Gary and Mary work amongst the Maasai people in the Olkinyei area of Kenya with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) as Project Coordinators. The area in which they work in is the spiritual heartland of the Maasai people.
Gary and Mary have been serving in this project since 2005. They are involved in church planting, preaching, teaching and serving the local Maasai community. Under God’s leading they continue to establish church-based infrastructures, alongside teaching within the churches and at the Mission where they hold the Worship Leaders’ course quarterly.
Under God’s leading they built PCEA Acacia Grove Mission and, together with its Steering Committee, they seek God to work through them for his glory.
Community-based infrastructure has been a part of their outreach, alongside showing God’s love within the community, including assisting two local government primary schools as part of the ‘Maasai Seeds of Hope.’ In this way many children’s lives are being touched as needs are graciously met by our Father, including building improvements, alongside many books (including children’s Bible stories), toys, games, jigsaws and puzzles etc being supplied for the benefit of these children.
God very specifically led Gary and Mary to teach as this is vital in the healthy growth and flourishing outreach of the church families. As family is fundamental, Family Sunday School and Family Bible Synopsis has been central in the times of teaching and fellowship. Understanding God’s Word and having a deeper knowledge of Scripture has been the key focus in these and the Worship Leaders’ Course, which continues to produce growth amongst the believers. Due to the pandemic these teaching times were unable to go ahead, but it is hoped that they will resume in the very near future.
Seeking for God to be glorified and the local community blessed, as God has led and provided, support has included rainwater catchment, water distribution from boreholes, shallow dam construction, the refurbishment of classrooms, provision of greenhouses and books to local schools, assisting with playgrounds etc. It is hoped that this incoming year will hold within it the building of nursery classrooms in two areas where there is great need for such provision.
Gary and Mary Reid and their family were called to overseas service and left for Kenya in July 2000. Their first place of work was PCEA Chogoria Hospital where Gary was involved with the overseeing of the rehabilitation of the hospital water system. From there, they moved to PCEA Honi Farm where Gary built water reservoirs and completed a water project for the community, and both he and Mary were involved in running children’s clubs, English morning services for young people and teaching at a local orphanage. Gary and Mary have four children: three are adults who are working / studying in the UK and the youngest is at boarding school in Kenya.
Prayer Points
- Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the Maasai people, that they will believe in the Lord and be changed; that those who are Christians will grow deeper in their love and knowledge of the Lord, desiring to be obedient and to see God glorified.
- Give thanks for the work that God has been doing in Olkinyei and the surrounding areas, and for the positive relationships that God has granted amongst the church families and local communities with the Reids over the years.
- Give thanks for the tireless work of the PCEA Acacia Grove Mission Steering Committee, the worship leaders and evangelists who together with the Reids have encouraged the believers to be obedient to God’s Word, and as a result Female Genital Mutilation, child labour and domestic abuse have dramatically decreased.
- Pray for the Reids, that each day they will be guided and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, bringing glory to his name in all they say and do, and for their children that they will grow in the knowledge of our Lord and desire to live in obedience to him having his joy in their hearts.
Gary and Mary have recorded two film clips (a short 3 minute clip and longer 12 minute clip) which can be downloaded and used in church services, prayer meetings or events to raise awareness and prayer for what God is doing across the world, as we seek to go deep and wide in global mission involvement.
(For previous Digital Dispatches video clips click here)
Latest Report
February 2024
“He has put a new song in my mouth - Praise to our God …”
Psalm 40:3a
We bless and praise our LORD that during December, at Ewang’an Worship Centre, twenty-one believers were baptised by Rev. Peter Mwaura Kabaiku.
Furthermore, we rejoice that the first church service was held at the recently constructed nursery classroom at Empiris land, within Olkinyei, with seminars being held over a period of three days.
We are so grateful to our LORD for how He has blessed all these services and for how He is using both the evangelists and the worship leaders to reach out within their communities as they desire to see God glorified and His Kingdom extended.
The distribution of the Maasai and Swahili Bibles has remained ongoing throughout the months of December and January, with members of our church families trekking up into the hills and travelling out across the plains to take God’s Word to family homesteads. Amazingly, seventy percent of the eighteen hundred Bibles have already been distributed to numerous homes and those receiving God’s Word have been prayed with and are made aware that these Bibles are being given by the church family members because of God’s great love for them. Due to heavy rains, it has been necessary to temporarily stop any further distribution, but much gratitude is given to our Father for His blessing on this period of distribution, and now for His blessing of rain.
Prayer Points
- Rejoice with us as we praise our LORD for His blessing upon the services where twenty-one believers were baptised, and where seminars were held at Empiris Land. Also rejoice with us for the distribution of God’s Word among many homesteads within Olkinyei.
- Please pray for all the families who have received these Maasai and Swahili Bibles that God’s Word will not only be read (and accordingly listened to by those within the family who may be illiterate) and understood, but will also bear fruit for God’s glory and the extension of His Kingdom. May many come to believe in Jesus and then grow in their knowledge of Him.
| Contact Details: |
PO Box 846-20500
Narok
KENYA
East Africa |
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