St. George's Girls' Secondary School

Today we visited St. George's Girls' Secondary School. Today is also the 26th birthday of my daughter, Amanda (just thought I would throw that in!)

The first hour was completely student run. I think this is their weekly church service and the Christian Union are the ones who make it happen. This is their praise team and you can see by the group shot that these girls love to praise the Lord in song!













Amani opened our portion of the morning's program with prayer and introduced William,
who brought the whole team up for introductions.

We partnered, again, with NPC Buruburu Mission and Outreach team, including a dance group called ICED (In Christ Ever Dancing)

Then he surprised the girls by introducing Tishona, his fiance!

I very much enjoyed the dance group, ICED, shown here - actually video would have been better but I am not sure how to do that on the blog!

Here is Tishona giving her testimony. She is reading from Jer 1:5 and told the girls she was planning to talk about three people for whom God has a special purpose...Jeremiah, herself and each of them...it was a powerful talk that got the girls to thinking about their futures, and was the perfect lead-in for Denise's talk on HIV/AIDS and sexual purity.

Today Denise shared some from her personal life as she talked about the impact of HIV/AIDS on each of us...and encouraged the girls to see themselves through God's eyes as they face temptations and peer pressure.

She gave them excellent advice on steps they can take to protect themselves from falling prey to temptation.

We were entertained once again by the dance group, ICED, who played a popular song that all the girls knew and sang along to...

you can see here just how much they were enjoying the show. In fact these girls were very vocal and showed their appreciation throughout the morning.

Jared gave the message, based on Luke 4:18, and even though much of it was in Swahili we understood most of what he said and could see by the girls' reactions that they were enjoying what he had to say about having a sense of purpose.

He then asked the girls to bow their heads in preparation for the prayers offered by Rosemary - another member of the team.
Rosemary has a beautiful voice as she sang "How Excellent is Your Name" and spoke on Acts 4:12, prayed and encouraged the girls who had not accepted Christ to make a decision today - and two of them did.

She then invited girls who felt they needed a special touch from the Lord to stand up - as you can see several of them did just that.

Rosemary then encouraged those girls to come forward to receive healing prayers from the team.

Once the program was over the girls mingled with the team members and even served us tea.


A few of the girls wandered over to the music corner and began to dance to the music...I sure enjoyed watching them enjoy themselves!

Several of the girls moved the benches and brought tables in to prepare the dining room for their lunch...I am amazed and impressed at how hard these girls work! When we arrived in the morning we found them cleaning their rooms and the bathrooms.

Several of the girls wanted and needed some one-on-one counseling. Here you see Rosemary and Denise talking the two of the students. If you look out the window you can see one girl consoling another.

Later the girl was brought inside and they asked that I speak with her. Tishona grabbed the camera as I was encouraging her to stay strong in her faith and not succumb to peer pressure.

Kanyawanga Boys' Secondary School

On Saturday, July 14 the CML team joined up with the NPC (Nairobi Pentacostal Church) Bururburu Missions & Outreach team to minister to the boys at Kanyawanga Boys' Secondary School.

I am sorry to say I was not there as Denise and I had left earlier that morning to meet up with a friend of hers from the states.

Tishona, along with Nick from NPC Buruburu took these photos for me. I think they did a great job, don't you?

Praise and Worship is always an important component of every mission to schools. Here you see Pastor Omondi and his wife leading the boys as the day begins.

Another favorite of kids at all the schools we visit is to do presentations. They seem always ready and willing to grab the mic and perform to an audience...

Tishona was one of the speakers on this day, along with Daniel who spoke on peer pressure and self esteem - two critical topics for teenagers in any country!

These next photos were taken after an altar call was given - this must have been an amazing time when so many boys...over 100 I have heard... made a decision on this day to give their lives to Christ...

Pastor Omondi is amazing as he is here praying and preaching to these new believers.

Pastor Isaac has a special anointing for preaching God's word - he is here praying for the boys.

I was glad to see these photos of one-on-one counseling...such a valuable component of the ministry we do in schools. These kids, like kids everywhere need an older person they can trust to ask the hard questions.

