HaMoreh Ministries Blog http://www.hamoreh.org/common/rss2/?&channel=blog Syndicated BLOG from HaMoreh Ministries. en-us Copyright 2010 HaMoreh Ministries Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:08:39 -0600 info@hamoreh.org (HaMoreh Ministries) All New https://www.hamoreh.org/3355978 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, [...]]]>

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

 

]]> Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:00:00 -0600 https://www.hamoreh.org/3355978 General Advent Lights https://www.hamoreh.org/3349933 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, [...]]]>

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

]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0600 https://www.hamoreh.org/3349933 General Giving Thanks https://www.hamoreh.org/3346511 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 [...]]]>

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

 

]]> Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:00:00 -0600 https://www.hamoreh.org/3346511 General Afrizo Concert https://www.hamoreh.org/3342189

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.

 

Please come and join us in support of our African sisters and brothers as they bring the joy of Christ to Houston.

 

Love,

Jamie

 

--

 

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.

]]> Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/3342189 Special Events Family Matters https://www.hamoreh.org/3339204

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

]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/3339204 General There are Ghettos, and There are Ghettos https://www.hamoreh.org/3333174 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 [...]]]>

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

]]> Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/3333174 General Africa Update https://www.hamoreh.org/3328650 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 [...]]]>

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

]]> Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/3328650 General A Blessed Blur https://www.hamoreh.org/3328155

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

]]> Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/3328155 General Thank You https://www.hamoreh.org/3324006

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

]]> Thu, 14 May 2009 07:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/3324006 General Will You Share in Their Joy? https://www.hamoreh.org/4269

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

]]> Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4269 General On the Road Again https://www.hamoreh.org/4268 Thank you for all of your prayers and support. Mimi and I have arrived safely back in East Africa for the summer. We are settling into our schedule in Athi River, Kenya as I teach Old Testament at Daystar University, help other Bible lecturers, and as Mimi assists in the Daystar University [...]]]>
Thank you for all of your prayers and support. Mimi and I have arrived safely back in East Africa for the summer. We are settling into our schedule in Athi River, Kenya as I teach Old Testament at Daystar University, help other Bible lecturers, and as Mimi assists in the Daystar University library. Mimi and I will remain in Athi River through early July, at which time we will travel northward to continue our work at the Kenya Baptist Theological College and at an orphanage, Into Abba's Arms.

We have been warmly welcomed back to our African family. My preaching schedule is full for the summer - and Mimi and I are looking forward to sharing our Lord's love with lots of new friends. Our HBU students and Pleasant Hill Church friends have arrived from Houston and are adjusting well as they minister in Nairobi with Food for the Hungry, Africa Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries, and as they begin their coursework at Daystar University. We eagerly await the arrival of our friends from First Baptist Church, Houston, and pray for their safe journey. As you pray, please know that Mimi and I thank God for you!
]]> Sat, 26 May 2007 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4268 General Springing Forward https://www.hamoreh.org/4218 Mimi and I greet you from within the heart of Houston's pollen season. Yellow and greenish stuff everywhere.... We are so looking forward to being back in Africa soon! fter our first HaMoreh Ministries Board of Directors meeting, we are springing forward and now implementing much ministry for the [...]]]>
Mimi and I greet you from within the heart of Houston's pollen season. Yellow and greenish stuff everywhere.... We are so looking forward to being back in Africa soon! fter our first HaMoreh Ministries Board of Directors meeting, we are springing forward and now implementing much ministry for the rest of 2007. God is growing our vision and bringing exciting opportunities through our growing family of faith in Africa. Thank you for all of your encouragement and support.
 

Please know that Mimi and I continue to thank God for you, and for your gracious support of our work with our dear African brothers and sisters. We are learning much about God's relentless love for each of us! Please see HaMoreh's "Ministry Activities in Kenya, 2007." Mimi and I ask that you keep praying for us as we continue on a very full 2007 ministry schedule in carrying forward HaMoreh's mission and purpose. As you will see, each opportunity listed is a blessing from God! Please also see the "HaMoreh Ministries 2007 Budget." We ask that you continue to pray for HaMoreh to have the financial resources to do all that we can do in helping people around the world to enjoy God more through being transformed by the renewing of their minds.

