Thank you for your time in reading this letter; we appreciate your prayers and support. The last few months have brought many wonderful blessings in the work of God and a few challenges as well.
Our church is in a location with a lot of commerce, and people are always moving in and out of the area for jobs, as well as visiting friends and family. I can’t remember the last Sunday we didn’t have a visitor in the service. Every person who attends as a guest is met with after the service and presented the saving message of the Gospel. The Sunday I am writing this letter, two precious souls called upon Christ as their Saviour upon hearing a clear explanation of salvation!
The church continues to grow, as our members have a concern for the eternity of others. A wife and mother of two who lives near our house is one of the hardest-working people I have met in Kenya. I invited her and her family to church for several years, but she always politely declined, until the Lord spoke to her heart. She came to church with her children and began our discipleship program. After several weeks and many times of hearing a version of “by grace we are saved,” she came to call upon Christ as her Lord and Saviour.
This began a chain of eternal events. The husband was reluctant, but over a period of months, I was able to lead him to the Lord. Husband and wife were baptized and have become a blessing as members of the church. The story does not end there, as this family has expressed great concern for many people who are believing a false means of salvation as they once did. They have brought many a friend to hear of the true salvation that was found at our church.
One lady in particular who was invited by them is a wonderful story. It took a month of hearing the Scripture, along with many back-and-forth questions comparing false doctrine with the Word of God, before she was saved. The children now give a wonderful testimony of how their mom has really changed as the Holy Spirit began to guide her in a new path of life as a child of God. This is just a sample of how people are growing in spiritual understanding and are showing precious Godly fruit in their lives.
We have had three conferences: one for men, one for women, and one for couples. These are tremendously needed and have been very successful. In my observation here, one of the greatest needs is a Biblical understanding of marriage and families. We teach concerning these issues regularly. Please pray that God would help us build Biblically based families that will begin a chain reaction to reproduce a generation of strong families far and wide. We have a core group of each category referenced above that are newer Christians who are growing and loving God. It is one of my greatest joys to see fruits of the Spirit within our people to then influence others around them for God’s glory.
Our urban area is highly influenced by money and false doctrine, along with carnality. You could readily compare our location to the city of Corinth in the New Testament. There is a constant flow of new people who come to church with preexisting issues that are based in false doctrine. Prayer for wisdom is needed to keep wrong influences from infiltrating these young believers from such issues that are a constant knock at the door. As Paul was always teaching spiritual growth issues, he
was also again and again repelling false teaching. I can relate more and more as the church grows and Satan works against us.
For some years now, the Kenyan government has not allowed any new churches to become a registered legal entity. This has recently changed, and we have now prepared a church constitution and look to have a charter service early in 2026. Then we will proceed with the governmental requirements to be a recognized independent Baptist church. This is difficult because the government historically knows international denominations that come with money, influence, and foreign leadership, not an independent church standing by itself. Please pray that God will lead the way and clear obstacles that will be before us concerning this process.
Serving Kenyans on your eternal behalf,
Andy & Connie Richey
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- Baptisms
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- Connie celebrating her birthday
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- Church family
