VBS in Nandi!

The team is healing.  Regina still has no voice and a sore throat.  Continue to pray for her.  

She did manage to have a talk with Pastor Beatrice and here is a brief report on what is happening in the VBS they are having.  Please pray that they close on Friday strong in how they have shared Jesus with these children!  It is so great that the training that they received is being used!  

Don't miss this Sunday at FCBC when the team shares their stories.  

"She is in the midst of DVBS.  This is the third day and the enrollment has reached 545!  She wants us to know they are using the training techniques that we presented to them and will never forget them.  They have had to bring in some "untrained" help and are doing the best they can to show them how to work with the children.  Their trained teachers are happy though Pastor Beatrice says!  Pastor Beatrice is teaching too, although she says she has to sometimes sit down to teach.  She says though that the naproxen is still helping her to be pain free, Carolyn.

What a wonderful partner Pastor Beatrice is to us and NGCI and what a timely mission our team was able to carry out in Nandi.  Please continue to pray Pastor Beatrice and her team through the rest of DVBS, which will end on Friday.  They are truly following in Christ's footsteps."

 

Team Members are Sick

Re-entry for a mission trip can be difficult for a lot of reasons.  For this particular team there is a lot of post trip illness.  Please pray for each member as they heal.  The three members that have specific symptoms are:

Melissa:  high fever and dehydration.

Jeff: aches and chills

Regina: VERY sore throat

Pray for Carolyn and Virgil, that they stay well!

The Team is Coming Home!

THE TEAM IS COMING HOME! 

Below is the last blog entry from the field.  As I write this, the team is two hours from landing, Tuesday at 3:30.   Their work is done.  Our work is not.  The team needs our prayers as they transition back to their every day lives.  Pray that they will adjust quickly to time differences.  Pray that they will be able to process their experience.  Pray that their work will continue in their absence.  

Our wonderful morning started with a wonderful walk past the sea of green tea fields and serene hills to our first service at Nandi Pentecostal Church. We got there early to visit the Sunday School classes. The children’s voices were echoing throughout the sanctuary and the team enjoyed listening to them in the classroom. Martin and Jackie, two of our Kenyan teammates, added their Nairobi Gospel flair to the singing and taught the children two new songs. The children separated into their age groups. Carolyn and Jeff followed Class C to their room while our teammates headed to different classrooms. We really enjoyed Teacher Alice’s class and to our great surprise, she told the story of Jesus feeding the masses from John 6:11-13 by using two of the storytelling techniques we had taught them during our training (showing signs and basket story). Teacher Alice also used a great visual technique with pictures and words to help the children learn the memory
verse of John 6:35 – I am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never hunger and he that believes in me shall never thirst. It was awesome seeing them put the training to good use! 

After Sunday School, we headed down to the sanctuary and joined the whole congregation for some praise. After several beautiful songs, Carolyn introduced the team and it was time for the sermon. At NPC, the children go outside with their teachers during the sermon. Earlier, the team had decided that the young ones would go outside and play, while the old fogies would stay inside and listen to Pastor David preach the gospel. Melissa and Jeff followed the Sunday School teachers outside and played some of the games the teachers had learned during their training. It was fantastic! 

After church, we drove down the road and paid a visit to Pastor Beatrice at her house. She enjoyed hearing the message from Kay Blocher’s Wednesday morning Bible study group. Afterwards, we talked and laughed and enjoyed learning about Pastor Beatrice’s family. Pastor Beatrice’s son, Ben, took us to his tea farm, which was a short walk from Pastor’s house. We learned the ends and outs of growing tea and the tea business. We had a great day! 

We begin our journey home on Monday morning and will arrive in the US on Tuesday afternoon. It will be bittersweet to leave our Kenyan friends – they are so dear to us! Please pray for traveling mercies for us! Pray for smooth flights, energy when we need it and rest when we can get it. We will see you soon!

PUSH

                                         

                                     A picture of Pheobe from another trip 

On Friday, we led an extra session in the morning that we had not planned to lead (we are flexible!). A few teachers came and we were able to talk to them in more depth about their Sunday School programs and the challenges they face. Many are in churches where the leadership does not value Sunday School or children’s programs. These teachers have a deep passion for children, even leading Bible clubs with 60 children in their homes (because there is no space at church) or caring for children coming from difficult situations. Their heart for children inspired us and we were able to encourage and pray for them, as well as work together to come up with some practical ways to help.  Pastor Kamar from Nandi Pentacostal Church was especially encouraging and has committed to speaking to pastors about the value of children and Sunday School. 





