Thursday - Mombasa Conference End

Today’s travel to the conference was sort of miraculous in a way. The traffic was much smoother and we got to the conference on time. Everyone again was delighted to see us and excited about our final day.

We decided last night and this morning we would ask if we could do all our teaching before lunch, and then allow the pastors to minister to each other with what they have learned. Emmanuel said that was fine, so Doug started by sharing several testimonies of what he has seen the Lord do through prayer. He led another man through prayer and he was freed from the fear of rejection that he had been under. This man’s mother had told him that she didn’t want him beginning when he was 8 months old. His brothers and sisters rejected him; two churches had rejected him, and this man is trying to pastor a church.

Doug led him in prayer and just asked the Holy Spirit to speak to him, and within about 5 minutes of quietly, gently asking and waiting the man was healed from the pain and spoke truth that he is fully accepted and loved by the Lord and he doesn’t need to fear rejection any longer. His entire demeanor changed and joy was flowing out of his countenance.

I encouraged the pastors to shepherd their flock and help them to look more and more like Jesus in their walk. I warned them of a church that says one thing but does another, and that the church in Kenya could end up just like the United States where people ignore the gospel if they don’t shepherd their flock.



Doug finished up with a great teaching on unforgiveness and the bondage that will put people in. It was very well received. We then led one more prayer session, but this time we invited one of the pastors to come and pray with someone while we coached them through. We saw the Holy Spirit work before our eyes. These two pastors started praying with each other in Swahili and listening to what the Spirit was saying. They didn’t speak any English at all, and instead of coaching I just watched as they received ministry. In the end, this man was relieved of all the anxiety and pressure he was feeling, there was joy on his face with a different countenance, and it all happened in Swahili.

As we debriefed, it seems that the people have a genuine sensitivity to learning. They are outstanding in evangelism but their idea of shepherding is mostly winning more people to Christ. And they are winning people to Christ. We met tonight with an elder from a church about 20 miles north of Mombasa that is building a 60,000 seat arena. They have congregations all over this area. The church we are teaching at, Faith Victory Christian Church, has about 80 congregations spread all through the country and reaching out to Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Congo, and Burundi. So the harvest is ripe here, but the pastors have no training in shepherding their flock and the hurts that are within the flock. That’s why we believe this three day teaching session has been powerfully used by the Lord and may bring great benefits for years. We will trust the Lord with it.

We will not have internet access until we get to Eldoret on Saturday evening, so we’ll take a lot of good pictures and get them posted when we can.

The Mombasa experience was very humbling to see these brothers and sisters who love God with all their heart and have such a desire to share him with others, in spite of their tragic and difficult circumstances.