October 13

Monday, October 13, 2008

After a good night sleep I awoke at about 6:00am. I did some work on a Bible study which I was preparing to present to some of our local pastors and church leaders. At breakfast we met three other men who were also in the area doing “mission work.” They were from the Boston area, and were visiting churches in the area. One man, Eric, was a business man, and he introduced us to the others. Jim was an older man who had lived in Kenya for over a year and was a Physical therapist and Dave was the pastor of the group. It was interesting visiting with them for the short time we had.

After breakfast I made arrangements to use a “conference room” of the hotel for our pastor’s meeting. Soon Charles arrived with two of the men both named David. I talked with them about how things had been going in Nyeri since I had visited last year. When we came to Nyeri last year, we did not have any churches in Nyeri – only contacts with men who were interested in learning more about our church and teachings. One of the men has done a great job going through the catechism with Charles, and there are others who are progressing more slowly, but are excited and eager to learn more. When the other men showed up we sat down together and talked about the progress of the group and how to further the Gospel in the area. I also took some time to go through a brief Bible study with them to build them up in the knowledge of the truth and to strengthen them in their faith. We had a very profitable discussion, and I look forward to seeing them in the future.

One of these men has been corresponding with me by e-mail during the past year, and has a small congregation in his home just outside of Nyeri. He works full time as a distributor for Coke, and is working to preach the name of Christ through the beginning of a home church as well. He had made arrangements for us to come and visit his home and meet some of the members of his church. We did not have much time here either since Charles had scheduled another congregational visit that afternoon, but we did visit with them and encourage them through the word, and they seemed genuinely thankful that we had taken the time to come and see them.
I have to say that Charles has been doing an excellent job of making all the necessary arrangements and keeping us on schedule. And as our driver and the church leader of this area, it is clear that he knows his way around, and has been making visits to these congregations during the past year. By the way, I have never seen an African driver take out a map - even in unfamiliar territory. They will just pull to the side of the road and ask someone for directions! But even that does not happen often!

After leaving David’s home, we left Nyeri and headed back to the north once again to visit a new congregation in the area. This group also meets in the home of a young man who owns about 600 acres of land. He and his brother inherited the land from their father and work some of the land to raise maize, potatoes, and onions. Because of the dry climate most of their land is used for grazing goats (one of which we had for lunch!). They also raised many chickens which wandered around the fenced in yard and laid several eggs while we were there. We know this because we heard several hens cluck loudly which is what they do after laying an egg to brag about their accomplishment (a possible sermon illustration there). While this area was very dry and out in the middle of nowhere, it was very beautiful land with rolling hills and flat plains.

The congregation is being served by a young man by the name of Daniel who has gone through instruction with Charles in the catechism and is continuing with additional, more in-depth studies. Russ spoke to the congregation about the Armor of God and used a suit of armor to be even more descriptive (I tried to put a picture here, but our Internet connection is too slow).

When Russ was finished I spoke to this small group about Jesus’ picture of the sheep and the goats and used the illustration of the animals they had around them to show that it is by God’s grace that we are saved. It was an interesting visit. This was a very wealthy family compared to many others in Africa. They lived on their own land, grew their own food, and sustained themselves on what they made themselves. Yet they would probably be considered very poor in comparison to most people in our country. A little wooden shack for a home on what might be considered a small farm. But they have the one thing needful, eager to sit at the feet of Jesus. That is true wealth!

After the short service there we got back into the car for the return trip to Nairobi. Once again I was hoping to be able to see Mt. Kenya on our trip home, but it was covered with clouds. After another long trip we arrived back in Nairobi, just in time for rush hour! I generally wouldn’t consider a 3-4 hour drive all that long. But driving from Madison to Eau Claire on nice Wisconsin interstate is a completely different animal from driving from Nyeri to Nairobi on African roads! After riding on the “interstate” roads over here you get a new appreciation for our roads in the states – even those that are seemingly constantly under construction. The roads are so bad over here that the tires on his car could use re-alignment at the end of every day!

We settled into Hotel Southern Blue on the northern side of Nairobi. This wasn’t a very good part of town, but it was close to the hotel where the Pastoral conference was going to be, so we decided to stay there instead of our usual Nairobi hotel. The rest of the evening was spent in preparation for the big pastoral conference for which people will start arriving tomorrow.

Nathanael