Bethel Church 7/7/10

Jul 7
Dear all our prayers partners,
I write again to thank you for your continued prayers. As I have always shared, God has showed favour to us, but I know it is also because of your prayers and the love you have showed to us continuously.
As I have shared with some of you before that there is a Muslim crusade going on in the next door mosque (which is only 20 Meters away from our house.) It is very loud and disruptive, especially in the evenings, but thankfully they at least finish by 6.30pm. What is worse is that these friends don’t read the Quran and explain as we Christians do, but all they say are terrible abuses to Christians, they read bible verses and misquote them. I thank God that He has given us all the grace to remain peaceful without being offended. He revealed to me the truth that they are not saved, so I can’t expect them to behave like those who know Christ. Therefore we should not be surprised that they behave as they do.
Recently, some of their leaders came and visited us (this included their invited guest speaker), again with lots of questions and insults. They also alleged that we Christians go on TV and speak abusive words against Muslims. In the house were Grace, Martin, Brian, and myself. Each one of us were praying for God’s guidance, and we were all listening attentively to them. Grace offered them all a cup of tea, which they took. This was the first thing to remind us that God was in control as for them to take tea in our house was not common practice for them; Muslims of that class would not normally take tea in our house as they think we eat bad things and we are dirty (pagans).
Although they had come with other intentions to argue and point fingers at us as bad people as mentioned above, we did not go their way. Firstly, I admitted that I have heard these people who abuse them on TV and I agreed that it is not a good way of sharing the Gospel. And I went ahead and repented on behalf of those people, and just in any case we the locals have done things in the manner that makes them feel we look at them as our enemies, then they should forgive us. I then read them the Bible and the verse on the second greatest commandment Jesus gave ‘’ Love your neighbour as you love yourself’’. I told them that the Bible tell us that we are neighbours who should love each other, and not see them as our enemies. (I reminded them that as a gesture towards this I had not pressed charges against them in the past when i easily could have after the case in police turned against them.) In addition I told them that as local people we have our shared enemies; these are the poverty, sickness, illiteracy, and many other common problems that we face as a community. I suggested that we should join our efforts together to fight those issues instead of fighting each other. I said that that is the reason when we do developmental things we don’t choose only those who go to church, but we do them to all people. This took them by surprise; they all thought we are different as Christians. They had never heard anyone tell them that. Actually their invited guests revealed the reason they were called, they told us that Muslims in this community think we treat them as our enemies and a threat to their religion. And they told us that they are going to tell their hosts that the impression they get from us is so different from what they have been told.
Well, we did not know where the above would lead us to, but after we had prayed we trusted that God is with us and we are safe. The conversation went on, and we ended and they promised to come back. We assumed that this meant that they intended to come back with more opposition and attacks.
To my surprise, yesterday (Tuesday) when I got home, some elders and key leaders of the Mosque and from the family of the people who put me in jail over Muslim converted were waiting for me. Their guest speakers did not come this time.
These men started their talk. It was the opposite of what we had expected. They all started repenting and apologising to me of what had happened to me and our church youths. And they said this while shedding tears. To you who are not Africans, know that African men don’t cry, so if you see an African (especially elder and high in position) crying, you know it is serious and genuine.
That is what happened.
They told me the reasons why they have come to repent, and below are the shocking reasons they gave.
