Kenya Team Updates (from Mike Ash)

Hey everyone!

Our time here in Kenya has been AMAZING! The first full day in Kenya after arriving in Nairobi was spent flying to a town called Malindi, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. There, we were able to experience one of the classes of 30 pastors that NLC regularly helps to make happen. It was amazing to see them being challenged and learning so much. A lot of them have never received any training at all, so this was an amazing blessing to them!

On our last day there, we did an outreach where we purchased food and candy and then split up into 3 separate teams and went into a very rough area with a large Islam population. That was amazing and 6 people said yes to a relationship with Jesus. It was challenging for all of us to see the level of hunger and poverty that this section of the Kenyan people experienced and we’re all still processing how we can help in even greater ways.

We then traveled to Kilifi:
For 2 days where we taught close to 30 pastors and church leaders some of the curriculum that we teach church planters in America. Also, one of our team members, Ajay, is a surgeon, and he got to teach some of the pastors about basic first aid, which is so amazing for these people to know.

On Sunday:
We were at a local church with close to 100 people and the whole team taught, worked with kids or teenagers, and invested into the lives of Kenyan people. It was an amazing sight to see how each team member was used in a HUGE way! I preached on Sunday morning and it was an awesome experience, unlike any other. The challenge at the end of the message was met with a lot of enthusiasm.

In the afternoon, we had lunch with the pastors from that church and then went down to the Indian Ocean (which was beautiful), and while we were there, one of our team members, Danielle, asked me to baptize here for the first time. So, I baptized Danielle in the Indian Ocean, which was a powerful experience.

Today (Monday):
We flew back to Nairobi and we leave early tomorrow for a few days in Kitui. We are teaching local pastors there for 3 days straight and then we are doing revival meetings at night. We are also teaching a lot of medical information and will probably have an impromptu clinic set up. The team will also work with kids and students and will most likely be able to speak in schools as well.

So, that’s our trip so far! We miss everyone at home so much!

Continue to pray for us and that God would move in the heart of these pastors. The missionaries here, Kelly and Kathy, are telling me that what we’re teaching is EXACTLY what they need, which is awesome!

We love you guys! Thanks for praying for us during this time!

Mike Ash

NBC News Interview

NBC News interviewed me earlier today, after getting home and taking a shower!

Click Here to View!

We’re Home!

 

We are home!  What a trip.  I will update more through the week, but man it’s good to be back in America!!

Thanks to everyone who was praying.  I am feeling much better and we are all so glad that we made our flights.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving,

Matt

Pray for Matt

(Sarah here)

I don’t have many details, but the team did go to Agra (to see the Taj Mahal).  On the way there, Matt got very sick.  He spent the day in the hospital getting IV fluids and antibiotics.  The word is that he is feeling better, but now they have to travel for the next 24 hours.

Please pray for him that he has complete healing and can rest on the trip home!

Thanks everyone!

The I-Team is Safe!

Hey blog world.  This is Sarah Keller (Matt’s wife).

I am writing to let you know that the India team is safe.  We have received texts from them.  They are currently in New Dehli and are leaving at 4 pm on Thursday (EST Time), but will go to the airport earlier than expected.  So, pray for safety over the next 20 hours.

Also, we are so thankful that our team is not in Mumbai, but are very aware that hundreds of lives are being affected by these attacks.  Please pray for those families as well.

The team sent this verse to us:

Psalm 34:4  “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Thank you all for praying.

Tour of Vizag

Yesterday was a great day to hang out together and celebrate all that God has done. We had breakfast and then took a tour of Vizag City.  We climbed to the top of a mountain and got to see the entire city from up there.  We took a cable car down the mountain which was really cool.

We saw the Bay of Bengal which is the Indian Ocean. Unreal.  For lunch we ate at an Indian Buffet which was fun.  There is Cricket on TV everywhere over here.  Which has the same sort of look of Baseball, but is completely different let me tell you!!!

The afternoon was spent shopping for last minute Saree’s and gifts for our friends and family.  Then last night we were in the chapel service for the seminary students.  I got to speak on what I’ve learned about ministry in the last 12 years. It was a great time, and definitely a highlight for me.  I love developing young leaders.

Today we fly to Delhi, a city of 25 million people and will see some of the sights of Delhi before taking the 4 hour trip to Agra, which is where the Taj Mahal is (will be there for Thanksgiving day.)

The plan is to fly out of Delhi at about 2 am in route for Chicago, IL, USA by Friday about 6 am and then be back in Fort Myers by Noon on Friday!  It’s going to be a whirlwind the next few days but we’re enjoying every minute of it!  The team has been truly great.

