October 16th

Thursday, October 16, 2008

East African Pastoral Conference – day two. It was another very beneficial day. We always begin with an opening hymn, but this morning, while waiting for a few of the men to arrive, we had a special treat. We started by singing a familiar hymn in Swahili “God loves me dearly” which is in the Swahili hymnal. Then one of the men (who is from Uganda) taught everyone a hymn. He taught us all the chorus, and he sand the main verses. He was a young man, but had a very good voice. Then Bruce taught them a song. They all picked it up right away, and we all enjoyed it very much. Russ was put in charge of going online and printing off the words of some familiar hymns so that everyone could sing along. But after awhile our English (from the German and Latin) hymns may become a bit old to those not used to them like we are. So it was nice to be able to mix in some Swahili. I always enjoy the singing of these hymns. The men are usually familiar with the melody of these hymns, if not the words. They also have their own musical arrangements for the different voices that really make the hymns come alive. So very enjoyable!

Finally the others arrived and we began. After the opening devotion and the singing of another (English) hymn we started right away with the papers. The first paper was presented by Pastor Jesse Angowi, who is the teacher at the seminary in Himo, Tanzania. He presented a paper on faith and ethical decision. The point of the paper was to point out the distinction between the roles of law and gospel. There is a natural law in the heart of human beings, and there is a revealed knowledge of God’s law. But the way to salvation is not by keeping the law but through faith.

After some discussion I was given the opportunity to present my paper on the meaning of the phrase “from the foundation of the world.” In this paper we considered the passages where the phrase occurred in Scripture and saw how it vividly described the manifold work of God in accomplishing our salvation. At the end of the presentation there was time for questions and discussion of the paper. After finishing the papers, time was given for announcements, and then we concluded with a hymn. Russ had chosen “Onward Christian Soldiers” for the hymn. This same hymn is found in the Swahili hymnal, so we decided to alternate verses. We sang the first verse in Swahili, the second and third in English, the beginning of the fourth in English and then sang the final chorus in Swahili. It was a wonderful way to close out our general pastoral conference!

After our close, lunch was served so that those men who had to return home could get back on the road. During this time I was busy meeting with the various groups about their plans to return home, and making arrangements for visiting their areas later on our trip. I was so busy visiting with people that I didn’t even have time to eat! Meals here usually consist of either rice or ugali (which is a mashed corn that looks like mashed potatoes but much more firm in consistency) with a meat stew and some kind of vegetable. It really wasn’t a big deal since I have gotten into the habit of not eating lunch anyway.

After lunch was finished we met with each of the groups individually, and began to say our temporary goodbyes. Most (if not all the men) will be seen by us again later in our trip. It was a very busy and profitable day. We also had the chance to talk with a lot of the men about their local congregational work and how it is going.

At around 4:00 we finally wrapped everything up and headed back to our own hotel. Even though the conference was over, we still had a lot to do. Tomorrow we are leaving Nairobi for the very long trip to Mombasa. So we spent some time working on reports about the meeting, preparing for the trip and meetings in Mombasa, packing and some time at the internet café just up the street from our hotel.

Later in the night we had a visitor. A lady that Russ had met at the internet café stopped by the hotel and wanted us to meet her pastor. They are connected to a Presbyterian church here in Ngala (a suburb of Nairobi). We visited with them for a little bit, and Bruce gave the man a book to read that defends the inspiration of Scripture. We are going to try and meet up with him again at some point when we are back in Nairobi to see if he has any other questions. All this developed from a friendly conversation with a lady who worked beside the internet café! We pray that the Lord would bless this contact as well.

Well off to bed, we have a long trip tomorrow, so that’s all for now.

In His service,

Nathanael