"Safari za Omondis"

Nothing But Grace- Benjamin's Life Story

2012-01-23T11:39:00.000-08:00

And for those of you who would like to read the entire story down to the fine details of how the Lord saved Benjamin's life and brought him into our family I have written it all out here on this link:

Benjamin's Life Story of Grace

There is Life...and then there is New Life

2012-01-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

For those of you who would like to see the more detailed version of Benjamin's story as well as the story of New Life Home Trust where Benjamin spent the first 6 months of his life, check out this video...To God be the glory for ALL He is doing through New Life Homes to save the lives of abandoned babies like our miracle son and great gift from God, Benjamin Joseph Omondi.

A Miracle Called Benjamin

2011-12-23T20:08:00.000-08:00

Recently we had the opportunity to share Benjamin's story with Jane Wells, at CNBC, who so graciously gave of her time and resources to come to Kenya to help New Life Home Trust in their efforts to see many children like our son be given a chance at life....to God be the Glory for all he has done!! We couldn't thank HIM enough!! Benjamin is indeed a miracle and a blessing to us. We pray that his life will be a testimony of God's love and grace to all! This is just a short clip that aired on msnbc about New Life Home but there is a longer version to come....so stay tuned...

The Miracle called Benjamin Omondi - A MUST SEE FOR ALL - GLORY TO JESUS our SAVIOR http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc-live-with-bashir/45779541#45779541

‘Tis the season to be thankful

video.msnbc.msn.com

Video on msnbc.com: NBC’s Jane Wells reports why some children are lucky just to receive the gift of life.

Christmas Update

2011-12-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

Here is our Christmas Update
We pray you and your family have a very Merry and Christ filled Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T11:08:00.001-08:00

God has been gracious to send us 16 wonderful people from Denton Bible Church to do a Kids camp at Word of Life in Ukunda. There are a little over 70 kids and camp started tonight. Please pray for the team:

They will have strength and that Jet lag will not be an issue. It is very hot in Ukunda at the moment and it tends to make people tired!
Pray that the power of the Gospel will be very evident as the team teaches about Jesus and that even at this very tender age the kids hearts will be quickened to love and live for Jesus!
Please pray for the SERVE team also for strength as we host the Denton group in the midst of all our other classes and ministries going on at the moment.

Enjoy the pictures and pray in anticipation of for what the Lord the will do this week - thank you so much for your continual prayer and support for our ministry and support.

The team at our home this afternoon listening to our testimony and story of God's faithfulness in our life and ministy

Camp Counselors introducing themselves

Excited kids singing and praising God in songs and praises to King Jesus!

front View of tonight's praise and worship at Word of Life Camp

The family at KFC - First American fast-food restaurant in Kenya! It was more of Kenyan Fried Chicken than Kentucky Fried Chicken:)

Benjamin a few hours after he turned one year old - what a wonderful blessing from our Lord Jesus this Kid is!!

Mama and her little kids - they loved the night out with family!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all - We thank God for you, your love and prayers for us as we SERVE our King Jesus here in Ukunda, Kenya.

Dennis, Allison, Anjela and Benjamin Omondi

Word of Life Fellowship Church

2011-10-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that I am a Pastor at the Word of Life Fellowship Church but don't really know the story of how I became one and how this is related to what we do here.

One of the Meetings outside of classroom setting - talking and discussing life in Ministry with the pastors and Church leaders.

SERVE is known in Kenya as a Leadership Training and Church Development ministry. Most people are familiar with the Leadership Training aspect of SERVE through BTCP/L (Bible Training Center for Pastors and Church Leaders). We have been training pastors in Kenya since 2005.

Over and above training these men and women of God we have desired to and have gotten involved in their lives beyond the classroom. We don't do it at as often as we would love to because of lack of human resource but we do it as the Lord enables us. (PLEASE PRAY that the Lord will send workers to this harvest field) This is the arm of SERVE Kenya that deals with Church development. We have an active BTCP/L Alumni that meets every month for the purpose of mutual edification and continued learning from us their teachers, albeit informally.

The Question that kept recurring in our dealings with the pastors and local church leaders here in Kenya was you are teaching pastors but where is your church, are you a pastor?! At first I did not have a clue why they would ask such question but later I came to realize that what they were asking was, "How are you qualified to teach pastors if you yourself are not a pastor?"

Another one of those out of Class reunions

In 2008 God provided an opportunity for me (Dennis Omondi) to become a pastor in Ukunda at the Word of Life Fellowship Church. It was a humble and hard beginning not only because I had never done this before but because I was inheriting a church that had been split and without a pastor for several years because of the former pastor's infidelity. But we have seen evidence of God's Grace and Power in the way the church has increased not only numerically (from 50 people then to almost 200 people now) but also in forgiveness, discipleship, love, giving, mutual edification just to mention but a few.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Dennis Omondi, Allison Omondi, Esther Karanja, Ben Warren, Martin Murigi, Godfrey Ikanda and James Muthee.

Today I look back and I realize how God used me for 4 year in training pastor with a lot of knowledge but with great naivety and ignorance as well. It is always a good thing when God reminds us that we are not all that we think we are...it keeps us humble and keeps us fully dependent on Him all the time! God has used our Church and the brothers and sisters above (that help in leading the church) to teach me very valuable lessons in life in Ministry of which I have no time or space to tell you about here - may be at another time!

Until then, PLEASE PRAY:

That Lord will keep us humble and dependent on Him all the time - everyday!
Pray that the Lord will expand His kingdom and the FAME of His Son Jesus through SERVE in Ukunda and beyond
Pray for our Church to be a clear example of God Honoring, Christ Centered and Spirit led Church in our community locally and Kenya at large!
Pray for Ben, James and I as we will be teaching in 2 separate conference this coming Thursday (October 20th) in the churches of our former BTCP students.

Thank you for keeping us in Prayer and Keeping us here through your consistent and generous financial support.

Dennis, Allison, Anjela and Benjamin Joseph Omondi

New Classes

2011-10-12T02:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

In the last several weeks we have been busy on our knees and on the phone working hard to recruit new student for our next BTCP/L classes. By God's grace yesterday we started two classes in both Ujamaa and Ukunda. The Ujamaa morning BTCP/L class has 8 students and the Ukunda night BTCL class has 12 students.

Tonight another class will start in Ukunda. This is is a special Church History class for both the current and former BTCP/L students. This class will go on for the next 8 weeks!

Please pray for James (Ujamaa), Ben and I (Ukunda) as we teach these students that they will:

Grow in the Knowledge and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
Love Jesus more when they graduate than they Love Him now
Look for opportunities to teach others what they are from the Lord through the classes

This the new class yesterday after the orientation - The man on the far right (Oscar) is Sergent in the Kenya Police

James introducing the class in Ujamaa

Ben introducing the class in Ujamaa

Thank you for your continued support and prayer as we SERVE our Lord Jesus here in Mombasa.

Quick Update

2011-09-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your continual prayers, encouragement and support that you give us as we SERVE the Lord here in Kenya.

Yesterday the DIMA pastors came over to the SERVE Campus for their monthly Shepherding Shepherds classes. We invited Child Evangelism Fellowship to come and talk to them about the importance of Childrens Ministries in the Local church and they did a superb Job! The 12 students present we so blessed and convicted on how they had unconsciously reduced the childrens ministries in their churches to "baby sitting classes" while the adults were listening to the Word of God!

Please pray that these pastors will not be the Rocky Ground that hear the Word of God and immediately receive it but then when persecution comes they immediately abandon the Word; but they will be doers of the things they are learning from the Lord during these weekends.

Ben Warren continues today and tomorrow to teach the Overview of the Bible and we pray that the Lord will strengthen brother Ben and make it clear to the pastors that the Bible is one Book with one Author - the Holy Spirit!

On the family front - Benjamin has not been well the last 2 days, he has had high fevers, diarrhea and refuses to eat. Allison is taking good care of Him and keeping a close watch on Him. We suspect he is teething again! Today is Anjela Grace Omondi's 4th Birthday! Can you believe that!? What a wonderful blessing from God she has been to us and as we see her grow - it is the evidence of God's mercies and Grace not only in her life but ours as well! We are BLESSED to have our daughter Anjela and Praise God the way He is growing her! She is also in her third week of homeschooling and she is loving it. Pray for Allison as she starting on this fun adventure!

Sorry there is no pictures this time around but we will be sure to send/post some VERY VERY soon!

Baraka [blessings]

THIS IS WHY WE ARE HERE...

2011-08-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

Once every so often God shows up in a MIGHTY way to reassure us of His presence in our midst and that our labor in Him is not in vain. Ministry in Ukunda is not a walk in the park, humanly speaking - there are many attacks from the devil that is manifested in various key relationships, repeated sickness in our family, loneliness to mention but a few. BUT God is faithful, He shows up just in time to encourage and to uplift - yesterday was one of those days when we forget about everything and concentrate on Him to worship Him!

We had our FOURTH BTCP/L (Bible Training Center for Pastors and Church Leaders) at the SERVE compound in Ukunda. This is the second time we have it here but it was very special in two ways:

Jerry Clark broke the ground and prayed for the construction of our future Training Center known as the TOMMY NELSON Center (You will here more about it in future updates).
We graduated the first lot of students to ever be trained at the SERVE compound since buying it 3 years ago - God is good ALL the time!

The first Class of the SERVE Compound!

Getting ready to march in

Standing after marching in

Listening keenly to Jerry Clark's Graduation Message

When the students appeared during their Graduation to sit in front of the gathered crowd, it was like God telling us SERVE team this is why I have you here. All of you who have continually prayed and gave to this work that we do here - THANK YOU - God has used you too to reach the lives of the men and women that you will be seeing in the pictures below. Thank you!

Please pray Ephesians 3 for them - the verse are below:

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Benjamin Mukabana

Florence Omwenga

Karen Nyoike

Esther Gitahi Karanja

John Ogot

Alfred Munyoki

Mercy Onsinyo

Cecelia Nzusu

Margaret Wambua

Maliki Garashi

Charles Kamau

Tabitha Munyithia

Peter Kigori

Jacinta Muthee

Judy Mgangai Situma

Nahashon Wessa

Elijah Maluti

The American team here:

Left to Right: The Clarks, The Reeds, The Walkers, The Verrets

Thank you again for your continual support and God bless you! Please click HERE and HERE to see more pictures of the graduation

Thursday Update

2011-08-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the very many emails that we have received from y'all that you are praying for us. Yesterday was good and we truly sensed the presence of God in everything. The day ended on a really high note! Today we will spend the day debriefing and getting ready for BTCP/L graduation on Saturday at the SERVE Compound. Preparations include painting, wrapping gifts and praying etc.

