More to Come

We have so many praises! The first baptism was amazing, we are a family again, and awaiting the arrival of our new baby girl. More to come very soon, so stay tuned!

He is Faithful!

2Ti 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

Two weeks ago as I prepared for my last Ladies Bible study, I found myself very discouraged and "done!" Several things were not lining up, I didn't have what I needed in the right language, I was unsure of the confidence of the Kenyan woman I had asked and been praying to lead in my absence, and I was physically tired. I was done being pregnant, done preparing for Bible study, done leading Bible study and my done list went on and on. As I got into the car and headed off to the crazy downtown area where I was sure to find myself "done" with driving on the Kisumu roads, I began to pray and simply cry out to the Lord. I asked for His strength and for Him to have His way and then He prompted me to pray for others. Oh, how refreshing it was to get my mind and heart off of myself and onto others and my King who sits on the throne.

Upon arriving to my first stop I found 4 ladies plus one of their young daughters we have in Children's church all waiting together at the stop where I pick them up. This is extremely rare for all the women to be there at the moment I arrived and I was so grateful. (It's not the best place for a white woman to stop for a long period of time.) The women were very cheerful and seemed so excited to go to study. Since the only things they recieve at study are the Word, prayer and fellowship, my heart was greatly encouraged. One of the women who was very squirmy and a little downtrodden the week before as we studied the Gospel of Jesus and talked about what it is to be born again, was extremly cheerful and had a different countance about her. I wondered if she had surrendered her life to Christ though I did not get to ask her.

We were a full house as study began and when I asked the Kenyan woman who had agreed to lead in my absence if she would lead the study (I had agreed to teach) she very confidently said yes. And she did an amazing job of leading in confidence! WOW, I was praising the Lord. Then just before we began, Maureen (Pastor's Stephen's wife) handed me exactly what I needed in the language I needed. Again, I was praising my God! Though the study proved to be a bit challenging for the women as we were learning how to study the Word verse by verse, the women seemed committed and interested. Towards the end of the study two more women from church joined us and they must have walked very far to attend. It was their first time and it was exciting to see them there.

We ended study with a reminder from John 14:20 of Christ being in us, we in Him and He in the Father using an envelope demonstration and the women really seemed to understand the verse. As we spent some time in prayer, I couldn't help getting emotional remembering how faithful our God is, especially when we are faithless and I was pretty faithless that morning. I returned home so encouraged by what the Lord is doing in these women and ask for continual prayer that the women would continue to meet and remain in the Word as I am away to have this baby girl very soon.

Always Learning,

Peg for The P4

Laying a Firm Foundation

This past month we have been blessed to be a part of our churches first "Firm Foundation" class. Pastor Stephen had asked me (Matt) to teach this 6 week course which would overview such topics as The Authority and Reliability of the Scripture, God's Nature & Character, God's Plan of Redemption, The Purpose & Nature of the Church (Local & Universal), The Essence of & Essentials for a Christian, and lastly, The Who, What, Where, When, Why & How of Baptism. Although any one of these topics could serve a complete course in a Bible School, yet our purpose was to help bring a simple understanding and biblical backing to each of these things. Stephen has also been translating both the notes (to use as handouts) and the teachings each week to aid those who aren't able to understand English as well. Overall this has been a most rewarding time both for me as a teacher and also the members of the church. There has been an average of 12 people coming each week (all Kenyans) and since our average number for the church is between 35 to 50 people that means that 24% to 34% of our church is in attendance (not bad at all). One of the things that I have found most enjoyable is to help give a solid and clear understanding of what the Gospel is and what it really means to be a "Christian". It seems that not only here, but all over the world, the term "Christian" has been being misused and misrepresented by so many; and now no one is really sure what meaning it carries with it these days. We know of a couple people in attendance that seem to be not saved yet, and so we are praying that as they have taken an interest in the Word, and our Church, and have been clearly presented with the Gospel, that they would come to that point of making a decision for Jesus. Please be praying for these people. Next week we will have our last class, and subsequently offer a time to sign up to be baptized if there are any who have not been since giving their life to Jesus. Although when it has been talked about the past few weeks, people have been either shy to pursue being baptized or have said that they already are, we are hopeful that if there are any who have not yet been baptized that they'd take this opportunity. It is such a blessing to the church to watch people from their own body step forward and show their commitment to Jesus in this way. I look forward to taking all that I've learned through this time of teaching the class, and to help make the next time we plan this class to be even better. We are praising the Lord for the opportunity He's given us to help lay this firm foundation on Jesus Christ and His Word for these people at Calvary Chapel Lakeside!