Saturday: Fang Thailand, Church Dedication

Today was the dedication of the new church in Fang, Thailand. We had a ribbon cutting ceremony and many speeches and mini-sermons, including me. The place was to the max with flowers.

Today I also was able to meet the SE Asia Foursquare head, George Butron, missionaries Paul and Lori Vernon. cc was in town and Kelly Hildebrand. I had productive discussions with everyone. I extracted many ideas for future trips and how to be more affective on our trips.

Ribbon Cutting

People entering church for the first time

The crowd gathers


The church is PACKED!

 

The Bangkok people are duly impressed.


Timothy Expresses his gratitude.

Photos

Photos of Photos

Pastor P's orphan children in their truck. The orphanage is now where the school used to be.

Timothy in front of new Church

New Church Interior

Me, Fong Fang, Timothy, Pastor P.

worship at orphange

Wednesday Update: Fang

I woke up this morning with 2 calls from the US and very fogged over windows. When I left my room my glasses fogged over, too. It had been raining hard and humidity was high. But the rain made it cooler, 70% humidity and 85 F. By afternoon the rain stopped, by evening it was 60% humidity and what seemed like a cool 80 degrees.

Today was another work day. We did some cleaning up, purchased more plants, including aquatic plants for the fountain and cleaning the fountain. I also balanced the various ‘spouts’ to spew out about the same amount of water each. I spent a lot of time in the fountain, and my lower legs were pretty itchy, but ok now.

Last nights Korean barbeque caught up with me, but I think I’m ok now, just take more pepto. Once again we had breakfast, second breakfast, lunch and dinner. We successfully avoided Ritzys and KFC. We ordered family style Thai. I had my usual chopped chicken and Holy Basil, it was good. We also had Tom Yum Gook and deep fried Tilapia (excellent.) Of course Timothy tried to mess with me and ordered what he called pig intestine, which if definitely was not, probably buffalo rumen it was very flavorful but very rubbery.

I’m getting just enough chocolate to survive but the coffee situation is sad.

Tomorrow we’ll travel to Chiang Rai to pick up the team that will be doing leadership training and evangelistic outreach on Thursday and Friday.

Good night,

Bruce

Monday: Mai Sai and Fang

Today, after 10hrs of sleep, Pastor P woke me with the hotel phone at 7am. We didn’t set a time.

We had a good conversation, many ideas for future trips. I visited the orphanage, did a short sermon and impromptu skit at the Sunday morning service. Also visited possible sites for boys orphanage dorm and a drug rehabilitation center. With 80 chuches, a college, orphanage, and his own church Pastor P. now has someone to oversee/manage the orphanage, college, and his church has a new pastor.

I traveled with Timothy and Fang Fong to Fang and we stopped at little noodle place in the mountains for lunch, turns out to be the same place that Scott Linklater, cc and I ate at 5 years ago on our first trip. And the noodles were as good as I remember.

We went to the new church; it is really nice. We did a few items around the building while other workers buzzed along on the finishing touches. I purchased some plants for front of the stage and steps leading up, it was a bit bare. The outside is very nicely landscaped with multistage fountain and GRASS around it. Most of the fence that we put up 1.5 years ago has been replaced with solid walls 6 to 8 feet tall. Pastor P purchased a last supper print in T where we had it framed along with 2 Palouse prints that Laurie took and we printed them at home with verses. They did a professional frame.

Tonight we went with 2 of the ‘boys’, young pastors to a ‘Korean’ barbecue’. This was NOT an experience for the faint of heart or picky eaters or those concerned about food born illness. There was standard chicken, pork, beef, clams, shrimp, and squid. But also all their insides were available and NONE of it was kept cold. You cook and eat with the same chopsticks. There were 3 bowls of excellent dipping sauces for the meat. They kept bring out new odd things which I of course HAD to try, I felt like Andrew Zimern, consuming one slimy, transparent, strange, or oddly green item after the other. The no live plant matter ‘salad’ was other worldly in appearance and texture, but rather plain flavor. For all five us, all you could eat, the total was $17.00 including drinks!

I have wireless Internet in the lobby so I hope to have regular updates.