Tomorrow August 13th 2011 we will have our FOURTH BTCP/L graduation where 18 students will be graduating after spending one and half years in Training. Pray that their joy and delight will not be in the certificates they receive but in the knowledge of their Savior Jesus Christ. We will update you more with pictures after the Graduation tomorrow.

Thank you. Please enjoy the pictures as you pray for the ministry here in Ukunda!

Misty Verret Teaching

Misty Verret during the women's time

Robert Walker and Dennis

Linda Clark Teaching

Ben and Pastor Richard (Our Interpreters)

Final Fellowship with both the Men and Women

Dennis Giving the Final Charge

The whole group that we have been meeting with from Tuesday

The Ladies group

The Men's group

Japheth Musyoki and James Muthee

Tea time before Jerry's Teaching

Jerry's Last session last night

Please Take time to read and PRAY

2011-08-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

I praise God for the couples that God has sent to come and work with us from Denton Bible Church these next two weeks. As I was talking to them yesterday I was disheartened to hear that some of the people they approached to support their coming here were not receptive to them because they were not coming to Feed hungry children or build some kind of a shelter for the poor.

As true as it is that Africans are poor physically there is another kind of poverty that is often overlooked - the poverty of the Gospel and sound teaching. Physical Poverty kills the body but does not touch the soul! The devil has successfully removed our face from the important and firmly planted it on the urgent, from the invisible to the visible, from the WORD to the world.

May the pictures of dying hungry African babies move you to not only pray for the injustices and corruptions on the continent causing these devastating atrocities but to also move you to pray for the souls that will suffer eternally in hell because of the Poverty of the Gospel. This needs to be our primary motivation giving them hope not only in this life but the life to come as well.

This is what SERVE Kenya is committed to, the alleviation of Spiritual Poverty - without of course ignoring the suffering people that we live with in our communities. We are committed to CULTIVATING godliness in the lives of Pastors and Christian Leaders in Kenya, EQUIPPING them with the necessary tools for ministry through Training and Discipleship and then MOBILIZING them to become the ones that now go out and preach the Word of God in their communities.

Amos ministered to the people of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II. Under this king Israel achieved its most prosperous time since King Solomon, regaining territory lost to the Arameans under King Jehu and regaining economic prosperity as well. God shows up during this time and tells them in Amos 8:

¹¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. ¹² Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

Africa is experiencing this famine right now and that's the reason why instead of praying for Physical prosperity ONLY be praying for Spiritual prosperity for Kenya and supporting those, like us, who have given our life and time to be a small part of an initiative to alleviate this poverty.

Let us not be consumed by the urgent - Physical Poverty - to the detriment of the important - the Gospel and the spreading of Sound Teaching.

Be Blessed as you pray for these men and Women from Denton Bible Church going out again today to Preach and Teach the Word to the Pastors and Church Leaders at Ujamaa in Likoni. It is truly a Worthy Cause!

Robert Walker teaching

Robert Walker

Lunch Break

Women at Lunch

women at Lunch

Afternoon discussions

Women afternoon discussions

Reflections:

2011-08-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Teaching the Bible in Kenya is usually a difficult thing. Take for example yesterday during the Women's session one of the women asking if it is OK for a woman to be a pastor? She was not asking because she did not know our stand and our answer to that question but because there was a women pastor present in the class. My guess is that her motivation was not to know the word clearly so she can obey it but to stir up controversy and maybe to even make the woman pastor present uncomfortable.

I am not sad for her because she asked the question in front of the woman pastor, I am sad because after being in our BTCL class for a year and half she should have known better. Please Pray that our classes will not only communicate the knowledge of God but His heart and His love for the people as well. We wish not to produce and reproduce dogmatic Pastors and Church leaders in our training but God loving people who are directed, controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit!

Other than that the rest of the day was great! Here are pictures to give you context as you pray!

Jerry Teaching in the evening session at SERVE

The Evening Session

Jerry Clark teaching our BTCP Alumni

Shane Verret Teaching

Shane and Omari our interpreter

Betty, Judy and Linda

Tea Break

Robert Walker and Dudley Reed at Tea Time

Shane and Omari

Dudley Teaching after Tea Break

Just to give you a view of the Class

Dudley Teaching

Afternoon Session - Q n A Women

Afternoon session - Men's Q n A

Q n A

Peter Mutemi listening Keenly

Jerry Weighing in on the Discussion

James Muthee weighing in on the Discussion

Denton Bible Church Short Term Missions

2011-08-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to send a quick one to ask you lift us before the Lord as we host our Third Missions team from Denton Bible Church this summer. We have 5 couple here that are going to help us in the next 12 days to Cultivate Equip and Mobilize Christian Leaders in Mombasa.

Please Pray for:

The power of the Holy Spirit to be manifest in God's work through us in the coming days.
That language will not be a barrier in communicating the Love of Jesus to the Pastors and Leaders we are going to be ministering to.
Strength for the Ladies and Gentlemen that will be teaching in various contexts in the days to come.
That our team will remain united in love and in purpose as we minister to the God's people this week.
Health and protection as we drive 50 KM round trip every day to the place we will be teaching at.

Pastor Jerry Clark (the leader of the team) already started teaching yesterday and what a wonderful blessing it was for the people! He was invited to conduct a half day seminar at a Christian School in Ukunda and he did very well to the Glory of God!

Teachers doing some assignments

What a blessed morning this was yesterday

Teachers busy at work

We continue today and will go on until August 19th. Thank you for your prayers and support...we will keep you posted as the days go on.

July Update

2011-07-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the pastor lifting up Jesus in singing a Swahili song entitled Umeinuliwa Juu Sana (You are lifted very high God). Please pray for these wonderful Men as you see their faces and listen to their voices lifted up to our Lord!

Following below are a few pictures of the Shepherding Shepherds class

The class that ended up yesterday

Joe Teaching and James Interpreting

Dennis teaching

Saying the final prayers until next month

Our Third class of Shepherding Shepherds ended Yesterday on Such a high note. The students happy and excited to know God a little bit more than they did when they arrived at the SERVE Compound on Thursday Morning. I am blessed to see what the Lord is doing in the Lives of these men.

Mia, Christina, Joe and Noah Pytleski! SERVE Kenya Missionaries!

Joe and Christina Pytleski, our future SERVE Kenya Team Mates are leaving on Tuesday to come to America having stayed with us here for a month and confirmed that they want to come back in the Spring of 2013 to SERVE here in Kenya as full time career missionaries! Please Join us in praising God for this wonderful answer to pray for our team here in Kenya. Allison and I started praying for a couple to join our team over three years ago and we are completely overjoyed that the answer came not to too late or too soon but in the Lord's timing! GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

Thank you for your constant prayer and support for us and our ministry here in Mombasa. Please let us know how we can also pray for you.

Quick Update On Pastor Mreto's Boy's Burial

2011-07-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

Joshua Mreto was laid to rest at their home in Dima. Praise God for the testimony of the Church for turning up in large numbers to give support to pastor Mreto. Joe Pytleski, James and I went there to be there with them as well. It was good for us since Joe got to meet a lot of the Shepherding shepherds students before our class on July 21st.

Please continue to pray for this family that the Lord will comfort them since most of the times the reality hits when people are gone and the home is back to "normal" without the kid there.

Joe, James and I were feeling very blessed to be going back to our boys and praised and thanked God for the gift of Children as we prayed for the Pastor, his wife and their remaining 5 children.

Thanks for praying with us for this precious family. Please follow this link to see the pictures of the funeral in the Dima village. Click here for pictures

Urgent Prayer Request

2011-07-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Please Pray for Pastor David Mreto - a pastor in our Shepherding Shepherds class in Ukunda - who lost a 6 month old baby after a short battle with a heart disease. The baby passed away at the Coast General Hospital last night.

Please pray for the hospital bills to be settled and the funeral arrangements and all the planning that goes with it. Most importantly pray that their family will find comfort in Jesus and that all who come to comfort them will be a delight to them in Christ.

Pastor Mreto is a dear brother who ministers faithfully in a really spiritually dark area and I pray that the devil will not use this to discourage and deceive. I pray that the Holy Spirit will remind him all the truth that he has learned and taught many people in times like this. would you please pray with me? THANK YOU!

Shepherding Shepherds

2011-06-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy week for the SERVE ministry members with sickness and classes going on in Ujamaa and Ukunda. In addition to that we have had 12 pastors and Church leaders boarding and learning at the SERVE compound. In the last two days they have been taught about Satan, Sin and Temptation by James Muthee (one of our team Members) and also the study of the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the Old and New Testaments and how that knowledge applies to the ministry right now (Dennis taught this). Today Dennis is going to finish by teaching about the ministry and calling of the pastor, before they leave for another month this afternoon for their respective churches.

Please continue to pray for these Pastors and Church leaders to be a shining example of Godly men and lights houses of truth in their respective villages. Pray for the strength of the teachers and our families who in times like these see us less and tired all the time. Thank God for understanding wives and kids. Pray for Anjela who has a virus infection that causes her to have really high fevers. Benjamin was sick as well but the Lord has healed his little BodyJ

Following are pictures, so as you pray, you can have the names and faces and names of these men that the Lord has brought our way:

Anjela and Benjamin playing with each other

Pastor Richard Mutua

Pastor Nathan Ndune

Pastor Omari

Pastor Samuel

Pastor Samson

Pastor David Mreto AKA Chairman

Jeremiah and Pastor Kariuki

Moses

Mattresses laid on the floor at night for them to sleep on

Discussing the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts

Pastor Omari contributing to the Discussions

Dennis weighing in on the discussions as well

Time to go - some of the pastors who live close by prefer to go home in the evening.

Pastor Moses works at night after class and comes to class in the morning

Pastor Richard Mutua

A Few more photos for now...

2011-06-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

More Photos of Benjamin...with more coming soon

2011-06-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

This is the first few minutes we met him last month

B.J and his big sister

Baba and his baby boy

Mama and her new baby boy

Most of the time he has a serious face but these smiles are the BEST!

Mama loves her baby boy...though he doesn't really know what to think yet? Can't imagine what he is thinking here

our first outing with him on Monday

Look at those precious eyes!!

FIRST FAMILY PHOTO

The day we are leaving the children's home with him

"Discharge photo" (leaving the children's home)

Could he be any sweeter?

This is the usual face when he sees Anjela

Laughing at Anjela

Our handsome boy

...and at last a picture of Benjamin Joseph Omondi

2011-05-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

We have no words to say thank you to JESUS and strength to tell you of His goodness to us, so just look at him and let the picture tell the story for now. We have Benjamin with us and he is sleeping for the first time not in an Orphanage but in a family setting with a mother, father and a wonderful big sister. Enjoy his first picture in the public domain:) many more to come!

Benjamin Joseph Omondi

Praise God with us and thank you very much for praying and being excited with us. We are halfway in the journey so please don't stop praying - we will give you more details in future BENJAMIN UPDATES!

