Eyes on Christ 2014/15

December 27-Jan 4

            Saturday was the arrival of the Fisher Family and Eyes on Christ team in Mombasa. Thankfully everything went well for their flights except a minor delay.  Noah Fisher had a nose bleed so he was treated and asked a few more questions at the Ebola medical scan upon entrance. Thankfully all the luggage made it and everyone was in good spirits. We headed back to Malindi. When we got to the house we found that the dogs had killed a monitor lizard and a baby Puff Adder. Nothing says welcome to Africa like a dead monitor and highly poisonous snake on the compound you are staying in.  

We went straight to work on Saturday once everyone was settled in a little getting things together for the Eyes on Christ clinics. Clayton, John, and I had already started to load things on the Land Rover Friday so all we would have to do is put Julie and Tami Jo’s equipment on and tie it all up.  Sunday we all attended services in Malindi and had a good service then headed out for Mombasa. We dropped Ashley off at the airport along the way so she could  leave to go to France to spend the week with Lauren Wilson and Holly Couch (two other single missionaries) We spent the night at the Miritini Guest house just outside of Mombasa so we would be ready for our first clinic in Midiani on Monday. 

Rather than give a play by play on the clinic days I will just mention where we were each day and let the pictures tell the rest. Eyes on Christ came with two people Julie Shoeff and Tami Jo Rayle plus our team(13) on the ground and the Fisher family(5) from Washington, PA brought us up to a team of twenty strong . It was awesome to see how everyone worked during the clinics. Each place was unique but the system flowed smoothly, we saw a lot of people, and shared Jesus' love and the gospel with them all.

 We divided the jobs up. Basically the way it worked was Clayton and Lindsey did the signing in of folks and taking blood pressure. John and Ben were working among the people, passing out tracts, and preaching. Kenya and I translated for Julie and others as needed. Julie of course did all the eye exams. Amber worked with the village kids playing with them and took care of our lunches. Tami Jo worked the distribution of glasses with Abigail translating and Anne doing restocking. The other kids helped at times with the flow of people.

Our First Clinic was in Midiani. This was our second visit to Midiani where Elly, the pastor at Mnara Wa Kweli LBC, has been working to start a fellowship for the past few months. It was our desire to give this group some visibility and encouragement. Elly has been teaching weekly at this location so we were all excited to help him with this church plant. John had the opportunity to preach a little to those who were waiting to see Julie. We also had a good time of fellowship with the many who attend the Bible study. We are excited about the future in this area.

The second Clinic was at the Mnara wa Kweli LBC in Miritini. The church currently meets in an Orphanage so it gave us a great location to have the clinic. It was our first time to do a clinic in this area and assist the church with outreach. The Mnara wa Kweli church is composed mainly of people from the Luyha  tribe but they are smack in the middle of people primarily from the Duruma tribe. Our hope was this would help the give the church a presence in the community and show their desire to be a multitribal church. Elly has done a good work at this church and is trying to reach out. We were very privileged to help him in his efforts. Brother John and Brother Ben both had opportunities to preach to folks while they were waiting to be checked for glasses.

            After the Clinic in Miritini we packed it up and headed back to Malindi for the night so we could go to Mjomboni on Wednesday. It was a good follow up to the cinema and evangelistic outreach we did the week before in Mjomboni. We had a slow start because it was announced we would be in another location but once it was all sorted out we had a steady flow of people.

There are no pictures…. lest there be evidence … but we went down to the beach in the Land Rover and shot off a boat load of Fireworks that brother John bought in Mombasa to celebrate the New Year. We had a blast firing off bottle rockets and all kinds of pyrotechnics. It was a fun way to spend New Year's Eve.

            On New Year's Day we had the Eyes on Christ clinic in Malindi. It was a big day and we saw lots of folks. We decided to stay close with it being a holiday and so we could rest a bit before heading to Singwaya on Friday.

            Our last day of clinics was on Friday in Singwaya. I really thought it would be our biggest day but it was not. We had a good turnout but not as many as I thought might come. It was just right though because we did not have to turn anyone away.  As a matter of fact we did not have to turn anyone away the entire week. We were able to see everyone that came and waited to be seen which made it nice. Julie said that in some places they are not always able to see everyone with time constraints.

Saturday Julie, Tami Jo, Ben Fisher, and his girls all loaded up and went on safari. The rest of us stayed behind to clean up a little, rest, and work on some needed office work. We had a celebration dinner Saturday night at Osteria and Julie gave us the numbers of all that we saw and the number of glasses that were given out.

