We hope you are safe and well. Thank you for your faithful prayer and financial support. As you are aware, it has been a very difficult and challenging year, and we thank the Lord for how He has supplied our every need. It is through faithful supporters such as yourselves, our fellow laborers and partners in Christ, that we are able to continue the work of the ministry and take the Gospel to Kenya, East Africa.
Praise the Lord, we arrived back in Kenya on September 3, after having the mandatory COVID-19 tests. When we arrived in Kenya, we were COVID-19-free, so we didn’t have to go into quarantine. We did, however, have to report our temperatures to the Kenyan authorities every day for two weeks.
Often when we are returning to the field or starting a new project and things start to go wrong, that often means God has something planned, because the spiritual battle has begun. It has been no different this time. The week before we left, my computer died. On arrival in Kenya, my phone died and cannot be fixed, and we went to change our US$2,000 in $20 bills into Kenyan currency only to find out that the banks will not exchange them into local currency. I then picked up an eye infection that has now just about healed. You have to laugh, as you see this kind of spiritual warfare occur again and again. Nevertheless, we continue on in this kind of adversity, as we know Who will gain the victory in the end—our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Needless to say, our efforts have not been in vain even with the COVID-19 lockdown. Just before we left, I got to lead a neighbor where we were living in the U.S. to the Lord. He was going to study to be an orthodox priest but decided to leave the monastery. Praise the Lord! He is now a child of God and is going to be a doctor, God willing. Lindsay was blessed with leading her first person to Christ. I have also recently seen a taxi driver, a telephone sales person, and a passenger in Amsterdam, among others, receive Christ as their Saviour. You never know from where your opportunities are going to come.
It was a blessing to see the new church our team members, Andy and Connie Richey, have started on the outskirts of Nairobi. They are working hard as they take the Gospel to the local area of Kamakis. Positioned on a main road along the eastern bypass of Nairobi, they are in an area ideal for reaching the lower-income population as the city continues to grow. Our team ladies were also excited to have a bathroom in the new church building for the first time in over two years.
We have 1,400 Bibles being prepared for shipment from the U.S. to Kenya, and hopefully, the shipment will leave soon. Since arriving back in Kenya, I have been inundated with national pastors across the country calling me and asking when we can meet. That will take a number of trips to Western Kenya to areas like Kisii, Kilgoris, Lolgorien, Bungoma, and other remote areas I have not yet visited. These areas are anywhere from 6 to 10-plus hours away and often require travel over very rough roads that only a four-wheel-drive vehicle can travel safely. Nevertheless, these areas have people, tribes, and races that need to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel. It is difficult to explain how challenging some of these areas are, but yet there are those who spend every day of their lives there. I am intending to visit and teach the truth in these areas, taking pastors and students with me along the way, teaching them to reach their own people, and discipling them so that the work will be multiplied. Hopefully, discipleship classes will be started and new churches planted. It is not easy, but the rewards can be great and the fruit plentiful, with dozens being saved at a time. To reach these areas is a challenge, to say the least. In the days of David Livingston, it would have taken months. Today, it can take days if you can gain access by having the right type of vehicle, materials, and equipment.
I am asking and praying that the Lord will raise up those who have the means to help finance a 4WD vehicle that can be used to reach these remote and nearly inaccessible areas. I believe the Lord will be greatly pleased if we can take a clear Gospel message to the lost in these remote areas before He returns, which I believe will be soon. Now is the time, if ever there was a time, to increase our efforts to take the Gospel to the lost and needy.
I believe God’s plan is to train chosen men to continue the work in their local areas, to supply them with materials, and to help them understand the need to have the Gospel preached across their country. But for this to happen, we need a 4WD vehicle that can handle the conditions. Having taken out the front end on one rental vehicle, been stuck in the mud up to our axles on another occasion and only by the grace of God were we able to get out, flat tires, and slipped off the road into the ditch, it is obvious that in order to be productive for the Lord in these remote areas, we need more than a standard vehicle.
I am asking the Lord to raise funds to purchase a 4WD vehicle. As well as what we have saved and what others have promised, we need an additional $10,000. This will get us a 10-plus-year-old vehicle that is in reasonable condition for its age and is built for off-road travel, or at best a four-wheel-drive Toyota HiAce that will seat 8 or 9 passengers. We will have to make some modifications for either vehicle to handle the job. We would need to stiffen up the suspension or add a couple of seats to carry more people, and maybe add a heavy-duty roof rack; air conditioning would also be a blessing. May the Lord’s will be done.
Should God touch your heart to give, please forward me an email at morrispj_98@yahoo.com and let me know, or contact Dr. Mark Bosje at FBMI, mark.bosje@fbmi.org, and he will tell you how best to send the offering. I believe the Lord will greatly bless you for your sacrifice.
Please also pray for Team East Africa, our good health, our safety, our personal and ministry expenses, and for God to raise up men of integrity to help with the work of the ministry.
It is difficult to put our appreciation into words except to say we feel greatly blessed to have you partner with us as we take the Gospel to Kenya and neighboring East Africa. Thank you and God bless you.
Your co-laborers in Christ,
Peter, Melody, and Lindsay Morris
PS. I hope you enjoy our ministry video, a YouTube video documentary, “He Directs My Path,” by Jared Russ; it can be viewed at https://youtu.be/ATmIOERW–c.
