Dear family in Christ, will you praise God with us for the Kingdom progress made in July and August and pray for the road ahead? We are counting on your prayers!
Praises
Please join us in praising God for:
A very successful trip to Kenya. (see below for a full report)
Connecting us with new training resources and methods (CHE, DBS, LePSAS, … see below for more)
Providing the prayer support and financial resources for us to make the trip, experience the training and put it to use!
Providing a grant for, and the successful installation of a solar and battery system in Sagana. I will report more details in another update, but it is going to save us a lot of money for many, many years to come!
Prayer Requests
Would you pray with us that:
God continues to provide prayer support and funding? We have exciting projects in the works that we think can make a huge impact – but we are operating on a very tiny buffer, so we are completely dependent on God’s future provision through your faithful prayers and financial support to take further steps.
God gives us wisdom on which projects and trips to prioritize? We have lots of projects in the works in both Kenya and Nicaragua, as well as requests to give reports to US partners.
We are ALL faithful to do our part, on all sides of the relational bridge?
We really want to challenge the Kenyans to step up to do their part of sharing the things they learn with others (including the gospel of grace!) – and implementing what they are learning. And we want to lean into OUR role, to come alongside in a healthy mutual relationship – NOT playing the hero and enabling and reinforcing the old dependency model.
Besides praying (which is MOST important) … what else can YOU do to help?
Help us recruit more Prayer Warriors! Forward this email to someone who you think might be interested in partnering with us! Who do you know that you could forward this email to?
If someone forwarded this to you – please consider subscribing to our email updates!
Prayerfully consider making a donation! Is the Lord calling you to participate through giving to God’s work through CrossWay International? Please consider partnering with us to Show, Tell and Teach God’s love and spread the Gospel of Gracearound the world!
God can use even a small gift to make a huge impact! Thanks!
While Melissa and I were in Kenya this summer, we had the privilege of being a part of four generations of learning which happened in just 5 short weeks. Below is an overview, followed by more details on what happened each week.
Week 1: We RECEIVED training in CHE, LePSAS and DBS methodology.
Week 2: We converted some of the key content of our existing material about loving one another in marriage, over to this new format. Meanwhile, Jason taught a Music & Bible Conference and we did a large group evangelism outreach through a soccer championship.
Week 3: We trained some of our key Kenyan leaders to teach the material in this new format.
Week 4: We sent our Kenyan coworkers out to train other Kenyans (in Isinya and Kyamathyaka)
Week 5: The key leaders in THOSE communities told us they were confident they would be able to pass this teaching along to others.
Week 1: We Received Instruction
CHE Kenya TOT Level 2 Class
CrossWay Team who attended:
Moses, Jason, Melissa, Edith, Isaac
Morning Devotions using “Discovery Bible Study” method
Lessons taught in CHE/LePSAS method
You can read more about our experience and some of what we learned about Community Health Evangelism, Discovery Bible Studies, LePSAS methodology and more in this blog post:
Moses, Edith, Isaac & Tabitha heading out to train!
Location of Training Sites: Isinya & Kyamathyaka
Then, WE stayed behind (and got some office work done), and sent our Kenyan team to teach the conferences.
Why, after traveling all the way to Kenya, did we not go along?
1) They didn’t need us. They were fully trained, and we are trying to REDUCE dependence and an unhealthy reliance on “foreign experts”.
2) They were MORE effective WITHOUT us! Why?
-Whenever foreigners are present, local folks have learned to anticipate the possibility of foreign money and experts coming in to assess and solve their problems. Our presence would have been a distraction. -Our Kenyan team could teach directly in their language and cultural context.
You can cover twice as much material when you don’t have to translate everything. And it avoids confusion. Even if the group speaks some English, it’s KENYAN English, not American English.
We were so proud of them being ready and willing to go without us! And the reports we got back were GREAT!
Discussing Relational Needs in Marriage in Kyamathyaka
I think my favorite quote was from one of the women at the training in Isinya who said, without being prompted, “I believe I can use this way of teaching, to help others learn what I have learned.”
We are looking for long term partners in Kenya who are committed to passing along what they have learned. Two days was not enough time to cover all 10 Relational Needs, but we taught them how to use the outlines to go through the remaning four lessons that are left in the series, on their own. We have encouraged them to complete the remaining lessons and report back to us on their impact and how things went.
IF they finish going through the material, and IF they begin passing it on to others – THEN we hope to send our team back and help the groups in Isinya and Kyamathyaka to train them more fully in how to share these lessons with other churches and other nearby communities. We are hoping that they catch the vision to put what they have learned into practice, and immediately pass it on to others.
