Rising up

Emanuel Baptist Church is under construction at their new site. The volunteer team that was here did lots of evangelism in the area and the guys are working hard to get the frame up. 

Thankful to God for a place this church can meet. 

Thankful to God for the church member who is making this land available. 

Thankful for what God wants to do in this community! 

 

Welcome, College students!

We had an amazing week with the college student team! We are so incredibly grateful for their servant hearts, amazing Swahili skills, willing hands, and BOLD witness! 

They tuk tuk'd all over town sharing Jesus in many places. We made home visits, evangelized in compounds (neighborhoods), and had a youth event. 

135 people heard the Gospel through them... 2 adults said yes to Jesus and 13 children...and as we were doing follow up another man said yes to Jesus! 

Please pray for these who have said yes to be discipled and grow in their new life with Christ. 

                               

 Sharing a meal together as a church family at the end of an amazing week. 

Monica's

This is Monica. She welcomed the team into her home to demonstrate how to make yummy coastal food- coconut beans and chapatis, and even a bonus of mahamri (kind of like triangular donuts...I didn't get a picture of that because I had to leave to pick up the boys at school.) It was a really fun cultural day. Monica's aunt, Esther, shared her testimony about how she came to be a follower of Jesus. 

 

Everybody helped in one way or another. 

The finished product! Delicious! The way to say it here is, "Tamu sana!" 

                                           

Mugg and Bean

I (Melynda) have been traveling to our capital city pretty regularly to deal with tooth issues and was quite happy to discover a restaurant at the same mall as the dentist...Mugg and Bean. This was a family favorite in South Africa and also in Zambia. 

I've been bringing home giant chocolate chip muffins for the boys.  

I had some time to kill before returning to the coast so I got a big cup of joe...

 it was yummy even if if it did dribble down my chin since my face was still numb. Ha! 

 

Closing one door

The guys packed up Kisima Center last week and took things to temporary storage. The building owner is tearing down the building to make it into something different. This was not what we wanted. However we know that even though the door to this building has closed, God is at work and this ministry has not stopped. So many people have become free from drug addiction and heard about salvation through Jesus Christ as a result of this ministry. 

Would you please pray for God to open the doors to a new location for Kisima?

 

Beach baptism

This is Omari. 

During vacation Bible school he told his aunt 

he wanted to follow Jesus as Savior and be baptized.

He told Pastor Jeremiah at church. 

                                
 

And so it was a day of rejoicing as he was baptized, 

and 4 others were baptized, too! Isn't God so so good! 

Samuel

Thank you all for praying for Samuel. He has been in the hospital since April for horrible burns that resulted from an electrocution when he stepped in a water puddle that was touching a downed wire. Both of his legs were amputated. He has made so much progress. He asked for a Bible and since receiving it, has been reading it loudly out loud for all his neighbors in the hospital ward to hear. Please pray that he will get stronger and that his remaining wounds will heal so that he can return home. 

It was such a blessing to visit him in the hospital with 3 of the ladies from church who all know his mother very well. 

Please continue to pray God's will for Samuel, who is only alive by God's grace! 

CHRISTmas is here!

Here's a picture of our family Christmas morning. 

We had the blessing of bringing our neighbors, Soham and Ivan, with us to church.

They've gotten a lot bigger since last year, haven't they?! 

Christmas Eve the kids got to participate in the Advent reading from the Bible.

 It was a special time for all of us. 

                               

December

 We enjoyed a family day of snorkeling. We look a little like aliens, don't we? It was SO much fun...and some dolphins even swam underneath us once! 

Vacation Bible School week 2 

I love this picture of Esther, a faithful member of Rehoboth, on her knees 

helping these little ones with the names of God. 

 Ednah is teaching the children 3 Circles, 

a way of understanding and presenting the Gospel.

Cookies galore

We made all kinds of Christmas cookies this year. It was a team effort, which was a lot of fun. We made the nativity out of sugar cookies and then made snowballs...

we had to add a little coastal snow...shredded coconut!!

Here's the only kind of snow we get around here: shredded coconut. We voted and we decided we like powdered sugar AND coconut on our snowballs.