Threads of Hope

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God is raising Up An Army

God is raising up an army of sowers.

Matt. 25:35-4 “ For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. Whatever you did to the least of these, you did it to me”
Our recent mission to Kenya in December 2006 was remarkable to say the least. I can say the privilege of making this trip gets bigger each time. Both the people of Africa and our group were blessed. I pray you are blessed as well; as we could never have accomplished, now or over the years, what the Lord has ordained us to do without your support. We greatly appreciate you, your support, your prayers, and your encouragement.

Gail, Melonny Beale, and I left Tampa with $5,000 worth of sewing machines in our luggage. Two were new embroidery machines funded by Countryside Christian Center. We also carried Crisis Pregnancy related manuals for Gail's ministry in Nakuru, and “Care Bears” for the orphans.

Once again we accomplished all the Lord called us to do and more. We started out in Nairobi, rounding up fabric and foot pedal machines for the sewing outreaches. We had an important second meeting with the Nairobi Pentecostal Church Board of Directors. Their newly appointed Director of Operations is a lawyer (we really bonded); at this meeting we were privileged to tell them that just before we left we got word that we were donated hundreds of new sewing machines, sergers and embroidery machines. These items were donated by Husquvarna Co. this was an answered prayer. Now we were able to set in motion an agreement to partner with CITAM (Christ is The Answer Ministry) and NPC churches in Kenya to broaden the scope of this sewing ministry in East Africa. Furthermore, we are in the process of purchasing a 40 foot sea container that will belong to them and be placed on church property at their Children's Center. This is where our main sewing center is located. We will ship 1,000 machines for the six centers we now have established in Kenya. Some will go to Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ghana, here we have established relationships and sewing out reaches there. We visited all our centers while we were there, bringing more machines , fabric and thread we had purchased in Nairobi. We delivered the two new embroidery machines graciously donated by Countryside Christian Center . One to Keserian and one to Nakuru. While we were there we also started two new Sewing Training Centers!! How about that!! Each is a great story how they came about. They will be major centers for sure. One is in Mikinduri, East of Mnt. Kenya and the other is in Narok near Maasai land. We will have to relay in another letter more about these two centers. During our rounds to the churches we gave the “bush” pastors 10 solar power audio Bibles (pocket size) for their evangelistic out reaches. One was given to a blind Pastor. They were very excited to receive this important tool for their ministry.

Gail ministered at the new Pregnancy Center in Nakuru where she trained 18 women to facilitate Post Abortion Grief Counseling. Melonny was on a previous trip and was a great help in ministering to the women everywhere we went and followed up with the widows at our Nakuru sewing school. Everyone was glad to see her and Gail once again.

Ending our trip was momentous, we attended a Maasai wedding in Naikarra. Our “Maasai son” Jeremiah Koshal PhD was married in his village. He married a lady from a prominent family from Tanzania. Many of her family came to the wedding, a thousand came, more would have come but the rains have been heavy. We would not have made it out had it rained that day.

On our final day in Nairobi we had our last meeting. I had all our Threads of Hope leaders come in from different parts of Kenya to meet face to face for the first time, we laid the ground work for the formation of Threads of Hope—Africa . This ministry will now be a recognized ministry in Kenya. This group of African pastors, administrators, and bishops will soon carry the Threads of Hope mission on their own, Praise the Lord! Most of all, it was exciting to hear the testimonies of the widows who are now making more than an average wage with their sewing machines and praising God for the miracle!