. I am grateful for what the Lord has done to produce rich spiritual maturity of our team members.

Garland Bowen's testimony has some humor to it. God always has something  for the OTHER person to do! 

After retiring from the world of being a machinist for Special Metals, Garland has  more free time to be available for the Lord's work. He and Marilyn have been married 34 years. He is a father of two adult daughters, and granddad to 7 grandchildren. 

MY CALL TO KENYA

When I first heard abut the mission trip to Into Abbas Arms Orphanage, in Kenya, I suggested to my wife that this might be something she would be interested in. I attended the first informational meeting to obtain information for my wife, Marilyn, because she was unable to attend.  At this meeting I became aware that God was speaking to ME about becoming part of this group.

No matter what obstacle I felt would prevent me from going, God has made a way around that obstacle.

God  has set my heart steadfast toward Kenya, not because of my abilities or worthiness, but because He chose me and because of my willingness to allow God to work through me in any way He determines. It is because of His Amazing Grace that He has accepted me and chosen me to serve Him in this ministry.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!  

      

 Please pray for the financial support of each of our teammates. Jehovah-jireh, God is our provider!



A Word from Dave

Beth asked me to share with you how God gave me the call to go to Into Abba’s Arms Orphanage in Kenya this year.  I would sum it up with one word: PRAYER

From 2006 to October of 2010, God had convinced me that the best way I could help orphans and widows overseas would be to send His money to other nations.  This would be the most economical and effective way to fulfill James 1:27 in other countries– “The religion that God our Father accepts as pure and holy is this, to watch after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Beth has been praying about a return trip to Kenya since her 2007 trip she took with Kemble.  In October of 2010 God spoke to my heart one day as I was praying and I knew without a doubt that God had give me the assignment to make the 2011 August trip. 

God mainly convinced me that to develop a personal relationship with these folks would give one additional way to help them know and walk with Jesus.  Also, we sponsor a 13 year old named Simon at Into Abba's Arms, who has been praying for over 3 years that I would come and visit him.  With these confirmations, I am looking forward to continue serving the Lord during our preparation time as well as our time at the Into Abba’s Arms orphanage. 

As you think of us, please pray that we will “be on board” with God’s plans for our trip.  Thanks so much.

Additional thoughts from Beth: Overseas Missionary Fellowship has some great pamphlets on how to pray. One in particular is entitiled, "Why and How to Pray for Missionaries" written by Dr. Will Bruce. An opening statement caught my attention. "THE MISSIONARY IS INVADING ENEMY TERRITORY." That woke me up to the reality of why some of our team mates are having particular challenges! Would you pray a "hedge of protection" around each of our team members? (Job 1:10) How about praying for the Lord's armor to be applied to each of them? (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Dear Elders

It is a privilege to be in a congregation of believers. For our trip to Kenya to be a team representing River Cities Community Church we needed the approval of our elders. While leadership comes naturally for some of us, life often works best when we choose to work under the authority of others. Time had come for me to write a proposal for their approval.

Woven into the letter were the confirmations of God's directing us to have a trip as well as a list of goals. The current goals include:

1. Vacation Bible School for all ages.
2. Development of curriculum for the Sunday morning worship for the orphanage and community children.
3. Development of curriculum for Saturday afternoon Bible class for the Into Abba's Arms family.
4. Resourcing the on site nursery school that serves the community as well.

Would you pray for us as we work on the steps to reaching those goals? We have a great bunch of talented people comprising our team, but we still need the Holy Spirit's leadership as we work on the particulars. It is not by might, nor by power, nor by good looks but by the Spirit of the Lord that this will be accomplished according to Zechariah 4:6. We want His creativity, fun and depth in the lessons in a manner that is appropriate for the Kenyan culture.

The chapel at IAA attracts anywhere from 80 to 150 children each week. Some walk quite a distance. They tend to be quite poor, so we will include lunch of  beans and rice each day. 

We want to give them the "How To's of Growing in Christ" using the Navigator Wheel as an outline for the week. Maybe we should call the week's Vacation Bible School "Rolling with Jesus".

Submit your ideas for naming the VBS in the comment section. The person submitting the best name for the VBS will get an Into Abba's Arms tshirt! 

The Phone Call with Donna

According to Chuck Colson back in July, Kenya's proposed consitutional changes could bring Shari'a Law in effect nationally in Kenya. (http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/speakout/entryI/26/14825 provides more information.) I shuddered. The constitution passed. Now we had to pray that the two top officials would never be Muslim.

But we also needed to equip people with the "How To's" of growing in Christ so no matter what took place politically, they would be prepared for the possible persecution. They needed to learn to spiritually feed themselves; enjoy simple spiritual disciplines; and help others do the same. What about our children at Into Abba's Arms and their buddies who worship at our chapel every Sunday?



Auntie Donna and Mum Jane



                                          So who is Donna?

Donna Campbell is an American who lives at Into Abba's Arms home for our 30 orphans in Kenya. She was in the United States for a visit with family. I wanted to talk with her regarding the spiritual needs of the orphanage, especially in light of the new constitutional threats. As we conversed she shared how she longed for the kids to experience Vacation Bible School. She just knew that would be such a wonderful ministry to IAA kids as well as community children. THAT DID IT! Why couldn't we do a Vacation Bible School covering "The Wheel" for growing in Christ, a helpful analogy for maturing in Christ?

A mission trip was being conceived! The Lord provided challenge and faith to take on the adventure through the various readings discussed in earlier blogs. Combined with Donna's desires everything converged to say "It is time to pull together a trip and see who God raises up to be the team."

Oh, yeah, maybe I should share all this with the Elders....

How Do You Know God's Will?

Have certain truths ever slapped you in the face? Or maybe just startled you because you had missed how obvious they were in the first place. When going through Henry Blackaby's work Experiencing God for the first time I was awakened to the stark reality I did not need to ask God to show me His will for some big project, I needed to simply look for where God was active and get on board with what He was doing.

This summer amidst doing Radical as an entire church, our Friday Ladies Bible Study was doing the updated version of Experiencing God. Some of us had done it before but we wanted to reexamine the basic truths as presented in the new version. Here the "Seven Realities" Blackaby gives and my thoughts are in red:

1. God is always at work around you. This nice isn't it!
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal. Praise the Lord I am so glad!
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work. This could be fun or maybe make me sweat, or depend on Him more.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways. Of course.
5. God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. Whoa. This sounds frightening. This term "crisis" makes me nervous. And the words "faith and action" are serious.
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing. Now this is where it really can get pretty challenging. The first time I did this study I left one job and began to work in a more faith demanding job. What is He up to now? 
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His will through you. We are now moving from sweet ideas about the will of God to the rigors of doing it. But how amazing that the God of the universe would accomplish His will through me! Humbling. Overwhelming.

And then there was the phone call with Donna.