Great testimonies and interesting note from David
David and Kathie Walters
Dec 17, 2004

Hi Everyone,

I have recently returned from Kenya. The ten day trip was very significant. I would like to first thank those of you who contributed financially to enable me to make this trip. As you know it is costly to travel to Africa and not only did I pay all my own expenses hotel and food, and travel in Kenya, but I also paid for the meals and travel for pastors and people who attended the meetings. In one conference lunch was fed to about 500 school kids. In another two day meeting over 400 adults were fed twice. In the other conferences we fed about 100 people twice and about 60 once. When you invite pastors and families to a conference, it is expected that they will be fed during that time.

Many of the pastors who attended were totally changed. They said their lives will never be the same again. They had never understood how children can be used by God in the way I was describing to them. Many are so hungry to learn to do what I do with the youngsters. They want my tapes, but is not practical to send these pastors tapes from the States. The cost of shipping is extremely high and then we have no assurance that the tapes will arrive safely, as many parcels get stolen of go missing. There is a wonderful testimony from Edwin at the end of this newsletter. Please take a few minutes to read it, you will be blessed.

I flew from Nairobi to Kisumu where Pastor Simeon Jumba took me to my hotel. I met Pastor Simeon last year at a Bible College Convention at Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. I was a speaker and Simeon was so warmed to my messages that he asked to come to Kenya. He collected me from my Hotel every day and took me to the meetings he had arranged for me. He is a wonderful man and has a very gentle spirit. I met his wife Helen and their 7 children. He arranged a conference at a large Quaker church which has been open to the Holy Spirit since he has been influencing them. They now raise their hands and praise the Lord and dance in the church which is a revolution for that denomination. We had about 60 to a 100 children's pastors attend, plus a number of school girls from their school. On Sunday morning there were about 900 school girls present at the church. We then went from there and I preached in a little village church that Pastor Simeon planted recently. The had about 60 people attending. He has put a down payment on some land to build their own church. He has purchased bricks and he is believing to pay for the concrete for the walls and floor. The church will be built between two Muslim Mosques. They already have a number of Muslims who attend their meetings and some of the kids have gotten saved and are sneaking off to their meetings without their parents knowing. The kids are so hungry for reality. Originally the Muslims were only in the city of Mombassa, but now they are spreading all over the country. They are also getting involved in government positions, while the church is still asleep.

Simeon's wife is a school teacher at a little village school which they have built. They took me to see the school. The children in that village had never seen a white man in the flesh, so they were giggling and staring at me from a safe distance. Simeon also has a clinic for the poor people and they are taking care of children of incest that are rejected and abandoned by the people. He had to sell his car to use for the fare to come to America last year and so he has to walk or get rides now to travel around Kenya. He has a forty foot container in the U.S. which has about $2000.00 worth of medicine in it which was donated, but he has to find the money to ship it back to Kenya before it loses it's potency. A used 8 year old Toyota Road Runner has been donated to him which he needs to ship to Kenya. I am not sure if it could fit into the container or not. Simeon Jumba is over here in the States now and if anyone wants him to preach at their church, let me know. He is such a precious man.

The second half of my trip I spent with Bishop Edwin Osera. Kathie and I were with Edwin over thirty years ago. We stayed in his little mud hut. He built a little bedroom for us and we stayed there for about six weeks, apart from ministry trips. Edwin is now 60 years old and his house is only a little better than his old mud hut. He and his wife Dena and their several children are all crowded together in the little house. Edwin collected me from my hotel in Kisumu and took me to my hotel in Bungoma, but when we arrived at the hotel it was so bad that I wasn't keen to stay there. Edwin was embarrassed as he did not realize how bad it was, so he found us a decent guest house to stay in at the Bible College. We drove in cars on very rough roads and the cars were old and rattled and the rear shocks were useless. I wasn't sure if we could drive to some of the places we went to as the roads were so terrible. I mentioned the meetings I had with Edwin in the first part of the letter. These were the ones that had the 400 adults and the 500 kids which we fed. Again the pastors were so excited and said their lives had been transformed. Edwin had never seen the children in Kenya pray like they did in our meetings. And many of the children laid their hand on their parents to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and they did. I took a laptop for Edwin and bought him a printer. I also gave him a Seika watch and a pocket Bible dictionary which he loved. I want to be able to give Simeon two audio high speed tape duplicators to take back to Kenya. One for him and one for Edwin. This will mean that they can produce my tapes for the pastors in Kenya. I have been in touch with Kingdom Video to see if they will donate or heavily discount two of their tape duplicators. I was out in the bush, ate their food, sat in a pastors mud hut and went where children had never seen white men.

They told me that all the money goes to the big churches in the cities and the poor people in the villages never have the opportunity to have someone like me minister to them and their children, so I know that's what God wanted. I made paper air planes for the little street kids and they loved them. The pastors tried to make me promise to return. They are talking about doing something on a larger scale in Nairobi, where several thousand pastors and children will attend, so they can learn to do what I do and see first hand how I minister to the children. Edwin cycles 15 to 20 miles over rough ground to preach to the village churches and he is now 60 years old. He said that when he gets home he is really worn out. I want to get him a motor cycle. The cheapest one I saw was about $770.00. He also needs a generator for his church he built, so he can have power. I saw one in a super-market in Bungoma for about $450.00. It's a Honda and it uses either petrol or kerosene. His church is made of mud, but he has made bricks to replace the mud, which will cost him about $300.00 to have them baked in a kiln.

The preachers told me that the government has been corrupt for years in Kenya and the roads and schools are really rundown and in serious need of repair. Apparently the new government is less corrupt than the previous ones, but the first thing that the government officials did when they came into power was to vote to give themselves a 500% salary raise. They enjoy the large houses and fancy cars. They have just passed a law to tax all the churches as there was some scandal with some of the big church leaders in the larger cities regarding money and adultery. So now all the little poor churches are being taxed by the government along with the large ones. So keep the churches in Kenya in your prayers and remember Edwin and Jumba.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE EDWIN OSERA, SIMEON JUMBA AND THE PLACES AND MEETINGS WHERE I WAS AT, CLICK ON THESE LINKS.

Pictures of Pastor Simeon Jumba  

Pictures of Bishop Edwin Osera