Bruce

Saturday: Travel, arrival in Mae Sai

Well, I've been in Mae Sai for about an hour, no travel problems, 6 hrs of sleep since I left. Had a super spicy meal for dinner.

Traveling alone is sure faster. I probably would have missed my bus in Chiang mai but zipping out of the airport (no checked luggage) and with a quick and only slightly scary tuk tuk ride, I made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare. The bus was second class but the AC worked so I was happy. My cell phone works here this time, but not data. Also cannot get my vioce mail.
from the bus terminal in mae sai I took a scooter taxi the 3 miles to my hotel, at significant risk to life and limb - but it was only $1.

The 2 transfers, tuk tuk and scooter, cost MORE than the 5 hour bus ride :-(

Well I'll be visiting Pastor P and speaking at his Sunday morning service tomorrow. then he and Timothy and I will meet for breakfast back at the hotel and timothy will take me on to Fang.

Garissa Update from Ken Ochieng

As indicated in the previous update, our Jesus film staff went with University of Nairobi students to reach out to the people in Garsen with the gospel. Below is the pictorial account of the mission

The mission team headed to Garsen

Missioners crossing the river to reach the other villages. One of the “boats” carrying missioners overturned in the middle of the river—it took a miracle for the people to be rescued.

Talk of poverty?—it is real in Garsen

People gathered to watch Jesus film at night

Excited children after the show

Zakayo—Our Jesus film staff helping people follow the show



LAGBADANA MISSION

Mwenda—Our Jesus Film show leader helped organize a mission in lagbadana(5 miles from Garissa) for “Bridgers”—Students in transition between high school & University. This muslim lady is so generous—she cooked a meal for the team

Multitudes watching the show

The team constructing a school in lagbadana—Practically demonstrating the love of Christ. The class almost ready—just waiting for mud wall

The House of the headman—How does it compare with yours?

Ken

Thailand Update

I'll be making a trip to Fang, Thailand and Myanmar in September. Among other things, I'll be participating in the dedication of the church building that we started in March 2006. The trip will also allow me to connect with old friends and learn what they are up to. I plan to meet hill tribe missionaries and others so I can keep our trips fresh, interesting, and challenging. We'll be sending a Pullman / Montana team sometime in the winter/spring of 2008.

Our initial meeting for Thailand 2008 will be the last Sunday of August (26th), and we'll get things going later in September after I get back from Thailand.

If Asia isn't your thing, we'll be heading to East Kenya in summer 2008 for a very challenging trip.


Bruce

Kenya Update - Ken Ochieng - Garissa, Kenya

Psalm 63:1-3 says “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirst for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you” NIV. These words capture the longings of my heart. My prayer is that he will be the priority of our (including you) lives and that every other thing will be secondary.

I have been reading a book on “Boundaries” by Dr.Henry Cloud & Dr.John Townsend and have drawn great lessons on how to be saying No to those things that look urgent but are not quite the priority of my life. I have always taught people that God must always come first, Family second & Ministry third but I find myself not abiding in the same things I teach as most of my time is spend in ministry—sounds hypocritical but then it is an area of growth—I covet your prayer in this.

We have been having busy time here: Eunice has been active in meeting the prayer groups that meets in our office every week and also helping the office with HR issues. Last Sunday she was speaking in Anglican Church of Kenya here in Garissa. Last Sunday I spoke at Glory restoration sanctuary. Two of us speaking in different venues presented a good problem of who was to go with the kids—I had to go with both Tim & Ann coz it was possible for me to preach and manage them at the same time. This Sunday, I will be speaking at the Redeemed gospel Church—Pray for God to use me as his Voice.

Our Jesus film (JF) staffs have continued to work faithfully in this unfriendly environment. This week, Zakayo (JF staff) is together with Students from the University of Nairobi who are studying Medicine, Pharmacy &Dental surgery. They will be treating people during the day and showing the film during the night. Because of high illiteracy levels, Jesus film and the lives of believers might be the only “bible” this people would be able to “read” the whole of their lives. Pray for safety of the team and for God to reveal himself to the people who would be watching the film.

Kenya government is currently recruiting trained teachers and we are likely to loose some of the Teachers. We don’t pay our teachers as much as the government does and it takes those with a calling to remain with us. We have experienced high turnover of teachers as they move to the “greener pastures”. We can hardly pay a half of what others are giving.

