The first of 12 weeks of Secret Church conferences has been completed here in Kenya. Beautiful countryside last week during our travels.

Beautiful….

Beautiful…..

The pastors who attended this first conference are part of 400 pastors/church leaders who will receive this new training with Dr. David Platts Secret Church teachings: Exploring the Holy Spirit, Who Is God and Angels, Demons and Spiritual Warfare.

What a joy to be the delivery person…

Pastors this week gaining wisdom and knowledge…

I am also excited to be delivering the new Multiply discipleship book from Francis Chan to the senior pastors. I’m delivering 130 of these new books for the Kenya pastors to use as tools for discipleship. For those of you who might not be familiar with Multiply, you can access the material free at multiplymovement.com

7 firm committments to use Multiply to make disciples who will make disciples….

A special word of thanks to Angelia Stewart and the Radical/Secret Church team for ALL they do for us here. Without their encouragement and faithful support these conferences could not take place. Radical provides not only the shipping cost of getting the materials here from the states; they also provide transportation for Pastor Tom (my translator) and for myself. They provide food for all the conferences for these many days the pastors participate. They provide fuel for our generator, blankets and mats for the pastors so sleep on, the list goes on and on of their provisions.

So thankful for the passion they have to make disciples of all nations. Please be praying for Dr. Platt and the entire Radical team as they prepare for the Secret Church live simulcast on March 29^th with the teaching: Heaven, Hell and End of the World. Also, prayerfully consider hosting a group in your home or church for the simulcast. Information about Secret Church and the simulcast can be found at radical.net

Last Sunday I was blessed to spend the afternoon with part of my African family who came over from Uganda to Kenya to visit with me.

Part of my Africa family….

Most of you remember my always writing home about Geoffrey the best guard I ever had. You might remember that just a few months before I first arrived in Africa; Geoffreys wife had drowned, leaving behind two toddler boys. Last year he remarried to sweet Lillian and three weeks ago on January 5^th their precious son was born.

Geoffrey, Lillian and sweet little James….

They waited for me to arrive back in Africa before naming him and gave me the blessing of choosing his name. I gave him the name James after James who was the brother of Jesus and a leader of the Jerusalem church; as well as the writer of one of my favorite books in the bible. James is sometimes referred to as The Proverbs of the New Testament and I challenged Geoffrey and Lillian to teach James this book as he is growing up as it reminds Christians how to live out their faith.

Getting in some good practice for our new arrival in July…

While holding him I realized I was getting in some practice for my new grandbaby coming in late July. I have to admit getting the news of a new grandbaby for Christmas was AWESOME! For Christmas, Bryan and Kim gave the grandparents these sets of pictures of a fun family outing they had.

What a Christmas gift! News of a new GrandBaby~

Then they watched our faces as we realized that the photo in the last section was a sonogram. We had thought the last of the grandchildren had been born! We are rejoicing with inexpressible joy to learn God is blessing us with another one.

Excited to be adding GrandBaby #9 to this group of treasures!

As a matter of prayer, there is one of us grandparents that need your prayers. Just a week or so after the news of the new grandbaby, my daughter-in-loves step-dad or Pappaw to the grandchildren was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Jeff

His hearts desire is to hold this new grandbaby. He has accepted that unless God performs a miracle, his time here on this earth is limited and has a wonderful attitude and understanding of the joy of going home to heaven. Please be praying for him and the entire family in the months ahead. His name is Jeff Bassett.

As I wrote in my end of the year newsletter, my initial plans were to stay in Kenya throughout this year without making my usual mid-year trip home. However, God had other plans, wonderful plans. I will be home late July to be there for this new precious baby God is blessing us with. Please pray for Kim and the baby over the months ahead.

On my way home in July, I am stopping over in Germany and meeting up with a mission team from Blackshear Place. We will be serving with our other Blackshear Place missionaries, Sharon & John Summers and Rick and Christie Krueger who are serving with Teach Beyond.

If some of you haven’t made a decision about which mission trip to be part of this year, I encourage you to prayerfully consider joining the team coming to Germany. I am excited to have the opportunity of serving with our missionaries there along with a mission team from Blackshear Place. You can contact Pastor Dave Channell who will be leading the Blackshear Place team at 770-534-7058 for more information.

As always I am so thankful for each and every one of you who faithfully keep me covered in prayers and those who financially support me. It continues to be an honor to represent you here on the foreign mission fields of Africa.

Love to all,

Joy Breedlove

Missionary-East Africa

From my first computer, my first cell phone, my first iPod, etc. I have always enjoyed technology. I enjoy the challenge of new software and new devices. I think if this type of technology had been around when I was young, I would have dreamed of being in this field instead of dreaming of being a CPA. Of course since I never attained that CPA dream and am too old to pursue it, its good that I can still have lots of fun and enjoyment with technology.

