The Sapko's Visit the Craig Family In Kenya

As the sending church for the Craig Family, our major responsibilities to our missionaries can be summed up in three words:  Support (2 Cor. 8:4; 3 John 1:8); Encouragement (1Thess. 5:11); Accountability (1 Thess. 3:2-5).  We provide spiritual support and encouragement through prayer and the maintaining of relationships through correspondence and visits.  We provide financial and material support through our gifts, offerings, and monthly contribution.  We provide accountability through the interaction and correspondence of our leaders with our missionaries. 
            In the years that CVCC has supported the Craigs, we had excelled in all of these areas except for one: we had not sent any of our leaders to personally visit them in Kenya, to personally bring support, encouragement, and accountability to the Craigs as well as to our Kenyan brothers and sisters in the town of Ngurunit, Kenya.  As the elder over missions, Jim Sapko had wanted to make this trip with his wife Laura for several years, but for a variety of reasons the timing was not right.  However, this past summer the Lord provided the right time for a trip of this nature to be made.
            The Sapko’s intention was to stay with the Craigs for two months, from July 1 through August 31. They hoped this would be an adequate amount of time for them to get acquainted with the African way of life and the church in Kenya, as well as for the Kenyan believers to get to know another family from CVCC. Coinciding with this trip, the Lord saw fit to provide the Craig Family with enough funds to build a permanent house at their mission station. Beginning that project used up the two months that Jim and Laura had planned to be there.  By God’s grace wonderful progress was made on the Craigs' house. It also provided a great way for the Sapkos to meet some of the local church family as well as some of the Samburu people who were hired to help with the work. Providing jobs on a project such as this was a great means of spreading the gospel. They worked and fellowshipped together and the Lord blessed the teaching times provided by Paul Craig and Jim Sapko during the morning Devotional Meeting, called Maombi, and the regular Sunday Worship Services at the Ngurunit AIC Church.
            However, another purpose for the trip was to get an overview of The Master’s Mission work in other area’s of Kenya for a better understanding of the life and work in remote areas.  It became obvious that more time was needed and the Sapkos extended their stay until September 27th in order to get a whirlwind tour of the mission’s work in the Kenyan towns of Malindi, Watamu, Loyongolani, Gatab and Maralel.
            In the near future, this site will be updated with descriptions and pictures of the various aspects of the work the Lord is doing in Ngurunit through the Craig Family as well as their co-workers in the remote missions through TMM.