Our just concluded trip to DR Congo and Burundi was filled with an abundance of blessings. We are excited at the prospects of seeing the Word of God go forth in these regions and are blessed beyond measure to be part of His work in His field. As I mentioned in my last letter, my wife Wendy, accompanied me on this trip and her reaction was exactly as I expected. She was deeply moved, often to tears by what she saw and experienced. In the next few weeks she plans to write a bit of what she saw from her perspective. If you are interested it will be posted on our blog - www.mickeystokenya.blogspot.com .
I was able to preach in Bujumbura, capital city of Burundi, to a group of believers that have been meeting together with brother Kambi wa Ecco. I first met brother Kambi two years ago when I made my first trip to Burundi. We have been able to develop a good relationship with him and have begun giving him proper training. There are a number of people that we are confident are ready for baptism and we hope to soon hold our first baptism service. During the preaching service we had a crowd of about a hundred show up and eight adults responded to the invitation for salvation. We are very excited about soon seeing a church started in this area. We have still not been able to find, nor have anyone tell us about, an Independent Baptist Church in the whole country of Burundi. It seems that IF there have ever been missions work done in Burundi amongst the Independent Baptist it has been at most on a very limited basis. Just today I spoke to a director in a large mission’s board and he told me that in his research he has not heard of Independent Baptists ever going to Burundi. It is obvious the need is great in this country and we are blessed that God is allowing us to take them the gospel.
I also preached at our church in Uvira, DRC. We were blessed with a building at full capacity and a great spirit amongst the church. There were about ten visitors in the service and during the invitation four of them responded to receive Christ. One of the visitors was a high ranking official in the Security Office named Clinton. As their name indicates the security people are responsible for the security in a given area. It was the security people in Baraka that "arrested" us on my last visit to Congo. Often it is the security people who are notoriously corrupt and demanding of bribes. Clinton did not respond to the invitation but it was obvious that he was under conviction during the preaching. Just yesterday I received word from Pastor Oloo that they visited Clinton in his home and he made a decision to trust Christ. BWANA ASIFIWE! (PRAISE THE LORD!)
We plan to open up a branch of our Bible College in both Congo and Burundi this coming January. This is a BIG step and will take a lot of careful planning, a lot of work, and even more money. Training is an important part of the great commission and if we plan to have a lasting impact in these areas people must be properly grounded in the Word of God.
The next month is going to be extremely busy and we would appreciate your prayers for the following things:
Ongoing preparation for our upcoming session of the Bible College.
26-28 November - Grace Bible Baptist Church missions conference.
29 November - 3 December- Bible College sessions.
6-13 December- trip to Congo with supporting pastor from Canada. He has a very good contact in Bukavu, DRC and we will be looking at the possibility of a church being started there.
As we near Thanksgiving time we have many things to be thankful about. At the top of the list is our thankfulness for all who pray for us. THANK YOU!