February-March

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6 For He satisfies the longing, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:9 Hi all, Whats going on with the Church This has been a great few months. 2 weeks ago we had our annual mens conference and it was a huge hit. Every time we do one we have men comment that they wish we had these more often. This year we had about 150 men gather together for a day long conference. We had 2 guest speakers come from Nairobi to share with the Eldoret men. They shared on Biblical culture, 2 separate sessions on Being a godly husband and a session on being a man of God. In this culture the women are often belittled and beaten by husbands, even men claiming to be christians so to have godly men come and tell them how to be the husbands Jesus calls them to is quite a revelation. We have also started a saturday night evangelical service this past saturday (March 19th).We do a lot of worship and then an evangelical teaching. We want to get people into church and share the love of Christ and the Gospel with them. Whats going on with our family. We have had 2 months of sickness with our family. We have a bad lingering bad cough particularly with our youngest babies, Zephaniah and Jael although Layla and Kelsey seem to be getting it a lot too. This has been pretty hard on us. We have been to the doctor numerous times and there is really nothing we can do about it except treat the symptoms and wait it out. All of Eldoret is in a very dry season and we live right off of a dirt road so the dust often makes people have a bit of a chronic cough. Please pray for healing for all of us. We are eager to be well again. We have taken steps to planning our next trip to the United States. We are planning for the beginning of August so if you could pray for the preparation of this trip. It is quite expensive to fly 5 people across the world. We are excited to see family, friends and the churches that support our ministry out here. Also we are excited to introduce Jael to everyone since she has never been to the US. We are 3 months into renewing our Work Permit for Kenya. This is what makes it possible for us to stay and serve in Kenya. They are giving us a bit of a hard time this time. It is taking longer than usual. Please pray with us for a faster process and for favor in immigration. They have been trying to kick westerners out and give all the jobs to Kenyans and in doing this they make it really hard for us to stay here. Pray for open doors, reasonable officers who are overseeing these processes and for patience for us. It gets a bit frustrating. Thank you all so much who pray for us and support us. We are so grateful. The Lord uses you to make this ministry possible. Josh, Kelsey, Layla, Zephaniah and Jael.

December 2015

This December has been busy. This is the month that all the kids are off school so it is also the time for a teens camp. We held a 3 day teen camp at our church and it went so well. a few kids raised their hands to give their lives to Jesus. We pray for then that they continue with Him. In Kenya your high school years are away at a boarding school so please be praying that the Lord will really use them as they are away as a witness for Him. Pray for strength to resist temptation. We also had a great Christmas Eve Service. It is growing every year. ' Christmas day we had 3 different families come to our house for a meal; it was very nice to have family that the Lord has given us all the way out here.

October- November

Hey Guys, October was the month that we were supposed to be moving onto the property that we leased for the church for 10 years. There was a big hold up when we started the construction on the land. We hired a construction company to come flatten and do lots of ground work and as they were about 3 days into the big project some people came on the land saying they also had a total deed to the very property we had just leased. In Kenya there is major corruption when it comes to the buying and selling of property. You have to really do your homework when thinking about buying or even leasing a lot for a good amount of time and we had. However, even when you do a land search at times documents have been forged or doubled and land is sold twice. This seems to be what happened with the property we leased so, Its in court now for the past few months. Everyone we talk to says that it is the rightful property of the lady we rented from and that we will be able to continue when the case is over it could just take a while. In the meantime, our money is tied up in this case. Things with the church have been going great. We stated our School of ministry back up and that has been a blessing to see men come and receive discipleship and training in the Word of God. We have two men (John and Nathan) who travel an hour and a half to come to the school and it is so exciting to see their devotion to it even at their own expense. These are pastors of the Church that we put a borehole in for three years ago. Their church gets to reach the community through physical water and living water. Please pray for these men that they will continue to teach pure gospel, undefiled. These men stay at our house every Friday and leave early in the morning to get back to their families. The school of Ministry is going though the book Calvary Distinctives and it has been awesome to see a light come on about how church services should run without distraction, teaching through the Word of God etc... Our Family is doing well, we moved in the beginning of October to a safer location we hope and it has been a huge blessing. Please be praying for us as our work permit expires in January and the government has been really giving missionaries a hard time with renewing. Pray for provision for this things

September Update

Things have been going good. The Lord is amazing and continues to bless us and surprise us at every turn in life. He is are great love and our testimony is that God is good in every way. We are moving! We just had the one year anniversary of our big robbery last year and have been doing all we can to secure this compound that we live on so our family could be a little safer. We have been looking for a safer location but prices are more than we could afford. We have a security system now which has worked well to keep people out of the house but it does not keep people off our property. We have had our fence stolen 2 or 3 times (people just come at night and cut it), recently someone came on the property and stole a tire off Josh’s truck etc… Its not a safe neighborhood. Well the good news is, we finally found a house in a “Safer” neighborhood and the property is much smaller so the dogs would be visible from most points on the compound also it is off the main road. The neighbors say that they have lived there for 8 years and have never had an issue. This is an exciting prospect. We have all the money for our rent. What we need help with is to install the system with the security company and the steel doors. Kindly pray, and ask the Lord if He would want to use you in giving to this need. Thank you for your prayers and support. If you would like to help with this cost there are a few ways: Paypal: lawrencejosh95@yahoo,com Mail a check or cash to: Josh or Kelsey Lawrence c/o Ruthie Burke, 10325 hwy 127s, crossville, Tenn. 38572 Or Donate online by going to http://ssmfi.org/missionary/josh-and-kelsey-lawrence/ If you cannot help financially would you pray with us for these needs? Its always a privilege to get to see young couples serve Jesus and get married. Elijah has been on our worship team for some time now and asked Josh to marry them. Sunday the 20th Elijah and Ester were married. Its always a Joy in the church to get to celebrate this together. On the 24th Josh will be going to one of the Church plants from CC Eldoret and teaching the group of believers there in the Kakamega region. They are excited to have him come and we are excited to get to do this. He will come back with The pastor there and will be starting our school of ministry back up. Please pray for the church plant that the Lord will lead their Pastor by His Holy Spirit and that the Believers grow and are not deceived by the many different winds of doctrine. Please pray that the School of Ministry here in Eldoret is used by the Lord and lead by His Holy Spirit. We know that its "Not by might, nor by power but by His Spirit says the Lord." so we rely on Him to do the instructing. Please pray for all who will take the courses that the Lord will use them and teach them. There is a guy who has been attending our church since it started who was told that he has a brain tumor about 2 weeks ago. He has been on a waiting list to have surgery to remove it since that time. Would you pray with us for Franko? This is a very serious surgery and also very expensive for him. He does not have the money for it. If the Lord leads you to give to Franko for his brain surgery you can contact us. Thank you all who pray for us and support us. We are so grateful.

August Update.

Hey Guys, August was a month of Joy and new adjustments. We are happy to announce that Kelsey gave birth the Jael Moriah, our third child. We were blessed to have two of Kelsey's sisters came from America to serve our family during this time. They were pretty much the nurses to Kelsey in the Hospital, the cooks and the cleaners of the house. They changed a lot of diapers too!!! The Lord has shown himself so faithful to us in keeping Kelsey and the baby safe in the hospital, through providing for our needs and for caring for the church here. The Church is doing great, we have been trying to get a piece of land to lease for 10 years. We signed papers on it and everything and then lots of trouble broke out with a land dispute which is quite common here. We are praying that the Lord resolves this quickly so that we can pursue moving out of town and onto a piece of property. Please pray with us that the Lord would make things right and show us what to do for the church and for Land.

July Update

This month we are blessed to have a team come out here for a very quick mission trip. Tim Arbo and Alex Doten hand delivered a few big pieces of sound equipment for the church and we are happy to announce that it came without being damaged on the trip. This was a big deal because the Airport people here have been known to damage or cut wires to big pieces of sound equipment or things of that nature. Anyway.. ours made it safely. Our sound system has been acting on its own for a few months now and has become quite distracting during our services so we are very thankful to have this new stuff. It was also just so encouraging to have friends out here to minister with us and just to have some fun too. Josh took some of the members of our church along with the team to mahoho (one of our church plants) to encourage and teach the church there. Its always a time of excitement for everyone. In Kenya its a big deal to get to visitors. This was a time of Fellowship, breaking of bread, teaching and worship which included dancing!. Kelsey, Layla and Zephaniah also had their birthdays this month so it was packed with celebration.

February, March and April update

Its always a Joy to get to dedicate babies to Jesus Here are some Photos of our Church Baptism In March We also got to go to a Hangar dedication for Samaritans Purse and See Franklin Graham For those of you who support us, Josh and I wanted to thank you again for your faithful support and to give you a small update on what the Lord is doing out here with the help of your support. We do realize that the economy has been terrible and that is why it means even more that you have stuck with us. Thank you. There are many missionaries who have to leave the mission field monthly because of lack of funds and we are able to stay because of your support. The church is doing great and it is growing. We had a great Resurrection day service where many people came who don't usually attend Church. Its such a wonderful time to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and why He died, was buried and rose again. This weekend Josh gets to go to Calvary Chapel Vihiga who is partnering with Operation Christmas Child and as the Locals pass out gifts Josh and some other people from out church gets to share the gospel with those receiving gifts. It is a really good time to share with them that the Lord loves them and sent the gift of His SON! Thank you all who participate in packing shoe boxes for OCC and those who pray. Its a huge blessing to get to be on this end of it. This April I (Kelsey) get to go to her first missionary women’s retreat. This kids are finally old enough to stay without mommy for a few days and I am very excited to get this special time away to seek the Lord and to listen to a woman than me who has lived in Kenya for around 15 to 17 years. We have had a lot of flu and sickness in our family this last few months which has been hard to deal. Please continue to pray for our little family that the Lord will bless us with health and with strength. Josh is also going to do a wedding next saturday for Ben Lippert, the missionary who is serving with us at CC Eldoret. What a blessing it is to see! We are so thankful for all of you guys praying for us and supporting us.

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!