November and December

Hi everyone, November was a neat month for Josh. When we were in the States Josh won an all expenses paid trip on a historical tour with Gov Mike Huckabee and about 100 other pastors and political people. They went to Poland and England for about 6 days. Josh was able to go to different death camps in Poland and some big historical sites in London. This trip was pretty life changing for him. He was also able to see our pastor Ken Graves on the trip which was nice for him. Kelsey and the Kids stayed back in Kenya while he was gone. The First picture is the gate of one of the death camps. The Second is a picture of Josh with Pastor Ken in London, England. December December was pretty busy with trying to convince the Kenya Railways corp to lease us some land for 10 years and also with planning and executing our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. These services were a huge blessing and incredibly fruitful. The Music was very nice and by the end of the Christmas eve service about 8 people gave their lives to the Lord. It is awesome to see what God does through the teaching of the Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We also had a baby dedication on the Christmas morning service. The new mom and dad were eager to dedicate their baby to Jesus. What a blessing it was.

September - October

The end of August and september was a hard time for us. We made it back to Kenya Safely and were so excited to be back. We were not here for two weeks when some Thugs came to our house in the middle of the night. They broke in, gassed us so we would be sleeping and robbed our whole house. When we woke the following morning one of our doors was wide open and many, many valuable things were gone. We didn't realize just how much they took till even weeks later when we would look for something and it wasn't there. They took Computers, a TV, iPads, a Kindle, they came into our bedrooms and took our phones even from beside our heads. We were sleeping the whole time. This really shook us up. Not just because of the stuff but because we found footprints even between the babies beds. There were so many more things that they took but the biggest thing that shook us was that they were in the house with our babies and we didn't even know it. The good thing is, nobody was hurt even thought they had stashed knives all around our house just "in case". This was a hard blow to come back and immediately this happens. We questioned many things... You know what? God showed himself SO faithful. We really learned what is valuable and what is just stuff. The fact that they gassed us was a sort of protection for our family. During this low time the Saints in Christ gathered around us so much. We were receiving so many messages reminding us of God's faithfulness, what God's protection, of forgiving enemies, of doing good to those who spitefully use us. God is faithful in the good and in the bad. God remains unchanging even when the world seems to tip upside down. Gods call for us hasn't changed just because we went through scary times. God's love for the people of Kenya is still passionate even if our passion was doused. So... We bumped up our security, bought another dog and we move forward. For all of you who sent messages, notes, money, prayers and those who just brought hugs and support, Thank you. Thank you more than you know. The Lord is the lifter of our head. We can have Joy even when our circumstances are not "happy". October So as some of you may have noticed we have not been getting our updates out. This is because we had no computer so it was hard to do anything with that. Sorry for those of you who may have been disappointed. The Lord provided a computer for us so now I can update all of you. I just want to say, The Lord has done some amazing restoring of my (Kelsey's) heart during this trial by fire. I have been doing a Bible study through the book of Philippians that came just when I needed it. Joy doesn't come because of good circumstances, it comes Because of Gods Strength and Because He is the source. He is the object of our Joy. The Church is doing good. We are praying for more children's ministry workers because we have a lot of 3 year olds and some of our workers are moving away! So you can be in prayer with us about that. Please continue to pray for all the things that need to be replaced. Pray for continual healing for our hearts. Pray that the Lord provides what we need for Land and for Church rent. Josh has a trip to Europe with our Pastor and some Christian Politicians that is designed to teach about history. He is really looking forward to this trip especially because he WON it at an event that he went to. Please be praying for our family as he is gone since it is always hard for the kids. Here are just some family pictures from this month

August

In the Beginning of August we flew to Tennessee to say goodbye. We loved this time in the States but we were also ready to get back to Kenya and continue on with what the Lord called us to do. To ministry and Shepherd Calvary Chapel Eldoret. Saying goodbye is always hard but there were so many blessings and memories to take back with us. Calvary Crossville put on a HUGE yard sale to help support the ministry we have going on out here. It was a time where we all worked hard together for this profit. We were so thankful for the care and devotion that was put into this time. It was a nice time of fellowship as well. It was a weekend yard sale that ended on Sunday with a Church service and Baptism with a big potluck. Josh's Mom and Aunt and their families were even able to come. It was such a sweet ending to this time.

