“I AM BORN AGAIN!” a man pumped his arms towards heaven as he came up baptized in the water of new life!
In this particular community, to be baptized meant he would face persecution by religious leaders. This community had been warned that they would be excommunicated if they were baptized. This man bravely stepped forward to make a public testament of his faith in Jesus and be baptized. He told us, “men of God must be brave.” Fifty more people were baptized in this village following after him and a woman was delivered from a violent spirit. Many in her village had been afraid of her and were amazed to see her be baptized and receive ministry.
327 people have been baptized and have made commitments to Christ since April!
We’ve had FOUR community Celebration Services at completed well sites and the WONDERFUL presence of the Holy Spirit has been with us.
At every celebration, we preach the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ alone and many respond in repentance and faith. We explain that Jesus said you must be born again. We invite those who accept Christ to be baptized as a symbol of their new life. Everyone who is baptized receives a Bible thanks to the churches and individuals who give!!!
The Name of Jesus breaks EVERY chain!
We’ve seen many people delivered from the bondage of demons by the authority of Jesus.
At Kamuu, a woman confirmed deaf in one ear came forward for prayer and received deliverance and healing!
She came to us afterwards with her pastor to tell us she was completely healed and could hear!
Nothing is too difficult for God! Jesus saves, heals, and delivers!
Jesus is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever!
In Jesus’ own words He gives us this command with His promises:
..."Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.””
—Jesus in Mark 16:15-18
Jesus makes us a promise in these verses! “…these signs WILL ACCOMPANY THOSE WHO BELIEVE…”
Our team has been praying and fasting and seeking God for healing and deliverance for the many, many sick and afflicted we meet at every celebration service. Our hearts have been crying out to see freedom for the captives physically as well as spiritually. The lines for prayer for healing and deliverance are long and we are committed to pray for everyone who asks. As I was reading this verse in Mark, I realized it was not only a command of Jesus, but it contained a PROMISE from HIM! And this promise was not only for the first disciples, but Jesus states it was for “those who BELIEVE”.
Those who BELIEVE in the power and authority of Jesus will see these signs and wonders as Jesus accompanies them!
Jesus is FAITHFUL AND TRUE! He CANNOT Lie. Every word He speaks is Truth.
If Jesus tells us this will happen for “those who believe” then it is up to us to BELIEVE.
“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.”
We woke up this morning to some incredible rejoicing and awesome videos sent by our team in Kenya!
What an awesome way to start World Water Day! Well #11 of this year (19 in all) is gushing from the ground!
The theme of World Water Day 2022 is “Groundwater, making the invisible visible” and this couldn’t be more true. These wells are springing up in a dry land, in impossible circumstances and against all odds and they are making the invisible love and provision of God visible to all!
Did you know that 2 billion people live without access to clean water?
Since 2020, Commission Mankind has been partnering with God to answer prayers for clean water across the globe! Today, over 150,000 people have access to clean water through our Community Well Systems. Generations are being given hope and a future.
A prayer from Ivy, age 7, “Jesus, give us more wells. Because you are love and living water. We want to give all your love away. We want to give all your water away because you are living water.”
Spread the word today on how you can help be an answer to prayers people pray on World Water Day.
We are so grateful for you. We earnestly pray this year the blessings and goodness of God will overtake you! If this past year has left you feeling weary and worn and unsure of what the new year will hold, we want you to know God has prepared this year ahead for you.
"That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9
For those who love Him, God goes before them and prepares the way ahead. Nothing we may face this year is a surprise to God! God is prepared to deliver you, to comfort you, to release His wisdom and faith to you, to walk beside you and strengthen you. He is prepared to show up in creative ways and stun your eyes and surprise your ears, to completely overwhelm your mind with His goodness.
And what unlocks our ability to experience what God has prepared for us? Only ONE thing. Without this ONE THING, we'll fail to notice it.
That one thing is LOVE... Love for God. Just as the scripture says: "'...for those who love him." That's all and that's EVERYTHING. If we can focus this year on One Thing--let it be Loving God. As we learn to love Him more, we become aware of how much He loves us...and "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).
Talking about what God has prepared....
The FIRST TWO WELLS of 2022
have been Drilled!!
Bringing in 2022 with the FIRST WELL!
God has a FLOW and it's like a river that never stops. All we have to do is go ALL IN with Him!
Missionaries Karen and Jeff Gross have been overseeing the well drilling projects and spending countless hours scouting for new well sites with Travoter Muathe and our driller Simon Mutiso, as well as dedicating the church plants Reverend Benson Kisinga has been led by God to plant at every well site.