Pray that God will bring people with a burden to serve and not people interested in money. Pray that we will get enough resources in order to give competitive remuneration to our staffs (we are about 50).

We intend to have 40 days of prayer & fasting this coming September. We ask you to consider full or partial fast. We even welcome those who will skip breakfast for those 40 days. We will not rest until we see the kingdom of God established in the hearts of Somalis, munyoywaya, Malakote, Wata, Orma, Wardei. The Knowledge of the glory of the Lord must cover this land as waters cover the sea. We hope to give you the prayer points for every single of those fort days soon. Please, shoot back if you want to be a part of this.

Lots of Blessings

Your commitment to the work of the Lord will pay off even in this life and remember Revelation 22:3 "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him."

KEN,EUNICE,TIM and ANNA.

Update from Fang, Thailand

Greeting to you in Jesus Name.I could not belived that it a long time since we comunicate. I am very sorry for this latr reply.We have been praying for you all the time .I am very excited to that young people are very intersted in more missions work look forward to work with them.The Orphans are doing alright and we now have 30 of them,and all are in school. and they have been praying for a new track (truck) to bring to school and back,as of now they all sqeese in to our little blue track,have attach their bios.We are now entering the final stage of our new church building I have attach some picture of the building.We are praying that it would be finished by September and Dedicate the Church building September the 15 2007.so that we would be able to us it immediately.do you think any one from Pullmen church could come for the dedications.?We still need more funds for floor tiling,chair and cutrians.Please help pray for us.We are very excited that it will be finished on time and are trusting God for the finances. Thank you again and we appriciate you all very much.Blessings Thailand for Jesus.Timothy, Fong Fung

July Update (2nd) - Ken Ochieng - Garissa, Kenya

PRAYER POINTS

---The knowledge of the glory of the lord to cover the land as the water covers the sea

---God to reveal himself to the locals through visions, dreams, miracles

---Believers to be bold in sharing their faith both in life style and by word of mouth

---God’s Protection upon the local believers

---More laborers to come over

---Unity among believers

---Our School to maintain academic excellence

---Peaceful campaigns in this region during this year of election

---God to enable us to be strategic in our approach. That we would reach out to “Samaritan woman” whose conversion would cause great revival in the horn of Africa (Garissa, Somalia, Djibouti)

Eunice & Our school children carrying Somali children who have been abandoned by mothers at birth—this habit is on the rise

Our School children showing love to the innocent children

Eunice bottle feeding the baby abandoned by a Somali woman

It is time for raising the national flag in our school parade

A student in our School: Pray that they will worship the true God.

For the fulfillment of the great commission,

Ken & Eunice

Update from Ken Ochieng in Garissa, Kenya - July 2007

We thank God for you and pray that you enjoy intimacy with him.
Life has been busy with lots of activities geared towards connecting with the locals.

Our visit to children’s home run by “mama Hani” was so successful. This old Muslim lady (72 years) has been working so hard to take care of the children majority of whom were dropped by their mothers. In the Somali culture, it is so bad to have a child out of wedlock and so there are a lot of Somali ladies (those who don’t want abortion) who have to carry the child till birth and then drop them in the garbage. People who find these children know where to take them—“mama Hani”. The long clothes that cover the head to the sole makes it easy for these girls to carry the pregnancy without people noticing. Some parents throw their children if they have disabilities. We took our boarding children so we could all spent time with this underprivileged children—many of our students learnt to appreciate who they are because they realized that others are worse.
Our own children, Tim & Ann learnt the importance of giving—we told them the story behind those children’s predicament and they were so touched about it---they gave clothes to be donated to those children. As a family, we are praying to God to help us know the workable strategies that will enable us reach out in love to those children. We hope to send you pictures of the same.

On 5th July we distributed mosquito nets and cooking utensils to a number of Somali ladies that lost things during the flood---the impact of the flood is felt to date

Please, do pray for a Somali brother “A” below that I won to the Lord and am trying to follow him up. He seems to be under intense pressure to give up Christianity. Thank you for standing in the gap.

