30 November 2015

A visit from RFH's Africa Field Directors; Bible study with Joanna

Earl (not pictured), Clare, and I attended a Bible study in which Joanna is involved.

The ladies started off with singing to the Lord.


Everyone was attentive during the Bible study.


Rose gave the teaching for the day.


Swahili for "Jesus saves," written on the pulpit at the church

Children playing at a nearby school, excited to see wazungu!

After each Bible study, Joanna, Rose, and Susan do a bit of debriefing and have lunch together

Earl, Clare, and I joined Rose, Susan, and Joanna for lunch
(the young lady in the background was our waitress at the small cafe)




25 November 2015

A Visit from RFH's Africa Field Directors; Visiting some of My Ministry Relationships

Lots of laughs with Linet, Derrick, Jeremy, and Masudi

Linet and I

Jeremiah and Carol

Carol leading worship at their church

Clare and Earl clapping along to the music

Lots of action during the praise time

Some of the Sunday School children dancing for the Lord (Joy is in the blue blouse)

As I greeted the congregation and introduced Earl and Clare, Jeremiah interpreted for me.



This video will give you a sense of being there with us. I hope you'll watch it!


Jeremiah interpreted Earl's preaching into Swahili

Earl and Jeremiah prayed for folks after the sermon

Squeezing everyone into one photo wasn't easy!

Jeremiah and Carol, plus Earl and Clare

Several of us got a lift to Jeremiah and Carol's house in this pick-up.
Good thing, as the entire area was very muddy and sloppy from all the recent rain.

Clare got acquainted with 6-month old Jaiden at the house.

24 November 2015

A Visit from RFH's Africa Field Directors; Squeezing in some Fun Activities


Earl and Clare Reifel are the Africa Field Directors for Ripe for Harvest, my missions sending agency. They recently paid me a visit, along with other RFH missionaries in Kenya and other parts of Africa. I was privileged to spend several day with these veteran missionaries who serve in Sierra Leone.


Along with the more official activities of their visit we also made time for fun,
including an early morning game drive at Nairobi National Park. 



Joanna, another RFH missionary in Kenya, also joined us for the day.

Joanna and I enjoyed a competitive race on the go-kart track!

We finished our day at Carnivore Restaurant.

On another day we strolled around downtown Nairobi, including Uhuru Park.

12 November 2015

Educate a Child


With the help of some of you reading this, I had the privilege of sponsoring seven young people for the academic year of 2015 - Tony, Derrick, Robai, Pope, Adu, Duane, and Zach.

Recently I visited four of the seven at each of their schools. While visiting Derrick (pictured above with one of his teachers), I took enough photos to give you a bit of a 'photographic tour', which I think you will enjoy. The following week, I visited Tony, Adu, and Robai at each of their schools.

Just click here to see all of these recent photos!

Educating a child empowers them for life!

10 November 2015

No Graven Image, by Elisabeth Elliot








First published in 1966, No Graven Image is the only novel of the best-selling author Elisabeth Elliot.

Margaret, an intrepid twenty-five-year-old missionary, travels to the Andes Mountains of Ecuador to start her ministry. She sees little progress at first, but eventually things seem to be going well.

She works on translating the Bible into the Indian language and befriends a native and his family.

Then tragedy strikes, shaking Margaret's entire way of thinking.


The following are excerpts that spoke to me. All but the first one were spoken by Margaret, the main character:

The results which can be called good are few. And they cannot be the criteria for whether or not what we do is worthwhile. It is hopeless to try to weigh up the good, the bad, the futile, and the merely harmless, and hope there will be enough of the good to justify all the rest. Jesus told us to do what is true. I think the truth needs no justification, no defense.
   - spoken by Dr. Lynn, one of the characters in the book

. . . . . .
There was a time when "in vain" to me had meant that there was no visible spiritual result. A study of the life of Jesus convinced me that he regarded things differently, since comparatively few of his encounters with individuals or groups resulted in manifestations of true faith.

. . . . . .
Why this need to find meaning at every turn? Why do I struggle to sort out the material and the spiritual, to separate the failures from the successes? Well, if you're going to write honest prayer letters... That was what tormented me.

