Our driver Patrick, and family Dennis and Beth Kiarie
Jose with Pastor Daniel Lomunyak
Part of our Kenya Team
A New Generation on Fire for the Lord
Ministry
The Call To This Trip
My unexpected three week four Bible conferences Christmas trip to Kenya was a success and instilled God’s further vision. December, traditionally holds some of the largest Bible conferences in Kenya. The seven day School of Fire Conference in Maasai Land is an apostolic training conference to a people group that fifteen years ago had not heard the Name of Jesus. A true modern day revival is taking place amongst the Maasais. The Africa Gathering of Champions conference in Athi River is a pan African conference that attracts speakers from different countries.
In mid November, the Lord told me to attend these conferences. We stepped out in faith to buy my airplane ticket and got a price that was hundreds of dollars less than the usual. Within two weeks, two families, precious friends of ours, were led by the Lord to give enough money so that we were able to pay off the balance on the School of Fire conference and organize and pay off another two conferences. This is usually unheard of in Kenya where conference organizers struggle to muster up finances.
With these finances a second conference was prepared in western Kenya amongst the Luo people in another developing work of God. Our friend Pastor Elias Onduas, senior pastor of Journey to Heaven churches organized the 5 day gathering in Ugunja Kenya. God has exploded this ministry to 30 churches throughout the country within a few months of time. Elias is a man with a passion to disciple and raise up church leaders. His vision extends to the ten unchurched fishing islands of Lake Victoria where he has now planted two churches.
The third conference was in Simba Kenya and Pastor Samuel Kinaiyia in yet another part of Maasai land.
The African Paridigm Shift
The east Africa body of Christ is in the midst of a paradigm shift. For numerous years evangelists were abundant in the churches of Africa. The nature of Africans is one of emotionalism and excitement and the fire of preachers fuelled the growth of the church in numbers. The body of Christ however has developed without teaching, training or scriptural foundation. In the last few years, believers have become tired of preaching and have developed an insatiable hunger for revelational teaching and training in ministry. Mature believers have become spiritual sponges. Middle age men travel 6 hours on bicycles, and many people take all night trips on buses to attend these gatherings. A part of the vision is to take experienced American ministers with us to Africa in order to ground and establish its leaders in the Word of God, worship, and the basics of ministry.
Currently we are praying about developing a major women’s conference in Kenya in March of 2008, which would be taught by women ministers from the USA. Part of the difficulty with these conferences is that because of poverty many people fail to attend because of lack of transportation money. There are no Burger Kings in Kenya, and no cars for people to both go and find food or lodging. When people attend the gatherings, food and lodging musts be provided for them. Usually a cow is slaughtered and numerous women from the hosting church slave to create food for hundreds of people over the conference period.
In the March women’s conference we would like to solve both of these problems. We are trusting God to provide money for us to transport attendees to and fro from the conference at no charge to them. The potential will be for hundreds of women to attend this major conference. Secondly, we would hire a team of cooks for the duration of the conference, freeing up the women who always do all of the work. The costs of the December 2007 conferences were approximately $900.00 each. We are asking God for $4, 500.00 for the March conference.
The School of Fire Conference is hosted by Daniel Lomunyak and David Tukai of Arise and Shine Ministries in rural Maasai land. When they were just teenagers, these Maasai men received the call of God to evangelize and disciple the Maasais. Now in their twenties, these apostolic leaders have developed of ministry of eight churches and more on the way. The organization has a vision to create a one thousand seat auditorium, a ministry training center, and a prayer mountain with dormitories and bathrooms in the middle of the bush of Maasai land to fuel and ground the current revival. One of the eight senior pastors has donated four acres of land for this purpose, which we anointed and dedicated on this trip. Mary and I feel ever so strongly to be a part of this great project. In the future, American ministers can accompany us to train and minister in the midst of this Maasai revival. The cost of building this center stands at $155,000.00 excluding legal and surveying costs. We sense that in assisting Elias Onduas and Daniel Lomunyak to develop their exploding ministries the whole of Kenya can be encompassed with a solid foundation of the Word of God.