This amazing team has inspired us all! Karen and Jeff have pushed through many health issues. Jeff is still recovering from chemo and a knee replacement surgery and Karen had a hip injury. God told them they would be "healed as they go". And so they went! Jeff now walks without a cane and his memory is improving every day. Praise God for their testimony of faith and for their perseverance and love!
You can follow them on facebook (@Karen Blankenship Gross) and sow into them personally at their sending church’s website: www.godshappy.com
16 of the 60 Wells have already beenCommitted to!!
PARTNER IN PRAYER WITH US:
For God's Will to be done and the Son to be glorified!
Many to receive salvation and be baptized
Provision & protection for missionaries
2 more vehicles for transportation of mission teams
Provision for 60 wells and the favor of God on each village well site
Pastor Benson to have every resource he needs for church plants
30,000 Bibles
Thank You for your love and support!
This year, we will be amazed at the hand of God in our nations, in our families, in our lives. For if we look for Him, we will find Him!
"Look at the nations and watch--and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." Habakkuk 1:5
LOVE & BLESSINGS IN CHRIST,
Joel & Joye Dicharry
And All the Kids
A Devotion
{for when you’re overwhelmed}
When You’re Overwhelmed….Overwhelm Your Problems With God.
When needs get overwhelming, it’s tempting to check out.
I’m guilty of it. When the whole world starts spinning too fast and furious and everyone you love is going through one crisis after another, it’s easy to want to hide from it all. When your health starts to decline from the stress of life and you can’t find a haven of peace from the storms, it’s all too easy to slowly start to shut down; to pretend the problems aren’t there, hoping the needs will go away somehow by themselves if we ignore them long enough. Hurricane Ida ripped through the South though, and taught us some storms can’t be ignored and needs shouldn’t be faced alone.
Jesus was constantly surrounded by needs and crises, death and dire interruptions and He understood something very important: in order to meet the needs, He had to spend time with His Father in prayer. Luke 5:16 tells us:
“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”.
The world was clamoring for His attention and even though He knew His time was short, He withdrew from it all “and prayed”.
He didn’t withdraw and immerse himself in facebook, a shopping spree, or a night with friends. Not that those things are wrong, but those things are powerless to prepare us for the problems we face. Jesus intentionally went to “lonely places” or in some versions it says “the wilderness”, in other chapters He went up to the mountains and He went there specifically to pray. This was the source of His power and His peace. He knew the frailty of human ears and the distractions of life that keep us from perceiving what the Father is doing.
Jesus understood how overwhelming life can get. Crowds of hurting people pressed in on Him everywhere He went. Fully God and fully man, He had to carve out a time and place to pray.
When problems threaten to knock us over, we need to start doing some knocking of our own.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
Overwhelm the needs with an overflow of God!
God is never overwhelmed. He has more than enough peace for the situation you are in. God has more than enough provision, more than enough wisdom, and more than enough grace for your every need. Ask, seek, knock.
Get overwhelmed by God’s greatness and everything else will look small in comparison.
Commission Mankind News:
👉🏽 Our missionary Michael Perez is finally back in the States! If you see him, bless him! We’re so thankful for Michael’s surrendered life and his tireless work for the Kingdom of God!
👉🏽 Our family was back in the states for only a couple weeks when Hurricane Ida hit and left a tree in our rented home. We had to vacate the house the next morning (after one very long night). Joel and I and all the kids are staying with my parents on their ranch in Nebraska for the time being. We are praying big prayers for a door to open to allow us back into Louisiana and into a home soon.
👉🏽 We want to introduce you to our newest full time missionaries Jeff and Karen Gross from Colorado!
Karen served with us in Kenya over the summer and her and her husband Jeff decided to dedicate a full year of their lives to the mission work in Kenya! Jeff and Karen are native of Louisiana but have been living in Colorado since 2002. They have known our family for years and have even served other mission organizations from the Stateside.
They have three children and seven grandchildren! It isn’t an easy decision they’ve made to uproot themselves from their beautiful family, but they are inspiring us all that God is never through dreaming for us! Every generation is being commissioned by God to fulfill His Great Commission. We know God will use these two mightily!
Please keep Karen and Jeff in your prayers as they will be moving to Kenya in late November and will begin to scout for potential well sites and work in gospel outreach alongside our ministry partners there. They are taking the vision God has given CMK and running with it!
You can follow them on facebook (@Karen Blankenship Gross) and sow into them personally at their sending church’s website: www.godshappy.com .
Or you can send support to their church address: Mountain High Chapel, c/o Jeff and Karen Gross, 8444 US Hwy 285, Morrison, CO 80465
Looking Ahead at What’s Coming:
We’re Looking Forward with God’s VISION and MULTIPLICATION
The GOAL God’s given us is 60 WELLS IN 2022!
