Blog entries

Women in Ministry

Webmaster — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:54:34 +0100

From: Kim Sandberg

At the Pastor's conference in Bungoma, Vicki Bartels and I were able to spend time with the Pastor's wives and a few of the other Kenyan women who are involved in some type of ministry role in their churches. Our time with these ladies was sweet, like honey. We all learned from one another.Read More...

Partnering in Evangelism

Webmaster — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:44:21 +0100

The goal of API is to combine our on the ground initiatives, whether providing free medical care or training local communities in the manufacture and distribution of biosand water filters, with effective kingdom building evangelism, church planting and discipleship. To this end, API invested in training 22 Kenyans in personal evangelism. These trained evangelists partnered with the medical team in reaching two communities in SW Kenya with free medical care and the gospel. The first community,Read More...

Bible Training

Webmaster — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:42:30 +0100

It's 6:30 in the evening here at Mabanga and we are having a thunder and lightening storm that lights up the sky with awesome clarity. It's been going on for about two hours and it began near the end of one of our afternoon Bible Training sessions. Since all the buildings here at the center have tin roofs – the sound of the rain pelting the roof is absolutely deafening – so we cut our session short and the students are studying while we Read More...

Safari

Webmaster — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:58:11 +0100

It is Sunday night and I am back at the Mabanga Conference Centre, trying to get ready for a week of Bible Training with 20 pastors and leaders from the churches here in Kenya. I am a little behind the curve here since both of my guest lecturers have been prevented from coming to Kenya so I have to prepare lessons I hadn't planned on having to prepare. However, that just convinces me that God has great things in store here because the opposition has Read More...

Treating Bodies and Souls

Webmaster — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:19:35 +0100

We are heavy into our clinic schedule. The team is skilled in loading and unloading the vehicles and setting up a medical clinic under trees or in mud walled churches is now second nature!!
It takes about 45 minutes from the time we unload until we are able to start seeing patients. They come slowly at first but when word gets out that a medical clinic is in the rural community, they come from all points of tRead More...

Mabanga

Webmaster — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:34:17 +0100

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.

Jack Bauer could not have performed better than our team on Thursday. We rolled out of bed at 4 AM and were in our rented Matatu by 4:30 on our way to Masai Mara game park. Our medicine was 4 days late in arriving and forced us to cancel our Sunday day off and move our trip to the park from Monday to last Thursday. One wrong turn on a pitch black road early in the morning led to a 3 hour detour. So, instead of arriving at the parRead More...

Meditations at the Java House

Webmaster — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 13:30:54 +0100

I am sitting in one of my favorite spots in Nairobi – the Java House. Pastor Rich Hamlin and I are meditating deeply on the goodness of God as we sip our cappacinos, and I nibble on my apple danish and he on his Kenyan brownie whilst I compose my thoughts to bring you up to speed on our mission here in Kenya. My wife, Kim, is home with Lydia resting and repacking for our trip tomorrow to Mabanga, the conference site – and we are awaitingRead More...

A Flight To Remember...

Webmaster — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:26:10 +0100

Planning is the most time consuming and difficult part of any undertaking. Add to that mountain, cultural misunderstandings, language barriers, ten time zones… and you have the recipe for God to work MIRACLES!! The team began their journey from Seattle to San DiegoRead More...

The most important gift

Darby Kruger — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 03:05:02 +0100

The lightning bugs are playing about outside and the pale flickering contrasts with the brightness of the stars here on a very dark night. I awoke at about 3 AM from the effects of too much Chai too late at night. Dinner is usually at 8 PM served on a low coffee table that serves as the sitting room as well. Pastor Dennis, our host, is a farmer as well as a successful pastor so the meals always include the staple of Ugali and Sukuma Wiki. Since we are guests here they are have more meat tRead More...

Of God's timing and timing belts..........

Darby Kruger — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:11:50 +0100

I am always amazed at God’s timing. I shouldn’t be but it seems like every time something unforeseen happens, like breaking a timing belt on a late model car which stops you in the middle of traffic in downtown Nairobi, God was in the middle of it. Let me explain. Hunter wanted to see a bit of Amsterdam so we scheduled our flights to arrive in Amsterdam in the morning and depart in the evening. This would give us a day seeing historical sights like the Anne Frank house, and cuRead More...

