Another week and your prayers have been much appreciated.
Eunice was able to forward us up to date information regarding Bibles. We now have total numbers needed for distribution over the coming months. We will explain more in the coming weeks. The good news is that she is now ready to distribute just over 300 Bibles. These have already been allocated. If your group is amongst those who will receive from this batch, Eunice will be in contact with you. Joyce has continued with the work, but still has been unable to travel to the centres as hoped as funds still have not come in for this need. Please pray that this will be possible before the end of the month. Please also consider giving to Feed my Lambs on a regular monthly basis. Little and often can really help. William and I have really appreciated your prayers for us over this past week. We are tired now as there has been so much on and we have a full programme for another few weeks. However, we are excited and enjoying serving God. This past week we made a lot of progress in planning and making final decisions for the anniversary service. Most invitations have been posted with only a few more to be sent out tomorrow God willing. We will work some more on the presentation tomorrow during the day and again in the evening as we work alongside someone else and hopefully that will be it complete. We will then be working on the Orders of Service and some other issues for the meeting. On Friday evening we really enjoyed sharing in a local children's meeting. This involved a lot of preparation and we certainly felt the pressure as we got ready; but we enjoyed our time with the children so much and the leaders really got involved and showed a genuine interest in the work. We thank God for this great encouragement. On Saturday we took a train to meet up with a contact we had made. We found ourselves praying and having discussions with a Ugandan, a Nigerian, a Zambian, a Syrian and two people from here in Northern Ireland. It is amazing how being saved creates a bond between people from all over the world. We were really encouraged that God opened this door for us and we are excited about the possibilities. Pray that the Lord will guide us all in the coming days in regards to opportunities. Again this is now seeing the working out of something which started a few years ago. God's time is perfect. Pray on for our contact with the Kenyan folk here in Northern Ireland as well. We have just been put in touch with a Kenyan lady who has already given us a lot of information which will be helpful to us in the near future and which is something we have been praying about for some time now. Also this past week we were blessed to share in our monthly meeting in the Nursing Home. God really helped and we pray that the residents and indeed the staff will be saved. Pray for us this week as we finalise anniversary meeting arrangements and put together and print the Order of Service; as we try to begin writing a prayer letter; as we prepare for a house meeting later in the week; as we prepare for a meeting in a Nursing Home next week; for William as he continues with some research regarding a future ministry and for the everyday administration which needs to be kept up to date. Pray that we will be clearly guided, strengthened and refreshed in the days to come. Again, may I remind you to RSVP if you are able to come to our anniversary service. We will be revealing some new ministries so please do attend if you can.
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What a blessed 10 years it has been. There have been good times and hard times, challenges and changes, but through it all God's call has remained and children have been saved. Please make every effort to join us to give thanks to God for all He has done and hear how He has been leading for the future. If you haven't already done so, you can use the RSVP form below to let us know you are intending to come. This would be very much appreciated and of great help to us. (Don't forget to continue reading the blog below the form!) Please pray for us as we continue to prepare for the anniversary meeting. There is still a lot to do. On that evening, we would like to bring you up to date on the total number of Bibles currently needed. We have already received final numbers from Joyce. Please pray for Eunice in our Nairobi office as she goes through the records once more to confirm her numbers.
Both ladies currently have a lot of marking. In particular, Joyce is very busy at the moment finishing marking lessons. The academic year is coming to a close and many children are moving on to new Schools. It is important that lessons are completed. There are also a number of centres which require a visit from Joyce this month. As yet, she has not been able to travel due to lack of funds for transport. Please pray that God will provide and enable her to travel. This is very important. Thank you for remembering the AGM with our Kenyan friends. We thank God for friendships we have made and for our involvement. After much prayer, and discussion with William over the past few months, I had felt that I wouldn't be standing for re-election to the committee. I enjoyed meeting up with the group on Saturday; but, in an unexpected turn of events, the Election of Officers was postponed until December. However, I felt that I needed to stand by my original decision and so I have stepped down from the Committee. William and I are still members of the group and look forward to doing our part and all we can to help the organisation in that capacity. Thank you also for praying for the meeting we were speaking at with a view to a more long term outreach. It went really well and we thank God for His help. We are now just praying over everything and waiting on some more feedback and advice as to the next step. Pray that we will be guided very clearly and know the mind of God in this venture. Pray for a meeting we are involved in tomorrow evening. William will be leading the service and has organised for a missionary to come and speak. I will be playing the organ and thank God that I can help in this way. In a few days William and I will be taking a children's meeting in a local Church. Whilst preparation for the anniversary service has advanced this week quicker than we had anticipated; which is good; preparation for the children's meeting has been slower. There is still quite a lot to do and we really would value your prayers that everything falls into place. Also this week we have our monthly meeting in the Old People's Nursing Home. A message needs to be prepared for that. Also, as of last month, we are now pre-recording our singing and music. This means we have a lot less equipment to bring to the meeting with