Dear Friends,

Thank you for praying for this work and all God is doing in and through us here in Kenya.

For the last few years we often asked for prayer concerning the drought. It was common for us to ask for God to provide rain. He has answered abundantly, actually some areas are receiving too much rain. Because of corrupt building practices a local landlord built a complex of flats on an adjoining plot, but over Calvary International Fellowship’s drainage. It was supposed to be an open area, but the water now has backed up to that a portion of the church plot has standing water. There is no damage, and besides to mosquitoes and frogs it is really not a bother, but it is clear we need to put in new drainage through the other side of the plot. Again, God has radically blessed us with this piece of land. When we purchased it we had no idea that it would be 100 meters from East Africa’s first superhighway. It is all a blessing, but we can really use prayer for wisdom on how to deal with the water drainage.

Please also Brenten, our intern from Oregon. He will be serving alongside the guys of the church for a few months. Please pray we can bless him as much as he desires to pour into our young men.

Finally, Wednesday will be the 20th anniversary of the day God gave me Kelli. Imagine! Please thank God with us for 20 wonderful years and that our marriage would be a light to the people of Kenya.

Shalom!

Ed

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Dear Friends,

Kenya is approaching a vote on a new constitution and there has been great rhetoric. Please pray God’s people would evaluate their new constitution in light of God’s word and cast their vote for His glory. Please pray we at Calvary International Fellowship can reflect the heart of God and not politics. Please pray we can educate people regarding the Biblical view of family, when life begins and how Kadhis courts (Islamic sharia courts) are harmful to the freedom of Christianity.

Please pray for faithfulness among the the people of CIF and for families in the church. Please also pray for Brenten, out intern coming out from America this week.

Thank you for keeping us and this work in prayer.

Compean blog

Compean missionary page

Dear Friends,

Praise and thank God with us not only for a great safari (journey) to Kisumu, but to see the Calvary Chapel Lakeside church plant in action. Tomorrow will be their sixth Sunday service and it is clear God is adding to His church in Kisumu. Please continue to pray for them.

Please pray for the School of Ministry meeting at Calvary International Fellowship. It is wonderful to walk into the church building and see a group of students huddled together studying.

Finally, please pray for families in the church. Pray that men would stand up against traditions and embrace a Biblical model of manhood and womanhood.

Shalom!

Ed

A dear friend that went to be with the Lord two years ago once told me he considered me a Barnabas in his life. Barnabas is typically associated with encouragement and I'm typically associated with cynicism, so I needed to ask for clarification. Rick explained we all need a Paul in our life to disciple, exhort and correct us in God's word. He went on to say we all need a Timothy to disciple and be a Paul to. He said he considered me a Barnabas, a peer that sharpens and keeps the other accountable. Coming from Rick, that was one of the greatest compliments I ever received. I miss him.

This weekend Kelli, Jax and I traveled to Kisumu with Ruth, Rick's wife, to visit and encourage Calvary Chapel Lakeside. Pastor Stephen Otieno was sent from Calvary International Fellowship to plant that church in Kisumu and I have the honor of calling him my Timothy. There is something special about seeing a man you have invested into minister in the power of the Spirit of God to others. Maybe the best was as Stephen preached from John 2, I was being ministered to. My disciple was teaching me. Stephen will always be my Timothy, but he has also become a Barnabas to me.

Sunday evening we celebrated the new church with a sunset dinner at Kiboko Bay Resort, a resort right on Lake Victoria. It is probably the finest restaurant in Kisumu, but a plate of tilapia and bitter lemon is still only about $6. Pastor Stephen, his wife Maureen and son John Mark joined us, Ruth and the Pottenger family for the celebration. As the sun set, a huge lightening and thunder storm approached from the Uganda side of the lake. Much to the amusement of the Kenyans Kelli began to cheer the storm. We all agreed it was a wonderful sign of God's power and strength. Somehow it also reflected His power and strength to gather His people in Kisumu.

The storm and dinner were the end to a wonderful day, possibly the greatest, or at least most rewarding, day of ministry ever. It was wonderful to share it with Rick's wife, my wife, my son and our friends the Pottengers. It was powerful to share it with my Timothy, now my Barnabas. Mostly it was humbling to see God's power in His calling a people together in Kisumu.