Keep praying for “Journey Mercy” as they say over here.

Love to all the friends and family who are praying for us,

Matt Keller and the I-Team

Big Day for the I-Team

Monday here in India was a huge day for the team.  We started by going into a nearby village for a medical clinic.  The village has 5,000 people living in 500 homes in a 5 mile radius. None of the 5,000 people have access to health care of any kind. In one 3 hour period, the Christ for India doctors will see and treat over 300 people.  They will also then take the more serious cases back to the hospital on campus for surgeries, or more thorough testing.  What they are doing here is incredible.  I can’t believe that we get to be apart of this as a church!!!

Yesterday our women hosted a Ladies Meeting for all of the women on campus and it was powerful. They spoke right to the real issues and shared testimonies of abuse and healing and did a Question and Answer time that I guess was like raw!!!  God moved big time.

Last night we went in 3 different directions. Margarite and I went with Eddie who is a Pastor from Australia in a Rickshaw (which is a glorified go-cart with a top) about 10- minutes away to a church near the beach.  Margarite shared a testimony and I spoke from Psalm 23.  It was a good time.  They had 2 little girls probably 6 and 7 who were their worship leaders.  It was just about too much!  They were so cute and yet so anointed of God.  Amazing to hear them sing in Telegu (the native language) and then “Jesus loves me” in English.  That one almost put me over the edge. I was like, “I gotta go home and see my boys, seriously!!!”  Pastor Eddie said the same thing only for him it was worse because he has 3 girls at home.

Ishana and Millie went with Johnson Titus to hear an evangelist preach.  He preached in Hindi and it was translated into Telegu.  And of course, they don’t speak either of those languages.  They got to eat in the pastor’s home and there was no silverware. So they were eating with their hands, just like the India people do.

Mark, Jim, Nicole, and Sally preached on the street in a village near the national highway and across from a boys school that just co-incidently lost power so all these teenage boys came across the street to see and hear what was going on because they were without power.  There were close to 300 people standing around listening Mark and our team preach the gospel. At the end, Mark said that several of those Hindu boys raised their hands to accept Christ!!!  How awesome is that!

We all got to bed late last night and are looking forward to our tour of Vizag city today and finishing up with a little shopping after that.  Tomorrow we fly back to Delhi and on Thursday will be at the Taj Mahal. I’m pumped about that.  Thanks for praying for us, I wish everyone at NLC could see and hear what we’re experiencing, it’s truly life changing,

See you Sunday in South Fort Myers High School, which is about 8,000 miles from where I am right now.  Unreal.

Matt and the I-Team

What a Sunday!

How do I even start to describe what we experienced in our church today?  First, we were about 45 minutes late because the “Chief Minister” which is like the Governor of the state was passing through in a motorcade which consisted of several SUV’s 2 Motor coaches and several thousand men on motorcycles.  There were police everywhere which is the first time we’ve seen police in the city this week, and to be real honest with you, it was the first time I felt unsafe.

 

The campus here is an absolute haven of God’s presence and the peace of the Lord is all over this place.  Anyway, so by the time we arrived at “the drop of f point” we (Matt, Nicole, and Ishana) jumped out of the bus and Johnson said to us, “Go with this man” and the next thing I know we are walking through like the smallest little “alleys” I have ever seen.  They were amazingly clean, at least what I can remember of them.

 

I was seriously lacking peace at the moment.  We end up in this 15’ by 30’ building where you can hear the sound of Indian Worship Music coming from within.  I had to duck to make it through the 5 foot high door and when I lifted my hands, I could basically touch the ceiling.  There were 30 adults and 20 kids in this building all sitting on the floor.  They had us sit up front in the only chairs in the place to honor us.

 

As I sat down I was overwhelmed.  The children were so amazing worshipping so intently.  It was overwhelmingly powerful.  I was about as far outside of my comfort zone as I can remember, and yet, the spirit of God was all over that place.

 

They took communion which was really cool and I completely improvised my message.  I was going to preach on David and Goliath but instead I spoke out of Psalm 4 which their pastor read in Telegu (their language) earlier in the service.  I just sensed God saying to me, “Matt, will you get over your fear, settle down and trust me?”  So I yielded to the Lord and God said, “Just preach through Psalm 4, their pastor knows best what they need to hear today.  So I did.  And it was one of the most anointed, incredible messages I’ve given in quite a while!

