Gord Martin - Kenya trip

It was everything we could have hoped for!

1)      The main event, Training of Trainers in Nairobi: Ishmael and his staff recruited 26 qualified students who were eager and cooperative learners who are intent on training others. Time will tell. Exhausting but satisfying. The thing I was most apprehensive about was introducing the Meyers Briggs personality assessment. It was a total hit!

2)      We had a great celebration on the second Sunday with four churches participating (in a slum area). They know how to celebrate!! It was a 5+ hour service plus time to eat together.

3)      Last Sunday we traveled 9.5 hours west of Nairobi to Ishmael’s home area. We both spoke to about 90 people, a very rural area. People came from as far as 3 hours away to participate! By the way, who knew a conference lanyard could be used as a temporary fix for a broken battery cable? Chris Atkinson! We drove that way for at least 10 hours all together. 

4)      We visited two new church plants in a very poor area near the Tanzanian border on the edge of Lake Victoria, just to encourage them. People were there, eager to welcome us. At one place they fed us a “delicacy” that is only cooked for guests of honour. The look on my face when I tasted it, gave them a laugh. Let’s say, its definitely an acquired taste!

5)      Today I visited (Chris left yesterday) the Mumbo church where we funded a whole building in 2015. They were so excited to see me, seven years later. One of the men hugged me over and over! He’s the extravert of the group! They provided lunch for us. It was gratifying to see their progress.

6)      Chris and I had quality time with Ishmael and Molline both in Nairobi and in the village where they are originally from. Ishmael is a real character. I have learned to imitate his voice and Ishmaelisms almost perfectly. The audience recognizes it immediately and they “crack up”. The picture below is of Ishmael, Molline and his parents.

7)      My voice is has held up well and sleep has been totally adequate. Thank you for praying!

God has carried us. Thank you so much again for your prayer support!

Am about to embark on the first leg of my trip home; Kisumu to Nairobi, Nairobi to New York and New York to Toronto. God willing, I will arrive in Toronto at 4:30 on Friday the 21st.

Gord and Chris

Gord Martin - Kenya trip

Written October 15 - I know it's morning for you but it's mid-afternoon here in Nairobi. Our Training of Trainers went so well! Over the moon!! Thank you for praying.

• We had great trainees. They were pre-selected as current active leaders in their churches, capable in English and having capacity to re-teach the material. Ishmael and the team here did a very good job. The trainees are eager to go home and train others with the training they have received. They are already making plans for doing so.

• The dialogue with the class was stimulating and challenging every day. AND we had lots of humour.

• My voice has held up very well

• The Meyers Briggs assessment which was part of the training is the part I was most nervous about. It was a hit! We had a big emphasis on being self aware, knowing yourself honestly. This morning so many mentioned that they now understood their own DESIGN, their strengths, weaknesses, gifts and personality. It was all we were hoping for.

Things are quiet now. We are meeting with Ishmael later this afternoon for dinner and debrief...and planning the next few days. We will each speak at a service tomorrow and then prepare for our trip to western Kenya.

Thank you for praying,

Trevor & Hannah Martin - Power to Change

Jonath's Story

This past year God has been working powerfully in Jonath, a Masters student involved in our ministry at UBC.

Grace's Story

Recently, also at UBC, one of our our local staff and a Christian student met with a student named Grace who was seeking. She was asking about why Christianity is true amidst so many religions. Then, after talking about some of her questions about the Bible, they went through the gospel together. During the conversation the local staff said “Jesus was crucified and punished even though he didn’t deserve it, because he did nothing wrong...why would he do that?” Then Grace gasped and said “for me??!!" The conversation continued and Grace's desire to become a Christian became evident. Then, in Chinese she prayed and decided to accept Christ!!

God is at work across our country and It's through your partnership that students like Jonath and Grace can be reached with the gospel!

Summit

Summit is our annual regional fall retreat and while some smaller Summits did happen last year, this year we were able to run larger Summits again. Summit is a great weekend of encouragement, equipping and spiritual growth for students. And it's fun! While I (Trevor) have been to Summit many times, this year my involvement was more behind the scenes. I've been in charge of the online registration system that all participants use to sign up for one of our seven Summits accross Canada. There's always a couple small things that could be improved, but thankfully, there have been no major glitches! 500 students have attended a Summit so far and there are two more summits this month in Atlantic Canada (delayed because of the hurricane) and British Columbia. Please pray for students to be inspired and put their faith into action coming out of these events!

Kid Corner

Thank you for your support in helping students to discover Jesus!

Gord Martin - Kenya trip

It has been intense! We've had 12 hour days with our trainees. It seems that I am either with them or in bed!!

Our presentations have been very well received. Our entire focus for this week is on having a Christian perspective on self awareness and our individual, God-given personal design. We have had vigorous but respectful discussions about every presentation, interspersed with generous amounts of laughter.

This is very different from previous years when our focus was on conferences with larger numbers. We are working with carefully pre-selected people who will train others with the material we are walking through this week. This afternoon they spent time working though how they will re-teach the manual we developed specifically for this occasion.

This afternoon Chris led a session on finances which was disturbingly plain for everyone. It was followed by a very frank and good spirited conversation. These are very competent people.

We have a day and a half to go with this class, finishing on Saturday at noon. On Sunday we will speak at the same church as last Sunday. The service will be followed by a joint service with leaders from other churches in Nairobi. On Monday we travel west to Lake Victoria. We will meet with church leaders there to encourage and support them.

We thank God that we have received more than enough funds to cover the cost of this Training of Trainers event. We are hoping to raise an additional 25K in order to cover the entire Vision Ministries Kenya 22/23 annual budget. If you'd like to participate, click here to see the available options https://vision-ministries.org/donate/ That amount provides for a significant portion of Ishmael's support as well as for essential travel and other ministry expenses.

For additional photos and information go to my Facebook page.

My voice is holding up well and we are getting our sleep! Thank you for standing with us in prayer!

Gord Martin

Gord Martin - Kenya trip

It's 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Our first day was fantastic! Our students are very sharp, experienced and are eager participants. It was a long day! Their experiences are so different from ours. One very mature and capable man told us how he had lost all he had during election-related violence twelve or so years ago: house, business, church...everything. The rest of his incredible account is already blurring in my memory.

We taught our lessons, had great interaction with our students during the class times with honesty and humour. Doing this more intensely with a smaller group of pre-selected people is looking like a great idea.

I won't write again for a few days, just wanted to let you know we got off to a great start!