Coffee with Christine

I am busy packing, cleaning out the fridge . I am just packing really lightly...just one carry-on. I am bringing some famous Kenyan tea as gifts and of course, my own supply of coffee and maggi (or apollo) noodles! I found this picture on the TMK Congo airline website. This is the little plane I am going to fly to Butembo from Entebbe, Uganda

I leave for Congo this coming Tuesday for a week (22-29th April). Noella called from Congo and told me to prepare for 5 day of services. I thought she said 5 services but she corrected me and told me it will be 5 days of services. That means I will be ministering several times each day! So many are praying and many of our friends and supporters has contributed financially to this trip - THANK YOU! Please continue to pray for me - I am trusting the Lord for a mighty spiritual renewal for His people. My specific prayer requests: 1. Safe flights especially the one from Entebbe to Butembo and back. 2. Mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in every service and meetinga. 3. Good health and protection. Beni is known as a malaria area but I have decided against taking preventive medication. The reason is that they can have nasty side effects and will affect my ministry time. I am taking lots of insect repellant with me. Pray for divine health and strength 4. Pray ...

The national schools are having their semester break in the month of April and the church we go to run a special all day program for the kids similar to Vacation Bible School. Although our girls are still in school they were able to help teach a couple of sessions this weekend. These are pictures of the students they had. Kathryn taught the 5-6 year group - of about 18 kids. Vickie is the faithful assistant and photographer!! PS...I have not yet learned how to flip the pic :-)

Once again, our hearts are thrilled and humbled at how the people respond to His Word. The Lord gave Tony a message on the Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. So many responded. Lives were touched and set free. God is good. What a privilege to be His servants!

We had great services on Sunday. Tony was invited to preach on the Holy Spirit in one of the oldest Kenya AG church. The response of the people were incredible. Many were touched and healed. Kathryn took pictures of the services but I will have to post them later as I don't know where her camera is! Yesterday, we received two text messages on our phone concerning riots all over the city. The "mungkiki" an outlawed cult group, kind of like the mafia, were causing riots in response to the murder of the wife of their leader who is currently in prison. Unfortunately, they also run most of the "matatus" (mini buses) in the city. Many people were affected by the riots - some are unable to get to work, or to school. However, the situation calmed down later in the afternoon. The President finally named the Cabinet - things were getting very tensed the last week over this issue and mass action was once again threatened. We are relieved that this is now over and hope...

The trip to town and back from the Congolese Embassy in the heart of the city centre took more than 2 hours (without traffic, it would be a 30 minute ride) but the actual process was actually pretty painless and took less than 10 minutes! One thing off my never ending list. Last evening fresh violence broke out in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi and in Kisumu - one of the most badly affected city. The power sharing deal that was signed about a month ago has now almost completely collapsed. Tension is high as we are all wondering if the violence will return to the streets in the midst of all these conflict for more power for all the parties involved. Prices has continue to escalate and we are all suffering as a result of that. Kenya has not recovered from the many layers of troubles we just had, we definately cannot afford anymore tension and conflicts. The violence that erupted last night had everyone on their toes once again. Please continue to pray for Kenya and for us to bring healing and...

Last weekend was a busy one for us, coming to think of it, every weekend is busy for us! Vickie's band had a concert on Friday evening, Saturday, we took Tony out to his favorite restaurant to celebrate his birthday and on Sunday, I ministered in Family Banquet of one of our Kenya AG churches. The girls and I got Tony this pretty card and a pop up Titanic book. Tony is a Titanic fan - he is fascinated by the Titanic story and had even preached sermons using the Titanic! I will have to do a separate post on that book. This card wishes him almost everything he could possibly want!! Although the card wished him "Peace" the girls joked that the card is lacking one special thing that Daddy might enjoy "Peace AND Quiet"!! There's not much QUIET in our busy household!! These other cards came from friends. These two are locally made cards. This one uses African fabric. And this one is made with wire, beads and recycled paper. Creative huh? Can you see Vickie in th...

23 March was a special day for us. The church we pioneered in 1999, River of God church, moved into their new sanctuary! The new sanctuary now can seat over 700 people. You can see how beautiful the new stage is! It is such a wonderful feeling to see this congregation continue to grow after it was handed over to a national pastor. God is good. Some plant, some water but it is God who brings growth! Children presentation - when we started the church most of these kids weren't even born yet! Some were little babies but look at them now! Talking about growing kids, our girls are such blessing to us. The Sunday that Tony preached, they played a duet of Amazing Grace and Shine Jesus Shine.....we are so bless! Sach (with the mic) and Pastor Patrick sharing about their missions trip reaching to the Muslims in Hola..... I am posting a short video clip of the girls playing....

The internet has been pretty good and the power has stayed on, so I decided to take some time to blog and post some " older" events as well as current ones. This year at Valentine's Day, I organised a Valentine banquet for the Couple's Fellowship. The girls are here helping me decorate the classroom. I wish you could see what they drew - hearts and hearts!! We love having our kids join us for ministry whenever they can and they really have been pretty hands on missionaries themselves.... FOOD!!!!!!!! We paid the cafetaria to cater the main food but some of the members of the fellowship helped with the desserts.....it was YUMMILICIOUS.... This couple, John and his wife are fromNigeria. John is a first year student, newly weds! They have been married for 6 months...praying together for each other at the end of the service. You may not know this, but it is highly unusual for African couples to pray for each other and hold hands in public. Tony and I encouraged it and it ...