Bwanabob

4/21/2008

Dear Friends,

We are all doing well here in Turkana.  Ericka and I are recovered from Typhoid, thanks Richard for leaving us the Cipro!  We are still waiting for more rain, we are having the signs of a good rainy season but it has yet to cut loose.

The ministry is going on well and the last two Sundays we were able to visit churches in Lorogumu and Neramit.  At both churches the Pastor and congregation  were thankful for us turning over the Bible Institute to the Churches.  There have been times we wondered if we were doing the right thing but after seeing how the churches and pastors have responded it really confirms that we were following the Lords leading in this decision.

The Church in Neramit is doing very well, Pastor Paulo’s wife had left him for several months but now has returned home as has openly committed to staying with him this time, please pray for her salvation.  It’s been quite rewarding to see how Pastor Paulo has matured as a leader, remained faithful to the Lord and committed to living an honorable life even when most other Turkana men would have said “good riddance” to their former wife and moved on.  Pastor Paulo has led the little church in Neramit to grow to about 70, it is one of the most interior churches we work with, but one of the strongest.  This Sunday one of the church leaders showed the congregation my letter stating that the Bible Institute was now in the hands of the churches, he then asked if the church members would give to help support their student, Moses, and the Bible Institute.  Right there members gave about 200 shillings and committed another 300 over the next two weeks.  This is only about $8, but would be the equivelent of roughly three days wages for a casual laborer.  To see this happen in the church was a huge blessing to me.

On Friday I was able to teach two lessons at a leaders meeting held by the one of the churches here in Lodwar.  They asked me to teach on Leaders With Vision and A Church that Makes Jesus Happy.  The lessons were very well received and at the end I challanged the church to have a vision for areas where it is difficult for us white missionaries to go to, namely Sudan and the Loima area of Turkana.  Right away Pastor Losike spoke up and said that they have a church member from the area of Lomeyan, a villiage at the foot of the Loima hills.  As soon as Pastor Losike mentioned the name of the church member everyone sat up and began talking about him and how easy it would be for him to go with Pastor Losike to preach in his home village.  Pray that the Berea church will keep this vision and be a church that continues to please Jesus.

Please continue to pray for us, our safety and Kenya.  The government seems stable now and any of you planning a trip to Kenya this year shouldn’t have to worry about any more violence like we saw in Dec. and Jan.  On the other hand it seems to me that the concessions made by the government and opposition were simply done to make sure that both sides were given ample opportunity to stuff their pockets before another election or referendum.  Please pray that Kenyan leaders will address core issues that will continue to cause problems in the country.  Also, if you have an opportunity to write a letter to your Senator, Representative or The President please ask them to keep up the pressure on the Kenyan government to address issues of injustice steming from the post election violence.

God bless you all and thank you for praying for us.

In Christ, Bob Clark