Mombasa and Naivasha Travels

I had a great time over the last two weeks resting and attending conferences in Mombasa off Kenya's coast, and in Naivasha in the interior.  This is an annual conference that I've been fortunate enough to attend a few times because I've been blessed enough to get a scholarship to cover the cost of hotel, food and conference fees.

 

 

It was such a great time staying in Mombasa and having some time to swim. I really loved doing that.

 

 

 

I also had a great visit to the island in Naivasha, where they have what they call a walking safari. Whenever I'm on conference some newcomers to Kenya will invite me to show them on a safari. This one was a short safari.

 

 

Wildebeests, giraffes and many animals were at close range.


I really loved it there. It was a refreshing time for me. Now it is back to my studies and my missions work.

Enjoy the pics.

School Uniforms in Kenya!

[Photo caption: Bro. & Sister shop with 4 orphans]

we want to thank God for providing some uniforms for these kids who so much need these clothes. many of them had been praying and waiting for a time when they can be able to have some new clothes and go to school. i am really happy that with the help of the leaders that we have, these kids were at long last able to have the clothes they so much needed.

there are still alot of needs..here, but as the Lord leads we will be able to get the needs of all these kids met.

just a little background on this ..we had to pick the kids up and travel with them over to a small city where these clothes are sold. the kids were very excited though the weather was a bit cold that day. this picture is of 4 of the kids who went shopping but the list of orphans who received clothing from this donation is longer: caroline c., gladys c., vienna c., victor c., evaline c., kipkoech k., underson k. and ebigael c.

otherwise receive the greetings of this small group, which is a part of the bigger group of orphans that we work with here in Kenya.

have a great day and God Bless

Because He lives
Jonah

Note: Many of these orphans are not related but the letter in their last names represents the time of day they were born. That is how the people are named in Kalenjin country. Like my last name Kipkorir, means I was born in the morning.

Back from Rwanda

hello, i hope you are doing great! i have had a busy 10 days traveling and attending a conference. i was able to attend to a conference in kigali, rwanda for about 6 days. the sixth day actually was a visit to the city and the memorial center, where the remains of the genocide has been put aside for historical purposes. the visit to this site is scary, for those who are light hearted. this was my 4th visit to this place and so i was a bit hardened [prepared].

the greatest question that most folks need to ask ourselves is where were we in 1994? that [question] came back and forth in the conference. Brian Mclaren encouraged us to ask ourselves what we can do now in rebuilding the lost glory of neighborliness in our society...since what happens in your backyard, it ripples far and wide and the society needs to come to terms with that.

the conference was awesome. we had so many people from diverse backgrounds, some of them highly educated. sometimes u could feel out of place in front of all the phd's and masters degrees, but we were all serving our creator in one way or another. i face this reality when i presented a case for the post elections violence in kenya and what the church did. it was a frightening moment to answer for the whole country .....but i was glad to get God's inspiration to be able to present the case that was agreed to by the folks from home and there in Rwanda. The painful truth was that the church was divided, and we had little or no training on conflict management. Thank God we could pray.

The hardest part of the journey was travelling as we took the whole 2 days to arrive home. it was so tiring, i had to rest for a day or two so that i could continue with my normal duties again.
thanks alot for your prayers......

Because He lives
Jonah
p.s. enjoy the pics. there was a report about the american indians as well.....it was so nice.

Simba The Dog

Hello,

i hope u re doing great in the Lord. i have been involved with a lot of work resulting from the post election violence and the displaced people ...over this past few weeks. our focus right now is encouraging people to go back to their homes and start life again.

as i travel, i take a keen interest, not only in the displaced people but the animals as well. the cows, goats and other animals have largely been taken care of because they provide food for the families, but the dogs and cats are not considered as important at this time.

i met a dog by the name of simba (means 'lion' in swahili). he had a big and deep cut on the face. it was the saddest experience i have ever seen and i felt really bad when i got to see this. simba i suppose was trying to protect the family but ended up almost losing his own life. this to me is an experience that most people have not witnessed in the most faithful animals on earth - dogs and cats. (i will post a story soon about one of the cats i've come across, named Caring, and how she saved some young children from a burning house).

as of now simba is getting better with the help of herbs that are being administered by its caretaker. the horrific experience of animals is another bad result of the post-election chaos we had in kenya. but peace is slowly coming back. continue praying for us.

have a great day
and God bless.

Jonah

Grace Home, Rwanda and Me

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to report to you about what the Lord has been doing over here in East Africa. The Lord has continued to be with us at this time, though I can call this time, a hard time for us as we were attacked in all ways by the evil one. Here is a small report of what has been happening over the past few months.

Grace Home
The ministry at Grace home has been ongoing and we thank God for this opportunity to serve Him there. Grace has been going through some hard times during this past month as she has recently lost her dad. This was really the hardest part of it as the children had to be taken care of by someone else during this time.

Here in Africa, someone will not be burried until all the family members arrive. This was the most significant part for this family as they had to wait for their relatives who live very far apart to arrive. We thank God that they were all able to come to the funeral. We also thank God that Grace's father gave part of the land required for the contruction of the church for the church denomination that I serve with. Hopefully this will be finished soon and the people will be able to go there and worship.

My travels - Rwanda
I was fortunate to travel to Kigali, Rwanda to preach. I was really lifted by the way the country has changed over time and learned to accept the conflict that happened in that part of the world. We saw so many skulls and body bones that were spread everywhere in one of the churches that has been kept as a memorial center. This was really a
touching experience and you need to be the one who can to see it before you can really feel it and tell the story of what happened there. While we were there we were treated to a performance by Rwandan dancers. Here is a photo of the dancers.

My home and kids
The kids are doing great. Some of them are sitting for exams now. Please continue to pray for them. The Lord has continued to be their strength and I love the experience of watching them grow. We do pray that the needs here now can be met in one way or another by God's grace and provision....otherwise enjoy your day!!
and God Bless
Pastor Jonah

Bible Studies in Revelation

I trust and hope that all of you are doing great!! This week I spent 3 days studying God's word at the famous Tea Hotel in Kericho, Kenya. I was in the Bible class with senior pastors from the churches here in Kericho and it was exciting to get to interact with them and get to know one another better. I loved getting to know other people who are fighting the good fight. It seems that I was the youngest of the group.

Our teacher, Miles is from Calvary Church in Sonora, California (http://www.ccsonora.com/). He was teaching on the books of John and Revelation. I loved studying about the 7 churches in the Book of Revelation. What I found interesting is that of the 7 churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation, only the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia were not condemned. We need to try as much as we can to reflect on the characteristics of these churches and aspire to be like them. We also learned about the interelationship of these churches and the 7 great parables of Christ in Matthew 13.

It was a great time of study in God's word and I count it a great joy that I could sit under this great teacher and learn from him. I really admired his grasp of the word of God though I was not able to spend much one on one time with him. I was also delighted and blessed to be able to to stay at the tourist hotel...for a while!!, I loved it so much since it is very hard to stay in such a place as it is expensive for us here in Kenya. That is my update for now. God bless and we covet your prayers. Brother Jonah