As we Left the USA once again we were leaving with renewed courage, vision and passion to go back and serve well. Josh is still seeking to buy or long term lease a piece of land for the Church. Kelsey went back with a passion to start teaching the Ladies in our Church at some point and the Kids.... they were just looking forward to being home and "normality" again. Layla was pretty excited to ride on the airplane too!

June and July

Hey Guys, This has been such a great time getting to See family, Catch up with friends and travel around to Churches that support us and some that don't. The fellowship has been so refreshing and encouraging. We traveled to Maine in the beginning of June and got to stay with our Pastor, Ken Graves and his family. It was nice for us to see what God is doing in all of the churches in Maine as well as some others we got to go visit with. This was a bit tiring for the Kids and for us as well but when else can you go visit almost every church that you know all in a few months? Never... I should say. The Lord also provided for Kelsey and the Kids to go stay in Washington State with her sister Laura and their Kids while Josh went to the West coast Calvary Senior pastor's conference. Kelsey and the kids had a great time with Laura and all the nieces and nephews. Josh was able to see so many long lost friends at the pastors conference as well. Josh then Came to mer the rest of us in Washington and to share with My Brother-in-law's Church which is Calvary Chapel Yakima. It is so nice getting to see all the different members in the Body of Christ.

Also while in Maine I got too see 3 of my sisters and my Brother and their families.

We ended the month of July going back to Tennessee.

April and May

Hey Guys, Our April is starting off in Kenya and ending in Tennessee. As I wrote in our last update we were blessed to send out a pastor from our church to a region about 3 hours from our church. The pastor and his wife moved out where there is no running water or electricity. This was even new to them even Eldoret has those luxuries. Well more has happened since then. Pastor Ed Compean and his wife Kelli (one the Calvary regional leaders and his wife who is a nurse) came to visit our church to do a medical outreach. I will say, living in Kenya and using the medical system here is pretty uninformative. The doctors here do not inform you on how to keep from getting simple sicknesses; such as washing you hands often to avoid intestinal sicknesses or to stay home if you have a fever or are showing signs of flu etc... They do not teach you to protect others by staying home when you are very sick. For example... I had a mom bring her baby with mumps into our nursery to play with the other babies because she was never taught about contagious sicknesses. So enough about that... We had Kelli the nurse come to speak with our church about how to be good stewards of our bodies and how to avoid simple sicknesses and how to cure simple sicknesses by what we eat. This was a great learning experience for all of us. She taught us how to have clean drinking water without a filter, how to eat certain things for certain illnesses that will make you better, she informed on how sexual diseases are spread and how to avoid them. She answered numerous questions relating to all sorts of issues and shared what the Bible had to say about all these issues including abstinence. Pastor Ed Shared the following morning with our church and was received very well. We thank them for coming. The week of Easter we arrived for our furlough in Crossville Tennessee to visit Kelsey's family. Josh was given the privilege of getting to share that sunday. After then, We hit the ground running and were at a different church every week for all of may. We also got too see most of Josh's Family. Half way through may Kelsey was given the privilege of being the guest speaker of Calvary Chapel Crossville Tennessee's Woman's day of Refreshing. It was such a wonderful time spending time with them, teaching and getting to lead worship with my mom too.

Josh was able to get out to two different pastors conferences and just soak up the Word of God by men older in the Lord than him. It was truly a time of refreshing. We were Received so well by all the churches that we were able to share at.

April sendoff

March The Lord Blessed our church with the opportunity to send our a pastor in our Church. He and His family will be going to the village Vahiga to start a new church. We took a team out there to help build his house out of mud. This was a fun time of ministering to this family. They have no running water or electricity.

