Live from Africa!

Jambo everyone! I hope God is blessing you as much as He is blessing my journey here in Africa. He has been so good, and I look forward to seeing how He is going to work on the rest of my trip.


So far some amazing things have happened during the Kenya portion of this trip. I am just wrapping up the first 3 weeks, and all of it was spent here in Kenya. The first update I sent was about how God worked in Nairobi, and these last two weeks God has had me moving around all over Kenya. I was picked up by a pastor that I had connection with named Charles Mwanda, and he had been telling me he had some meetings planned. I was tentatively excited, not really sure if he was just talking about all these meetings to get me to come, or if he really had them planned. Well, God certainly showed His faithfulness, and Pastor Mwanda was certainly not joking about all those meetings. He told me we would be meeting with over 200 pastors in those two weeks in different towns of Kenya, and here is the rundown of the last two weeks.

In each place I spent at least one day, and the total numbers of my trip in Kenya are as follows: I had 14 meetings in 5 different provinces (there are eight total in Kenya), with 366 leaders of churches all over these provinces who traveled to the meetings, and there were over 125 churches represented by these leaders! God truly is faithful, and what an apportunity to see how many people in Kenya are interested in sports ministry. Pastor Charles is going to head up our efforts to bring sports evangelism here in Kenya, and he is extremely excited to see how God will use this tool of sports for evangelism here in Kenya. His goal is by the end of next year to have over 1,000 churches in Kenya using sports outreach. At first that seems like an unattainable goal, until he told me that now that we have traveled to all these different provinces, when we come back in August to do a training we can expect to have over 500 leaders come to be trained between the two meetings we are going to have in Nairobi and Mombasa! That means that the goal that UW Sports Ministry has for Kenya will be reached in our very first training. Obviously God has a bigger plan in mind, and I am just thankful that He is allowing me to have a part in it.



I finish up my trip by spending a week in Malawi and then a week in Tanzania. Please continue to keep these countries in your prayers, as only God knows how it will be received in these areas. I have been very encouraged by the Kenya portion of this trip, and instead of being tired I am extremely energized to see how this same tool can be used in these areas as well. The trip so far has been busy, but God has provided a day or two of rest just when I have needed it, and that is truly a blessing.

I thank all of you for your continued prayers, and may God bless you and your families as He has blessed me here in Eastern Africa.

Your brother in Christ, Ryan Van Hoven