Dear HaMoreh Family,

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself (pictured left) and share with you about the trip on which I am about to embark. For the last three years I have been teaching high school in the Houston area, but about ten months ago I began praying for and seeking an opportunity to teach overseas. Some months ago, I contacted Jamie about joining HaMoreh's ministry in Kenya for an entire year. Like many of you, I was intrigued by Jamie's work in Africa, and became more and more eager to serve with HaMoreh after each conversation I had with him.

This Fall I will be joining our African brothers and sisters at Kenya Baptist Theological College, teaching and helping in whatever other capacity I am needed. I will also be making videos and taking pictures of HaMoreh's work in Kenya, as well as blogging about my experience there in an effort to better share HaMoreh's story. I am excited about the work the Lord has for me, but there is much to be done before I am able to begin my mission in Kenya. I would be very grateful if you would partner with me in prayer as I prepare for my trip.

By God's grace, I have been blessed with a great deal of financial support, yet I still have more to raise before my twelve months overseas is fully funded. Please pray that I would be diligent in sharing my mission with others and faithful in trusting my Father who provides all things. In addition, I still need to free myself up by selling my truck and tying up a few loose ends before I leave, so please pray that these will happen with little stress and in a timely fashion. Lastly and most importantly, please pray for my spiritual well-being. In the last few months I have realized just how attached I am to my comfortable American lifestyle. I believe my experiences in Africa over the next year will yield the blessing of material liberation, but not without cost. Please pray that I would find new comfort in having little in this world yet much in my Savior and in the family of believers with whom I will be serving.

I look forward to serving and sharing with you, my HaMoreh family, over the next year and I hope to get to know some of you well! I invite you to share my experience through my blog: www.chrisbryant.info. Thank you for your support and your prayers. God Bless you all!

Chris Bryant

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Christ Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, so that he may sit at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:1-2)

In January, we sold all of our belongings, packed a few suitcases with clothes, and moved ourselves to South Africa. Our initial purpose of this re-location was to provide Kris with the best opportunity where he could pursue his desire to better understand Biblical Hebrew; and it just so happens that Stellenbosch University has one of the leading Biblical Hebrew linguists in the world. But, upon arriving here we had no idea what to expect – and honestly, for about an entire month we were floating somewhere between flying back home, to where we were comfortable, and giving Stellenbosch a chance. Fortunately, we did not talk ourselves into leaving for our “Land of Plenty,” rather we began to discover the beauty in not only the landscape of South Africa, but also the culture and its people.

Our stay in Stellenbosch has provided us ample opportunity to try new things: interesting foods, a slower pace of life, and most importantly the ability to be neighbors. The Lord has called us to love our neighbors (Luke 10.27), and for Kris and I, God has placed numerous groups of people in our path. Whether it is getting to know our physical neighbors, the children we play with that live on a farm across town, or the "car-guards", God has called us to love. To show them that somehow God has changed us through Jesus Christ, and that His love and salvation is offered regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status. To allow them to see that we treat them differently and do life with them 100% – through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Please join us on our journey by praying for us as our marriage and ministry are tested and strengthened, and as we realize how truly dependent we are on the life and death of our Savior. For further updates, burdens, joys and funny stories, please follow our blog at www.lylelife.wordpress.com.

Kris & Jayna Lyle

Over the years of ministering part-year in Africa, Mimi and I have grown to really delight in helping other Westerners enjoy sharing life here with our African family of faith. These days, as much as loving all of this ourselves, we thrill in helping others find more joy in the lives and in the faith of our African brothers and sisters.

Our home church's mission team (HFBC) has now come and gone for another summer, as have most all of the North Americans that God sent our way this summer. Mimi and I remain most grateful - we had more helpers this summer than ever before, by far! More are on the way before I return to Nairobi in December, but this summer season of helping folks from back home to ministry here in Africa has once again passed.

No news to anybody anywhere that we prefer living in Africa. Wouldn't Jesus?

But, one of the real treats of living part-year in the US is walking with brothers and sisters who spend some time with us in Africa and then try and re-enter our native sub-culture in Houston. In a word, the disorientation of experiencing life in Africa often yields a healthy reorientation to the Jesus of Scripture!

I invite you to read some reflections (8 blog entries) of our home church's Kenya mission team members here:

http://hfbc.org/missionsblog

Also, a HFBC team member, Sunnah Butte, well summarizes the phenomena in her blog entry "Simply Living or Living Simply?" here:

http://sunnahbutte.wordpress.com/

Mimi and I pray that we, too, will be unable to live down to our sub-culture, but that we live up to the high calling of our Lord.

Over half the people in Nairobi live in slums and in informal settlements. They have little access to clean water, health care, and other essential services. So, how will we live this fall in Houston until we can get back home to Kenya?

May we learn to enjoy others as Jesus does.

Love,
Jamie and Mimi

That's right! We've recently discovered some extremely simple and convenient ways you can support our ministry.  With Better The World and Goodsearch & Goodshop, helping HaMoreh won't require an extra dime from your pocket or an extra minute out of your day.  There are three ways you can help support us, just by using the internet like you already do:

1)  When you Surf the Web

Better The World has created a sidebar for many internet browsers that displays ad space which the venture sells to various companies.  Better The World then contributes 90% of its ad revenue from the ads displayed in your sidebar to the cause or charity of your choice.  The more time you spend online, the more fundraising points you earn.  These points are turned into cash for your cause.  The sidebar also allows you to keep up to date with your fundraising points and the status of the cause you're supporting.  You already see all sorts of advertisements when you do things online like pay bills, catch up on news, or update your Facebook profile.  However, with the fundraising sidebar by Better The World, the revenues from these ads will go towards something you care about.  The sidebar doesn't impact how you view webpages and doesn't threaten your computer's performance or your security.  There's no catch or gimmick - it's just a simple way to raise money for your favorite charity by surfing the web.  So far, Better The World has over 8,000 members who have raised nearly $19,000 for participating charities.

