"God doesn't give the hardest battles to his toughest soldiers. He creates the toughest soldiers through life's hardest battles."
"When I'm worried, it's usually because I'm trying to do everything myself. When I'm at peace, it's usually because I remember that God is in control."
"God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan to do only the things that we can do by ourselves."
I’m so glad we don’t need to
stress over battles that belong to the Lord! It seems there are so many
spiritual battles in the lives of our African friends and neighbors. We
struggle to know how to help…. but we really don’t need to fight alone. We can cast our cares on the One who can
carry them for us. Opake Yesu! Please pray for Zilpa from the Lela congregation
who has many needs. We would desperately love to see her restored to God and
the church. She is trying to come back
but there are still a lot of questions and there appear to be some serious strongholds
in her life. Joe and Glenda would really
appreciate prayers as they work with the situation. Also pray for Eric Ogwe
(former Bishop). He seems to be troubled and we STILL don’t know the truth
about whether he has been drinking. We are concerned about several other areas
of his life as well. At this time his leadership has been removed which helps
to bring rest to the churches at Kasongo and Ombeyi, but his membership has not
been taken until the truth of the matter is known. We would LOVE to see him
restored as Bishop as well!
On Wed. a week ago, Tony and Judith’s family
was here for a short visit… They especially wanted to see Jason and Cynthia
before they head back to America. We had a nice time down by the lake with Tonys,
Jasons, and Joes that evening. Jasons were a real blessing to us here in
Kisumu. It sure is nice when formers are willing to come and it feels like they
just take off where they left off. J
On Thursday there was a youth seminar at
Chulaimbo. Clarissa and I accompanied Wayne for the day. There were youth from
Kajulu, Dienya, and Ugunga. Wayne was asked to preach, and we also enjoyed
hearing from each separate youth group… special songs and/or verses were
shared.
On Friday morning we ladies gathered at the
school for the annual cleaning. It’s hard to believe this is the fourth time we’ve
done this since our arrival in Kenya. At this time, it looks like we will only
have 6 children in school this term… 3 of ours and 3 of Jakes. We’re sad about
that but we haven’t given up hope that Brian’s will still join us sometime this
fall! The Kisumu school has only a few
students compared to Nakuru who has 27, I believe!! Would be nice if we could even things out a
bit! J We were happy to have John and Sara Riche join us at
school that morning. They have visited
the compound here several times. They
live about 45 minutes from here. They are building a school in a village there
and Sara is a teacher. They get starved for fellowship sometimes and we really
enjoyed learning to know them a bit. John grew up in a remote part of central
Alaska. He says the coldest temperature he saw there was -72 degrees. Imagine!! John and Sara lived in Ireland before coming
here. Sara grew up in the Waterford area and knows Dan Yoders and other folks
from the mission there. Small world sometimes!!
On Friday eve. Kore came for supper as well as another visitor that
Wayne met in Nairobi a while back. Seth
Howell is his name. He’s an 18 yr. old who was in Kenya for about 2 months. He
spent most of his time in Lodwar working in a ministry his mother started; ministering
to street children. They work and live
as closely to the way the nationals do as possible. His grandfather was
involved in church planting here in Kenya years ago. Seth is an interesting young man with a heart
for following God. He will be attending
Sattler College in Boston this fall. One
of his grandfathers was a Yoder who left the Mennonite church years ago through
the influence and teachings of the Church of God. Seth stayed at the guest house overnight and
then went with Wayne to Nakuru the next day.
Wayne was asked to preach an evangelistic
message at a Lamp and Light seminar in Nakuru on Saturday. There were very few
CBF members there but a nice-sized group of L&L students from various
denominations. Hopefully they heard much
good teaching that day that will help them make wise choices in life.
Sunday morning found our family in Dienya
since they have no Pastor there presently. We look forward to the arrival of
Steve and Martha Esh this week!! We had
a good day. They seem to be doing as well as can be expected with all the
changes they face. During testimony time Sister Eunice shared a story about how
God worked a miracle in her dala. Apparently,
her daughter in law passed away recently leaving her young children alone at
night. (Their father must be working or
something.) One night the youngest awoke
and heard someone at the door asking to come in. The child woke the older
sibling and told her that someone is at the door. Wisely, they refused to let
them come in and went back to sleep. After
they were refused entrance to the house, the “thugs” stole the cow. The theft of a cow is quite a loss to people
who don’t have many earthly goods. Mama Eunice
told us that many people will go to the witch doctor to get their cow back; but
her Bible is her “witch doctor”. After
she heard about it, she took her Bible over to the place where the cow had been
tied, opened it and prayed that God would do a miracle and bring the cow
back. Around noon, God performed her
miracle! The cow was found along the
river, nearby and brought home. It was
beaten and bleeding, but alive. What an encouraging testimony of faith! We
heard a similar story during testimony time today at Ombeyi. These are more
examples of “The Battle belongs to God!”
