Outdoor Odyssey

My youngest son, Randy, was the “star” of “Buck Fever”, when he was a 12 year old beginner at Deer hunting. He is and expert at that sport now and an expert in finding and saving lost souls. Randy is presently the Pastor of The Fellowship Of San Marcos, Baptist Church, in San Marcos, Texas.

Last year he was called to go on a missionary trip to western Kenya, in east Africa, to spread the Lord’s word. Western Kenya is currently locked in an ongoing spiritual battle.

Two Massai warriors are pictured and he related the very unusual meeting he had with them. These two warriors were fiercely angry with Randy because they thought he had lied to them and the Lord gave Randy the courage to stand up to them and correct the misunderstanding. After their “tiff”, the two warriors, village head men and locals all became “best” friends!

After his safe return he penned the following thank you letter to his supporters:

"Post-Kenya Mission Trip Update

Kenya was such an
incredible experience! First, about the power of prayer. I want to
thank everyone for theirs. I knew God was with me and our team of 28
people before we even left the States. Once we arrived in Kenya, we saw
Him move in ways we could not even imagine and we couldn’t have done
any of this without your prayers and financial support. Read on and you
will see why this trip was so amazing and why all of the prayers, time,
and money that went into it were worthwhile. By the time we finished up
in Kenya over 8500 Kenyans had accepted Jesus Christ as their personal
Savior!

THE SCHOOLS: We shared the Gospel (‘Injilay’ in Swahili)
with about 15,000 students. We went to the school campuses with the
Child Evangelism Fellowship of Kenya (CEF). They have a relationship
with all of the schools there. They also ask the kids that accept Jesus
to fill out a card so CEF can start Bible clubs on the campuses. By the
time we left Kisumu, CEF had received 7337 cards back from students
indicating that they had trusted Christ for the first time! CEF will
help them grow spiritually and encourage them to get involved in their
church, or find one if they do not have one.

THE TRAILS: Almost
everyday, we hit the trails and went hut-to-hut sharing the Gospel.
Sometimes, we just stood out on the trails and talked to people as they
walked up. Almost every person we shared the Gospel with received it
with joy and accepted Christ. They expressed much gratitude for the
Good News that we brought. Many thanked us with tears in their eyes. I
have been a Christian (for real) since I was about 20 years old. I have
seen God do many great things but I, truly, never thought I would see
so many people turn to Christ in such a short time. I never though I
would see something like Acts 2:41: “Those who accepted his message
were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that
day.” What I heard from the pastors we worked with was that all of East
Africa is like that. After years of oppression and emptiness, so many
people are hungry for God and just need someone to tell them the
Gospel! It is exciting and humbling at the same time.

MAASAI
WARRIORS: We were waiting along a trail and up walked two Maasai
Warriors, both surly and uncommunicative. We began telling them about
Jesus and they changed dramatically, even letting us take their picture.

THE
FIRST SERVICE: Most of our work sharing the Gospel was to start a brand
new church in Kisumu called the Kasule (kah-soo-lay) Community Bible
Church. The new pastor, Pastor Samson, had been trained over the past
two years to lead this new church. He was completely overwhelmed with
what happened at the first service that turned out to be a great place
for any man or woman of God to be part of at that particular time. When
we were out on the trails, we wrote down the names and addresses of
each person who accepted Christ. On Sunday, at the first church
service, we gave this list of over 1100 people to Pastor Samson! We
called it his “Church Directory.” It was awesome! There were about 400
people at that first service! Including about 10 or12 Maasai warriors!

There are two other amazing stories that I want you to know about.

One
involves how so many Maasai came to the first service. The Maasai are a
brave and proud people and other Africans are terrified of them. They
usually are resistant to the Gospel, but God opened the door for us and
many of them accepted Christ! It is an amazing story. Our church in San
Marcos, Texas, may adopt them as a people group to take them the
“Injilay.”

The other story is when two thieves stole a camera
from us. The ENTIRE village that was present chased them down, dragged
them back to the church, and wanted to kill them at the church for
stealing from us. The pastors were able to convince them not to do it.
Both thieves later accepted Christ.!So did their parents and the guards
who were later assigned to the church. It was an amazing story.

God
bless each of you for your prayers and monetary support. God called on
you to help and we couldn’t have done it without you. Please pray for
God to continue to work in East Africa and around the world. Also,
please pray for our church, The Fellowship Of San Marcos, as we plan
more trips to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Christ's Love,

Randy Bryan, Pastor
You can contact Randy at:
email: randy@fosm.net
phone: 512-353-3909
web: http://www.fosm.net"