Ed's blog

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We love being missionaries. This morning before dawn we drove into Kibera to help a friend have a baptism service. That would be enough, but he was the pastor of a Roho Israel church, if you can call it a church. The group is best described as a cult taking the law of the Old Testament and mixing them with traditional religions of the Luhya peoples. In the best-case scenarios they sprinkle some Jesus language and maybe a few Christian traditions, but for all their fervency there is no grace and they are far from God.

I first met Pastor Felix in 2006 when he was attending Disciple Support Ministries. That Bible Institute was a huge help for Felix to see some of the errors of the Roho group and was used of God to introduce the grace of Jesus into his personal life. In the words of Pastor Felix, “We have been sending people to hell and now I desire to teach them about Jesus.”

For more than two years I had the honor of meeting with Felix and helping him walk through a major change in his church and speaking to the cult’s leaders. David Leek with Mission Aviation Fellowship had also been meeting and disicpling Felix. While the overall changes of the cult have been limited, the church Pastor Felix oversees in Kibera has been transformed by the love of God. Some members still wear turbans and remove their shoes before entering the church building. The women still sit apart from the men. The good news is that they now do those things in worship and not in bondage. Pastor Felix has taught them they are saved by grace and not of their own works and abiding by rules. The real Spirit of God moved on Pastor Felix and then used him to minister into that little church in Kibera. Within the last year Felix has been teaching through the New Testament and many of his sheep have come out of darkness and into the marvelous light of Jesus.

All of that culminated this morning when David and I baptized Felix as an example to his congregation. Since he had gained a solid theological understanding of baptism, we taught Felix some practical issues and he continued to baptize several members of his church. Since the baptism was held at a Boy Scout camp pool on the edge of Kibera we returned to the church for chai and a wonderful service full New Covenant believers.

It is seldom that I’ve witnessed a group of people completely caught up into a dead religious system be set free by Jesus. While God has been working in their hearts for years to bring this change, this morning was the culmination as they embraced the New Covenant of grace and identified themselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus in baptism.

There are still parts of that church that God looks forward to transforming as He sanctifies them as individuals and a congregation, but there are huge portions of my life that need more transformation. Regardless of what is needed, they are now in the kingdom of light and are much further along His path than before. I was honored to witness this day and rejoice with my Luhya brothers and sisters. Lord willing I’ll travel to their rural area in December to help Felix with a seminar among some of those upcountry churches.

Compean blog

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It is with great pleasure and delight that I get to share that Calvary Chapel Lakeside in Kisumu, Kenya, has officially been started. Our first visit to Kisumu was in February 2007, and from that time the Lord had burdened our hearts for there to be a solid Bible teaching church in this city. We weren't sure all the details of how the church would start, who would be pastoring it, where it would be located, and many other details; but God has finally given us the means to move forward. When we first left our home in California we had thought that I (Matt) would be the pastor of this church, but as we got here to Kenya, the Lord clearly showed us that wisdom would be to have a Kenyan pastor leading the church, even from the the get-go. God had already connected us with the person who we saw as that man, and slowly but surely God confirmed that he was the one to lead this church. Pastor Stephen Otieno was originally from the area of Kisumu, but the Lord had lead him to C.I.F. near Nairobi, Kenya; a church that is pastored by a good missionary friend of ours. So the Lord brought all of us together to begin this new work in Kisumu. This past Sunday (Easter Sunday) we held our first service. It was such a blessing, and we were all so excited for all that the Lord is doing. Most of those who have been faithfully coming to the Bible Study that meets at Pastor Stephen's house were there for church, and have all voiced that they are excited to have a church that teaches the Word of God. Here in Kenya there are many many churches that "preach" but do not "teach" the Word. In fact, it is commonly thought that if the pastor has not lost his voice by the end of his message that he wasn't "anointed" (due to yelling). I do believe that this church is very different than the way Kenyan's are used to 'church'. All of us were blessed by the message that Pastor Stephen taught (John 20) last week, and starting this coming Sunday we will begin going through the gospel of John, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We are so thankful for the Lord's grace in helping get started. We are trusting the Lord as we make many decisions in this early stage of the church. We are praying about direction regarding language, having 2 services, and children's ministry (to name a few things). We appreciate all the prayer and support and encouragement that we've been getting. Praise the Lord!