Julie was able to examine  696 people; Tami Jo distributed 619 pairs of glasses and 900 pairs of sunglasses; we gave out 1200 John and Romans in Swahili; preached the gospel multiple times in each location; and did visitation as well..

         Our purpose was to preach the Gospel, share the love of Christ, and help give the churches and Bible studies public exposure and contacts to follow up on. We accomplished all our goals and more with the clinics. We planted a lot of seed and we are praying to God for the increase. We are so grateful for all that Eyes on Christ did while they were here, and we look forward to working with them again in the future.

            Sunday we divided up and part of the team went to Malindi and part went to Singwaya. It was a great close to a good week.

Christmas 2014

December and January have simply flown by… It seems like Christmas was yesterday and we were preparing for the New Year. The reality is that a month has indeed gone by and we are nearing the completion the first month of 2015. I do not want to leave a huge gap in the updates so I will attempt to piece together updates from memory and my calendar to bring anyone up to speed that is taking this journey with us through the updates. It is always a great mental exercise for me to go back and relive in some ways the events as I am writing. Of course the details will not be as deep and I will try to put in lots of pictures.

I  think to myself sometimes that maybe these updates have already served their purpose and I should just discontinue them but I really do enjoy writing them and having a written record of all that the Lord has done. I must admit it adds a pressure because I want to write them but many days I simply do not have the mental capacity to write and rehash the events. I am not complaining just sharing the journey with those of you who read. By the way, thank you for reading and praying…. Well lets get started with installment one of the Catch-up.

December 19-26

            We finished up the round robin to all the churches in December with a four location weekend December 19-21. We went to Mjomboni on Friday 19^th to show the cinema and pass out tracts. Brother John did some teaching before the cinema and the choir from Magangani LBC sang some songs. We showed the Jesus film rather than the Nativity at this location since it was our first time to do a cinema. 

            Saturday we were with the Mangangani Church for cinema, then on Sunday we showed the Nativity in Malindi in the morning and in Jimba in the afternoon. It was a busy weekend but we all had a great time fellowshiping and celebrating the birth of Christ. It was a great chance for all of us to go out as a team and be with the churches. 

            Once the weekend was over it was time for us to take a breather and celebrate Christmas as a team and as families. We did squeeze in a trip to Mombasa to go to the newly opened Dominoes Pizza and Cold Stone Creamery. Yes you read right DOMINOES! We had our doubts if it would be legit but it is!  

           After an awesome day at Dominoes we had a birthday party for Ellanora at Clayton and Lindsey’s house. Lindsey and Clayton had their house decorated and a cake made when we got back from Mombasa so we could celebrate Ellanora turning 2. Ellanora is so cute and we loved sharing her birthday together.

 

We had a great Christmas week. We had our Team Christmas dinner and gift exchange on Christmas Eve. The food was amazing. We even had Ham! Ashley got everyone matching Christmas Pajamas for our Christmas Day Brunch.

 On Christmas day we all got together after having time with our families and had a brunch followed by some pool time. Oh wonderful Tropical Christmas traditions!

 

It was great to take some time to laugh, play, and rest during Christmas week knowing that starting immediately after Christmas we would be plunged into the Eyes on Christ campaign and Fisher family survey trip.

December 2014 Report

“Our vision is to be a ministry of eternal significance that impacts the cause of Christ through the 

advancement and multiplication of His churches.”
 

December 2014

Christmas Extravaganza

         As a team we all went out this month and visited all the churches and the new Bible studies to celebrate Christmas. It was great for the churches to see the team together and for everyone on the team to see the churches as well.

Gandini LBC- Gandini kicked off the Christmas cinemas and celebrating at the beginning of the month. We had a great time with the church. We had a fellowship dinner of beans and ugali before the cinema and a time of preaching. 

Singwaya LBC-We attended services with the Singwaya church and spent the day celebrating with food, fun, and preaching. There was a great turn out for two cinemas. 

Bokole LBC- The second week of the month we were with the Bokole church. We started with a small group but ended up with a good turn out for the cinema. We got the Land Rover stuck in the mud on our way out which as Fred said, “is just the cost of evangelism.” 

Midiani Bible Study- This was our very first visit to Midiani where Eli has started a new Bible study. We presented Bibles before the cinema to those who completed studies. It was a great first visit and we look forward to what God is going to do. 

