At the invitation of Bishop Daniel Kwilemba, I had the amazing privilege of ministering to pastors from all over the island. This was a very humbling experience. Words cannot even begin to express how honored I felt to share with these great men and women. Most of these pastors have had their churches burned or shut down at some point. Many of them are on a “hit” list. Assassinations can happen at any time, even in public settings.

I have noticed when ministering to the persecuted church that God releases His Presence in a very special and powerful way. These meetings were absolutely powerful and I believe that God released healing and hope in a supernatural way. It was very emotional ministering in that context. I remember praying and weeping with one pastor who’s teenage son had been stabbed at school because he was a Christian.

Afterwards, as we were all sharing a meal together, it was announced that no one eat outside the tent. I asked Bishop Kwilemba about that and he told me, “If you are caught eating in daylight hours during Ramadan, you will go to jail for a year.”

Bishop Kwilemba is an amazing man of God! His strength and joy in the Lord is awe-inspiring. In the face of persecution, he has continued ministering with faithfulness and integrity. In addition to the churches that he and his team have planted on the island, he is touching his neighborhood with a school and an orphanage.

With me on this trip to Zanzibar was Phil Hinton. He was such an encouragement and a real support in prayer. Having an armor-bearer makes a significant difference in the spirit realm!

From Zanzibar, Phil and I flew to Kenya to join the rest of our team from Freedom International Church. These experiences never cease to amaze me. We started the day in an ancient city at sea level, boarded a prop plane, soared over the Indian Ocean, flew just high enough to pass over the snow capped peak of Mt Kilimanjaro, landed at the busy airport hub of Nairobi, piled into a land cruiser and drove up to the slopes of Mt Kenya arriving just in time to preach twice in the open air.

The rest of our team from Freedom – Larry & Kay Peebles and Paul & Loring Hammond – had started revival meetings around Mt Kenya while Phil and I had been ministering in Zanzibar. We then joined up with a team representing churches from around Mt Kenya.

We began each day with team devotions and prayer; then we went through neighborhoods and market places sharing the love of Christ and inviting people to the tent meetings. We also gave out personal invitations to businesses and shopkeepers to come to a lunch hour meeting to hear teaching on topics such as how to have God as your business partner. We then served tea and connected personally with guests.

The afternoon and evening tent meetings were full-on revival meetings. The tent provided us the opportunity to bring church to the town of Karatina. Momentum built throughout the week and by the last meeting, we had to open the sides of the tent to accommodate the crowd of over 1,500 that pressed in. Many more watched and listened from a distance.

Synopsis of a Day:

We began each day with team devotions. On this particular day, Larry Peebles encouraged us that we take Living Water with us wherever we go. Pastor Joseph Karimi then felt that I should impart to the team members before we went out. We prayed, and I tell you, it was astounding how the Lord blew in that place. Suddenly a wind from heaven came. People were falling under God’s power like dominoes.

There was so much fire and energy that we felt like we were walking on air. The team went out and one group encountered a neighborhood “mad man”. Simply put, this man was demonized and living on the streets. His hair was long and ratted out. One team member, Monica, felt led by the Lord to just pray that Living Water would be released to Him. Amazingly, he was completely delivered! He went and cut his hair, took a shower and got cleaned up, and came to the meeting to testify!

Some highlights and testimonies from Kenya:

· One hundred twelve commitments to Christ
· Distributed gifts to school children
· I ministered at a meeting for over seventy pastors from around Karatina
· Someone was healed of high blood pressure
· One man named Patrick had been struggling with a spirit of fear. He described it as gripping his stomach. When I prayed for him, he fell to the ground and felt the spirit leave. Weeks later Pastor Joseph called me and introduced him to me on the phone. He was elated and shared how he has been walking in complete victory and peace since that day.
· Paul and Loring Hammond shared that one day while they were walking through some neighborhoods they came across a man who was on his way to the hospital because of epileptic seizures. They prayed and he felt completely different! He said he was healed and did not need to go to the hospital!

There is so much more I could share. The Tent Meetings were powerful and God’s Presence was strong. Many, many people were touched. On the last day, I preached on breaking through barriers of resistance in our lives. To illustrate this, I had seven boards that I broke, each representing something like sickness, poverty, etc. The last board represented curses. I decided to kick the last one. As soon as I kicked it, a demonized man manifested, shaking and falling rigid to the ground. I looked over and one of the Kenyan pastors had put a broken piece of wood from one of the boards in his mouth to keep him from biting anyone. By the end of the evening, he was gloriously set free!

One final memory burns in my heart. The last Sunday we were there, Karatina Gospel Church held their Sunday Morning Service in the tent. I had the privilege of preaching and when I gave the call for salvation, two little girls came forward crying to receive the Lord in front of everyone. They were eight and twelve years old. That really touched me! Pastor Joseph has told me that they have continued to attend Karatina Gospel Church.

I am so grateful for our team from Freedom. They sacrificed by taking time off work, paying their own way and serving the Lord tirelessly and with great joy. sly and with great joy.

Finally, I want to thank Bishop Hosea Mohoro and the leadership of the PEFA Mt Kenya region, all the pastors that participated and all the churches that hosted us, for their kindness to us and for opening the door for us to minister so freely in Karatina. I am also ever grateful for the Kimaro family because it was through them that I first ministered in Mt Kenya.
Thank you for praying for us and for believing in what God is doing through this ministry.