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BOW Ministry Update: Headed to Kenya

By April 1, 2014No Comments

Kilgoris-Kenya-map200BOW is excited to announce our first mission trip, which is planned to Kenya in August. We are grateful that God has connected us with a group of over twenty women of the Masai tribe in the Rift Valley near Kilgoris. Their leader contacted us because they want God to use them to serve their people in better ways.

The journey to our decision has been exciting! Over and over God has encouraged us and given us unexpected help along the way. When we sought wisdom from the E3 Orality Team about the possible trip, Jolene Balazs of that team offered to come with us. With her experience in orality, our concerns about how to best proceed with the training were met. Then another E3 missionary whom I contacted for counsel about the country and people offered to connect us with a Kenyan national who works with him there to set up our trip within the country and to accompany us. Since none of the three of us has ever been to this area or set up transportation in Kenya, that was huge. We received invaluable help in estimating expenses and costs when Steve Sims, who leads the E3 orality team, offered to teach us to figure out those details.

Over and over God has provided abundantly. Without our asking for specific help, these people offered. God has been at work. We are grateful for the generous hearts of those at E3 who have gone out of their way for us.

The fact that Cindy Henderson and I had already gone through the Orality training at E3 three years ago meant that we already knew that there was a great tool to mobilize these women, and so we were immediately intrigued with their request to train them.

One of my prayers has been for God to send us where a woman has been praying for more. And that woman in Kenya found us and has asked for nothing other than for us to come and train.

So what exactly will we do there?

We will provide a three-and-a-half day orality training to prepare and enable the women to use a set of stories from the gospels to share with their people, speaking in their language in a way they relate to, but staying true to the Biblical account. It is amazing how much depth and insight is right there in the stories of the Bible! We are thrilled to be able to train these women to use God’s Word orally to evangelize and disciple in a culture that values stories, much as Jesus’s audience did. We will need to return up to 5 times to further train those who show that they have used the method in the meantime.

The attendees who do not live within daily walking distance will stay at a school, and we will provide meals for everyone who attends. While the conference goes on, we will also provide a water filter for their village. A Kenyan specialist with install it and train someone there to use and maintain it.

We are asking you to pray about helping us one of two ways. First, we need a prayer team to support us as we prepare and go. Second, we need funds to cover our expenses, which we estimate at $6800. This includes the costs of the food for the conference, travel expenses for Kay, the Kenyan guide, driver, and water filter specialist, and finally for the water filter installation.

To help with prayer and/or donations, please click the appropriate button at the top, or mail us a check to our address at the bottom of this page.

Please pray for our preparations and for the women who will attend. Ask God to move through us and them.

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