Welcome to our Blog! What are the goals of "Africonnection"? To further the Kingdom. To help North American friends make a connection with the lives and experiences of their brothers and sisters in Africa. And to give North American friends an opportunity to partner with Africa Nazarene University as it supports the Kingdom through the Church of the Nazarene in Africa.

Mark and Nancy

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Informal Picture Album

We thought you might just like to see some recent pictures that highlight why we love Kenya. From top to bottom they are: 1) A picture of an acacia tree at sunset taken on the way back from Amboseli National Park; 2) "Elephant Mother and Child" at Amboseli; 3) Gustav Banda--son of Millie and Agnes Banda, pastors and religion students from Democratic Republic of the Congo; 4) Nancy and family members petting a cheetah at Nairobi National Park; 5) Unknown child taken at the Nairobi Elephant Orphanage; 6) Boys in truck near our home in Ongata Rongai.




Available for Deputation

One of the real pleasures of the fall of 2007 (seems like a long time ago!) was the opportunity to meet with pastors and congregations in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, California, Kansas and Indiana. (Some of the churches we visited are pictured in this blog post.) We've just been given permission to extend our June General Assembly visit to do some deputation in July and August. (We may also have some additional dates in November and early December).


If we visited your church in 2007 and you'd like to have us back to hear the "rest of the story", or if you would be interested in having us visit your church for the first time, please send us a note at mnnkenya@gmail.com to let us know how we can serve your church or district. We'd love to make contact with you.

Oh--and a couple of General Assembly-related notes: A special, exclusive note for readers of Africonnection: The Africa Nazarene University luncheon on Saturday, June 27 will feature a message by Harmon Schmelzenbach as the University honors the Schmelzenbach's for their lifetime of work in Africa. If you're interested, drop us a line at mnnkenya@gmail.com to get information about reservations. This will be a historic opportunity for an intimate hour with the Schmelzenbach's. . Finally, again if you're going to General Assembly, we'd love to have you drop by the ANU booth in the exhibit hall.

We're Writing an NMI Book!

Last trimester, we were privileged to have Dr. Daniel and Carol Ketchum in our home. Some of you may remember that the Ketchums were our hosts while we did our missionary training at NTS. During that visit, we were asked to write one of the books which will be made available to local Nazarene churches.

The book, to be called "African Voices" will feature mini-biographies of 8-10 current students, alumni, and leadership of Africa Nazarene University. People featured in the book will include Regional Director Dr. Eugenio Duarte, ANU Vice Chancellor Professor Leah Marangu (pictured), the three African Field Strategy Coordinators who are ANU graduates, and several others. We've already started the interviews and are hearing wonderful stories. We'd ask you to pray that the Lord will make the Pittses "small", and magnify the words and vision of these significant current and future African Nazarene leaders.