Dear Friend,
Greetings in Christ! I am excited to announce that in April 2023 I will be headed back to Kenya!
The last couple of months I have be
en communicating with Dr. Bishop George Muguro, the Principle of Manna Bible Institute, about returning. We discussed where the nation of Kenya is with Covid restrictions, as well as the college and the city where it is located. Dr. Muguro said everything has returned to normal and it would be the perfect time to reschedule.
I give God praise that I still have the airline ticket from two years ago. The airline companies allowed flyers to keep their tickets when they were not able to use them due to a wide range of Covid reasons.
After we decided when it would be best to return, we spent time discussing what I would be doing based on previous ministry plans for 2020 and an updated budget.
The cost for the ministry trip will be broken down according to the following . . .
- Crusade. We will conduct a citywide outdoor multi-day crusade, expected to gather hundreds to come and hear the gospel. Students will assist with the preaching and ministry during the crusade.
- MBI. I will be teaching 70-90 evangelists for four days. Since the students I will be teaching pay no fees, Great Awakenings will cover the costs of materials, lodging, food and other expenses on behalf of the college.
- Outreach. We have yet to decide on either a youth, children’s or married couple’s outreach.
- Personal evangelism. We will conduct a person-to-person outreach, ministering to people house to house, business to business or in the market place.
- The remaining costs will cover lodging, food, and travel while I am in country, plus other miscellaneous expenses.
This will be the most amount of money ever raised through Great Awakenings. We are facing a difficult time with inflation as many households and our nation’s economy struggles. Even so, Dr. Muguro and I are trusting the Lord God for His bountiful provision through His faithful people. Take time to seek God in prayer about a potential financial partnership with us. We already have one fellow believer that has committed to give $1,000.
If you would like to donate toward the upcoming ministry trip, please click here.
I am excited to be partnering with MBI. They began in 1986 and have seen thousands of students come through their college from several East African nations. According to their website,
they are an “. . . interdenominational Bible school training pastors, evangelists, chaplains, missionaries, Sunday School teachers psychologists and lay persons who have a call to ministry.” The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11-12, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ . . .” This is the work we will be doing with MBI students.
We are believing for God to do great things through this Kenyan outreach. Through the training and gospel proclamation, many will be impacted by God’s Kingdom in Kenya and East Africa.
BATHROOM AND SHOWER PROJECT COMPLETE
The MBI bathroom and shower construction project that Great Awakenings funded is complete! In 2020 when I was not able to go to Kenya as originally planned, God led us to minister in Kenya a different way. When we learned that for years, students and faculty had to go off campus to the nearby African Nazarene University for bathroom facilities, God led us to help fund the construction of two new bathroom buildings and the remodeling of a third. See more photos on Great Awakenings Facebook page.
ON THE FRONT PAGE
For years, we have been sending my Speaking Truth column to over 300 papers from North Dakota to Texas. However, in recent months, with the help of our local newspaper, The Clay Center Dispatch, my column has been published in papers from Oregon, Montana, New York, Tennessee and Connecticut.
The Riley Countian has carried my column for many years, one reader contacted me writing through Facebook Messenger “Every week, I very much look forward to your column in the Riley Countian . . . your columns stick as you deliver God’s Word so well.” And the Metro Voice has also carried me for years and I was grateful that my column made the front page of their August edition. I echo the words of 2 Samuel 22:50, “For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.”
Please go to my blog (clintdecker.blogspot.com) and subscribe to receive my weekly columns. A new one is published online every Monday.
FACEBOOK LIVE
I
n addition to the release of a new column each week, I have recently begun a Facebook ministry. Nearly every day I am posting something on Facebook for ministry purposes and one of those is a Facebook Live broadcast every Thursday. It is a short evangelistic message that is often based on one of my columns or sermons I have given. You can go to Great Awakenings, Inc Facebook page to follow my posts and share them with others.
THE GOSPEL TO THE COMATOSE
In the course of three weeks, God provided a chance to minister at the bed side of two dying and comatose women. One of those was Francie Young. On Wednesday, August 3, six days before her death, I was asked to come to visit Francie at the hospital. I went expecting also to see her husband and one of her sons. However, when I arrived, Francie was by herself in the room in a coma and her husband and son had left for the day.
The nurse that came said her brain function was perfectly fine and she could hear me. In that moment, I believed the Scripture that says, “. . . how are they to hear without someone preaching?” And later it states, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:14,17)
I knew Francie believed in the existence of God. She had been to church as a little girl, but I did not know for sure if she had truly been born again and entered into a covenant relationship with Christ. (Pictured: Dylan, Francie’s eldest son)
I began to read Scripture after Scripture and talked with her earnestly about the condition of her soul as she stood on the precipice of death. I lifted up the name of Jesus and talked about His cross, and pleaded with her to repent of her sin and turn to Jesus that she might be with Him in heaven for eternity. As I talked, and she lay there motionless with eyes closed and hooked up with tubes in her mouth on her body, I believed by faith that God sent me and she could hear and understand everything being said.
As I walked out of that room and drove home, I hoped and prayed with all my heart that it was well with her soul and that one day I see her again worshipping and serving Jesus in heaven.
I was asked by the family to lead her funeral and was able to share this story with them.
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS
Most Sundays I am traveling and preaching in small rural churches. One church I preached at in September was the Rocky Branch Baptist Church in Rogers, Arkansas. I travel there annually and every year I have seen the church grow under the godly leadership of Pastor Dick Kelsey.
The church sits in a rural area just outside the city of Rogers on beautiful Beaver Lake. There are part-time residents who have vacations homes on the lake, permanent residents and a transient population. In some places there is tremendous wealth and in others you see much poverty. Hidden beneath the amazing scenery of Beaver Lake and the larger region are drug and alcohol problems. This gave rise to the Freedom Seekers Ministry, a separate ministry from the church. Pastor Kelsey seeing the need, reached out to partner with FSM, collaborating together to help turn souls from addiction and to Christ. For this what the gospel does as the Scripture declares, “For freedom Christ has set us free . . .” (Gal. 5:1)
It is interesting to observe how every church is uniquely positioned by God and gifted by Him to minister His Word to the unique needs of the area in which they live.
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you have been encouraged at what God is doing.
Servant of Jesus. Servant of Yours,
Clint Decker
President
Great Awakenings, Inc