 

Mimi and I are humbly aware that our response to God's calling to minister to the needy of Africa is interwoven with your commitment to support us in this work. We thank God for you, and Mimi and I pray that He will continue to bless you as you partner with us.

 

Mungu akubariki ("God bless"),

 

Jamie and Mimi Johns

]]> Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4218 General In the Heat Came the Flurry https://www.hamoreh.org/4267 Mimi and I wish you and yours a Happy New Year.
 
As we look forward to a new year, Mimi and I would like to share our thanks with you for all that God allowed us to enjoy in ministering to the beautiful people of sub-Saharan Africa last year.  Your encouragement and support make our ministry [...]]]>
Mimi and I wish you and yours a Happy New Year.
 
As we look forward to a new year, Mimi and I would like to share our thanks with you for all that God allowed us to enjoy in ministering to the beautiful people of sub-Saharan Africa last year.  Your encouragement and support make our ministry possible, thank you.  What precious friends and family we have!
 
I recently returned to Houston after spending most of December back home in Kenya.  This recent ministry trip was my busiest one yet.  While I got to preach often, most of my time was spent in helping university administrators, leaders of the Bible Department at Daystar University, Nairobi, and the Principal of the Kenya Baptist Theological College (KBTC) with funds through HaMoreh Ministries.  What a joy!  When I left KPMG Peat Marwick and ran off to seminary the first time, I just knew that my work as a CPA was behind me.  Well, it is … but God is again using the training and the gifts that He gave me to bless others without such training and gifts.  Who would have thought that doing financial transactions could be fun again?  What a blast!
 
Before I left, my Houston students asked that I work on some details for them, such that they could make plans for their ministry in Africa throughout this coming summer.  A Houston church had also asked that I work on arranging a trip for their university students to come over to Kenya and minister for June, 2007.  So, I spent time in AIDS orphanages, with feeding program workers, with medical missions, and with missionaries to students talking through a myriad of possibilities for my best and brightest in Houston to minister with us in Africa. What a treat!
 
Much time was spent in the Nairobi area working on logistics for Mimi’s and my summer, 2007 ministry efforts.  This coming summer, I will again teach Old Testament at the university and am working on details for biblical theology lectures that I will present at the KBTC and at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST).  Mimi will again volunteer in the university library and will help a church outreach program to needy children.  Friends in Kenya are now helping manage my preaching schedule for the summer, which is filling up already.  What a dream coming true!
 
And, I got to spend quality time with the two young Africans (Gratien and Rebeka) that Mimi and I treat as our own.  God has been, and is, growing our children through many struggles.  This time together drew us even closer … to each other … and to God.  What an answer to prayer!
 
May you and yours enjoy 2007, and through it all, may you get to know God better!
 
Love,
 
Jamie
]]> Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:00:00 -0600 https://www.hamoreh.org/4267 Stories From Kenya with Love! https://www.hamoreh.org/4266 From Nairobi … Mimi and I wish you and yours a blessed Christmas season. May you enjoy the awe and wonder of our season of celebration.  Over recent days, my African students have well reminded me that celebrating Christmas is essentially celebrating life.  May we celebrate together with [...]]]>
From Nairobi … Mimi and I wish you and yours a blessed Christmas season. May you enjoy the awe and wonder of our season of celebration.  Over recent days, my African students have well reminded me that celebrating Christmas is essentially celebrating life.  May we celebrate together with brothers and sisters all over the world life created, life birthed, life sustained, life nurtured, life matured, life protected, life redeemed, life enriched by the lives of others, and life fulfilled in the love of others.  Mimi and I pray that you enjoy the gift of your life like never before over the coming days.  We thank you, and we thank God, for adding so much to our lives.  This celebration season, Mimi and I purpose to enjoy the gift of life with you as children of a Father who loves us perfectly.  Please do join in the fun….  
 
Merry Christmas!!!
]]> Sat, 23 Dec 2006 01:00:00 -0600 https://www.hamoreh.org/4266 General Still Giving Thanks! https://www.hamoreh.org/4265 Mimi and I thank God for you and we pray that you and your family will enjoy a restful and a refreshing Thanksgiving holiday.  May God continue to bless you and yours!
 
