Report on Harvest Pastors’ Mission to Kenya
(April, 2001)

I want to share with you our wonderful adventures in Kenya, West Africa. God worked many miracles as we partnered in the work of the Lord with the fine godly pastors of Webuye, Kenya. We worked in partnership with Dr. Leon van Rooyen and Steve Talacki of Global Ministries and Relief; Pastors Bob and Rob Thomas of Church of the Harvest in Memphis, Tennessee; Pastor Wayne Swenson of Living Word Church in Troy, Missouri; Jon Zuckerman Ministries in Tampa, Florida; and Pastor Louis Self of Restoration Church in Pearland, Texas.

Our flight left Indianapolis at 4:30 pm on April the 8th, 2001. We arrived in London, England at 11:00 AM the following morning. At 10:30 PM the same date we were off on our way to Nairobi, Kenya. We arrived in Nairobi eight hours later on Tuesday, April 10. After lunch we visited the Massai Market and then headed back to the airport for our 3:30 PM flight to El Doret. We were met by a number of the pastors from Webuye and their wives. They were all very warm and friendly. We then headed directly to Webuye, which was about a two hour drive.

When we arrived in Webuye, we made our motel arrangements. Our accommodations were all right but certainly not like home. We had to change rooms because the first one we were given had no running water. The motel management was accommodating and we had water most of the rest of the week. Rainwater is gathered in cisterns and sun-heated on the roof for showers and for flushing the commodes. We arranged to have our meals prepared at the motel, so on arrival we had our evening meal and then proceeded to the Revival Meeting which was held on the high school grounds.

That first night of the revival, after 30 hours of travel, we shared testimonies of the great work that we have been blessed to be a part of over the past five years — the move of God and the miracles that we have seen. The people of Webuye had not yet experienced revival and had been believing God for a mighty outpouring. Dr. Leon’s Global Ministries and Relief office had been coordinating the effort for months with the Webuye pastors working out all of the intricate details involved in putting together a meeting of this magnitude.

To the credit of the coordinators the meetings would not have been as successful as they were had it not been for the unity that we saw among the pastors of the city. Pastors and leaders from over fifty churches came together to meet with God. They had worked for months in publicizing the meetings and inviting pastors from all over Kenya and neighboring countries. They arranged for special conference music, rented sound equipment, built a platform in the center of the city park, bought cows that were butchered to provide meat for lunch, hauled water for the revival every day, coordinated transportation, rented facilities, and arranged our accommodations. Publicity for the Revival meetings included playing videos from Dr. Leon’s meetings here at Harvest Church on Kenya National Television.

We got to bed at about 12 a.m. on Wednesday morning and were back up at 5:30 a.m. to begin our eighteen-hour day of preaching, teaching and ministering by the laying on of hands. This became our daily pattern throughout the Revival meetings. We taught and preached in the mornings, held workshops on all facets of ministry in the afternoons, ministered in crusades every afternoon in the park and conducted revival meetings in the evenings. Every day people were saved, healed and delivered.

Over 2,300 salvations were recorded during the Revival. Those who responded to the calls for salvation were ministered to concerning the Christian life and were instructed in the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They filled out information cards and were followed up by local churches. We are receiving reports of churches having to add services to accommodate all who were born again. (See the letters from local pastors at the end of this report.) I can remember as many as 35 people getting saved after one of the morning teachings. Pastor Debbie taught on “The Joy of the Lord” from scripture and shared her incredible testimony of how the joy of the Lord had changed her life. I taught on “Pastoring A Church in Revival”, “The Importance of Worship”, “Church Administration”, “Vision for Youth Ministry” and, of course, “Salvation” and “The Baptism In The Holy Ghost”.

The majority of the salvations came from the crusade in the city park. Evangelism was taught and then practiced in practical application each afternoon before the crusade. There were as many as 6,000 people present at the crusade in the park each day. Two to three thousand attended the revival meetings each evening.

The building that we met in for the revival meetings had a metal roof and was a concrete block structure. It was sweltering hot in there with doors and windows open. Body odor was thick and there was standing room only but God was there in a tremendous way. Hundreds gathered outside the building to listen and to get a glimpse of what God was doing. Sister Angela Chibalonza, who was born in the neighboring country of the Congo, provided special music at each meeting. Angela is a young woman with a tremendous testimony of God’s saving power and has been through tremendous hardship. Through it all, the Lord has raised her up to be the number one Christian artist in Kenya. Her music is played on Kenya’s national radio, which plays both secular and Christian music.

Sister Angela was one of the first to receive the glorious outpouring of the joy of the Lord. She was gloriously and wonderfully hit by the awesome power of God as brother Leon taught on the joy. Her beautiful dresses were covered with dirt from the floor as she drank of the refreshing wine of the Holy Ghost. This seemed to open everyone else up for the joy because sister Angela is so well thought of in Kenya. Several of the Bishops (those who have pioneered and now oversee many congregations) in attendance resisted and became angry initially. Later when they saw the results of this mighty visitation they repented . In this building where there was pretty much standing room only, we laid hands on those hungry for God and the wind of the Holy Spirit blew in. People were filled and delivered and set free to worship the Lord without fear in true freedom. When we administered the altar calls each night folks got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. Thousands received the Joy of the Lord as the Glory fell.

