As we prepared to move in March, we said goodbye to our dear friends at Bible Baptist Church. We were blessed to work with them for eight wonderful months. One dear couple, Tom and Eunice, had me in their home for our last discipleship class just before we moved. They finished Level One and are pictured receiving their certificates below.
On March 10, we moved in order to be closer to our language school. A couple days after we moved, Kenya had its first case of COVID-19, and all schools were shut down. I was scheduled to start school on Monday, March 16. As disappointing as this was, we had a lot to do to settle into our home. We discovered that the water was very dirty, which made doing laundry, washing dishes, and taking showers difficult. I was able to rig a sort of filter in the washer to catch most of the sentiment so we could do laundry. As for dishes and showers, those had to be done with the dirty water. As I write this letter, our water is better, but it still gets dirty from time to time. Just this week, it completely ruined an entire load of laundry.
The new house did bring several blessings. We have grass and a yard for the kids and dog to run around in. This has been very helpful in getting through this time of lockdown. If we had been in our previous house, we essentially would have been confined to the inside of the house.
One of my goals in our new location is to start a church. Previously, we had been helping a Kenyan pastor, but I feel strongly that God wants us to start a church and train a man to pastor it. We started to look for a meeting location the week we moved. Unfortunately, our search came to an abrupt end when all churches were required to close because of the virus. Some pastors have been arrested for holding services, as well as Bible studies. We have been holding regular services in our home with our family. My night guard Edwin and his family live inside our compound and have been attending every week. These have been a great blessing. Corey Jr. has been playing the piano for congregational singing. We have a time of taking prayer requests and take turns praying. The children prepare special music.
Edwin believes that God has called him to be a pastor. He has been attending a Bible institute for several years; and, Lord willing, He will be helping us when we officially start Calvary Baptist Church of Kiambu County. Each week I meet with him and his wife to do discipleship. They are very eager to learn the material, and even though they are only required to memorize two verses each week, they usually memorize three or four.
I hired Edwin to be my guard for Monday through Friday nights. This gives him stability with his work schedule and allows him to have the weekends free for ministry. Boniface is our weekend guard. One Sunday evening, I asked Edwin to help translate the Gospel, and Boniface received Christ. Lord willing, when we are allowed to go out as normal, Edwin and I will go to Boniface’s home and witness to his wife and children. At that time, I also hope to start discipleship with them.
Corey Jr. and I are in our second week of language school online. We are excited to begin this process and thankful that God allowed for the online option. Annabelle, Marydia, and Judson are doing school with my wife. Marydia recently started catching on to reading very well. Judson is a “professional colorer.” For his birthday on May 1, he wanted schoolbooks and coloring books. Annabelle reads a book a day and is getting very smart. Adilene is saying new words almost daily and talking in full sentences.
Through this pandemic, we have been very busy. Corey Jr. and I were able to build a chicken coop, and we now have nine-week-old chickens. It has been a great bonding time and learning experience.
In His service,
The McDonalds
Your Missionaries to Kenya
