Prayer

The FMCSC family is faced with some rather serious challenges that call upon us to unify ourselves in prayer. Please join with me as we seek the Lord for the following:

Mitch Thomas (Sam's brother. Sam is pictured above) moved to Pasadena about nine months ago to work with Sam and Christi at Corridors church. Mitch has been a great blessing to the ministry. Yesterday Mitch was diagnosed with a rather severe form of leukemia. Mitch is still in his 20's and has trust and peace in the Lord. He begins chemotherapy on Tuesday. Sam is pretty shaken up over the news. Matt and Marlene are on their way down to be with Mitch.

Pastor Wes Keller has suffered a stroke earlier this week. On Saturday evening the family will determine if life support systems will continue. Pastor Keller has served the FMCSC for decades as local church pastor and interim superintendent. Please lift the Keller family up in prayer.

Pastor Melaku is facing some challenges within the Ethiopian congregation. It seems that Badeg is back in the US and demanding to preach at the church. Pastor Melaku has refused to surrender the pulpit as a result of church disciplinary action. Badeg is doing everything he can to divide the church and is attacking Melaku. Tomorrow after the morning service the church leaders are holding a special meeting with Badeg to try and resolve the problem.

Thanks for being family. I pray that "it is good to belong" is not just cliche.

Blessings,

Building Walls

Here is a report that we just received from The Lamb's Fellowship in
Murrieta:

At Annual Conference, Don Rogers spoke about Empower Lives International - and he showed some buildings they had built without completing the walls. Don spoke at Lamb's, Murrieta at both services this past Sunday. I felt the Lord speaking to me about those walls. I challenged the Body to make a special offering, even to give their tithe if they felt led, to ELI to get those walls built. At 12:30 we were able to hand Don a stack of checks for ELI and the walls on those buildings for $12,981 !!! We feel it was truly a move of God, a miracle.

John Hansen

Harley Davidson for Christ

Last week we were at our annual conference and had many great reports on different ministries that do not fit in the traditional ministries of the church. One of the reports was from Marty Edwards from Black sheep which he started a few years ago.

Black Sheep Harley-Davidsons for Christ is more than just a motorcycle club. It’s a motorcycle ministry of men and women that ride for Jesus: helping and serving H.O.G. members and chapters across the country.

The ministry exists “To introduce Jesus Christ to the world of motorcycle riders, for the purpose of making more and better disciples through the ministry of the local church."

While remaining involved in a local church, we get to ride with other believers, meet new friends that ride, support people, share God’s love and how to become saved if they so choose.

What Black Sheep Does:

1. Bring the Gospel to those who ride.
2. Help those who are in H.O.G.
3. Support a local church.

How Black Sheep Does it:

1. Ride and develop relationships with H.O.G. Members.
2. Encourage and support other Black Sheep Members.
3. Support the Church and the Black Sheep ministry
(Financially and prayerfully that it may grow and be effective.)

Why Black Sheep Does it:

1. God said to do it.
2. We are uniquely qualified by proximity, demographic profile, and Harley Ownership.
3. No other ministry group exists specifically for the 800,000 H.O.G. Members.

• They really need our prayer!! The spiritual warfare is tremendous. Click here if you want more information about Black Sheep.
• If you want to see Marty Edwards, the founder of Blacksheep, roasting our Bishop Haskins please click here . This will be his last year as our Bishop as he will be going back to pastoring a church.

Happy Mother' Day

I want to wish all the mothers a “Happy Mother’s Day” as this day should be a time of happiness and appreciation of our mothers. It can be a difficult day for many. Today Gina Robertson shared in our 2^nd service on grieving the loss of her mother. (Gina is pictured on the right.) If you're interested in hearing her testimony please click on "Gina’s Story."

Baptism

Angela at Kosovo

This morning Angela shared about her trip to Kosovo during Easter break. During her sharing she is referring to a few pictures so you can go to the photo album (the link is to the right called M.C.F. photo album) then click on the album called The Average Church band, then click on the slideshow.

God's Will

Beginning this Sunday I’m going to start a new series: "What Is God's Will For My Life?" Why? I’m asked that a lot. It's an important question because there's nothing more important than knowing and doing God's will. Success is knowing the will of God and being right in the center of it. He wants us to know His will.

Ephesians 5:15-17 "Be very careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is."

