Last update from Kenya

God is blessing the team in Kenya
It was a great blessing to be in Kenya these last few weeks. No matter your political position it was fun to watch the Kenyans celebrate as a son of a Kenyan was elected President of the United States. There were many goats and bulls slaughtered in celebration the next day. We had been to the village right next to where Obama's grandmother lives when when went to see George's family. It is a very poor area of Kenya with no electricity or paved roads. It is also the hardest hit by HIV with a 15.3% infected rate. Many, many deaths from malaria. As most of you probably know President Kibabi declared Thursday of that week a National Holiday to celebrate. Everywhere Kenyans were saying "yes we can". He and American has inspired the people of Kenya to aspire to greatness. Dr. Patrick Lumumba who people call the most eloquent speaker in Kenya said at our press conference - Kenya has been great in theory for a long time let us make Kenya great in practice.
The Partners for Care worship team - Temples of Worship Reach-A-Million initiative has used sports as a way to reach people with the message of HIV/AIDS prevention. To date they have reached over 100,000 with almost 1500 people accepting Christ . They have now decided they want to try to use music, worship, etc. to reach the youth. I had shown them several of Louie's Passion DVDs and they want to do something similar in Kenya. We have organized for a five city tour in December playing at 8 sites. The concert theme is "What If? David Gruber got donated "What If?" hats from the artist Nicole who wrote the song "What If?" Kathy his wife had bought David one of the hats at a women's Christian conference. He wore it to Beat the Drum and we have pictures of the children wearing the hat. The concerts will be dedicated to the 463 children who die everyday in Kenya from mostly preventable diseases - malaria, HIV/AIDS and sadly malnutrition. God has blessed this initiative as the Bishop will speak as well as the former youth President of Kenya who is very well known and Dr. Patrick Lumumba will speak. We have good relations now with the the Christian TV and Citizen TV who will cover the events. They will hold the concerts in Lumuru, Eldoret, Kissmu, Nairobi (Mathare) and Mombasa (three locations). The venue in Mathare will be Redeemed Gospel Church right in Mathare which is one of the larger churches in Kenya seating 5,000. Pastor Karanja preached here when he came. The Temples of Worship team are from all parts of Kenya - so they wanted to go to their homes to spread the message of hope and health through prevention and the message of salvation. The new Director of Youth for the National Aids Control Council who I met with this time will attend some of the concerts and do public tests of some of the worship team and speakers in encouraging the youth to test. We will also have the major organizations on site providing testing. Two of the events will be all night with the others four hours. The team has been given an incredible gift from someone Deb Zinn knows of 8,400 salvation bibles. The team has set of a goal of converting 8,400 people and giving each one a salvation bible. This goal will take time but it is a worthy goal. The theme What If? will ask the youth What If? they could be a HIV-free generation, what if they could eliminate the diseases that costs millions of dollars to treat and take so many lives of children and adults leaving 2.1 million orphans in Kenya. And of course the attendees will be asked What If? they believed - Yes We Can? Please pray for these events and for the people God is calling to know Him and to worship Him. This is a major undertaking and most of the Partners for Care staff are involved to make it happen.
The enemy was certainly was challenging the team this trip. To impact on someone the enemy knows to attack their family. This trip several of the team had a family illness or death. George found out his father, second mom and last born is infected with HIV. Njokie's sister had a depression episode and was hospitalized. Franko's aunt died. Justus' mother went back to drinking leaving his 14 year old sister head of household (I hate the disease of alcoholism). Through all this team supports each other sharing what resources they have sending funds back to their families.
We have added a pastor to Partners for Care. Pastor Ombundi from the Nairobi church has joined the team. And we need a pastor. He not only pastors the team but is helping in Mathare with Community Transformers and will help to reopen the project in Kiambiu slum. He will supervise Paul (nurse) and Moses (social worker). He will help Moses with setting up the Partners for Care public health training that will be given to all the GOA churches and at every GOA training. This has been a goal of Partners for Care and it is good to have someone who will help with this project. He is also responsible for connecting the What If? concerts with the GOA local churches and ensuring all those who answer the call to be saved are connected to a church to help discipline them.
The team worked hard these last few weeks. We have implemented planning, meetings, follow-up, evaluations, quality improvement, and personal development. They are eager to learn and could see how much more they can accomplish when goals are set, daily work plans made, meetings are held for accountability and encouragement and they are all using yellow pads now with lists of things to do! I came home with none of my yellow pads and will take many for them when I go back. They do less now spontaneously and challenge each other with "what are your plans for tomorrow?' They have implemented many systems from list of equipment to take when they go to perform to tracking systems for the sell of their new CD. I watched as they conducted a strategy meeting on how to market their CD. They now ask the questions what needs to be done?, who is going to do it? and when will it be done? They are growing as leaders both leading themselves and others. It is a privilege to see them take the leadership role.
Please pray for them as they grow. The more they do for the kingdom the more the enemy will attack.
Thank you all for your support and prayers while I was in Kenya this trip.
Connie