Other pressing needs for these ministries are Suzuki trucks for both Elias Onduas and Daniel Lomunyak. As second hand vehicles they can be bought for about $4,000.00 each. Currently Elias takes buses to oversee his churches across the country of Kenya, which is roughly the size of Texas, and Lomunyak rides on bicycles to attend to the eight churches spanning in distances from 5-12 miles. Pastor Samuel Kinaiyia is in need of a motorcycle to cater to his congregation which is sprawled out in the bush and mud over numerous miles.
A Hunger for Prophecy
On his trip we encountered a tremendous hunger for personal prophecy which in reality is a global phenomenon. We completed one meeting in Luo land at 11:30PM after prophesying to about twelve people. Sitting down down to enjoy chai (Kenyan tea), eight people hurriedly formed a line in front of me to receive a prophecy. At another meeting in Simba, Christian kids lined up until nearly 12:15 AM to be prophesied to. At Mashuru, two hundred people filled the building in an electrified atmosphere hoping to receive a prophecy. At Athi River it was more of the same. During these prophetic sessions numerous people manifested shaking, weeping, and falling in the Spirit just from the power of the spoken Word
In Simba we encountered a new realm of the glory of God where hundreds of Maasais were deeply ministered time and time again from a cloud of glory, most of them were never touched.
The African phenomenon of a whole generation of Christian kids on fire for the Lord continues to grow. Many of these conferences are made up of 20-30% children who sit in for the totality of all of the revelational teachings. Most of the three weeks were spent in teaching the problems of the un renewed mind as unable to assist the Spirit of God in possessing our inheritance.
It was difficult to gauge the effectiveness of the healing ministry because Maasai people are culturally reserved and do not tell you much about what they feel. Three notable miracles occurred, however. A lady that had considerable difficulty in walking got instantaneous relief in her legs. A man came to us with tuberculosis. As we prayed for him a horrible wheezing developed in his lungs. After casting out a demon of infirmity the wheezing immediately stopped, his lungs cleared up and he gave his heart to the Lord. On the last day of our conferences a woman brought to us a baby of about nine months of age demonized with a spirit of witchcraft (Majin). The baby was in horizontal position and he appeared to be frozen and locked up in invisible ropes. Seconds, after breaking the spirit of witchcraft, the child sat up and was normal.
Please pray about being a part with us of the great ministering work that God is doing in Africa. By the grace of God we believe for multiple ministry trips each year that you can be a part of.
The Maasais: A Nation in Revival
The Hunger for Personal Prophecy
The Bible Conferences
31 Baptisms in Maasai Land "Almost everybody is slained in the Spirit when hitting the water!"
Journjey To Heaven Church, Aram Kenya; "Before and After" On the left was the church when we vistited it in July. It was build out of sticks and potato sacks. The congregation was not growing beacuse of the accomodations. One of our supporters gave some money. With a bit over $1,000.00 the present structure was built on the right.
The Maasai Well Project, Narok Kenya. When we were in Narok, Kenya in August 2006 we noticed that the Maasais had red teeth. This was due to not having good drinking water. The water that we were served was muddy. Through donations from the USA and matching funds in Kenya the money was given to the pastsor for the building of a well.
Pastor Edward Symon,a good friend of our pastors the Royal Christian Church in Kitengela. For a number of years he and his wife struggled with different rental plots to put the church on. He would also have to rent the PA system on a weekly basis. The price of the rental was almost what he took in tithes and offeringofabout three or four dollars w week. Through the monies of our supporters he has been able to rent a plot for one whole year. Though the church structure is not good, the church can noe concentrate on the buildidng since they have free plot rental for one year. He was also able to buy his own PA system. Hallelujah!
"The Maasai Land Bible Training Center and Prayer Mountain" Land Dedication and Anointing.
