Greeting everyone!
My name is Baraka and together with my family, we serve as Pastors of New Life Church in Kisumu, Kenya.

Our church is located in one of the poorest slum areas of the city and because of this we have got to deal with a lot of issues affecting people here including poverty, witchcraft, crime, drug abuse, , broken families, backward cultural practices among others.

We are grateful to IMOCE and everyone who supports us in different ways. We have been empowered to preach the Gospel of Jesus, and reach out to the people within the slum community in different ways and through different projects. The church has become a lighthouse in the area and this influence is spreading.
We can also testify of the breakthroughs that God has done for us in the community we serve in.
I will share some of the things we have been up for about a couple of weeks now.

The past week has been a bit hard on the people in our area because of the floods. We have had some devastating floods for almost two weeks now because of the increased rainfall and back flow of the lake. Most of our people have had to vacate their homes and seek shelter elsewhere. A lot of property has been damaged because of this and people became so desperate.
It was a sad situation this past Sunday that due to the flooding we were unable to meet for normal Sunday service as usual. The road to church and the home around were literally in water. We continue asking for prayers for our people and we hope that the waters and the rain will reduce. We have seen some improvement in the last few days and we hope it will continue drying up.

Most of our people had to move from their homes because of the flood and they had to
Seek shelter in this shared house.

Some good news is that just before the flood, we held a pre teens camp for over 400 pre teens in collaboration with our other church in Dunga. It was beautiful to see these young people brace the flood waters to attend the session. Lots of games, fund and the word of God was shared. We thanks God for these happy people.

I had an opportunity to speak and share God’s word to the youth group of a friend church. Speaking about purity in young people and how to align their lives with the plans of God for their lives.

We are grateful to our partners and IMOCE that regardless of the floods and the situation people around us were going through, we were still able to ensure that they have a meal and they will not go hungry. We currently serve about 126 individuals who come from very poor families that cannot even afford a meal a day.

Over the week I had a meeting with church ministry leaders. These are the times when they get to give reports from their ministries, share their plans and together plan for the ministries and the church at large. This is also the time I encourage them in The word of God, pray with them and for them and fellowship with them as we build their faith in God and in the call g he has for them.

I also had a couple of meetings with individuals on different issues. Some requiring prayers and deliverance but also some requiring encouragement and sharing of the word of God. These personal moments are also avenues of knowing our people and listening to what God has put in their hearts too.

Thank you once again to everyone who supports us and to the IMOCE fraternity for standing with us and helping us build the house of worship. Continue standing with us in prayers too regarding the flooding situation that has left a number of our people homeless and a good number without anything. We trust that God will make a way.