Pottenger blog

Pottenger missionary page

Dear Friends,

Please thank God, continue to intercede and rejoice with us for Calvary Chapel Lakeside’s start up in Kisumu. After speaking with Pastor Stephen and Mathew out there it is clear God blessed and there is a core group. Everyone is really encouraged as things take off. Please keep them in prayer, particularly as Pastor Stephen considers adding a second service so one will be in English and another in Kiswahili to minister to a wider group of people. Go below this post or click here for an update from Kisumu, l

Please pray as Calvary International Fellowship ramps up for School of Ministry. Please pray for faithfulness and a reliance on God’s Spirit as this goes forward. Please pray all we do now would equip saints for all God has for them.

Finally, please pray for the personal and ministry financial support. Since the new year we have seen a considerable drop. That is not complaining, pleading or not trusting God for His provision. We are simply asking for prayer in this practical area and we are confident God will do His will.

Blessings!

Ed

Compean blog

Compean missionary page

Habari Rafiki Wangu, below is an update from missionary Mathew Pottenger that is in Kisumu helping Pastor Stephen with the plant of Calvary Chapel Lakeside. --Enjoy and rejoice with us, Ed

Dear Saints,

Please rejoice with us, first and foremost that we celebrate a risen Savior, and secondly that we have officially begun as a church here in Kisumu. The church name, chosen by Pastor Stephen, will be Calvary Chapel Lakeside. As we arrived an hour before the service a big banner sign was being hung on the wall facing the street outside the compound where we are meeting. The morning, as could be expected was bustling with activity. There was an excitement in the air, and it could be felt by all.

After dropping my family and a friend off at the compound I (Matt) drove to Pastor Stephen's house to bring the newly built pulpit in my car. While I was there I was blessed to bring Stephen's wife and son, as well as a neighbor (Mama blessing) and her two children. We crammed into the car and made our way back to the church compound. There was a large tent that was being set up as we pulled in, and shortly after the chairs and benches found their places underneath.

Stephen was preparing a written "order of service" to help us have a smooth transition from one aspect of the service to the next. We gathered together and prayed for the service and for the beginnings of the church, after which I went to get my guitar out and begin inviting people to join us in the tent. We opened in prayer, sang a mixture of English and Swahili worship and praise songs and ended with another prayer and reflection on the resurrection of our Savior. Pastor Stephen came up to welcome all those who came (guessing about 25 were there with us at that time) and to give a brief introduction to who we are and announce about our services and mid-week Bible Study.

He then gave a short teaching on 'giving' (as that is such an abused aspect of church here in Kenya - and likely all over the world) which then led us to a time for the tithes and offerings. I led in one more song during that time (Thank you for the Blood). Stephen then informed the church that Steve (the missionary whose compound we were using) would be leaving with some people to go to their normal church as he was to be preaching there that morning. The were several boys from the street that were present with us, and all of them left with Steve and Dianne for their church, this left our group to be about nine adults and several children. We all adjusted our seating to fill in closer to the front and Stephen began the message. He taught from John 20 and gave a beautiful message about the resurrection of our Savior, all of us who were present were both greatly challenged and fed by the Word. At the end of the message Pastor Stephen invited me back up to lead in one more song (He is Lord, He is Lord, He is risen from the dead...) we sang it both in English and Swahili.

The service seemed to be short to us, as the adrenaline and excitement could have carried us long into the evening hours. But we took time to greet the new comers and to get to know each other better. We began to put things back in their places and encourage one another with the things the Lord has been doing in our lives recently. One man, who had a difficult time finding where we were, came in after the service, and was sorry he had missed it, but was promising to be there next week. All in all, we were all very blessed. God was glorified. His Word went forth. The saints were fed. And we are all excited for the season ahead of us with this new baby church. Please continue to keep Pastor Stephen, his family, us and the new church plant all in your prayers. And rejoice with us that we have been able to officially start.

May the Lord be glorified in us all.

Matthew Pottenger

Pottenger missionary page

Pottenger blog

Thank you for continuing to pray for the work here.

Please pray for he security issues in and around our house. In the last weeks there have been several home invasion robberies. Gangs of up to 20 people have invaded local compounds, beaten the guards and in at least two cases killed the guards. As the inflation continues to rise there is more and more of this activity. Now many of the young people in our community are living in fear because the police typically round up suspects and shoot them to end crime waves. Please pray there would be repentance and Jesus would call people to himself through all this.