2)  When You Search the Web

You can raise money for HaMoreh just by searching the web.  Search engines generate billions of dollars in revenue each year from their advertisers.  GoodSearch has developed a way to direct some of that money toward non-profit charities like us.  GoodSearch contributes 50% of the ad revenue received from its sponsored search advertisers to your favorite charity every time you search from GoodSearch.com or use the GoodSearch browser toolbar or plugin.  And since GoodSearch is powered by Yahoo, you'll always get high-quality search results.  Each search earns approximately $.01, but it can really add up over time with many supporters.  Consider this: If only 100 supporters perform just 3 searches each day over 12 months, that amounts to the cost of educating a pastor in Africa for one full year! GoodSearch is only a few years old and already many participating non-profits have received tens of thousands of dollars from supporters using the GoodSearch way of searching the web.

3) When You Shop Online

Shopping online is increasingly popular because of its convenience and competitive prices.  Now you can raise money for our ministry every time you shop online with the help of either GoodShop or Better The World with no hidden fees or extra costs to you.  These ventures have teamed up with thousands of online retailers who have agreed to contribute a percentage of every purchase to a charity of your choice when you purchase from their online store.  Depending on what and where you're buying, the contribution percentage can range from .5% to as much as 30%.  GoodShop not only donates a percentage of your purchase, but it also gives you access to discount coupons honored by major online retailers.  And since GoodShop is created by GoodSearch, you can get instant notifications of eligible discounts and the contribution percentage when you use the GoodSearch toolbar.  Better The World not only contributes a percentage of your purchase, but it also awards you fundraising points which are added to your tally if you use Better The World's fundraising sidebar.  These points are then turned into cash for your cause so you have two opportunities to raise money every time you shop online.  While the fundraising sidebar and penny searches will help out over time with many supporters, shopping online through GoodShop or Better the World makes the greatest impact per person for our organization.

Doing good is easier than you think.  We can do good every single day by doing nothing really different at all.  We all surf the web, search the web, and shop online - so why not help out while we do it?

To support HaMoreh with Better The World, start here.

To support HaMoreh with the GoodSearch or GoodShop, start here.

Cheers,
HaMoreh

My time in Kenya (so far) can be characterized nicely by an encounter that I had just last night.  I was on my way across the beautiful KBTC campus to eat dinner and then go to bed, as I was very tired after six hours of class.  On the way, there was a Kenyan man walking in the same direction and, as is custom in Kenya, we shook hands and greeted.  He informed me of his name, Onesmus, and told me that he had just arrived in order to graduate the next day at the large ceremony KBTC would be hosting.

Without missing a beat, he asked if he could grab some tea with me and we were soon on our way.  I have learned that Kenyans have a much broader concept of friendship than we do in the States, and all it takes is a smile and handshake to become deeply committed to a fellow brother.  Age, race, and life situation all fade under the same Gospel and Spirit.

The tea turned into a meal, and the meal turned into a couple hours of deep fellowship.  I have also learned that in Kenya there is little appreciation of small talk, and within minutes we were discussing ministry, struggles, hopes, and even dreaming about what we could do together if he was able to travel across the pond with me back to Houston.  Onesmus has a heart for ministry that allows him to love deeply, to explore courageously, and to dream largely.  He very much epitomizes the character and nature of the Kenyan people I have been fortunate enough to get to know.

They are a group of beautiful humans who are captured by the Gospel and enraptured by a pure love for their Creator and Savior.  In the States, I have rarely seen the same eagerness for learning and growing that I have seen here.  Unfortunately, they lack the resources that most take for granted.  There is much to be done and many to be served here in Kenya.  The people of God who are blessed with resources must not hesitate to share, serve, and go.  And for those who choose to go, there are many rewards and blessings waiting to be found - I met one last night, his name was Onesmus.

Mike Skinner
Pastor, First Colony Christian Church
Sugar Land, TX

It began in ‘baby Hebrew' class, singing the 133rd psalm and being captivated by Jamie's stories of joy and life of a different kind. It continued in Kenya with a summer long practicum with another people, experiencing rich community in ways that left us permanently changed. That joy and that life continues to haunt us, to challenge us, and to bless us, even today.

Psalm 133 was sung in anticipation of communal worship to the King. It is about how good and how marvelous life is when we share our lives together in community, when we "party" together. The blessing commanded by the psalm is enjoyed by being together. A life lived in concert with brothers and sisters is life to its fullest potential.

At home, Jamie taught us of the syntax and semantics of Hebrew poetry, but it was the time alongside Enos Weswah and the KBTC pastors, Patrick Musembi and the Daystar students that we learned the significance of habarakah, the blessing - life worth living.

Though we were dubbed the preachers and teachers, it was they who taught us - by their bright-eyed smiles and continuous laughter, by their faithfulness to each other, by their hunger for biblical teaching, by their generosity, even though they have nothing.

It was in Kenya that we experienced what faithfulness is and what it requires of us. We began to learn about the love God has for those suffering under the weight of injustice, and how we are called to help loose those bonds. The examples of love which our African family demonstrated for us convicted and challenged us. We were burdened by the desire to love and care for the needy, even thousands of miles away. The Spirit showed us that by telling their stories, telling our stories and continuing to strive for life in community, we can still party.

