Juma's wife Mercy and their daughter Neema were there also and are doing great. Mercy is expecting another baby in May so pray for her and Juma as they prepare for another little one. Juma and I talked quite a bit about him attending the Magangani church and about the possibility of starting a new church near where he is living. He has been attending Magangani but I think that his presence has made Alfonse feel a little threatened and challenged. I do not think Juma has purposefully made him feel that way but it seems that is what has happened. Juma said that he has tried not to take any responsibilities but just attend because he felt that it was affecting his relationship with Alfonse. I encouraged him that he was doing the right thing.
We spent some time talking about starting a new Bible study near where he is living. Juma has tremendous potential and Mercy is right there with him. Of all the men we work with Juma and his wife are the only husband and wife that seem to work well together in ministry and want to work together. I told him that he was blessed to have a wife that was willing and able to minister along side him. Pray for the area Kanani and Juma as he prays about the Lords will. I encouraged him that for now he could come to Malindi and serve with us. We have plenty to do and we would use him and Mercy as much as they want to be used.
If Juma does decide to start a new work in Kanani then I plan to try and lead the Malindi church to be his sending church and to help him. I believe he will do a good work with some encouragement and help. It was a great visit. Juma also asked when we would start classes back up and I told him next month. I love when there is a hunger, it motivates me and encourages me to dig and prepare material for the guys.
When I left Juma's I passed by Daniel's place but he was not home. His daughter said he had gone to the fields to work. I left a message to have Daniel let me know if I could come by on Friday to greet him. I went back to Malindi and spent a little time replying to some emails and studying for Sunday. Then it was time to head out for Thursday night Bible study. I got a message on the way to the church from Godfrey asking me to teach for him because he was not able to make it.
We got to the church and there was no one and it stayed that way until about a quarter after five. I started to just do a devotion in English but then we had a few others join us so I switched back to Swahili and we ended up with a good group. After Bible study several of the church members loaded up with us and I dropped them off with Kenya and Sadie to go into the hospital to see Benson's Baby Victor who has pneumonia. Please pray for him he’s only a week or so old. The kids and I went on to Shukarani to eat and Kenya and Sadie joined us later.
Friday I spent the day visiting with the Jimba and Magangani churches. First I went with Daniel to the Jimba church and met up with Emanuel and Harold. I was surprised to see that they have moved near the road to the plot they told me they were getting before we left to go to the States for the holidays. They rebuilt the building and it is 80% done and is built better than it was at the other location. We talked about how the church was doing and about their plans to start a new work in Mida with some contacts that Harold had. It was a great, encouraging visit. We ate lunch at Emanuel’s house. It was good to have some Minnows cooked in coconut milk with Ugali of course.
When I dropped Daniel off at his house I spoke to his wife a little about teaching Sunday school and working with Kenya on materials. She got excited and I hope that we can move forward with her, she has so much talent. Please continue to pray for Daniel’s wife that the Lord will be able to use her in a great way. I am glad that after the difficult time we had with Jimba to see them moving forward again. I believe the Lord used all that we went through to get them to this point.
I left Jimba and went to Magangani to visit with Alphonse and Japheth. We had a good visit and discussed the future a little with them. They seem to be holding steady but not really making any head way. I challenged them to seek the Lord for direction as a church for the future. This church has been idle for a while and even decreased I pray that they will get healthy again and be used by the Lord. It really was a good visit with Japheth and Alfonse. We had a short devotion at the end of our meeting.
I got back to Malindi in time for Taco night and movies.
Saturday Josiah and I went to Mombasa to pick up Dub West and his family to work with us on videoing some classes for the Bible Institute. Dub works with Jerry Smith and ABA Media. He and his wife and two sweet girls will be with us for the next three months. We picked up Dub and his family then headed back to Malindi.
Sunday we had a good day at the church. I preached from Psalm 23 on the compound names of God. I got through three of the seven compound names of God. We will finish the other four this week. We had several visitors and Richard’s mama came to services and said that she was going to start coming. It was so good to see her. I know that she is still broken hearted and it was so good to have her. This weeks message was a little more of an encouraging message after last weeks tough message.
We ate lunch at Shukarani and then came to the house. In the evening we had our evening worship time. It was Dub and Joni’s anniversary so we kept their girls and told them where a nice restaurant was to eat and where to get some Gelato.
Monday was our day off but I did talk with Ernie and Eddie about Dub’s schedule.
Today Dub and I met in the office to go over his schedule so far and make plans for his travels so he could run to town to buy plane tickets. Kenya ran Dub and Joni to town while I took the Land Rover in and passed by the parts store to try and find a belt for our dryer. I got one and tried it but it was three inches to short. Lord willing this afternoon I can go back and get a little longer belt to get our dryer going. I was able to get a little office work done in spite of my dryer repair work but Lord willing I will get more done this afternoon.
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