The Battle Belongs to the Lord....

 "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

Relaxing!

Elliot and Kaiden

Jason Beachy Family--- Thank you for coming!!

Chulaimbo youth

Kajulu Youth

Ugunja Youth

Western Youth Seminar

Playing games

School cleaning--- Sarah Riche holding the baby

Becky Miller and Clara

Stan and John Riche

Samuel Okoth and Tim Senerwa

Lamp and Light seminar

Notice this tall man... 7ft. 5 in.!  

Wayne with Seth Howell

Billboard welcoming Obama on his July visit

Children's class at Dienya

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!

Kisumu youth

Mount Kilimanjaro

Bible study at Dorice's house

Walking with Emma

Our prayer meeting group was extra small so Jake and Jan did something special for us.... fried ice cream!

Elliot and Jediah

Pastor Jacob and Benter at Ombeyi