I am writing this article from Maseno, west of Kenya, near Lake Victoria. I have with me over forty youth, the majority from Chicago and New Jersey. Bishop Anba Boulos, the bishop of missionary work for the Coptic Church, is hosting us with his generous hospitality. He has a heart flowing with fiery love. God is using him amazingly in the mission work in this area and in many other areas in Africa for the salvation of many souls.

Till now, we spent just five days in the mission; we will have ten more days in this blessed spiritual work. These five days were very fruitful. We prayed two liturgies. We had many prayer and bible study meetings, we visited over hundred of Kenyan homes, and we did some untraditional Evangelism in the market places and the prisons.

There are about ten blessed Kenyan Coptic priests serving with us in addition to an awesome team of deacons, physicians, and servants who are working here in the Coptic Hope Center in Maseno. The center contains: one moderate-sized church in the name of St. Mina, a complete hospital, a retreat center, and some buildings for hospitality, with two more small chapels.

In general, the Coptic Church has a very good reputation in Kenya.

During this short period of time, I was impressed and felt humbled by many things:

+ The great work of God in the hearts of the people, as they are always simple and ready to receive joyfully His words.

+ The remarkable growing team of Kenyan clergy and servants who master the English language in addition to the local languages of the tribes (42 tribes in Kenya). They care faithfully for the spiritual lives of the people and visit them door to door. They study the bible in a deep manner, they don't cease from laboring in the mission, and love adorns all their works.

+ The great faith and love of God in the people, and their rapid reaction to the word of God, though they are very poor and their lives are full of hardships.

+ The courage of H.G. Anba Boulos in reaching out to new areas in the mission, like the prisons of men and of women and the market place, to share the good news of God's salvation to those precious souls by all means, using sermons, songs, and prayers with the help of the youth who shared many spiritual meditations and performed some drama work in front of different kinds of people to explain selected stories from the bible.

+ The faithfulness of the youth in presenting the best of what they have and sacrificing in love without limits. Perhaps the way Anba Boulos works with them to inspire and encourage them, in addition to nourishing them daily with the word of God and prayers, all these have a big rule to push them in the service with such great spirit.

Quick Observations:

1- I cannot say that the service here is perfect. It needs more servants, and it needs to be more organized. But the service is very joyful, and the work of the Holy Spirit appears clearly in it. He is a great and fiery Spirit and meek, humble, and quiet at the same time.

2- The biggest challenges that face the mission and the evangelism here are cultural issues as well as some bad social habits common among the people. It needs a lot of time and effort to teach them and elevate the spiritual level of their lives.

3- In general, Africa needs more care from us, as the mother church. As it has a lot of fields that are already white for harvest, waiting for fiery hearts ready to be consecrated, to live as a living gospel, denying their selves, following their Master to gather fruit for eternal life.