Glory to God, as He is building His church through salvations and discipleship. It is always wonderful and fulfilling to see people’s lives changed and reshaped when the Holy Spirit enters their lives upon salvation. While our church continues to grow in number and spiritual growth, we are also slowly improving our facility as well.
In recent months, we have seen numerous salvations through soul winning and services. Five people have done God’s will in their lives by getting baptized, some of whom have suffered tremendously in spiritual and marital struggles but have shown great growth by standing strong against the wiles of the Devil. We thank God for His Word to teach and preach, transforming wonderful and truth-seeking souls.
The family is under Satanic attack in a powerful way, and marital problems, based on believing falsehoods, are very typical here. We regularly preach on this issue, but we recently had our first Marriage Seminar, which was followed by a great dinner. I believe, and the fruit is evident, that this time of teaching Biblical family values and marital roles has strengthened our members in a great way. There are incredible cultural issues that make understanding Biblical principles quite slow to be understood and accepted. One such example is that if a couple decides to “stay” together, then they are married—no vows, no commitment at all; however, a couple will say to everyone that they are “married” and believe it to be true per the accepted practice. This, of course, leads to a very high “divorce” rate (yes, they will call it a divorce) when the man decides to “marry” another. Please pray for God to build Lighthouse Baptist Church with solid, Godly families as we work to counter these foundational issues.
Our three-level discipleship program is going strong. At the beginning, Connie and I were doing the teaching one on one. Then God brought our assistant pastor, Emmanuel, on board to grow God’s people in His Word. Currently, we praise God that there are several men and as many ladies equipped and involved in teaching young converts basic truths of spiritual growth and maturity. This Godly growth in our church allowed us to take fifteen members to play a role in a medical missions trip run by Truth for Today Medical Missions, a ministry based in the U.S. Our members were missionaries to their fellow Kenyans in rural areas, who have limited access to medical treatment and the Gospel of Christ. During this week, we served as translators and in other various ways to a larger team, which saw multiple hundreds of souls make professions of faith in Jesus as the Saviour for their sin!
On a personal note, Connie’s mother just passed from this world into eternity with God in Heaven. Connie is currently in the U.S., and prayer on behalf of her and the family would be greatly appreciated. I did not join her in traveling, as Michael, one of our teenage church members in Kenya, also died, and our church conducted our first funeral, overlapping the funeral of my mother-in-law. Many Kenyans, for the first time in their lives, heard a clear presentation of true salvation through the substitutional death of Christ at the burial of Mike, and I do believe many will now rejoice with Connie’s mom in Heaven as a result.
Please pray for our church in spiritual and physical needs and also for wisdom in leading these things on behalf of our Lord and Saviour.
Your servants for lost souls of East Africa,
Andy & Connie Richey