Our Second Stop - Kenya 2019

Acts 1:8

"But you shall receive power when the Holy
spirit comes upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and is all Judea and Smmaria, and to the end of the earth."

Bible school at Mike & Pat's house in Meru~

After spending about a week in Kitali we will go back to Nairobi.  Our second stop of the trip will be the Meru District. Meru is in the mountains where Mike and Pat started their ministry about 15-years ago. The climate is like Colorado.  Many people think Kenya is hot but it's not.  I wear a jacket in the morning and evening because it is cool, not hot.

Pat, Mike & Linus

Mike and Pat started by rescuing kids on the street.  I'm not sure how many they have rescued over the years but they have many success stories. There are always at least 15-20 teens running around the compound.  Mike and Pat raise these kids to be ministers for the Gospel.  Many of them attend the bible schools they have started. All have the opportunity to get an education under Pat's leadership.

Mike & Pat on the long, bumpy road to Pastor Stanley & Mary's house~

A few like Stanley, the Central District Director, begin teaching in the schools. His brother Dennis, who will be our guide and interpreter, began teaching at fifteen.  He is now the assistant director of Mike and Pat's ministry.  It really is a family affair in Kenya, Mike and Pat unofficially adopt these kids and make they their own.

I love the Meru District.  It is the small beginning of a great ministry in Kenya. I like Pat's saying; "Just common ordinary people doing extra ordinary things for God". All of the directors of the district have come from the bible school in Meru. The ministry headquarters used to be the bible school.  Now, there is also an apartment where we stay.

The school in Meru has so much potential for leadership development.  Both with church planting and future bible schools. The vision of The Heart of God Ministries, is to go to the rural communities and plant schools in churches which already exist. The more leaders we can develop, the more schools we can plant in the churches in Kenya.

Linus, Pastor Stanley & his wife Mary~

Stanley and Mary are pastors of a life giving church in the district.  They are also district Director's.  Mary is a fantastic teacher of the word and Stanley was not only one of the first kids raised up in the ministry.  He came out of one of the first schools Mike & Pat started & had been preaching the gospel since.  I met Stanley on our first trip in 2008, when we helped plant the second school for the ministry.

Pastor Steven's Bible College in Isolio

 I have met so many promising graduates!  When they get a hold of the message, they become the messengers God intended them to be.  As with a box of chocolates, you never know what is going to come out of the central District.  I'm really excited about being with Mike and Pat for our week in the Central District.  It is truly is the Heart of God.

Kenya Rediscovered - Part III - Apostles Don't See the Poverty but the Potential

Kenya's Future~
 
The potential outweighs the poverty that you see all around you.

District Directors Obed, Victor & Stanley

Mud Church with a tin roof - a humble beginning

On the way home from my second mission trip to Kenya in February, 2018, Kent Coates and I started to talk about what we had just experienced from the past couple of weeks. We saw some pretty phenomenal things.

The first thing we observed was Kenyan's don't have a lot but they don't need a lot. They are very happy people in the midst of the poverty you see there. But if you are an apostle you don't see the poverty you see the potential.

 The second thing God showed us was that everywhere we went there were humble beginnings. Mike and Pat Heiser, who have been ministering in Kenya for fifteen years, like working in the villages and so do Kent and I. Most of the churches were built with sticks, homemade bricks, and tin roofs. I was reminded of where some of the most significant revivals started, in stables not in stadiums.

We saw many Kenyan Churches like the one above.

Revivals which last start in humble beginnings. Jesus was born in a stable, the Azusa street rival in California started in a horse barn, and many of the Bible schools I helped to start have been in very humble beginnings, Russia, England, and many others.

A Bible Study with many hungry students.  Notice the one by the window.

The third thing which became obvious was the hunger for God's Word. I saw one student who was writing down notes and taking a video at the same time. He didn't want to miss anything. The students were so hungry for the Word.

The last thing we saw was the Pastors of all the churches we visited wanted a school in their churches. One Pastor in a small village told us, "When we have church on Sunday a few people come, but when we have a Bible school many more come."

These observations, coupled with Mike's vision for Kenya, gave us a vision for a second step to the school: training the graduates, there are over 1,000 of them, to go further than just their diploma. Training doesn't stop with graduation, it's only the beginning.

I discussed with Mike and Pat the need to train more leaders like the Regional Directors. All the leaders are going to have to reproduce themselves several times. It's not about us, it's about Kenyan's winning Kenya. They have a culture, just like every other country I have been in. What fits in their culture? After I returned home, I began to develop a leadership manual based on the School of Tryannus, in Acts 19.

Bible School Students in Meru. This is where the school started over ten-years ago.  Over 1,000 graduates from these schools

The next step for Kenya is raising up leaders from the graduates they have; helping the graduates write their Acts 29 chapter. I saw the hunger in their eyes, I heard how much they love God and want to seek Him. Matthew 6:33 comes to mind, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Mike and Pat have asked Kent and me to come back in February/March of 2019 to help them train leaders and graduates in order to begin more Bible schools. Kenya's future is so bright they will have to wear sunglasses to look at it. Can't wait to see what God is going to do in 2019.

If you would like to be part of what God is doing in Kenya you can partner with God and us through prayer and/or financially. We now have a donate button on our blog, or you can send a donation to us at Acts 29 Ministry, P.O. Box 228, Glenwood, Iowa 51534. God is doing some awesome things in Kenya!