Finding Faith in the Battle

The student team and twelve Kenyan students took an mission trip to the southern coast early this month. One of the students, Fred, had only committed his life to following Christ in February. It was great watching him share Christ with street-kids on the beach. Many of these kids come to Mombasa looking for opportunity and end up collect washed-up plastic bottles for cash. Two of these street-kids followed Fred's example and became Christ-followers also. The local people of the coastal regions in Kenya follow a folk-Islam (Islam mixed with beliefs from African traditional religions). It was surprising that so many of these people gave our students an audience. Almost 200 people from coastal ethnic groups heard a clear presentation of the Gospel over four days. Students also prayed over people with illnesses and addictions. We prayed over a Digo woman with an infected foot--the next day the woman was walking around and working in the fields. This was a great encouragement to our

Ethan and I (Miriam) flew low over the amazing land of Kenya earlier this month, up to a city in the north known as Maralal. The Samburu people live here, proud pastoralist people who value their animals and their freedom, but many are coming to know The Great Shepherd! We have a family who lives among them, and they invited me to come do some health teachings. For 2 days, we taught in small rural villages up on top of the mountains--looking for all the world like Oregon. Except for the wood-and-mud church and the women with their beaded necklaces and colorful wraps and the naked children!  We waited for over an hour for more women to arrive before we were informed that an angry herd of elephant had moved into the forest around us and the other midwives were unable to get through. Such is life in rural Kenya! The second day we waited for almost 2 1/2 hours as people trickled in--they had to get their chores done first, and since the rains haven't arrived yet, that meant fetching w