April 1, 2007

Dear Praying Friends,

March has gone by in a blur, and we have been very busy on this side of the world. We started the month with hosting a literacy school whereby our Kenyan pastors could be trained to teach people to read. In this country, we are told that 45% of the people cannot read. In the very rural areas, many girls have to help with family chores, and many boys are forced to take care of their families’ livestock, so they have no opportunity to attend school. We are encouraging our pastors as they go into the communities to do the de-worming clinics, to look for people who cannot read, so that we can help them to learn to read the Bible, and to know what God’s Word says.

We just hosted a team from Hendersonville, North Carolina, and Kingsport, Tennessee who left yesterday to return to the States. While they were here, Charles Martin, the group leader, went with the pastor of our Bethel church to the rural areas where we have two ex-prisoners living who are faithfully attending our Bethel Baptist Church each week. Our pastor has been visiting this area, which is about 20 miles from our church, and he has started a Bible club there each Saturday. Charles went with him, and had an opportunity to present the Gospel to many as they gathered in a public area there. After his presentation, 47 people responded to receive Christ as their Savior! Their names were written down, and now, Kiruri, the pastor, and some of our church leaders, will be visiting these people each week to follow-up on their decisions, and Lord willing, to start a preaching point there. We are excited about this opportunity, and are praying that God will bless this new endeavor.

In December, Carrie, our daughter-in-law, came to Pam to ask her to assist her with a ministry to the premature babies in the local hospital. Carrie and Pam are going each Tuesday and Thursday morning to bathe the babies, feed some whose mothers have had Caesarian sections, and to give clothes to all of them, as the mothers are very poor, and have so little. Pam is working with the mothers to teach them good hygiene, the importance of breastfeeding, nutrition for themselves, and about caring for these little ones as they return to the poverty that they live in daily. Many of these babies weigh between 2-3 pounds, as they were born prematurely, due to their mothers bring malnourished and anemic. Pam loves teaching these mothers, so that their babies have a chance of survival when they go home. Also, she gives out the Gospel of John and Romans in Swahili. In the future, she is hoping to go into the hospital’s prenatal clinics where the expectant mothers come, so that she can teach them important information before they deliver, and hopefully, prevent some of the prematurely that she sees. 

As with any ministry when God is blessing, we face opposition and trials. One of our Bible Institute students, who is a former prisoner, lives with his family on the Imani Baptist compound as a caretaker. We have been allowing him to live there, so that he would have a house for his family while he “got on his feet” again after being in prison. We received a call from the pastor of the church that this man had done some very bad things while we were gone. (We are still in Nairobi as I write this). This really hurts us, as we have tried so hard to help Cleophas many times. This is a disappointment, but we must deal with Him.  We want to do this fairly, and in love.

Please note our new E-mail address: mpanderson@africaonline.co.ke. We are still accessing our Yahoo account, but this one is the one that we will be using the most. May our Lord bless each of you who pray for us. We need your partnership in order to continue on. Have a great Easter, as we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection.

Your servants in Kenya,

Mike and Pam