Coastal Report

Sharing God's word continues in Mombasa as well. Thanks Brother Samson Manoah for being an example of Jesus Christ's disciple who is touching the poor and displaced people of Africa for Jesus Christ. 

Indeed, we are very proud of you and your teams involved in this noble cause of extending salvation to thousands of people at the Coastal region of Kenya and hundreds of House Churches planted there as a place of learning, sharing and worship God. 

May the Lord continue using and bless you more abundantly for his glory. We believe that through this mission our poor and displaced people of Kenya and other parts of the world will be saved both spiritually and physically for Jesus Christ through International Missionaries For Christ.

Geofrey Masika 

Isaac Will Answer

His name was Peter, or at least he didn’t object when I called him that.  He came up to me while I was standing watch in the street the other day.  He had a BibleWay book in his hand.  He was carrying the one entitled Who Is Jesus, which is what we give out to each new believer. He asked me if he could tell me his story, since he had just listened to one of ours.  I said, “I would love to hear it.”  

He began by telling me that he had not lived a good life nor had it been an easy one.  He had lived rough, but his mother who had passed years ago would pray for him daily while she still breathed.  He told me how his wife had died three years ago, and how his daughter has a serious handicap.  He told me how he so needed a job to care for her. I smiled when he told me that he had decided earlier this year that this would be the year he would give his life to Christ.  He then told me that just that morning he had found a job, and next week he begins this new life as security at a place I did not recognize. 

It was at this point that I thought he was going to ask me for a loan just to get by, but I was wrong.  You see he continued his story by telling me that as he was walking home he saw one of our team with that little book with the word Jesus on it, and he just knew that today was the day he needed to become a believer, so he stopped to hear one of them share. He prayed to believe, and he received that same little book. He then saw me, and wanted to tell me his story, so I listened. At the end of this story, he did ask me one thing. He turned to the page with Isaac’s name and cell phone number written on it.  Then he pointed to that name and asked, “If I call this number will Isaac answer?” I said, “Yes, Isaac will answer.”

It Ain’t True

He didn’t believe me. I mean he didn’t think I was lying, but rather he thought, “Steve must be mistaken.” You see what I had described to him was a movement of God - of Biblical proportions. “Yes,’ he thought, ‘Steve sees something, but it can’t be what he’s talking about.” Today, Chris Meaders, the mission’s pastor of Mt. Airy Baptist Church now believes, because he and his team from Mt. Airy participated in this movement. They saw it, they felt it, (honestly, no one quite understands it, but that’s ok), and now people will not believe them either when they try to articulate it. So don’t believe us, just come and see it. Come feel it and participate in this movement of God before it passes you by. Contact me or Jimmy for more information. Our 2019 schedule is already filling up with people who return year after year after year.  You see they believe it also, because they have participated in it as well.  

Steve DuVall
IMFC
www.visitimfc.com

Back In Kampala

18 March, 2018

Good morning from Uganda.  Yes, we're back at what feels like home here in Kampala.  Both Jimmy Barry and I are getting ready to see our families.  It's been a long time.  Jimmy has been here for three months; I have been here two and 1/2.  We have traveled with two amazing men of God from Uganda, Kasimbura Benon and Kintu Deo.  Along the way we met and journeyed with other giants for Jesus - Masika Geofrey Bisagati, Xavier Mpanga and Sam Owino.  We met and think some sort of partnership might be in the future with Doug and Jennifer Lawson, who live and serve in Kitale, but they work throughout Central Africa.  We saw many others who have been so influential, and I cannot mention them all here, but I will continue sharing many of their stories.  

We have traveled throughout much of Kenya. We have sweated in Mombasa, closed our eyes in fear of the traffic in Nairobi, froze nearly completely in Eldoret, left a jacket in Kisumu - which was sadly really needed in Eldoret, but everywhere we have traveled we have met a lot of passionate people whose lives were changed by the Gospel. We met drunks, thieves, murderers, taxi drivers, school teachers, mothers, people dying of AIDS, shop keepers, and many more who Jesus found and offered a gift which they accepted, and it changed their lives. Then they ran with this message to others also, so they too can share in His blessings. In Uganda we call these people serious. They are serious men and women who heard a serious message and now they treat their lives as a serious example of what Jesus does when He changes everything. They seriously run fast with the Gospel.

We finally have our NGO status, so we can legally move with the word and baptize. Now Timothy in Kakemega won’t have to spend time in prison for doing what Jesus commanded him to do. As we traveled and observed the work we saw areas that needed a little tweeking. We made a few changes here and there. We opened an office in Mombasa. We bought a computer, priced motorcycles, and prayed a lot. We did some things to hopefully to help the message move even faster. We were very pleased at what we saw.