We rejoice and continue to give thanks over God blessing all ongoing efforts in helping our brothers and sisters in Africa [...].]]>
Mimi and I thank God for you and we pray that you and your family will enjoy a restful and a refreshing Thanksgiving holiday.  May God continue to bless you and yours!
 
We rejoice and continue to give thanks over God blessing all ongoing efforts in helping our brothers and sisters in Africa.  Since our return from sub-Saharan Africa in late August, God has brought a flurry of blessings that Mimi and I want to share with you.  Please do be encouraged, as we are.
 
Friends have helped us organize and incorporate our ministry entity, HaMoreh Ministries, a Texas non-profit corporation.  HaMoreh Ministries now has a seven member Board of Directors that encourages, prays for, and helps us in all sorts of ways.  An attorney friend helped HaMoreh Ministries file for IRS 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt status, and we expect the favorable IRS determination letter in due course.  Our home church, FBC, Houston, gave HaMoreh designated funds to provide the Kenya Baptist Theological College with $15,000 of student scholarships and $10,000 of other needed support.  FBC, Houston also gave HaMoreh designated funds to provide the Bible department of Daystar University, Nairobi with $15,000 for computing equipment needs and $5,000 for student scholarships.  And, FBC, Houston gave HaMoreh $5,000 to cover HaMoreh’s costs of administrating these designated gifts in Kenya.  I will travel to Kenya in December to oversee all administrative aspects of disbursing these designated funds.  God is answering prayers….
 
Mimi and I also thank God for friends joyfully giving to help with the HaMoreh Ministries’ startup costs.  We are praying that God will move others to finish funding the HaMoreh startup budget by the end of 2006 (ca. $10,000 of the startup budget remains to be funded).  HaMoreh will soon begin to seek funding for a 2007 ministry budget!  Mimi and I thank God for including us in such a rewarding ministry, and for blessing everyone’s efforts so quickly.
 
A couple of groups and several individuals close to us have expressed desire to minister with us in Africa next summer.  Already, my summer teaching and preaching schedule in Kenya is filling up.  Mimi and I pray that my meetings in Nairobi and Limuru next month will bring clarity to all of us as to how we can best utilize all the ministry opportunities that God is presenting us in Africa.  Thank you for praying.  God is calling laborers to work alongside us in a needy and far away place.
 
So, I write to thank God and to thank you for all of your support.
 
God is so very good to us!
 
Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Love,
 
Jamie
]]> Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:00:00 -0600 https://www.hamoreh.org/4265 General Back from Home https://www.hamoreh.org/4264  
Mimi, Angie, and I have just returned safely to Houston from Kenya. Mimi and I are back at HBU preparing for another school year to begin next week.  I’ve already attended a meeting at SWBTS preparing for my Greek class to begin next week at the seminary. Yikes!  Rebeka and Gratien have now begun their fall semester at Daystar University, Nairobi.  We miss them terribly!  Mimi and I are back in familiar surroundings, but nothing is the same.
 
On behalf of our African family of faith, Mimi and I thank you all for your prayers and for your support of our mission to the beautiful and needy people of Africa.  Our third mission in Kenya was amazing, exhausting, exhilarating, sad, joyous, radically biblical, and much, much more.  God prepared new experiences for each of us and graciously led us the whole time we walked with Him in Africa.  What can I tell you?  I have been burdened like never before to spend all that I am ministering in Africa.  What an awesome display of God at work!  It’s true - the whole of divine revelation, general and special, screams God’s grace and His saving work in Christ.  (Psalm 19)  It’s true - sub-Saharan Africa is besieged with political corruption, economic tyranny, social strife, racial and tribal hatred, famine, drought, AIDS, and other epidemics.  There, God has chosen to save many and to shower His grace upon us in amazing ways.
 
Mimi and I thank God for His invitation to join Him at work in East Africa. What could be more fun?  What could be more meaningful?  I will remember my many teaching and preaching opportunities by all of the eager and open African faces, and by their exuberant responses.  God prepares and enables people to hear and to respond to Him.  What a joy to watch the Holy Spirit at work!  (Romans 12:1-2)  I have never enjoyed more precious and attentive students or more engaging worshippers!  There is everything dynamic about being spiritually hungry….
 
Sharing some life with our African brothers and sisters has changed our lives.  Mimi and I have become spiritually hungry.  For real and forever.  We think differently, we pray differently, we feel differently, we behave differently, and we will not go back from here. Have you learned that your neighbor is the one who is in need? (Mark 12:28-31) Will you join us?
 
Please pray for us over the coming days.  Mimi and I believe that God will meet all of Rebeka’s and Gratien’s needs.  Please join us in praying for these two special young ones.  We can’t wait until you get to meet them.  Even better, come to Kenya with us and meet thousands and thousands of similar miracles of God’s grace!  
 
Mimi and I are praying for the means to establish a not-for-profit entity in the United States and a non-governmental organization in Kenya.  Moving into the future, “HaMoreh Ministries” will be our principal ministry vehicle for organizational and financial purposes. Please pray that God will raise up a HaMoreh leadership team that will add much to our gifts and talents.  We pray for a permanent presence in the Nairobi area.  Please pray for our vision of a Kenyan residential study center to be shared enthusiastically by those whom God will use to help bring the dream to reality.  Please pray for helpers in communicating the needs of our African neighbors, and the vision that God has given to us.  And, please pray for our quick return to Kenya!  I am now praying for the finances to return to Kenya for 2-3 weeks in December.  This time will best be spent meeting in Nairobi, Athi River, and Limuru to plan and organize June - August 2007 ministry efforts.  A number of my US students are asking to join us in Kenya next summer - please pray for us all!  
 
Mimi and I thank God for you.  I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened, so that you will know the hope of His calling - the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints!  (Ephesians 1:18)
]]> Wed, 23 Aug 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4264 General Our Family Grows! https://www.hamoreh.org/4263 Over the coming days, Mimi and I look forward to introducing you to two new "members of our family."   God has gifted us with a deep love for two precious university students that we will now relate to as our own.  Just briefly (much more later!), Rebeka Teshome is completing her first year at [...]]]>
Over the coming days, Mimi and I look forward to introducing you to two new "members of our family."   God has gifted us with a deep love for two precious university students that we will now relate to as our own.  Just briefly (much more later!), Rebeka Teshome is completing her first year at Daystar University.  Rebeka is working towards a B.S. in Management Information Systems.  She is excelling in my New Testament Theology class!   Rebeka is a precious 19 year-old Christian young lady from Ethiopia.  Born to a single woman following her rape, Rebeka has been brought to the university and financially sponsored by her brother.  Rebeka's brother recently lost his job as an aid worker for a Christian famine relief program.  Rebeka is now in Nairobi without family or finances.  So, Mimi and I are most excited about Rebeka now being a part of our family!  Gratien Iyumva is finishing his second year at Daystar University and is working towards a B.S. in Computer Science.  He is also doing very well in my New Testament class!  Gratien is an amazing 23 year-old young Christian man from Rwanda.  Gratien and his family fled Rwanda during the Hutu-Tutsi massacre.  Ever since, they have struggled mightily to find work in Kenya.  Gratien's Kenyan financial supporter has recently lost any ability to help.
 
Mimi and I look forward to you meeting both of our new loved ones!
 
Mimi and I thank you very much for your prayers.  Please do continue!  We will greatly appreciate you praying for us - now including Rebeka and Gratien - as we take care of the university fees and living expenses for our dear loved ones over the coming days.
 
May God continue to bless you and yours!
 
Love,
 
Jamie
]]> Sun, 06 Aug 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4263 General The Africa Bible Commentary https://www.hamoreh.org/4261 We rejoice with our African colleagues in their recent publication of the Africa Bible Commentary (“ABC,” Tokunboh Adeyemo, general editor, Nairobi: WordAlive/Zondervan, 2006).  The first of its kind, and over 12 years in the making, the ABC is written by over 70 African biblical [...]]]>
We rejoice with our African colleagues in their recent publication of the Africa Bible Commentary (“ABC,” Tokunboh Adeyemo, general editor, Nairobi: WordAlive/Zondervan, 2006).  The first of its kind, and over 12 years in the making, the ABC is written by over 70 African biblical scholars and church leaders.  The ABC explains the complete text of the Bible and applies the Bible’s teaching to contemporary Africa.  Its interpreters respect the integrity of the biblical text and use African proverbs, metaphors, and stories to speak to African believers in villages and cities across this vast continent.  The ABC’s aim is to be true to the text and honest to its context then and now.  The biblical application is both bold and faithful. 
 
