Busy Schedule Ahead

as most of y'all know sunday ended up being a crazy day, i experienced my first earthquake, and a big bomb went off at a place in Nairobi where i drove by at least 10 times while we were there. but God is good, and the mission must go on. i've been trying to write often, but i haven't been tagging people in most of my notes due to lack of time. if you want to get cought up, all my notes are on my profile... anyway, i met with a group of pastors today and we set up a schedule for the next week and a half. tomorrow i am going out to give the gospel to 3 schools, and 4 on thursday. friday is looking like a day off but saturday is going to be very interesting. i am scheduled to preach at a large Rojo denomination church. most people in Africa consider them to be a cult, but i don't know enough to say anything for sure. it seems like they are somewhere between charismatic and jehovah's witness. i'm not sure what exactly this means, but i know i will need a lot of prayers as i share the gospel with this group so that whatever misunderstandings of scripture they might have will be made clear and that they can believe the true message of repentance and salvation by grace alone that is so clear in the Bible. then on sunday i will be preaching at two churches in this area.

please pray for me and the people i will be speaking to these next few days. pray that i will get my flesh out of the way and allow God to speak exactly what he wants directly to their hearts. thanks so much for all the prayers and support!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Saturday in Kenya... EARTHQUAKE!!!

saturday was a very good day. i spent the morning at AGAPE again and led the saturday morning weekly bible study. i spoke on my usual luke 7 message about the sinful woman and the parable of the two debtors and gave a call to evangelism. the kids seemed to really like it. what really touched me came after the bible study. one of the kids who i spoke to wednesday who gave his life to Christ was there saturday as well. he came up to me and said, "thank you so much for sharing with me, i gave my life to Christ wednesday and i can already feel myself changing!" WOW!!! that is exactly what we want to hear! usually with the ministry we do we speak to hundreds or thousands of kids per day and never see them again, so it is hard to gauge how effective it is, we just have to pray for the kids and hold strong in the faith that it is working. but this was an awesome confirmation that the LORD is really moving and working through our speech.

then saturday night, a few people that work in an orphanage outside town came in and we went to see the new robin hood opening night in Kenya lol. today, i preached a message on a call to evangelism in a church with about 40 people. they seemed to respond well...HAHAHAHAHA THAT WAS AWESOME!!! i just felt the first earthquake of my life as i was writing this note! It felt like a huge tractor or earthmover or something like that drove right by the house but there was absolutely no sound. haha, now i've experienced everything... anyway, i'm supposed to speak to a few schools this wednesday, so that should be good. please continue to pray for me and for open doors and devine appointments to share the gospel!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

AGAPE and Dunga

today was a really good day of ministry despite not being able to sleep til 3:00AM and waking up at 7:30! in the morning i went back to AGAPE to speak to the older street boys. it was a very surreal experience because one of the boys who goes to AGAPE often was just killed tuesday by a mob of citizens for attempting to sell a fake phone to someone. there were about 35 that i shared the gospel with and probably 15 decided to give their lives to Christ. this afternoon i went back to Dunga beach where the fishermen dock to sell and the women come to buy. i shared the gospel with 4 groups of people with 10-20 people in each group. some responded very well and some said they were already saved and others walked off while i was talking. there were even a few schools having field trips there and some of the students joined in and listened with the other groups. if i had to guess i'd say i spoke to 70 people and 20 committed to give their lives to Christ for the first time. i'm supposed to go back to AGAPE tomorrow to speak to their weekly bible study, and i'm going to be giving the sermon in 2-3 churches on sunday. so please continue to pray for me as i share God's word.

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

AGAPE

today was a really good day. i went out with an organization called Agape that ministers to homeless street boys. i hung out and played with them for about an hour then it was time to minister. they sung a few songs and a few people said a few things then i gave the gospel to them. about 40 of the 60 prayed the sinners prayer and raised their hands after the presentation. but many of them were young and didn't really understand everything that was going on. one of the people that works with them frequently went around during lunch after this and really talked to the kids and it sounds like 20 of them really committed to Christ today. after this we went to the Kisumu Juvenile Remand Center for young kids who have committed violent crimes... crazy, right? they were so kind and nice and innocent looking it is hard to believe some of the things these kids have done and seen. we sung a few songs with them and then i gave a very clear presentation of the gospel to them. i was expecting a few hands to be raised, but every single kid in the room raised their hands to receive Christ! i'm not stupid and i know that not even close to every kid in that room really gave their life to Christ today, but all i can do is give a clear presentation and pray and hope that as many follow through as possible. but could you imagine doing that in america? most criminal kids wouldn't listen to single word you said. anyway, i don't have a clue what i'm doing next, but the people at Agape were begging me to come back as often as possible :-)

