Category: Children

6/15/2026 1 Comment

God Sees, Hears, and Knows

My name is Joseph Adrian Shikokoti, the founding pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Eldoret, Kenya. I have served the church for more than 32 years now. I'm married to Rose Adrian, and together we have raised many children both biologically and spiritually. We started a home in 2007, but we don’t actually call it a home because we want every kid to have a sense of belonging. We already had biological kids, and God used Rose to ask me if we could help one boy (Hudson) who didn't have a father and needed a place to live and food to eat. As a pastor, I felt compelled to offer some kind of help to this boy who has a paralyzed right hand and leg. I accepted, knowing that I would not be able to meet all this boy's needs because, for so long, we had food but no fire to cook with, and we could send our bigger boys to pick polythene papers and broken plastics to start a fire and use as firewood to cook. Now God led Rose to take care of this young man.

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6/9/2026 3 Comments

Faith in the Dust: A Devotional for Those who Feel Forgotten

I asked Pastor Daniel Mugeni, one of our First Cause international leaders, to share with you what it is like to minister in a poor rural community in Uganda. Daniel pastors Grace Harvest House of Worship in Iganga, Uganda, a town 33km from the source of the Nile in Jinja. This is critical because it is so easy to be complacent and selfish in a prosperous nation and forget what it means to suffer and struggle not just in faith but in surviving.

Meditation
2 Corinthians 1:6,7--If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort.

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4/16/2026 3 Comments

Ninth Grade

I don’t know how much you know about ninth graders today, but from what I am learning, it is nothing like what I experienced when I was that age. It was more than eye-opening when one of the boys in our neighborhood came over and spent part of his afternoon with Stacy and me because he was locked out of his house and no one was home.

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12/9/2025 1 Comment

What Matters II

Pastor Daniel Mugeni

Each year, First Cause sends a Christmas gift to someone on our international team. This year, our gift went to Daniel and Aidda in Iganga, Uganda. Daniel wrote, “You have served my entire family of 30 members with Christmas. I have 26 needy orphans living with me, plus my four kids.” We did not realize that Daniel and Aidda were caring for 26 kids. Like our brother, Joseph, who pastors in Eldoret, Kenya, they do not just pastor needy families; they live by a daily faith that is stretched often beyond what seems possible.

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11/30/2025 1 Comment

Great Grandpa York

Caswell and Margaret York, parents of Henry Clay York

Meditation
Romans 12:12--Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.

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10/3/2025 1 Comment

Treasure in Hand

CBS News carried a heartwarming story about nine-year-old Jameson, the young Philadelphia Phillies fan whose dream was to catch or acquire a big league baseball. His parents bought tickets for seats positioned along the third base line, where the ball girl routinely tossed foul balls on the field up to fans in the stands. Sure enough, in the fifth inning, Jameson got a ball. Later, while watching the game, he overheard a woman ask the ball girl if she could get a ball for her mother, Donna, who was at the game to celebrate her 80th birthday. As you can imagine, youth are the priority, and the chances of Donna getting a ball were remote. So Jameson had his prize, but several innings later, he did something astounding for a boy with treasure in hand.

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2/17/2024 1 Comment

How Does a Little Child . . . ?

My father caught me in some forgotten misbehavior when I was a little child. He explained that when we did things wrong, that was called sin, and sin displeased God. I knew about God because we prayed to Him each meal, and Dad, at that time in Naha, Okinawa, always started his day off by reading his Bible, praying, and drinking his coffee. Dad explained that if we told God that we were sorry for our sins and placed our trust in His Son, Jesus, Jesus would forgive us, and we could look forward to living with Him in heaven someday. He asked me if I would like to do that. Of course, I don’t remember his exact words or direction because that was over 60 years ago, but I remember confessing what I had done was wrong and eagerly wanting Jesus to come into my heart.

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