us. Once all of our music sheets are recorded it will mean less work for us; but, until that time, we have to spend time doing the recordings. We aren't quite sure when this will fit in this week, but we ask you to pray regarding it. A few years ago we were put in contact with someone here with a view to possible ministry. Due to various circumstances, only a few emails were exchanged and we never actually met. Recently, contact has been renewed and we are looking forward to meeting with him this week to discuss various issues and also to see some of the work he is involved in. If this opens up we will share more with you, but for now, please do pray that God will lead and guide concerning this. The month of October and the beginning of November are totally booked out. We have had to turn down meetings and other ministry opportunities, simply because the calendar is full. From now until the first week in November we have only 1 evening per week "free". Free as in nothing programmed in as yet but very much full as there is so much preparation to do. There is also a Gospel Mission being held in our Church which we would hope to attend on those "free" evenings, but unfortunately it will be limited due to the number of bookings we had taken before we knew about the mission. Next task today is to try and get our postal invitations out for the anniversary. Pray that it will be possible to get this completed quickly and efficiently. Finally, yesterday we submitted our application to the charity commission. Thank you so much for praying for us as we put together the information needed. Please pray that this will all go through without any problem. While it is hard to miss out on things and to have to say "no" at times.... it is also encouraging and exciting that we have so many opportunities to serve God. Thank you for praying for us. We trust you will continue to stand with us. As a follow up to last week's blog we are really happy that our new system for those studying our Child Protection Course has worked really well. So far, only one student has been moved over to the new system, but we are pleased with the progress so far. The student was able to receive his marked assignments and the next one to complete via a private page on our website. He has also been able to complete his next assignment and upload it back to the site for us to receive. We thank God for His help in this very practical way and trust that other students will also find it an easy and beneficial system as we slowly migrate them over. It has been a week of working on our website. We have been asked numerous times lately if it is possible to sign up for regular giving via our website. So, in response to these requests we have spent quite a number of hours working on the website and this facility has now been made possible. The page for signing up to support us by Direct Debit also has the option to make a one off gift. It is also possible to select to Gift Aid your donation. As this is new, we have a link from our home page or you can read all about it by clicking HERE. The system has been tested and this morning our first supporter; using this method; has signed up. They have said it was very easy to use and we appreciate their feedback. If you don't already support us on a regular basis (eg. monthly) we would encourage you to do this. It really helps us and makes planning so much easier. Even small amounts like £5 a month really do make a difference. By using the online system, you can sign up for the amount and frequency of your choice and select the very day you would like to give. It really is a simple process which helps more than we can explain. If you are already supporting us by Standing Order, there is no need to change to this unless you prefer to do so. We thank God for His provision through another month. Praise God our rent for the Nairobi office has been sent today on time. We also have the rent for our Malaba office and it will be transferred by the end of the week. We do, however, really need funds for transport to enable both Eunice and Joyce to travel to ministries. This is essential. We are also in need of application forms to be printed as a matter of urgency....these are costing £96 for 500 or £154 for 1000. Quite a number of centres have expressed their wish to enroll children and are waiting now on these forms. Please help with this need if you feel led to do so. Otherwise please do pray for God's provision. We thank God for more children enrolled this past week. One Pastor who we met at a seminar in July in Kenya, is really keen to use our lessons in Schools and we were really encouraged to hear this week of 100 children now registered. He is awaiting feedback from another Principal. Please pray that he will find good favour as he visits these Schools and seeks to gain entrance to share the Word of God. This week we will join with the Kenyan Association here in Northern Ireland for their AGM. William and I are both members and have been involved for a few years; with myself currently being a committee member. Pray that all involved will know help in preparation for the meeting and that God will be glorified in everything which will be discussed. We would also ask you to pray for another meeting we have this week. An idea was put to us quite a number of months ago and we have been praying regarding the possibility of this new ministry. We discussed it with our team while in Kenya and have been planning quite a bit since then. This week, we will be having our first "exploratory" meeting. We are reluctant to say much more at this stage; simply because it is "exploratory". However, if all goes well, which we hope it does, we trust this will be the start of something quite exciting; and something which we will be able to share more about at our anniversary meeting at the end of October. Please pray that God will undertake in every aspect of this meeting and that we will very clearly know His leading regarding decisions which need to be made. Finally, it is October..... so our Anniversary meeting to give thanks for 10 years of Feed my Lambs is coming soon. We are expecting to receive our printed invitations within the next few days. Do please pray for us as we distribute these. We would love you to come. For catering purposes it would be helpful if you could let us know if you plan to attend. For this purpose, please feel free to use the RSVP form below. The meeting is at 8pm on Friday 28th October in The Baptist Centre, (Brownstown Hall), Brownstown Road, Portadown, BT62 4EB. It would be wonderful to see you. Many thanks again for standing with us in the place of prayer. |
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August 2022
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