A couple of years ago, as we were about to begin leading a two-week cross-cultural training for mission and ministry workers, I received a message. “Nancy is missing. We need to go find Nancy.” I thought, you have got to be kidding me! It had taken years for Nancy, Isaac, and Faith to secure visas and the opportunity to travel to the USA and take this training course. Visas from Kenya to the USA are not easy to procure, and many are turned away. Every year, we have several people who want to attend our training, but their visas are denied. And now, Nancy has gotten a visa and traveled to the USA only to get lost riding a Greyhound bus in Kentucky! Lord – help us find Nancy!
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That was how my relationship with Nancy, Isaac, and Faith began. We did find Nancy at a bus station in Lexington, and the three young Kenyans participated and completed our training course with flying colors. Their presence was a gift to everyone in the room! They were already leaders in ministry and mission in Kenya and serving in different ways, but there was something about each of them that told us that they were destined for even more.

Last year, we went to Kenya to lead the cross-cultural training course there. This was an answer to so many things! We no longer had to fight the USA visa process to get people trained. We could train even more people because of the location and cost. And we had an international ministry partner in Kenya who could host and handle many of the details. We trained 45 pastors and mission workers last year, many of whom were equally as amazing in their leadership as Nancy, Isaac, and Faith. Several rose to the top as promising prospects for future training and leadership.

Fast forward to this year – 2025. Sixteen of those mission and ministry leaders came together in Kenya for a Train-the-Trainer course. We led them through a curriculum designed to prepare facilitators in adult learning theory and best practices in facilitation and training. We spent a week with them, working on theory and practicing skills. Nancy and Isaac and Faith were among them. We were seeing the ripple effect in action: We trained mission workers – they went out and practiced and put the training into action and gained experience – they then came back to become trainers so that they can continue the process with others.

After the Train-the-Trainer course was completed, we helped mentor and coach the new trainers as they led their first Kenyan cross-cultural mission training event. Thirty mission and ministry workers came to attend the training, representing nine different tribes. At least six different languages were spoken in the room. It was amazing! Watching our new trainers adapt and contextualize the curriculum so that it best fit the needs of this audience was a dream come true! This is what we need in missions today… not more North American curriculum being overlaid onto African or Latin American cultures, but we need indigenous trainers who can contextualize and make the concepts come alive and work for the culture in which they serve! I was in heaven watching this happen and hearing it taught in Swahili and Kikuyu and other tribal languages. This is how the Kingdom will advance to all tribes and all nations and all tongues. God’s people being equipped and mobilized to go out and equip and mobilize others.

Who are these people? Nancy is a wife and mother. Her husband, Julius, is also one of our new trainers. Together, they serve in the Samburu tribal areas, a formerly unreached people group who has been recently removed from the Unreached People Group list due to the efforts of people like Nancy and Julius and Simon and others.

Isaac is a young man with a huge passion for pastoring and church planting and missions. Isaac is pastoring a church plant in Kenya that now has hundreds of congregants. He sent me a message and photos yesterday of a training he was doing with his church leadership. New training skills are being put to use!

Faith is a single young mother. She is a lawyer by vocation, but her heart is missions. She uses her mission training to reach out to other young single women and to help them find their identity in Jesus. Faith became a powerful trainer in our group and is already planning to put on a full cross-cultural training event in December for other mission and ministry workers.

There are so many stories that I could tell you about this training. At the end of the event, one tribal leader came to me and asked, “When is the next training? I need to bring others to this.” When I explained that there would be other trainings and that the new trainers would be handling that, he was pleased. I told him that we would come back in a year to follow-up and help the trainers, and he said, “I am currently raising up 80 disciples in the Samburu. By next year, I will have 80 people ready for this training.”

Another elder came up and asked if his son could attend a training. His son is a young adult. He said, “I now see why our children are having so much conflict and trouble adapting to other tribes and areas of Kenya. Our children need to understand cross-cultural life. This training is the future for our children.”

Please praise God for all that He is doing in Kenya through the people that we have been working with! And please pray for continued growth and continued ripples for this training. This is generational transformation! Disciples, making disciple-makers, making disciples… and the Kingdom grows and the love spreads.  

We will be in College Station, Texas for a very quick weekend visit. We would LOVE to see you while we are there - Friday, Nov 14th-Sunday, Nov 16th.

Christ Church is having a Missions Emphasis Month in November, and we will be in town for their International Missions focus weekend. You are invited (please come!) to the various workshops, talks, and events that we will be doing over the weekend. As a special treat, we will be joined by Thomas and Karen Couch! You get to hear two CCW families at once!

Friday, November 14th at 6pm… we will be leading two workshops at Christ Church. Everyone is invited!

• “To the Ends of the Earth: Living Out Acts 1:8 as a Church” - Jesus told His followers in Acts 1:8 that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But what does that look like for us today? This workshop will help us explore how Acts 1:8 shapes our church’s mission strategy—both locally and globally. Together, we’ll discover how every believer can take part in God’s mission right here in our “Jerusalem” and far beyond to the nations.
• There will be a short break in between the workshops to enjoy coffee and visiting.
• “Important Global Trends in Mission: Third Spaces, Experiential Opportunities, and Migration” - The world is changing rapidly, and with it, the way we think about mission. In this workshop, we’ll explore three important global trends shaping how the Gospel is shared today: Third Spaces (mission in non-traditional places like coffee shops, soccer fields, and dinner tables), Experiential Opportunities (mission and discipleship through hands-on learning like short-term trips, cultural exchanges, and shared adventures), and Migration (the nations coming to our neighborhoods and cities). Together, we’ll discover how these trends open new doors for the church to join God’s mission—locally and globally.

All are welcome! Please come! Solid Grounds coffee shop at Christ Church starting at 6pm.

Saturday, November 15th - it is a Texas A&M Game Day and many are already busy, so we will have some individual meals and meetings and visit with people as time allows in their schedules.

Sunday, November 16th -

• We will be speaking at each of the four services at Christ Church. Services are at 8am, 9:30am, and two 11am services (contemporary service and blended service).
• There will also be a celebration luncheon after church at 12:30.
• On Sunday evening (time to be announced), we will be speaking to university students about global missions and ways to get engaged. We’ll be presenting several opportunities for short-term mission trips, internships, and more. This will be held at the coffee shop Solid Grounds at Christ Church. If you are a university student or you are connected to university students, please come and enjoy some great coffee, maybe a sweet treat, and some fun conversation about mission opportunities and ways to get involved around the world.