News for End of August 2003
Dear Friends,
I have been struck recently by the preponderance of exorcisms in churches
of late. I don't seem to be able to go to any meetings in which at least
one exorcism doesn't occur. This is not only of the uneducated, as some
may deign to suppose. The initiatior of the exorcisms at the last meeting
I was at was a university graduate with post-graduate theological qualifications!
It seems that there are those who suppose that you cannot be saved without
first having some demons removed. The implication of this being, that
the unsaved are lead by, guess who!
I was in Kisumu over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of August. On Saturday
I was able to attend the annual Convention of the Zion Harvest Mission
church, which was a good event. Then on Sunday I attended and was given
opportunity to share at the church of a friend of mine, the Jesus Miracle
Celebration Centre.
I discovered that this friend of mine was now supplementing his income
as a pastor by working as a bicycle taxi. Another friend, also a member
of the same church, was doing the same thing. He could make 2 dollars
a day or more by that means, he told me happily. There are apparently
over 7,000 young (and sometimes not so young) men who are self employed
in Kisumu town nowadays as bicycle taxis! They simply put a cushioned
seat onto the backs of their bicycles, and away they go. Many of them
are to be found waiting for customers not only in Kisumu, but at many
many junctions of roads or paths around the country. Bicycle taxis were
pretty much unheard of when I first came to Kenya 10 years ago. Give thanks
to God for this means for so many young men to make a living!
Please pray for our opening
of KIST on 1st September, followed by YTC a week later. I have been busy
pushing papers to ensure that the academic programme at KIST is ready
to go when the students arrive!
Best wishes,
Jim