Getting there is half the fun!

Darby Kruger — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:01:57 +0100

We had a long layover in Amsterdam on our way to Kenya. We left the airport and entered a very cold, windy and rainy Holland cityscape. We had enough time to see two maybe three places so first on the agenda was the Anne Frank house. We bought the train tickets and went to downtown Amsterdam and then walked on foot about 15 minutes to the house. Only got sRead More...

Changing a country one village at a time........

Darby Kruger — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 13:46:01 +0100

Growing up I always wanted to be the first man on Mars, that was my dream. Rooted in that dream was a desire to somehow make a difference in the world. And, as my world view changed and I encountered Christ, my desire for significance changed from inward, my doing or being something, to impacting the lives of people around me. Today is one more step in making a difference.

Hunter Schmidtke and I are leaving today for Kenya. We will be living and working with a community in the area of Read More...

Medical Mission 2010 Three Mzungu Women, chicken alfredo and a Kenyan grocery store.......

Webmaster — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:45:55 +0100

We are nearing the end of our trip. The last medical camp has been finished and we are now in Limuru, just outside of Nairobi. Last night Emily to make dinner for our hosts here. They have been so gracious in caring for us. The plan was to cook chicken alfredo with double treat chocolate cookies for dessert. Keep in mind ALLLLL of the ingredients would have to be purchased locally. So, of to the grocery store we went. We passed the car batteries, kerosene cooking stoves, bars of cooking fat, Read More...

Medical Mission 2010 Born on a Banana Leaf.......and other stories from the road

Webmaster — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:10:49 +0100

Dr. Charles Kaluba is our Clinical Officer for our trip. He is Ugandan and a delight to work with. He grew up during the reign of Idi Amin and has some very interesting stories. His birth on a banana leaf while his mother held the the trunk of the tree rivals my mother's tale of me being born under a cabbage leaf. It seems that the banana is so importantRead More...

Medical Mission August 2010

Webmaster — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:52:06 +0100

We have tasted a bit of the pressing of the multitude that was spoken of in the Gospels. Our medical clinics on Friday and Saturday went well through the day and then at the end the crowds of people want care began to press in hoping to see the doctor. My western mind can not imagine wanting something so desperately that not even a uniformed officer would move the crowd. The doctors see patients for 8 hours, sometimes 70 or 80 each, can only work so much. Even after we closed the door we woulRead More...

2010 Pastor's Conference

Webmaster — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:31:18 +0100

Greetings from Kenya!

We have just finished a very full week and we are set to begin another week of training. Last week we held our 4th annual Pastors Conference in the Mabanga Conference center near Bungoma and we had over 50 pastors and their wives attend. Pastor Rich Hamlin and I were teaching on 'Being a Pastor' and the response from the pastors was overwhelming and gracious. I had opportunity to speak personally with all of them and they were all extRead More...

First Clinic Day, What a day indeed

Webmaster — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:47:44 +0100

Scheduled departure time 6:30 AM this morning......actual time of departure, 7:30 AM. It happens here. Too many boxes and too little room in our two vehicles. So we unloaded, consolidated and reloaded. Then two more people were added to our already overcrowded vehicle.

We arrived safely and were greeted by the school children standing in a very large circle as there were over 200 of them. Their maroon uniforms and bare feet showed the poverty of the area. It is a rural community Read More...

Agape Project International Medical Mission 2010

Webmaster — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:26:11 +0100

Prayer.............we started this morning at 5 AM. We are staying at the same location as our 4th Annual Pastor's Conference and so the pastors came to pray. Kenyans are serious about talking to God and sometimes the sound level rivals a Seahawks game. Pastor Mike Sandberg, the lead teacher for the conference even brings earplugs which he uses periodically. So this Read More...

Medical Mission 2009

Webmaster — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:38:30 +0100

Mud, mud and more mud.....
Our three day clinic in the hills above Kilgoris ended yesterday with a big push to see all of the patients who had walked long hours to be seen by our staff. In the end there were still 20 people we could not see. The light was gone, the doctors and nursing staff were wearing head lamps to finish the last of the work. One of our nurses and I walked through the waiting people one last time to see if there was just one more urgent case. We focused on infants and childreRead More...