I’ll be honest, when I first heard the number 60 from Joel, I was a bit skeptical. I remember asking God to confirm that number for me. It sounded impossible! And even though God has been stretching my faith by doing many impossible things already—I needed some more assurance. The very minute I asked God to give me confirmation, He led me straight to a verse in Mark 4:20!
“But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
We are simply soil carrying God’s seeds. We hear God’s word, accept it, and then the fruit comes.
Faith comes before Fruit!
And the fruit that comes is more than we could ever have imagined!
60 TIMES AS MUCH.
Would you commit to praying and believing in faith for this vision of 60 wells with us?
This means there can potentially be well over 60,000 people presented with the Gospel and given a chance to be baptized next year!
This will change generations for eternity!
Thank YOU for partnering in the Great Commission with us!
If you or your church would like to sponsor a well, please consider sending a team to minister at the well site! It’s a miraculous and life changing experience and we will have dates available for missions teams next spring and summer!
Love In Christ,
Joel and Joye Dicharry and Family
Dear Friends and Family of CMK,
God is better than anyone can imagine!
We are just now trying to process all God has done since we have been here in Kenya and we are completely AMAZED!
God has gone before us and all your prayers have gone before us and He has made a way in the wilderness.
God has done AMAZING things:
Over 3,700 school children have given their hearts to Jesus
406 people have been baptized and committed their lives to Jesus
10 Villages now have Clean Water Well Distribution Systems
Over 50,000 people now have access to free clean water (not counting future generations)
And this is only the beginning of all God is doing!
PRAYER POINTS:
>> God has given us a vision for 60 Wells next year!
>> He’s enlarging our vision to include planting 100 churches.
>> We're believing God for the purchase of land and building of a base for Commission Mankind in Nyaani, Kenya
Our Kenyan pastor, Reverend Benson, has already planted churches in Kenya and he’s been given land at many of the well sites and will be helping oversee the planting of churches in these areas.
We can’t wrap our minds around the ways of God! All we know is that His ways are so much BETTER and BIGGER than ours.
Here's the verses God gave us for the Well Celebrations:
“Let everyone give all their praise and thanks to the Lord!
Here’s why—he’s better than anyone could ever imagine.
Yes, he’s always loving and kind, and his faithful love never ends.
So, go ahead—let everyone know it!
Tell the world how he broke through
and delivered you from the power of darkness and
has gathered us together from all over the world.
He has set us free to be his very own!
Some of us once wandered in the wilderness like desert nomads,
with no true direction or dwelling place.
Starving, thirsting, staggering,
we became desperate and filled with despair.
Then we cried out, “Lord, help us! Rescue us!” And he did!
He led us out by the right way
until we reached a suitable city to dwell in.
So lift your hands and thank God for his marvelous kindness
and for all his miracles of mercy for those he loves.
How he satisfies the souls of thirsty ones
and fills the hungry with goodness!”
Psalm 107: 1-9 in The Passion Translation
GOD'S MIRACLES OF MERCY
We thank God for His marvelous kindness and His miracles of mercy. We have seen many miracles this year and we know there’s more to come.
I’ll never forget the day our prayer teams were doing door to door evangelism in one of the villages and Legend came running up to me, excitement in his voice, “Mom, you have to come see this! A woman who could hardly see can now see clearly after we prayed for her! I’ve seen a miracle!” We have seen another woman also have her sight restored, a man healed from the effects of a stroke and a lump of tissue on a child’s foot go down. We have seen demons flee in Jesus’ Name and many men addicted to alcohol choosing to repent and be baptized. What God has done is truly miraculous and we are in Awe of Him!
GOD'S MARVELOUS KINDESS
This year, God has also been fulfilling many of the visions He gave us. One in particular was igniting a generation to be laborers in the harvest fields of the Lord, on mission for Jesus. 33 people have traveled from the U.S. to join us in short term missions. Many brought their entire families with them and it’s a joy to see families serving together! It’s incredible to witness these servant-hearted people stepping out in faith and giving of themselves to show the love of Jesus.
We can’t say enough about the full time team God has sent here as well. Johanna Puls, Michael Perez, and Nickson Mzigaba have served tirelessly and have laid their lives down for Jesus moment by moment and through all kinds of challenges. John Duot Duong, the man who runs the TOM Narus orphanage in war torn South Sudan, also joined us for a month. What an honor to serve with them. They are the real deal! Jesus is on display in their lives!
THANK YOU for your prayers and for all your support!
