From Kenya to Australia

God is indeed faithful to us as a church and an Ekklesia group. He continues to expand us in ways that are beyond our expectation. God has called one of us to Australia. Truphena Mahindu will be relocating in a few weeks time to Australia to join her husband Tony. Though we will miss her as a group we see this as yet another opportunity for growth in God's kingdom. Truphena has been an active member of our group and has contributed to the vibrancy we experience as a group. Her hope is that she will continue to represent Christ whenever she goes and sees this relocation as a mission opportunity. She would therefore, like to invite us as a community for a prayer and dedication service at her place on the 20th from 4pm to 5pm.

We hope to see you there.

Blessings,

Gideon

Merry Christmas

We would like to thank God as an Ekklesia group for taking through this year. We had a rough start as a country but God has faithfully remained in control and still is to this moment. 

Yesterday’s lunch went well; we had many guests join us to celebrate the end of the year. We joined the Woodley Ekklesia to do this. Besides great food and lots of fun, we were able to take some time to sing and praise the Lord for his goodness to us. Psalm 100 was our celebratory and thanksgiving Psalm that was read aloud.

 

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

 

 

We also read Psalm 106 to remind ourselves of how gracious our Lord has been to us as a nation

……..⁴⁸Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, “Amen!”

Praise the LORD.

 

 

Well, it is has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, I will let your imagination work as you see some of the pictures taken during our end of the year luncheon!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 

 

Luncheon

End of the Year Celebration

Dear Friends in Christ,

I trust that you are all well in Him and that you are getting ready for the much needed end of the year rest.  We have been getting rady to celebrate God's faithfulness as a group and this past Wednesday we took time to look back at what our faithful Lord hasa done. We had a lot to thank The Lord for and to celebrate with one another. This Sunday the 14th and Roselyne Khamadi, we will be gathering as Jamuhuri and Woodley Ekklesia's to celebrate this year and to officially take a break till January. Please invite a friend.

I look forward to our time together.

By Gideon

Touching Heaven Transforming Earth

Pastor Simon Mbevi of Mavuno Church has been leading us through teachings on prayer. As an Ekklesia we will be discussing the sermons every Wednesday. The sermon on the 2nd of November was titled "Heaven on Earth-The privilege of prayer", the 9th was "The Gideon Action- The Power at Home" and this coming Sunday the 16th of November we will be looking at "Power of Prayer-Earth Invaded" It is my hope and prayer that you will be able to make it to church this Sunday and to the Ekklesia on Wednesday. As we reflect together may we truly be able to "Touch Heaven and Transform the Earth" Remember, prayer is a privilege make it a priority.

Get to Know your Host and Hostess

Hello Wapendwa,

I trust that you are doing well today. We are in a new month! We have decamped from Brenda and Kevin Ochieng and pitched a new tent at Emily and Ernest's place. Ernest and Emily are members of Mamlaka Hill Chapeland have been part of Jamuhuri Ekklesia for over a year. Prior to that Ernest was part of Woodley Ekklesia. They both love the Lord dearly. Ernest serves the Lord with Teule Ministries which helps children from disadvantaged background in the society while Emily does the same with Tumaini Kwa Watoto. Now you know!.

If you have any questions or need directions please get in touch with Ernest of Emily. You can also call Gideon.

Have a blessed day.

Gideon

Pray for Our Jerusalem

Psalm 122

Hamjambo Wapendwa,

I trust that you are all well this day. Today I woke up in the morning to a beautiful Jamuhuri with the sun illuminating the different styles of the buildings that forms the Jamuhuri skyline. I could not help but give in to tempation of taking a few snaps to share with you and as I stood there admiring the gift of a bright sunny day, I was reminded of the words of the Psalmist in the 122nd chapter....

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

“May those who love you be secure.

May there be peace within your walls

and security within your citadels.”

For the sake of my brothers and friends,

I will say, “Peace be within you.”

For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,

I will seek your prosperity."

Psalm 122:6-9

We are also asked today, besides praying for Jerusalem to think about our symbolic world, our Jamuhuri, our Jerusalem. I would ask that you join me in praying for the peace of our community, also continue praying for Nairobi Chapel that The Lord will come through for us as a Church and that for His sake we will be established in the land.

Amen.

 

Monthly Lunch

This Sunday we had our Ekklesia lunch hosted by Brenda and Kevin. We had a great time together as a community as we fellowshipped together over meal, played and prayed for one another and for our churches. We had a new member, Marcus from Ethiopia but currently studying at Carlile College. He joined us for lunch and will be coming from next week. We also celebrated Janelle’s birthday, she turned 1. Happy Birthday girl!

You are Invited

Hello all,
I hope u are all well.
further to my communication recently on the above matter i am now pleased to tell you that our daughter Mary Anne leaves on sunday 19th october 2008. i wish to invite you to join me and my family this saturday 18th october 2008 at 2.00pm as we thank the good Lord for his faithfulness and also as we raise funds for ticket and accomodation. the function will be held at our house at kenya re flats house no 2A woodley. the flat is situated at the junction going to jamhuri 2. Pls call in case you need directions. if for any reason you are unable to attend we will be happy to recieve ua donation by mpesa moneygram or western union.

May God bless u as u plan to attend
Thanks and best wishes

Rose Nyakwaka

Some Our Photos

These are photos from last night.

Praying for you

Dear Brethren,

May the Lord God of Comfort and Peace visit you in a very special way during this difficult time! He who allowed this to happen will do the necessary.
Together, let's hold on Him! Where will the burial take place?
Praying for you!