We were also surprised. In fact, Kenya showed us that the organization needs to make some deep changes. You see, a movement of Jesus in Uganda, jumped a border into Kenya, and in less than 18 months the Jesus influence that traveled through the guys and gals of the IMFC has doubled the entire ministry. In Kenya, it stands now at the border in Mombasa almost ready to cross the Indian Ocean, and its down toward Tanzania, it’s perched on the edge looking longingly into Ethiopia, and it’s moving into Somalia. I met the man running with the Gospel there, and he begins his marathon next week. You see we entered Kenya thinking we were building an organizational plan and structure for Kenya. We already knew the IMFC influence was in the Congo, South Sudan and Johanesburg, South Africa. Well Kenya showed us that we better make plans for the world. By the way I speak Spanish, I wonder how God might use that?

We need your prayers.

A Club Called Hell

Justus posted this to facebook today and it made me smile. You see, I love to read the stories about people who pray to receive Jesus as their Lord and the result is a changed life that last. Charles is that kind of man. He was a boxer in Uganda. He won over 50 bouts and didn’t lose. All but two fights ended in knockouts. He was the national champion. He was a very tough guy and a bouncer for the club called Hell. I will never forget the day Deo, Robyn, Micheal (Robyn and Michael were two volunteers from Immanuel Baptist crazy enough to enter the bar with me) and I entered the bar and shared the gospel. We didn’t enter because we sought them out or stumbled onto them. No. Their drunken leader, I think his name was Peter, sought us out. Later I ask him why he kept bothering us until we came to speak to them. I will never forget his answer. He told me that he heard a voice in his head telling him to get us to speak to them. That day Peter, Charles and others prayed to receive Christ as their Lord. Over a year after that experience, Charles showed me a small Gideon bible that Micheal gave him. He still had it. I am so grateful that Charles is continuing in the faith. Here is what Justus wrote about Charles today, three years after that experience. This morning as I woke up, God put it on my heart to share this wonderful story. The guy seated on a boda boda besides me is called Charles. If you can still recall the story of HELL that papa Jimmy Barry wrote sometime in 2015, this is the guy who was in charge of security in the HELL and this was the name of their bar. Hell was full of thieves, drug addicts, drunkards and sex workers. This man was so influential in that bar. One day back in early 2015, muzee Jimmy Barry came across him and shared with him the story of Jesus and Nicodemus. This guy is one of the guys who prayed that day. I discipled him. I baptized him. He has led many to Jesus. He has baptized many. I am glad to let the world know that he is now a changed man. Not a thief, not a drunkard, not using drugs anymore like he used to be. On the right is his Dad who welcomed me with a big hug and mentioned one word THANK YOU. I told him not me but Jesus changed your son’s life. Charles is now working, riding his boda that his family bought for him as a gift to earn a living. This encourages me the more to go out even today and share a simple story that changed my life. Thanks for whoever prays for us the IMFC. May the lord fulfill the desires of your hearts. Here is a comment from one of the volunteers, Robyn, who was with us that day. Robyn Wilson Wenani Justus, I was at HELL that day. I will never forget it. The devil and God were both in that room and everyone there could feel and see it that knew God. Oh The Power of Our Lord and Savior reigned! Love your heart! I hope that God will bring me back one day to serve Him in this place once more! Paul wrote that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, but I think we sometimes forget that or disbelieve it based on what we see around us. Charles’ story renews my faith. If I share the simple message, people will be changed. And that is true here in America as well as Africa. Have a great day. Have a great weekent and don’t be ashamed of the Gospel or Christ. He is Lord. Jimmy www.visitimfc.com jimmy@imfc.us

One Man Can Make a Difference

This is the story of one such man, Valeria.

Valeria is the young man on the left; Justus is on the right. Valeria is 27 years old, not married and living with his father. He lives surrounded by family in the mountains and hills of Ibanda just north of Queen Elizabeth Game Park in the Southwest part of Uganda. They grow matoke, coffee, avocado, sugar cane and other things. His life story today is much different from what it was just a few years back. Why? God's has changed his life. Valeria moved to Kampala a few years back to find a job. He became a security guard and was making little money. He failed to show up for work one night and a car was stolen from the place that he was to be guarding. He was arrested, charged with negligence and sent to Kasangati Prison for three years. He was hopeless. A volunteer team from the US visited the prison with me and the IMFC team to share the gospel while Valeria was there. Valeria heard the Gospel message, prayed to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and God changed him. While in prison he completed the Bible Way books and helped Francis, the IMFC team member that works the prisons around Kampala. After leaving prison, Valeria joined the team in Kampala and learned how to do the work of producing followers of Jesus Christ who know how to produce other followers of Jesus. Valeria returned to his home in Ibanda in September 2017. He has shared the gospel in the villages around his home and in Ibanda town. Over 1,000 books had been distributed to people who have heard the message and prayed to receive Christ. 38 people have been baptised. He travels hours by foot to do the work. 66 people  that he calls his leaders came to meet me in January. Each of these have many people they are meeting with in house churches and doing the Bible Way books. These are people that he has trained to produce followers of Jesus. They came from as for away as 25 kilometers to meet me. I asked Valeria why he did this work. Why would he walk so many hours never receiving anything to do it? He said the message he heard in prison changed his life and he wanted his family and neighbors to hear the same message so it could change their lives. They are hearing it, and they are being changed. Valeria is one of my heroes like those unnamed people of Acts 11:19-24 who fled Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen. He is the reason I travel. He motivates me. I keep asking myself the question, "How many more people could be like Valeria? People simply needing someone to come share the Gospel with them and train them." So I go. I don't have to meet people like Valeria. I just need to train producers who will meet them. They will do the rest with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with them. Pray for Valeria and the people he is training. This is the first work we have in Southwest Uganda. From here the message could reach Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo and beyond. Thanks. Jimmy IMFC Jimmy@imfc.us

