Our Anniversary!

It was a special day for my wife and I. It was our 730th day of marriage (also known as a two year anniversary). It's almost like it was a holy day for our relationship where we pulled away from the rest of the group a tad to focus more on each other. We had some sweet moments at lunch time at a table for two by the pool. A couple of members of the team even served us the samosas (probably the best I've ever had) without us asking them. We have an amazing team.

Sadly we lost a dear member of our team today as Rob Lloyd, our Share Him day block manager from Hawaii, left us in Eldoret to rejoin his church group in Chuka where they are finishing up their campaign. Before he left God used him to bless us with a very thought provoking worship called the "buts of the new testament." It was about how we as Christians shouldn't have an "if only" mentality that looks back on our lives with regret, rather we should have a "but now" mentality that is filled with hope for every new day. He also helped us to cut down four sermons that are coming up so they wouldn't be so long or confusing. He worked on these from four o'clock in the morning. He is a great example of a servant leader. We took pictures and had some closing thoughts and hugs and sent him down the bumpy road to Nairobi.

As far as preaching and preparations go it was an interesting day too. We needed to get two sermons ready so we could travel to Kisumu the next day for a safari and still be ready to preach after a long day of fun, sun and travel.

The sermon prepared for the first night was called, "Your Day in Court." This was the first sermon I've ever preached where a person came down to the front during the sermon and started yelling and raising their hands. My site is in a cool location because it is right out in the open air in a field next to a small town with lots of shops which enables anyone in the area to hear the message and see the presentation because of our loud speakers and our big screen where we show a movie about Jesus before the presentation and a slideshow during the sermon. The hope is that many will hear the message and be drawn in and that seems to be exactly what happened with this man. When the yelling man first came and all throughout the sermon and the appeal I didn't know if he was filled with a spirit because he was raising his hands and speaking a language I didn't know or what. But I found out as he and many others came down for the appeal that he was filled with a different kind of spirits. He was drunk and yelling "I repent" in the local language.
Pastor Maiyo, who is also my translator helped me to take a picture of the man and informed me that he believed this man would soon be in the church because he had seen many others come that same way.

Praise God that Jesus covers us in the judgment and doesn't reward us according to our mistakes, but now he claims us as His own when we respond to his invitation for forgiveness. May we renew our commitment to our Lord and savior now and pray that many more will come to Jesus through these campaigns in Kenya and around the world.

Nick Snell