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REMOVE BAAL, FOLLOW JESUS!

​“Elijah went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him…’” (1Kings 18:21a)

We held a weekend conference during the Easter period (29th March to 1st April), and we named it ‘Spiritual Revival Camp’ since we want to experience spiritual revival among us removing idols and make a decision to follow Jesus. The most significant fact was that, not like previous ones, from this conference, all responsibilities were given to local leadership and missionaries supported them. Three senior shepherds played their own role: shep. Juma took in charge of messengers, shep. Otieno of registration and financing, and shep. Kevin for overall administration including conference site management.

Though campus was inactive due to lecturer’s strike, God sent us 69 student members, and including 13 CBF members, all 82 attended the conference.

The program was focused to encourage all of us to identify Baals of today, repent and make a clear decision to follow Jesus. First time in our ministry, all speakers were appointed among students leaders whom mostly raised by our senior shepherds. Especially, for the morning devotion messages, in order to encourage sisters to grow as mothers of prayer, three shepherdesses shared testimonial messages.

• Opening message was “Do not say I am only a child” (Jer. 1:1-10) served by shep. Julius. He was raised by shep. Kevin and graduating this year.
• Following morning, shepherdess Carolyne shared her testimonial message based on “Remember your creator!” (Ecc. 12:1-18). She graduated last year and praying for marriage.
• First main message was served by Sh. Cosmas based on “Father, I have sinned.” (Luke 15:11-24). He is raised by shp. Juma. He is graduating this year.
• First evening message was based on “Neither do I condemn you.” (John 8:1-11). It was served by shep. Fred. He is third year and raised by M. Joshua.
• Second morning devotion message was “How then shall we live?” (Psalm 119:1-10) by shepherdess June. She is second year and raised by M. Lydia.
• The second main message was on “Remove Baal, follow Jesus!” (1Kings 18:1-46). Shep. Onyango is raised by sh. Juma and will be graduating this year.
• Second evening message was served by shep. Matano. He talked about “Way to follow Jesus” (Mt. 16:13-18). He is a third year and raised by M. Mark.
• Third morning devotion was on “It is finished.” (John 19:1-30) Shepherdess Bena graduated two years ago and raised by M. Jackie.
• The third main message was “Feed my lamb!” (John 21:1-17). Sh. Sontedy gave us a practical spiritual direction on how to follow Jesus after the conference. He graduated two years ago and raised by M. Livingstone.

All these messengers prepared their messages devotionally spending whole night every Friday night and for a month. God blessed their devotion and their messages revealed one key point clearly being supported by their sincere testimonies. They really touched all participants, and every night we had a very heart-touching representative testimonies.

Through this conference, God blessed us in mainly three ways. First of all, God proved that senior shepherds (Kevin, Juma, Otieno) learned how to sacrifice their time and heart for the ministry. It was not easy for them to serve all details of the conference since they are having fulltime jobs, taking care of their own kids and family. Nevertherless, owing to their sacrificially dedication for the conference, from the preparation to administration on the site, all went well. Secondly, under their leadership, though all messengers were first time to deliver messages, they were obedient and united, and delivered heart-touching messages. Thirdly, we came to see the sure sign of God raising second generation leadership among us. Praise and thank God for his mighty work among us through senior local leadership, and preparing them to be the owners of the ministry.

In addition, sh. Nancy (sh. Kevin’s wife) and M. Esther were in charge of our CBF program during the conference. God has blessed us to take care of them spiritually to grow as the future fathers of faith and mothers or prayer. This also contributed a lot for our leaders to pay attention to our conference. And we pray continually also for more effective second-generation ministry among our children.

As the fruit bearing of the conference, we are praying for:

1) to raise 20 house churches by the year 2020. Especially graduate members to marry by faith

2) for beautiful coworking between missionaries and senior local leaders so that they may raise student leaders as their co-workers

3) to have 120 worship service and to pioneer another chapter in God’s time

4) to strength CBF ministry under shepherdess Nancy’s prayer and dedication

One word: 'Remove Baal, follow Jesus!'