Saturday, February 2, 2019

FEBRUARY- MARCH PRAYER LETTER


WORK PERMIT RENEWED
God recently answered a huge prayer request regarding the renewal of our Kenyan work permit.  For a myriad of reasons some that have been seeking a missionary work permit have been seeing their request delayed for long periods of time.  One of our co-workers has been waiting for over a year to have his permit renewed.  Without the proper missionary permit it would cause much of what we are doing to grind to a halt.  Our visas and permits that allow us to work in Congo and Burundi are directly tied to having a valid missionary permit from Kenya.  My last permit was delayed for six months and the governments of Congo and Burundi refused to allow me to enter their countries during that time.   I applied for our new permit early January and amazingly I received word exactly two weeks later that I had been approved for another three year missionary work permit!  Thank you for your prayers!

MISSIONS GIVING
Grace Bible Baptist Church gave $28,050 to missions this last year of 2018.  This was the most they have given in a year to missions.  It is amazing to see the love, sacrifice and willingness of the people to give in order for them to do their part to reach the world with the gospel.  We are fortunate to be able to partner in our ministries here in Kenya and the Regions Beyond with such a great church!

SHAME ON THE DEVIL
We had two difficult events happen to us in the last ten days.  We have no doubt that Satan is fighting and trying to discourage us.  Earlier in January I was spending some time in the churches in Congo and Burundi while Wendy and Elizabeth were here in Kenya.  On Sunday evening, the 17th of January, I received a text message that Wendy and Elizabeth had been in a terrible car accident.  Information was hard to get and I was beside myself with worry. I could not get a flight back to Kenya that night and had to wait until the next morning. Although our vehicle was badly damaged, God miraculously spared them from nothing more than some bumps and bruises.  Looking at the truck it is hard to understand how they were not seriously hurt. Thank you for your prayers!

Because of the accident we are now without a vehicle and have been scrambling to find the necessary transportation to get things done.  Over the last several years we have been slowly saving up money for another vehicle and decided to transfer that money into an account in Kenya so that we could begin the process of buying a car.  Yesterday Wendy and I went to the bank to open an account specifically for that purpose.  I carried with me a substantial amount of money to put into the bank.  Unfortunately due to some paperwork snafu there was a delay in the new account.  Because of some prior commitments I had to leave the bank with the instructions that I would return later in the afternoon to conclude everything.  Unknowingly to me someone that was at the bank saw me with the money and followed me.  They followed me for over an hour until they were able to find a place where they could rob me.  I lost the money along with my passport and other things that I was carrying.  We were able to see much of what happened on CCTV and it was an eerie feeling watching yourself being stalked.  There is much to the story and God surely saved me from a possible terrible situation.  Thank you for your prayers! We need them!  And shame on the devil!