So near and Yet so far

2011-05-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

We started our journey to get Benjamin this morning as we left Mombasa very early to drive to Nairobi. Praise God we made good time and made it safely to Nairobi, all the while enjoying family fellowship in the car. When we arrived in Nairobi we went straight to Dennis' sister's place to visit her. She had been hospitalized earlier in the week and we are thankful we found her doing well.

We enjoyed the visit with my sister but we all had one thing in mind. "We cannot wait until tomorrow to see BJ," so we decided to just show up there in the afternoon to see if they would let us see him. If they said we couldn't see him at least we tried!"

When we got to the home, they were so excited to see us and all of them were saying here are Jacob's (his current name at the home) parents!

We got to hold him, play with him, put his PJs on and feed him a bottle before putting him to bed. He absolutely loved Anjela and couldn't take his eyes off of her. Anjela was loving the attention and really enjoyed making him laugh - We think they are going to do fine:) It was so hard to leave tonight and we only spent 2 hours with him. I don't know what we will do tomorrow if we spend the whole day with him and not get to take him home yet.

Someone said and I agree with them completely, "I am patient, I just don't like to wait" and thats exactly how we feel. All in all, we know that by the end of this week we will take him home and praise God for that. At least we are here with him!

Thank you for walking this journey with us! God is so good!

EXCITING Benjamin NEWS!

2011-05-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Thank you for eagerly and patiently and prayerfully waiting with us on this update!

The short of the story is PRAISE GOD with us that baby BENJAMIN JOSEPH will join the Omondi family next week!!!

The long of the story and the way things happened this week is that on Thursday we got the exciting call saying that the adoption agency committee had met and approved Benjamin to be adopted and also us to adopt him, BUT it was PENDING that they have one more document in hand. Our hearts dropped for a moment of course saying, "no, not this one-more-document thing again" like we had experienced with Anjela. They needed something called a "certificate of good conduct" from us which is kind of like a criminal background check. We applied for this document a little over a month ago in Nairobi when we first found out about Baby Benjamin and gave the adoption agency the receipts saying we had done this. But this time they told us they needed the actual certificate in their hands before we could bring the baby home. So on Thursday Dennis dropped what he was doing and rushed to Mombasa to try to see if it had arrived at the police station there yet. To our disappointment after letting Dennis rummage through bags of hundreds of other certificates he never found ours. They told us it must be on the way somewhere. So today we decided to straight to the source and send our friend, Peter, who lives in Nairobi, to the police headquarters to check to see if the certificates were still hanging around somewhere there. We waited and prayed hard! At first they couldn't find them but then somehow out of the blue Peter called us with much excitement and said they miraculously found them!!! They were still laying on someone's desk in that Nairobi office. We were beyond excitement and praise to God!!!

So now, the plan is that we will drive to Nairobi on Sunday and go and meet baby Benjamin at the New Life Children's home on Monday. There are several more formalities, including taking him for a medical check in Nairobi and bonding with him at the home, that have to happen before he can actually be released into our care. This could take 3 or more days so we plan to be in Nairobi most of next week. Please pray for safety for our family as we drive the long drive to Nairobi on Sunday and then begin the process of bringing him home next week. May all go smoothly just as it has up to this point. We are amazed at how quick things have progressed. God is just amazing!

Thank you for continuing to walk this journey on your knees with us in prayer!! We will send or post pictures of our beautiful baby boy as soon as we can. We are so greatful at what God is doing in the life of our family and ministry here in Mombasa. We praise God we have a church family and friends here who eagerly wait to meet Benjamin when we bring him home next week. And of course we can't wait for all of YOU to meet him one day as well. Please continue to pray for us and all that God is doing here in Kenya!

God is good all the time!

Love, Dennis, Allison and Anjela and soon to be Benjamin Joseph Omondi

Latest Update on Baby Benjamin Joseph

2011-05-24T01:33:00.000-07:00

We called the New Life Home Trust today - the home where BJ is at - and they told us that the Police report came in yesterday and after six months of police investigation no one has come to claim BJ as their own. The police report was given to the Adoption Agency yesterday -Monday, May 23rd 2011 - and the committee sits tomorrow - Wednesday, May 25th 2011 - to deliberate on whether BJ is free to be adopted and whether WE are fit adoptive parents for him. If the outcome of the meeting is YES on both ends, we will then be called either tomorrow or the next day to go take B.J for Medical Examination before taking him home with us.

If all goes well we plan drive to Nairobi on Sunday Morning - May 29th 2011, be there on Sunday afternoon, do all the Business and formalities on Monday and be back to Mombasa with baby Benjamin hopefully by Wednesday, June 1st 2011 of next week!!

AGAIN - Thank you for traveling this God-trusting FAITH journey with us. Thank you also for your excitement and Prayers that keep us going every day in our ministry and family life here in Kenya for the Glory and Honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Please keep praying as the formal and legal adoption process will continue once we bring him home.

PRAY that God will be honored in this process and that BJ being with us in our family will open the door to tell many about our own adoption into the family of God, through His Son Jesus Christ ,BY the indwelling of His Holy Spirit in us!

God is Good All the Time!!!

Fun Pictures with Fun friends!

2011-05-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

We met Max and Elisabeth last year when they came to work in Kenya in 2010 ,just a month before we traveled to the States for 6 months. We became instant friends but then had to leave for the States, only to come back a month before they were headed back to America. All in all we thank God for them and the little time we had to spend with them. Pray that the Lord will be with them as they readjust back to the US and as they pursue the next step God has for them! Come back and see us soon yall!

Max and I after Church in Ukunda

Allison and Elisabeth after church in Ukunda (and Roseline's sleeping baby Alexia)

Update on Baby Benjamin Joseph

2011-05-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (May 19th 2011) was the day we were suppose to hear about the police report on whether any person had come forth to claim BJ as their kid.

When we called New Life Home Trust they told us that they were still waiting for reports but were optimistic that they would have them by the end of this week.

The Adoption Agency will have a committee meeting on Wednesday next week to look at our paper work and approve or disapprove the child to be adopted and us, the parents for the adoption. When we talked to the home, the social worker made it seem like they would actually do two things at once for us. They would sit in only ONE meeting to approve the baby for adoption and also approve us to adopt him at the same time. These are usually two meetings a month apart.

If all goes according to plan (which we know there is a slight chance it may not) we could have BJ in our home as early as a week from this coming Monday (May 30th 2011). We won't know anything til next Wednesday though. We are really praying hard we bring him home by the end of the month!! so Exciting!!

Please pray for Anjela during this process as well. We think she is going to love having a little brother and being a big sister but is going to really struggle at the beginning with sharing her Mama with another baby. She's already started telling Allison, "Baby (thats her) needs her mama, baby needs her mama" and wants Allison to hold her like a baby again, A LOT! We are hoping she will be excited to help hold him, change him, feed him, bathe him, etc and wil get used to sharing mama with Benjamin very fast!!

Pray for this new transition. Exciting but a little scary...any tips or words of wisdom on this transition from anyone out there would be highly appreciated and welcomed!

Thankful to walk this Journey with you all!

Prayer for April – May 2011

2011-05-19T01:16:00.001-07:00

Praise!

Please PRAISE GOD because we are doing well here in Kenya and everyone is healthy and happy.

Also that our marriage by God's grace is doing well and that's always a good thing for effective ministering.

Prayer!
As you praise God please also pray for:

Dennis as he teaches BTCP Bk. 4 (Preaching Biblical Messages and Pastoral Ministry) once a week at a place called Ujamaa.
- Pray for Strength and good God filled preparation.
- Pray for the students (3 Pastors and 5 church leaders) not to be overwhelmed with the workload.

Dennis as he teaches BTCP Bk. 6 (Personal Spiritual Life) twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) at the SERVE Compound

Pray for Strength and good God filled preparation.

Pray for the Students (2 Pastors and 15 Church Leaders) to understand that the spiritual life is really the process of making true in practice what is already true in position.

Our (Allison and I) time with the Lord to be meaningful and deep – not just a roll-call appointment with Him once a day but we want to see Him, feel Him and experience Him daily in our lives – to truly live the cross carrying life and follow Him daily.

Our family to be a model of a Christian relationship in the midst of crumbling marriages in our church. There are three families in our church that are dealing with Adultery issues. Pray for strength as Allison and I are looking for ways to counsel and help with God's strength to bring hope into these seemingly hopeless situations.

Allison as she juggles the responsibilities of being a wife, a mother and discipling Betty (our SERVE 2011 -2012 Intern) to have strength from the Lord to all these things well. She is excellent in all this and we are extremely blessed to have her in our lives!

Last but not least please pray for the adoption of our next baby (Benjamin Joseph Omondi). The police report is coming in today and they will tell us if he is free to be adopted or not. Pray that this would give us a platform to share the Gospel with many as we proclaim our own adoption as sons that has made us heirs together with our savior Jesus! PRAY FOR FAVOR – if all goes well we should have the boy (6 months old) in our home by the end of this month. How exciting!

Shepherding Shepherds Last Day

2011-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

We praise God for the successful finish of our first shepherding shepherds class. How wonderful it was to see the excited faces of the pastors as Gayman taught these last three days. They learnt about Church Leadership focusing on Pastors, elders and deacons. Next class will be the second week of June!

As you go through the pictures please pray that the excitement and the work of God in their lives/hearts these last three days will be evident on the pulpit tomorrow and the rest of the month before we meet again!

Gayman and James teaching today

Pastor Omar - Good man!

Dennis giving a charge yesterday afternoon - Eph 4:11

Group discussion in front of the main building

More group Discussion pictures

Pastor Kariuki, Gitonga and Pastor Omar

Jeremiah Pastor Samson listening keenly!

Final group picture

Thank you Gayman and bye bye!

Gayman Helman is from Argyle Texas and a long time supporter and friend ours. Gayman has come to Kenya 6 times now and praise God for his faithfulness and love for what we are doing here in Mombasa. Next week we will be in Ujamaa and Mtwapa with Gayman teaching BTCP BK 4 and Church Leadership!

PRAY for strength for Gayman and for me as we travel around teaching these pastors. Pray for Allison and Anjela as they will be alone for 3 days when we go to Mtwapa in the North Coast!

Thanks and God bless you!

Shepherding Shepherds

2011-05-06T02:27:00.000-07:00

The Long awaited Shepherding Shepherds at SERVE in Ukunda started yesterday and we were so blessed to have faithful men from the Village of Dima. Let the Pictures speak for itself.

Many thanks to all who prayed and gave towards this class the students are truly thankful and Learning a lot!

Gayman and James teaching the very first "boarding" class at the SERVE compound! The students are loving it!

Pastoral Ministry - Elders and Deacons Know them before appointment because they take care of God's people and God's House!