We are strengthened by you, all of us being members of One Body with Jesus as our Head. He's a GOOD SHEPHERD and He leads us well. He turns the barren desert into streams of life!!
+ If you or your church would like to sponsor a well, please consider also sending a team to minister at the well site! The Harvest is HERE!
Love in Christ Jesus,
Joel and Joye Dicharry
& all the CMK missionaries young and old
We are home in Kenya! And every bone in our bodies is tired but vibrantly alive! For us, this is what it is to truly live in Christ. To be surrounded by the ones Jesus describes as “Blessed’. For He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Heaven is truly filled with such as these.
Already, in just this first week, we have visited six villages to begin surveying for well sites. Mike Perez and Johanna Puls will be staying all four months with us and they have hit the ground running, excited to serve. They’ve faced every challenge with a smile! We’re so blessed to have them with us and we look forward to welcoming Nickson soon from Tanzania. The kids have all been excited to reunite with their friends and our local bible study group.
Our amazing friends and team leaders here in Kenya have been instrumental in getting us to these remote villages and providing us with the best local committee chairmen. All of the villages we have visited are in desperate need for clean water. One village in particular has to walk over 10 km to get water and must pay for water to be sent to their community. Over four thousand people would benefit from just one well in that area! It’s a very difficult village to reach and we are praying for another vehicle that can make the rigorous, almost impassable journey once the rains start.
In one village, the community was so amazed that we would be willing to bring them water they asked us how they would know we are really going to return and do what we have said. One of our Kenyan team told them, “Just as Jesus came and showed up and performed miracles, we will come like him.” What an incredible response. We pray that we will walk in Jesus’ footsteps and bring healing and hope to everyone we have come to serve.
Just as before, God is going before us and directing all of our steps. He is making connections and we are amazed at the opportunities He brings. We are humbled to simply be His hands and feet, moved by His heart. The other day, a lady asked me how I don’t just give in to all the anxiety and worry that is certainly a part of traveling with kids. My response was simply, “I’m in love. And when you’re in love you do crazy things and they don’t feel hard. I’m in love with Jesus. But He loved me first.” He taught me how to love without reservation, how to love without self preservation. It’s His love for me and His willingness to journey to the Cross for me that captured my heart and won it forever. Nothing is too hard for that kind of love.
Mike sent me a picture the other day from one of the villages they visited and it is of a young girl collecting water for her family from the polluted Athi River. We see this everywhere, young children walking miles for water. It sets our hearts as flint to do what God has called us to do:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 18:19
We strive forward with the strength of the Holy Spirit and with the Love of Christ. The need is great, but God is greater.
We give thanks to all of you who are partnering with us through prayers and support!
God Bless All!!
... It's just like God to do MORE THAN WE ASK!
We asked God for five wells to be funded in the five months we were here sharing our story in the States. God kept reminding us of the word "overflow" and we began to circle it every time we would come across it in our Bibles. In the updates we receive about the successful well in Ndituni, there are always pictures of the overflow that is produced daily! There is overflow when God is involved!
God has provided SIX fully funded WELL SYSTEMS!
Wow!!! We are amazed and humbled, praising God for His overflow and for your obedience to give!
... It's just like God to confirm the vision He gave us for CMK
"Our vision is to ignite a generation for a new era in world missions where the church is wholly committed to every part of its body in order to fulfill the mandate of Jesus (in Matt. 28:19-20)."
Friends, we are seeing God do this!!
We have two young missionaries coming to serve with us the full time we are in Kenya this year: Michael Perez and Johanna Puls. We have two more coming to serve for part of the time: Jason Vicknair and Alexis Sparacello. We are so excited to see the ways God will move in them and through them!! Keep them in your prayers!
Coming Soon: We will be putting a profile page for our missionary team on our website so they can receive support and spiritual covering while they are serving!
We also have a few families as well as a missions team planning on joining us throughout our time in Kenya which will be March-July (as the Lord wills). God has provided another vehicle for us to use for these missions teams!! The Father has plans, we just follow as He leads!
"So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does." John 5:19
Important Prayer Points:
+ The Gospel will go forward despite all!
+ Keep our travel arrangements for our family + missions team in your prayers. We are preparing to move to Kenya and begin working on the wells by the end of March.
+ Pray that our Kenya based non-profit will be approved quickly so that we can facilitate easier travel into the country
We are so thankful for your continued support and your prayers!!!
Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend!
Till All Have Heard,
Joel and Joye Dicharry and family
P.S. The wells have been funded but there are many operational needs that are growing as the ministry is growing. If you would like to give to the operational needs of Commission Mankind, click the link below for our giving page.