July update from Julia Seymour
Greetings in Jesus Christ’s name,
At the moment I am in Scotland having my yearly break. Prior to this I was in Western Kenya, near Lake Victoria, at the Nangina Church. This is a young church I helped start two and a half years ago. I wrote to you in one of my news letters last year about this church and told you it was struggling and asked you to pray for it. Well your prayers have been answered: the church is growing and now appears healthy.
When the Nangina church was started many people said a church could not succeed in this place for many had tried and had failed. When the church building was first erected it was revealed it had been built directly over an altar to satan. This year the locals have been opening up to Lawrence the Pastor saying they are pleased that the church has purchased this plot of land because many bad things have happenned there: animals were slaughtered and many people raped, it was a dangerous place.
One of the first converts to Christ was Joseph, a man feared by the community: he was a devil worshipper and used to call up the spirits of his ancestors. Joseph’s life was totally changed by God. This man has become an evangelist: while I was there he was continually bringing people to church for prayer so they could come to know Jesus and be set free by Him. All these people came because they said they could see the change in Joseph’s life and they wanted what he had. One of these people was his mother, she previously had been very frightened of him: Joseph would periodically chase her out of her home and around the village brandishing a panga - a large flat bladed tool and or weapon used for almost anything that needed cutting from grass to branches off trees or killing people.
Joseph’s relationship with his his wife, Praskila, has changed considerably: previously he treated her very badly and with contempt - one thing was that she had to cook his meals take them to the table and place them before him, then return to the kitchen and eat her meals there. If she took her meal also to the table and sat down Joseph would not eat or say a word but just sit there angrily glaring at her until she picked up her plate and went back to the kitchen. After 9 years she could take no more of his behavious, she left him and went to Nairobi. Praskila, a Christain, went to 2 different churches in Nairobi and both Pastors told her to go back to her husband because he needed her, she returned to Joseph. She was rewarded by his becoming a Christian! Joseph stood up next to his wife, in front of the church, and declared that he loved his wife and that they had never known such happiness. In Africa a man does not sit or stand next to his wife let
alone say in public that he loves her! Nothing is impossible with our God!
Joseph went to all the people in the village that he had been having problems with (most of the people) and asked them to forgive him for anything he had done to them; they all invited him into their houses and ate and drank with him. Joseph said that he now knew what the problem had been in the village: it was him!
Thank you for all your prayers and support.
God bless you,
Your sister in Christ,
Julia.