Kenya Missions: Thank you for your Partnership in the Gospel for my Nov/Dec trip!
Mission Trip Highlights and Thank You!
Pastor Brad Abley: Biblical Educator and Religious Broadcaster
Isaiah 6:8 /
“Here I am, send me!” … /
Isaiah 6:8 / “Here I am, send me!” … /
With a grateful heart, I thank you for fulfilling Isaiah 6:8 in sending me on this trip!! Thank you for your generous financial donations, which made this trip possible. Your prayers were the foundation of this trip. Your Partnership in the Gospel is invaluable to God and to myself & Maureen.
Trip Highlights!
First, the church in Kenya is overwhelmingly grateful to you for sending me to minister to them and they specifically asked me to share that with you!
By God's grace and through the prayers of many, I can say that the church was greatly encouraged, built up in their faith, and rooted and grounded in the truth of God's Word — but these essential ways of ministry in Kenya are largely absent. I see this and hear this every time I go there.
Pastors and church leaders were equipped with sound doctrine — in the fruit and power of the Holy Spirit — and I heard repeatedly from all believers and church leaders in Siaya and in Nairobi that the approach and those things I taught them are ways and matters they just don’t get.
However, these ways of modeling reverence for the Word of God and of Christlikeness were “caught,” and they were and are eager to adopt them. Answered prayer!
I want to emphasize that on that last point, it is the grace of God and the prayers of God's people, plus decades of trials, tribulation, and afflictions which have enabled me to get to this point for others.
It was also an excellent reminder to me — in “living color” — as it were, of why I go there. The teaching and preaching there is very shallow, biblically ignorant (their words), far too often very fleshly, and usually without a genuine heart for the saved or the unsaved. I often pointed out to them that they’re so used to these things that they don’t realize what’s happening, until an “outsider” comes in.
But to further establish credibility and therefore effectiveness of ministry — to enable them to change — we witnessed at least 102 responses to a salvation invitation and about 200 responses of those who recommitted their lives to the Lord for those who had straight away from him.
I was believing God for a minimum of 300 salvations, but perhaps that 300 number was what He had in mind.
Photos below of responses to my salvation invitation!
“Everywhere I went and in every venue I taught, the response was always, how soon can you return?! ”
I always like to share with you how much your giving encourages Maureen and me and builds our faith, and it certainly did once again, for this trip! Thank you so much.
And little did I know how much your giving would encourage me and stir me to keep going while I was there; this trip was harder on me physically and therefore emotionally than any other trip that I've gone on that I can recall — even the trip to Uganda when I caught malaria.
I lost my passport and that was highly unnerving. It wasn't until a day later that I realized I left my passport at a local bank, when I exchanged US dollars for Kenya Shillings. When I returned a day later the same teller had put it away securely. He forgot to give it to me after the financial exchange and I didn't realize that he didn't give it to me. The distress on that one was enormous.
My left hearing aid went out at the very beginning of the ministry trip, and that also brought enormous distress, because Kenyans by nature are soft-spoken — and if they don't speak English well — the accent is difficult enough on me.
2/3 of one of my molar teeth broke off! I believe it was the grace of God that kept the tooth from getting infected and from pain. Otherwise, we would have had to have driven an hour plus a way to Kisumu to go to a dentist — and that would have consumed an entire day of ministry.
Let's just say I had more than my share of intestinal issues, both ways!
Sleep was horrible for all but one or two nights.
The heat and humidity seem to be worse than ever, and that led to dehydration every day, which also caused dry mouth — a huge hurdle to overcome — as I preached and taught nearly every day, several times a day.
The second week I was there, those who hosted conferences or other gatherings made numerous mistakes; hence some events didn’t happen or they were very late. Most disappointing of all was a large Youth rally I was to speak at, evangelistically. The event planners got the date wrong — setting it for a week after I left...This brought more challenges to me.
I never did make it to the State House in Nairobi! Both of the Sunday Dec 3rd events in Nairobi happened offsite at the Federal Government Secret Service Compound. I was told I would be doing a crusade in the afternoon, but it only ended up being a second service.
The list is actually longer than this, but so as not to bore you, I will leave it at that! I say all this not to complain, but simply to report and to give you an idea of what went on — positive and negative.
I've already been praying about what the Lord wants next for year 2024 and at this point, it isn't clear to me, yet, except I have invitations to return in April and in November to the annual conference, which Pastor Paul is planning for 5,000 attendees.
But what is clear is the gratitude Maureen and I have for you in sharing in this ministry and enabling me to do all that you enable me to do! I praise God for you. Thank you for your Partnership in the Gospel in year 2023!
Thanks so much for helping send the GOSPEL to Africa and Beyond!
“A Heart After God, Bible Teaching Ministry: Reaching Africa & Beyond!”
