Since our last prayer letter, we have traveled to meetings in North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois. We were blessed with a number of churches taking us on for support. We look forward to partnering with them in our endeavor to see the Gospel go out across East Africa through soul winning, discipleship, and church planting.
Our latest challenge has been dealing with the Department of Immigration in Nairobi. I made a special trip to Kenya with the hope of processing our applications for a three-year extension of our current resident permits only to discover that the process would take weeks. Having returned to the USA after submitting our applications, we were then informed that we needed a particular covering letter from our registered church in Kenya to complete the process. Bro. Andy Richey and I then had to return to Kenya to personally present the letter and spend many hours waiting in lines, being sent from counter to counter, to finally gain the victory and have our passports stamped with another three-year- resident permit. Praise the Lord!
But all is not in vain. I was greatly blessed by being able to visit Pastor Fred Kambuni of Greater Vision Baptist Church on my first trip and closely work with him and preach and teach for him as we work together to see his new church grow and mature. We have now moved his congregation out of a small classroom into a larger tent that is able to protect all of his church members from the elements. On that Sunday we saw souls saved and a number of new visitors.
We also had the opportunity to visit a Pastor Philiph (correct spelling) and his church one Friday night. They are about 20 minutes by car north of Pastor Kambuni’s church in Nairobi. We squeezed into a small house, with most of the church members outside, and I gave a message on salvation and what it means to be an independent, fundamental Baptist church. After the following Sunday service at Pastor Kambuni’s church, I was very encouraged when Pastor Philiph arrived with 10 of his church members to discuss how they could become an independent, fundamental Baptist church. They wanted to see how they could work with us to help build their ministry based on correct doctrine. We discussed many things, including the importance of sound doctrine, godly music, soul winning, discipleship, tithing and giving, and the King James Bible, the Word of God. The teaching and counsel were enthusiastically received. We look forward to working with these people who sincerely appear to want to grow in Christ.
Please pray for us . . .
1. As we look to move to Kenya together with the Richeys in early 2017. We will be the first members of Team East Africa to be living in Kenya. There is much to be done before our departure, and I fully expect that as we approach our departure date, the spiritual warfare will escalate.
2. Since our return from our last trip to Kenya, I have had stomach issues and a month later have not yet identified the cause. Please pray for our health and protection.
3. Recently I have had requests from national pastors for financial help to register their independent Baptist churches due to the authorities threatening to shut down any unregistered churches, a cost of about $350 each.
4. Other requests for financial assistance have come due to emergency medical needs, including Pastor Obiko, who recently had a blocked intestine, and John Nkome’s son Peter, who has some form of Asperger’s syndrome and requires special medication and diet.
5. As we move our family to Kenya, we will have a much more hands-on ministry, closely working with the national pastors in Kenya, and we will need to reach our full support level before we depart. The truth of the matter is that as you work with more national pastors and plant more churches, the greater the financial need becomes. Please pray that we will have a full calendar of meetings and at least 15 more churches take us on for support before we leave for the field early in 2017.
For those of you who are partnering with us to see the Gospel spread and churches planted across Kenya and the neighboring countries of East Africa, we thank God for your faithful support. For the meetings that we have had where your church may not have immediately been able to take us on for support, we are praying for you and asking the Lord to bless you in such a way that some time in the near future God will bless you with the means of sharing this great work with us for the cause of Christ.
Thank you and God bless you.
Your brother and co-laborer in Christ,
Peter Morris
Missionary to Kenya, East Africa