Interesting Discussion - Can women be pastors?!

A student (Jeremiah) weighing in and the rest listening attentively!

An Unexpected Easter Surprise!!

2011-04-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

Face coming soon

Happy Easter Everyone!!! The Omondis have now been back in Kenya for just a little over a month and we have some exciting and unexpected news.

As we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we also rejoice because our lives have been redeemed from the pit and as God's adopted children, we have been given new life and inheritance in Him. This Easter we would like to encourage you and ask you to pray for another life who has been literally taken from the pit and Lord willing, could be the latest addition to the Omondi family! Yep, it has happened again. We are back in Kenya and believe it or not, there's another baby!

We have always desired a big family and this last year or so we have been praying that the Lord would direct us in regards to what we should do about adding to our family, either through some form of adoption or just continuing to wait upon the Lord. Anjela has really needed a brother or sister!!

Well, God never ceases to amaze us or show His GREATNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS and very interesting TIMING!! We may have told some of you that about 2 years ago we asked the adoption agency that helped us with Anjela's adoption, that if they were ever to find a biracial baby who needed a home to call us. Well, the reality is, this rarely happens here in Kenya because no one throws away, leaves or puts biracial children up for adoption.

This past week we began to seriously look into embryo adoption or regular adoption in the States of a biracial baby, and wanted to send the agency in America a copy of Anjela’s home study to see if they could use it instead of us doing it all over again. I (Dennis) called the adoption agency on Tuesday this week to try to get it. When I was talking with the lady, Susan, she gave me a hard time by asking me why we weren't pursuing adoption in Kenya again. I told her that if possible we wanted to adopt a biracial baby. She was stunned and immediately told me that unbelievably there was a biracial baby boy who they were hoping to find biracial parents for but that she needed to call the children's home to find out if he was still up for adoption.

In two minutes she called me back and said that the baby was available. I called Allison quickly, excited about the news! Allison was totally in shock and didn't know what to say but excited all at the same time. Susan told me that if we were serious to go to their offices in Mombasa and fill out the forms to begin the process immediately. All we know about him right now is that he is a 5 month old baby boy that was found abandoned in and retrieved from a pit latrine (one of the hole in the ground squatty potties) and needs a Mommy and Daddy.

So, our journey began! The following day on Wednesday 20th April 2011 we cancelled everything and went to town to start all the paper work. The crazy and exciting thing is that we actually got almost all of it done! We were really amazed.

The baby has to be 6months old before he can be released from the children’s home. Kenya adoption law requires this to give parents or family of the abandoned child 6 months to come and reclaim a child before they can be released for adoption. We are also waiting on the police report stating he was thrown away and that no one has come to claim him.

The very exciting, sudden and surprising thing about all this is that we could have a new baby boy in our home as early as the end of May, June, or earlier depending on how fast the process goes. But Susan said that if we would like we could go and actually see him in Nairobi next week. We are all so eager to meet this little boy who we trust will be ours so we are planning a short trip to Nairobi next weekend to visit him at the children's home. We can't wait!!

The crazy thing is that on Wednesday morning before we ever told Anjela anything about what was going on, she woke up and came to Allison and said, “Mama, I want a baby brother named Benjamin.” She looked at me and we were like, “Well I guess we might have to name him Benjamin and tell him that his big sister named him.” I think she got that name from watching the story of Joseph and she liked his brother Benjamin. But this is the first time we have heard her talk about wanting a little brother.

As you can imagine, we are FULL of JOY and our emotions are running wild. We can't wait to meet this little boy! So please join us in prayer these next few days and weeks as we start this process and, Lord willing, bring this baby into our home. Please specifically pray that the WILL OF GOD be done for His Glory and His FAME!

Derek Loux once said,

"My friends, adoption is redemption. Its costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives cost so much. But when God set out to redeem us, it killed Him"

We couldn't agree more!

We love you and are happy to share this yet another adoption journey with you!!! This is a verse that has been our personal prayer and praise to the Lord as we can only stand in awe at His grace and mercy upon our lives as well as this baby boy's life:

I waited patiently for the Lord;he turned to me and heard my cry.He lifted me out of the slimy pit,out of the mud and mire;he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.He put a new song in my mouth,a hymn of praise to our God.Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40:1-3

HOME SWEET HOME!

2011-03-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

Arrival and welcome:

Thank you for praying for us over the last week since we arrived in Kenya. After a long drive from Nairobi, we arrived safely last Wednesday afternoon and were so encouraged by the warm welcome we received at our house. We came home to a house full of about 10 or so people from church waiting for our arrival. We were welcomed with hugs, smiles, handshakes, chai, cake, and a prayer of thanks to God from the church leadership of our safe return. It was a wonderful reunion.

Today we attended church for the first time since we have been back and were welcomed with a wonderful surprise cake celebrating our return. It was so encouraging to see almost 200 people there at church to welcome us home. We are so blessed! So far we have heard wonderful testimonies from people about how well the church is doing and how much the church is growing in their love for one another. There have been many trials and several deaths while we have been away but through it we hear church has really become a "family"!! We praise God for all He is doing!

Anjela:

And many people have asked specifically how Anjela is doing. She did amazingly well on all the flights and is doing great adjusting so far. Just yesterday she said to Dennis, "Baba, I am so happy to be in our house". She has really enjoyed eating Kenyan food again and reuniting with a couple of her friends already. The only problem is, as much as she talks and tells her stories, everyone is having a hard time understanding her deep NC/Texan American accent:):):) (wonder where she got that from) And we are still having to remind her over and over not to drink the water when she brushes her teeth, swims or takes a bath:) But overall she is adjusting very well we praise God!

Prayer Items:

Here are a few things you can be praying for us over the next several weeks:

Smooth adjustment back to life and ministry in Kenya as we resume our working routine at the pastors training center and Word of Life Fellowship church this coming week. Dennis will resume many responsibilities this week and preaching next Sunday April 3rd.
Adjustment to the high heat and humidity which is very draining on our bodies, minds and attitudes
Anjela will pick up speaking Swahili again and continue to adjust well to life and culture here again
for Betty (our new Serve intern) as she moves to Ukunda this week to begin working with us. She will be staying with us in our home for a month or so until we can find her a place in Ukunda to live.
That the ladies in our church and community will be understanding and supportive and continue to lead as Allison begins to pull back a little from her former routine and responsibilities with the women, to focus more on beginning to homeschool Anjela and disciple Betty (our Serve Intern) more intentionally.
That the Lord will continue to grow Word of Life Fellowship Church in their love for God and His Word and that their lives and walk outside of church on Sunday mornings will match their "Christian talk", bringing glory to God and drawing others to the Savior!!!
We would keep our eyes fixed and focused on Jesus Christ and that our lives and family would be a reflection of Him.

Back in Kenya...

2011-03-19T01:24:00.000-07:00

We made it to Kenya!! Thanks for your prayers! Our journey went well and was fairly uneventful. Pray for us as we struggle through the fogginess of jetlag, our days and nights mixed up, and try to get back on Kenya time..... God bless!

The day is Finally here

2011-03-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

As we hugged Joe and Christina good bye and Phyllis and Carissa good night; as we said thanks to the Totters for keeping Anjela the whole today so we could finish packing all I could think about was I cannot believe it is already 6 months since the first day we set foot in America.

It has been such a wonderful blessed visit that saw us reconnecting with family and old friends - we thank God for every home that welcomed us and made us feel like royals. The Lord has been very faithful in providing for all our needs from places to stay, cars to drive, attending a marriage seminar, going to Disney Land, bringing back our monthly support to 100% just to mention but a few.

We praise God for the many of you - our friends and family - that we were able to see and apologize to the few of you that we could not meet with during our stay in America.

Tomorrow we leave America renewed and energized to go back to Kenya to do what our Father in Heaven has called us to do. As we go we ask for your continued prayers - to readjust back to life in Mombasa. Leaving here after the very cold winter and going back to the blazing hot humid Mombasa will not be easy, but we know His grace will be sufficient for us.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH - We will write again when we get back to Kenya - God willing!

God is good all the time!

Dennis, Allison and Anjela Omondi

2011-03-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers as we get ready to leave on March 17th. Here is a few Updates, reminders, Praises and Prayers as we countdown to March 17th :

Dennis went to a Pastors conference in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and was tremendously blessed by the fellowship of brothers and the teaching of wonderful men of God there - PRAISE God for the opportunity to do this.

After the two day conference he traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit with some family friends who moved back from Kenya because of the Husband's sickness. Please PRAY for Gil as he battles both severe Alzheimer and Parkinson disease and Maria and she tirelessly takes care of him. Dennis is back to Denton - PRAISE God for safety and encouragement as he traveled to all the places and back.

Allison and Anjela are back in North Carolina saying bye to Allison's family there. Please PRAY for safety and strength as Allison drives back and forth between family members to say bye.

Dennis is preaching at Grace Bible Church in Sanger on Sunday, March the 6th. PRAY that the Lord will prepare his heart and Mind as he gets ready to preach. Pray also that the hearts of the people will encounter the greatness of God and His Son Jesus through the help of the Holy Spirit.

Last but not least we would like to REMIND you of the get together we sent an email out about a few weeks ago. It is still:

WHEN: Saturday March 12th

TIME: 4:00pm

WHERE: Home of Pete and Grace Holland

525 West Hobson Lane

Denton,TX 76205

Drinks and party food will be provided but if you can, please bring a dessert

For more details and to RSVP contact GRACE @ 940-395-2630 or gaholland@verizon.net

PLEASE continue to PRAY for sanity, strength and, good health, and safety as we run our final lap/month here in America seeing remaining supporters, meeting new ones, and saying our goodbyes.

Gratefully,

Dennis, Allison and Anjela Omondi

February Newsletter Update and Invitation

2011-02-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

DEAR FRIENDS!!! Here is our latest news and an invitation to come say bye....

MISSIONS CONFERENCE:
Thank you for praying for us in these last few busy months in the States. In January, we had the huge blessing of participating in Denton Bible Church's third missions conference, “Proclaim”. There were over 50 Denton Bible Church- SERVE missionaries, as well as many other organizations represented at the conference. SERVE has missionaries serving in 11 different countries in the world and for the entire week all of us DBC missionaries spent time fellowshiping together, encouraging one another, and being fed spiritually by several wonderful godly speakers. What a wonderful blessing it was to spend with our SERVE family from around the world. The weekend was spent in the church wide conference hearing about how Christian leaders are being taught and discipled all over the world.

KARIBUNI and ASANTENI
We want to say a special Karibuni (Welcome) to all of our new friends who recently joined our prayer team and email updates. Welcome to the Kenya Team! We really enjoyed meeting and talking with each and everyone of you at the DBC Missions Conference and at various small groups we have participated in in the last few weeks. A special ASANTENI (thank you) also to those who have recently joined our team through their financial support as well. God continues to provide and we are almost at 100% of our support goal. We are so greatful! Please keep praying that the remaining monthly support will be provided before we leave.

