September 2008
We had a very
good week.
The chapel
service I spoke in on Wednesday went very well. Thursday morning it was
a holiday, so we invited all of the campus kids and the three students
that were left on campus over to watch a movie. On Thursday night I
shared at the Christian Union at the local university and one young man
accepted Christ. On Friday we went shopping in town with Paul and found
some things we needed around the house and picked up a Swahili Bible for
the young man that got saved.
I spoke at the
Friday night service here on campus. I am teaching my “Life in the Zone”
series, however, the name here is “How to Live a Life of Excellence.”
There was a good response from the people. Saturday was the Pastor’s
seminar which went very well. There were about 45 pastors and leaders in
attendance, and they received the topic of marriage and family very
well.
I am not sure
if some of them had heard the message of the importance of your family
and children, and not to place your ministry before them. When we told
them their top four priorities were GOD, and that means your personal
relationship with him, wife, children, then ministry. There were some
surprised looks, but once we finished all of the sessions and Paul
challenged them on the truth of what they heard, they agreed that the
Bible was as we taught it.
The wives all
liked the message. Holly came up with the boys and we all ate lunch with
the pastors, and then they introduced our family just before I taught my
lesson. The pastors had a welcome gift to present to Holly and myself.
They made Holly a bracelet with her name on it. It reads Holly Oest,
then they ran out of room. And they made me a belt with my name on it.
They almost spelled it right. From now on I will be Chris Oesterbland.
We were both touched very deeply by their generosity.
After the
Seminar we invited the 3 students on campus for the long weekend over to
dinner and we enjoyed a good time of fellowship with them. One of the
students really likes Clayton and wanted to know if he could borrow him,
because he missed his boy, and enjoyed reading stories to him. He also
said Clayton would help him with his English because he asks so many
questions.
On Sunday Holly started the new Sunday School Curriculum we are
developing. We will be teaching for the next few weeks on “God is Worthy
to be Praised.” This week’s story was the “Crossing of the Red Sea and
Miriam's ‘Song. They played London Bridge but changed the words to
“Waters walls are falling down, falling down ... Oh dear Pharaoh. They
made musical instruments out of hard Pods that fall from the trees, and
tied some yarn to them and clapped them together. The children seemed to
really enjoy themselves.
Barbara spoke
in church on Sunday and Jim ended up leaving early because he was not
feeling well. After he laid down, he felt better and realized the spasms
were not from his heart but his muscles were tight. On Monday Jim was
scheduled to have tests done so he went in and the cardiologist ran a
full battery of test and when the result came in he told him that it
appears his heart has repaired itself. The EKG showed no signs of damage
whatsoever! Jim was very encouraged by that report. However, the Dr.
told him his cholesterol was up and he needed to watch what he ate.
Monday it was back to classes and then we had Pastor Peter (He was
married to Cecelia) and his daughter Rachel over for dinner, then we had
to go to a teachers meeting, and after the teachers meeting, Paul, the
Webb's, and myself discussed some church business. On Tuesday we all
walked down to Tengeru village (about a 20 minute walk with the boys)
and did some shopping for Clayton's Birthday. We bought an old tire and
are planning on hanging a tire swing for him on the compound. I think He
will enjoy it. We got a soccer ball. I also bought him a Masai belt and
bracelet. I gotta go it is dinner time!
We miss you all. Don’t forget to pray for us!
Love, Chris, Holly and boys
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