Top Memories of Kenya Trip - John Nadolski

March 12th through April 8th, 2006

God is alive and training me.
At the beginning of the trip, my prayer request was for the ‘spiritual side of the trip.’ God really worked with my heart, teaching me to rely on Him. As you’ve heard before, it’s not about me, but it’s all about God.

My Swahili is still bad - and it needs to get better.

The need for clean water is still great.

This picture was taken near a small village south of Mombasa. These ladies spend hours walking to gather water from a small, hand-dug hole. What do you see?
- barefoot
- hot sun
- open hole with animal waste running into the water
- dirty water in the bucket

Kenyan people need jobs, any job.
Unemployment is nearly 50%. To make it even worse, the country has gone through a severe drought for the last few years. Last year, there wasn’t enough grass/water to keep the livestock and there were countless number of carcasses along the roads and in the fields.

Marcia is wonderful and it’s sure good to come home.
Many, many people called or wrote to Marcia while I was gone. Our friends here in Texas kept her busy, too. She joked about eating so many meals that she felt like she ‘ate her way across Houston.’ Thanks for taking care of Marcia – and making her feel appreciated.

People in Kenya want a hand up – not just a hand out.
Here’s a water kiosk, constructed by Living Water International – Kenya. The project is in Kangemi, a ‘low-rent district’ outside of Nairobi (commonly called a slum). Over 300,000 people live in the area and currently get their water from a pipe (once a week) or from the river (they pay a $.03 cent trespass fee to cross a guys land.) LWI-Kenya is working with a donor in Houston to provide this well with kiosk and then the water is piped to four other kiosks. The local people pay $.04 per 20 liter bucket of clean, safe water. The kiosk workers are Christian health workers who can provide physical and spiritual advice.

It’s fun to work on several projects at a time.
While in Kenya, I worked on nine project sites, seven schools and two churches. It kept me really busy – but it was a good busy.

Christians need to help meet both the spiritual needs and the physical needs of people.

Too many children are dying form unsafe water (12% of the children in Kenya die before they reach their 5th birthday.
Nation-wide, 15% of the local people have HIV and/or AIDS.

LWI-Kenya use evangelists as part of their drilling crew, bringing water and the Word to a needy nation.

Prayer works.
Marcia and I both need your prayers. Thanks so much for being part of our prayer team.

Please remember to pray for us as we start our next adventure. Later this week, John and Steve leave to visit Phil in the Philippines. We’ll be gone from Thursday morning (April 13th) to Thursday evening (April 20th). We will be helping Phil and doing a little bit of drill training with New Tribes Missions in Puerto Princea (Palawan Island). While we’re gone, Marcia will visit Tim and Marisa in St. Louis, MO. (Thursday through Monday). We have a very special thank you for those who helped pay for the airline ticket for John and Marcia.

Again, thanks for your input in our lives. We deeply appreciate your prayers and we appreciate those who support us financially. Living Water has asked John to try and raise more financial support. Please let us know if you are interested in joining our support team. You can reach us by email or call us at home (281 265-4567). God bless all of you, John and Marcia

DaVinci Code and LDS Forums in Utah

Greetings from Utah! The snow has melted and things are turning green. As the university year approaches it's end we had two recent events that some of you have been praying for.

*We had a Christian history instructor from Salt Lake Seminary come and speak on campus about the "history" of the novel The DaVinci Code. We did a lot of publicity and had a crowd of about 80, a little bit disappointing since we expected 200+. However it was well received and we gave away hundreds of articles and new paperbacks by Josh McDowell on the DV Code (we were the first campus in the country to do this!) at a table during the week. The result is that hundreds of students heard or were given an intelligent response to the absurd claims in this HUGELY popular book and upcoming movie-as well as the gospel!

*The next week, we put on another event presenting BYU Professor and author Robert Millet and Pastor Greg Johnson from Salt Lake discussing their beliefs on the topic "Who is Jesus?" We had a little over 200 at this event and it was very positive. It was a predominantly Mormon audience and they heard a clear presentation of the gospel as well as suprising comments by Dr. Millet on the nature of grace. Our hope is it will foster more discussions among us as we try to understand each other and present the truth about Jesus to our LDS friends.

Thank you for your prayers! I (Rob) and our kids look forward to seeing you at the big celebration on Memorial Day! (unfortunately, Miriam cannot be there as she will be out of the country)

Rob and Miriam Gunn, Campus Crusade at Utah State Univ.

