Dear brothers and sisters, family and friends;
On behalf of the entire StoneHouse family, we wish you all a
very Blessed Christmas and an Anointed New Year! May they both be in the presence
of everyone you love and be filled with your passionate service to our Father.
Secondly, we want to thank you for your continued support
for Cynthia, myself and the staff of StoneHouse
Ministries International (SMI) here in Kenya. Your love is being felt
half way around the world and is having an effect in the lives of hundreds of
Kenyans.
It has been somewhat
of an explosive year for us, with so many opportunities opening up to both preach
and demonstrate the gospel of our beloved King. It has not been without its setbacks
and heartaches, yet God’s grace has prevailed.
A few things happening this year are as follows...
It was a very moving year ! We moved the Sewing Center, we moved the school and Cynthia and I were able to move to Ponda Mali and finally be among the people we serve. This has been our desire ever since we first came to Kenya. Most of you know that we moved to Milimani, a very secure environment following the traumatic events happening to us two and a half years ago. We desperately needed that time in Milimani to recover.
But now, by our Father’s amazing grace, we live in the midst
of our beloved church family. The cost of our rent is less than one fifth of
what it was living in Milimani, enabling us to focus more of our resources on the
ministry.
StoneHouse
Fellowship Nakuru (our local church family in Nakuru) is now paying their meeting
place rent, electric, water and caretaker … all on their own! This is another
amazing accomplishment, given that most of our members live in extremely
impoverished areas.
The church in Nakuru has grown and has begun raising up sister
churches, Kmwaura , Engasura
, and Ndunyu Njero. There are plans to open up three more church families the
first of next year. These families are learning to take care of each other and
interact through the whole week. Our intent in each of these churches is to make
Disciples of Christ and train them to walk a holy and Spirit filled existence
as revealed in the scriptures.
We are currently raising up young men and women to become
servant/warriors who will, in the future, guide our church families. This last
year SMI enabled two of our young men to attend a Spirit filled bible college
just outside of Nakuru. Both these young men are working in establishing our
churches in between semesters.
Our African Shepherds Alliance (ASA) members
are being awakened to the weakened condition of Kenyan churches, who have
little or no biblical foundation. We have had three teaching seminars with
pastors from all over central Kenya.
The primary
school, StoneHouse Academy with its eighty-five students, is growing
and adding another grade level (grade 6) this year. We are very close to the
school to being able to meet all its own bills and obligations, which is a
major accomplishment, given its existence is in the slums.
The StoneHouse Sewing enter, is now teaching widows and
single women how to live self-sustaining lives, through being taught how to use
electric sewing machines. This year we moved out of James and Beatrice’s living
room into our own little one room building. Soon after, we added another room
to accommodate our growth.
SMI has almost fully acquired 3.5 acres for our ‘Solid
Rock Christian Community’. This
shamba (farm) will be a place where StoneHouse workers plan to live, work and
serve God together. There are plans to for a small conference center,
orphanage, teaching center and to become a full on self-sustaining farm. We
lack only four thousand dollars in owning it completely and being debt free. This
has totally happened by God’s sovereignty. Click here to read how our Father
provided this incredible blessing.
By God’s grace, SMI was able to pull off a wonderful
spiritual festival called the ‘Ingathering’. This is something Cynthia and I
have been desiring to happen for over five years. This was the first time all
our church families were able to come together and celebrate something wholly
for the Lord with no worldly additives. I am currently working on a pictorial post
for ‘StoneHouse
Chronicles’ that will be filled with three days worth of pictures.
SMI was able to put on free
medical clinic this year, in the midst of the Rhonda slums and was able to
see and treat over 200 people. This was done in concert with St. Mary’s
Hospital, a prominent hospital just outside of Nakuru and seven wonderful
nurses from America.
This year we visited and ministered to people of the Massai
tribe. It was something we hope will continue all the way to the
establishing of a local New Testament family near the Massai Mara .
Finally, this year was filled with new
friends and working relationships
with other missionaries and mission organizations working here in Kenya. With
all our different views and bents we are learning what it means to serve Christ
together while enjoying each other’s fellowship.
Some of those ministries and missionaries are ….
The wonderful people of Heaven’s Family… https://www.heavensfamily.org/
Deborra Darren of ‘Threads of Hope’… http://www.threadsofhope.com.ph/
Richard and Beth Kope…. http://projectroret.wordpress.com/
Louie and Rita Self… http://www.rmicf.org/
Robin and Kerry Nail…
and a many other beloved friends and
workers who are currently laying their lives down for the people of
Kenya.
On a personal note, it has been for Cynthia and I, a year
filled with many drastic changes and faith challenges. Moving to Ponda Mali,
experiencing eye surgery surgery in Kenya, losing and gaining local workers, facing overwhelming
needs, financial challenges and now going through four months of separation due
to our daughter’s thyroid surgery, to list a few.
Yet I know I speak for my beloved wife as well, it
has been one of the best years of our life. We have seen our beloved God meet every
need and bring miraculous answers to every challenge.
If asked what we want for Christmas, it would be just this…
that we could have more time to continue serving Him and His gospel… and that
His grace would continue to uphold our children and grandchildren who are also
paying a price by us not being able to be with them. Pray for us, pray for them
and pray for this ministry to continue.
In conclusion; This year has been an incredible year, filled
with challenges changes, new experiences. We are looking forward to the New
Year with a quiet confidence that it will bring even more opportunities, challenges, changes,
new experiences and accompanying them all … His amazing grace.
May God bless you all…
The StoneHouse family.
Where we are on the web….
For our new friends... here is a list of places you can visit to know
more about who we are, what we believe what we’re doing about it.
StoneHouse Blog…
updates what we’re doing here in Kenya
StoneHouse L.E.A.R.N. Ministry Blog… updates educational
ministry
StoneHouse teaching Blog… updates things we believe
StoneHouse Website… gives basic information
StoneHouse Facebook page… updates almost everyday
My Facebook page…
Gofundme…. http://www.gofundme.com/d2xrtw
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