At the beginning of December, our team leader, Missionary Peter Morris, started his Practical Pastors’ Training Academy (PPTA). For the next year and a half, national pastors from throughout Kenya will travel each month to Nairobi for a one-week training seminar. Each time these national pastors come to the training, Bro. Morris and several other missionaries, myself included, will teach and train these men on how to better and more efficiently teach and train their own church people in the truths of God’s Word! I am looking forward to what God will do through these training sessions and to hearing what God is going to do through these pastors and their churches!
My family and I were blessed this month to meet two different police chiefs from our little town of Kitengela. We used the opportunity to begin to build a good relationship with these men and to let them know that we are here to serve the police men and women spiritually. We also presented a Bible for each police post as a thank you for their service. One chief and his family have already called us back to thank us personally for the Bible and for our prayers! Another chief has also given us an open invitation to come back to the post and discuss the Bible anytime we would like! Please pray that God will use these little opportunities to see our police men and women come to know our Saviour personally!
Besides going to the police posts throughout our area, we also had the opportunity to meet with the chief of the prison, as well as the main chaplain. Just before Christmas, we were blessed to go in and preach to both the staff members in the lunch-hour chapel service they have, as well as preach to the inmates. We praise the Lord that the Gospel was able to go forth to all of these souls clearly and accurately!
The discipleship classes with Lewis are going great, as we just finished up 12-week lesson going over soul winning and how to be an effective soul winner! Now Lewis is more confident and more ready than ever to tell others about our Lord and Saviour! He has already begun practicing on others throughout the week as the Lord gives him opportunities! It’s been an encouragement to see his hunger to tell others about Christ and to try to point them to the Saviour!
Lastly, at the end of this month, our family celebrated our first Christmas in Kenya. On Christmas Eve, we did a little family celebration together in our own home. On Christmas Day, it was a blessing to be a part of the services at Faith Baptist Church with our team member and his family. Afterwards we were blessed to fellowship and praise the Lord for the greatest Gift ever given—Jesus Christ—with a few other missionary families. Then we enjoyed a good Christmas feast, for we are Americans after all and have to have some good food as well! All and all, it was another wonderful holiday season as we reflected upon our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
We praise the Lord for all that He has done through our family over this year, and we look forward to this year and to seeing what He has in store for us. Thank you, as always, and God bless you.
Your co-laborers for lost souls across East Africa,
Brandon, Ali, Jeffrey, Hannah, and Esther Heselschwerdt
Romans 10:14
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- • Esther pretending to be a police detective hard at work while we were waiting to see the chief of police
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- • Preaching to the men in our local prison, many of whom took a moment to pray to the Lord during the time of invitation at the close of the service
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- • Teaching one of the lessons during the PPTA (Practical Pastors’ Training Academy) week