Joseph’s Story

A simple man named Joseph really impressed me the other day.  I promised him that I would share his story with you.  He said, “Please do, people need to know that Jesus changes everything.”  I liked how he said that.   Jesus changes everything.  

Joseph lives in Nakuru, Kenya.  By his own admission he was this city’s most successful drunk.  He led a gang of guys, mostly young guys, who had nothing going on - no jobs, no real future, only a death on the streets would probably be their fate.  Their collective purpose was to live in order to drink, smoke weed and laugh away their pain.  It was a simple existence that precluded following any hopes or dreams one may have - an empty useless life.  Then one day a young man, named Geofrey Masika, had a few moments as he was passing through town.  He slowed down and stopped to share a simple message that had changed his life with those people he passed as he walked through the streets.  Jeff, as we call him, saw Joseph and a few other young men, so he shared.  Honestly Jeff didn’t expect much from sharing this message with Joseph.  Joseph was drunk, but as we do in the IMFC - we don’t walk past - we share anyway.  Just as Jeff thought, Joseph didn’t make any decision that day, so he left a little booklet with his contact information with Joseph and walked on.  The thing that Jeff couldn’t see was that the Holy Spirit was working its way through a haze filled mind of this man named Joseph.  

This message reached Joseph in his normal drunken state, but something about it kept gnawing at the reaches of his conscience that was not yet dulled by the massive intake of the local street brew.   Eventually he called Jeff, and told him that he wanted to know more about this life changing Jesus, so Jeff left Nairobi and traveled back to Nakuru not really remembering who he might find.  You see Jeff shares this same message daily and with hundreds of people, and quite often connecting the names with all those faces is a hard thing to do - especially when that face is just another drink encountered while on the streets.   What Jeff found was a changed man.  He found a sober man needing a Savior, and Joseph knew that Jesus was the only one who could save/change him.   Jeff continued to disciple Joseph, and Joseph now runs with the Gospel.   He laughs now because at first no one believed him, and they wanted nothing to do with him.  “Who is this drunken fool here ranting about Jesus.  Go and find your drink elsewhere”, they chimed.  But Joseph was nothing if not passionate about a Saviour who changed him and he was consistent in his method.  Over time one young man named Vincent was convinced that Jesus had in fact changed Joseph, and he too believed.  Then they began walking together, and then another named James — believed.   Those three began reaching and producing more and more disciples..   Now there is a movement of producers in Nakuru.   There are over 1000 of them running and sharing the Gospel, baptizing and planting house churches.   The faithful are gathering together to praise and worship wherever they are: the side of the trash dump, on a hill, in one home after another.  Lives are changing, and it’s an amazing thing to watch.  

Why is this happening here in Nakuru, Kenya:  

1. God saw his children, weak and hurting, and loved them so He sent His only Son to die as the punishment for their sins.  

2. A man named Jeff heard a message from a man named Julius who heard a message from a man named Peter who heard a message from a man named Michael in the streets of Mbale, Uganda.  Michael was a drunk in the streets of Kampala who heard a message from a man named Jimmy Barry, and then he ran to his hometown in Mbale to share it there.

3. Jimmy heard a message that goes all the way back to a few unnamed people in the Bible who were running for their lives.  They had nothing (they were refugees), but a message that changed their lives, about a Saviour that forgives and changes.  Acts 11:19-21.  

When will this simple message stop?   Only when no one shares it, but as long as there are men like Jeff, Julius, Peter, Winono, Joseph, a lady named Regina, another named Pamela. . . . . It will never stop until  we ALL gather together in a scene that is described in Revelation 19:1.

Why is it not happening in your town, USA?

Well, I suspect its because you’re not on the street sharing.