You can see Amani with three students and also Lillian praying with one boy and Nick counseling with a student...

I am excited and encouraged to see so many young people following our Lord Jesus Christ!

Ministry to schools

We ministered in several local schools during our time up country. And - the first shall be last...so the photo are in reverse order...this first school was actually the last one we visited (although after Denise and I left, Tishona and William did go to one more school, so watch for that story!


The basic format format is: Opening Prayer, Praise and Worship, Presentations by the students, Teaching and/or Preaching, Open Forum, One-on-one Counseling. The order sometimes changes and some parts are abbreviated or cut depending on how much time we are allotted.

This school is called Owiro Akoko Girls' Secondary School (which is equivalent to High School in the US)...


We visited on Thursday, July 12


Pastor Margaret spoke on Self Esteem and did a marvelous job of explaining to the girls that they are wonderfully created by God for His purposes. This talk is a perfect lead-in for Denise's talk on HIV/AIDS with an emphasis on sexual purity.

After her talk she gave the girls an opportunity to dedicate their lives to Christ - you can see by this show of hands that many of the girls did just that...

Then Denise spoke on HIV/AIDS. She began by asking questions to determine their level of knowledge - which was extensive. Then she helped them see that in addition to knowledge, they must have the right attitude and then practice what they know to be the right actions to help prevent the spread of AIDS.

The girls take many notes during both talks, and also sent many questions in the form of notes up front for the team to answer during the Open Forum segment of the program. The questions are provocative and telling - helping us to undertand what is on their minds so that we can be used more effectively during the time of One-on-one Counseling.

Praise and Worship time punctuates the program. The girls here kept calling out for more songs...we suspect that they thought Nick and Daniel were pretty cute!

This is the emblem for Dede Girls' Secondary school. We had an excellent experience here. The even was held outdoors which made picture taking much easier than at Owiro Akoko.

We visited Dede on Wednesday July 11.

After the opening prayer Elizabeth, Amani and Daniel led praise and worship. I am so impressed by how much the girls love to sing praises to our Lord!

Pastor Margaret engaged the girls in animated conversation as she shared Biblical perspectives on self esteem. She covered all areas including physical traits, personality and most esepcially the spiritual aspects of where we find self esteem.

Again, she gave the girls an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Someone on the team counted over 80 hands raised on this day - Praise the Lord!



Denise followed with an engaging and inspiring talk on HIV/AIDS and sexual purity - a message all kids this age need to hear.


Several girls eagerly stood before their classmates to share a poem, a story, a song or a narrative. During this time many of the girls wrote out questions for the team to answer. Then it began to POUR down rain so we all ran for cover!

After a delicious meal we moved to another room where there were several girls waiting for one-on-one counseling.

I must admit I was a little nervous about counseling these girls - I was not sure I could answer their questions or satisfy their concerns. But, God is gracious - I soon realized that the Lord gave me the exact words and prayers needed to ease minds and hearts. I think that just talking to an adult and really being heard is the best gift I could offer each of the girls that 'chose' me...


On Sunday July 8 the team visited Kanga Boys' Secondary School. I regret that I did not accompany the team as I chose to stay home in an effort to fight a cold that was threatening to take hold of me!

Tishona did a great job of filling in for me though as the photographer on the team!

Pastor Margaret opened the day with prayer and William then introduced the team...this was followed by praise and worship and student presentations.

I am sorry to have missed the show! Don't these boys look like they are thoroughly enjoying the performance?

Here Elizabeth is sharing with the boys about peer pressure. She also leads the praise and worship team and has a beautiful voice!

Elizabeth was followed by Amani who inspired the boys with a talk on self esteem and finding your purpose.












Following a moving prayer by Pastor Margaret inviting the boys to commit and/or recommit their lives to Christ, Denise talked on HIV/AIDS...

Then our HIV/AIDS 'team' from the Rongo VCT arrived to share about the wisdom of being tested and the importance of changing behaviors that lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS