| Sorry, I just realized that all my Kenya photos are in the camera phone, I left with Provi.
Our appetites are whetted for more Kingdom work in Kenya! Ours and our several new and one old friend! We have so many invitations for longer visits to teach in Kisii Land, and in Nairobi. Although we didn’t get my wife’s visa interview, as we hoped, it was from the Lord that we came! This is my first trip where our housing and food was provided at no expense to us! The idea of making disciples through simple church was already functioning with two of our contacts in Nairobi, and is now functioning through our two main contacts in Kisii Land.
The Lord really blessed us with our contact through Heaven’s Family, who distribute the great bible-school-in-a-book, “The Disciple Making Minister” in multiple languages for free! They gave us 5 in English, and 5 in Swahili for our Kisii leaders to take back, and 15 in Swahili for my wife to take back to our city in Rwanda, which is near our DRCongo leaders and Swahili speaking Rwanda leaders. We gave one to our old friend from DRCongo who has begun several simple churches in Nairobi. We are in our Heaven’s Family contact, Peter’s home, now as he picked us up so my wife could meet him & hear about his ministry in one of her native languages. He invited us to come teach for several days with all our expenses paid, & perhaps even part of our air-fare from Rwanda in the future. I am looking forward to teaching a seminar in my specialty, which people everywhere love, without having to pay for renting a room or feeding the attendees! The Christian ministries in Nairobi are much more mature and generous to support traveling missionaries.
About our Heaven’s Family contact, Peter. I was so happy to discover that we have so much agreement in how to do the Lord’s work and how he has accomplished so much in many areas. They are converting a group of traditional churches that he planted to simple churches and using the facilities for things like orphanages, schools for orphans, and a secondary school supported by its own business and also supporting some of the orphanage expenses. He is not a poor man in Africa, and gives $400/mo to support the orphanage, and has sold his own car, to invest in converting the secondary school to a self-supporting school to benefit many orphans. They have even given out $2,000 in micro-loans so that the relatives of most of the orphans can support the parentless children through their own new small businesses.
The Kisii brother who paid his own way to take us to Kisii and fed and housed us, was engrossed in my book on The Song of Solomon, which I have never published, but can print. My other national leaders have sometimes said, “You don’t know what God has given you!” I could use some donations totaling about $350 to publish it in English, which I could sell when I travel to conferences and when I teach seminars on the subject. Then I can get it printed in Swahili and French for many Africans. Peter knows a good printer who can also print “The Church in The House” by Robert Fitts when our Tanzanian partner finishes the translation to Swahili.
Some highlights:
1. The people loved our discussion style teaching. I even got them hooked on the Song of Solomon (as I teach it) by answering their questions about marriage using the Song.. as an example of the freedom and grace & response that we should have toward one-another.
2. The women loved discussion teaching with my wife, mostly about marriage.
3. Kenya has more English speakers, but really it was much like the other places I’ve been with few who understand it well and most of the conversation was in a local tribal language, although nearly all of them speak Swahili well, so my wife could talk to them in just one language. I shared with an interpreter, except talking with my interpreters.
4. It was a good step to another culture for my wife, because Kisii people speak a language that has some of the same words as the native Rwanda language, especially her first name, Dusabe which means prayer, is the beginning in Kisii, “Let’s pray.” Also it fulfills the dream that answered my fleece about our marriage, when she emailed me and told me that she had a dream of us standing in ministry together in Nairobi Kenya. It came to pass. Our Burundi and Kenya trips were her first time to teach in those countries and only her 2nd time to those countries. She also got a taste of a country where the signs are usually and the conversations are often in English.
Kenya politics & the Kingdom. I try to go easy on politics, but, as disciples of Christ, and citizens in voting countries, we should exercise our right to tell the truth and influence others to vote wisely. You Americans should know that the bible believing Kenyan Christians do not like the interference of the Obama appointees (the ambassador) which are supporting the new constitution which makes abortion much easier to get, has some favor for homo-sexuals, I think, and has at least 13 references to the rights of Muslims, with not one mention of Christians and it makes helping someone to convert to a new religion punishable by law! The Christians are rallying to say, “NO!” in the constitutional referendum. They say the US ambassador is buying votes in favor of it.
