Today was the big day. The members of Himo and Machame had asked if Todd would be able to appear in court and speak on the CLC’s ownership of the seminary building at Himo. We were more than glad to tweak our schedule to fulfill that request. It is our hope that this will help to settle the ownership question for the judge, so that we can retain ownership and restart the seminary once again for the efficient training of pastors in East Africa.
People began showing up at our hotel at about 8:00am and continued filtering in until we left the hotel at about 9:30am. Although we discussed the work here in East Africa, all our thoughts were on the impending court appearance.
At 9:30 we began our stroll to the court house via the bus line office. We stopped at the office and purchased tickets for Moshi to Nairobi for later that morning. Our court appointment was at 11:00, and the bus was scheduled to leave at 11:30, so it was going to be tight. The office manager said that he could wait for us for a little bit if necessary.
They really weren't as excited to be here as they look....
So we left Mike and Stephen with our bags and walked with the rest of our group the 8 or so blocks from the bus office to the courthouse. There we met a few more people from Himo – all of whom were also being taken to court by Pastor Angowi. We shared greetings and visited for a while as we waited for the advocate to be able to meet with Todd to prep him for his appearance.
At about 11:15 we were called in before the judge. We entered a small room and filled it up with all the defendants in this case. As it turns out, they were amending their suit so it does not include ownership of the property, so Todd wasn’t able to give his testimony, but everyone said that this was very good news. I guess it will now have to go to a land court, and everyone feels that we have more than enough proof of ownership to win there. So it may take a little longer, but we pray that we will finally retain the ownership of the property. We pray that this may be quickly resolved so that the Lord’s work here may soon resume!
Our shuttle picked us up right outside the courthouse when we were finished. We said our goodbyes and had a short parting prayer with these faithful members and pastors of the Moshi area congregations. May the Lord continue to be with them and keep them strong through this ongoing battle!
We left Moshi at about 12:00 for the long trip back to Nairobi. Todd, Mike and I weren’t looking forward to riding again after the past couple of days, but this was much better than our conditions to and from Tanga! It was a one and a half hour trip to Arusha where we had to disembark and wait for another larger bus for the trip to Nairobi. We had a half an hour to stretch and do some other odd-n-ends.
Waiting in Arusha for our bus to Nairobi. We were NOT looking forward to getting on again!
Our bus for Nairobi left at 2:00pm. It was 8:15 when we made our first drop at the airport in Nairobi, but we didn’t arrive at our stop until 9:30pm. We were all hungry, since we hadn’t had much of anything since breakfast, so I dropped the guys off at the Southern Blue and rode over to the hotel where our conference will be tomorrow to meet with the men who had arrived. It was good to see them all and was important to go over a few things before the start of the conference. It had been another long day, but we are ready all geared up for the East African Pastoral Conference tomorrow morning.
In His service,
Nathanael
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