Before our training, Phoebe led our group in a wonderful devotion that turned out to be so timely. We wanted to share it with you: 

Dealing With the “Nothing Phase” of Your Prayer 
1 Kings 18:42-44: Ahab got up to eat and drink. Elijah went to the top of Carmel and bowed down on the ground to pray. He said to his servant, Please go back to Mount Carmel, and look toward the sea.” He went up, looked, came back, and said, “There’s 
 through six seasons of prayer until finally “a little cloud like a man’s hand” appeared. We are not told how long it took this warrior of prayer to bring down rain after three and a half years of drought and famine but I can tell you, it did not take less than six hours of continuous prayer even after God had promised to send down rain. Elijah knew how to deal with delay in his prayer
life. 

Please PUSH in prayer for these teachers – that they will not lose heart and will put into practice what they have learned. Pray for the pastors and elders of their churches to understand how valuable children are and how important it is to teach them. Pray for the children in these churches to know that God loves them. Pray that God will give even us a passion for children that will match these beautiful teachers. 

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ADVENTURES!  

On Friday afternoon and Saturday, we were treated to some wonderful sites and people! After the additional teachers’ training on Friday morning, we headed out to the Yala River, just a short ride from where we are staying. The Yala River feeds Lake Victoria, which feeds the Nile River. Giant rocks formed some beautiful rapids and falls surrounded by lush green trees and plants. Jeff wanted to swim but we convinced him not to take the plunge since at least two members of our team would have probably had heart attacks if he did!

Next, we drove down a long, dirt road through the second largest rainforest in Africa to Rondo Retreat in Kakamega Forest. This is a former English estate built in the 1800’s. A large English-style house and several cottages are surrounded by giant trees, lush green vines, vivid flowers and serene grounds. We wandered through the estate, watched some monkeys playing high up in the trees and took tea (with chocolate cake!). It was a beautiful and calming place.

On Saturday, we had the honor of visiting with Jackie’s family in nearby Busweta. We shucked maize; met the hens, chicks, cows, rabbits and goats; had an amazing meal (mandazi and chapatti) and saw Jackie’s childhood home. Best of all, we got to meet Jackie’s mom, Esther, and some of her sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews. They received us with such joy and generosity and we all left feeling so grateful to have been there. 

GRADUATION DAY! 

We have been blessed to be here in Nandi to lead this fantastic teacher training. The teachers from Kenya have shown great promise and have a great passion for teaching kids. They can’t wait to take our training back to their churches and put it into action! Our morning was spent playing and teaching games like Catch the Lion’s Tail, Cat and Mouse, Guess Who, Ships and Sailors, Blob Tag, Trust Walk and Protect Me. We ended the training with a planning session of “What Do Sundays Look Like.” The teachers used all the knowledge they had gained from the 12 sessions of our training to plan out two complete Sunday School lessons. 

The highlight of the day was the group graduation where each teacher received a graduation certificate and a bag of supplies to bring back and use to teach the children at the church. The team is blessed with great support from home and from Kenya. God has allowed us to train these wonderful teacher to help spread the Word across Kenya. 

Please pray that the teachers will be able to share their new learned skills with others, changing discipleship for children all over Kenya!  

Amazing Work!

                                               Storytelling and Puppets
                                                      Sample Puppet by Jamie Hughes


Jeff continued Session 7 from Tuesday on helping children pray. The activity he taught was how to create and use a prayer cube to make it easier for children to get started praying. During the rest of the morning of our second day of teacher training, we 
focused on creative story telling techniques. Melissa kicked off creative story telling with a revival of Jesus calming the storm. The Kenyan teachers and Melissa stomped, clapped and rubbed their way to an Oscar winning performance in an audience participation story. Virgil led the group through the story of Noah using a fill in the blank technique. CNN would have loved to produce Regina’s interview with an eyewitness (Martin) to the battle between David and Goliath in her interview story, which the teachers loved and learned how to create. Next, Phoebe and Jackie instructed the teachers on how to tell a basket story which included a teammates’ pair of smelly socks and almost drowned a Kenyan
teacher. She survived and the group loved the techniques that Phoebe and Jackie taught them. Last but not least, Jeff showed off his best teaching style (according to his teammates) – being silent! He showed signs to tell the story of David and Goliath. At the end, he got a rousing round of applause but he was not sure if it was for his story or his silence! 