1. Their guest speakers went to them and told them that they had never met such humble Christians. They said this because I repented before them, and shared what I have mentioned in paragraph 4.
2. Also, last Thursday, some widows that we have supported stormed the man’s place (the one who put me in jail). They demanded that the man had to become their donor. (we have been doing development in the community, including goats giving to widows and orphaned children.) There has been a rumour in the community that we are stopping to do this to Muslims, and the widows went mad. In their anger, they told the man that all Muslims widows are returning all their goats to me, and so he was man to replace all goats, do training and all the other things that we do in the community. The man was shocked.
3. On Friday after the prayer there was almost a big fight in the Mosque; this was over the support Christians had given to the mosque. Several Christians including myself and members of my church have donated building materials to the mosque next door in the past. On Friday last week there was a discussing that they destroy the water tank Jenga (A Christian NGO Grace and I are co-founders and still offer our services to) has done on the Mosque, and also to burn a carpet one of my church member has given to them. Others did not agree with this idea, including one of their top Imams, they said that if they did that, they should also destroy the roof, and the walls which we contributed to. It almost turned into a big fight between Muslims members of the same mosque.
4. One of the man’s sons went to him in tears. He owns a taxi my church and other churches and Christian NGOs around have used. One of the pastors had made a joke on what his father did to me putting me in jail. So he was very embarrassed of the father’s action. He told him to stop or else he was going to leave the home and go somewhere else.
5. Finally there is one of the relatives of the man (that had put me in jail). In the past I have given him a loan that he had paid back. This time I don’t know whether he really wanted a loan or he was just to defend me, but he went to him demanding that he gives him a loan of three million shillings. And he said that the reason he went to him was because he has been told that I am moving away from Mooni because this man and others did not want me, so he can’t get a loan from me. All these attacks made the man and others involved feel bad of their actions.
So for all these reasons they started feeling that it is a spiritual attack against them. They have had demonic attacks as well as many other problems. They even think that maybe my church has prayed and we are involved in causing the trouble that t hey are experiencing. So with all this going on, they are now approaching us before the calamity they are in can grow bigger.
There have been many situations where we could have (and sometimes wanted to) fight back both vocally and physically. When times were particularly tough, it was hard to love these people and not to be tempted and fight in the way the world would and show them that we were not weak. But somehow, by the Grace of God we were able to step back and trust that God would be faithful and that He would intervene. The Bible is full of references that encourage us to that the Battle belongs to the Lord and when we fully rely on him he will always come through for us. These pages are a testimony to that. Not only did we not have to fight back- but he chose the elders, the widows and even their own leaders and children to do it for us!
All in all I am not only writing this to let you know how through Christ we are victorious, but I just wanted all Christians to know that prayer works, and especially that in choosing not to fight back, but letting it all to God, he will raise others to fight for you.
I hope this also helps to build your faith in case you have attacks similar or different to ours, to know that God is still in charge if we give it all to Him. This may not be the end of the fight with Muslims in this community, but it is a great sign to us as a church that we should not give up doing good, and that we should not fight evil by evil, but rather to move forward with courage, trusting that he is there for us.
God bless you and keep praying for our neighbours and for our courage and strength to continue serving the Lord.
And please pass this to others who pray and yet I have not managed to send it to them.
In Jesus’ name.
Pastor Vincent

