“So many come and preach, but I can’t hear because my stomach is so empty. You feed us something and I have heard all that was preached and I will never forget!”
A Message from WID Founder Steve DeMoss
    In April, I went to Kenya, East Africa, to meet with Pastor John who we became friends with through one of our board members.  Pastor John works with refugees from Congo and Sudan whose families were slaughtered in civil unrest and who barely escaped with their lives.
   I preached from Ezekiel 37 about the Dry Bones and how God can bring new life to their seemingly dead situations of no jobs, no family, and no homes.  They received the word like it was tasty bread, and savored every moment we had together. Pastors came from the corners of Kenya to meet with me, telling me their stories and asking us to bring teams to their villages.
   Pastor Edward from Uganda met me in Kenya to aid in the outreach.  Even he who is accustomed to devastation and challenging situations was nearly overwhelmed. One night I needed to go to bed because of the exhaustion I was feeling and he begged me to stay with him even though it was 11pm already. People were all around us until late into the night, each wanting ten minutes of our time.
  The needs in Kenya are powerful and almost overwhelming. We need to pray for Pastor John and the church of Kenya.
   After a week in Kenya, I travelled to Uganda to visit the works going forward there and to meet with the ministry director of First Fruits to review the work they have helped us with–building the vocational school and a guard house for the clinic.  We had an amazing two days together where we not only had ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but also went deeper into the villages to a place where the people are 75% HIV positive.  She was very affected by what she saw. She has been all over the world, yet said she has not seen such poverty as this village.  By the time she left, she affirmed her commitment to continue to help us help the poor in Uganda!zorbs for sale
   In addition to the above, four pastors and I travelled a good distance (we got lost by 10 hours!!! over bumpy roads!) to go on a pastor’s retreat!  It was the first one they had been on in all their years of ministry.  I opened up God’s word and encouraged them in their faithful service and challenged them to keep pressing forward regardless of the setbacks they face every week.
   The Lord blessed the trip mightily and I came home energized to do my part in raising awareness, personnel, and finances to continue lifting people from poverty into richness in Christ in both word and deed.
   One man who I would buy a small breakfast for each day (my driver) was so impressed by the idea of Word and Deed that he said, “So many come and preach, but I can’t hear because my stomach is so empty. You feed us something and I have heard all that was preached and I will never forget!”   It was so fun listening to this dear Kenyan man who was so rejuvenated by a little bread and tea and testified how he ‘gets it’ in terms of Jesus the ‘Bread of Life’.
   Thank you for caring about the poor and needy in East Africa!
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Sincerely,
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Steve DeMoss
Word In Deed Ministries
This entry was posted on Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 9:09 am and is filed under Project Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.