October 18th

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Today was another very beneficial day. We began the day meeting with two of the Nairobi church leaders. Our goal was to address some concerns that had been raised regarding the work of the churches in Nairobi and Mombasa. We were able to get to the heart of the issue and arrange for a meeting with more of the pastors and leaders in the Muranga area on Monday to talk more about these issues.

After that meeting we left our hotel to meet with the leaders of the churches in Mombasa. Charles had arranged a meeting area for us and the seven Mombasa men to meet for a seminar. It was an open air meeting room which was connected to a restaurant. We began our meeting at about 10:30 and had to be finished at 2:00. We began with introductions so that everyone would know each other. One of the men, the leader of the churches in the Mombasa area, was at the Nairobi conference, so we already knew him. Another man I remembered meeting at our conference in Muranga last year.

After the introductions we began with prayer, and I started with an overview on the books of the Old Testament. I had prepared a brief outline of the Old Testament books in chronological order, and went through a review of those books with them. The purpose was to show that the Old Testament should not be set aside and left unused since it is still very valuable for us today. I also pointed out the many places in these books where Christ is spoken of and pictured.

Church leaders attending the Mombasa conference

After the first study we took a break for lunch which was served in the room we met in. It had something for everyone. There was a beef mix, roasted chicken, ugali, rice and several type of vegetables. The meat here is not as good as in the states. It is usually pretty tough and usually has bones attached to it. If you were to see some of the animals over here you would understand why. It certainly isn’t like the cattle I saw when growing up in Nebraska! The cattle here are pretty thin and often have ribs showing through their skin. But tough beef is better than no beef (which is what we had in India)!

After lunch Bruce took over and used the rest of our time to talk about Biblical Covenant Theology. He contrasted the Old covenant in the time before Christ with the New covenant which came after Christ. He pointed out that the old covenant was a two-way deal (an agreement between God and His people), where the new covenant was a one way deal (or a will) which depended only on God. He also provided for them a handout which outlined these two covenants.

After our meeting we took a little bit of time to stop and see the Indian Ocean. As we were leaving the meeting hall, we passed a Matatoo which was being pushed by three men. It had some sorts of mechanical problem and wasn’t running. As we drove by Russ yelled out the window, “Haraka, haraka!” (That means “hurry, hurry!”) We can’t take him anywhere. And he’s even more dangerous with a little knowledge of Swahili! Even after that we were able to safely make it to the Indian Ocean. There we viewed the Indian Ocean poured into the bay which goes up to Mombasa. This bay is a natural channel that separates the mainland from a peninsula on the other side. There is a ferry that is used to transport people from one side to the other.

While we were there looking at the white caps coming in from the ocean a couple of little kids came up to us and asked him for some money for food. They were pretty ragged looking and your heart went out to them. Then as they were pressing Russ harder one of the kids turned and in his hand behind his back he had an ice cream bar! So much for my heart going out to them.

From there we headed back through Mombasa and inland once again to visit one of the Mombasa churches in Mariakani. It was about a one hour trip to get to this congregation back along the same road we used to come into Mombasa yesterday. This was a larger congregation which was meeting in a rented building that was getting too small for them. It was a metal structure, with metal walls and a metal roof. They had handmade benches for congregational seating and a table for an altar. They had chairs set up behind the altar for us to sit in. The building was about 25x 50' and had between 70-80 people inside. The women and children sat on the left side and the men on the right.

Russ did his Armor of God devotion and Bruce gave the “sermon” for the service. He talked about how we cannot climb our way to heaven through our works, but how Christ climbed down from heaven and became man in order to bring us to heaven through His works.

After the service was over we spoke to the leaders of the church. Once again one of the maim problems they are facing is having enough Bibles. They primarily speak Swahili in this area and have asked for help in getting more Bibles for their people. I told them, just like I have told others, that buying Bibles for our churches here is a priority for us, but also have to remind them that there is a limit to how much we can help, depending on how much money is available, and we will help as much as we can.

This congregation is hoping to be able to build its own building in the near future. Land has been donated nearby and they are looking forward to having their own building somewhat larger than their existing structure. We pray for the Lord’s blessing upon this congregation.

Back to Mombasa we went. On the way back to the hotel we spotted a pizza place and decided to stop there for supper. We ordered two large pizzas and enjoyed some time to relax and visit. Bruce, Russ, Charles and I finished off the two pizzas and were quite satisfied. It was pretty good pizza!

Instead of going directly to the hotel we asked Charles to drop us off at the Nakumatt (African mall) so we could do some e-mail and shopping. When we were finished there we enjoyed a refreshing walk back to our hotel. By the time we arrived at our hotel it was almost 9:00pm.
After working on a few reports it was off to bed in preparation for another long travel day back to Nairobi tomorrow.

In His service,

Nathanael