I should also tell you about something Wayne
saw on our way to Dienya that morning.
We passed a wrecker that was pulling a badly wrecked car, and inside the
car there was a man slumped over the steering wheel who appeared to be dead or
unconscious. You never know what you
will see next around here!!
On Monday morning the Nakuru and Kisumu
Pastors met in Kericho for their meeting. They arrived home in fairly good
time. Clarissa was busy that day getting ready for a youth trip the next day.
The group consisted of Gerold, Becky, Steve, Stan, Wayne, and Sylvia Miller,
Stacy, Rhoda, Kaylita, and Clarissa. They travelled to Amboseli National Park
which is close to a 12 hr. drive from here and within sight of Mount
Kilimanjaro. They have some interesting
stories to tell! They were basically camping but slept in small cabins. The cost is affordable and the experience was
amazing! They saw MANY elephants and were very close to them at times! The pictures of the snow-capped mountain are
awesome! This mom was very happy to have
her daughter back home safe and sound on Friday evening! J
On Wed. Wayne and I traveled back out to
Dienya area where we had Bible study at Dorice’s house. It was a very warm day
and I had an awful time staying awake. But we enjoyed the fellowship.
The next afternoon Wayne and I headed to
Ahero area to visit widow Jane Juma, whose husband Paul, died of cancer in
April. Tobias and Elizabeth went with
us. We were saddened to discover that it appears like Jane may have been
inherited by her late husband’s cousin. He was there when we arrived and is
nice to visit with, but…. Jane surely knows what the Bible teaches on matters
like this. We hope it’s not true but
there were too many signs pointing to that.
I thought Jane seemed rather uncomfortable or maybe guilty when we
arrived at her door without warning.
Pray for her! Next, we went to
see a good friend of mine, Emma the wife of Tobias Odongo, (member of Ahero). I
was sad to see that she wasn’t wearing anything on her head and to hear that she
hasn’t attended church for quite some time.
She says she has been caring for her sick, widowed mother-in-law. Her
mother-in-law has 3, younger, co-wives, so it would seem like there should be
others that could care for her. Emma is
due to have a baby very soon. I told her
I want to visit as soon as possible when the baby comes and she says I will be
the first to hear the news! I’m excited
about that! I need to do better in
visiting her. She wants me to come some more to encourage her.
Stacy and Rhoda were here for a pizza supper
last evening. What would we do without
them!! They sure are a blessing to us
and our children! Today on our way out
the gate to go to church at Ombeyi, we stopped to pick up a young lady named
Joy, who wanted to go to church with us. She had been here earlier in the week
to talk with me. She used to come to the compound quite often when Mark Beachy’s
family lived here, as well as Carolyn Rodes. She has good memories of time
spent with them. She was happy to go with us today and felt like she had
traveled FAR! She has never been farther
from Kisumu than Rabuor! Former
missionaries never know what will come from the seeds they planted while in
service here. God gives the increase!
There was a good turnout at the Ombeyi service.
We stopped in Ahero on the way to church to pick up 2 of John Omondi’s
boys who went with us to interpret for Wayne. They seem like fine young
men. The name of the one young man is
Ivan Peachey. J We were disappointed that the service was
held in the small house on the property instead of in the church house outside.
It was VERY warm inside with very tight quarters. I guess they get tired of carrying the
benches all the time and many times recently their group has been quite small.
We were saddened to hear about the death of Joshua and Caren's baby from Nyakoko. The funeral was on Saturday. The baby has been sickly for a while... but not sure what the problem was.
Continue to pray that God would send laborers
to Kisumu! We appreciate your support
and prayers very much!! Wayne and Clara
Yoder
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| Relaxing! |
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| Elliot and Kaiden |
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| Jason Beachy Family--- Thank you for coming!! |
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| Chulaimbo youth |
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| Kajulu Youth |
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| Ugunja Youth |
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| Western Youth Seminar |
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| Playing games |
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| School cleaning--- Sarah Riche holding the baby |
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| Becky Miller and Clara |
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| Stan and John Riche |
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| Samuel Okoth and Tim Senerwa |
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| Lamp and Light seminar |
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| Notice this tall man... 7ft. 5 in.! |
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| Wayne with Seth Howell |
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| Billboard welcoming Obama on his July visit |
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| Children's class at Dienya |
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| We were amazed at the small army of ants that carried this large kernel of maize straight up the curb. We can learn from the ants! |
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| Kisumu youth |
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| Mount Kilimanjaro |
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| Bible study at Dorice's house |
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| Walking with Emma |
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| Our prayer meeting group was extra small so Jake and Jan did something special for us.... fried ice cream! |
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| Elliot and Jediah |
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| Pastor Jacob and Benter at Ombeyi |