Peterson's Prayer Guide - April 2006

Let’s pray this prayer for each other, adapted from Eph. 3:14-19
That we would be given inner strength by the power of the Holy Spirit. That we would yield to His promptings, have His mind, know His will, have His vision, courage, love and power, and that we would grasp the scope of God’s love and experience it in tangible ways. Pray that God would pour Himself into us with a spiritual fullness of His very nature.

* Praise God for a very encouraging time for Gary at the Grace Bible Church missions conference in early March. He was able to stay with his mother and see the rest of his family while there too.

* Esther and her fellow French students came away from their competition (against 100 other FL schools) with superior ratings in all their presentations. We’re so proud of her and the team and thankful for this wonderful experience!

* Josiah had a wonderful time in Europe during Spring break. He missed 3 days of school so has some catching up to do there along with getting over jetlag. We’ll have him write about it for our next newsletter, so be looking for a report in his own words.

* Gary and I had a great road trip to SC, NC TN & GA. It was so good to see friends we hadn’t seen for several years, and we came home feeling reconnected with each other after all those hours in the car to talk and read. Esther did just fine on her own, but was glad to have us home again!

* A team from the church we’re a part of here has gone to Brazil for 10 days to seek the Lord’s direction for our church to be part of reaching an unreached people group in that country. Please pray that they’ll truly hear from God and that our church will grow a vision that will translate to action and really make a difference for the group God wants us to be a part of reaching for Him.

* April 1-2 is the Orlando Festival – a Luis Palau evangelistic event that we’ve been preparing for over the last few months. Pray that the people of this city will be impacted by God as He is presented to them in relevant ways.

* Mar. 31 – Ap. 2 Gary is going to the east coast to help with a Mission at the Airport. Pray for a good turn out, good weather, and that God will use this event to challenge more people to get involved in missions.

*Ap. 8 Esther is taking an important exam (ACT), the results of which will impact her choice of college, scholarship opportunities etc. Pray that she’ll perform well, and that God will continue to make His plans for her future clear. We’ve made some helpful connections with a couple of people who can answer questions for her recently. This week we found out that although she doesn’t plan on starting college till after Christmas, we should have been doing scholarship applications already! Now we’re in a rush to get everything done in a hurry. Please pray for strength to do what we can, and peace for what is not possible.

* Gary will be helping with a Transcan in Ocala (an hour north) on the 8th. Ask God to work powerfully in the lives of those attending and that some will move towards Bible Translation as a result of this exposure.

* Gary and Esther both have a part in our church’s Easter production this year. Gary is growing a beard for his role as Peter again (: Pray that they’ll do their parts well, and that God will be glorified and people drawn into relationship with Him through the events at our church and around the world.

* Gary has school groups coming to visit Wycliffe on the 10th and 20th. Ask God to work in the lives of these students and challenge some to get involved in the work.

* We need to get a newsletter prepared this month. It is big job, and it often feels like a spiritual battle when we go to start on it. Pray for wisdom as we decide what to include, unity between us, efficiency and ability to work quickly to get it out as soon as possible. We plan to start after Easter.

* Ap. 26- May 2 Gary will fly to California to take part in the missions conference of his home church, Grace in San Luis Obispo. He will probably be speaking to youth and sitting on a panel on Sunday morning, and will be the speaker for the Sunday evening missions dinner. He may also visit a home group on Monday. Pray for a good trip and that God will speak through him as he shares.

* We have decided it would be wise for us to replace our roof before the next hurricane season begins. Although it has held up with the past two years of hurricanes, it is showing its age and has some patches that are damaged. Pray for the funds needed to do this job, the time to work on it, wisdom in deciding what materials to use, and some help as we plan to do it ourselves, hopefully in late April/ early May. We still need to build the gates for our new fence too.

I continue to enjoy the Perspectives class each week and have been challenged by the great articles I’m reading. Pray that I’ll stay balanced and know God’s priorities for each day. I’m being drawn outdoors with the gorgeous weather we’re experiencing (and our yard could sure use some attention!), but have lots of office work to get done too.

Thanks for sharing our lives and loving us in this practical way. Don’t forget that we’d love to pray for your needs too.

Blessings on you as we celebrate this special season of Easter.

Love in Him, Robyn, for the Petersons