Christmas News 2008 From Teresa Kimbrell

December 2008“
To everything there is a season…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Niku Patsani Moni Mdzina L Ambuye Jesu Christu! (I greet you all in the name of Jesus Christ!)


What a wonderful time of year! I love this season of celebrating our Lord’s birth with family and friends. For most of us it is a busy, hectic time, but in the midst of it all the reason for the season SHINES through!



It is different celebrating Christmas in a foreign land. There aren’t decorations all over the place. Only at the small mall nearby can you find it decorated and Christmas music blaring over the speakers as you shop. Right in the middle of buying groceries, my eyes welled up with tears and I missed all of the festivities that this time of year brings at home; the atmosphere of love, celebration, and good will toward all. “Tis the season to be jolly…”



What an incredible year this has been. 2008 is definitely a year to be put down in history. Milestones have been reached and attained in various areas globally. Things are changing. They always are. The only true force in our life that is stable is God. The Great Unchanging Changer!



We held a Christmas banquet for Pastors and their wives and what a wonderful event that was. They were blessed with a time of fellowship, encouragement and food. I have been busy assisting with a course on orphanage administration for the Discipleship University in Eldoret, Kenya, teaching ladies, preaching the Word, assisting others in ministry and building relationships. A Men of Action team came in November and constructed a 2 roomed building for outreach to orphans and vulnerable children through one of the local churches. They kept me on the move and it was wonderful to watch the building go up in a short amount of time. What a blessing!



Thank you all for your PRAYERS! I have felt them strongly throughout this year. I have much to praise God for and at the top of the list is YOU! May you feel the presence of our Precious Savior in very real and tangible ways this Christmas season and may the New Year find you walking more and more in unity with Him and His purposes for your life and ministry.



God Richly Bless You,



Teresa Kimbrell



Zambia, Africa
Project #065-0110
COGWM, PO Box 8016,
Cleveland, TN 37320-8016
or
PO Box 34808, Lusaka 10101, Zambia, Central Africa

Christmas Report From The Gordon Bloodworth Family

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
May God Bless you and your house!

Thanksgiving in Kenya
Each year we have a great thanksgiving feast with all the Americans we can find in Eldoret. This year we extended the invitation to our Missionary Fellowship. We had 75 guests. For the first time, the feast was not at our house. A Danish family opened their home for the celebration of thanks. We have much to be thankful for in Eldoret. When the troubles came in January, Eldoret was in the news daily as one horror after another was broadcast worldwide. In spite of the heat of the times, not one of our Missionaries or Pastors was killed. We give thanks!

Pastor’s Seminar
Pat and Katherine Thomas from Tampa Fl. Are here with us for a ten day Pastor’s Seminar and are teaching a course on Christian Counseling. With the trauma of the clashes fresh in our minds, I suppose we all need a bit of counseling. We thank Pastor Roberts (an old Lee
College friend of mine) for permitting his Assistant pastor time off to be with us. Thanks Ernest!

University Technical Team on Campus
A technical team from the Commission of Higher Education was here last week to inspect our campus and make recommendations for preparing us to qualify as a Chartered University. They were very positive in their approach and we have our work cut out to meet the
stringent guidelines. Our major concerns are a new and larger library and the roofing on our buildings is asbestos (horrors). We will need to tear the roof off and replace the asbestos sheets and bury the old roofing.

Staffing Needs
We need some staff to enable us to go forward and grow. We are starting a School of Business and Computers and need teachers in those areas. We want to start a School of Church Music and need teachers with degrees in those areas. We need a builder/maintenance man to keep our building in good repair and build new buildings as God provides the funds to build. We need the funds to build! Would you pray with us about these needs and ask God if He would consider sending you to meet one of these needs?

College Registration Completed
We have completed all requirements for permanent registration of Discipleship College and expect to receive our certificate of registration within this month. This means we are licensed to teach but without a working relationship with a chartered university we cannot give exams or issue certificates or degrees. This is why we are anxious to finish the process of becoming a chartered university. Until then we continue to depend on Lee University to issue our degrees.

New Staff Arrivals
Bud and Barbara DeKeyrel have joined our staff. Bud will serve as Business Manager and start the School of Business. He is presently teaching an introductory computer course. Barbara will help in the office as part-time receptionist and full-time keeping everyone on their toes. Waneda Brownlow has moved to Eldoret and will be sharing a house with Marcia Anderson and Kathy Watson. Waneda will be traveling all over Africa and teaching children’s ministry workers. We welcome these new additions to the missionary force in Africa.

Economic Meltdown
You have all felt the results of the current problems in the world economy. We also have been affected in Kenya. The staple diet of Kenyans is maize meal and vegetables or soup. Maize meal has gone from 48 to 120 Kenyan shillings since the first of the year. We are now
paying around $6.oo a gallon for gas so our traveling is limited. I will be riding the bus to Moshe, Tanzania this week for an African Education meeting. We had hoped to take a vacation over the holiday but the cost is now prohibitive and we will substitute a few days shopping in Nairobi and allowing Laura to enjoy the Christmas lights of the shopping centers. Although the centers are
all owned by Hindus or Muslims they go full out to decorate for Christmas to attract our Christian shillings. Thank you for your faithfulness in continuing your support of World Missions and the Bloodworth family in spite of difficult times in your pocket book.

May you have peace on earth and the joy of being a part of God’s family during this holiday season and throughout the new year!

Gordon, Glenda and Laura Bloodworth
Church of God World Missions
Project # 0600044