An update from Julia
Greetings to you all,
March and April were spent in Australia catching up with family and friends, making new friends, and also some time in ministry.
On return to Kenya, after 2 weeks in Nairobi, I went to Western Kenya to a place called Nambale, which is near Busia and close to the Ugandan the border. It gave me great joy to see the progress this church had made; I was there 2 years ago and the church had only a few members, it is now a vibrant church with 160 adults and 70 children and many of the members showing strong growth in their walk with the Lord. They have just started another church about 10 ks away. This new church is in a shop, one of a row of shops in a small village. I ministered in the there for 1 week and saw a number of people give their lives to the Lord: all the people in the row of shops committed their lives to Jesus and also the government chief over the area. The 2 motor bike riders who taxied us to and from this church both gave their lives to the Lord on the last day when they dropped us off at the house I was staying at.
Following 3 weeks in Nambale I proceeded to Nangina, about 35 ks South of Busia, to a church I had helped start early last year. Here the church was struggling due to strong spiritual opposition; it was said when the church was started that a church could not succeed in that place. I spent one month with them and the church is again going ahead, praise the Lord! We saw some wonderful miracles there: A lady in the church had 2 children who were very sick in hospital, one about a year old and the other, who was in a coma, about 9 yrs. Pastor had rung me just before I was due to go there asking me to pray for the 2 children, which I did: the youngest was healed straight away and the older one, a girl, came out of the coma but was still very sick. The pastor and I visited the hospital a couple of days after I came to Nangina. When I arrived I was just in time to see the child (Mercy) lifted from one bed to another, she was just like a rag doll giving the
appearance of being unconscious but I was told that she had spoken. I prayed asking the Lord what was happening and He told me that the Mercy had been dedicated to satan when a baby by someone in the village and that he was stopping her receiving healing. Mercy’s mother was a member of the church but the father was in one of the sects. The youngest child who was healed straight after prayer had been dedicated to the Lord, Mercy hadn’t. Mercy was then dedicated to the Lord by the parents and we prayed again for healing. Two days later Mercy was sitting up supported by her mother drinking from a cup that the mother held, another 2 days and she was able to hold the cup herself, 4 days later she was discharged from hospital and 10 days later in church testifying to what God had done! I was told that Mercy loved God and always been keen to go to church. Three days after leaving hospital, a Sunday, she was in tears because her parents would not take her with them to church; they considered it too early for her to go. During Mercy’s illness her father gave his life to the Lord: all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom 8:28)! After Mercy went home the father met one of the hospital’s laboratory technicians who said “You have a very powerful God, to us she was as dead, there was nothing we could do for herâ€. The people in the village also found it very hard to believe what had happened and they had made all necessary preparations for Mercy’s funeral.
The hospital bills were high and Mercy’s father was a farmer and therefore had very little money; he tried to sell his land but no one wanted to buy it, if he could not pay the bill the children would be kept in hospital until it was paid the bill continually getting higher. Thanks to your gifts I was able to pay this bill for them.
Another family your gifts were a blessing to was one that had a boy in his last year at university, the mother’s brother died and the money that should have paid the boys fees had to go for funeral expenses. The boy had to drop out of university but I was able to pay his fees for him and he was able to resume his studies.
A lady came with severe chest pain saying she could no longer work because of the pain. It was revealed that she had lung cancer caused by her inhaling the smoke from the fires they dried the fish on that were caught in Lake Victoria. They burn anything they can lay their hands on and frequently this is plastics. She was prayed for and 5 days later testified in church that she had been totally healed.
A number of ladies came with very young babies saying they had been prayed for last year for infertility. One man who had aids and was infertile a year ago was now fit and well and his wife had a baby daughter while I was there.
People in the Nangina area are saying that the drinking of alcohol has decreased substantially in the area since the church started.
TRULY WE HAVE THE MOST AWESOME GOD!
I met a very interesting animal while I was in Nangina. It was a bit bigger than a mouse, but did not look like a rat nor was it rat size. It was night time the light in my room was on and I was standing about 9 meters from the door when through the door, like a cartoon character, shot this little creature; it almost collided with me, jammed on the brakes, did a rapid about face and shot back out of the door. It was greyish in colour with a tail that looked like a bottle brush, a bit like a squirrel’s tail, hairs of the same length but no where near as many. Five minutes later I heard it above the ceiling busy doing whatever these creatures do in such places. It was a frequent night visitor, I think I had taken over IT’S room. It seemed to have only one speed: flat out, and it was therefore difficult to get a really good look at it.
God bless you and keep you, Your sister in Christ, Julia.