What am I doing from June 5th - 24th?

I’m glad you asked that question. I’m going to Kenya!

Well, a lot has happened recently to change the nature of the trip this June. Dennis Omondi the Denton Bible Missionary whose hometown is Mombasa, Kenya had to come home early. Dennis planned on being involved in our trip and taking us and 8 of the leaders in the college ministry in Mombasa to Western Kenya for a mission trip / work project there. But the laws of immigration and marriage has called him to the states early, and it would be unwise to travel within Kenya without a Kenyan.

So, our plans now are to go to Mombasa, then after a day or two of planning and resting from the 3 days & 4 planes of travel, we will meet up with 8 of the leaders of the college ministry and go to Word of Life, a youth camp on the Indian Ocean about 30 minutes south of Mombasa. These Kenyans are students or just out of college. Some have been saved for a while, others more recently, but all have a lot to learn about the daily Christian life and walk. It is our team’s goal to model the Christian life for them through living life with them, taking them through a curriculum (The Timothy Principle – based from the Navigators 2:7 material by Roy Robertson), becoming their friends, peers, disciplers and guides. It is our hope that the things they hear and see from us will be taken into practice and passed down to all of the people involved in the college ministry in Mombasa. Because this is our main ministry, we will be spending every morning over the next 8 days with our ministry partners. I will be meeting with Moses who has been involved in the college ministry for 2 years now and will be part of the core leadership team in the fall. His favorite soccer team is Manchester United (I just realized that if I’m going to be a missionary, I must know and appreciate SOCCER – I’ll be working on that). I hope to get to know him, love him, show him how I live life and teach him in areas of leadership and Bible study methods. I could share with you about the other people that each one of my team members are paired up with, but I’d rather tell you about that when I really know them and have pictures to accompany my words.

In the afternoons we will be doing a service project for the Word of Life camp as well as visiting an elementary school to share Christ with the kids there one afternoon. The idea for these 8 days is to be with these key leaders of the college ministry ALL THE TIME! We will read with them, pray, hang out, eat, serve, work, play, sleep, everything. This is the discipleship that Jesus displayed with the apostles and I am excited to follow in that pattern at least for a few days. Perhaps it will urge me on to following His pattern much more closely and consistently?

After that, the Kenyans will go home and we will return to Mombasa to debrief. Some may say, well at this point ministry is over right? Not at all. Because since the first team meeting in April, discipleship has been happening. This debriefing time will be a key time for my team to think about God, missions, discipleship, service, and ministry in a whole new light. Recently I’ve come to realize that mission trips can be very similar to Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. He was riding along the road minding his own business, and all of a sudden knocked off his horse. When he looks up, he sees Jesus face to face. Missions can have a profound effect on a believer. It is like getting slapped in the face or knocked off a horse to find you are staring at the face of your Lord and things have never been so clear.

Coming Soon: a Prayer Calendar with dates and suggested prayer topics.