Being back here in Kenya, I am starting for the first time in my adult life to live without a paper day planner. I’ve been using electronic planners for a long time, but I always kept a paper planner too. First thing my daughter Dana is going to say when she reads this update is your OCD is kicking in Momma… and she would be right!

The problem in the last couple of years though is that I’ve tried to balance both yet, I can’t sync my paper planner with my electronic one. I was missing important things like birthdays and anniversaries, which had always been very important to me to keep up with. I had to make a decision and pick one.

As I’m shifting to not only an electronic planner only for everything, I am thoroughly enjoying some new Bible apps that go everywhere with me and offer access to resources when I’m studying Gods Word. No matter if I’m in the bush or at home, I have access to dig deep in Gods Word. However, my paper Bible is never far away and that is something that will never change. As much as I enjoy and am thankful for the biblical technology we have access to today, I never want to be without a tangible copy of Gods Word.

Since becoming a Christian and developing an intense hunger to know Gods Word, I have always cherished my bibles. Yes, bibles plural because I wear them out. I used to think that something I’d like to leave behind once God calls me home to heaven would be a worn out, well read bible for each of my children and grandchildren. However, that changed when I came to Africa and realized how many people didn’t have one bible, much less several they were holding onto for sentimental reasons. So, now I give them away and I’ve learned such a valuable lesson in doing so.

I’m a note taken when it comes to studying Gods Word. I write all over the pages of my bible with sermon notes and thoughts from the Holy Spirit when He helps me understand a verse or a chapter. What I’ve learned in giving my used bibles away, is most often the notes that are handwritten help whoever takes new ownership. And that is something we can never leave behind for anyone else if we only use electronic bibles.

I cherish God’s Word and I consider it the greatest material possession I have. I love my country and I love our American flag. As a small child I was taught the importance of our flag and to never let it touch the ground. Yet, I always want to give more honor and respect to my Bible. I never lay my bible on the floor or on the ground simply because its more important to me than the flag of my country.

I remember something my children learned in their youth group when they were in high school. Their youth pastor told them they should consider placing their Bible in between themselves and the person they were dating when they were out together. It gave my children a visual of how Gods physical Word could protect them from sexual impurities.

Another time in my life when the importance of the physical Word of God was made known to me was 10 years ago. I had moved into the Gainesville area and was living in a new gated community apartment complex. At that point in my life it was the most secure place I had ever lived.

I came home from work one evening and after punching in my code for the gate, began to drive toward my building. Up ahead of me I could see a woman walking in the middle of drive. The closer I got to her the more I realized she wasn’t moving out of the way.

When I came near her, I let my window down and ask if something was wrong. Because it was a gated community and I had always felt safe, I never question that this could be a person out to bring harm. Before I knew clearly what was happening, she came around to the other side of my vehicle and opened the door, coming in after me. But in the passenger seat lay my bible as I always took it back and forth to work with me.

Even though this woman was in a drug induced rage, she had no physical issues that would keep her from climbing over the seat to reach me to stab me with knife she had in her hand. Yet, as hard as she tried there was what seemed to be an invisible wall that kept her from reaching me. It was literally like watching a movie in slow motion.

Without any doubt in my mind all these years later, I still believe my bible the physical Word of God was what kept evil away. The demonic forces within her could not cross over Gods Word.

As I discover more and more uses with my electronic devices, I want to think of them as open tabletops. Tabletops like most of have in our homes where we lay our bibles. Because the device is holding the Word of God I never want there to be anything ungodly stored alongside it.

For example, I could never lay pornographic material on a table with my physical Bible. No matter how strong or how weak my relationship with God was, its something that I would know would just not be right. They don’t belong together in any setting.

I wonder about our young people today who are much more tech savvy than myself and way ahead of me with technology. If all they use is an electronic Bible, are they truly learning the importance and the treasure we have in the gift of His book. Or, is their Bible app just one of many other things stored on their devices. I wonder when Christians today lose their electronic device or it gets stolen, if the first thing they think is …oh no I’ve lost my Bible. I think the answer to that would be no thats not what is missed.

Its great to be able to take our electronic devices with us to church, for our pastors to use their devices to preach from, all of these things are good as long as we never forget the value and treasure the Word of God is. As long as it doesn’t become just a part of everything else we access.

I encourage you to embrace what technology has for us as Christians, in our personal spiritual growth as well as the endless opportunities to reach the world for Jesus Christ. Yet, cherish the Word no matter where you keep it, remember it is Holy.

Love to all,

Joy Breedlove

Missionary-East Africa