East African Pastoral Conference begins

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

The East African General Pastoral Conference began this morning at 9:00am. Pastor Malyi served as the chaplain and opened with prayers, hymns and a devotion. Men were in attendance from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and the United States - 16 men in all. We were supposed to have twenty men, but several were unable to attend for various reasons. We still had a good turnout from a variety of our East African fields. This year I decided to take some time to review doctrines that set us apart from other church bodies and presented in Koenig’s 14 pamphlets (these can be found on the CLC’s Lutheran Missions website under Teachings). I took the attendees through a review of the Doctrine of Fellowship and Pastor Gurath followed with a review of “What is a Lutheran?”

Attendees begin to arrive and greet one another at the beginning of the conference.

In the afternoon Pastor Fred Ogendo took us through a review of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Pastor Ogendo serves as one of the teachers at our seminary in Chotororo, Kenya, in the Kisii District. This was followed by a review test on the Catechism, which was given by Pastor Gurath. The purpose of the test was to see how well our pastors know and understand the Catechism, and to encourage them to study the catechism more and teach it in their congregations. The test was received well by the attendees, and they appreciated the review of these basic Christian teachings.

In the past we have had problems getting copies of the Catechism to distribute to our pastors and the people of the congregations here. I have brought English catechisms which have been donated by our members in the states, but those have been few compared to the large number of people who need them. Last year we were finally able to get copies of the Small Catechism with Explanation and began distributing them in our seminaries. This year we have picked up more and are distributing them to our pastors and church leaders for review and instruction. This has been received very well and appreciated by our pastors.

Attendees work on the Catechism test in the afternoon session.

The conference mixed singing English and Swahili hymns for the opening and closing of our sessions. It was a joy to be able to sing with these men and have them sing with us. Many hymn tunes are familiar in both languages and can be sung in either English or Swahili. What a joy to gather around the word of God in Spirit worked unity and sing together praises to our Triune God! May He continue to bless the proclamation of His salvation through each one of us as His witnesses and keep us faithful to His word of truth.

In the service of Christ,

Nathanael