News and Updates
Kenya Ministry Trip
David Copeland · December 31, 2007
Newsletter · Volume: 8 Issue: 1
Welcome to 2008! A Year of New Beginnings!
Our recent trip to Kenya East Africa was one of the highlights of 2007. Pam and I joined a team from New Life Beginnings Church in Pattison Texas to minister in two different conventions in the Western Province of Kenya. The Kenyan people are some of the most hospitable and hungry for God people you will ever meet, and if you ever get an opportunity to go, don’t pray about it, just do it!
In the first convention we ministered in the village of Sabatia with Pastor Paul Ligono and Serve Ministries International, a young network of eight churches in and around the Kakamega area, just north of Lake Victoria. There was a flow among the team that amazed all of us! When you have the type of unity we had on this team, it is easy to minister and it’s easy to see God touch people with His manifest Presence.
As we began the ministry time, God directed each of us to deal with some aspect of the spirit of fear, the doors of attacks it opens up, as well as the diseases and afflictions it causes. Many were saved, and many healings were reported to us. One in particular was a woman who had a very visible skin fungus that was instantly healed! Someone forgot to tell God that stuff doesn’t happen anymore!
On Friday, Pam and I traveled with Dave and Lynne Johnson to Kilgoris where we took part in the 5th Annual Masai Convention. Pastor Brad Morgan along with Jim and Elaine Slater and Bill Gavolic continued the convention in Sabatia where the Glory of God continued to fall in a tremendous way!
In Kilgoris, there were 50 churches from all denominations gathered together for 7 days of heaven on earth! We were scheduled to be with them for the entire conference, but because this is an election year in Kenya, and there have been some uprisings due to quite a bit of political tension, they asked us to wait until Friday to come.
When we arrived on Friday afternoon for the 2:00pm session there were over 1,000 people crammed in a school lunch room hungry to hear the Word of the Lord! Many responded to the altar call giving their lives to the Lord Jesus! I have deliberately quit counting numbers because I don’t want to report things “evangelistically”; sometimes it’s just better to leave that kind of stuff to the Lord, so He can get the glory, not a man!
Dave Johnson ministered at the 4:30 session, dealing with the spirit of fear, and again, many people were delivered from fear and many received healing from various ailments.
On Saturday we arrived at the school where the convention was held, and found several hundred people having a prayer walk. They marched and prayed through the surrounding villages returning around 1:00pm with several hundred more people in tow! The crowd had grown so large, they had to spontaneously move the meeting outside to accommodate the over 2,000 people (their number) that had gathered! For the night service, we had to move the meeting inside because the rains came, but it didn’t dampen the anointing. We ministered to the pastors and their wives who were present, and God ministered much healing to those great men and women of God.
On Sunday for the close of the convention, we tagged teamed with Tim and Denise Gibson, a couple from England that had been conducting the morning sessions. As we ended the ministry time, encouraging the people to pick up the mantle God was releasing to them, well over 700 people responded to the altar call, and a powerful wave of intercession fell on the service. Again, so many people showed up for the service, we had to spontaneously move the meeting outside to accommodate the crowd! How many pastors reading this would like to have that problem?
I am convinced the reason God moves so powerfully in settings like this of two fold: there is a great respect for the anointing and for men and women of God; and there is a willingness to respond to the Word of the Lord that comes forth. When we in America recover our respect for the anointing, and our respect for the ministry, we will see God pour out His Spirit here at home like He does overseas!
I realize many have lost respect for the anointing and for people in ministry because of the failures of ministers, as well as the stupidity we see done in the name of the Lord here in America. I know of many ministers who simply despise other ministers because of this.
Father God, may You help us to recover our respect for Your (God’s) Presence, and Your gifts You have placed in Your Body, so we may see You Glory cover the earth, like the waters cover the sea!
Many churches and individuals gave finances to help us feed over 500 people daily in the Sabatia convention, and your giving helped to feed over 3,000 people in the Masai Convention. Thank you all for giving to Revival Now Ministries, and thank you for praying for us and for this trip! It was a great way close out 2007!
Blessings,
David & Pam