MAVUNO CHURCH: REAL PEOPLE, REAL ISSUES, REAL LIFE

Located at the South C Sports Club in the heart of Nairobi's South C area, Mavuno Church began in August 2005, as a church plant of Nairobi Chapel. Since then, we have not ceased to be amazed at the exciting things God continues to do among us.

Our desire right from the start has been to be a loving community that shares the life-changing message of Jesus in ways that are relevant, practical and meaningful to today's generation. One slogan you hear a lot at is that Mavuno is a place for 'Real People, Real Issues, Real Lives'. We want to take real 'Nairobians' who struggle with real issues and to mold them into society and nation impacting followers of Jesus.

God has greatly blessed us at Mavuno. Some of my personal highlights have included…

• Walking through a ten week discipleship curriculum as a church early this year known as 'Mizizi' and seeing God greatly impact lives. As a result, many among us have gained confidence in pursuing their calling and found their niche in ministry
  
• Experiencing a heightened awareness & expectation of God's power among us as well as a real desire by the congregation to connect with God in prayer. Our 'Breakthrough' prayer service (9am every Sunday) is well attended, as is our ongoing 'Harvest School of Prayer'
  
• Our 25 Ekklesia groups, led by a superb, faithful group of leaders. Each of these groups has committed to plant at least one more by the end of the year. In addition this August, each group is planning to go on a short term mission in or out of the country!
  
• Preparing for our first church plant that begins services on June 4th. Led by Pastor Kyama & Wambui, Mavuno Downtown will meet on Sundays, 10am at the Tintin Restaurant, with the intention of reaching urban young adults

Much more important than the programs for me though, Mavuno has been about people. It's been exciting to see many among us receive Christ and begin to grow tremendously in their faith. I have enjoyed seeing people who thought God couldn't use them because they had so many 'issues' grow to become ministers and leaders. It's been an exiting 8 months for sure. Na bado!

Thank you for all your prayers on our behalf. I am glad for the opportunity to be part of your service this morning, and I pray that He would continue to shower His many blessings on Nairobi Chapel.

Our Projector Is Here : Praise the Lord, our video projector (as you can see) is finally here. Thank you to the church member who gave this as a gift to us. It's a 7,700 lumen projector - supposedly the strongest such in Kenya right now - much brighter than the ones we have been using, and so now we can do more with media during the service. Replacement bulbs however cost 40,000/= each. Since we only need it on Sundays, we'd like to make it available for hire to conferences, retreats and meetings that need a really strong, bright projector, and in that way create a fund for it's upkeep. All you manager and corporate types out there - pass the word around!

Church Car : We made an appeal 3 weeks ago for a car gift to help us with managing pastoral work especially in the evenings. Thank you for to the two people who responded and gave us 1 used car and 1 new one. It's a double blessing and will really help us. May God bless you bountifully back in return.

Sermon DVDs : The sermon DVDs for the series on "II Timothy - But As For You" are out. You can pass by the info desk to get your copy now. You can also get Sermon CDs for the same series too!

X-press-i-ons! For the youth!!!! - every Last Sunday of each month, beginning with next Sunday (28th May) we will have an exciting event, right here at the tent from 12.30 pm to 2:00 pm. Its dubbed ' X-press-i-ons! - where God is the audience'. Its about us youth expressing ourselves to God. Dance, drama, worship, whatever you want to use to express yourself to God. See you there, next Sunday, and every last Sunday!

Pastor Luke Jaoko : Has completed his M.Div studies at Trinity Theological Collage in Chicago, US and actually graduated last week. He and his family (3 children) will be coming back home in early July. Please remember them in prayer as they relocate.

Keyboardist : We need a keyboardist to join and help the worship team. If you are good at this, and can attend the 2 practice sessions per week, please help us.

Sermon Series in July/ August : Do you live to shop? Does that holiday in the sun always take priority over saving for a rainy day? Do your credit card debts keep you awake at night? What would you live on if you lost your job tomorrow? Do you ever feel as though your life is spiraling downwards in debt? We want to take these money matters head-on and dig deep in scripture for help through our series "Money Matters : Finding Financial Freedom in Today's World". This will be an exciting study to look forward to as we invite several Christian financial advisors to help us look at an area many struggle with in quiet desperation. Invite a non-church attending friend to come profit from what will be rich, life changing teaching.

Banns of Marriage : We wish to announce the banns of marriage for a wedding to take place between Michael Thomas Brett and Esther Wanjiku Kegah on 30th June 2006 at the Shrine of Mary Catholic Church in Upperhill, Nairobi. If you know any reason why this couple may not lawfully wed, please let the pastor know.