For the fulfillment of the great commission,
Ken & Eunice

Ken's trip to U.S. and return to Garissa (including attack by...)

(below this post there are some great photos - check them out!)

Everything about the trip was a miracle—right from the process of getting the visa to booking the flight.

On 12th April, I left for Seattle where Scott was to meet me. I arrived in Seattle at 16.35—it was a warm reception from Scott, his wife Hillary, daughter Emma and sons Grady & Gavin. We managed to spent a few days in Seattle at the house of Scott’s brother—Jason. The good thing was that all of Scott’s family was there. I felt like I was co-opted into the family.

You talk of Seattle and all that comes into my mind is rain—no wonder the all place is dotted with star bucks. I already noticed the difference between where I came from and America. Here, roads are really nice (Americans should be faithful in paying their taxes) and buildings are really planned. I also realized that Americans drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road—this scared me to death because I thought we were going to collide with the oncoming vehicles. Many times I would enter the side of the driver (when I was supposed to be a passenger).

After few days of recuperation in Seattle, we started our journey to Pullman. I was able to see nice sceneries on the way but what excited me most were the sites of snow covered land—I had never experienced this before. Scott was gracious enough to allow me step out of the car to touch and taste the snow—great experience. Landscape kept varying from mountainous to flat land.
On the way to Pullman, I started experiencing something new—‘Drive through”. If we needed a meal or coffee, all we needed was “drive through”—Life is really made easy.

We finally made it to Pullman—one of the most beautiful sites of the world (it was actually ranked top 10 best world sites for photography—I was told but I don’t know who ranked them—I believe it anyway).

The programme that Scott came up with could not have been better. Mine was to meet with people and share my story—I enjoy doing it.
Below is how my itinerary looked like:

Stayed with Scott’s family for most part except below. Among the foodstuffs that I ate for the first time included: Tacos, Lasagna, Salmon fish. Off course there
were all these strange juices (apparently they were nice) like Crane berry, blue berry etc. People (read Dan) like diet coke—I have never seen them in Kenya.
20th April 07—was with Pastor Dan (he is so funny). We went to see a movie (Amazing grace).

I spent in the house of Jamie & Sherry Hawes.
21st Apr—Visited Kamiak national reserve with Jamie, Sherry, Cole, Addison, Clay. Very exciting to do this kind of exercise. It is here that I realize that Americans love there dogs. Scott has one too called “Lu”

22nd Apr---Spoke at Pullman foursquare church. The topic: “the way up is down”. In the evening, I spoke on the book ‘prayer that works”.

23rd Apr—Stayed with Caleb and Stella (together with their children—Brian, Lauren, Andrew). It is here that I ate ugali & Kuku (this reminded me about home).

24th Apr—Stayed with Jeff & Angie Feuerstein (together with Annie, Tom, and Rosie). I felt like I was President Bush being in this beautiful house.

25th Apr—Stayed at Jeff’s place. Dan, Scott & I drove to the top of Steptoe—the guys who designed the road must have been genius. We had great lunch in Colfax.
I joined Jeff in conducting the gospel survey at WSU. I think the guy we talked to was philosophy major—very interesting talk indeed.

26th Apr---Stayed at Jeff & Angie’s house

27th Apr---Arrived at Springfield national park for Men’s encounter week. Joe talked on “Lost Son returns home”

28th Apr—second day of encounter. Went out together with Jamie and Ryan to Snake River—I think it was five hours walking. Experienced two rattle snakes on the way. Great experience for me although I was really exhausted.
Jan Busboon talked about “the transcedency of God”
Chad Jeffrey talked about “Forgiveness”
Jeff Feuerstein talked about “deliverance’.
We later lit the fire and burnt what was written against us.
Great teachings.

29th Apr—Scott taught on “The Holy spirit”
Dan closed the meeting. We drove back to meet the rest of the congregation at Pullman foursquare church. Ryan and Bruce cycled (it doesn’t sound real especially for Ryan who walked five hours the previous day).
30th Apr—Visited Oliveto’s (Stephen, Tiffany, Zach & Connor). I had Vietnamese dinner!

