Etago Conference

Monday, November 16, 2009

Today was our seminar day. When I come to Africa we have the general Pastoral Conference with pastors from all the areas, and then we have local “seminars” in each of the regions. Today was the last of these seminars with the men of the Etago area churches.

There were a few things that we were not able to get done yesterday because it was Sunday. I needed to get money exchanged and copies made for the seminar, but was unable to because the banks and copy places were closed on Sunday. I figured that I would have to leave the hotel by 7:30am to make it to Etago for our conference at 10:00am, and the copy place and bank would not open until 8:00am. So we decided that Larry and Russ would stay in town to get that done and then come to Etago when they finished their tasks.

I left the hotel at 7:30 and walked to the bus station where I found a Matatoo that was going to Etago. I had to wait about 15 minutes while it filled up with people. Finally we were ready to go. We left the bus terminal and went to a service station to get a low tire filled. We then started our trek to Etago. We picked up even more people on route and soon there were four or more people to a row again!

I arrived safely in Etago and had to hike up the road to the church. There were motorcycle taxis at the bottom of the hill, and I considered hiring one to take me up to the church, and then thought better of it. I’m not ready for that yet!

I arrived at the church a little after 10:00am. One of the school rooms had been requisitioned for our seminar and we began at about 10:30. I presented two studies: Confessions and the Catechisms of Luther in the morning and The Pastor’s Job in the afternoon. Larry and Russ arrived shortly after the seminar began and I was astonished at how quickly they had made it. I found out they had hired a taxi and had not taken the Matatoo. Cheaters!

Pastor Fred translating for me at the Etago seminar

Russ taught his lesson on the second article of the Apostles’ Creed after lunch, but he and Larry were pretty occupied with the teachers and children most of the day. They conducted interviews with them and learned a lot about the school. It was a very productive day, for them and for me. We wrapped things up at about 4:00pm and had to rush to get a few other meetings in before we left. Our driver (Russ and Larry talked him into staying and taking us back after the seminar was over) was pushing us to get on the road because it was looking like rain, and he didn’t want to get stuck on the roads when the rain came down.

We hustled, but the rain came down and we did get slowed down as a result. They had made it out to Etago in less than an hour and a half and it took us a full two hours to get back because of the rain. It was 6:30 when we got back to the Zonic.

Relaxing for a minute at the Zonic Hotel in Kisii

We took a little bit of time to get some things done and then walked down the street to the Nile Restaurant for supper tonight. We learned about the Nile last year when we were here. The good thing about the Nile is that it is very inexpensive and they give you really big portions. The bad thing is that you have about a 50-50 chance of actually getting what you order! They held true to their reputation. Russ and I ordered chicken fried rice and ended up with fried rice and big piece of chicken. Not what we expected! Oh well, there is always tomorrow night!

In His service,

Nathanael Mayhew

“Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:28 ).