Our minds have been renewed, and our lives transformed. The memory of their patient eyes - so familiar with hardship, yet so delighted with their King - these are the things that haunt with their beauty. True Joy, once experienced, is not an image easily forgotten. As we dwell upon these memories, they still take away our breath. Our minds are being renewed. Their lives remind us that whether in a Hebrew class room, or a slum church, or now in our full time jobs, we still must party and sing together, in worship to the King.

We hope to visit our African family again soon. In the meantime we now live our lives more fully here, striving to be faithful to God and to our brothers and sisters who taught us so much. Will you join us? Pray. Give generously. Serve willingly. Live transformed. Party.

Ben, Justin & Jack

Dear Ones,

Mimi and I greet you from the Kenya Baptist Theological College in Limuru, Kenya.

We have just said asante sana, "thank you very much" to Justin Hyde, Peter Morisette, and Alex Smiley.  Justin and Peter taught courses at the KBTC, and Alex has been helping dig post holes for a new fence line that will help guard some KBTC land soon to be farmed for the first time.  All preached and mentored our family of faith here.

Mimi and I don't say good bye - Alex will be back with us here at the KBTC later this month.  This week, Alex is helping our dear friend, Mike Eden, at a nearby orphanage in Kinagop until he returns to us on July 19.

No doubt, Justin and Peter will be back with us in Africa after their first experience here gave them a taste for God at work in some of the most amazing people on earth!

Eagerly, we await the next shift of Bible teachers from the US to arrive July 20!

Thank you for all of your prayers and for your encouraging support.  Mimi and I are well and are on our ministry schedule.  Please continue to pray for our health.  Mimi has struggled with sinus stuff but is better today.  We both have been pushing hard and pray that God will continue to sustain our health and our stamina.

My preaching, teaching, and mentoring African brothers and sisters continues to be an indescribable joy, thank you.  I am more alive in this context and rhythm than anywhere else!

Please join us in the fun here one day!

We have folks from our home church, Houston's First Baptist Church, arriving tonight and then a mission team of them (30) arriving Saturday.  In between, we will be in Athi River, Machakos, and Nairobi ministering.  Did I ask you to please pray for our health and stamina?

Please pray for the HFBC mission team.  Mimi and I join in ministering with them through July 27.  My role is to lead Bible studies each day and to otherwise assist where needed.  As you would expect, I have planned aggressive Bible exposition for our times together.

The HFBC team will be ministering in Nairobi, Kinagop, Nakuru, Kijabe, Tigoni, and Limuru.  This will be a new experience for most all of them.  I am praying for God to bring much insight, challenge, and vision over the coming days.... Come, Holy Spirit, come!

Please know that we continue to thank God for you and for your prayers.

Love,

Jamie and Mimi

After a full day (24 hours) of travel, my friend Peter and I landed in Nairobi late on Saturday night, June 26, 2010. More excited than weary, we met with our new friends Enos Weswah (Principal, Kenya Baptist Theological College) and Linus Kirimi (Vice Principal, KBTC) and continued our journey for another 2 hours (on rough Kenyan roads, if you can call the worn and beaten paths roads) to the campus of KBTC in Limuru, Kenya. Though our African brothers are rarely punctual, they never waste time: “You will preach in the morning,” I was told.

We awoke on Sunday morning, having not seen the country in daylight, to a lush and beautiful paradise. The campus of KBTC, as well as the surrounding Brackenhurst Conference Center, is exotic and inviting. Bushy English gardens and overgrown lawns are crowded with unusual plants and flowers and occupied by equally unusual and surprisingly noisy birds. As I told my wife, “This may be the most beautiful place I’ve seen.”

The people proved exotic and inviting and beautiful as well. Midmorning on Sunday we were driven to a new church plant among the nearby tea plantation workers. Five or six of us crowded into a small pickup and a dozen or more jumped in the back. I was honored by Pastor Linus to preach the first service for this newborn community. As we arrived at the church’s new meeting place (a small wooden structure maybe 10’ x 20’), men and women unloaded from the bed of the truck and began singing and dancing. This was evangelistic worship at its best. They sang loudly, pounded drums, shook tambourines, and danced; they never stopped smiling. Adults as well as many young children were drawn to the sacred place. At some point we all filed into the building and continued to worship. The building was full, of course, and I was told the previous day (Sunday, July 4) that they had twice as many people as the week before.

Preaching is less of a marketed event here, as I’ve experienced it; rather it fits seamlessly into the larger mosaic of time that brothers and sisters share on Sundays (and throughout the week!). Teaching (class time) too is not a stark contrast to learning or life together. Throughout my time here I’ve taught a course on the Pastoral Theology of the Pastoral Epistles to an eager group of students at KBTC who are teaching me much. Yes, we deal with the academic (the questions of Pseudonymity, the tenets of the “Ephesian Heresy”, Paul’s prohibition in 1 Tim. 2:12, and so forth), but their desire and our purpose is clear: How are we to apply the Gospel to our communities as pastors and leaders? How are we to serve our Elder Jesus faithfully as His under-shepherds?

There is rarely any pretense or one-upmanship, as is common among other students and universities. At every moment we enjoy a shared confession and conviction: “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost [sinner], Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:16-17). Whether we are taking tea in the morning or reclining on lawns in conversation, whether from behind the pulpit or seated at a desk, this conviction is somehow palpable. I am not naïve or blinded to Africa’s sins or struggles, but as I have witnessed, the Dark Continent may be brightest of them all.

Justin Hyde
Pastor, Christ Church
Brenham, TX

Visit Justin's blog to experience more of his Kenya trip.

