Kenya Prayer Update #4

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope I don't wake anyone up with this email, but I wanted to be among the first to wish you all joy as you celebrate Christ's birth today. It's already morning here in Kenya, anyhow.

An update on the Christmas concert on Saturday -- it was phenomenal! All the decoration, food preparation, cleaning, music practice, and everything else that the church family here put together for the event paid off, as the whole evening of music brought glory to God. We must have set up 8-900 chairs in the sanctuary and even still people were struggling to find places to stand! The music was incredible, but more importantly, God was at work in the hearts of the people, as many gave their lives to Christ, either in new repentance, or in repentance again.

This next week or so the church staff has off and the building is closed to give everyone a rest from the business of church activities the past two weeks. Normally, the church is open 9-5 Tuesday - Sunday, but for the next week it will be open just for regular services. Baptism Sunday is this coming, and Baby Dedication Sunday the following. That same following Sunday will also be the 13th Anniversary of Calvary Chapel El Doret. The three services will be combined into one to celebrate the occasion in huge joint fellowship and worship around the Word of God. So those are the next events you all can be praying for.

Christmas season in Kenya -- in addition to being very warm -- is not always the same joyous celebration with family that it most often is in the states -- even within Christian homes. So many families are divided, separated, broken, distanced; whether by economics, abuses, or neglect, so the joy of the Lord afforded to Christians by Christ is both exceptionally valuable and exceedingly evident in believers' lives here this time of year. We folks in the states often take such joy for granted. That said, please be in prayer for those many today.

I've attached a couple photos of the setup for the Christmas concert before everyone got there to fill it up. I had a couple videos I wanted to send too, but they were all too large for the email, so they'll stay on my phone for now.

May God bless you all today as you worship Him in the celebration of His birth,

Zion