Calendar

Spring 2007
Greetings from Kenya. Here’s a short news update to let everyone know what has been
taking place both in the ministry and in our lives over the last few months. In February
our son Benjamin got married to a wonderful young lady by the name of Julie Harry.
They now live in North Carolina and are doing well. They have found a church home
and want to get involved working with the youth. Our daughter Linsay and her husband
Jake are still in Oregon and are quite involved with their home church as well.

We were able to travel quite extensively over the 4 months that we were back in the
states and got to see both friends and family over the holidays. It was wonderful. Steve
remarked that we drove about the same number of miles as it would have taken us to
drive to Kenya. Considering all the bad weather this winter, we never once drove on
snow or icy roads. For us this was one miracle after another and we praised the Lord
throughout the trip. We drove approximately 8,000 miles in 3 /12 months and the Lord
held the snow off each and every place we went.

Once we got back to Kenya, we were blessed to find the café and church still growing
under the leadership of Geoffrey Kimotho and Elizabeth Nyongesa. Geoffrey and
Elizabeth are part of our wonderful and loyal staff here at Elisha Ministries Africa. They
were able to begin home fellowship groups, start leadership training courses, begin a
women’s ministry; all while continuing to do outdoor crusades almost every week. I am
excited to say that since we have retuned we have grown to the point that Sundays
services are almost full and we are needing to switch the direction of the seating
arrangement in our building to accommodate around 30 more chairs. 30 more chairs
cost around $300. As the company of the Prophets said to Elisha “Look, the place where
we dwell is too small for us”. Praise GOD!

We have also had our first visitors from America arrive. LeAnn Garrett is now living with
us and is helping us start an american bakery. The Lord gave me a vision of an
american bakery 8 years ago while I was on my second trip over here. It is now up and
running in its infant stage, and we have been able to deliver our first few orders to the
largest grocery store here in Kitale. We have given it the name of “Sonshine Bakery”
with 1 John 5:12 on our labels stating “He that hath the Son, hath life.” We have also
started a small peanut business, selling honey roasted peanuts to the dukas (small
shops) here in town. Peanuts are a staple here in Kenya. To have these endeavors
grow, we still need to obtain a VAT tax number from the government. This will allow us to
be able to sell to other stores here in Kenya. We are praying daily because receiving tax
paperwork work from the government is very difficult.

With the church, café, and bakery along with the small peanut business, we have been
able to create 19 full time jobs for people and some part time work for others. For these
people, this is truly an answer to prayer and their miracle. We are touching lives one at
a time and may God receive all of the honor, praise and glory. These small businesses
are not completely paying for themselves yet, so we still need your prayers and support,
but we are covering a large part of the expenditures at this time. I truly believe given
enough time and prayer, they will not only be paying for themselves but also creating
more job opportunities for more lives, along with helping to expand the work of the
ministry here and in other countries.

We have also started airing a 15 minute teaching on one of our local radio stations on
Sunday morning at 6:30am. It is going well as we continue to hear encouraging
comments concerning the teachings. It costs us $10.00 a week and reaches a 100 mile
perimeter. Steve is also working on getting a prison ministry up and going at our local
prison along with a men’s fellowship group in the church. Then he is also starting to
formulate the plans for the bible school which I pray will be up and starting shortly. He
also has in his heart to unite with the other pastors here in town and some how put
together a 24 hour prayer center God willing.

I have also seen in the spirit a small coffee shop in town. This will give us an avenue to
sell our specialty baked goods, advertise our wedding cakes, wedding dresses and also
the ability to cater weddings and other functions out of the café. I have been doing some
testing on how to produce flavored coffees here. Elizabeth’s mother grows coffee so we
would have a ready supplier that we would be able to use in the coffee shop. There is
nothing like this in Kenya. There is one new coffee shop in Nairobi that is being talked
about all over Kenya with just a few specialty items in it. There is a market here that can
be tapped into. Then if this idea grew, my desire would to export the flavored coffees
into the US or Europe. To tell you the truth, the coffee that we have come up with is
pretty tasty stuff and coffee is one of the major commodities that they export. So this
could be another arena to create jobs and finances for the ministry. God knows.

Here are a few prayer needs:

We need a new car as our Pajero with 400,000 miles on it is really costing us a
bundle just to keep it up and running. It is back in the shop even as we write this
letter!
We need to be able to find land and purchase it for so many different ministries, a
church building that is our own, the bakery, the bible school, a guest house, an
orphanage, a school for the street kids and a hospital clinic. We have located a
doctor’s house here in town that would work for all of these different ministries. He
wants to sell it for $275,000.00 and move to London. God is able to do all things if
our faith is big enough to receive. So pray that our faith grows to the proportion of
the needs over here.

Hope this catches you up some on what is happening over here in Kenya. Keep us in
your prayers. Also if you feel led, we could use your financial help. The needs are great
and God knows we need to all work together during these end times. Until we meet here
or in heaven, may God’s richest and best be yours.

From the Elisha Ministry Team in Africa, God Bless.