FUN in the SUN
Soon after the missions conference we escaped the unusual snow and cold wintry weather in Denton and headed to the West Coast to visit family and supporters in Seattle, San Francisco, and Orange County. What a wonderful, encouraging, relaxing and WARM time we had there. We were even blessed with the opportunity to take Anjela to see her favorite princesses in Disneyland for the first time. This was so fun and refreshing for all of us. You should have seen her face!! You can visit Dennis' facebook pages for pictures

SAYING GOODBYE:
And now its hard to believe that our time in the States is quickly coming to an end. In less than a month we will be back at home in Kenya. We will be packing up and leaving from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport on March 17th.

For those of you in the Denton area who can come, Pete and Grace Holland will be hosting a "Goodbye-Get-Together" for us on March 12th at their home in Denton. If you haven't seen us yet or you would like to come and send us off with just one more hug we would love to see you there!!! Here are the details:

Good Bye Get Together for the Omondis
(come and say bye and hear more about how you can be praying
for them and the work in Kenya as they head home March 17th)

WHEN: Saturday March 12th
TIME: 4:00pm
WHERE: Home of Pete and Grace Holland
525 West Hobson Lane
Denton,TX 76205

Drinks and party food will be provided but if you can, please bring a dessert
For more details and to RSVP contact GRACE @ 940-395-2630 or gaholland@verizon.net

HOW CAN YOU PRAY FOR US?
PLEASE PRAY for sanity, strength and, good health, and safety as we run our final lap/month here in Kenya seeing remaining supporters, meeting new ones, and saying our goodbyes. Allison and Anjela will be traveling to N. Carolina to say goodbye to her family March 1-8th and Dennis will be going to Mississippi for a pastor's conference.

PRAY too that the business of life will not distract us from what is MOST important – Time with God and time with family.

WE LOVE YOU ALL and appreciate your love, support, and partnership in ministry. We couldn't serve as we are serving without your prayers!!

Love,
Dennis, Allison, and Anjela

Anjela in Disneyland...a princess' paradise!!

2011-02-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

Last week while we were in California visiting some friends and supporters, we were blessed by the opportunity to take Anjela to Disneyland. Of course our entire day at Disney was spent waiting in line for Anjela to meet and get the autographs of her favorite Disney princesses....It was so exciting to see Anjela so excited...as you can see from the video she couldn't quite jumping up and down. The end of the day was the highlight of the day as Anjela FINALLY got to meet her all time FAVORITE and best friend as she calls her, TIANA, from the Princess and the Frog! What a fun family day we had with Paul Petit and his daughter Kate. Thanks Petits for making the day possible!

Message From Mike Scheer - SERVE International Director

2011-01-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, the bi-annual missions conference is fast approaching. We will be gathering as a congregation this coming weekend January 21 (6 – 9 PM) and 22^nd(8 AM – 12:30 PM). If you are receiving this message and thinking “I will never go overseas, why should I attend”, let me give you a couple of reasons to consider attending:

You will get to know our missionaries, they are part of our church family:

DBC has nearly 90 missionary families sent out from our body serving around the world in a variety of ministries. Most all of these families were once attendees of DBC just like you. We will have over 50 of these missionaries here at the conference. You will have the opportunity to hear them share with the conference, attend one of their break-out sessions, or visit one on one. Come and get to know our missionaries personally and they no longer will be just a name on a prayer sheet or picture in the hallway. They will become friends that you care about, pray for, and communicate with for years to come.

You will learn about DBC missions, you are part of a church family with a commitment to reach the world:

The conference will highlight several of our field ministries and offer break-out sessions for in depth discussion of each of our key ministries. If you are like most of our church attendees you likely believe DBC is doing a lot in the world but you do not have a real understanding or ability to explain our work to others. Come hear more about our church’s work overseas than you could ever hear on a Sunday morning.

You will be challenged with solid teaching, God is doing great things in the world and has a role for each of us:

Scott Horrell, who was a missionary in Brazil for nearly 15 years and now serves as a Systematic Theology Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, will share with us Friday night about the local church’s obligation to be involved in missions, and Tommy Nelson will be challenge us to personally get involved on Saturday morning.

You can explore how to get involved, we all have an obligation to be involved in God’s mission to the world:

Opportunities for local and international involvement will be highlighted throughout the conference and you will be challenged to find a way for you and your family to get involved in ministry through our church.

It is an event for the whole family:

There will be a children’s program on both days that will take the kids to far-away places like China and Kenya while having them back in time to be picked up. Kids, who attended the last conference, loved the event and it motivated whole families to begin praying and participating in outreach.

The conference is free and you can find out more information and sign up at the links below. Please let us know if you have any questions and we hope to see you there.
http://dentonbible.org/blog/denton-bible-church-missions-conference/

http://proclaim2011.wordpress.com/

Or checkout the webpage and facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181315471881537&num_event_invites=0

If you have trouble with the registration or have further questions, please feel free to email us at office@dbcm.org.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the conference.

Mike Scheer

Denton Bible Church Missions
Cultivating, Equipping, and Mobilizing Christian Leaders Worldwide

Phone- (940) 382-1761
Fax - (940) 382-1831
mscheer@dentonbible.org

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

We would like to thank you for being part of our exciting Journey of hope, excitement, tears and joys, ups and downs and everything in between in this year ending 2010.

We pray that the Lord will refresh and bless you as you have blessed and refreshed us.

Let us look into this NEXT YEAR with hope that our Lord is indeed Faithful, Loving and Good all the Time!

We love you and we would not ask for better friends and family.

Dennis, Allison and Anjela Omondi.

Just some more fun in Hickory

2010-12-01T22:44:00.000-08:00


Dennis helping Daddy restain the front deck on Dad's house

My Dad busy on one of his many projects

Anjela and Baba washing the car...this was before it got too cold

Enjoying ice cream at the mall with Baba

Anjela's first carousel ride

Anjel and her Papaw going down the "moving stairs" as Anjela calls them

Anjela and Pawpaw

Hickory Motor Speedway

2010-12-01T22:37:00.000-08:00

These photos are from the first week we were in North Carolina back at the beginning of October and I'm trying to catch up a little on posting so here you go....My Dad lives in Hickory, NC and decided to take all of us, including my sister and her husband and kids to the race track. What redneck fun we had and Anjela got to experience her first "big" race.

Uncle Dennis, Aunt Allison, Shelby and Carter before the race

Dennis hanging out with my Dad

Redneck Kenyans

Anjela enjoying time with her cousins

More photos from our USA Adventures

2010-11-17T18:29:00.000-08:00

Been a long time since I have blogged but we are fine. Just enjoying fun times with friends and family in North Carolina. Here's more pictures from some of our adventures...

Allison's nephew Carter...enjoying pizza when we all went out for pizza in Mt. Pleasant, NC

Allison's Mom...enjoying pizza with the grandkids. Please pray for her. She has just recently had a reoccurance of bladder cancer and will be going to have another tumor removed on Dec 3rd.

Anjela with her cousin Carter learning how to use the computer

Allison and her niece Shelby


We went to watch Shelby cheer

Anjela cheering in the stands along with the other cheerleaders

Anjela and Auntie Kay Kay

Go Redskins!

Papaw teaching Anjela to ride the tricycle

CHEEEEESSSSSEEE!! She's eating the Veggie Tale figures from her Bday cake made by Auntie KayKay

Auntie Kay Kay (Allison's sister) with her kids Shelby and Carter and her niece Anjela

Some of our American Adventures

2010-10-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well its been about 3 weeks since we arrived in America. WOW time is already flying!! What an adventurous and surprising and overwhelming and tiring and FUN time we have had already. There's so much too write about the last three weeks so instead of writing i will try to give you a little taste through pictures...So here's just a start.....

After a week of being introduced to American food Anjela begged Mama to make her a Kenyan meal...yummy Sukuma wiki, sima, na mayai! Just like at home. We brought the unga all the way from Kenya.


Visiting the Sizeloves in Texas and enjoying their fun farm animals....cows, donkeys, horses...

Anjela and her buddy Sam, she hasn't seen since he and his family came to Kenya in Dec.2008


Fun reunion with dear friends like Denise Sizelove

KENYAN GIRL MEETS AMERICAN GIRL

Needless to say Anjela has been given lots of special attention since we arrived. She is one special girl!! Our dear friends Phyllis and Beth and Beth's daughter Emily decided to introduce Anjela to the American girl by taking her on a special girls day out to the American Girl Store in Dallas. And oh what a fun day we all had! I have to say it was a bit overwhelming (in a good way) for both Mama and Anjela but what a great experience it was. So much too see all in one place! And so many choices. WOW! Dont we love America! Instead of being excited about choosing a doll, Anjela wanted to spend most of her time in one corner with Phyllis sitting up on one the displays playing with one of the tiny dolls or going up and down the "moving stairs" (escalator)with Emily. She had such a fun time! After finally choosing a doll and matching clothes we all had a special lunch upstairs in the American Girl Bistro. Of course Anjela's new doll, "Liberty" got special treatment with a special chair too. And Anjela got a special cookie and Happy Birthday song from the American girl waitresses. What a grand and special experience it was for both Anjela and Mama! THANKS again PHYLLIS and BETH AND EMILY!!!

Take your bottle little baby

Anjela and Phyllis

Anjela could have been part of the display for sure!

Take your dawa (medicine) baby

So many dolls to choose from...and this is just one of the many cases

Which one do I choose???


Mama and her own little Kenyan-American doll!

Up and down the "moving stairs"

Finally chose her doll

Up the moving stairs again

Dressed like her doll and special kisses

Lunch with her doll

Girls day out!

Happy Birthday Anjela!

AND MORE PICTURES AND ADVENTURES TO COME......

Safe Arrival

2010-09-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick update from us....Thank you so much for your prayers! We arrived in Dallas safely on Monday and there was no complications at the airport with any of Dennis or Anjela's paper work. Anjela was granted 6 months Visa just as we had asked God for and we are thankful and Grateful to Him!

Anjela is adjusting well and we are all enjoying the blessing of being here with people who care and love us very much. We are all still very tired and jet-lagged so keep praying for strength and restful days ahead.

We were picked up from the airport, given a car to drive, a house to stay and a bed to sleep on and many other goodies to welcome us to Texas, including most importantly Dublin Dr. Pepper and Banana Pudding:) Thank you to EVERYONE who has jumped in to help and been so very gracious and welcoming to us! We couldn't say thank you or appreciate you enough!!!!! May the Lord continue to bless you!