Shalom!
Jacques & Family

Bereaved

As a family we are bereaved.

Alfred's lost his Paternal Grandmother on the 9th Oct 2008; the burial shall be on the 18th Oct 2008. He lost his Maternal Grandmother in Aug 2008. It has been hard time financially and emotionally considering most of the support comes from us.

Kindly remember us as a family in the prayers, pray for a breakthrough in our families

Thanks.

Alfred & Carolyne

(The Mwalo's)

Congratulations!

Beloved,

This is super! Our heartfelt congratulations to Patrick and Foulata, and welcome Samuel and Sonia! May the Lord watch over you! Will see you.

Thank you all for praying for me when I was away and I returned safely yesterday. We'll share more during our meeting after tomorrow!

God bless you all!

Jacques

Ekklesia-Community Life

A story is told of a man who left church and decided that he would “fellowship” alone. The church and its members had too many issues and he felt he was better off alone. No messy relationships, no misunderstandings, no pesky, loud ‘sisters’. And so he stopped attending church.

The pastor soon noticed his absence and decided to visit him n his home. He went over and found a nice fire in the fire place. They sat not saying a word to one another. They watched the embers and enjoyed the warmth. The pastor walked up to the fire place and removed one piece of wood from the center of the ire and put it aside on its own. Then he returned to his seat and they continued to watch the fire. With time the single piece of wood stopped burning even as the rest of the fire blazed. The Pastor again stood walked to the fire and returned the piece of wood to the rest of the fire. .within no time, it was blazing.

After some time, without saying a single word, the Pastor stood to leave. As the man saw him off, there were tears in his eyes and he said, “That is the single most powerful sermon you have ever preached to me!”

This story may speak of different ones of us going through crowded life yet being alone. In this fast paced society that is life, we go through the emotions everyday searching for that sense of connectedness that we desire but that has become increasingly elusive. We are busy, indeed effective: a young successful woman turning to self help books on how to manage tasks of everyday life, a first time daddy feeling unprepared to raise a child but has no idea where to turn to for perspective.

In another ear and context, these people and you and I would have drawn from a wealth of resources of a community of the extended family and friends that would give us insights and ideas in these different aspects of life.

Belonging to a community especially in the pursuit of God provides the impetus we need to keep burning for our connectedness enables us to feed into one another’s strengths and resources. Our small groups-The Ekklesias allow us in this era of ‘busyness’ to find a family and connect in order to seek hard after God.

By Pastor Cathleen Rotich

Welcome Samuel and Sonia!

This afternoon our family had visted with Foulata and her family. We had the oppotunity to hold the twins, Samuel and Sonia. If you have not had a chance to meet them here are some pictures for you, enjoy.

From Bujumbura

Jacques Sandrizi is in Bujumbura, he has been quite busy with traveling. He sends his love to all. Please lets keep on praying for journey mercies

Photos from Randy's Birthday

Blessings

We rejoice with Patrick and Foulata Kwena Shilishia who have been blessed with twins. God is trully owesome!

In this month of October our meetings will be hosted by Kevin and Brenda Ochieng.

Attack on Kenyatta Avenue

Yesterday was an eventful day. I had a great start with devotions then breakfast and soon Cecilia was on her way to work. As a tradition, I normally pray with the children before the head off to school and our prayer that morning was that God be with each one of us, Gabi, Samara, Agnes, Mommy and Daddy and the he watch over us till we meet again in the evening, that his angles protect us from all harm and that we shine his light wherever we go in the day. We all hugged and off they went into the bus to go to school. I had a few things to catch up on before heading out myself. My first stop would be Nairobi Chapel offices then downtown to the Safaricom offices for Internet connection. I arrived at the Safaricom place early and was among the first 12 on the queue. I was served promptly but then it took a while for the technical staff to get the setup running. After waiting for nearly two hours all was set to go and all that I needed to do was to test the system. The laptop on the demonstration table, for some reason did not work. So I pulled out my laptop from my back pack to use for this purpose. After this I put it back safely in my bag and walked out the door. Little did I know that I was being trailed, their target was my backpack with had my laptop. As I crossed Kenyatta Avenue and on to the opposite side, someone tripped me, I ignored the first time, he did it again, this time he was so close to me, there were already two men neatly dressed standing on the opposite side of the walkway not far from where I would fall had I tripped. Then I turned around to inquire of the person who was now very close to me and there right on my left jaw I received the first punch and a second one on the right side of my nose, I started bleeding and asking what was wrong, apparently I did not lose consciousness which I think they had counted on. People were just staring for about 30 seconds and the accomplice sensing that people were drawn to what was happening said I should just forget about the guy who has just hit me that probably he is not normal, by that time the guy had disappeared into the crown. I literally had no time to raise alarm, but I thank God that I managed to stay alert and lost nothing valuable in the process. I took a taxi to the hospital again thankfully nothing was broken but I have a lot of pain when chewing on my left jaw and a swollen face. Those who are seeing me for the first time since I arrived from the US are wondering what I was feeding on while I visited America. I am on medication for 5 days and hope to be alright soon. 

I am doing much better today with the swellings gone down. I hope that by the end of the week things will be back to normal.

Thanks for your prayers.

Posted By Gideon Ochieng

We are here

Hi guys, 

I trust that you are doing well. I have created this blog to help us stay in touch but also to post some of the great things the Lord is doing in your lives. I hope that you all can keep this thing going. I am excited that we get to do this. Peace