Bethel Church 5/7/10

Jul 5 (4 days ago)
Hello every one, Just saying that we are alright. And next week we are BAptising several members of Elshaddai, so it is good to pray that it all shall go well. And also at the Mosque next door there is a big crusade and they are saying all abuses to the church and our family. May you just pray for God's protection. Today just an hour ago I had over 10 ring leaders of Islam come to our house, they can with question, but the intention was to ask questions to catch us. Martin, Grace and I managed to explain to them some truth which I think left them feeling abit stupid, but that means they might come again with more tomorrow. Just pray that God keeps our peace.

Gd bless you all.

Vinnie

Bethel Church 5/7/10

Jul 5 (3 days ago)
Hello again, I do apologize if the many emails I have sent bother you. I do realize I have sent so many emails and photos in one short time. In this email I want to share some good news for Bethel church. but also share some brief sad one.
The good news is:
1. Yesterday Sunday (although I was not there) one of the notorious witch woman got saved at Bethel. Andrew the chairman of the church asked her to walk in front which she did and she was led to Jesus. Unfortunately there was not photo taken. She left every one amazed of what we do to win people like that woman to Jesus. She had done some harm to even people in church (poisoning and killing their family members). This is everywhere in Mooni about her. There we simply say Ebenezer, that far God has brought us.
2. The children we sponsor have brought us a lot of Joy. Ian and Tash you know the boy at Bethel called Anthony, you also know Carol and Dinner. All sing in the choir and are on our programme (some Jenga helps). All these children are in Wanale SSS. All the three mentioned above stood for high positions in that school with over 1100 children. Anthony is the head boy of the school, Dinnah is the vice Head girl, and carol is the general secretary of the entire school. We are so proud as a church. These are meant to be children with a low self esteem, but how God has turned them in better children who can stand and win votes of thousands is such good news to us.
Sad news:
1. You remember the time when 7 men got saved at the same time. one of them was called Juma who is now Jimmy. After salvation of course this man was chased away by his family, so he has not family relatives. Also his wife left, that is because he had not paid the bride price; so the muslim parents of the wife took her back. She left him with three children. The oldest (about 10 years) has died. The worst about this is that the man has no place to burry, now it is the bethel’s responsibility to help as we are the only relatives he has. That is the sad news. Pray for Jimmy as one of his close 3 relatives (children) has passed aways.
That all for now.
Vincent

Bethel Church 10/03/10

10/03/2010
Like I stated in the former email the Bethel men yesterday and Today have showed the real love of Jesus in the community of Bebetsye. The shelter was nearly completed in one day. About 18 men joined hands together and helped to build the shelter.

Khagodo the old, sick and needy man without family was very happy. And the community people came around to see where the miracle came from. Only to find were Bethel men who had come to help. We ended up witnessing to many people.

29/01/10 Bethel Church

29/01/2010
The news continues. This evening Hilary (one of the youth and boda/motorbike guys at church) and I laid hands on the chairman LC2 Mooni and prayed for him. Not meaning that he received Jesus, but accepting a prayer and laying hands on him from me was a great. I mean I have prayed for him before, but the first time it was not his choice as he was like dead. This time we asked and he accepted a prayer. He admitted that he has demons disturbing him. Well, just remember Issa (Jesus in Arabic) in your prayers. He is on his way to the Lord

Bethel Church 28/01/10

28 Jan 2010
Dear all,
This might sound a bit funny with these frequent stories, but God is faithful to Bethel and we do feel He has already prepared the way.
Today was another confirmation on that trip. I took a walk again as the other day, but today I had other friends with me. And as I was walking I saw some children running after me. They told me that their father is very sick and wanted to see me urgently. We went and we found it was the LC2 (Parish political leader in charge of over 8,000 people) of the Mooni area and the man is indeed sick. In history of Bethel this man had regarded me his enemy as his wife got saved from our church and he separated with her. And of-course he was behind the closing down of our restaurant (Cafe Gracious). In principle he is not meant to share with me his sickness but he did it. I feel that is God and I asked him to go to the hospital as I pledged to take care of his bills, since he did not have the money to pay his bills. Keep praying and thanking God for Bethel as He is with us.

Bethel Church 21/01/10

21/01/2010
Yesterday Tuesday I got a clear confirmation. I woke up at 6 am, and went to Bubetsye for a prayer walk. The prayer strategies were: 1. That God softens the hearts of the people so there will be no opposition towards the church, 2. That God shows as the right place (land) to plant the church, 3 That God saves the people’s hearts. I staged at the place where the Jenga women meet from; which is very near the LC2's house. (The man whose wife got saved and put her in jail, then sent her away with a beating); There is a very good land and I thought it is the right one for the church land. And I was praying in that very land. The 2 people who first came to me wondering what the problem could be as I was alone which was strange to them, I led them to the Lord instead. And That very time before the 2 men left the owner of that property came. Just on a different agenda he asked me if I knew of anyone who wants to buy land as he was selling that very property. I cannot explain the whole conversation here, but to cut the long story short, I simply felt God was with me and is with Bethel in this plan