Provi was out shopping for shoes that she can sell for a profit in Rwanda. I am looking forward to my own US cooking and the cooking that I enjoyed with my friends at the “Searching Together” conference which I intend to be at Friday-Sunday. Believe it or not, the Kenya TV is showing “Dr. Phil” while I type alone. Nairobi is a filthy city (even the loud radio on the public buses) but the people are beautiful and generous in hospitality.
Right before we flew away, I had a good long conversation with a man at our contact ministry’s guesthouse. He and his brother are now planting churches in home, and to my surprise, asking me many questions to teach them, even though they are well-educated and the one I talked to is a teacher at a large university or high school. We have four, going on five new church-planting leaders and two relationships with men who are already planting them in Nairobi.
I met several Americans on the return flight who were working with Christian ministries in Africa. One couple recommended two movies to me, that I recommend for those who love history and like to see God’s hand in history. “Amistad” and “Amazing Grace” both about African Slavery and the part of Christian influence in stopping some of the negative effects of slavery.
The day after my return and 6.5 hrs of sleeping like a rock, I packed and was blessed with a standard size rental car for the $99 for four day price of a compact car. They even knocked $20 off when I returned last Monday, because the 12 Volt outlet stopped working. After picking up my mail from my secretary in Michigan, I drove and slept in the back of the car, to arrive at a simple church conference, in Wisconsin, near Minneapolis, MN in time for the 2nd 9 am meeting July 23rd.
I ate my first meal, alone, cooking on a picnic table, but after that the Lord provided food and a different place to sleep each night. It was good to be reconnected to a number of people at my 3rd conference with them and to meet others. Amazingly although we had to keep our phones off, I got a service call during a break on Sunday that I did on Monday after sleeping from 5 am till noon. Although my service business is usually slow this time of year, I had service work or small sales income every weekday last week. I earned $710 on Monday and Tuesday. I haven’t cleaned my cluttered house, but I have set up communications and a plan for teaching our new partners in Kenya. & I could afford a $105 replacement cell phone (the screen was broken by the other guy) and some tools & supplies I need for my work.
I couldn’t get through to my wife for 6 days! But she is OK and very happy to hear my voice. She has been teaching from 150 people to just 3 and happy just like I am, in either case. I have been teaching by discussion (as we should) by telephone to our new Kenyan partners and happy to have a new motivation to write good basic teaching to email to them. Today I SMSed and called the brother of the one I met just before leaving. He is another mature leader ready to plant churches in houses with lots of questions. Actually he has one already begun. Fortunately he could understand my American English and we had a great conversation.
Pray for:
- Wisdom for all of this training, partnering work with Kenyans
- Wisdom and favor in my appeal of the last demand of the US Visa people for my wife’s visa
- Humility and otherliness for me. The Lord blessed me with some critical feedback at the last conference. It is hard to not sound proud when the people you relate to most all want you to teach them, and when you know you have a lot of knowledge. “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.”
- More business sales, so I can catch up on my advertising and property taxes.
Sorry I forgot to get the good Kenya photos. We did see some giraffes as we bussed across country. I’m getting back in shape after the long fever & weakness (about 10 days) and ran into the neighbors that saw my ad for free firewood if they would clear the 3 trees that fell over my driveway. Strange to meet the people on foot that you found by running an ad from Africa.
Abundant blessings on all of you!
Naye Lia kwa Mapenzi na Furaha,…
or
He Who Weeps with Love & Joy, for the Beautiful African Bride of Christ
(Known in the past as Greg Cunningham)
Mail & donations to:
New Wave Ministry
29731 C. Rd. 28
Elkhart, IN 46517, USA
Or Chase New Wave Ministry Account # 736 971 904—Locations at www.chase.com
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(+ )1-574-679-0011 or 295 9696 Cunningham Air & Heat (working in IN, MI, & even ALL USA)
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Three New Waves:
Ø Passionate Love————–From & for Jesus
Ø Never-Ending Humility—To follow the King
Ø Total Sacrifice ————–Living out His Love & Humility
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