Its going to take a little while to settle in and get situated but we are excited and look forward to seeing as many of you as we can in these next 5 months. While we are staying in Texas we will be living in Providence Village. We now have phone numbers you can reach us on so give us a call. Dennis: 940-297-9666 Allison: 940-337-5566.

We hope to see as many of you as can make it for Anjela's B-DAY party on Saturday. If you need more info please contact Phyllis 940-243-1439 or Beth 940-453-2886 or go to this EVITE link: http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=MJMZKKIEXGCFNSEZJUZU&li=iq&src=email&trk=aei6

Here are some of our current prayer requests:

quick adjustment and smooth transition for all of us

good attitudes,grace and love for one another as we adjust and make the necessary plans for our time here

our friends back in Kenya as they continue on with ministry and life there

wonderful reunion with friends and family here in the States

God is good all the time!

With Much Love,
Dennis, Allison, and Anjela

On our way!

2010-09-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well its really hard to believe that in just 24 hours from now we will be on the plane headed to the States. And not just Dennis this time but ALL of us together as a family! Our bags are actually packed and we are ready to go. YEAH! We are so happy and praising God. Thank you to everyone who have prayed for us this past week. The week was quite busy but by the grace of God we managed to accomplish all we needed to get done and now we are ready. Please keep praying for us as we travel and as we take Anjela on those long flights for the first time. May the Lord also give Dennis and I patience and grace as we care for her. Dennis will be preaching at church in the morning and then we will head to Mombasa for lunch and on to the airport. We leave Nairobi tomorrow evening around 11pm....

Pleae Pray that all will go smoothly and that we will have no problems with Dennis or Anjela's documents going through immigration when we reach Dallas airport. Also pray hard that the immigration officers will be gracious and allow Anjela a VISA to stay in country for at least 6 months!!!

And praise God with us that God has provided a house, a vehicle and a bed for us to sleep in while we are in Denton area. Thank you to everyone who prayed and help provide for these needs. We serve such a faithful God!

Today we had our first Word of Life Fellowship church Baptism service and it was wonderful! It was Dennis' first time to actually baptize anyone since he became a pastor. What a wonderful time of fellowship and praise and testimony we had as we watched 11 members of our church make their decision to follow Christ and make Him Lord of their life PUBLIC and before all to see. Thank you Diani Baptist for letting us use your baptismal pool. To see the photos go to this link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=234361&id=682211478&l=cb95ff4eed

And dont' forget Anjela's BDAY party in Argyle for all of you who are in the area. Phyllis and Beth are giving Anjela a princess Anjela birthday party.

Here is the EVITE:

Host:	Beth King and Phyllis McAlister
Location:	The King's Home 4612 Argyle Ln. Argyle, TX 76226 US View Map
When:	Saturday, September 25, 4:00PM to 7:00PM
Phone:	940-453-2886 or 940-243-1439
Come meet Anjela Grace Omondi and help us celebrate her 3rd birthday!!! We are so thankful that God has allowed ALL the papers to be in order for us to meet this precious little girl!! Please bring your swim suit and favorite finger food. We will provide the paper goods, drinks, cake and ice cream fitting for a little princess. We will be honored by your presence, but if you would like to bring a gift we have been given some suggestions from Allison. Her registration number at Toys R' US is: 30408739. She also has a wish list at Amazon.com. To view the list on Amazon, go to Gifts & Wish Lists, Universal Wish List, Find Someone's List and type in Anjela Omondi. In case you were wondering, Dennis and Allison will be there too:) Please RSVP Beth (940-453-2886) or Phyllis (940-243-1439) by Monday, September 20th if you will be able to come. We look forward to seeing you!!

Newsletter Update

2010-09-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful two weeks we have had with the 8 members of the DBC team who came to work with us here in Kenya. Their presence and work here have been such an amazing blessing, not only to our church, community, and those we worked with in Nairobi, but also to us as a family. We couldn't praise God enough or count the number of lives touched because of the WORD that they taught, the hugs that they gave, the testimonies they shared, and the countless other ways they showed the love of Christ. Thank you Denton Team!!

ONE WEEK AND COUNTING
NOW, we are counting down the days until we finally get to board the plane all together and come to the States for a visit! We praise God we have all the necessary documents and our plane tickets in hand. We will be leaving Kenya next Monday Sept 19th and should arrive in Dallas in the early afternoon of the 20th. A week or two after that we will travel to N.C. to visit Allison's family and finally introduce her to her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. As our plans for traveling around the country come together we will let you know. We hope to see as many of you as we can in our short time Stateside.

YOU ARE INVITED TO CELEBRATE WITH US: COME MEET ANJELA!!
Soon after our arrival in Denton, Anjela will celebrate her 3rd Birthday. Our dear friends, Phyllis McAlister and Beth King have graciously decided to host a "Come meet Princess Anjela Birthday Party" on Saturday Sept 25th in Argyle,TX from 4-7pm. We would LOVE to see everyone there if you are in the area!!!!please call Phyllis or Beth at 940-453-2886 or 940-243-1439 or email Phyllis at dpjjjmca@msn.com for more info.

PRAYER REQUESTS

We have lots to do in this final week ahead so please pray for all of the preparations. Also, just before we leave, this Saturday we will have our first Word of Life Fellowship Church Baptismal Service. We are so excited to witness the baptism of around 10 or so people in our church as they share their testimonies and publicly profess their commitment to follow Christ. Please pray for each of these individuals as some of them have recently begun a relationship with Christ while others have been Believers for awhile but never publicly confessed Christ through baptism. We are so excited we get to still be here for this special day!

Thank you to those who have been praying for God to provide for our specific needs while we are in America. We are so grateful that this past week we were provided a house to stay in the Denton area while we are in Texas. Thank you George and Karen!! Now we are praying and still needing a vehicle to drive so if you know of any please let us know!

Please continue to pray for us here this week as we try to arrange and settle things in Kenya as ministry continues while we are gone. There's a lot of logistics in planning to leave our home and ministry here for 6 months!! Please also pray for Word of Life Fellowship Church, the church leaders, BTCP classes, and our ministry partners and friends we leave behind in Kenya. May they stay faithful and continue serving the Lord with passion and excitement while we are away!

Pray that all will go smoothly and that we will have no problems with Dennis or Anjela's documents going through immigration when we reach Dallas airport. Also pray hard that the immigration officers will be gracious and allow Anjela a VISA to stay in country for at least 6 months!!!

Though our time in the States is going to be very busy, please pray that it will be a fun, refreshing, restful, and enjoyable time for all of us!

VISA and other updates

2010-08-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

If you want to see more fun pics of our time in Nairobi go HERE

ANJELA'S VISA
After a long week in Nairobi we are finally all back home in Mombasa. Thanks for your prayers! We had some issues and disappointments at the Embassy and some very discouraging days trying to get Anjela's VISA but the short story of it all is that we did finally get a VISA for Anjela to travel to the States. It isn't for the 6 months that we asked for but we hope that this can be extended once we get on American soil so that we can spend the holidays with our family and friends there and be there for the DBC Missions Conference in January. There were also some surprising concerns and misunderstandings about Dennis' immigration status as well but we have talked with our immigration attorney in the States and she said all should be ok and that she can give us more guidance on this once we get there. We praise God for seeing us through this week and giving us comfort in the truth of HIS Word! Psalm 20:7 sure has been a great comfort to us. "Some trust in chariots and some in horses,but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."

So now what does this mean for us????

ALL OF THE OMONDIS ARE FINALLY COMING TO AMERICA:):)

We plan to leave Kenya on Sept 19th and will be arriving in Dallas on the afternoon of the 20th. We will probably stay in Denton for a week or two, visit our immigration lawyer, and then head on to North Carolina to be with Allison's family...then plans after that are still up in the air. As our plans come together we will let you know. We really look forward to seeing everyone and introducing them to Anjela!

FYI: Anjela will celebrate her 3rd birthday on September 23rd just after our arrival in the States. Some of our sweet friends and supporters in Denton are talking of having a "Happy Birthday--Meet Anjela Get Together" that following weekend on 24th or 25th. We will get out the details as soon as we know more!! We would love to see as many of you there as possible!

IMPORTANT NEEDS RELATED TO OUR STAY IN AMERICA
As we look ahead to coming we also are praying for God to provide for our needs during our time in the States. We praise Him that He has already provided a carseat for Anjela and a pickup from the airport when we arrive. Please continue praying for the following and let us know if you or anyone you know could help us in any of these areas.

1. a house or apartment in the Denton,TX area we could stay in and call home-base while we are there.
2. a vehicle to drive while we are in Texas

DENTON TEAM COMING
Work and ministry still continue here and just before we leave for the States, we will have a team from Denton coming to work with us from Aug 29-Sept 11th. Linda and Jerry Clark along with several others from DBC will be coming to help us with pastoral teaching and leadership training as well as some Titus 2 women's work. Dennis and the men will be teaching pastors/church leaders at Ujamaa during the day where we already have BTCP training going while Allison and the ladies will be visiting/teaching ladies from our church. During the evenings at the Serve Kenya compound in Ukunda, Jerry will be teaching a conflict resolution seminar that we hope many in our area and our church will attend. During the second week we will all travel to Nairobi to conduct some men's/women's teaching and training there as well. Please be in prayer for us as we prepare for these busy upcoming weeks and hosting this team. May the Lord go before us and prepare the hearts of all who will be taught as well as those who are teaching! Pray for the safety and preparations of the team as they travel as well.

Please continue to pray for us here as we try to arrange and settle things in Kenya as ministry continues while we are gone. There's a lot of logistics in planning to leave our home and ministry here for 6 months!!

America Here We come!

2010-08-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Praise God with us!! Anjela's Embassy Appt went smoothly for the most part and the short story of it is, YEAH!! She was given a US VISA!We are very happy about this! We are a little disappointed we weren't given the long term VISA that we wanted for her but at least we get to come for a long visit!! I can hardly believe we are finally going to be able to go to the States to visit friends and family and to FINALLY, after 2 1/2 years, introduce our little Anjela to everyone! WOW, so much emotion! In just a month's time we will be on our way. Lots to do until then..so please pray for our preparations...more later...---Allison

Praise God for peace!

2010-08-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord all has been peaceful here in Kenya since the beginning of the voting for referendum yesterday. Just as we begged the Lord, there have been no major incidences or reports of violence even since the results were announced last night. We are so thankful for the way Kenyans have responded peacefully in exercising their right to vote and that even the opposing side conceded defeat in a peaceful and humble manor.

Kenyans overwhelmingly voted yes in the referendum to welcome in the new proposed constitution. Results by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission showed "Yes" won the referendum in favor of the new constitution with 67.2 percent while "No" had 30.3 percent.

