Kenya Prayer Update #3

Good evening/afternoon everyone,

Tomorrow will mark my first full week in El Doret, and I can say I'm doing pretty well so far! The past couple days have been busy, but rewarding. I've secured a Kenyan phone number so I can communicate easier with folks and friends from church and also use Mpesa, which is essentially the Kenyan form of Venmo/Cashapp/whatever else people use in America. Mpesa is used by just about every single person to make transactions. It's very handy in a country with an inflated currency, meaning that people don't have to carry around a thick stack of cash everywhere to buy things.

Transport has been fun. Jake and I have been taking piki piki (small motorbikes) taxis to and from town to get groceries -- we'll bring our backpacks, buy what we need, and then throw it all into our backpacks so we won't have bags when we ride the piki back to our apartment. Jake just bought his own piki today, though, so we'll be more flexible and efficient in our transport now.

Pastor Josh and his family arrived in El Doret on Tuesday, so praise God for their safe arrival! Last night was the church's big Women's Christmas Event, so we spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday preparing the building for that. There was a great turnout, and the Gospel was delivered, so another praise there. Towards the very end of the event, our part of town lost power, which I guess is not uncommon because of infrastructure stuff or something (not really sure), so we began cleanup by phonelight. Our apartment lost power too -- had we power I would have written this email last night -- but the meter in our apartment is outdated and broken and the only power company is very slow, so we just got power back around 5:30 today. Thankfully we got it back just long enough to cook dinner and have hot showers last night.

Tonight was midweek service at church, and we spent the day continuing to clean the sanctuary from last night's event and put chairs back for evening service, as well as various other things. Y'all can be in prayer for this Saturday, please, as we'll have the church's 11th annual Christmas concert -- it's going to be an incredible day of Christmas music and Bible teaching that has been a great outreach to the community, as good live Christmas music is hard to come by here. Tomorrow I'm sure we'll be doing setup for that; pray souls would be won as we remember Christ's birth! I know the musicians have been practicing their set for around 2 months now, so it will be an exciting performance to God's glory. Pray for continued safety, health, and wisdom for me, and also that I can learn to speak Swahili well. While just about everyone here does speak English (Kenya has 2 national languages), I'm eager to be able to communicate with folks in the language they speak more (and to stop sounding like such a stinkin' American!!) I know a few simple greetings and phrases already, which is cool. Thank you all so much for your prayers!

I've attached a couple photos for you -- I have one of the church's sanctuary during 2nd service (there are 3 services) on Sunday, as well as a picture of the new land that is basically just across the street from the current church building that we are just beginning to break ground on to move to a much larger space. We currently operate on a 1/2 acre plot, and will be moving to a full acre where will be a four story church building. God has brought an incredible harvest to fruition here in Kenya, and He continues to work and provide!

Thank you again for your prayers,

Zion