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Restful Start in Kisumu

i've been here in Kisumu, Kenya for a week now and it looks like ministry is about to really get started. the project in Nairobi took months of preparation and went very well. this is on the fly and has been slow starting. ive basically had 6 days of networking and getting the feel of the place and only one day of real ministry so far. last friday i went with another guy to the lake where the fishermen sell their catch. the fishermen are the lowest rung of society here, they drink and do drugs while fishing and then even worse when they get to shore! but they need to hear about Jesus just like everbody else. we went and shared the gospel with them through personal evangelism for a couple hours. this was the first time in my life that i had the feeling of doing exactly what Jesus did! i was fishing for fishermen lol. then that night the couple i'm with drove me to a church out in the country. they gave some brief teaching, i shared a quick presentation of the gospel and about 35 of the 50 people there committed to give their lives to Christ! then we showed the Jesus film in their tribal language of luo. it was a pretty good day...the pastors that went with us to Nairobi seem worn out and have really been dragging their feet so far. but today i met with an awesome group of pastors that seem very excited to get me into their schools and churches to speak. this group is a very diverse organization of pastors from different denominations who all have churches in the same part of town (don't you wish americans were open enough to do this!) but they say they want me to start doing churches this sunday and schools on monday! i'm supposed to go out with a group called agape that ministers to boys who roam the streets and are in gangs, they are a really rough group, but once again, they are the ones who need to hear about Jesus the most. i think i have a few schools lined up this thursday as well, so it looks like vacation time is over and its time to get back to work :-)

please pray that i will have devine appointments everywhere that i go, and please pray that these local pastors will be dilligent and efficient in getting me where i need to be to share the message of Christ with as many people as possible. thanks for the continued prayer and support!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

Perfect Ending in Nairobi

today was the perfect end to my mission in Nairobi. we woke up and were ready to leave for a game drive at 5:30 AM but multiple delays and one exploded van engine made it to where we didn't start our safari til after 8:00. we were annoyed but we knew we were in God's hands and we knew we still would have several hours in the park. we began to pray that God would reveal the wonders of His creation to us and show us the best animals possible. God is amazing and wants us to be happy and He showed me this in a big way today! i prayed to see lions, within five minutes we drove up on two adult females just walking down the road! they weren't hiding in the bushes like normal several hundred feet from the road, we followed them for a few minutes within a few yards of them until they went back into the tall grass where we couldn't see them. i then prayed that God would send an adult male lion, He sent three! when we drove up and saw them about 50 feet away from the road in the grass, they actually got up and began walking toward the road. we followed them for about 10 minutes and right when we thought they were going to walk off the road and hide in the tall grass, two of them decided to lay down and rest on the road in the shade of a tree!! we took some epic pics and they will be posted later. we watched them rest for about another 10 minutes and were able to inch up within 10 feet of them. they were watching us very intently and noticed almost every move we made in the open top vehicle we were in. this shouldn't have happened, to see two separate lion prides walking ON THE ROAD right in front of you in one game drive is one in a billion. and if we would have began our drive as planned at 6:00 in the morning we would have driven right past these lions and never seen them at all. but God knew when the lions were going to show up, and he put us right where we needed to be to see them... after the lions, i began to pray that God would bring out the only major animal in Africa that i have yet to see, the rhino. so of course he let us see three! they were pretty far away and we couldn't see them very well, but you don't want to be very close to those guys anyway! finally i prayed that God would let us see a giraffe close up, because they are probably the most beautiful animal in the world to experience up close. and of course God did, we saw a giraffe in the distance and were happy, but then we realized there was a side road that could take us right up to where he was eating. we spent about 10 minutes just taking pictures and watching him eat right in front of us., we also saw cape buffalo, most of the deer types, and many interesting birds, but that experience with the lions was hands down the best part of the drive. after this, we went to an orphanage founded by a couple who live in san antonio called the "Jesus. hobbs house of hope." the kids were great and we spent a couple hours playing and talking to them. then it was time for all the americans to head to the airport but me. hopefully they are on their way to amsterdam and then to Texas. i will be leaving tomorrow morning on a 6 hour bus ride to another part of Kenya called Kisumu, where i will be spending a month doing lots of different types of missions and staying with an american missionary couple named the mclemores.

so please pray that the other 5 americans get home safely, and that my 6 hour bus ride doesn't turn into a 24 hour bus ride like it sometimes does in Africa. also please pray that i can hit the ground running in Kisumu and stay strong and healthy. thanks so much for all the prayers. i love you guys!

In Christ,
Steve Stockwell

SURPRISE!!! (-:

so yeah, remember when i was praying that God could find a way to keep me ministering in Kenya for an extra week... well he has... plus another 6 weeks!! thats right, i won't be coming home with the rest of the team tuesday. i will be riding a bus to kisumu and spending a month with a missionary couple i met for the first time on this trip! isn't God soooooo amazing. kisumu is a large rural area/city where 4 of the DSEA NEST team members live and do most of their evangelism. we came into contact with the mclemores through a mutual acquaintance a few months and DSEA evangelists scott and dan stayed with them in kisumu for a few weeks while doing a project. we met up with them here in Nairobi for a few days and they invited me to stay with them for a month and reach many schools and thousands of students for Christ. this is a good idea because the DSEA is doing another major project in Tanzania in early July, so i will stay in Kisumu until i leave straight for Tanzania and begin this other major three week project. so it looks like i will end up spending 9 weeks in africa this summer! i am very excited and know God is going to continue doing wonderful things... i of course love and will miss all my amazing friends and family back home, but God has me here for a reason and i will now have even more amazing stories to tell everybody about when i get back :-) please pray that it doesn't cost too much to completely change my flight plans and that God will work out everything for his glory when it comes to getting my where i need to be and when i need to be there. thanks so much!

in Christ,
Steve Stockwell