My First Exorcism!

sunday was a great day, spoke in a church early and then drove a few hours into Masai land where a church had recently been planted to preach and attend a baptism service. that was awesome! today was great too, dan and i did three schools. the first was pretty normal, but the second was particularly memorable. we shared the gospel to around 300 students and about 150 committed to give their lives to Christ. however, after we spoke two girls were brought out who were screaming and writhing around and we were told they had been possessed by demons. it was pretty much exactly as the bible described, they would scream a shrill disturbing cry that got continuously louder until we told the demon, " LEAVE THIS GIRL IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!!!" then both girls almost went to sleep and then awoke with a calm spirit just like nothing had happened! isn't God soooo good? she spoke swahili, so i don't know everything that was said, but both girls prayed to receive Christ and both seemed at great peace. one was a "christian" and one was from the specific group i'm not supposed to mention by name... the last school was awesome because it was so large. it is a boarding school with a christian headmaster, so he invited us to come after school hours and to speak as long as we wanted. we gave an extended program to the 1500 students and over 900 committed to give their lives to Christ not counting the 400 that said they were already born again before today!

don't know exactly what is happening in the future, but dan and i are fairly certain we are done in Tanzania. please pray for double portions of discernment for us about where we are supposed to be next.

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Mlandizi and Chalinze, best week yet!

BWANA ASIFIWE!!! (praise the lord in Swahili) this was probably the most epic week of ministry i have ever been a part of. dan and i went into an area that is over 98% traditional tribal religions, witchcraft, and mostly a specific group that i'm not supposed to mention specifically... at least it WAS 98% before this week! we spoke in 34 elementary, middle, and high schools. i spoke in 19 schools to about 6500 students and saw about 4250 students commit to give their lives to Jesus Christ as LORD and savior!!! we even planted 2 churches on accident lol. we faced some heavy opposition from that specific group in the area but God is so good and kept the doors open for us all the way! i have never seen an area that was so ready for an awakening and so in need of the good news of Jesus Christ. i think the Holy Spirit is about to sweep the entire region and a multitude of people are about to give their lives to Christ... most of the schools we spoke in said that we were the first Christians to visit their area, we were definitely the first western evangelists to visit there in most of their lifetimes. most of the students in the schools had never even seen someone with white skin in person! God is so good! we are back in Dar for the week and hopefully will be able to visit many schools.

please continue to pray for us as we seek God's will for where and when we are supposed to share the gospel! thanks so much!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Main Week in Dar Es Salaam

This is the first major project that we have attempted in Tanzania, so we didn't know exactly what to expect, but i personally was praying for more than this. the 7 americans spoke in 24 schools this week, 6 less than i did the week before last by myself lol. we were able to do some very productive ministry though. we were still able to reach several thousand people with the message of Christ. also, the tanzanian church leaders seemed to start to get what our ministry was all about by the end of the week and seemed excited to continue going into schools after we leave. also, my father had an opportunity to spend several hours with the archbishop of the entire anglican church for all of eastern africa. so we might be able to do great things with him in the future. we also just finished the conference today which went very well. dan and i are preparing for our upcoming month of ministry. next week we will be in a town about 1 hour north of Dar, but we still don't know any plans for the weeks after that. the rest of the american team is heading home tomorrow so please pray that they have a safe flight home and pray that we will have great ministry opportunities in the weeks ahead. i don't have a clue when the next time i'll be able to find a computer with internet access, so i'll try to keep everybody up to date but it just might not be possible :-( love everybody and miss home, but love telling people the good news about Jesus!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Whole New Country

arrived in Dar late saturday night after over 24 hours on a bus. woke up after 4 hours of sleep and preached two services at church starting at 7:00 AM :-) resting today and preparing to start school ministry tuesday. internet here is pretty good but costs money per minute you are on it so i don't know how often i will be getting on. and i will probably not have time to tag anyone in any future notes, so if you want to keep up with me just check my profile every few days to see if i have added anything. please pray for all of us as we minister to many thousands of people here in Tanzania.

P.S. i just found out the date of my return ticket to the states... AUGUST 23rd!!! hahaha i will be here for another month :-) i'm not even sure which country i will be in next but i know that God is good and all i want to do in life is follow him!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Last Day in Kisumu

well, its time to begin the next leg of this whirlwind adventure. tomorrow i will be leaving on a 6 hour bus ride to Nairobi, and then saturday i will be on a 12ish hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. i will be riding with 5 other Kenyan DSEA NEST members and joining the rest of the American and Tanzanian team who should already be there on the ground. i believe but am not 100% sure that i will be there sharing the gospel for three weeks and then flying back to Texas. compared to Kenya, Tanzania should be a step back in time and several steps down in standard of living so i'm not sure how much i will be able to get on the internet and i will be shocked if there is a phone that i can call home from. this country is dark spiritually as well, only 30% of the country calls themselves Christian with 35% mzlum and 35% tribal religions. and of course few of the people who call themselves Christians are really born-again and have Jesus as their lord and savior.

so i'm calling all my prayer warriors back into action for Tanzania. pray that there will be wide open doors and open broken hearts ready to receive the gospel, pray for divine appointments for us to speak to people, pray that we can get our flesh 100% out of the way so that the Holy Spirit can freely speak through us directly to the students hearts, and pray for protection and strength for our team as we travel into this dark area... amen!

thanks everyone for all the prayer and support, i love each and every one of y'all dearly, and i look forward to seeing everyone soon :-)

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Migori, EPIC WEEK OF MINISTRY!!!

i've survived a week on my own in the middle of nowhere, i have almost no voice left but i spent it well. i shared the gospel in 7 schools monday, 5 on thursday, and 6 on tuesday, wednesday and friday. thats right, 30 schools in one week! i spoke to over 7000 students and about 3000 made the committment to give their lives to Christ for the first time! i really was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was pretty rough sometimes, but it was absolutely worth it to share the gospel with that many people, plus, the LORD always gives us more strength than we need when we truly rely on Him for everything. i could spend hours talking about everything i saw and did this week, but i will just leave it simple and say that God is good and so is living 100% inside his will :-) i'm completely exhausted and probably smell terrible because i haven't had running water or electricity for the past few days. so i am about to relax and take a shower and celebrate this 4th of july by doing absolutely nothing lol. this week looks like i will be recovering and preparing for next week and the beginning of the major project in Dar es Salam in Tanzania. it looks like i will be taking the 24 hour bus ride from Kisumu to Dar rather than flying :-( so i definitely need to spend this week recovering.

please pray for perseverance for the thousands of students and teachers that said they would give their lives to Christ this week. that they would really seek God and trust in Him as their LORD and savior. also pray for the thousands of people we will be speaking to in Dar in the upcoming weeks to have open and broken hearts prepared to receive the gospel. and finally pray for myself and the rest of the american team as we prepare and travel to tanzania. pray that we will remove all impurities from our lives and that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit so that He can speak through us directly to the students. thanks so much~Stocky