Mnara wa Kweli LBC, Miritini We were in worship services with Mnara wa Kweli and had a great time with the church. Brother John preached a great message before the cinema.

Mjomboni Bible Study- We did some door to door before the cinema to invite people. This was our first time to do an open air in the area. Alfonse is meeting weekly with a group so we were trying to help them get started. The Magangani Choir came and sang to help out.

Mangangani LBC- We had a great time visiting with the church in Mangangani. There were lots of children that Amber Strader taught how to play Red Rover.  There was a large turn out for the cinema once it got dark. 

First LBC Malindi- We attended services with the church in Malindi and as part of the service we shared the cinema. Attendance was down because people were out of town but we still had a good time sharing the cinema. 

Jimba LBC- After worship service in Malindi we immediately headed to Jimba to be with Daniel and the folks there. 

  Eyes on Christ Team 2014

 

The Eyes on Christ ministry was with us this month doing eye clinics in five different areas. We had eyes on Christ with us a few years back and they did a great job.  This trip was even better! Julie and Tammy Jo were joined by our ground team to compose the Eyes on Christ team this year. We went to three churches; Mnara wa Kweli LBC; First LBC, Malindi; and Singwaya LBC and in two new areas where we are starting Bible studies: Midiani and Mjomboni.

     Our purpose was to preach the Gospel, share the love of Christ, and help give the churches and Bible studies public exposure and contacts to follow up on. We accomplished all our goals and more with the clinics.  Julie was able to examine  696 people; Tammy Jo distributed 619 pairs of glasses and 900 pairs of sunglasses; we gave out 1200 John and Romans in Swahili; preached the gospel multiple times in each location; and did visitation as well. We planted a lot of seed and we are praying to God for the increase. We are so grateful for all that Eyes on Christ did while they were here, and we look forward to working with them again in the future. 

 

  PO Box 299 Monticello, AR 71657

James Taylor PO Box 811 Malindi, Kenya 80200

Phone 011-254-713289014 missionarytaylor@gmail.com

 

 

Taylor Tribe

 

 

What a month!  December is always busy as we try to go around and encourage the churches.  We try to plan ahead so that we can still have our normal family holiday traditions as well as enjoy some of the local festivities.  Although it was a hectic month, I think we had a good balance of both.  Ashley worked really hard with the kids helping them memorize the entire Christmas story.  In music class the kids even practiced a song to perform for all of us.  We did all the normal decorating, baking cookies, and since it’s hot, we substituted milkshakes for hot cocoa.  Clayton even made us frappuccino’s one evening.  We celebrated Amber’s and Ellanora’s birthdays.  We watched a lot of fun Christmas movies and made Christmas crafts and gingerbread houses.  We also decided that instead of spending all morning Christmas cooking, we had Christmas eve dinner and Christmas day brunch, then ate leftovers the rest of the day.  James even cleared the desks out of the schoolroom for Christmas week and made it into a Winter Wonderland of air conditioning, mattresses, and movies.  He used the projector to put the movies on the wall.  We all loved that! The kids all said at different times it was the best Christmas ever.  Ashley and I agreed that if we can get that same statement each year we are doing well.  Ashley gave us all matching PJs, which was awesome.  The whole team sported them Christmas day as we relaxed the whole day. 

In addition to all the festivities, they opened a Dominoes in Mombasa.  In America that may not seem like a big deal, but it is awesome!  We have already eaten there four times.  God not only gives us things we need, He gives us things we want!

Just before Christmas my mom had a stroke.  It was hard being so far away, but thank God for internet and cell phones.  We were able to keep in touch the whole time she was in the hospital.  And praise the Lord, she has regained most of the use of her leg and arm.  So many people were praying and for those prayers we are truly grateful. 

We had a lot of fun with the Eyes on Christ team doing the clinics.  Abigail actually seemed to really find her niche.  She has been saying for a while now that she wants to be a doctor.  She translated for Tammy Jo in giving out the eyeglasses. At first I started out doing it, but then she decided to give it a try.  The second day I tried to help her and she said, “It’s okay, Mama, I got it from here.”  So I left her to it, and she did awesome. She kept saying how sweet the “old” people were.  She, as well as we, loved seeing the smiles on their faces as they were given the gift of sight.  It was awesome!

We were also blessed with several packages and Christmas love offerings.  Thank you so much to all those who were a blessing to us this year.  We are humbled at how kind and loving you are to us. 

Thanks for reading and praying.