From the Pastoral Development Team:

Today is Thursday and things have been very busy here in Mabanga. We are up around 5 and back in bed around 11 or 12, but we are enjoying every moment – even the power outages and the fact that we have running water in our rooms at odd moments – usually when we don't need it.

We traveled all day Monday and got to Mabanga late Monday afternoon and opened the conference that night with the first session and then fell into bed around midnight. The next three days have been a busy, but wonderful time of fellowship, worship, prayer and teaching. There are over 30 churches represented here and we have 51 pastors and wives attending the conference. We have four new pastors this year from Turkana which is in northwestern Kenya. It is a hot, dry and desolate region that is quite inaccessible even to Kenyans. In fact, the pastors who came from Turkana talked about coming to Kenya – even though they live in Kenya. And they told me that they had to travel at night because to travel during the day is impossible, because the tires of the vehicles get overheated and burst. But they were so happy to be here to take part in this conference.

Kim and Vicki have been such a blessing to the ladies here. Each day, they take the ladies for a couple of sessions by themselves and from the sounds of it they are enjoying themselves very much. We hear a lot of singing from the ladies' meeting room. They will have so much to share when they return.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading down to Kilgoris which is an all day trip, and then Saturday we will be in Masai Mara Game Park for a look at the wildlife. We'll say goodbye to Rich that afternoon as he takes a plane from the park back to Nairobi to head to the US.  Kim and Vicki and I will be in Kilgoris Sunday to worship with our Masai brothers and sisters.   Keep us in your prayers.