Kenya Prayer Update #8

Good afternoon to you all and greetings again from El Doret!

I think I have a good bit to report, so buckle up! Firstly, our progress on the new church land. We have the whole footprint of the building mapped out with profiles and chalk and the land is basically level (one end is a foot or two lower than the other but it's not a big deal). That's a great accomplishment even though it's just the start and it's already cool to see how different the land looks. I'm going to try and get the drone photos our media director took and send them in the next email -- I don't have them now unfortunately. The new sanctuary will seat about 2000 people, which is a big upgrade! Some 57 toilets, a whole bunch more kids' classrooms, some music classrooms, a studio, and better offices will be additional features. It's exciting to be able to kind of visualize the layout now that the frame is outlined. Just yesterday afternoon we began digging the foundation trenches. We started digging by hand with just 8 guys, but today we had probably 15. The soil here is both rocky and very compact because of how dry it is, so digging requires pickaxes before shovels can be put to use. We had originally intended to dig the whole foundation by hand, but it wound up actually being more cost effective (and certainly time effective) to rent two backhoes to do the job, which started this afternoon. That was pretty nice, although the digging was rather fun albeit scorching hot. Regarding the building project it would be amazing if you all could be praying for wisdom as we form the foundation, that we would be digging the right spots, that confusion would be minimized, that we would be kept secure from robbery and corruption, and that God would be glorified in our work.

Coming up tomorrow morning is the KOAN (King of All Nations) football tournament. It will be tomorrow, Saturday, and then the final match will be on Sunday afternoon. There's a team from Calvary Chapel Bangor coming, they are actually on their way from Nakuru as I write. They'll bring with them their own football team to compete in the cup. Pray for them, they'll be pretty exhausted arriving so late and then playing football all day in this high elevation. Pray they don't lose badly, but I don't want them to beat our team haha! Pray also for safety during the matches and that souls would be saved as we teach the Bible in between games and halves. It's a really cool thing -- guys who would not show up to church will get to hear the Gospel through a sporting event!

I've been doing well; I bought a guitar the other day so I can be practicing a lot - that's been a lot of fun to learn. Kiswahili lessons did indeed start and I'm purposing to be fluent by the time I leave here -- we'll see what happens! Somehow I haven't been sick yet - praise God! I've begun organizing Pastor Josh's sermon audios into a David Guzik style commentary that he will go back and add to. That has been a great opportunity to learn and study the Bible even more, so I've been glad to be a part of it. On Monday, Jake and I took a field trip to Koromosho Falls, probably the most beautiful waterfall I've yet seen. I've put some photos. It's got a super neat cave behind it so you can actually climb behind the waterfall onto a cool ledge and chill back there. Super neat and super pretty up there.

As always, thank you all so much for your ongoing prayers for me and for the church here in Kenya. Feel free to write me back with questions or anything -- I'm always blessed by your replies.

'Til next time,

Zion