After lunch, the team and Kenyan teachers got our hands dirty making puppets. What a great success! For two hours, we cut, sewed, folded and colored puppets. Each teacher got to make one felt puppet and as many paper puppets as they could make. Carolyn showed off her Freudian side by teaching the class how to talk to a puppet and use it to teach the Bible. We had a wonderful day!

First day in Nandi

What a whirlwind it has been, filled with friends and fellowship! On Monday, we flew from Nairobi to Kisumu. The flight was Hope and Wise’s first time on an airplane. Hope and Wise are Jackie and Enock Matte’s two children. Jackie, Hope, Wise, Martin and Phoebe from Nairobi Gospel Centre have accompanied our team to Kisumu to help put on our training. After a short flight, we were greeted at the Kisumu airport by Pastor Beatrice. We all hopped into a matatu for the bumpy journey to Nandi and our training site. We were all tired and some of us more jetlagged than other, but we got to the beautiful village of Nandi and our wonderful accommodations. After a short rest, we got to work, preparing for our training!

FROM JEFF 

It’s Jeff Bechtle here. I was looking forward to a good night’s sleep because the training was starting on the next day. I had worked hard to put the finishing touches on my presentation on learning styles and hit the rack. I was extremely nervous because my expertise is children, not Kenyans! And after a restless night of zero sleep, my confidence was low. But a voice echoed in my head that sounded a lot like my wife, Ellie. It said, “Jeff, pray about it.” I grabbed my 365 day devotional and picked a random page. But God must have had His hand on the page and it went like this: 

Come to me, and rest in My loving Presence. You know that this day will bring difficulties, and you are trying to think your way through those trials. As you anticipate what is ahead of you, you forget that I am with you – now and always. Rehearsing your troubles results in experiencing them many times, whereas you are meant to go through them only when they actually occur. Do not multiply your suffering in this way! Instead, come to Me, and relax in My Peace. I will strengthen you and prepare you for the day, transforming your fear into confident trust.

It’s nice to know I have God and my wife to ease my difficulties! Please continue to pray for us; we feel your prayers!

ONE MORE REPORT

Our first day of training was fantastic! Knowing we needed to get to the church early to set up, we started the trek down the orange clay road, past the tea farm and beautiful hills to our destination, Nandi Pentacostal Church. For Virgil, Carolyn, Regina and Jeff, memories flooded back of UW sports camp, teacher training and 600+ children, while Melissa absorbed Nandi’s beautiful countryside. Training started at 9:00 and, in true African form, everyone showed up at 9:30. The Swiss may have invented the watch but the Africans have the time! 

The addition of our Kenyan team members, Martin, Jackie, Phoebe, Hope and Wise, have allowed us to connect and impact our Kenyan students greater than we could have imagined. This verse came to mind: There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)

The whole training was great but here are a few highlights - Melissa introducing icebreakers, Regina teaching about how Jesus taught, Jeff bringing the knowledge on learning styles and Virgil getting kicked out of every group he tried to join! Carolyn led an exercise on making up songs to memorize verses. Every group absolutely blew us away! It was like listening to sunshine. We can’t wait to share some of them with you! 

Thank you for your prayers and support! Please continue to pray for the team, our students and the impact they will have on the many, many children they will teach!

JESUS SAID "Let the Children Come To Me"

I took this picture at Pastor Beatrice's church back in 2011.  There were tire swings throughout the property and that spoke so loudly to my children's pastors heart.  It is evidence that children are important at Pastor Beatrice's church.  The point of this years conference is to help church  leaders throughout Nandi develop the same commitment to the discipleship of children.  

I received a text from Melissa yesterday because they have not had success with internet yet, now that they are in Nandi.  They got to Nandi safely and they are ready to teach!   We can still pray, and I know what they would appreciate us praying for.  Please join me!  

1.  Pray that their adult students in Nandi have open hearts to the material that is being presented to them, that will change how they disciple children.  

2.  Pray that the churches represented will be willing to make the changes necessary to effectively disciple children.  

3.  Pray that the team will be energized to give their very best for their students.  

Your prayers make a difference.  Thanks for being a part of the team!  

A GREAT SUNDAY IN NAIROBI!  

Keep praying!! 

What a busy and amazing day! This might be a long post so get ready! 