As we reflect on this past season and look forward to the coming season, Destiny and I realize that our lives are truly a testimony of God's abundant grace. Daily we recognize our need for God and we are amazed that he continually rescues us from ourselves and redirects us toward himself.

We have experienced much within even the last year. Both Destiny and I have been through the sickness and loss of loved ones, the search and switching of employments, the chaos and comfort of moving homes, the challenge of a change of spiritual leadership, and the concern and joy of expecting a child. Through all of these situations God has given us the faith we needed to put all of our trust in him.

Psalm 23 has been more than just a metaphor to us as we have been continually living the reality of the Psalmist's expression:

As long as YHWH is our guide, we will have no lack. He helps us to rest. He continually renews us. He draws us in the right direction in order to glorify himself. YHWH is with us as we journey through the darkest depths, so we have nothing to fear. His strength and his leadership are our comfort. He prepares a feast for us in a secure place. He showers us with blessings so that we cannot contain them. We know that only good things and his love will pursue us for the rest of our lives, and we will remain in his presence forever.

Daily we learn, each time a little differently, that we are only fully satisfied in our Lord. What he gives, he gives so that we may worship him. What he takes away, he takes away so that we may worship him. We are created for him and sustained by him and so it is only in him that we truly find our delight. We know that whatever this next season holds, we look forward to every opportunity to be more deeply satisfied in our Lord.

We pray for those whom we serve through HaMoreh that you too may experience satisfaction in God more fully day by day. And we ask for your prayers as well, that we may continually look for satisfaction from the only one who truly offers it.

In Him,
Chad & Destiny

Mimi and I apologize for the long delay in writing.  We have returned to our hearts' home and are more than well.  Our schedule in Nairobi has been crazy busy.  Yep ... you can take the American out of America, but you can't take….

Thank you for your prayers and for all of your encouraging support.  Our travel back home was smooth, and we are busily enjoying our Lord's work in Kenya.

Once again, struggling through the physical difficulties of a transition period reminds us that our home is with God and his people.

I am speaking often, meeting much, and preparing a series of Bible study lessons for our home church's mission team that arrives next month. As always, Mimi is patiently helping me through each day. She has had some minor health challenges but is doing great now.

We find that our teachers from the United Sates ministering at Daystar University and at the Kenya Baptist Theological College are challenged, learning, and grateful to be here in this environment.  Their experiences remind me that I can try my best to explain the East African cultures, the African worldview, and African Christianity but I fall short.  One must feel life with Africans, in Africa, to understand.

As we journey with our African family of faith, I am caused to think more deeply about and to reflect more purposefully upon the gospel.  For this opportunity, I remain most grateful.  May our faith grow more and more ... like the faith of the early Christians, and like that of our African brothers and sisters.

Mimi and I covet your prayers for:

• continued good health and great energy through a tough schedule
• growing relationships with all the people that we seek to help here
• God's anointing upon us as we share our hearts and lives with needy Africans
• God's grace upon our Western brothers and sisters ministering with us here now - and for the many heading this way over the coming days
• Mimi and her mother as they continue to grieve the loss of Mimi's dad, Neal, and particularly for Mimi's mom, Amy, as she walks in new season of life

May we all get to know God better as we enjoy Him more!

Love,
Jamie and Mimi

Dear Ones,

Mimi and I thank you for a beautiful, worshipful time at our 2010 HaMoreh Benefit.  Wow!  Over 375 of us joined together as family, praising God, enjoying one another, and giving to help our brothers and sisters in Africa - heaven on earth!  We thank God for you.

Your participation encourages us greatly.  Thank you for caring and for sharing so lovingly.  HaMoreh received enough in contributions to fund our annual budget for 6 months.  That allows us to head home to East Africa early next month with our mission projects funded through August.  Amen!  You have eased my burden of finding the rest of HaMoreh's 2010 budget upon our arrival back in Houston in late August.  We thank God for you.

May you know the same joy that Mimi and I experience as we walk with our African family of faith.  We will miss you as we minister in Africa, but want you to know that you are making possible all that we get to enjoy joining God in doing while we are there.

We love you!

In Christ,
Jamie

As we prepare to return to Africa, Mimi and I thank you for your prayers and for your support of our mission to the beautiful and needy people of Africa.  Our 2010 summer will be jammed full of Bible teaching in African churches and classrooms.  With heartfelt thanks for your help, here are a few mentions of God's work planned for the remainder of 2010:

• Teaching Bible and biblical theology classes in Africa (I've taught over 545 African student-pastors so far!)
• Preaching a full schedule in local churches (where God has enabled me to preach over 120 services so far!)
• Mentoring our 6 resident African faculty members teaching Old and New Testament classes and assisting them as they train their 6 teachers-in-training (our African faculty have taught over 720 student-pastors so far!)
• Mentoring North American students (Regent College, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Houston Baptist University, Reformed Seminary, and Southwestern Seminary) as they teach young pastors for the first time in Africa (our North American student-teachers have taught over 455 students so far!)
• Mentoring and providing funding for our African university and seminary student-pastors
• Providing course materials, computing equipment, textbooks, reference materials, and critical funding for our African pastor-teachers and learning centers

Recently, we have kept very busy working on HaMoreh's African projects.  God is growing our work as He excites those around us with ministry opportunities in Africa!  This is a critical time in the lives of Africans, and therefore, for us.  HaMoreh's 2010 budget is $163,000.  (Please see activities and your support.)

Mimi and I hope to worship with you at our May 15 HaMoreh Benefit.  We, along with African family, look forward to sharing the amazing outcomes God is working through HaMoreh!

