A team of 7 from the UK left for Mombasa on Monday 11th July for the Barnabas Mission to Kenya. (Clive, Ann & Grace McIntyre, Michael Woodger, Pamela Holloway and Abigail Meakins, went for two weeks and David Senior went for the first week only). Staying in different accommodation but joining the mission for the same two weeks were 4 from Romania (Dan & Cristina Porut with
their son, Matei who is nearly 3 plus Florenta Vilau).
During the first week, activities included visits to Pastor Doreen’s lunch time church meetings, a local orphanage, the New Life Church Sunday meeting, Door to door visits and open-air evangelistic outreach. Erasto and his wife, Eget, travelled from Nairobi to join us. A lovely couple, both originally from Congo and only recently married, their praise and worship was well received at many of the events and in particular at the open-air meetings where they performed as the guest singers. During the second week, further door to door visits were made, which were followed by the showing of films at the church. The first evening, the Jesus film was presented in Swahili (2 hours long) and Part 1 of the Moses film was shown the following evening. It was lovely the way in which those watching the films appreciated the miracles of Jesus and His resurrection by clapping and cheering. There were Revival Meetings for two consecutive evenings and a special evening for Couples on the final Saturday. After a talk, testimony and games, which included attempts to identify partners by feeling only their hands whilst blindfolded, everyone was treated to a Romanian meal. The Romanians, dressed in National Costume, served the meal they had prepared and while everyone was eating, sang Romanian songs and presented a slide-show of pictures of Romania. That same Saturday, in the morning, a number of the team organised activities for the children. Over 100 children from the Bokole area came to the church site
for games, juice and an animated film about Jesus. On the final Sunday, the team split so that two church meetings could be attended, one being New Life.
Most of our programme (all except Pastor Doreen’s in Mombasa town and the orphanage on the other side of town) was based around the church and plot of land in Bokole, outreaching to the local community there.
Throughout the mission, members of the team were involved with preaching, teaching, sharing personal testimonies, dramas and prayer ministry. It was evident from our home visits around Bokole that the church has become known and accepted there. An active evangelistic team is having a great impact on locals living in the community and during our visits, many were willing and ready to receive Jesus as their personal saviour. We were
also encouraged to see a number of people attend church meetings who had recommitted themselves to the Lord during the home visits.
We were encouraged to see the progress that is being made by New Life Church. Apart from the obvious impact on the local community and the apparent spiritual changes taking place, it was good to see further developments on the plot of land. The well is in place and being used to provide free, clean water to the community and it should not be too long before the hand-pump and protective cover can be installed. The toilet block is structurally finished, waiting to be connected to the water supply and then tiled and painted. Additional panels have been put up on the second half of the roof of the church building and part of the floor area has been concreted. There is still much to do before the full vision for the site is complete, which includes the church, a school and a clinic. We return to the UK determined to help raise further funds to support the ongoing work and development of the Mombasa Community Project.
Thank you to all who lifted us up in prayer while we were away. We praise God for the salvations (over 30) and healings witnessed, for making the mission itself possible, for travelling mercies, for opportunities to strengthen our faith and above all, we thank the Lord for all the great and wondrous things He has done.