Friday, October 24, 2008
This morning it was back to Etago again. This time Charles made the 30 mile trip to the church in an hour and a half! Of course our poor Toyota paid for it. The bottom of the car hit rock many times and at the end of the trip we heard a crack in the exhaust. The moral of the story about the turtle and the hare may have more then one beneficial meaning. He who goes slow doesn’t need a repair job at the end of the race!
When we arrived we talked to Pastor Enosh about handing out the T-shirts that were sent for the kids at the orphan school. They were prepared and sent by Alana Ahrens for all the kids. Russ had also purchased a volleyball net for the kids an we gave them that as well. Finally we gave Christmas cards to each of the teachers for their work with a small sum of money from KINSHIP. It was really fun to be able to see their reactions! Excitement, wonder, and even sometimes confusion!
At about 10:00am we continued with our seminar with the church leaders. Because of the concerns that were raised on our first day here about the running of the church organization, Bruce thought it would be a good idea to do a presentation on a church constitution. Really neither an individual church constitution or a synodical constitution would work here, so we had to make quite a few changes in order to make it fit the situation here in Etago. I began by introducing the topic and showing why a constitution is valuable and important for a group of believers. Then, since Bruce had done most of the work on this, he presented how the constitution would be set up for them. When he was finished the leaders were given the opportunity to ask questions or add their own thoughts. A constitution committee was selected that would take the document that we had prepared and review it and make any necessary changes to it. They then would present it to the voters of the Etago churches for adoption this coming January. It seemed to be well received and seemed to quell the concerns of those who had spoken when we first arrived. We pray that the Lord would continue to bless this effort and bring peace, unity and strength to this group of believers.
After lunch I continued our seminar with a presentation on Church discipline. I reminded these leaders that God has called them as shepherds to lead and feed the flock of God in their churches. That means we are required to preach both God’s law and His gospel for the salvation of souls. There were a few questions that were asked when I was finished and we closed with prayer at around 3:00.
Now it was time to meet with the Etago church members who had originally raised concerns about the operation of the church. We discussed the new constitution process with them and gave them a chance to voice their concerns. A man was there who caused a little bit of chaos, and we told him we would speak to him privately later. Otherwise things seemed to be pretty much resolved!
Bruce had stayed at Enosh’s last night and during a break he mentioned that he felt he was putting the family out by staying there just like I had. We had talked about staying with Joshua, but his wife Josaphine has been suffering from some kind of heart condition and has not been well. So we both decided to travel back to Kisii for the rest of our stay.
After another hour and a half trip back to Kisii, we were in need of a weld on muffler. After dropping us off at the Zonic hotel, Charles went to get that done for our trip tomorrow morning.
We all went for supper at a restaurant called the Nile, which is just down the street from our hotel. I tried the chicken fried rice, Russ the beef fried rice, and Bruce ordered a chicken sandwich. The portions were huge for Russ and myself. Bruce got the short end of the stick with a small piece of chicken half the size of his bun and a bit on the dry side! With our sodas, the total cost of our meal was less than $15! (And that was for all three of us together.) A much better price than what we had been paying at the restaurant in the Zonic hotel.
Time is flying by, but we are getting a lot done. Tonight I have to do some work on editing the model constitution I have with proper changes for this group. We want them to have something in detailed format so they have something to work with.
In His service,
Nathanael
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