Our joy is being made complete through your sharing with needy Africans.  Mimi and I look forward to thanking you in person, and to feeding your soul and your body!  If you have not, please help us serve you well by providing an RSVP to rsvp@hamoreh.org or 832.724.3266.

Mungu akubariki ("God bless"),

Jamie

Wow!  As we prepare for another summer ministry season in Africa Mimi and I are deeply encouraged by God's faithfulness.  We look back and are thrilled to experience the growth of young African Christian leaders, churches, and other learning centers.  We look forward and are thrilled to experience growing numbers of brothers and sisters planning to join HaMoreh's work in Africa this summer.

Mimi and I thank you for your encouraging support.  Your prayers and financial support make all of HaMoreh's ministry possible, thank you!

Our 2010 budget year brings new challenges as we seek to follow our Lord in doing all that he has called us to in Africa.  Please continue to pray for us, for our work in Africa, and for how you might enjoy continuing to partner with us.

Mimi and I look forward to worshiping with you at the 2010 HaMoreh Benefit on May 15!

Please come and learn more about HaMoreh's ministry in Kenya and how you can make a difference.

Saturday May 15, 2010 | 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Fellowship Center of Houston's First Baptist Church
7401 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77024
Dinner will be provided.

Please R.S.V.P.
By e-mail: rsvp@hamoreh.org
By phone: 832.724.3266

May we continue to journey in joy together....

Love,
Jamie and Mimi

As Mimi and I get used to the idea that we are in a new year, we pray that all will be new for you in 2010.  It is and will be; we pray that we all will live consciously in the reality of every day being brand new!

We are new creatures in Christ, everyday.  God is birthing us anew and afresh, everyday.

May we know the freshness of the perpetual and eternal beginning of being born again by the Holy Spirit.

May our thinking, feeling, talking, and living be fresh, all the time.

May we be surprised continually by the life of God.

May we abandon ourselves to the Holy Spirit and find the freedom and joy of delighting in pleasing God, all the time.

May we fall in love with Jesus all over again, all the time.

Lord, may we come to know you better by enjoying you more ... moment by moment.

Love,

Jamie

In the West, our 2009 liturgical year has come to an end.  Going to church from Sunday to Sunday, it's hard to make the connection.  Hopping from dot to dot, it's difficult to connect the dots - hard to realize that there is indeed movement in the Christian church's liturgy.  This past Sunday, Advent Sunday, we were to be celebrating the triumph of Christ and his church, the eschatological hope on which our Christian faith is founded.

Advent, as the Latin implies, is a building of anticipation towards the coming of Christ, the incarnation, the penetration of God into his creation in a new way.  In fact, the Latin adventus translates the Greek parousia - commonly used in the New Testament with reference to Christ's second coming.  Historically, Christians have believed that the season of Advent serves as a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Jews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure for the second coming of Christ.

We are celebrating Christ becoming present amongst us, his becoming resident within us, our existence in him, and his coming again for us.  Today, the fullest expression of the Christian faith is an indwelling of Christ, which creates a new life that then lovingly decorates all of God's creation with Christ-like living.

Jesus came the first time to bring a fullness of life to those who would come to know him as Lord and Savior.  As Christians discover how we can live fully and authentically as humans within our own cultures, we, and our cultures become reconciled to God and to each other.  All is made right in Christ.

So, the real decorations of the coming of Christmas are in fact those of the church.

Jesus Christ was born thousands of years ago and continues to be born again into lives all over his world.  Let us be mindful then, in this Advent season, of the life of Christ in our every day existence.  Let us nurture the coming of Christ, this rebirth that leads to reconciliation all across the world.

At his first advent, Jesus was born a refugee. The Christ was born "on the way."  In our world, let us be mindful in particular during this Advent season of those refugees within our midst.  There are so many - economic, political, social, emotional, physical, and religious.  Today, might we find Jesus alive and well in the midst of the marginalized?  He has always preferred to live there....

Let us also be aware that in order to nurture the coming of Christ across the world, we must live as Christ on earth - critically challenging all institutional structures and prophetically calling the religious back to God ... loving as Jesus has always loved.

In native African religions, I have met a belief that any evil in life is sourced in the immoral action and behavior of others.  This dangerously plays itself out in retaliatory human behaviors.   In African Christian communities, I have met a faith that decorates the blighted landscapes, the corrupt political systems, the failed economies, the social poverties, the medical emergencies, and the ethnic hatred, with an unmistakable hope for a better day.  For many, that day has already come as evidenced by their lives spent giving to others and loving all - particularly those most in need.  The power of such loving behaviors, of such lives, overwhelms hatred, neglect, and all need.  Against such dramatic backgrounds - poverty, sickness, hatred, and corruption - Christian lives stand out like bright ornaments ... Christmas decorations for all to see.

This Advent season, may we live as Jesus loves ... living and loving as beautiful ornaments for all to see Jesus, our bright Morning Star.

