2nd Update

The Partners for Care staff made progress the last four days toward their goal of Reaching a Million with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. The team went to the mountains of Aberdale where they used sports, music and drama to mobilize and offer testing for HIV/AIDS. Working through the football captains, other youth leaders and local pastors the message of prevention is given through the gospel as following God's principles keeps the youth safe from the virus. If someone wants to have an impact on the kingdom and the next generation of Kenyan Christian leaders I suggest funding one of these events. For less than $3,000 an event you can be a part of reaching thousands with the message of creating a HIV-free generation. There is currently only funding for Kibera and Marsabit. The team would like to go out weekly if they can get funding. We are now partnering with Liverpool as they are providing HIV counsellors for us. They tell they have never seen the mobilization GOA is doing. They had never tested as many per counsellor as they did over the last four days. We meet with them tomorrow to plan how we will continue working together to test even more people.

I told you in the first update how I see AIDS everywhere this trip. That continues. The team was very upset when I joined them yesterday as they had tested 2 small children and a baby and all three were positive for HIV. All three of their moms were infected and one mom had already died leaving the small child an orphan. A counselor never gets used to seeing the test results show positive when testing a small child. If only someone had helped the moms get tested while they were pregnant there was a very good chance these children would not have been positive. That is one of the major goals of Partners for Care is to work through the GOA churches to help pregnant women get tested before they pass the virus to their unborn children.

There are four GOA churches in this area so the team split up all going to different churches. The Bishop and many of the head office staff were also there for the day to support the GOA churches and the Reach A Million initiative. The Bishop sent me and two of the musical team to the Bushi GOA church pastored by Pastor Humphry and his wife Beth. All I can say is I wish I was the one supporting this pastor (it is someone at Weddington Church) because I would feel so blessed to be investing in what is happening at this church! It is really hard to explain except maybe to say it felt like a revival and it was just a routine Sunday. The first thing you notice when you arrive at the church is that it is surrounded by a fence creating a peaceful compound with benches, trees, flowers, and a beautiful, humble church building. The creativity of this pastor is amazing. The church platform is made of mud wrapped in a piece of red velvet cloth. There are curtains on all the windows and cardboard has been used to insulate the inside of the metal building. Skylights make the church bright. The cloth backdrop was beautifully sewn. There is a large congregation - 700 for the first service and then another 800 that squeeze in for the 2nd service which starts at 2:30 after the first 5 hours of worship is over. Pastor Humphry has used all available space for expansive of this church so now he has built a 2nd floor office. He may be the first GOA church with a balcony. The other thing we noticed is a sign on one of the small buildings that said "Children's Computers". When I ask Pastor Humphry about that he told me they don't have any computers yet but that is their vision so they put it in writing. How is that for vision? He asked Pastor Mathew what GOA was doing to train the next generation to be computer literate. Good question. Most of the team wanted to stay and be a part of what God is doing in this church in the beautiful mountains of Aberdale.

Blessed to witness how a leader is using his gifts to grow the kingdom, Connie

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