March 2014 Trip Report

Dear prayer team,
A seven hour van ride provides a long time to wonder if I had done the right thing. I had invited two Kenyan friends, Jeff and Carol, from Nairobi to the island.  I had met them 18 months ago at the city market, where tourist buy souvenirs.  Jeff and Carol are co-workers.  Jeff was a pastor and Carol professed to have been born again,  but that's about all I knew. We weren't on the island very long before I knew that the decision I had made was ordained by God. Pastor Jeff's eyes were opened to how much ministry was going on in western Kenya.  He said "I can hardly believe how receptive these people are to the gospel; people are not that way in Nairobi.  I just want to come back here again and go door to door telling people the good news of Jesus!”  Carol, on the other hand, had never shared her faith like this.  I asked her if she would like to share Christ with some people while on the island.  She said "yes I want to, but you'll need to show me how."  What a joy it was for me to show a Kenyan how to lead another Kenyan to the cross.  The adventure for these two city dwellers turned into revival for the pastor and discipleship for Carol.  I enjoyed seeing God’s plan in this decision.

Pastor Eliazar's elderly father, Christopher Wambo died before I arrived.  He was always very supportive of all the ministry in the community and served in the church.  There was a large funeral for him which held over a thousand guests and lasted the entire day.  Tragically, Pastor Tobias's four month old son died unexpectedly of malaria.  We know God always does all things to His purpose, but it sure is hard to understand Romans 8:28 at times.

Great news though, God is still at work in the hearts of those who heard the Gospel.  Through public school visits, and open air beach preaching we watched as over fourteen hundred people surrender their lives to Christ.  I am always moved with joy in seeing people repent, and come to Christ. 

We are working toward establishing a Bible Institute on the island for training pastors.  We will have trained pastors come from Nairobi to teach in this college.  This is a big deal for the pastors on the islands, because many of them do not have the resources to travel to Nairobi for training.  We believe there is great return for discipling the pastors that will disciple those new believers. 

We have made preparations to build a 5 bedroom guest house on the island.  This is really needed to have an adequate place for teams to stay while on the mission field.  We thank the Lord for donations from our friends that are making this possible.  This was just the first of four trips planned for this year.  By now you know you are welcome to join us on any of these trips to see Christ's church body being built in western Kenya.  Thanks to many of you that prayed over the request that Page sent out while I was gone, and thanks to those that continue to give to this ministry that enables us to carry this good news to the far reaches of western Kenya.

Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries