Happy New Year! We trust that all of you had a great Christmas, and that the new year was a good one
for you. Here in Kitale, we may have been dreaming of a white Christmas, but it was sunny and hot. However,
we thank our wonderful Lord for the precious gift of His Son, and for allowing us to spend His special
day with our family. Nathan and Carrie came over; we exchanged gifts, ate dinner, and then played games
and watched TV. So, it was a very wonderful time with our loved ones. We also celebrated the new year
with them, so we had a great holiday season.
We celebrated our Lord’s birth with some activities before Christmas. On Saturday December 23rd,
we invited the youth in our Bible clubs to our Bethel Church to play volleyball, soccer, and participate
in some relays. Over 100 adults and children came from Bethel and Imani Baptist Churches, and we finished
the day with food and a video for fun. We are still waiting for electricity to be put in Bethel Baptist,
as it was wired and has been ready for hookup since September. We have made numerous requests for the
electricity to be installed, but we are still waiting. Pam and I have a generator, so we took it to the
church, so that we could show the movie. Our goal with the Bible clubs is to encourage the kids to come
and compete in Bible drills, answer questions about the lessons they are studying, and to invite their
friends to the clubs and to church. So, this was a day of fun, and they really enjoyed it.
On Sunday, Christmas Eve, we combined the two churches for a special service. There was much singing,
and some recited the Christmas story from Luke 2. The choirs from both churches sang, but the biggest
blessing was the young men from our Imani Baptist Bible clubs who sang a beautiful Christmas song, and
the harmony that they had. I preached the message, and afterwards, we ate dinner on the grounds. Pam
and I had bought two goats, which is what our people wanted, as they can’t afford to buy meat during
the year, so Christmas is always a special time each year to eat meat. The goats were eating grass on
the Bethel property as we played games with the youth on Saturday, and we were eating them on Sunday.
Some of the men stayed after the program on Saturday to slaughter the goats, and the women came early
on Sunday morning to cook the rice, spinach, chapatti, a bread-like substance, and cabbage that went
along with the goat. We gave out gifts to each person who came. Many of these gifts were the ones that
you gave to us over the years, and so they were a blessing to our folks.
Unfortunately, we have had to make some changes in our leadership. Jared, the pastor of our Bethel Church,
approached us in October about moving off of the church property, and stepping down as pastor. He felt
that the older members did not respect him, due to his youth, so he wanted someone older to pastor the
church. Jared is 30 years old, and is married with a daughter, but in this culture, a man is not respected
until he is at least 35 years of age, is married, and has a family. So, this past Sunday, one of our
older Bible Institute students who has had previous ministry experience, and we have known for quite
a long time, was voted in as pastor of Bethel Baptist. Kiruri is in his 40’s, is married with six
children, and has been teaching the adult Sunday School class for almost a year. He also has been a church
leader, and has been leading the adult choir since we started Bethel Baptist.
Jared is very interested in joining our community development ministry full-time, as he has been working
with Community Health Evangelism (CHE), as well as pastoring, for several months now. Our former leader
of CHE has fallen into sin, and has a bad testimony in the area, due to the nature of his sin. I had
met with him several times during the month to disciple him, and he had confessed to several sins. However,
we discovered that he told me one thing when I was doing discipleship with him, but his actions away
from me were not one of a person who had really repented, and was indeed sorry for his sins. So, I and
other church leaders have had to set him aside from ministry for at least six months to continue to disciple
him, and to watch his testimony. Please help us to pray for this man that he might be restored.
We trust that you are had a great holiday season, and are looking forward to what God has in store for
you in 2007. Lord willing, we are meeting with our church leaders this week to discuss plans for next
year. We want to plan more ministries in the communities, do evangelism in the areas around our two churches,
start more Bible clubs, and continue to train and disciple those in leadership through our Bible Institute,
so that our churches will be stronger in the faith. Pam and I hope to develop a stronger relationship
with each other, and with our Lord, as we grow in faith as we study His Word. We are in definite need
of His help and wisdom as we face another year, and all of its challenges. Please keep sending us E-mails
and letters, as we love hearing from those that we love and pray for. May our Lord be very close to each
of you throughout 2007. We love you, and thank you so much for your interest, love, encouragement, and
prayers.