JUNE

As we wrapped up mentoring the teachers at PBBHS, we also hosted a former student of Mark’s from Fleetwood, PA. Jill Andrews spent a couple of weeks with us as she experienced some medical mission opportunities in our area. We enjoyed our evenings together debriefing her days in the village as well as a weekend trip to the Kakamega rainforest.

An invitation to present at a weekend leadership training brought us back to PBBHS to work with their students and community church leaders. Cathy trained Sunday School teachers from seven local AIC churches while Mark facilitated a servant-leader seminar for the school’s Christian Union club.

JULY

The month of July was dedicated to a new training and mentoring format. We’d been approached by some small Christian schools in our region who really wanted training. Each rural school is quite small, only a few years old, with most of the teachers completely untrained. We felt that our normal training program wouldn’t meet the needs of these “start up” schools so we created a new format and program for them. 

During the month we trained the teachers every Saturday morning, focusing upon basic topics - how to share the Gospel with children, critical thinking and questioning, and lesson planning. Every week we visited each school to mentor teachers on the weekly topics. Our vehicle took a pounding as we traveled over unpaved roads to reach Mustard Seed Primary (Ng’enyilel), Vineyard Primary (Cheplasgei), and Victory Christian School (Turbo). We saw some growth in each teacher, some really grabbing hold of the idea of teaching biblically. Mark was even given the privilege of leading one teacher to Christ during a mentoring session; Amos had been confused by the teachings he’d heard in his church and realized he didn’t really have a relationship with Christ. What a joyful mentoring session that was! (see Amos' photo in the above Mustard Seed photo)

AUGUST

Schools in Kenya have closed for the month until September when the final term begins. We are using this month to write curriculum for Level 2 schools, preparing for some church conferences where we’ve been invited to speak, as well as meeting with various school leaders who are interested in receiving our training in 2016. A developing relationship with the Kenya Christian Private Schools Association is also providing open doors to hundreds of schools in the Eldoret area.

Open doors are wonderful and it excites us to see them. We covet your prayers as we meet with many leaders; wisdom and creativity are needed to discern which schools are ready for the level of commitment and participation that is part of the training and mentoring process. 

We also ask for prayer for volunteers available to assist us with our ministry. Maybe that's you! We believe that mentoring works much better with at least three of us available to train and disciple teachers. Please contact us if you're interested in participating in our ministry in the future!

As always, we are so grateful for the prayers and support that allow us to continue in this ministry. Everyday we wake up in awe of the fact that we get to do this! As we ponder scripture, this verse has become special to us:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live

in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.” - Galatians 2:20