A Gift of His Grace and a New Blessing

If you are around Julie and me for any length of time, you quickly realize our hearts and minds are far away in a small village in southwest Kenya. What a joy it is to serve Jesus Christ through His gift of Living Hope Ministries International. We have learned the very important fact that serving Him where He wants you to serve is a privilege and a gift of His grace. In both Romans 1:5 and Ephesians 3:8, Paul showed us the joy he received when God gave him the gift of apostleship. He exulted in Christ when he mentioned the unfathomable riches of Christ.

 For Julie and me, this journey of joy began in 2004, when we came alongside the founders of the ministry, Bob and Ethel Carter. They have both gone on to be with the Lord. I can only imagine their joy and that of Jesus when He said to each of them, “Well done good and faithful servant. Come share in your Master’s joy.”

Since Julie and I joined with Bob and Ethel, the challenges have been difficult at times but the involvement has always brought us joy. We can share many stories of the miracles we have seen, the parting of storm clouds when we were showing the Jesus Film, medical healings, provision when it was badly needed, thousands of people praying to receive Christ and many more. 

The Kenyan children may be our best blessings. We have so many that we have wanted to pack up in our suitcases and bring home. Flora who was found wandering the streets because she lost her family at age 4;  Tony who ran away from an abusive father at age 3; Prisca who endured unspeakable abuse as a girl of 13; and Collins who doesn’t have a dramatic story but has such an infectious smile that you can’t help but to love this young man. Each one is an example of the rewards we have received.

Our latest blessing is the development of this new website. For way too long, we have not had the capability of updating our old site or correcting any problems that arose.  We owe a great deal of gratitude to Chris Forino of V3 Collective, V3Collective.com.  Thank you Chris for dealing with a bunch of folks who know their ministry but not the details of how a website is supposed to work.