What a glorious time we had in Siaya County, Kenya once again! God continues to do some amazing things with our teams through the generous investments through our faithful partners! In this post, I will give a brief overview of what God did through our Teaching Team, Pastor Brad Abley and Wesley Bremer (with "A Heart After God Bible Teaching Ministries") and Dr. Melissa Davis.

Once we arrived safely in Siaya on Saturday March 4th, we met with a few of our students at our Bible School, ELIM Theological Institute and share about our upcoming classes we would be teaching on during the week. Then we went to our Orphanage, Ebenezer Children's Home and Word Academy, where we got stay for the week and got settled.

Sunday, March 5th: The Team Sent Out to 3 Churches to Preach:

As usual, on Sunday, each team member is taken to a different church to preach the Word of God at one of the churches that represents our Bible School. I was honored to minister at two different places: First, the Woman's Probationary Center (a unique government facility for single mothers who have been committed crimes for rehabilitation). It was an honor to minister to these young women and their children. After the message on Luke 7:36-50 on "God's Amazing Forgiveness," all the young ladies prayed to the "sinner's prayer" and one actually said this was the first time she had ever prayed for salvation! Glory to God! After this amazing time, I went to Refugee of Joy Sanctuary Church in Siaya Town to preach on the same message and we saw many repent and come to Christ! Glory to God!

Melissa Davis went to Pastor Paul Tawo's church to preach. Paul is our Director of the Bible School. And Pastor Brad and Wesley went to Word Christian Church (Pastor Paul O'Chieng's church who is also the Director of the orphanage we are in strategic partnership with)! What a glorious Sunday!

Monday, March 6th: The First Day of Intensive Teaching at our Bible School:

What a glorious start at our Bible School. We taught three intensive Courses for the week:

I taught on "Principles of Bible Study," Brad taught on "The Beauty of the Old Testament," and Melissa taught on her Ph.D. Dissertation topic, "The Theology of Worship!"

We had so many pastors and students come out the first day we had to go rent more chairs and we have outgrown the tent already! Glory to God!

Pastor Brad started the first intensive course. Many pastors and students were very engaged. Then Melissa started her first session on the Theology of Worship, and the students were so challenged, that they started asking a plethora of questions.

After lunch I taught the principles of Bible Study followed by a time of Q&A and boy, that was amazing and challenging! But the Holy Spirit gave us the answers on the role of women in ministry, role of husbands and wives and how to treat their children, polygamy and the ministry (yes this is a real issue here), and so much more!

Tuesday, March 7th: More Teaching and Ministry:

God continued doing a deep work in the students and pastors at the Bible School. Pastor Brad continued his teachings on the Nature of God as found in the OT. The focus of his teaching today was on God’s Forgiving Nature followed by a time of repentance for not believing God truly forgives, and to receive His abounding forgiveness in our lives.

Then Melissa Davis continued her course on the Theology of Worship by focusing on the creation and the image of God. Wow! There were so many questions and great discussion as everyone was put into small groups to work on Genesis 1:26 and 2:18-24 to answer questions. It was so wonderful to see so many with questions and the answers they gave. By the end of the day, I taught on Principles to Bible Study and focused on “Context is King!” With this, there were many questions about different passages, even though we focused our study on Acts 15, a major passage for sound doctrine in the church.

One of the key questions came from a village pastor that naturally flowed from the Genesis passage on humans being made in the image of God. He asked if, according to Psalms 82:6, that states, "I said, 'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.'" His question was, "Since the word says we are not only made in the image of God, but that 'we are gods, sons of the Most High' what does this mean for us?" What a great question. Some reading this may think, "we are not gods!" and you are correct, but for many village pastors with little to no training in how to study the Bible, they can read this Psalm and interpret it literally.

So, the Holy Spirit guided me to return to our Principles to Bible Study and focused on "Context is King!" principle! We went through the entire passage to get the context of the passage and we revealed that God is rebuking the leaders and judges of the nations in this passage for their lack of justice! Everyone had a "Ah Ha!" moment! We had a powerful time of prayer following at the close of the teachings!

But we were not done with the day as the main photo above. After we returned to the Orphanage where we were staying, Paul O'Chieng the Director gathered all the children together as we made a presentation of all the gifts each team member brought!

A big Thank You to Melissa Davis and her friends who donated school supplies, dolls, toys, books, and much needed medicines! To Pastor Brad Abley and Riverbend Church Children’s Ministries for the stickers and hand made cards for all the orphans, to Wesley Bremer for the special soccer balls, and a special partner who gave more Beanie Babies!

Oh the gratitude and joy all the orphans have for being blessed by you all for these gifts!

Thank You!

Because of you and your faithful support, orphans and pastors lives are being changed!

Day 3: Breakthrough in Teaching and Ministry:

Today is the third day teaching the intensive courses at our Bible School. We had a record number of students and pastors attending each day!

Melissa took the class deeper into the Theology of Worship by focusing on worship as a lifestyle, transformative, and should be our allegiance. She focused on Abraham and Issac in Genesis 22 and then Ezekiel 36 on God taking our heart of stone away and giving us a heart of flesh. The village pastors and Bible students were very engaged and wanted to know more.

Then we moved into my teaching on Hermeneutics (Principles to Bible Study). This is a foundational course we teach regularly in our weekly classes, but we have many new students coming, so I’m giving them an overview of the principles. We are focused on Acts 15:1-35 that is pivotal in the history of the Church. We spent about 2 hours on understanding the most important step of the three steps: Observation. It was so life-giving!