Love,

Jamie

The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few ... Mt. 9:37

On behalf of our African family of faith, Mimi and I thank you for your prayers and for your support of our 2009 mission to the beautiful and needy people of Africa.  Once again, our summer was jammed full of Bible teaching in churches and in classrooms.  With heartfelt thanks for your help, here are just a few mentions of God's work amongst us this summer:

• Mentoring our 6 resident African faculty members teaching Old and New Testament classes and assisting them as they train younger teachers to follow
• Mentoring 5 graduate students and 6 other North American teachers (Cambridge University, Regent College, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Southwestern Seminary) as they taught young pastors for the first time in Africa
• Providing materials and sponsoring African teachers for Bible courses at the Kenya Baptist Theological College and at Daystar University
• Mentoring and providing funding for our KBTC and Daystar University student leaders
• Teaching seminars for young African Bible department faculty members
• Preaching a full schedule in slum churches with students (Kibera, Kangemi, and Kayoli)

While we thank God for all that He has accomplished through our efforts so far in 2009 - much more is to be done.  HaMoreh presently has 4 classes underway in Nairobi.  I return to Kenya on December 12 for another teaching and preaching mission.  God is growing our work as He excites those around us with amazing ministry opportunities in Africa!  Here are a few needs for the remaining days of 2009:

• Providing textbooks and other materials for 2 additional courses (OT and NT Theology)
• Funding scholarships for our African teachers and our African students
• Funding Africa mission costs including international travel, in-country ministry, and completing our digital data base and digital material delivery system

At present, we are praying for the $33,000 HaMoreh needs to finish funding its 2009 budget.  Would you please pray about funding needed textbooks, other study materials, scholarships, and other Africa mission costs?  The harvest is plentiful....

Love,

Jamie

Mimi and I invite you to join us at our home church for an awesome evening of African music.  Afrizo, a student choir from Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya, will present a concert on Friday, October 30th from 7:30-8:30 PM in the Chapel at Houston's First Baptist Church. The concert is free of charge.

The church is located at 7401 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77024 in the southwest corner of the interchange between I-10 (Katy Freeway) and I-610 W (West Loop).  For directions click this link, or call 713-681-8000.

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Afrizo is led by Hellen Mtawali, who both teaches at Daystar and writes and choreographs Afrizo’s songs and dances.  The group is made up of Daystar students, and eight of them will be touring the US with Hellen this fall.  Afrizo’s music combines English, Swahili, and other African languages, dance, and story-telling about how Daystar is equipping servant leaders for Africa.

Mimi and I thank God that we live in a growing family of faith.  While in Houston, we enjoy our local church family, Houston's First Baptist Church, and we walk more closely with our Bible study family, Oikos.

Each weekday in Houston, I live life with our Houston Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary families - students, faculty, and even administrative types.  Our Greek and Hebrew babies are nearby, and many are now all over the world; some are serving our Lord far from home.

Our HaMoreh family is busy in Houston working at helping our brothers and sisters in Africa - many amazing young African Christian leaders, particularly those of Daystar University and the Kenya Baptist Theological College.   We stay busy as beavers, and continue to pray for administrative support, especially as we pray for our 2010 HaMoreh Benefit.

The links above are to our HaMoreh Prayer Place.  Mimi and I invite you to join us there.  Each link will take you to a detailed prayer request where you can read, pray with us, and respond.

Will you join in prayer with our family of faith?

Love,

Jamie

Reflecting on another summer in East Africa, I am reminded that there are ghettos, and there are ghettos.

Most of the African news that reaches our Western evangelical ghettos is bad - very bad.  In 1994, a million murdered in Rwanda in 100 days - more people slaughtered more rapidly in the Rwandan genocide than at any other time in history.  Forty thousand bodies flowed down the Kagera River into Uganda's Lake Victoria.  In 1983, the Second Sudanese Revolution yielded 2 million Sudanese dead, and another 4 million driven into refuge camps.  Since 2003, according to the Coalition for International Justice, the Darfur region of Western Sudan has seen another 400,000 killed in conflicts.  Numbers are hard to calculate because the dead are dropped down wells, thrown into mass graves, or burned.  Just in recent years, over 2 million Sudanese have been displaced by war.

Most recently, the violence following Kenyan elections killed thousands and has left Kenya balkanized and ready to burst at any time.  Nairobi, Kenya remains the center of the worldwide HIV/AIDS pandemic.  Drought and famine have followed political upheaval, all pressing a faltering Kenyan economy into exhaustion.  Many millions, and growing numbers, live in economic, social, and political ghettos.

Robert Mugabe doesn't look like he's going to give up power in Zimbabwe.

Post-apartheid South Africa looks like a single party version of the same old story - 2010 World Cup or not.

As I write, Christians and Muslims are still fighting in the Middle Belt that cuts Nigeria into the arid Islamic north and the Christian jungle to the south.  Major skirmishes are reported in the north over the last few days.

But the news is not all bad ... there is really good news from Africa.

The really good African news is about Africa's embrace of the good news.

From our Western evangelical ghettos, Americans continue to bemoan the decline of Christianity in the modern (now post-modern) age.  Therein, Americans think that Christianity is primarily a Western European phenomenon.  But American public opinion is parochial in the extreme - ghetto trash talk.

The early church was a Near Eastern rather than a European creation.  Christianity retreated into the ghetto of Western Europe only because of the onslaught of Islam.

The slur evidenced in Western evangelical ghetto trash talk - modern mainstream Protestant public discourse in America - may have been true in 1550, but it ceased to be true long ago, and now bears no resemblance to reality.  Western evangelicals haven't heard, and both conservatives and liberals continue to believe the slur is basically correct.

Here is some really good news.

In the modern era, nowhere has the church's growth been more impressive than in Africa.  Since the de-colonization in the early 1960's, African Christianity has grown spectacularly.  The growth rate has held since the 1980s - an estimated 16,500 Africans have been converted to Christianity each day.

If worldwide growth rates persist, by the year 2050 only about 20 % of the world's Christians will be non-Hispanic Whites.  Soon the phrase "a White Christian" may sound like a curious oxymoron, as mildly surprising as a "Swedish Buddhist."

The really good news is not just that Africa is accepting the good news.  It's not just that Africa is becoming Christian.  It's the kind of Christian that Africa is becoming.