The Adult Reading Program in Ugunja Kenya. Many Christian adults are illiterate and cannot read their Bibles. The Lord told us to begin a school to teach adults reading so that they can study the Word of God. Today the school is up and running with 18 students.
Your Money and Your Projects
Travel and Accomodations
I had to say something about this Maasai girl. Her birth name is "Witness". What a powerful name! Anyways she has lived out her name as an evangelist in Maasai land.
Safari Through the Word Ministries is a 501C3 ministry registered with the State of New Mexico. Our work into Africa is solely by faith. We operate out of the free will offerings that the Lord speaks to people to give.
We issue tax receipts to you at the end of the year and your offerings are tax deductible.
Please send your checks or money orders to:
Safari Through the word Ministries
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Mary’s book “From Nothing to Something” just got published!! You can order it from “Amazon. Com” or "Barnes & Nobles" on the web.
In the Search Box write: From Nothing to Something & Mary Alvarez.
This is the product detail on the book:
"This book deals with the story of a normal every day American family who dared to obey God at all cost. In a practical way it shows that even in 21st century America, God has the very same desire to show Himself as miraculous and powerful as He did in the pages of the Bible. An American family of six obeyed God and gave away everything. God then led them to New Mexico and the Pueblo Indians and then to Africa to preach the gospel. The book shows that all things are possible for God in a most practical way."
Many of you, I am sure, are aware of the crisis that is looming in Kenya. Our family lived and ministered in Kenya for eighteen months and continues to take ministry trips there. The ability to preach the gospel in this wonderful country had been totally opened to us. We always experienced a great sense of peace while we were there.
Kenya is divided into 42 tribes. We have friends in many of these tribes and have ministered within many of them. Amongst these, are the Kikuyus and the Luos. The Kikuyus and the Luos have bitterness and resentment towards each other because whenever a Kikuyu has been the President, the Luos have felt that their tribe has been left out from benefits. Other tribes in Kenya have also felt that their tribes have been overlooked.
The presidential term in Kenya is for 5 years. Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, was the president while we were there. The presidential elections were just held on December 27th. In these elections, Raila Odinga, a Luo, ran against Mwai Kibaki. He was leading Kibaki until the very end when Kibaki suddenly pulled ahead and won. Immediately Odinga and many people of Kenya accused Kibaki of rigging the vote and demanded him to step down. When he refused, tribal clashes began predominately between the Luos and the Kikuyus. The outcome has been continuing with bloodshed and hundreds killed.
We are connected with many wonderful men and women of God that are both Kikuyus and Luos. Their aim is to further the kingdom of God with little interest in the political atmosphere of Kenya. We know white missionaries from Indiana who call Kenya their home. We work with ministers of many of the other 40 tribes as well.
The problem in Kenya is critical for these ministers of the gospel. There is shortage of food and basic supplies, and its scarcity has increased its price. There is a shortage of the little money that had already existed. Public transportation is paralyzed and gasoline has nearly doubled in price. Some of the believers homes (our friends) that we know have been burned down.
Please pray that the Christians of Kenya would receive the revelation that they are citizens of Heaven now. That they would lay down tribalism and raise God’s standard of the Kingdom of God. That in the midst of this darkness they would be shining lights of love and peace so that the Lord may be glorified and many more would surrender to Him.
We would like to ask you to please contribute financially at this critical time to the body of Christ. Every penny that you give we will channel to the men and women of God that we know and trust via Western Union.
Safari Through the Word Ministries is a 501C3 ministry and we will issue you tax receipts at the end of the year for your tax deductions. You can write your checks to Safari Through the Word Ministries and mail them to the address below in New Mexico. We are asking you to please do this with urgency and expediency as the crisis in Kenya will only deepen until the political parties come together at the table of mediation and compromise. Thank you so much for your prayerful consideration of this matter.
God bless you
Jose and Mary Alvarez
We are a 501C3 non-profit corporation and issue receipts for your tax deductions. For financial contributions please write your checks or money orders to:
