| February 2009 Victories and New Directions | | We thank God for whatever He is doing through you, and through our little works of faith to shine His glorious light in this world He so loves.
As we witness desperate cases surrender to His everlasting hope and bondages give way to His power, our hearts abound with more joy while we praise Him for the opportunity and grace of serving Him by serving others here in Kenya.
Think of the desperation of a mentally disabled orphan in the hands of her ailing grandmother; fighting for survival through the desert life of Lodwar. A starving grandmother, with no strength left to fight for her own life, let alone her granddaughter Topos.
Yet in their situation, Christ Jesus chooses to demonstrate His absolute love for all humanity. All, including Topos and others, whose plight He is always ready to bear.
| | Relief Food Distribution
SERV is still distributing two containers of food to starving families in Kenya. Two more containers are on the way to the country from the US. | |  The House of Hope, a project of SERV Ministries International, is now the place that Topos, alongside 14 other orphans call home; a place of rest and healing from hurts of life.
Turning Point recently visited the Orphanage and the children are, glory to God, radiating with hope!
Topos improvement is especially amazing. She is less noisy, able to walk uprightly, get water when thirsty, as well as feed without assistance. She also, unlike before, knows her bed plus her name.
When you call, she smiles back, underscoring the fact that indeed, a miracle is turning her life around. A special school for the mentally handcapped has been identified in Eldoret and she will be admited as soon as funds for her tution and upkeep are available. There is hope and destiny for this little girl of Lodwar as well as others that SERV is reaching through TPM across Kenya. | TPM Expansion Meanwhile, the Ministry to the orphans and widows is in the safe hands of Margaret Mumoki, TPM's nurse with over 20 years work experience as a professional nurse in Kenya's leading hospitals, like Kenyatta National Hospital. We pray that as TPM's ministry scope expands, we shall through grace and God's provision, effectively transform lives for Him.
| | New Directions with Her Original Purpose
Laura was connected to Etermity Gospel Church after an experience she had one January morning of 2009. As she woke in early morning, Laura was struggling to do an easy thing-open her eyes. It was weirdly difficult. She attempted to lift her head off the pillow but it was like breaking a coconut on her knee. Everything was moving in circles in her head, an experience like none she could recall. Every time she opened her eyes, the room would spin and she'd become nauseous. Normally when she has headache, she is still able to read a book or write but this morning, she couldn't move or open her eyes without getting sick. "I know this is just the Devil trying to keep me from going out for missions!" she thought to her self. She began to summon some strength for a warfare prayer but suddenly, a voice came, of God speaking to her heart.
It was about the noble work she has been doing for Christ by helping the widows, orphans and struggling women pastors through TPM.
But now there is an equally noble work she has not been doing as much as He needed, which was using her gifts of teaching plus healing and deliverance to edify the church. The encounter turned out to be the first Turning Point of the Turning Point Ministries.
When it ended, so did the grip of dizziness on her. "At that point I realized that God had put me in that position to speak to me. I had been so busy for Him that I had no time to spend some good time just listening to Him."
Immediately, God directed her to call Reverend Kaloki, the senior pastor of the Eternity Gospel Church and Ministries. Amazingly, her gifts of teaching, healing and deliverance turned out to be like a prayer answered for the church.
Laura is now, besides teaching at EMBC, visiting and praying for the sick with Pastor Miriam, the residential pastor and wife of R. Kaloki. On Saturdays, they minister to people at the church through the healing and deliverance ministry.
"While teaching, the most interesting part is when the whole class discusses a question from a student on his or her personal life." Laura. | | [The following is a satire written by our TPM Communications Director]
The Garden Beyond by Amos Mirera
As one body the birds of Karen fly, just scant meters above the lush crops of the Mbagathi River Valley. Smoothly they negotiate sky and forest like a single squadron on the mission of their lives.
As they swoop into the Dickerson compound to perch upon corn stalks before feeding, the squadron leader chirps a ballad meant to mock both man's best friend and man himself. Nearby, the Dickerson's Dog-In-Command, Daisy, is subjected to the humiliating song without relent.
Though she sports the jaws of the lion
And can swipe with claws like the bear
Our champion lacks any wings to fly on
And so resorts to flailing her paws in the air.
Though she rivals the speed of a cheetah
And the dread tenacity of the bull,
The chain of the tree keeps her from using either,
Regardless how tightly she pulls.
Even the black-faced monkeys scoff at her plight
Between their theft of the best beans and tomatoes
Every season we birds make this flight
Growing fatter on the maize and potatoes
As they sing in a language that she seems to little comprehend, the German shepherd, Daisy, barks at them while straining on the chain just as the birds describe it in their song. Engaging her in a ground attack at the same time are a troop of black-faced veret monkeys who debase her with a sardonic chattering laughter, at which she can only howl in retaliation.
Soon, Daisy begins to wail hysterically under the Armageddon tree as the monkeys hasten their steps through the rain forest in their assault on this 'scare-dog' and the crops she miserably tries to protect. For what it is worth, she is Dog-In-Command, the only thing standing between monkeys, birds, and the coveted Dickerson crops.
Whenever they wish, the birds fly in from all points of the compass to spoil food meant for humans. Their desire is to eat what they can and ruin the rest.
The ravaging primates are part of a lawless cartel that has pressed for two years a military campaign to evict the 'squatter' missionaries from the monkeys' garden beside the river. Their propaganda effort has included persistent newspaper adverts that the Dickersons lack compassion for the desperate conditions of primates, birds, and other animals subject to the severe food crisis facing their kingdom. The source of income for these adverts is yet to be identified but information is forthcoming.
. | Many thanks
We are so thankful to God for the far we have walked together, putting smiles on His people; all those women and children that Christ has delivered, restored, encouraged and equipped that they may live victorious lives in Him.
Judy
Judy is one such restored case; after one year of proper feeding, all necessary medications provided plus pastoral and psychological counseling with TPM, she is now leading a normal life on her own!
Kadija
Widow Kadija and her seven children have also successfully gone through the rebuilding and equipping phases of our program. She too is on her own; able to pay house rent, feed her children and pay their school fees while spreading the love of Christ to her Borana friends and relatives!
Pauline
Pauline is pursuing a hair styling and beauty course which ends in April. She is also living on her own, while taking good care of her 3 year old son Gearge ! In the meantime , She does part time jobs to help cater for her child as well as pay house rent. Before, she was always sickly and extremely apathetic about living. Thank God she is now healthy and strong enough to pursue God's purpose for her life.
Pastor Margaret
Turning Point Ministries is still standing with Pastor Margaret, the preacher in the slums of Kayole.The ministry pays for her house rent and church hall rent which are paid monthly. TPM is considering helping her family start a small business, which will help her be self reliant. Her congregation is not able to support pastor Margaret financially in any way considering that these are also poor people who need financial assistance.
"But though their pockets are poor most of the time, their hearts are always rich all the time because they can still encourage one another! We offer ourselves to God who through grace, uses and sustains us in the slums." Pastor Margaret.
Miriam and Carolyne
Carolyne recently did devotion in a bible college where Laura is teaching on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, after requesting for a chance to encourage students. She became a blessing to the students of Eternity Missions Bible College the day she got the chance. The college is at the Eternity Gospel Church, just few kilometers from the Dickersons' residence.
The school's curriculum has been prepared by....
Church members give their money, with some selling what they own to train pastors and lay leaders for missions.
Miriam is getting baptized the first Sunday of March! She accepted Christ about 8 months ago and decided on her own that she was ready for such a public proclamation of her faith. | | | | | Upcoming Events
Laura and Pastor Margaret, the slums' preacher, will be ministering at a conference organized for women by New Life Church in Nyeri, a town in the Central Province of Kenya, about 200kms away from Nairobi city.
| | Jesus promised his disciplines three things -- they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble. GK Chesterton, British writer and Christian apologist 1874-1936 |  Don and Laura Dickerson, Amos Mirera, and Margaret Mumoki Turning Point Ministries Team
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