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We have had such an emotional week, with this being our last at Language School. Today was heart-breaking as we said goodbye to our Joyce and all of the teachers that have helped us from the time we got here. The only thing that kept us from "losing it" is the fact that we still have to return for our finals and that I will see Joyce on Monday...

Free Cervical Screening for Women of Nairobi!

On Wednesday, Robbie, our pastor, picked up about 5-6 women to take for a free breast and cervical cancer screening. A team came from Loma Linda to put on this clinic and the women of Nairobi are so excited. Joyce, the lady who helps us with the boys while we attend class, and I met the ladies from our church to get in line for their free screening when we discovered there were women waiting from the day before! Needless to say, our women didn't get seen but praise the Lord, the guy from the head of the clinic has been in contact with me via email and arranged for our women to come and get an appt. His name is Mark and we've been in touch about this clinic for about a year. Mark is a Christian and has asked for your prayers during the clinic. He will come worship with us at church on Sunday and have lunch with us afterwards. This appt. was such a blessing considering the team will only be here till about March 11th and the women are served on a first come first served basis. The women from our church come from all different areas but Joyce lives near us in Tigoni, making it very difficult for her to get there early. Our women went away glad in their hearts that the Lord provided this screening and an appointment for them.

A Date with Joyce

So, since Joyce and I had planned on being at the hospital all day for this screening, now, we had the whole day to ourselves! A blessing because I wanted to take her to get her nails done and have lunch as a thank you for all she does. It was funny, Joyce and I had been talking about this "day of fun" since last week. We got to a place called Village Market where we could grab lunch and get our nails done but after talking more with her, Joyce wasn't so sure about the "pedicure thing". I don't think she had ever had one before, so we settled for lunch and an ice cream cone. (:

Car News

Also, this week we checked out another car. A Toyota Carib. Jonathan took the car to the mechanic and everything checked out great! We made an offer on the car and negotiated pricing today! Since we just worked out the pricing of the car, we are still going to be finalizing paperwork and such. We are so glad we are finally going to have a car! PRAISE THE LORD!

We got a package!

So today was especially emotional because we found out we got the car, we had to say goodbye to Joyce and our sweet friendships from Language School AND we got a package from our care team back at Refuge. Apparently the package was sent way back in December and we JUST got it today. Let me tell you how touched we were...We opened the package to find two hand-knitted beanies for our boys that had the colors of the Kenyan flag and said, "Kenya" on the front. These beanies were made by one of our girls in the youth group at Refuge, Jasmine. Our team sent birthday and Christmas cards for all of us, a book for Jonathan, a Phil Whickham CD, a new Veggie Tales Christmas DVD (that the boys are watching as we speak) and a touching DVD that brought Jonathan and I to weeping. The DVD was a slideshow put to music with all of our favorite people from Refuge holding up signs that said, "Merry Christmas Ferguson Family". Our friend, Jack, took pictures of the Jr. High all together with a sign that said they missed us. We can not tell you how much this touched us. The fact that they went to so much effort and seeing all of our friends smiling faces brought joy and gladness to our hearts. It also made us long for home. Thanks to our care team and to all our brothers and sisters at Refuge. We really want to try and figure out a way to show you all so bare with us as we figure it out. We love you guys!

Move on Monday!

The last bit of news is our move starts on Monday. Josiah, Christopher and I will spend the night at the new house on Sunday night and Jonathan will come back to Tigoni so he can be at the house when the moving truck comes. Please pray for this day, we have SO MUCH going on. This is actually the day that the appt. was made for our ladies at church so I am going to Kenyatta National Hospital and then I'm going to rush back to help with organizing things in and putting them in their right place. We are so excited about our new place and praise the Lord for all He's done. AND we'll get to Skype with friends and family without a problem on the internet.

New Class Starts for Bible School

Please pray as our church is beginning a new class at the Bible School and we have about 3-5 eager students. This school isn't designed to give people a degree in theology but to go through all the books of the Bible and get them grounded in the word of God. We are soooo excited and Jonathan is excited to FINALLY get back into teaching. Thank you Jesus!

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