 

At the end, we prayed for everyone in the room which was really cool.  I prayed for the pastor’s baby that was born with Crossed Eyes and I couldn’t help but look at him and see my son Will, 8 years ago – who was also born with crossed eyes.  All I could hear in that moment was Will’s eye surgeon say to us 2 years ago, “There is no reason, in this day and age, that any child should have to live with crossed eyes.”  And yet, there I was starring at a child that, without a miracle will live with crossed eyes for the rest of his life.  It makes me want to weep just thinking about it.  I am believing for that baby’s complete healing.

 

This afternoon, I got to spend some time with 9 girls who are enrolled in the Christ For India program for girls.  It’s a 1 year program where they learn to use MS Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  The ramifications for these girls is that they can now get a better job and consequently move up in their caste system which will give them a better life forever!!!  What an incredible, beautiful group of girls.  I can’t wait for you to see the video of them.  They are just delightful.

 

Pastor Mark, Jim, and Millie traveled 4 hours to the church that Mark’s church in Estero, FL paid to have built last year.  They were dedicating the building!  Sally and Marguerite got to spend the morning having church with 200 children who live on campus!  They both spoke and said it was incredible!  At the end, Sally said there were several children weeping and crying and when she talked to the House Mother, she said it’s a miracle because these children have been attending the school but come from Hindu families.  So this was the day that they were converting from Hinduism to Christianity!!!  That’s truly miraculous!

 

We’re off tonight, and then we’re going to do a medical camp in the village tomorrow where we will see and treat several hundred people in a few hours time with the doctors who are on staff at the hospital here!!!

 

On Tuesday we are taking the tour of the city of Visaghapatnam  (vi-shag-a-put-num) it will be our first glimpse of the Bay of Bengal and we’ll do some shopping.  The ladies all had custom Saree’s made at a tailor shop in town and Mark and I had some custom pants and shirts done!  Nice Indian Hospitality!

 

Thanks for praying for us, hope your weekend was well.

 

I miss NLC worship too.  I listened to some of the worship songs we’re doing at church right now on my iPod this morning and actually said out loud, “I wish I could be at NLC to hear Arianne lead this song.”  What a great church we have you guys.  I really miss being at NLC today.  But I got to preach in a church smaller than my garage and it was just as incredible!  He’s truly a HUGE and AMAZING God!!!

 

I love you all,

 

Pastor Matt

India Trip Update – 9:00 am – Friday morning India time (10 1/2 hours different)

Yesterday was quite a day!!!  We were all up and around and watched the fog clear from the rooftop of our building and then had breakfast at the Titus home.  There a couple of other teams here at the same time. One from Australia and One from Wales, England.  They are great people.

We were introduced in the opening session of the Pastors Conference and then were able to spread out across the campus to see more of what’s going on…

Here are some highlights:

Matt, Mark, Ishana and Nicole spent about 5 hours shooting video for our promotional videos, which I think is going to be incredible!!!

Jim K. got to ride the bus home with the school children and said that he was a “rock star.”

Sally, Millie and Margarite toured the hospital and met the doctors, etc.  Their response was, “It’s not the US that’s for sure!”

I spoke last night in the main session of the conference with an interpreter into Telegu the local language.  The interpreter is a young pastor who is a really cool guy pastoring “The City Church” right here in Vizag.  He’s a world changer.  I can’t wait to tell his story…

Today is going to be a huge day in the school with the children.  Mark is speaking tonight in the conference.  And our ladies are working to organize an Ad-Hoc Woman’s Conference for all the ladies on conference just to tell their stories and pray for them and encourage them which is incredible.

We’ve got alot of filming to do today and it’s going to be crazy, but all in all the team is encouraged and still slightly overwhelmed at all that God is doing here.

We love all of you,

Pray for us,

Matt Keller and the I-Team

Wednesday 11:15 am – India Time

So we’re here, and the last 36 hours or whatever have all been a blur and overwhelming and exciting and chaotic and stressful and cool all at the same time. It’s surreal being on this campus for the first time.  The emotion I am feeling is almost overwhelming because I know the pain I feel when I think about starting a work like this from nothing but a dream.

It’s so easy to come and see how big and amazing and beautiful everything is now and forget what it once was.  Nothing.  Nothing but a dream. A dream in 1 man’s heart to leave the comfort’s of America and come to a place of 1 billion souls who are living without Christ.  I can relate to that pain because in a different way, I lived it too.

Somehow in some small way Dr. Titus’s story and my story are linked.  But that’s not the only story that exists in this place.  There are close to a thousand stories and I can’t wait to begin hearing so many of them…

Matt