. . . . . .
If my task was far smaller in terms of the effect it was to produce, it was far larger in terms of my own life involvement. If there were times when I must be willing to pay any price for what was called the "advancement of the Kingdom", there were also times when I must let such a price - climbing a mountain, for example, in rain and mud and darkness - be paid in vain. This, too, was a place to glorify God.

. . . . . .
I do not write prayer letters anymore, for I have nothing to say about my work. It seemed, on the night of Pedro's death, as though FINIS were written below all I had done. Now in the clear light of day, I see that I was in part correct. God, if he was merely my accomplice, had betrayed me. If, on the other hand, he was God, he had freed me. I find that I can no longer arrange my life in an orderly succession of projects with realizable goals and demonstrable effects. I cannot designate this activity as "useful" and that one as "useless", for often the categories are reversed and even more often I am at a loss to apply either label. The work, in the end, as well as the labeling, is God's.

. . . . . .
Who but God knew which were the victories, which the defeats?

. . . . . .
Once I had envisioned Pedro, highland Indian, Christian, translator of the Bible, soldier of the cross - because I, Margaret Sparhawk, had come. He was my project, he was the star in my crown... God had allowed Pedro to die or he had perhaps caused me to destroy him. And does He now, I asked myself there at the graveside, ask me to worship Him?


Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015)


Review by Eternity Magazine:
No gimmicks or artificial situations to over-dramatize the slow, painful job of Christian witness in a primitive and alien culture. A magnificent book.


Review from intothebook.net:
Life is not always full of victories. God’s ways are not our ways, and we should not fit God’s plan inside of ours. We may not understand it, but it’s not meant for us to understand. This book is a great example of many missionaries’ lives, their victories and their failures. And it is a great reminder that we need to be willing to serve God, and know that His plan is perfect, whether we see it at the moment or not.

05 November 2015

Hard winds of life, wisdom from Amy Carmichael and others


Let us not be surprised when we have to face difficulties. When the wind blows hard on the tree, the roots stretch and grow stronger.

Let it be so with us. Let us not be weaklings yielding to every wind that blows, but strong in the spirit to resist.

~ Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), missionary to India



There's a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world - the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share of that suffering. When I became a servant, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God's way of helping me serve you. ~ Apostle Paul, Colossians 1:24-25 (Message)

Taking the gospel to people ordinarily requires sacrifice and suffering, a losing of life or a denying of self. This is the way Christ means for his saving sufferings to be taken to the world, through the sufferings of his people. Suffering is God's strategy for completing the Great Commission. The Calvary road is not a joyless road. It is a painful one, but it is a profoundly happy one. Those who follow Jesus are often sorrowful, and always rejoicing.
~ John Piper, desiringgod.org

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. ~African proverb



God's call has to do with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers he chooses to use to crush us.

When he uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. We must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom.

If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed - you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest




Always, by Steve Green
With the hard winds of life blowing out of control, it can feel like I'm all on my own.
But You've given me Your word and I know You'll never leave and I've never faced a single storm alone.
You are good always and in all ways. You are working all things together for our good.
You are good always in big and small ways, I know I can trust You in everything You do.

03 November 2015

The far side of somewhere I love (by Elizabeth Trotter)








As a Christian, I know home is with God himself.

The best part about finding home and belonging in him is that he goes with me wherever I go.



Psalm 139 is a gift to us global nomads in this regard:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. I cannot flee from His presence. Even on the far side of the sea, He holds me fast. And no matter how deep the depths of my life, I know He is with me. (vs 7-10)

From now on, wherever I go and no matter which side of the sea I settle on, I will always be on the far side of somewhere I love. There is just no getting around that.

How precious of God to include David’s words in His Word. David could not have known about jet propulsion when he penned Psalm 139, but thousands of years later, his words are a balm to the global nomad’s soul.

For we rise on the wings of the dawn, and we settle on the far side of the sea, and because God lives in us, we can find Home in every place He has made.

“With Christ as my city, I can traipse all over the globe and never once not be at home, because I dwell in His grace.”
      ~ Christine Hoover, who has crossed the deep cultural divide that makes one wonder where in the world you belong, and the author of From Good to Grace

~ Elizabeth Trotter, www.alifeoverseas.com/the-far-side-of-somewhere/


[Note: These thoughts truly resonate with me.]