We are so happy that the voting process this time seemed very credible and transparent without any reported problems or conflicts

We are also happy about this new constitution and pray now that the government can peaceful and responsibly "make it happen" and that Kenya can move forward. If followed well its suppose to remove power from the presidency and create a more decentralized political system. The constitution would also bring in a bill of rights and even allow dual citizenship for Kenyans. (so yes Dennis now can be both a Kenyan and American citizen at the same time:):)

To READ MORE ABOUT THIS go to these sites:

Kenyans Back Change to Constitution

Kenyans Overwhelmingly Endorse New Constitution

Hear what Obama had to say about the Kenyan Referendum

MAY THERE BE PEACE

2010-08-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Now we are back home and have jumped back into ministry as we love and know it here in Mombasa. We have an urgent request we wanted to ask you to pray for this week. For those of you who follow the news, you might have heard that this week Kenyan’s will go to the polls. “This Wednesday August 4^th, Kenyans will vote in a referendum to approve or disapprove a new constitution-part of an agreement that ended deadly clashes after the disputed elections in December 2007.”

Supporters of the proposed constitution are part of the “YES” camp while those opposed to the new constitution are in the “NO” camp. “Opinion polls indicate most people back the proposed constitution, but there are some powerful figures in the ‘No” camp. There has been some violence during the campaign - most notably a grenade attack on an organized "No" campaign rally in the capital Nairobi, which left six people dead in June. Some fear more clashes could break out.” (info is from BBC and Kenyan’s Daily Nation Newspaper) However, we are hopeful and pray that all will be peaceful. According to the Electoral commission, the results of Wednesday's referendum should be out 48 hours after the start of voting so please be in prayer during these critical days, especially this coming weekend.

If you would like to read more detail about the upcoming referendum vote you can go to these BBC and CNN websites:

"Kenya's Constitution and Referendum"

"Why Kenya's Referendum is so important"

Please pray with us that there will be PEACE in Kenya this week!!

---Pray that corruption would not mark the referendum process and that truth and justice would be upheld at every stage.

----Pray for a special protection from God for the ‘hot spots’ that are being targeted for possible clashes. Pray that people would not be scattered and that abundant peace would prevail

---Ask God to place His hand upon this land, and preserve its people from evil, violence,ethnic cleansing, religious clashes and disaster.

---Pray earnestly that this referendum will unite Kenyans and not divide us along religious or ethnic lines

Also please pray particularly for Word of Life Fellowship Church. Yesterday Dennis preached a powerful sermon on John 13-15 on loving one another unconditionally, unwavering obedience to God, and remaining in Christ. Our church congregation is made up of many tribes and differing political views. Pray that our church would stand out as a LIGHT in our community and be a family who indeed LOVES one another and those around them during this time.

And we would like anyone that might be worrying about us to know that the build up has not been anywhere near as violent as what happened in 2007 and we should be very safe at home during the results. We plan to stock up food and to remain at home as the results come out.

Thank you for your prayers for us, the ministry and for our beloved Kenya!

May God be glorified!!

Our Family Get-Away

2010-08-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your prayers over the last 2 weeks as we took a family adventure across the country and into Uganda and back. God was indeed with us and protected us throughout the journey. We didn’t even have one flat tire. (a miracle on some of the roads we traveled) We had a really refreshing time together as we drove from Mombasa all the way to Kampala, Uganda. We stopped multiple times along the way to see friends and enjoy the countryside, and some of the lakes, mountains, and beautiful waterfalls of Kenya and Uganda. We even got to eat fresh fried fish at the Source of the Nile River in Jinja. Here's a bunch of pictures


Anjela with her friends Micah and Mikel in Kabete

Anjela and her friend Julia (Trena's daughter) at Thompson Falls


Getting ready to go on a boat ride in Jinja near the source of the Nile


Dennis enjoying fried fish at Source of the River Nile...yes he actually ate fish and really enjoyed it!!


Ugandan Bananas Anyone?


Stopping in Delemere on our way to Nakuru...the Marabout storks you see behind us are huge!!

Dennis taking in the beauty of Thompson Falls in Nyahururu town

At Thompson Falls

The beautiful Rift Valley near Nyahururu town

Anjela and Allison with our dear friend Trena Ivey and her daughter Julia


The Omondis enjoying lunch at a Cafe in Nakuru

Baba and Anjela enjoying fish and chips at Source of the Nile

cute one of Baba and Anjela on river. Don't ya think that life vest is a little too big for our little girl?

Bujagali Falls in Jinja. These rapids will sadly soon disappear because of a dam being built in Jinja

Mama and Anjela on a small island down near the rapids

We really enjoyed our time can you tell?

Local boat ride on the river Nile

This one should explain itself....

Fish head anyone? And if you are wondering...yes i did eat it!

look how small Anjela looks:)

view of city of Kampala, Uganda

with Neltia Henderson and her boys in Kampala. Sorry we missed you Mr. Kerry!

i love this one of Anjela holding the futball..looks like she's looking out saying, "can anyone come and play?"

Cheeeeeesssssing it for the camera. But probably just finished saying "MY Ball"

Anjela with her biological mom in Busia

Anjela digging with her biological father, Dennis' brother, Babu

Having tea in Kisumu city before our drive back to Nairobi

Anjela with her friends in Kabete

More Praise!

2010-07-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here's yet another update and praise to the many prayers you have been praying for us.
For those of you who haven't heard yet from our status updates on Facebook, this week has been a very encouraging week for the Omondis. Just one week after being given Anjela's adoption certificate, we praise God we also applied for and have already received her official Kenyan passport in record time. And to add to that the next day we were able to get online and book her U.S VISA interview appointment at the American Embassy for August 12th. We are very excited!! Please be in prayer for us as that day approaches. May the Lord show us grace and favor in the eyes of all the officials involved that day and grant Anjela her U.S. travel VISA so we can travel together as a family to the States in mid to late September.

Also be in prayer for us in the next two weeks. On Saturday we will be taking off on a much needed family adventure. We will be driving across Kenya to visit Dennis' family in Busia and do some sight-seeing and visiting of friends along the way. Depending on the situation there, we also hope to drive across the border into Uganda to visit some friends in Kampala and maybe Jinja. Please be in fervent prayer for traveling mercies and safety along the way!!!! Also pray that these next two weeks will be restful for us as a family and that we will feel refreshed and rejuvenated when we return.

We love you all and appreciate your prayers and ALL you do for us as we serve the Lord here in Kenya.Hope to see you soon.

This is a recent picture of goofy girl Anjela and her fridge-box house and one of her helping Mama make brownies. So hard to believe we will already be celebrating her 3 year old birthday September 23rd.

FOR MORE FUN ANJELA PHOTOS CLICK HERE

Oh Happy Day!!

2010-07-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Please rejoice and praise God with us. On Wednesday we received the best 3rd Anniversary gift we could have received! We now have in our hands Anjela's correct and error-free adoption certificate! God is good, His timing perfect and His grace sufficient! All we can do is say glory to God for what He has done! It may not have been done in the timing we ourselves would have wanted but we know it was done in just the way the Lord had it planned out. These last two years of waiting have been some of the most challenging for us but WELL WORTH IT! God has sustained us and taught us so much about Himself and reminded us time and time again just what HE went through to enable us to be adopted as His sons and daughters. Again I will quote Derek Loux, "My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." No matter how frustrating, costly, expensive, or difficult these past two years may have been for us and for many of you who have carried this burden with us in prayer, it doesn't come close to what Christ did for us. It's only caused us to draw closer to Him and trust Him more and for that we are thankful! And we praise God and are so thankful for our little Anjela Grace Akinyi Omondi who we can now officially say is our first born daughter. Yes she's been "ours" since she came to live with us April 11,2008, but now we have proof in the eyes of the law and on paper:) Please continue to pray for us as we depend on the Lord to guide us in raising her to honor and fear the Lord. Because of her circumstances and where God has brought her from we also pray she may know and understand His grace in an extra special way. May she come to know the Lord as her Savior and may God take her energy, friendliness, outgoing spirit, bright smiles, cleverness, and use it all for His glory. May her light shine for HIM!

Also, please continue to pray as we have applied for her Kenyan passport and hope to also have it in our hands by the middle of next week. After that please pray that the US Embassy will give us an early appointment so that we can apply for her a VISA and all travel to the States sometime in September as planned.

Thanks for continuing to walk this journey with us.
For More Pictures of this GREAT DOUBLE BLESSING DAY we call Anniversary-Adoption Celebration go to: OMONDI FAMILY CELEBRATES

What else could happen with the adoption?

2010-06-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

Whate else could happen with the adoption certificate you might ask? Wasn't that suppose to be complete and all this behind us? We thought so too but...

now theres another hurdle with Anjela's adoption certificate. Two weeks ago we got a call saying the adoption certificate was finally ready but that my maiden name was spelled Strokes instead of Stokes. So they had to send it back to Nairobi. Then we got a call from the lawyer last Friday saying it was back and ready and we could pick it up on Monday. We were so excited we were finally going to have her adoption certificate in our hands and be able to go straight to the passport office to apply for her a passport. But when we got the lawyers office to pick up the certificate and we read it we realized that hadn't even put OMONDI on her name. It was just written ANjela Grace Akinyi which was the same thing that was on her original birth certificate. Wasn't that the whole point of this entire process was so she would be an Omondi girl?? Even the adoption order from the courts says from here on out her name shall be Anjela Grace Akinyi Omondi. Ughh!! So frustrating...but then it got worse. They sent it back to Nairobi to be changed and then we got a call saying something about OMONDI didn't appear on the court schedule and it had to in order for them to complete the adoption certificates and it had to match or something. We didn't completely understand but they said it now has to go back to the court and the judge for the changes.....so who knows how long that will take now!!!!!!!! Please pray for a miracle in all of this. pray that whatever has to be done with the judge again will be done in a hurry. And really pray for peace for our family as this has really hit us hard. We thought this was all done and Anjela and I would get to travel to the States with Dennis next month. All of this is so hard to understand and so disappointing and frustrating but We praise God we can trust Him and know He has a plan! May the Lord show us what He is trying to teach us through this all and may He receive glory due His name!

Still more waiting

2010-06-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, TIK strikes again!Almost can't believe it.We went to town this morning to pick up Anjela's adoption certificate and her name was incomplete and the name on the
Adoption Certificate did not match the name on the adoption order. Just when we thought nothingelse could go wrong and we were home free:) HA! But I praise God we can trust that HE HIMSELF is in control! Guess He wants us to learn even more patience!

2010-06-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

We will be picking up Anjela's completed and corrected adoption certificate tommorrow from the lawyer's office. WOW! Praise be to God!!

So close yet still so far...

2010-06-09T15:13:00.001-07:00

Well we are so close and yet so far with this adoption thing. The adoption certificate finally came only to be told that there was a spelling error on Allison’s name. They wrote Allison STROKES Omondi, instead of Stokes. So needless to say it had to be taken back and the wait continues! So pray for patience for us during this time. Dennis leaves for the States around July 10th or so and between now and then we still have to get Anjela a passport and US VISA for us to be able to travel together...please pray!

