Your prayers were answered!
After asking you to Pray for the Kenya Marriage Conferences, with specific requests – God responded:
- We prayed that the expected couples will show up as couples and not singles,
– – and we had almost all complete couples - We prayed that the Lord will speak throughout the seminar.
- We prayed that all will be impacted by the teachings.
- We prayed that marriages will heal where it hurts.
- We prayed that the Lord will use us for his glory.
- We prayed that our health will be good throughout, and we will be at peace as we minister.
– – We heard many testimonies confirming that these things happened. Praise the Lord!
Now that team was backed by your prayers and freshly trained in both:
We (Jason and Melissa) 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!
So, now that they were fully trained and had practice, they were ready to head out:
All packed up in the truck, heading out
Our Training Team:
Moses & Edith – Tabitha & Isaac
Location of Training Sites: Isinya & Kyamathyaka
Discussing Relational Needs in Marriage in Isinya
Leadership team in Isinya
Discussing Relational Needs in Marriage in Kyamathyaka
And the reports we got back were GREAT!
Your prayers were answered!
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.
Will the training end here, or will it keep spreading?
Would you pray with us that it keeps spreading?
