Ministry Newsletter for March and April
I did not get a newsletter out for March, so I am combining March and April. Thank you for your continued prayers and support of the ministry here in western Kenya!
As usual, we have had a lot going on around the mission. Sometimes I do not realize just how much until I sit down and put together a newsletter 😂
The pathways around the primary school are a couple years old and had gotten pretty bed, so some of our boys spent a few hours each Saturday for 3 weeks in March redoing them. We are always thankful to see our kids working together as a team and learning new skills.
Meshack is a new 9th grade student at our high school. He has Keratoconus, a disease of the eye which causes very distorted vision and sensitivity to light. I understand his struggle because I have it too. Glasses can help, but contacts are much better. In my case, after a cornea transplant 15 years ago, I can see 20/20 with special contacts. Meshack comes from a poor family in our village and had never been to an eye doctor. Stephanie and Karson were able to take him to the specialist I see in Nairobi and get him glasses and a contact ordered. We will add a second contact later, God willing, and at some point in the future he made need a cornea transplant to be able to continue seeing. Thanks be to God that by His sovereign plan, he brought Meshack to people who know something about his condition. The providence of God never ceases to amaze me.
Meshack
We are still averaging around 600 people coming to our services every Sunday. We open at 9am for kids to play on the playground, Sunday school classes for both children and adults are at 10am, then the main service is at 11am. We are thankful to be able to serve everyone lunch at 1pm so they are not burdened with trying to find something to eat and get home to cook it late in the afternoon. There was an issue with where we serving all that food from a table outside the kitchen which had our staff out under the sun while serving. Karson solved the problem by building a covered area with a new concrete slab!
The kitchen staff is thankful for this new covered area to serve Sunday lunch from! That is our 19 year-old son Brendan jumping like a madman 🤣
Sunday services are overflowing our pavilion! We are thinking we will need to add another covered area next to this one soon to give us extra seating. It is a good problem to have, as many are hearing Christ proclaimed on a regular basis!
Jacob and Tanya Eaton came for a couple weeks in March to help us get the concrete slab for the high school basketball court poured! This will actually be a multi-purpose space with a high roof and kitchen on the end. There will be a lot of sports played, like basketball and pickle ball, but it will be much more than that! It will serve as the dining hall for the high school students, we will have HS chapel services there (we currently combine the entire school for chapel), HS graduation will be held there, and we will be able to use the space for our annual Bible conference.
This was a Facebook post from Stephanie I did not want you to miss:
Sometimes I see pictures of what is happening at Mercy Ministries and they take my breath away. I remember when we started Mercy Christian Academy and we didn’t have classrooms at all…I was sure we were absolutely crazy and would completely FAIL. But God…it has been ALL Him. He’s pushed us along, He’s provided, He’s given us lots of grace, He’s grown us, He’s guided us, and thankfully He doesn’t require perfection from us!
So many things in this picture bring a smile to my face! The teacher engaged with her students, the comfortable-ness the students have with their teacher, our students are learning about music, God’s Word written on the chalkboard…goodness we aren’t a perfect school, but we’ve come so far!
Thank you for your continued prayers, love, and support here!
Our recent vehicle fundraiser allowed us to get not only one, but two trucks! These are going to be a tremendous blessing to the work here for years to come.
Thursday, April 11th, we had our closing ceremonies for the first term at Mercy Christian Academy. We rewarded each student who scored an 80% or higher on each exam they took and we also rewarded students who earned an 80% total average in their subjects for this term. We have seen our students work harder in class to get prizes which makes it well worth the extra work it causes.
We had a lot of family members show up for this event which is always encouraging. As you can see from the pictures our pavilion was full and spilling over. It was a great opportunity for me to share the Gospel with them!
After the ceremony was done we had the family members help us with some paperwork and then we fed everyone. It was a good and busy day at MCA.
Saturday, April 16th, we took several in our Mercy Home family to watch our high school boys play a soccer match against a local team!
Stephanie and our oldest daughter, Caitie, were able to take a 3-week trip to the U.S. in April. This was a blessing, as Caitie has not been back to the states since we moved here 7 1/2 years ago. She was able to see her older brother Kyle for the first time since leaving (he serves in the Navy), meet her nieces, celebrate her 24th birthday, attend a Susan Heck conference at one of our supporting churches, and see lots of friends and family. We are so thankful for the opportunity for both Steph and Caitie! We are also thankful to have them back home!! They arrived back here yesterday.
I was blessed to be asked by my brother Elly Achok to speak at his annual Reformation Conference this year. It was such an encouragement and blessing to preach alongside Barnabas Olare and Billy Sked. We had 4 days of fellowship, Bible teaching, and a graduation at the end for several of our Wisdom Training Center Bible students. I was also able to bring several of our Mercy Home boys with me. I am thankful that the providence of God brought me to live only about an hour away from where Elly ministers. He has become a great friend and ministry partner.
Well, I’ve shared with you many of the highlights from the last 2 months, but certainly not everything. Thank you for reading. Here are some ways you can be praying for us in this new month:
It is rainy season here right now. There have been several deaths in and around Nairobi due to flooding and a dam break. Around us, we are seeing an increase in malaria cases, including several kids in our home.
We have several short-term mission trip visits planned by different groups in the upcoming months. Please pray about preparation and financial provision for those coming.
We have many construction related projects still needing done around the mission. Please pray that more construction teams would be able to come help with these needs.