News for End of August 2003

Dear Friends,

I have been struck recently by the preponderance of exorcisms in churches of late. I don't seem to be able to go to any meetings in which at least one exorcism doesn't occur. This is not only of the uneducated, as some may deign to suppose. The initiatior of the exorcisms at the last meeting I was at was a university graduate with post-graduate theological qualifications!

It seems that there are those who suppose that you cannot be saved without first having some demons removed. The implication of this being, that the unsaved are lead by, guess who!

I was in Kisumu over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of August. On Saturday I was able to attend the annual Convention of the Zion Harvest Mission church, which was a good event. Then on Sunday I attended and was given opportunity to share at the church of a friend of mine, the Jesus Miracle Celebration Centre.

I discovered that this friend of mine was now supplementing his income as a pastor by working as a bicycle taxi. Another friend, also a member of the same church, was doing the same thing. He could make 2 dollars a day or more by that means, he told me happily. There are apparently over 7,000 young (and sometimes not so young) men who are self employed in Kisumu town nowadays as bicycle taxis! They simply put a cushioned seat onto the backs of their bicycles, and away they go. Many of them are to be found waiting for customers not only in Kisumu, but at many many junctions of roads or paths around the country. Bicycle taxis were pretty much unheard of when I first came to Kenya 10 years ago. Give thanks to God for this means for so many young men to make a living! Please pray for our opening of KIST on 1st September, followed by YTC a week later. I have been busy pushing papers to ensure that the academic programme at KIST is ready to go when the students arrive!

Best wishes,

Jim