Though the ABC is written by Africans and primarily for Africans, we may all benefit from it.  May reading the Bible through African lenses help to inspire us all with the dynamism and excitement that typifies contemporary African Christianity!  (Ephesians 3:16-19)
]]> Wed, 26 Jul 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4261 General Please Do Pray https://www.hamoreh.org/4262 All three of us thank you for your prayers.  Our meetings last week with the leadership of Daystar University went splendidly, thank you.  Please continue to pray that we can now execute our plans at the university for the rest of our stay here in Nairobi, Kenya this summer.  Jamie, Mimi, and Angie have much that we hope to get accomplished before we head back to Houston.  Thank you, we are well and working hard.
 
My New Testament Theology class at the university is a blast!  Thank you Lord!
 
Please do pray for continuing good health and strentgh to enable our heart's desires.  We have a great and growing sense of God's presence and power over us now.  Our Lord is so very gracious in allowing us to join Him in His amazing work here!  Speaking for all three of us, we are enjoying our Lord immensely!
 
Please also continue to pray for our efforts in helping the Kenya Baptist Theological College (KBTC) in Limuru, Kenya.  We will head back up into the mountains again soon, where I will preach at the Tigoni Fellowship.  We will also have more meetings with the KBTC faculty and leadership team.  All of the biblical studies and theological volumes that we have collected in Houston have now been promised to the KBTC.  Please continue to pray for us as we now deal with the Kenyan government, the KBTC leadership, and our friends in Houston in getting the volumes from Houston to the KBTC most efficiently.  Thank you! ]]> Sun, 23 Jul 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4262 General We Are Now Three https://www.hamoreh.org/4260 Thank you all for praying.  Our friend, Angie, arrived safely Friday night.  She and four large containers made it through Kenya Customs with no problems.  Praise the Lord!  All the computers, other electronic equipment, and books for Daystar University came right to us with no hassle and no duty [...]]]>
Thank you all for praying.  Our friend, Angie, arrived safely Friday night.  She and four large containers made it through Kenya Customs with no problems.  Praise the Lord!  All the computers, other electronic equipment, and books for Daystar University came right to us with no hassle and no duty charges.  Our God is so very good!  Your prayers for our work are deeply appreciated.  My teaching has been a great joy - the students are responding brilliantly.  My preaching opportunities have each been different - and each has been a great blessing for us all.  Thank you - last week I preached the Bible Department chapel service at Daystar University.  What a treat!  This morning we were blessed - hugely - at Nairobi Pentecostal Church as we shared the service with a Daystar University singing group, the university vice chancellor, and a packed house of worshippers!  May our Lord continue to amaze us all as we seek to enjoy Him more and more!  

I am feeling better physically, thank you for praying.  Mimi continues to march right along, helping us all, day by day. Next week all three of us will be working with the university's Bible department in assessing their needs.  We will also be setting our schedule for the remainder of our time here this summer.  Please do pray that God will lead our discussions and that every resource - time, energy, and finances - will be maximized for the good of these beautiful people ... all to God's glory! (Psalm 145)
]]> Sun, 16 Jul 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4260 Stories Oops... https://www.hamoreh.org/4259 Please excuse our cyber hiccup, but your previous "Comments" have been eaten by digital unknowns.  Mimi and I remember all of your expressions, and we thank you for them.  Your encouragement and prayers are greatly appreciated!  Our techno friends now have the "Comments" eater dealt with, so please [...]]]>
Please excuse our cyber hiccup, but your previous "Comments" have been eaten by digital unknowns.  Mimi and I remember all of your expressions, and we thank you for them.  Your encouragement and prayers are greatly appreciated!  Our techno friends now have the "Comments" eater dealt with, so please continue to share.  Mimi and I will continue to update you as we are able.  Our work is going very well, and Mimi is doing great.  I have had some digestive troubles, but I am feeling a bit better today.  African bacteria!  Thank you for praying. 
 
