Another few meetings coming up over the next 10 days or so. We would appreciate guidance for preparation. We need to know exactly what should be shared and the message which the Lord has for each meeting. We thank God we can pray to Him and trust Him to lead and guide in these issues.
Thanks for your ongoing prayers for finances. Since last week the insurance payment has been met but we are still in need of the other amounts. There has been a delay in receiving some promised funds so we ask that you will remember this and we trust that God will provide. Please pray on for those who are responsible for different ministries in Kenya and Uganda. They face many challenges on a day to day basis and need your prayers. We have a burden to reach the children with the Gospel and appreciate your prayers as we seek to do this. It is hard to believe that not all Christians are happy with our ministry at times. Over the years we have faced opposition from numerous quarters and sad to say 99% of the time it has been from other believers for various reasons....none of them scriptural. However, we know that God has called us and so we continue on trusting Him daily for guidance and wisdom. Pray that we will continue to know continued guidance for the future and to be in the centre of God's will in every situation, both personally and also for the organisation as a whole. Thank you again for your prayers and support.
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Another week gone. It has been a busy week full of challenges and confusion. It has been a week when we could easily panic and probably did. But it has been a week when we have been conscious of the Lord speaking to us and gently leading us. Maybe we don't know all of the answers just yet, and we would like to, but we're quietly trusting that God knows best. We can easily just move from day to day, these little shake ups in our lives and ministry are never welcome but so often needed to just remind us to have faith. We don't need to fear tomorrow because God is already there.
Thank you for praying for William as he took the prayer meeting last week. The Lord helped him and certainly it was a timely message and appreciated by some who were there. Pray for him as he prepares for his next meeting. This week we would like to ask you to pray for some financial needs which FML has at the moment. As you know, we don't particularly find it easy to share on this subject. We know that God knows the need, but very often we are asked for specific amounts from prayer partners. With the holidays, we have not had many meetings lately and of course it's an expensive time for people and so gift wise not too much has come in lately which can be used for general expenses in the work. Here are a few of the most pressing needs. These are either already overdue or are due within the next week. (Transfer fees to Africa are in addition to these amounts) Rent for offices £250.00 Allowances for local African workers £140.00 Petty Cash to allow for travel within Kenya and Uganda to distribute lessons and Bibles £100 Insurance instalment £42.00 As you can see these are general expenses that we incur every month before we do any ministry at all. We appreciate those who give financially and it is never taken for granted. Please consider making a donation to help with this urgent needs. Any amount, no matter how small, is significant and much appreciated. Maybe you would like to take one of these regular needs upon your heart but the amount is just too much for you. Please feel free to just give want you are able, even if it is just a few pounds each month. It all helps. Donations can be made via this web page, bank transfer, standing order, cash or cheque. Contact us for more details. Remember, if you are a tax payer in the UK, you can also sign up for gift aid and this will add to your donation at no cost to yourself. Of course you can also help add to our funds by donating unwanted clothes etc. Please also pray on regarding our next trip. Many are asking when we are going. Flights are priced very well at the moment, perhaps the cheapest we have ever seen them since we began travelling to Africa. The down side is that flights have to be paid in full at the time of booking and at the moment we do not have the required amount. Please pray that God will provide. As soon as He does, we will be able to book. I hope you understand and appreciate why we have shared these needs today. We continue to value your prayers and the support you have shown us until this day. We thank God that Joyce has been able to distribute some Bibles and we are just waiting on photographs to be sent through to us. We are looking forward to seeing them.