Brother Leon taught that religion has got to come down. All of the local pastors wore suits, even three piece suits, every day despite the sweltering heat. In his very firm but loving way, brother van Rooyen taught on the harm that religion brings and the blessing that true Christianity and relationship with the Lord brings. Day by day we saw the leadership losing the religious garb and getting freed up to worship the Lord. Their congregations absolutely loved it.
Below are some of the more notable miracles which occurred during our time in Webuye, Kenya as reported by those in attendance:

Twenty-three hundred people accepted Jesus as their Lord and were saved;

Three people lacking sight in one or both eyes were healed and their sight restored;

One baby which was dead in the womb was brought back to life;

At least 2 who were deaf in one or both ears had their hearing restored;

Many with back problems reported that they were healed;

Tumors disappeared;

At least 2 people who came in wheel chairs because they were unable to walk were able to walk home on their own;

The mayor of the city had been unable to fully use one of her arms. She received healing that restored full range of motion. She rededicated her life to the Lord;

A seven-year-old child spoke for the first time. She had also never been able to walk but a healing process was begun during this revival and she was enabled to walk for the first time;

Curses placed on people were broken and reversed. One woman had been bewitched and given the symptoms of pregnancy and venereal disease. She was miraculously delivered from the bewitching.;

The wife of the leader of an occult group was saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. She stated that their two daughters died when her husband had set their home afire to sacrifice the girls to the devil and that he had then run off with all of the group’s money. After she gave her life to Jesus she brought other cult members to the revival the next day and more than twenty of them were saved. They celebrated their salvation by burning their occult paraphernalia.

We are planning to plant churches in Kenya, return there for future revivals, and develop and maintain a mentoring relationship with some of the leaders there. Please keep us in your prayers as we seek the Lord for His guidance in missions. We are committed to working with Dr. Paul and Eileen Allyn to build seven churches in the Dominican Republic. We also will be working with Bishop Michael Okah in Warri, Nigeria. We have been in relationship with Dr. Michael and Beauty Okah for nineteen years. In the next few months twelve members of Harvest Church are committed to short and long term missions projects and there will probably be more.

Laboring in the Harvest until His return,
Pastors Jon and Debbie Callahan

Letters from Kenyan Pastors
Received Since Pastors Jon & Debbie’s Return Home

Dear Pastor Jon & Debbie,
Greetings in Jesus name. I hope you had a safe flight back home. Thanks for the great work that you did in our Nation. My Church is so full that we begun a second service. This is a result of the conference. We are blessed. One morning, 2 Police officers came in my house and they said they attended the crusade and have made up their minds. They want to receive the Lord. I prayed with them and invited them to my church. The impact is still being felt. We will continue to pray for you. We are already missing you.
God bless you for now.

Yours in the Lord’s Harvest
Pastors

Dear Pastor Debbie,
Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is Rose, the wife of Pastor Jonathan who coordinated the Fire Conference with Dr. Leon. I was blessed by your message on Joy that ushered us into the wave of revival. After Dr. Leon preached on Joy, it was as if you were John the Baptist preparing the way. Yesterday, we experienced a great move of the Holy Ghost and Revival in such a tremendous way. More than we have ever seen in our church, whereby people burst into Holy Laughter and after the service, some two sisters were still drunk and overcome by Joy that they could not reach their homes. We had to get them a car to take them home. Praise the Lord. You planted the seed, and it has germinated and now growing.
Thanks for the lotion that you gave to me. I am still using it. I love it. Pass our Love to Pastor Jon. I look forward to seeing you again with many other ladies in the team. God bless you.

Love in Christ
Rose

Dear Pastor Jon and Debbie,
Greetings in Jesus Name. Thanks very much for your e-mail and words of encouragement. I was blessed personally with your ministry which left my life and ministry completely changed. I thank God for having brought you into our lives. I was surely touched.

I look forward to receiving more blessings from God through you as we network. We will continue to lift you before the Lord and that all will be well. It is my prayer that the Lord will bring you back to bless us more.

Count us among the friends to forge a long term relationship with. Today we had a powerful service in church with signs and wonders. We had Holy Ghost laughter and we had to take two sisters home in a car for they were unable to walk but just to crawl having been overcome by the joy. Thank you for the impartation. What I am experiencing in my ministry is such an experience that I had never seen in life. God is doing it after the Fire Conference.

God bless you.
Yours in the Lord’s harvest
Pastors

Dear Pastors Jon and Debbie,
We do hope that hope that you arrived safely back in the U.S. though we know that the Journey was long and tiresome. But we want to assure you that you were and still you are, a blessing to our ministry and family. You are more like our parents. We also say thanks once more for the gifts. Since you left on Monday we’ve had meetings in church and for sure we have seen mighty works of the Lord in our midst (church) His (God’s) Presence has been mighty and we’ve seen such a tremendous increase with God’s power. These are Tuesdays and Thursdays. We’ve seen more souls coming to the Lord and being delivered and also being filled with the Holy Spirit. God has revived us and we’ve had to wake up even earlier than we used to, so as to seek the face of God. We believe that our ministry will never remain the same even as we stand on your shoulders to see far. We believe God for your family to be our mentors.

Yours in Christ’s Vineyard
Pastors