Our friend, Angie, arrives Friday, July 14. Please pray for Angie and for us this week as our schedule is very full. I am in full-swing in both teaching and preaching schedules, and we have meetings scattered throughout the week as well.  Would you pray specifically for our Daystar University chapel service on Thursday, July 13?  I will be preaching.  My New Testament students are just amazing - a room jam-packed full of young, eager believers from Kenya, Rwanda, Berundi, Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania ... and they thank you for helping us!  I only wish that you were here....  (Romans 1:8-12)
]]> Sun, 09 Jul 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4259 Special Events A Tragic Reminder https://www.hamoreh.org/4255
Returning from Nairobi to Athi River along Mombasa Road our university bus came upon a horrific scene, one which Mimi and I immediately recognized from last year's trips up and down the Kenyan "roads" - another fatal accident.  Like last summer, we saw lives poured out on the horrible "roads" around here - an ugly and wrenching reminder of death in the midst of this mayhem.  Mimi and I can just almost feel the pain in the faces of the onlooking crowds.  For many here, life is very hard, and then it seems to end.  Lord, help us to do justice, to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly before you ... may your kingdom spread all around us!  (Micah 6:8; Amos 5:24; Mt. 6:10)
]]> Sat, 01 Jul 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4255 Stories Water and Power https://www.hamoreh.org/4248
Mimi and I continue to be well, and we are now back working at Daystar University during the week.  Our time at the Athi River campus brings new adventures every day.  The savannah is very dry this time of year, and the surrounding area has been suffering from a draught for some time.  We have water some days and we have electricity some days.  Every so often, we have water and electricity all in the same day.  Mimi and I appreciate a hot shower, a cup of tea, and a light at night like never before!  We notice that none of this ebb and flow apparently affects my students.  They rejoice when the water and electricity returns, yet are content otherwise.  Doing without some simple stuff seems to help Mimi and me apprehend the living water and the spiritual power welling up within us.  Thank you for praying!  (Jer. 17:13; John 7:38: Acts 1:8)
]]> Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4248 General We Need Your Prayers https://www.hamoreh.org/4257 Thank you for your prayers.  God is blessing!  Mimi and I are well and we are enjoying our work at Daystar University in Nairobi and in Athi River.  Please continue to pray for us and for all those whom we share God's love with here.  Mimi and I are off to the Kenya Baptist Theological College for [...]]]>
Thank you for your prayers.  God is blessing!  Mimi and I are well and we are enjoying our work at Daystar University in Nairobi and in Athi River.  Please continue to pray for us and for all those whom we share God's love with here.  Mimi and I are off to the Kenya Baptist Theological College for days of meeting and preaching in Limuru.  We anticipate bad weather in the mountains.  Thank you for praying especially for our health and stamina over the coming days!
]]> Wed, 21 Jun 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4257 General Supernatural Rhythms https://www.hamoreh.org/4256 The African smells, sights, sounds, and sensual rhythms welcomed us back.  Every sensation prompted us to think differently - more deeply.  Disruption of our usual patterns and ways brought more  natural daily rhythms.  With occasion to watch, to listen, and to think ... conversations eased .. [...].]]>
The African smells, sights, sounds, and sensual rhythms welcomed us back.  Every sensation prompted us to think differently - more deeply.  Disruption of our usual patterns and ways brought more  natural daily rhythms.  With occasion to watch, to listen, and to think ... conversations eased ... even with God.  Mimi and I have  been slowed down to African rhythms. Everything takes longer, and  we wanted to think it frustrating.  But we smell, we listen, we look, and we learn.  Mimi and I learn much from my African students - thank you, Lord, for them.  Smiles everywhere!  (Makes me wonder if the phrase, "It's all good" might be African in origin.)  The simple has  become the most profound to us again.  Mimi and I are living more supernaturally now in our African rhythms.  Minds being transformed do yield more worshipful lives....
]]> Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:00:00 -0500 https://www.hamoreh.org/4256 General