The team attended part of the NGCI service and were introduced together. The service was energetic and wonderful, as always, and Pastor Charles brought a great message on the power of words. Jeff, Regina and Virgil stayed for the entire service and were treated to a tour of the school and the Sunday School classes. NGCI has about 600 kids in attendance each Sunday!

Carolyn and Melissa got to attend a service at one of the four satellite churches that NGCI has started – Gospel Center International Kitengela, east of Nairobi. Pastor Henick and Pastor Steve (who works with Side by Sidde) are the pastors of this six month old congregation. Carolyn brought the message about faith of our mothers, fathers and others. Melissa attended Sunday School with the children and taught one class (surprise!). It was so encouraging to see what a strong emphasis this church has on children. They are valued members of the church and have some wonderful Sunday School teachers! The children even led a song in worship and performed a Scripture verse and song. Our visit was timely as the church is doing a VBS later this week and will be reaching out into the community to invite more children. Please pray for GCI Kitengela, their VBS program and the children who will attend. 

After church, Enock had arranged for a couple of the children from the Royal Diadem project to visit NGCI. Royal Diadem is the group Side by Side works with to sponsor children who have lost one or both parents. We got to meet with Lillian and Kelvin. It was wonderful to see them! 

Regina, Carolyn and Melissa were also able to go to our friend Pamela’s house. Pamela is Pastor Charles’ sister and the Children’s Pastor at NGCI. We had the privilege of meeting Pastor Charles and Pamela’s mother and sister, who were visiting Nairobi. We also got to visit with Beulah, Pamela’s daughter, and Emmanuel, Pamela’s nephew. 

Tomorrow we head out to Kapsebet very early in the morning. Pray that we have travelling mercies and arrive at the airport on time. Pray for the team as we work out the final details for the training and prepare everything. Thank you so much for all your support!

First Prayer Needs from Kenya!!

NOTE THE NEED TO PRAY FOR CAROLYN AS SHE PREACHES TOMORROW AND FOR THE TEAM AS THEY CONTINUE TO PREPARE! 

Greetings from Kenya!

We have made it safely and smoothly to Nairobi! Our journey was long but uneventful and everyone (and their luggage) arrived in one piece. We have had a wonderful night and day greeting our friends and catching up with them. Today we were able to attend part of a leadership conference for East Africa that Nairobi Gospel Centre International (NGCI) was hosting. They had 700 people from 80 churches attend! 

The team also got to meet all together for the first time - our team is not only from FCBC but also from NGCI. We met today to discuss logistics, review the curriculum and make plans for the upcoming week. We are so very grateful for our team members in Kenya, without whom this training would be impossible. Three team members from NGCI are accompanying us to Kapsabet - Martin, Phoebe and Jackie (plus two very important team members, Hope, 10, and Wise, 5, Jackie's children). Martin is the Ministry Leader for the children's ministry at NGCI, Phoebe is a Sunday School teacher and Jackie is the Women's Ministry Leader. We are also working closely with Pamela, the Children's Pastor, and Enock, the Youth Pastor. 

This evening we ate dinner with Jackie and Enock (who are married to each other), at Carnivore, a restaurant that serves a lot of meat and wild game. Luckily (for Melissa), they also have vegetarian options. We all ate our fill, Virgil got his crocodile meat and Jeff tried pretty much everything! 

Tomorrow (Sunday), we will be attending church at NGCI. Carolyn and Melissa will also be attending one of their satellite churches, where Pastor Steve is a leader. Carolyn will be bringing the message. 

Please pray for our entire team's continued health and energy. Pray for Carolyn as she delivers the message tomorrow and our team as we worship with our brother and sisters in Nairobi. Pray for a safe journey on Monday to Kapsabet. Thank you for praying for us! 

HERE THEY GO!!  

Thank you for praying for the Kenya Team as they prepare to go!  They leave Thursday the 6th at 5:30.  It is a 24 hour trip, so they will arrive in Kenya Friday night.  Here are the things that you can pray for as they go.  

1.  Pray for safety. 

2.  Pray for good health.  

3.  Pray that the children that are staying here will have peace.  Ross, Tyler, Miko and Kazu.  

4.  Pray that the hearts of their students will be prepared to receive all that they have planned.  

As they go, this blog will continue with news and updates from the field.  Please check it out on a daily basis to see how you can pray for them.  

Your prayers make a difference!  Thanks for being a part of the team!