A few minutes later, as we walked up to the assembly point, we heard one of the female teachers named Nelly leading 750 students in a Swahili Gospel song. When the song was finished, Nelly opened the program by calling down the fire of the Holy Spirit with a word of prayer that would make any fired-up, soul-winning pastor joyful!  As she invited our team to speak, I could truly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. We know that God is everywhere and that the Spirit is always with us, but sometimes He really makes His presence known! 

As I went through the program, I could sense a deep connection with the students. They were really hanging on every word as the Holy Spirit was convicting them of sin and drawing them toward salvation. When it came time for the invitation, far more than two-thirds of the students made the commitment to turn from sin and trust in Christ alone as their Lord and Savior. When our team had finished, Nelly closed the program with some great words of wisdom and encouragement for the students to truly trust and follow Christ with all their hearts. 

After the program, we got the opportunity to get to know Nelly a bit better. She said that she became born again in 1972 while she was a student, that she had been teaching for over 30 years, and that she had never seen God move the way He did this day. She also considers herself to be a minister because she leads the Christian group that meets at the school.  However, she confessed that she had been discouraged lately because only one student at the school had given their life to Christ in the last year.  I had the privilege of shaking her hand as she fought back tears of joy while explaining how much she had been praying for a miracle and a breakthrough in the hearts of these precious students and as she thanked us for visiting her school.

God is good.  I just wanted to take a minute to share this story and convey Nelly's words of gratitude to everyone who has supported our ministry through prayer and everyone who has helped send us to places like this to boldly proclaim the life-changing message of Jesus Christ!

We have finished our first week of ministry in Kenya. We were able to speak in 20 schools with over 6,000 wonderful young people and see more than 3,000 professions of faith in Christ.  I will be traveling tomorrow by bus to a city in southwest Kenya called Migori to begin another busy week of ministry. Please keep YES (Youth Education Strategies) in your prayer!

In Christ,

Steven Stockwell

Galatians 2:20