April 2004

Dear Friends,

Let us tell you about praise music: It is 75 male voices singing to the rhythm of African drums. Worshiping with the men and women studying to become ministers is an exhilarating experience.

In June the Presbyterian College of Kenya, where Lyle teaches, will graduate 17 candidates for the Christian ministry. We thank God for the 350 ordained clergy now serving Kenya’s 1,500 Presbyterian churches. However, Kenya desperately needs more ministers. The only thing that is holding them back is money. The list of students wanting to study for the ministry continues to grow, while the ranks of three million Presbyterians mushroom.

On the plains where the nomadic Masai tribes herd their cattle there is open evangelist competition with Muslims. In the past few years Presbyterians have built 15 new churches for the Masai. These churches hold at least 200 hundred people, and as soon as they are built they are filled to overflowing. The Masai have seen that Christianity makes a difference in peoples lives and they are eager to learn about Jesus and his teachings.

The difference that the gospel makes in the Masai villages can been seen immediately. The church teaches that raiding other villages and stealing cattle is a sin. It teaches that women are to be treated with respect, and that female genital mutilation is forbidden. The Masai Presbyterian churches build schools for their children, educating both boys and girls and expanding their horizons. Health care clinics are organized to teach HIV/AIDS prevention and healthy sanitation practices. Children no longer play in cow dung. Men are told not to beat their wives, but to love and honor them.

Those words of Jesus, “I am come that you may have life and have it abundantly,” are underscored each day with every new church that is built on the Masai plains.

It costs $6,000 to educate at student for ministry (three years at $2,000 per year). If you would like to help, send a check to Central Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Write the title (Presbyterian College Kenya Scholarships) and the ECO number on the subject line (ECO #862752) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the Office of International Evangelism at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Or, click here to give.

Near our house, just a walking distance from the college, the Rehabilitation Center for AIDS Orphaned Children continues to thrive. A group from Ireland came and replaced the dirt floors with concrete. And someone bought the children a soccer ball, which replaced the ball they had made out of old rags and tape.

Money has been found to supply families with the three dollars worth of disinfectant needed to kill jiggas that infest the homes of children who live with dirt floors. Jiggas burrow under toenails, lay their eggs, and create a swollen, red, tormenting place on the toe. To extract it, you have to wait until the jigga is ripe. Then a sharp instrument is plunged in and a pathway is cleared to extract the little white bags containing jigga eggs. This is a painful process, and some children are infected so badly that the nearby Kikuyu Mission Hospital sedates the children when removing the eggs.

We believe God is powerfully at work through the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. Students are being well educated for ministry. New churches continue to be built, and people are coming eagerly to these new churches. Ministries of service to those with AIDS and their children are provided throughout Kenya by 5500 trained Presbyterian Church AIDS educators.

Each day is packed full of excitement and exuberance as we witness the Church at work. We are very grateful for all who support this ministry and who have given us the opportunity to serve here.

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Lyle and Terry Dykstra

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 55