I got up this morning thinking that there would be nothing much to write about, but God has some more great adventures for me to talk about. Actually the thought crossed my mind that someday my great-great grandkids will read these reports and know that God is an awesome God.
This morning we had a precious time with the team at the YWAM base that Kathy Pryor is leading. Both Valerie and I shared and the Lord really gave us words of encouragement for them.
On the way to the hotel Valerie really wanted to visit the oldest Catholic Church in Mombasa. It was built by freed slaves for a place to celebrate their freedom. Across the street from the Church is a big bell that was used by the slave traders to tell the slavers to bring their human cargo down to the wharf to be loaded onto ships for ports all over the world. This horrid bell that was a symbol of cruelty and oppression became a symbol of the “Freedom’s Ring” to the Kenyans.
Unfortunately when we got to the bell we found that it had been stolen some time ago. We felt that this too was sign, because once again slavery is coming to Mombasa in the form of Human trafficking and Islam. Valerie has had a burden for this since we visited the place where slaves were loaded onto the ships 4 years ago.
We wanted to go straight to our hotel, but our wonderful Christian driver, Moah, pleaded with us to stop and meet his pastor. Valerie and looked at each other and thought, this is going to take a lot of time and we certainly didn’t want to meet a stranger. We went to a shopping mall to meet Moah’s pastor in a coffee shop. When we walked in this sweet pastor looked up at us and said “I’ve seen you somewhere before”. He told us his name was Josphat Ndumbu and that he was a Bishop over hundreds of churches. When I mentioned Simeon Obayo in my opening speech it suddenly dawned on him; Simeon had taken us to his house 4 years ago to pray for him. Simeon told us that this man was a highly respected and loved man of God and was on the verge of death. When he remembered, so did we, because it was a very memorable event. He had had a very bad stroke and could not walk. When we got to his house the family was crying in the living room and everyone felt that Josphat would die soon. Simeon and Mary and Val and I laid hands on him and the power of God was present. As we finished praying Simeon boldly said “Now get up and walk”. And to our amazement he did just that. Over the last four years he has continued to gain strength and he just completed a 7 state visit to the US. Can you imagine, in a city of millions of people and thousands of pastors, that we would be brought to this dear man who we prayed for 4 years ago. He asked me to speak at his church on Sunday and I just couldn’t refuse! So, instead of resting in our hotel on Sunday we will just have to Rest In God.
On top of that, when we walked into the restaurant their was a couple there from the YWAM base, Bob and Elizabeth. They had seen on Martin and Judy’s Heath’s Facebook page that we were in down. They were so sad that they would not have a chance to see us because they had been touched by our coming 4 years ago But here they were, sitting in the restaurant as we walked in. It was another amazing moment as Valerie had a chance to pray them. They didn’t even live in the area, they lived on the other side of town but they came over to buy tiles for their new house.
The Wow’s keep coming.
Blessings to you all back home
We love you.
Richard and Valerie