1st May—Attended Jan Busboon’s cell

2nd May—went with Scott to Eastern Washington state university. I briefly shared what we are doing in Garissa. Scott shared the message—he is a great speaker. Many students showed interest to come over to Kenya.

3rd may—stayed at the house of the Salvadalena (Russ & Janie, Shianne, Nick).
Attended my first bowling game (courtesy of Russ). Won the second match (out of five of us—can’t share about the first game).

4th May—Stayed in the house of Joe and Sue Watson—beautiful place to view other sites in Pullman

5th May—Joe and Sue took me to watch their grand son Jessy play baseball—my first time. Great game although Jessy’s team lost.

6th May—Attended Church—Reinhardt Bonke’s series.
Stayed with Bruce & Laurie Heimbigner. Got to meet two of their sons and their daughter in law. Had good talk around the great meal.

7th May—Traveled together with Bruce & Laurie to different parts of Eastern Washington. Got to join Bruce’s brother plough his huge trucks of land. Visited Grand Coulee, salt lake among other places. Had dinner in Spokane.

8th may---Visited different places at Washington state university. Saw Labs for Victor, Bruce, and Masaro before linking up with Jan

9th May—Spent most of the time at the church

10th May---Visited Jan & Janice Busboom—cut trees, fed sheep. Ate dinner

11th May—Visited Steve 7 Serena Bravard. Tried moving the boat. Did shooting---using different guns (The noise was really scary). Great dinner.

12th May—on Steve & Serena’s four wheeler meandering through the steep hill—great excitement for me. Fed horses.
In the evening, I joined Victor, Lupita & Jeff—we went to Jeff’s deck. We passed through India reservations. Great experience as Victor 7 I tried a game neither of us was familiar with. Sad that Victor Beat me.

13th May—Attended Sunday service—Reinhardt Bonke’s series.
Did preparation for the following day

14th—18thMay---Las Vegas, NV

18th—24thMay--Virginia

24th—30thMay--San Jose, CA

31st May—Preparation for the following day

1st June—Drove to Okanogan/Omak

2nd June—Attended Okanogan centennial celebration

3rd June—Spoke at Omak’s foursquare church

4th June—traveled back to Pullman. Great Dinner at the house of Pastor Dan, Patty, Bowen

5th June---shopping & saying bye to those who came to bid me farewell
GREAT, GREAT, GREAT EXPERIENCE. THANK YOU ALL WHO MADE MY STAY A SUCCESS.
THANK YOU SCOTT FOR ALLOWING GOD TO USE YOU TO
BLESS ME.

6TH –9TH---NJ
9—12TH---PN
13TH---WARM RECEPTION FROM EUNICE, TIM ANN.

I MET THE OBJECTIVES OF LAUNCHING THE BOOK & RAISING FINANCIAL SUPPORT---TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

I am now back to Garissa where there seems to be plenty of work
Already. My wife Eunice worked so hard in my absence. She did organize a
Prayer seminar that was well attended by members of different churches in Garissa--it was very successful.
In my absence, some Muslim thugs invaded our school at night where
They slashed our watchman leaving him for the dead--God spared his
life and is recovering--this is now a police case. The intention of the attack is still not clear. The thugs managed to break into our school offices and made away with lap top computer amongst other things. Please pray for safety of the school children who are borders and also ourselves

Ken on Tour

Ken in Cougar Country - Sorry couldn't find a live one.

American Bison / Buffalo

Visiting a Wheat Farm in Eastern Washington - No cougars here either

Dry Falls Washington

Grand Coulee Dam

Fun in Spokane

My wife even gave him a haircut

More later, Bruce

Ken (from Garissa, Kenya) is in the United States for the first time!!!

Ken is in Pullman, WA, USA until June 6th raising awareness of the work he does, building relationships, raising prayer & financial support, releasing his first book (click here to buy a copy online), and seeing snow for the first time! Below are from the Cascade Mountains in the state of Washington where he saw (and tasted) snow for the first time. We will be updating the blog with news from his trip, so check back often! Also, yesterday was his 35th birthday!!!! Happy Birthday, Ken!!