Eunice has been very busy in the office in Nairobi and we ask for your continued prayers for her. Pray for William as he will be speaking at a prayer meeting later this week. Pray that the Lord will help him in final preparations and will use him for His glory. Over the weekend William and I had a few days away at the Coast to celebrate our First Wedding Anniversary. We had a lovely time away and indeed we have had a very blessed year. We went for a few walks and on Friday evening we took the photograph below of a really beautiful sunset. It just reminded us of the closing of the day and how the Word of God tells us to work while it is day....the night cometh when no man can work. What a privilege to be in the work of the Lord and serving Him. What does God want you to do in His work? As far as FML ministry goes, yesterday was definitely a highlight for 2015. Thank you so much for praying for us as we shared with the Kenyan children who had come to Northern Ireland for the weekend. They and their families now live in England and had come over for a few days. William and I had prepared as much as we could and we were very conscious that we needed the Lord's help. We had been told there would be 10 children ranging in age from 1 up to 15. Sure enough this was the group we had to work among. The 15 year old had now turned 16 and the 1 year old stayed with his parents so that left 9 children ranging from age 3 to age 16. It was a challenge to prepare a programme which would somehow be age appropriate for them all. We wanted to include the 3 year olds without excluding the oldest of the group. There were two other challenges. One was the length of time the programme was to last. Two and a half hours! We felt a little restricted because it was a Sunday and this influenced us in our planning. Some quizzes we felt weren't appropriate and also some crafts. Finally, the other challenge was that we didn't really know the background to the children. Would we be teaching typically Kenyan children or would it feel like we were teaching English children? It does make a difference! What we did discover was that we were teaching a lovely group of well mannered, enthusiastic children and young people who, although living in England, have not lost their identity as being Kenyan. It was lovely to talk with them about life in both England and Kenya. Some had lived in Kenya, some have other been there for holidays and some have never been there....but they knew plenty about the country. It was refreshing to talk to people here in the UK who understood both sides that we experience. Normally people in Kenya don't understand life here in the UK.....people here in the UK don't totally understand life in Kenya. These children understood both! We enjoyed this. We arrived about 25 minutes before we were due to start at 10am. We had managed to plan a full programme for the two and a half hours. It went so fast. We enjoyed it so much and we believe the children did too. The Lord really led and guided us in the planning more than we had realised. So much of what we included was so appropriate and we managed to include all ages. The children were so mature and the older ones were very understanding of the younger boys and girls. The two oldest, aged 16 and 13 were able to help us by holding up choruses. This meant William was able to get some photos and video as I was playing the keyboard for the singing. We knew we were with Kenyan children when they started clapping!!! The two favourite choruses were "I believe the Bible" and "1,2,3 Jesus loves me" Both contain basic Biblical truths which can be expanded upon and both are quite easy to learn which meant the little ones were able to join in quite easily. We also sang "Far, Far into Europe." Our Bible Lesson was the story of Paul's conversion. A good Gospel lesson. Our quiz questions were all about the story. The game was concentration....pictures face down which had to matched in pairs when a question was answered. The pictures were scenes from the dvd which we shared. This was the true story of Samuel Morris. He was a young boy from Liberia, Africa who went to American to learn more about the Bible. When there he played a part in saving a university from closure and was the means of many trusting the Lord as Saviour and returning to Africa as missionaries. It was not a story we had previously been familiar with but we ourselves were challenged by it. The children loved the story and continued discussing it amongst themselves afterwards as they completed worksheets and colouring pages based on the story. Of course, the fact the young boy was of African origin made it very personal to them. It was definitely the Lord's leading that we shared that particular story. John 3 : 16 was our memory verse. Having a long programme gave us the opportunity to spend a lot of time on this verse and they learnt it well even though it is long. They enjoyed the use of a bean bag....whoever it was thrown to had to say the next word of the verse. As well as the words we used pictures to illustrate the verse which really helped the younger ones to memorise it and added to the variety. The verse was reinforced at the end when we gave a gift pack to each child which, amongst other items included a Gospel tract and bookmarker which both had John 3 : 16 printed on them. Following the meeting we were able to have lunch with the entire group who were there. This included the parents of the children and others. It was wonderful and for a few hours we felt we were in Kenya. If ever there was any doubt that we are called to work with Kenyan children our time yesterday would certainly have reassured us. It was a pleasure and a privilege to minister amongst these boys and girls and to get to know their families. The children were a credit to their parents and to Kenya! Thank you so much for praying. Your efforts were certainly not in vain! (Click on the images below to enlarge them. We hope you can also view the video) |
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August 2022
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