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Dear
Praying Friends,
I want to thank all of
you who have prayed for our dear friend and co-worker Brother Bill
Coley. Bill put up a valiant fight against cancer but the Lord
chose to take him to his eternal heavenly home on Thursday morning.
There will be a memorial service on Wednesday. Our beloved friend
will be greatly missed in the work here in Kenya. Please
pray for Bill's wife Jane and their children at this time.
We have completed the first term in the college and
our students will be taking their final exams this coming week. Please
pray that each will do his/her very best.
Much of our week was spent sorting out some things
and packing for furlough. On Friday, before our prayer meeting, we
went to visit Jeremiah and his family. They live down a long narrow
lane but Daniel was able to back our van down the lane and right
next to their gate so I didn't have to walk very far over the rough
ground. During church soul winning on Saturday, three young
men trusted in the Lord. Please pray for spiritual growth for Andrew,
Thomas and Moses. After visitation/soul winning we had the
teams over for pizza and fellowship as a way to thank and encourage
them for covering for us while we will be away.
Sunday I preached on "Calling Disciples" from Mark
3:13-15 and related passages. The message was a challenge
regarding our Theme for the year - Uwe Mwanafunzi Moja - "Be a
disciple". I felt great liberty and guidance of the Holy
Spirit as I preached and, at the invitation, when I asked who
needed to trust Christ for salvation, Jane Njeri not only raised
her hand, but when I looked at her she pointed to herself! Sue came
up from the children's class and was able to lead Jane to faith in
Christ. Please pray that Jane will continue faithful to church
and that she will exhibit spiritual growth in the months ahead.
We had excellent attendance again this week with twenty-five in the
worship service and thirty-six in children's church. It was a
special blessing to see Mr. Wandani (saved last week) come to
church. When I talked to him he was very thankful that we started
our church and brought the truth of the Bible to his village.
We have seen six precious souls come to Christ in
just over a week. I really would like to stay in Kenya and oversee
our follow-up ministry to them - but I am also confident that the
Halsteads and our college students will do a good job in our
absence.
FURLOUGH PLANS: We
expect to arrive in the States this coming Friday, March 25. We
will spend the first couple of weeks enjoying our home church and
getting ready to travel. We will begin furlough meetings in
mid-April and our schedule is full - except for several Wednesday
nights. We will not be able to report to as many of our supporting
churches as we had hoped - but we will do what we can.
LAND FOR TRINITY BAPTIST UPDATE:
We have again seen a large
increase in the cost of building materials, especially cement and
all forms of steel. I still hope to build a church building
when we return from furlough but may have to delay a bit if costs
have not come down. For now, our chicken coop building works well
for the church services.
In Kenya for Christ,
Rick, Sue, Aaron and Daniel Simonsen
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