God wants you to understand what His will is. Why is it so difficult? Why is it so hard to figure out "God, what is Your will for my life?" How come it's so confusing? Why do we have a fog so much of the time?

I think the reason is that there are some basic misconceptions about God's will. We will look at those starting this Sunday, and what God has to say about it. This is will be an introductory message. Please begin to pray today for this coming Sunday and my prayer for this series will be that everyone will have the resources to seek His will for their lives.

Ellie sharing in the first service

Ellie sharing in the second service

They made it!

Tired but safe! 30 plus hours of flying, 2 hours in customs

Don, Ellie. and Tim

Are on their way to Los Angeles. If you want to track their flight it is:

United 967, arrives LAX Sat. April 28 at 7:20 pm

Images of Sudan

Please click this link http://marinachristian.phanfare.com

The Plane picking us up in Sudan

Kenya

This was taped at the children's home right before Jennifer did the bible study in Alderet Kenya.

A Conversation with Steve

Jennifer meeting with the children

Playing with the children

Electricity in Kipkaren, AIDS campaign and more

I (Adele) just walked into my home after a marathon couple of days for all of us.

When the team got back from Sudan on Wednesday, they were happy to take showers and drink lots of fresh water. Wish you could see them devour the ice cold watermelon I gave them as they were heading to take showers... Later, we sat on my porch and chatted about their experiences. You'll want to ask them MANY questions when they get home. They have lots of stories to tell!

The team had both shrunk and grown. Micah, Kevin and Jen had gone straight to Nairobi, and Tammy joined the group from LA. She arrived on Wednesday night.

On Thursday morning, we headed to Kipkaren. They were welcomed by the Kipkaren children, after which they had tours of the centers. They were in Kipkaren on a historical night: The first night ever that there was electricity in the area! (Other than that from generators or solar panels.)

On Friday morning, we headed out bright and early to a nearby town for an AIDS campaign. It was in a small village where people are still very afraid of talking about HIV/AIDS, so the crowd was a bit smaller than usual (maybe 1500 as opposed to 3000+). More than 400 people got tested, of which 7 were HIV+.

The afternoon's events were interrupted by heavy rains, but about 30 minutes later, the soccer team was back on the field and the crowd back in their positions, cheering. Then followed the prize giving, after which we headed home. The Salvation Army Band from Kitale was still playing their hearts out by the time we pulled out and headed back to Kipkaren. (A band from Nairobi was also present, but not the usual band we have. They didn't play as much since it seemed like the very rural crowd enjoyed the Salvation Army guys more than they enjoyed the city boys!)

The band from Nairobi had a concert for the kids from the children's home after dinner (ask the team about it--I headed home for some down time), and then, BAM! there was a massive thunder storm and heavy downpour. It was wonderful! But the lightning hit something, and now there's no power in Kipkaren again... Power should be back soon!

Today, the team had some much-needed down time. They came to Eldoret to walk around the market, buy postcards, relax at Poa Place (poa means "cool"), the local hang-out for families. (It's a swimming pool and playground for kids.) I was not with them since I joined Laban and Angelina Rono's 25th wedding anniversary celebrations, followed by a birthday party for 35 of our kids in Ilula.

Tomorrow, the team will participate in church activities in Kipkaren, then go for some home visits. On Monday, they'll come to Ilula where they'll visit the ELI Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center. Jervaun leaves on Monday evening. The team will spend the night at Ilula and will try to connect via e-mail at that time.

On Tuesday, they'll head back to Kipkaren, see the ELI clinic, and on Wednesday, they'll get to be a part of a Children's Ministry event at Kipkaren.

Thursday's back to Ilula. They fly to Nairobi early Friday morning to spend the day in the city (shopping & seeing touristy things), and then they'll be off, home-bound!

Please keep them in your prayers this week. I'll upload photos to my Flickr account later this week. I just realized that the USB cable for my camera is in Kipkaren... Sorry you can't see photos right now.

Adele Booysen

Communications Coordinator

Empowering Lives International

Cattle Camps

This is what they call the “The cattle camps.” We walked for a couple hours to get there. Many of them have never seen white people so a lot of the children where watching from afar. But they eventually came around. I did not know the camera was in the black and white mode; sorry about that.

African Hunter

After interviewing the children we saw some vultures about fifty feet from us so I gave the camera to Tim and decided to be “African Hunter.” Then I was thinking, “What kind of animal did this and why is it only 500 ft from our tent?”