Indeed, Africa is teaching Western evangelical ghetto dwellers how to do Christian theology without the confining restrictions of the Enlightenment.

Western Enlightenment Christianity grew in part from scientific discoveries that challenged the medieval view of the universe, a view essentially based on the Bible.  For example, Dante's cosmology was biblical cosmology, and Copernicus and Galileo not only challenged tradition but revelation itself.

Suspicion of the Bible and a dualism flowed from the Enlightenment.  Dualists used the concepts of "limited scope" and "accommodation" to neutralize Scripture.  Spinoza's work shows that the dualism that entered into biblical interpretation with Galileo had flowered in a more thoroughgoing dualism, a dualism of the Bible versus everything else.  Modern Western Christianity accommodates itself to this dualism, happy to have a cubicle where it can exist in self-absorption without worrying about what's going on in the other cubicles that surround it.

Africans don't believe a word of it.  Africa has never had an Enlightenment.

Many African Christians have suffered intensely for the faith.  Most live in economic and social ghetto conditions that Americans would not, or could not, tolerate.  Africans have much to teach us about the cross, about contentment and joy in deprivation, about sacrifice and firmness in the face of pressure.

African Christians can also teach us theology.

Kenyan theologian John Mbiti attributes the quality of African Christianity in large part to the revolutionary impact of vernacular Bible translations.  Readers check the teaching and practice of religious institutions against the scriptural standard.

Africans read the Bible in a way that is free of the rationalisms of modern method.  They are not content to read the Bible as a source of doctrine, or an account of ancient history, or even as a practical manual that tells them what to do.  For African believers, the Bible is a book to inhabit, a narrative to participate in.  They recognize that they are part of the story the Bible tells.

African pastors preach nearly as much from Old Testament texts as from New, reversing centuries of Western evangelical embarrassment about the primitiveness of the Old Testament.  Africans reach for John or Romans to discuss Christian faith, but they are exuberantly fond of Hebrews and James.  For Africans, Hebrews best integrates the Old Testament with the New.  James imitates the style of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, which strongly resembles traditional African proverbial wisdom.  "Jewish" Matthew is the most beloved of the Gospels, and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are very popular books in African Christianity.

Africans are not the least embarrassed by the world picture of the Bible - a world of angels and demons, of miracles and exorcisms, of the virgin birth and life after death, of heaven and hell.  It's their world.  Africans see and hear things in the biblical texts that are lost to jaded post-Christian readers in Western evangelical ghettos.

Africans can teach Western evangelicals the sheer value of Scripture.

For Africans, Jesus is a liberator, a deliverer who delivers his people from real fears and dangers.  Jesus is preeminently Christus Victor, not only on the cross and in his resurrection, but throughout his life.  The Gospels are not Passion narratives with long introductions, but record the triumph of Jesus, culminating in his death and resurrection.

Africans have no use for the pansy Jesus of the Western evangelical ghettos.  They rightfully want a savior with the testosterone to fight for them.  No pale Galileans need apply.

Western evangelicals live a life softened by technological redeemers.  Africans have few technical protections, and in the daily threats of life they turn to Jesus.  Jesus saves the poor, makes the corn grow in the fields, protects the laboring mother, tears down the barriers that divide men and makes them family.  For Africans, the salvation that Jesus brings is thoroughly "this-worldly."

Dualistic Western Christianity cannot answer African questions.  African theology is instinctively, fundamentally, and biblically anti-dualistic.

Salvation is comprehensive, practical, and has a "world-affirming" force.  This truth has been and must be learned from Scripture - not likely from Western missionaries, whose theology, in large measure, continues to focus narrowly on souls to the detriment of total welfare, bodily and spiritual.

African conceptions of faith bear out a broad understanding of Jesus' saving work.  African faith is courage in the face of excruciating circumstances.  Faith is never simply assent to doctrine, but a living active stance toward all of life.

Western evangelical exaltation of man has entailed an essential rejection of the God of Scripture.  For Africans, there is no competition.  The exaltation of God is simultaneously the fulfillment of human aspirations.

African theology is authentic biblical theology in that it is a task of a community who share in a common context committed to bringing the gospel into contact with the questions and issues of their context.

Africa has taught the church before.  Western theology is, in fact, undergirded historically by an African export, as is much of Eastern Christianity.  What would Christianity be without Hippo and Carthage, and, on the other end of the continent, Alexandria?  What would Christianity be without Cyprian and Tertullian, without Augustine and Origen?  Not much ... as is seen today in our Western evangelical ghettos.

Love,

Jamie

Dear Ones,

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.  We hope that you and yours are well and that y'all are enjoying a refreshing summer season.

To update you, Mimi and I lost a few days to illness in Kenya last month but are gladly back on schedule.

Thank you for your prayers.  Mimi and I are well again and ministering with a group of our HBU biblical language graduates, now living here in Africa.  We are proud like parents!  We all wake up in the book of Acts, live with Christians "faithing it" like in the book of Acts, encounter God at work all around us like in the book of Acts, and crash each night looking forward to another day in God's unfolding story of redemption.

Thank you for your part in all that we get to experience in the lives of young Christian leaders.  We only wish that you were here with us, watching God work so abundantly in Africa.

We are heading back to Kenya later this month to rejoin teams of HaMoreh missionary teachers working at the Kenya Baptist Theological College and at Daystar University.  All are well and enjoying huge experiences.  My teaching and preaching is going well, thank you for your prayers.

Please continue to pray for God's anointing on our teaching and preaching ministries - and over all of our growing mentoring relationships with young African Christian leaders.  The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few....

