God seems very clearly to have gone before our team into Kenya in recent weeks. In response to an invitation from church leaders there, we traveled to Bondo, Utawala, and then Kibera, a slum outside Nairobi. Everywhere we’ve gone, the response has been enthusiastic. Thank you to all our supporters–we could not continue this important and fruitful work without your support!
Our work in Kenya continues this month as Carrie Miles and Donell Peck will travel to Kenya next week, joining Frank Tweheyo and Pam Frohreich, who are teaching there Oct. 5-7.
Our team taught in Bondo and in the area around Nairobi last month.
Empower did a large training in Bondo in 2012, and was invited back to do more of the training. Bondo, located near Lake Victoria, is an eight-hour drive away from Nairobi.
In September, Empower Missionary Wayne Pelly traveled to Kenya to present New Man, New Woman, New Life with our Africa Program Director Frank Tweheyo for the Bondo Mother’s Union.
Frank and his wife, Phobice, had traveled to Kenya in June of this year, and were quite well received, which opened doors for Frank to return, accompanied by Wayne Pelly. The June seminar and subsequent clergy training was hosted by St. Monica Utawala Parish, the church of Rev. Captain Jackmoris Wachira. (Read about that trip here.)
They were invited by Elizabeth Angela, the wife of the Anglican Bishop of Bondo, Johannes Angela. Elizabeth, who is also called Mama (Mrs. or Madam in many African languages) Bishop, is traditionally the president of the diocesan Mother’s Union, the auxiliary organization for women who are married in the church and a strong source of female leadership.
Then Wayne spoke at the Ekklesia Foundation for Gender Equality annual conference, also held in Bondo.
Frank and Wayne then spoke at Utawala Deliverance Church in Utawala, where the response to the teaching was profound.
Each day, more and more people came, as word spread about the teaching.
Wayne reported to us via email: “Our Utawala Deliverance Church seminar seems to have hit a nerve, with attendance doubling between days one and two, and then growing even more to day three, to about 42 total.”
Wayne and Frank also visited other churches and presented brief overviews of the training. As a result, there is great interest in holding a master class in Nairobi.
Frank and Wayne had originally been scheduled to present the seminar for members of the Kenyan Air Force at the end of their trip. However, as often happens, plans changed. They ended up teaching to a different group, pastors working in the Kibera slum.
This one mile square area outside of Nairobi is home to an estimated 1 million people, living in abject poverty. It is the largest urban slum in all of Africa. Again, we found a receptive audience there.
Wayne is on his way back to the United States, but our work in Kenya will continue this month.
Pam Frohreich and Frank begin NMNW at Teen Challenge on Oct 5. Carrie and Donell Peck plan to travel to Nairobi this week and will arrive for the last day of the Teen Challenge seminar.
Carrie had originally plan to travel to Kenya next spring, but moved the trip up after the enthusiastic response Frank’s work received there last June. Rev. Captain Jackmoris was very interested in having us return.
Carrie and Donell will conduct a master class training (training past graduates of the seminar in how to train others in that same material.) Those who’ve experienced the seminar once before in how to train others. For this particular presentation, Carrie and Donell will be blending the New Man, New Woman, New Life seminar with Carrie’s material on Redeeming the Changing Family. They will also meet with the Anglican Bishop of Nairobi, who was very interested in the material when Frank presented it in June, and has requested that all the priests in his diocese receive a copy of the talk.
Please pray for all the teams traveling, and for our ability to touch the hearts and minds and meet the needs of our partners.