March 2014 Visit to America

To our friends and family Josh and I are planning a trip to the States. There are some very specific reasons we need to come now. It has become to costly for Calvary Chapel Eldoret to remain in Eldoret town so we want to buy land to put the church on once and for all. We have shared before that our heart is really to raise up leaders here in town, to disciple and send them back out into their villages to start churches. We want to put a discipleship school and a church on the property. We are going to be raising money within the church here in the next few months to go towards this project. We want to come share this vision in the churches back in the States too. Josh is going to be able to go to about 3 pastor’s conferences while we are home which is a huge blessing and refreshment for Him. We are going to visiting Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Maine, Pennsylvania, Indiana and He will be going to California. If you are a pastor and would like Josh to come share the vision of Gospel for Kenya with your church please contact us ASAP at Lawrencejosh95@yahoo.com so we can put it on our Calendar since we only have so many Sundays in the States. We will also be visiting family while we are home! We are trying to buy tickets leaving Kenya on the 26th of April and coming back on the 16th of August. We are supported exclusively by Gods provision through the support of others. The plane tickets to travel for this trip do not fit in that budget. If the Lord puts it on your heart to help in that way we have a PayPal account under lawrencejosh95@yahoo.com To donate online to our financial facilitators go to https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/ShepherdsStaffMissionFacil/OnlineDonation.html?account=5529%20Josh%20and%20Kelsey%20Lawrence If anyone has an extra car while we are in Maine that they would let us borrow that would be great also. We will give more firm dates later when we have them. Please pray for us, for fruit for this trip, for the kids as we travel and for provision. Thanks all The Lawrence Family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

November and December Update Merry Christmas and Happy New year! Last month we started the paperwork for Zephaniah to become an official American citizen. This all happened in good time! We are currently applying for new work permits (a 4 year Visa) for Josh and the family. This is going to get tricky. We have been told that the government is not going to be allowing westerners to stay longer than 2 years. They are saying that they want to create more jobs for Kenyans. This wont happen if they send all the westerners away. We think there is something deeper going on. There are a lot of Muslims in the government and I think they don’t want missionaries here. This is all speculation. Nevertheless…. We need prayer for this process. Once our current visa expires in February if we are not approved we will all have to leave the country and come back in. This will give us 3 months in the country as tourists; if it is not renewed in that following 3 months we will need to do it again. We know that the Lord will have us here as long as He wants. He knows all these things but He still tells us to pray about our concerns so there it is. Also last month: Our Car broke down and the part was impossible to find in Kenya. We started looking online and found one in the states for $75. We found the same part in Uganda for $700. Through the Lords help we were able to get the part in the States and send it with a family member of Missionaries here and she brought it to us very quickly! This was a miracle because things usually don’t make it to Kenya quickly. The part was for a vehicle with a different name and we were not sure that it would even work but it DID! We praise the Lord for this. December: Josh did his first wedding and an African one at that! It was good. It went a little rough with the difference in cultural things. Weddings here never start on time so it was 3 hours late! Despite the bumps along the way they were married in the end. That’s what counts. So many things have happened it’s hard to know where to start. We had a nice Christmas, it was spent with 2 different families and a single girl who came for breakfast. It was wonderful to spend nice time with friends who feel more like family. A few days ago Josh’s father passed away He had been sick but it was still shocking and a bit heartbreaking. Josh is flying right now January 1st to the States where he will perform the funeral and spend some much needed time with his grieving family. Please pray for strength for him and his family in this time. The kids and I had to stay back due to funds. The miracle behind all this is that we didn’t have any money for Josh to go but through a Facebook fundraiser so many people participated in getting Josh to the states. Enough money was raised in 48 hours for Josh’s ticket and for car, lodging and food. Thank you all for your encouraging words and for the help. It is impossible to thank each person because half of the people who helped donate I don’t even know! We are humbled and blessed. I pray that the Lord will abundantly bless and provide for each of the needs of you all. For those of you who helped… There are no words to express our gratitude. Thank you.