Another step closer!!

2010-05-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

PRAISE GOD!!! Thank you everyone for praying! Finally after one month of waiting, the judge finally signed her court order yesterday. We are yet another step closer to having Anjela's legal adoption papers finally in our hands. Now the lawyer is suppose to send our file and everything to Nairobi where the adoption certificate will be processed. They say this will take 2 weeks. Let's pray thats true! Then after we have the adoption certificate we can then apply for Anjela a passport and hopefully get a VISA appointment so we can apply for Anjela a U.S. Visa so we can all travel to the States as a family with Dennis at the end of June. Please keep praying with us.God with out a doubt hears the cry of His people!!!

Another Adoption Hurdle...

2010-05-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for praising God and rejoicing with us when we announced the judge finally granted us the adoption of Anjela. We couldn't be more happy and keep praising God for His faithfulness. But as we also asked, please keep praying!!! There are still several more hurdles we must jump over before we can travel to the States together as a family for a visit and we would like to do this when Dennis must travel in June, only one month away. And now we've hit another roadblock it seems. When we talked to our lawyer last they told us that the judge gave her ruling but never signed the necessary papers which will allow the adoption certificate to be processed. We don't know if she just forgot or if our file is just sitting on her desk somewhere with all the other hundreds of files she has to sign. And we must have this adoption certificate in order to proceed any further and apply for Anjela a Kenyan passport and an American VISA. Its all very frustrating as you can imagine. But as always, we are trusting God and we ask that you pray with us that the judge would hurry and sign that paper!!!! May a miracle be done!

Also please pray for Allison. She spent her first official Mother's Day in bed and is still recovering from a bad flu/bacterial infection. Pray that Dennis and Anjela will not catch the same bug. Please pray we would all have good health as it seems there is lots of disease popping up around here .Its rainy season now so there are lots of icky germs lurking and lots of malaria carrying mosquitos around.

In Honor of Mother's Day

2010-05-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

On this first "OFFICIAL" Mother's Day of mine as I lay here in bed sick with a bad flu or something I decided i would post something that I shared via email with the Missions Women group at Denton Bible Church last Sunday. I was asked to write something that their leader Janis could share about my experience and time here in Kenya these last two years...and to share what God has been teaching me and how God has used my particular gifts, talents, training, or life experiences to touch the lives of those around me and/or examples of an experience in my life when I can see that God miraculously engineered circumstances to fulfill His precious purposes for me. And of course the answer to these questions for me all involved my sweet Anjela...so in honor of Mother's Day i thought i would share it publicly as well...

"Well for those of you who get our updates and follow our life here in Kenya, you know that our first term here on the field (we have been back now for a little over 2 years) has been full of lots of ups and downs and some days it seems like more downs than ups. Its been filled with a lots of "NEWS" and "FIRST TIMES"

In these last two years I have taken on many NEW roles---new wife, new home, new ministry, new and unexpected mother, new to being pastor's wife, new church, new friends, new mentor, new Bible study teacher, new women's leader, and more....and in all of these roles and "NEWS" my biggest challenge has not only been how to do them all but to prioritize and balance them all well....and in the midst of all of this transition figuring out WHAT IS MY PURPOSE?? WHY AM I HERE? What does God want me to do here?

Yes i know the basic answer to that is because God has called me here and I want to be obedient and serve Him sharing the gospel and discipling others but as I have prayed and studied His Word, particularly going through the book of Esther, He has been teaching me so much more about my purpose. He has opened my eyes to my past experiences, training and all that I have been through and I have been in awe at just how HE has been preparing me all along for where I am at now, and in particular for being Anjela's Mama...He wastes no experience. He is always working to fulfill His purposes in us.

As many might know when we first arrived in Kenya, we had only been married for 9 months and we were coming back to a new home in Kenya together and to a new ministry neither one of us had ever experienced. Both of us had done different types of ministry in Kenya as singles. We arrived in Mombasa at around midnight on April 3, 2008, excited to be back in Kenya and planning to slowly settle back in over the next few months and sort out and discern whether God was calling us to make a big move to Southcoast for Dennis to be pastor of Word of Life Fellowship church. When we went to bed probably around 3 or 4am, suitcases still packed and things scattered all over the apt, little did we know what would be waiting for us at the doorstep the very next morning....but God did..and as we are learning, He is full of fun and unexpected surprises:)

We not only woke up in a pool of sweat, reminded we were back in hot Mombasa but to a knock at the door and a sweet little 6 month old baby girl (Dennis' niece) waiting for us to welcome her so she could call us Mom and Dad.....and it seems like the rest, these last two years have been a whirlwind of an adventure around Anjela...much of it doing a lot of waiting and doing whatever it takes to make Anjela "ours"..

I remember the first week we had Anjela and i was still in shock that we actually had a baby, that we weren't just babysitting her, that this baby wasn't going anywhere, she was here to stay. i had many conversations with God and often His reply was, "Allison, i have been preparing you for this....you love babies, you were trained as a baby nurse, you've taught many moms how to do this, you yourself can do this...no you didn't have the 9 months to psychological and physically prepare yourself or your home but with my strength you can do this. This is my plan for you, and this is my plan for Anjela" ....and over and over in these past two years I have been reminded of this.

And then out of the blue, a dear friend, Denise Sizelove sent me Beth Moore's study on the book of Esther. What a blessing this has been to my life. God has used the life of Esther and that study to teach me so much, in particularly in relation to Anjela. Here's the journal entry i would like to open up and share with you.

"Today as I read a section of "For such a time as this, " it hit me, God put Esther in just the right place of power, at just the right time and circumstances to save the Jewish people. As she contemplated going before King Xerxes, Mordecai told her, " Who knows that you have not attained royalty for such a time as this? " or in other words, "What if you were born for this moment?...all of this made me really think about God's providence and purpose for my own life.....God Himself purposed for me to be Anjela's Mom. WOW! This is so deep to think about! As I think back over my life and how I got to where I am now, could God have really put all the desires for Africa in my heart as a young girl, and the desire for Kenya in my heart years later, only to take me there for 2 years where at the very end of my term i met Dennis (at just the right time when he came back from Denton and i was headed home to America), go through the trials we had with the IMB, lots of long distance waiting, immigration issues, and the other many trials we went through to get back to Kenya together, just so I could be Anjela's Mom??? (at just the right time she desperately needed a new mom) Wow! " And none of the choices I made or experiences I went through to get to the place/position as Anjela's mom was easy! And as I write this we are still going through the difficulties of adopting her as our legal daughter. But as Beth Moore has said, " I had to accept I was not called to an easy life, I was called to a purposeful life." She says, "Beloved, in the times of greatest struggle when you make the Godward decision over convenience, earthly comfort, or carnal pleasure, you too have come to a critical moment in the fulfillment of your destiny----a defining moment."

And i have to say a huge Amen to all of that. God has certainly not called me to a comfy or easy life here in Kenya, and we've had to make so many hard Godward and God-sized decisions , but these 2 years have definitely been a critical moment in the fulfillment of my destiny on earth...

Its amazing and overwhelming and humbling to think....God, you could have really brought me to Kenya "just" for Anjela?? (of course there are many other reasons too)

Everyday I wake up to Anjela's big hugs, smiles and even her non stop chatting, I stand in awe to think that God has chosen me and prepared me to be her Mom. And as i think about Esther's life and where God brought her from it also makes me think about little Anjela herself. Look where God has brought her from! She is a very special little girl, bringing smiles and joy to all she comes in contact. Maybe its because I'm her mom and am a little bias but i think she is very unique and special little girl that God has a very special and big plan for. What that plan is God only knows but i'm excited to see the life He has planned out for her. Could she too become an Esther in one way or another?

The "fight" to make her legally ours has been a long and trying one, frustrating and stressful one, but overall one of the biggest JOYS of my life (besides Jesus and Dennis of course:)) And one of the most life changing and sanctifying periods of my life thus far as well. God has taught me so much, including being still and waiting on Him, serving Him in the waiting, and loving Him in the waiting. Yes I have watched my husband wave bye and travel to and from America several times while Anjela and I remained in Kenya and No I haven't been able to go to America to introduce her to our family and friends there yet and yes it has been a long and hard and challenging two years in Kenya, but would I trade any of it? Would i trade any of the experiences? Absolutely NOT, for He has a purpose and a plan for me as He continues to mold me and make me more like Him....He wastes no experience. And I pray that surely all of these experiences has touched the lives of others around us in some way or another! May He be glorified!! And as far as our experience with the adoption goes, i think this quote that a friend of mine, Casey Chappel, shared with me the other day sums it all up.......

"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous.

Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." Derek Loux

Fun Photos of Anjela

2010-05-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

If you would like to see some recent FUN photos of Anjela here are a couple links to where I have posted pictures on Facebook:

Anjela and Friends

Gotcha Day: The day Anjela officially became our daughter

Easter 2010

Family Vacation March 2010

Our Little Princess

WE GOTCHA! God is GOOD! Adoption Update

2010-05-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

To all of you have FAITHFULLY prayed with us and waited with us and cried and got disappointed with us these last two years, please join us now in REJOICING and celebrating and praising God that Anjela Grace Akinyi Omondi is officially and legally our adopted daughter. All we can say is THANK YOU JESUS! All Glory be to God! God is faithful and all the waiting has paid off! We have been celebrating and thanking the Lord all weekend! And we say a HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU who have been crying out to God with us.

BUT…please don’t stop praying!! Though the BIG STEP is complete and we have the court order that the adoption has been granted, we have 2 to 3 more weeks to wait for the Adoption Certificate, and then in order to travel with her to visit everyone in the States we need to apply for her a Kenyan passport and then get her an American VISA…And to get all of these things completed before Dennis needs to travel to the States in mid June is going to take a MIRACLE!! But we serve a BIG God! We would love to all travel together in June so we can come and introduce everyone to Anjela so please pray diligently with us that this miracle will take place. Please pray that somehow all of this can be expedited and that again we will find favor in the eyes of all the officials who will be involved in these processes!

Monumental Moments in Life

2010-04-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am siting at the back of the class watching James teaching OT survey and I cannot stop praising God in my heart for him.

A few years ago James sat in my first BTCP class learning the OT and I knew I would see this day but I did not think it would be this awesome. God is so good and faithful.

I praise God for James, my brother, my friend and "my son." Discipleship is hard, time consuming and at times painful but the rewards are so worth the "trouble"!

It is moments like these that gives us strength to continue and really live 1 Corinthians 15:58 "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Students listening attentively to the teacher! I cannot stop thanking God for GBC for the great contribution they made to make our class look like this. THANK YOU!