Watch this video update from the Jessens and hear about the amazing things their doing in Thailand!
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Update from the Stickneys - Moving back to Dallas
This update from the Stickneys is from 5/6. Continued prayer is needed as unrest continues in Kenya.
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ACO Partners,
We pray this find you and your family Blessed!
Kenya seems to continue to make a splash in world news for all the wrong reasons. Today we find ourselves once again enduring a long weekend of scattered terrorists attacks in the areas where we do ministry.
The clashes in the Coastal Region between Muslims and Christians is stronger than ever. The small quiet city of Kilifi, site of Pwani University and home to ACO staff Jonathan Omolo, is becoming more of a center for such activities. 4 Pastors have been killed in the past 6 months and churches continue to be targeted with grenade and IED attacks. This past weekend, Mombasa (40 min. drive away), the center for the coastal chaos had two separate attacks in highly populated expat communities.
Not to be outdone, Nairobi and its terrorists are keeping pace. Most of the attacks are in areas of the city that our national staff pass through on a daily basis, this past Sunday evening they shook the earth 200 yards away from the house we rent. Since the West Gate mall siege and airport bombings the country we knew as a peaceful, laid back, and low risk area has become the hot bed for Al Shabab.
BUT GOD CONTINUES TO MOVE IN OUR MIDST! As Robert and Jonathan, Victor and Moses, Joyce and Dorcas, and the rest of our other staff morn their countries daily battle with Jehad, they wake each morning with purpose. That purpose, brought from a lives calling to share the Gospel and Disciple young men and women, continues on university campuses across the country. This weekend (May 10th), we will celebrate 5 of our newest ACO Ignite Intern graduates (Ignite is a year long discipleship training program for students who have cleared campus and want to learn more about doing full-time life-on-life ministry). Three of these grads will be joining our National ACO Staff team, the other two will dive into the market place and invest in the lives God plants them around. A group of 7 students and ACO staff return today from Rwanda after spending a week helping an ACO graduate get ministry off the ground on 4 campuses (You can pray that God continues to open doors for us in placing a full-time staff in Rwanda in the future). The costal clashes haven't kept our ACO staff team from growing in number (our first full-time staff girl will begin ministry there this summer), but also God allows us to remain fruitful as two new Bible studies were started with NEW BELIEVERS this past semester! Our two campus start-ups this year (we live on an August to July calendar year) have been a great addition to our ministry opportunities. We are very excited to be opening a new campus on the edge of Nairobi this summer. Presbyterian East African University has accepted our proposal to place staff and begin investing in young peoples lives! (This start-up will bring ACO to 15 fully staffed campuses across the country.) Victor Otieno, ACO National Staff Director, and our team of staffremain faithful to the task that God called us to some 40 years ago!
Our new partnership with KEFA (www.kefaplatform.org) and our January launch into discipling medical students, surgeons, and others in the medical field has taken flight much faster than we anticipated. Our fastest growing area of ministry by far shows promise to launch ACO staff into not only South Sudan; but Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. Investing in the Influencers of the next East African generation is a GOD TASK placed at our staffs feet.
We believe that ACO continues to be called by God to be a source of Discipling the Next Generation of East African Students to be a Change Agent in the Spread of Discipled Believers. The ACO Board of Directors, The Stickney family, and ACO Staff feel called and equip for the task!
In light of the terrorist activity and overall security of the country, the ACO Board of Directors (like other organizations, including the US Embassy) has been evaluating risk vs. reward of the Stickney's living in Kenya since the August 2013 airport fire. They have decided, along with our input, that the Stickney family should relocate to Dallas in June. Tom will continue to travel back and forth to Kenya to help facilitate strategy, training and encouraging staff and students throughout the year. We (The Stickney's) are sad to see our time of living in Kenya end, but as we say goodbye to an amazing community that surrounds us we are grateful to our Board and their ongoing desire to do what is best for our family! Tom's time in the US will have him continuing to invest in our leaders in Kenya and working closely with Victor Otieno (ACO National Director). He and Kerry will also begin investing in couples in the DFW area (mush like Allen & Alice did when they returned from Kenya in the late 80's), continue telling the ACO story, and, if safety permits, running the US/Kenyan student intern program in the summers .
If you know the Stickney's at all, than you know we are about Equipping and getting out of the way. When we landed 4 years ago we immediately started trying to work our way out of the country (we were so blessed to have an amazing foundation to build on from Allen & Alice's 35 years in student ministry here). This move comes at no surprise in our spiritual mindset, we knew the day would come, our hearts though will miss the unique privilege of living in Africa. It is sad to leave an amazing school, small group, church and ACO staff team behind, but it is also rewarding to know that our "hands on" job is complete. Our equipping role now turns to raising the resources, walking with our ACO staff team in strategy and long-term planning, and encouraging them with mission teams we are able to bring along with us on our visits.
Since God is the glue that holds this all together, then you are the energy that drives it! Each month we are amazed at how each of you has allocated some of your resources to keep us moving. We are astonished at what God does through $260,000 a year. Thank you for being apart of Equipping through your Resources!
We hope that we will get to see you State side in the next few months (we arrive mid-June). Tom's first trip back will be in September.....you're welcome to come along!
Thank You & Blessings,
Victor Otieno
National Director
African Christian Outreach
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