Welcome Home Pastor Luke
A very warm welcome to Pastor Luke and his family, it is a privilege to have you in the service with us, and to have you share the word of the Lord today. For those here who may not yet know him, Pastor Luke has just completed his M. Div. studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Chicago. He served with us several years before going to the USA, and comes back to rejoin us in church leadership. Unfortunately he will not be here with us at Ngong Road, but will join our daughter church, Mamlaka Hill Church, as one of their pastors. His specific responsibility will be to shepherd the Ufungamano 10:30 am service, and to prepare them to church plant in 12 or so months.
Mamlaka Hill Church is now back up to 4 services, and the Ufungamano service is partly made up of people who live on Kiambu Road (3 Ecclesia groups), and who have requested us to plant a church out towards Kiambu. This group has been organizing the services at Ufungamano, managing the Sunday school, and leading services. Pastor Luke will join and train them in church planting and leadership.
Welcome home Pastor Luke.
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I too am back. The Urbana pre-conference meeting with other plenary speakers went well as we all shared our messages for Dec, and sought to ensure there is one clear theme. It was also helpful to tour the large indoor football stadium we will be meeting in. The place is so large that they will have to use huge video projection to ensure the 25,000 participants can see the speakers, and the projection screen (5 of them) are so large they warned us that just our nose will be 5 feet across (does anyone know how I can slim my broad African nose in 6 months?)
They also told of the fruit of past Urbanas, the hundreds of missionaries who serve world-wide today because of them, and the intense spiritual attack past speakers have undergone before and after the meeting. They cautioned us to ensure we have intense prayer cover over these next few months. I must admit I had not fully comprehended how big this meeting is; what an honor it is to be called to address it; and how much I need prayer for it. Indeed when they mentioned past speakers (the Who's-who of international Christian leadership - Billy Graham and all), I began to wonder what I was doing there, and to struggle with a very deep sense of inadequacy. God rebuked me from Exodus 3 (Moses' reluctance), and then encouraged me from Mark 8 (Jesus ability to feed the multitude from the little bread that was placed in his hand). The next morning I shared my outline for Dec and was pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic response.
I need to mobilize us to pray for Urbana, and will be saying more about it in the coming services. But I would also like to ask for 20 people who will covenant to cover me with prayer on a daily basis, for the next 6 months. We all need such concerted prayer as your pastors, but I especially ask for your prayers now. 20 like Moses, Hur and Aaron, who prayed for Joshua as he fought the Amalekites in the valley and so he prevailed (Exodus 17:8). 20 "Prayer Generals" who will cover me in concerted prayer and free me to fight this battle. Would you be one of them? If so please send me an SMS at 0723-261-944, or write me at oscarmuriu@wananchi.com this week, and I will "conscript" you as one of the 20.
Pastor Oscar
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