Then before lunch something happened. The Spirit began to move as we started to sing worship songs. Our Director of the Bible School, Pastor Paul Tawo came to me with a word for people who have a heavy and hurting heart to come forward for prayer.

Over 20 people came forward and the tears began to flow from everyone! The others who didn’t come forward stretched out their hands to pray for those heavy burdened. The team and I started to lay hands on everyone, spending time praying over them. Many were being set free and the tears turned to joy.

Then there was a young female student, Esther, who began to weep and wail. And as Melissa and I came to pray over her, a tormenting spirit started to manifest. We were not scared, because of the blood of Jesus.

Let me just say, we spoke in the authority of Jesus’ name and His blood. I was not shouting, but calmly and firmly commanded the spirit to be released from her. There was a struggle, but soon, she obeyed the name of Jesus and the demon left her. As she looked at us, the whites and color of her eyes were dark and glazed over, suddenly cleared up and were white and clear. And the peace, joy, and freedom of the Holy Spirit filled her up. Glory to God!

After that powerful time we had lunch and then Brad began his in-depth teaching on The Nature of God in the OT. Again, just like with Melissa’s and my teachings, there was engagement with the students and the anointing continued to flow.

What a glorious day today!

Day 4: More Indepth and Life-Changing Teachings:

Thursday's teachings continued on Principles to Bible Study (taught by me) going through Acts 15 and helping the pastors and students really discover how to understand and “rightly handle the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Pastor Brad continued to teach on the Beauty of the Old Testament focusing on the Nature of God and Melissa Davis continued teaching “The Theology of Worship” and focused on Allegiance to God and to Loving Others. There was a breakthrough in our Bible School as Melissa shared from Scripture how worship is so much more than just singing and praying.

I would say the highlight though of Thursday’s time were all the questions the students asked dealing with some issues in the church. The Holy Spirit filled me and the teaching team with wisdom. For example, one of the questions was about a church member who claims to be a Christian is practicing witchcraft at church, so how should we deal with it? Think about that for a moment! The Lord gave all of us wisdom to give guidance and counsel.

At the end of Wednesday’s and Thursday’s class, I lead the students and pastors in the closing prayer asking the Lord to send rain as it is very, very dry at this time. Water wells have run dry and water tanks that collect rain water are running low. Nothing happened on Wednesday night but shortly after praying on Thursday, there was a clap of thunder at a distance. Then Friday early morning about 5 am: Kaboom! A huge thunderstorm came through and it rained like cats and dogs (lions and elephants: in Africa) for 3 hours! Then it slowed down to a drizzle until about 9:00 am just as we started teaching. All the students were singing, praising, and shouting glory to God for the rain and how He answered our prayers!

Day 5: Final Day of Intensive Teaching & Life-Changing Prayers and Prophetic Ministry:

The final day of our classes for the village pastors and Bible Students, I taught on the "Characteristics of Shepherd/Pastor." God used this to challenge misperceptions of the Pastor. Melissa finished her teaching on Worship focusing on Sacrifice. Again it was full of insights that challenged our limited view of sacrifice. And then she wrapped it up by talking about how to put it all into practice. Pastor Brad finished his powerful teaching on praying the Scriptures using the Old Testament. They all started praying right there! It was powerful to witness putting the teachings into practice!

Finally, we spent time praying over every student and the Holy Spirit gave numerous Prophetic Words for many of the students. There were tears and joy and so much more. We closed with prayers and worship! What a powerful and special week of teachings this was. I finished the day meeting with my leadership team of the Bible School to discuss future plans and work, which I'll be sharing with our partners in the coming months!

Day 6: Wedding Day for Pastor Paul Tawo & Loice Apala:

Saturday was a very special day for me, as I was honored to officiate my Bible School Director's wedding! Pastor Paul Tawo lost his first wife to cancer eight years ago, and we have been praying for a new wife for the past 4 years. Well God answered our prayers! It was a glorious day of celebrating, singing, dancing, and joy!

Ebenezer Children's Home:

Along with our intensive courses for the village pastors, we also took care of one major need for the orphanage, especially the girls. Their outdoor latrines the past October began to sink and became unsafe. Although our goal is to build indoor bathrooms for the girls (which we will begin a new campaign soon), we had to deal with building new outdoor latrines (Outhouses)! Well because of your generous support, we were able to not only start building them, but by next week, they will be completed!

Returning to Nairobi and Preparing to Return Home:

Sunday morning I departed for Nairobi to start my long journey home, but still had ministry opportunities in the Capital City.

I was blessed to minister in three venues at Life Church International:

You see, EmPowered Living International Ministries doesn’t stop in Siaya County, I was honored to be one of the keynote speakers at the Men and Marketplace Conference in Nairobi at Life Church International with Apostle David Juma. I also was a guest on two shows on Elevate TV - Kenya "Tracing the Mantles" with Pastor Asunta Juma, where we discussed American Church History and how that can help the church in Kenya. Then on Monday morning, I was the guest on "Morning Digest" with Host Pastor Godfrey Gichuki where we discussed "Church and Politics!" What a wonderful time with on these shows and at the Men's Conference. I am grateful for Pastor Cindy Meeks of The Citadel Church in Reston, Virginia who introduced Apostle David Juma and me for this new relationship to develop for broader ministry.

Well, all of this could not happen without the faithful partnership of financial partners like you. Thank you for believing in the work we are doing by helping us educate, equip, and empower village pastors and believers like you in sound theology and the power of the Holy Spirit!