Ethiopia vs. Somalia Soccer Match in Dadaab, Kenya at refugee camps

When you talk of Somalis and Ethiopians the next thing that comes in mind are enemies that cant see eye to eye. This is worsened by the recent war that was in Mogadishu (capital of Somali) in which the Ethiopian troops helped to remove Islamic courts that had ruled Somali for a number of months. Around that time, we had a lot of influx of Somali refugees to daddaab refugee camp.

I have trained quite a number of Ethiopians on how to do evangelism and discipleship. We needed something that would bridge the gap between these refugees who are neighbors and yet enemies. Having talked with a refugee from Ethiopia who is taking care of the church in the camp, we decided that a match between these groups was going to be the bridge to use to share the love of God to them.

We hade two categories of matches: under 15 years and Adults.

Saturday 10th match: Ethiopians under 15 beat Somalis two goals to nil. We had about 1,200 Refugees watch the match.

Sunday 11th: It was a match of the adults between Somalis and Ethiopians. At the end of the 90 minutes they had equal goal aggregates two versus two on each side. They went on penalty and both scored three more goals. It became dark and a deal was made for the match to continue the following day. About 1,500 Refugees watched the game.

Monday 12th: They decided to have full match again. Somalis emerged the winners having beat Ethiopians two goals to nil—it was real celebration time for the mammoth of Somali supporters who had cheered their team all through. About 1,600 refugees watched the match.

As I think about it, I realize that adopting relevant strategies in reaching out to the hurting world is going to go along way in bringing people to the Master —sharing HIS Love in multifaceted ways is something we need to boldly do.

Giving smiles and joy to faces of some of those people who have seen death so close is something I would not trade with anything.

Here are a few photos so you can have a taste of what happened:

Look at that—Somali players (in red) with Ethiopian Players (light blue)

Ethiopians holding the two cups that were being “fought” for & Ken holding the cups before giving the leaders

N/B: most Ethiopians who played are from Gambela region—they are called Anywak—they are river-Lake nilotes. We also have other Cushitic Ethiopians in the camp (I have trained quite a number of them) only that it was tricky involving them also. Thanks for being apart of this !

Myanmar update

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the in-depth and encouraging update on what is happening with you guys and the church. My apologies for not responding sooner. I was in the States for ten days of meetings and my inbox is very full (still 75 messages to go!).

Let me say that your continued partnership in Thailand and Myanmar are making a difference and bearing fruit. I am in regular contact with P (talked to him last night) and the ministry there is mushrooming in every direction (its now up to 58 church and doors opening all over). Our big challenge now is to help them get some buildings up! The evangelism is going great but the government and economic situation are very tough and they need our help. I will be there in two weeks for a graduation of the students who have now finished their course work since the Bible School was closed. P is using the church to continue the training and we are looking at finding a way to reopen the Bible School as a vocational training center.

Another need is additional room for the orphans. As they get older, it is essential to separate the boys and girls and they are looking for a way to build a dormitory that will allow for this. The church property is pretty maxed out but P manages to find a way!

You may have heard about increased persecution from the government. Six churches have been closed in Mandalay and officials have been cutting the crosses off of church buildings in the Golden Triangle. So far, none of our ministries have been impacted but the situation is tense.

One thing I have discovered is that places where we have missionaries get a lot more attention and help than the places that do not. That is one reason I pound the drum for Burma a lot. Our involvement with some very solid and proven ministries will greatly multiply the fruit and I have a strong sense that it is God's time for breakthrough in this nation. I have been north to Chin State where the revival started in the 70's and south to Moulmein where Adoniram Judson began a ministry that has left a lasting legacy. In Yangon, Mandalay and the Golden Triangle, a young generation of leaders is rising.

Please convey my thanks and those of the Pastor Philip Ahone, P and the leaders in Myanmar for what you and the Pullman Foursquare Church has done.

Philip and Mie Mie Ahone are in the Seattle area now. Their daughter Charis will be graduation from Seattle Pacific U. in May. I would encourage you to contact them. Philip is the founder and leader of Foursquare Myanmar and I would love for you to be able to spend some time with him. They have a daughter in Portland, Glory.

Thanks again Bruce. I will be happy to work with you and the 20 something's who what to come to SE Asia! Sounds like a great trip. I would love to spend some time with you and this group. Let me know dates, etc and I will help you set this up.

God bless you,

George Butron