Thank you for your financial support.  I am reminded of these pressing needs as we labor day by day with our brothers and sisters:

• Providing textbooks and other materials for 2 additional courses (OT and NT Theology) and scholarships for African teachers and our African students

• Funding Africa mission costs including international travel, in-country ministry, and completing our digital database and digital material delivery system

May we all continue to journey in joy together....

Love,

Jamie and Mimi

Like each and every time before, we didn't have enough time to pack, didn't get done all that we had hoped to in Houston, didn't say good-byes to all those we dearly love, didn't feel like we were ready upon arrival, but God continues to care for us wonderfully each and every day.

Sorry for the long delay in writing.  Mimi and I have returned to our hearts' home and are more than well.  Our schedule in Nairobi has been crazy busy.  Yep ... you can take the American out of America, but you can't take....

Thank you for your prayers and for all of your encouraging support.  Our travel back home was smooth, and we are busily enjoying our Lord's work in Kenya.

We find that our teachers from the United Sates ministering at Daystar University and at the Kenya Baptist Theological College are challenged, learning, and grateful to be here in this environment.  Their experiences remind me that I can try my best to explain the East African cultures, the African worldview, and African Christianity but I fall short.  One must feel life with Africans, in Africa, to understand.

As we journey with our African family of faith, I am caused to think more deeply about and to reflect more purposefully upon the gospel.  For this opportunity, I remain most grateful.  May our faith grow more and more ... like the faith of the early Christians, and like that of our African brothers and sisters.

May we all get to know God better as we enjoy Him more!

Love,

Jamie and Mimi

Dear Ones,

Mimi and I thank you for a beautiful, worshipful time at our HaMoreh Benefit 2009.  Wow!  Over 350 of us joined together as family, praising God, enjoying one another and giving to help our brothers and sisters in Africa - heaven on earth!  We thank God for you.

Your participation encourages us greatly.  Thank you for caring and for sharing so lovingly.  HaMoreh received enough in contributions to fund our annual budget for 5 months.  That allows us to head home to East Africa early next month with our mission projects funded through July.  Amen!  You have eased my burden of finding the rest of HaMoreh’s 2009 budget upon our arrival back in Houston in late August.  We thank God for you.

May you know the same joy that Mimi and I experience as we walk with our African family of faith.

We will miss you as we minister in Africa, but want you to know that you are making possible all that we get to enjoy joining God in doing while we are there.

We love you!

In Christ,

Jamie

I write to you from Athi River, Kenya - where Mimi and I are surrounded by the joy of our Lord.  We are once again at home with our African family of faith.
 
In our comfortable Western culture, it is often difficult to comprehend the need that exists throughout the rest of the world.  The enormity of the realization that there are millions of people who live without such basic necessities as water and food is overwhelming.  Yet even more staggering is the joy that can exist in such communities through the miracle of God’s love and the effort of giving.
 
HaMoreh Ministries continues to experience this joy firsthand through our ongoing efforts in East Africa.  We have already begun to invest in lives with the help of others who share our vision.  In 2006, HaMoreh donated $15,000 to Daystar University’s Bible department in Nairobi for the purchase of new computer equipment.  HaMoreh was also able to provide $10,000 of Daystar University student scholarships.  Another $15,000 went towards partial scholarships for the entire student body of the Kenya Baptist Theological College (KBTC) in Limuru.  Additionally, HaMoreh assisted in funding the building of a student dormitory for the college and in funding faculty salaries.  
 
Mimi and I have given freely of our time and talents.  In 2006, I taught as a missionary faculty member at Daystar University as well as the KBTC, sharing both the Old and New Testaments with over 200 students.  While in Africa, I maintained a full preaching schedule, preaching for thousands of Africans throughout Kenya.  Mimi’s heartfelt love of service led her to spend weekdays in the library of Daystar University, restoring books so that students could again use them.  This year, HaMoreh has already delivered over 3,100 biblical studies volumes to the KBTC, where books are limited and greatly needed.
 
In 2007, Mimi and I continue to teach and provide leadership in Africa, teaching an Old Testament course as well as tutoring and mentoring other faculty members at Daystar University and the KBTC.  I continue my full preaching schedule across Kenya.  Moreover, HaMoreh has teamed up with Food for the Hungry and Africa Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries this year to provide aid to those stricken by poverty and starvation, shining the light of God’s love into even the darkest and most desperate situations.  This summer, some of my American university students and other friends from the United States have traveled to Kenya and have joined in HaMoreh’s ministry efforts here.
 
The need is great, and we are eager to serve.  By His grace, HaMoreh has already made great strides in 2007.  In addition to the library donations to the KBTC, $25,000 of new notebook computers, Bible software, and more textbooks have been delivered to Daystar University and the KBTC.  This year we are providing full scholarships, including room and board, ($7,500 each) to Daystar University for seven students from various parts of Africa.  Through the generosity of those willing to give funds or volunteer time, we hope to provide still more resources for these and other Christian schools in Africa.  I am planning to begin a similar mission in India in the near future.
 
The impact of HaMoreh’s efforts is well beyond the material.  “Most of all, we thank you for your ministry to our students - your example and friendship have blessed all of us” writes an official from Daystar University in a letter of thanks. Above all, this is our aim: to exalt our Lord by sharing His loving example with others.
 
Join us as we strive to glorify Jesus Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit. Help us to labor with God as we bring hope and joy to those in need, half a world away.  We invite you to prayerfully consider how you might help us fulfill our mission.  The need is great, but we are trusting in God’s faithful provision. HaMoreh seeks those with a servant’s heart to support us on our journey, walking with God as He transforms His children, one mind at a time.  
 
Love,

Jamie