Bill and Melody Visit NMC

On May 20,2007 NMC was so excited to have Bill and Melody share during the morning services. They had just recently returned from Kenya. In his message that morning Pastor Dave had asked the question: How do you eat an elephant? The normal response would be "one bite at a time"! Not so! You eat an elephant by inviting 3,000 of your friends over for a picnic! The elephant represented an impossible situation and he was inviting our congregation to step up and help solve the situation in Kenya. Bill and Melody had spent four years in Africa because God had asked them to build an orphanage for abandoned babies. There are over a million and a half orphans in Kenya alone and the infants are the most vulnerable. While in Kenya Melody developed MS. After much prayer and pleading with God about the situation they knew they needed to return home without the baby center being completed. When they came that morning they told our congregation that they firmly believed the AGC Baby Center would not have been able to welcome their first baby if it had not been for our help. Bill and Melody went on to say they believed God was calling someone to help
finish the project that they had begun. And they were right!
God had stirred the hearts of many of those who had been to Africa. And even before Bill and Melody came that morning, meetings had taken place with WGM representatives to discuss NMC's involvement in finishing the project. God specifically called my husband Jamie and I as well as Dan Jacobs and his wife Dana to take a leading role in developing a plan to finish the orphanage. Melody shared that when they left Kenya, 17 babies were on the waiting list to come to the orphanage. Many of those will die before they can find a place to go. The need was urgent and it touched the congregation. A goal of $150,000 to finish the baby center was the commitment NMC made to Bill and Melody that day. The need in Kenya seemed like an impossible situation and nothing could be done about it - but doing nothing is not an option! And in the weeks following Bill and Melody's visit the congregation at Nappanee Missionary Church showed just how much they cared about Kenya's orphaned babies!