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John & Anne Martin, Box 778, Nakuru, Kenya
email: john.martin@agmd.org
(click on pictures to view larger)
February, 2007
John & Anne Martin, Box 778, Nakuru, Kenya (click on pictures to view larger) February, 2007 |
Happy New Year We trust you all are fine and doing well in the Lord this New Year. The past few months have been rather a blur, a good blur though. We had several visitors. Our daughter, Tracy, came to work with Missionary Kids at an East Africa conference. Our pastorŐs daughter, Beth, from Great Bend, KS also came over to help at the conference and to work with us. She brought shoes, soccer balls, pumps and baby clothes for our group homes, all of which were a BIG hit! Thank you so much to those who contributed. Beth had a big impact on our street kids. Teen Challenge After many years of prayer, this drug and alcohol rehabilitation program is finally taking shape. Our Steering Committee is working on the constitution and registration. A piece of property has come available that is beyond anything we could have ever hoped. It is 53 beautiful acres with 55,000 sq. feet of buildings. It has been a secondary school and even has an Olympic-size swimming pool! The part I like is the dairy barn. However, the price tag is more money than we have ever handled. It is worth much more than the asking price though. This place would immediately be self-sustaining with rentals, water bottling plant, dairy, farming, etc. Please be in prayer with us for GodŐs will. |
Microenterprise 
In November we purchased two pregnant dairy goats, Soxie and Dixie. I know. You arenŐt supposed to name them in case you have to eat them. On December 23, Soxie delivered twins, Christmas and Eve. Two weeks later Dixie, with some assistance, delivered a HUGE baby girl. |
Our idea for teaching quilting has begun to unfold. When we arrived on the Field we discovered that two other missionaries were excellent quilters and wanted to help. John and I met a Kenyan lady at a market whose daughter was teaching quilting to ladies in the slum. We will hire her to teach our older girls and boys to sew. We will be making the quilts out of African material. Hopefully, we will be able to find a market in the US as well as in Kenya. Is there anyone out there up to pursuing this on your side if I can get them to the US? HIV/AIDS
On a very sad and bizarre note, we must report that our night guard and his wife passed away from HIV/AIDS. Eric was able to go home for a few days, but his condition rapidly deteriorated. Thankfully, we were able to pray with him just before he died, and we believe he is with Christ. According to his tribal customs the wife inherits nothing since he did not have a child. EricŐs family brutally came and took everything away while John, I and the neighbors watched. They loaded everything up in a truck and sent it on ahead. The family traveled with the body on top of the van afterwards. Well, half-way there the truck with all of EricŐs belonging rolled and everything was destroyed. Now instead of thinking that perhaps it happened because what they did was wrong, they attributed it to the belief that the possessions should never go home before the body. EricŐs spirit must have been angry. Now for the even more bizarre partÉ According to another tradition, the wife must spend one night upcountry at the rural home of the husbandŐs mother. During this night, Linda passed away. We were told that ŇEricŐs spirit came and slapped her.Ó Actually, we believe that there was foul play to prevent her from ever getting any property. They buried her immediately without even telling her family. YIKES! Even among Christians they mix in these old tribal beliefs. The younger generation is getting away from all of this, thank God. |
ChildrenŐs Prison 
We have been going regularly to the ChildrenŐs Remand home in Nakuru. This is a holding place for those kids that are arrested on the street for loitering or stealing. In December we went with Martin (19 years old), who was a former prisoner there for two years. He has gone back several times and given his testimony, but this time was different. We asked him to preach the sermon that day. John and I had been in prayer for Martin the whole week. He was rather nervous because he had never been in charge of the entire service. Martin put another boy, Charles, in charge of the praise and worship. Charles even threw in a comedy routine mimicking the President of Kenya. The children were captivated. Martin asked to be brought on at the very last. During the praise and worship I became aware that there were several older kids that were not saved. I went out and told Martin he would have to do an altar call. Well, Martin has never done this before, and I saw a look of terror cross his faceÉ But as he began to speak, the Holy Spirit took over in an amazing way. These young kids who are coming off glue, who have very short attention spans were completely silent. As Martin told of his time at the prison he also spoke of the time when he was released. He preached about being ready when you hit that door to go back out into the world. It would not be easy, so do not go there without Jesus. You could hear a pin drop! I could barely breathe the presence of God was so powerful. As he came to the time for an altar call, 27 of those kids including the older boys came forward, knelt down and asked Martin to pray for them. We were all weeping. I have never seen anything like it there before. Usually, they are a pretty rowdy bunch and are ready to get out of the room to eat lunch. As we filed out I was aware that no one was following us (or pushing us) to get to lunch. They were remaining in the room. Martin was at the back counseling two older boys, and the rest of the kids were listening. When Martin finally came out you could see the amazement on this young manŐs face. He had been in the presence of and guided by a Holy God. Later Martin told us that those older boys were in on murder charges. He had been encouraging them to trust God. Before we left that morning I had put 2 small New Testament Bibles in my purse. I had given them to Martin to give them out wherever he felt they were needed. He gave these two boys those Bibles, instructed them in how to read them, and told them he would be back. Little did we know when we agreed to sponsor this young man to a Christian primary school 4 years ago (when he was just out of prison) that he would become an evangelist someday. He is very focused and still says he wants to be a neurosurgeon. Pray that our finances allow him to do so. We only want GodŐs will for his life. |
Christmas Christmas this year was again bittersweet. John Robert and Tracy were with us, but Kristan received a promotion at her job and could not ask for time off. This is one of the hardest parts of being on the mission field for us. John and I both promised each other no matter what it takes we will all be together for Christmas next year. We said our good-byes to Tracy as she boarded the plane on January 6 headed for Drury University. Five days later we said good-bye to John Robert as he headed back to Evangel University. Three days later we said good-bye to Beth as she returned back home. We were taught that part of being a missionary is all about being able to say, ŇGood-bye.Ó Does it ever get any easier? |
Thank you all so much for what you have sacrificed to enable us to be here in Kenya. May we be found faithful We love you.
John and Anne |
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| previous letters | judi 02/02/07 |
