It has been a very busy couple of days. On Saturday Russ and I took a bus from Nairobi across the Kenya/Tanzania border to Arusha. The roads have sure improved! What used to take 8 horrible hours just four years ago can now be traversed in a much smoother 5 hours (still a far cry from the three and a half hours advertised on the shuttle companies website though). We settled into our hostel and met with Pastor Jeremiah about our plans for Sunday. For those who might be wondering, a hostel is slightly different from a hotel in that the rooms do not have their own bathrooms. The bathrooms are shared by all the people on a given floor. While we did get a good price, we were disappointed to find out that the hostel did not have running water the night we were there!
Pastor Lengutai (left) with a young boy, myself and Pastor Jeremiah outside his church in Usa River.
On Sunday morning we were picked up by Pastor Jeremiah and taken to his church in Usa River for services there. It is a small congregation, but it was a real joy to hear the children who were there sing to their Savior! One young boy even shared a hymnal with Russ and showed him where they were in the liturgy of the service.
After the service we were invited to Pastor Jeremiah’s home for lunch and then he offered to drive us to Moshi which is about an hour and a half east of Arusha. We arrived there in the evening and checked into another hostel we have stayed at many times before. It was very busy there (this is the high season for tourism) and we were wondering if we might not be able to get a room. They did have a room and things began to quiet down in the evening. Pastor Malyi arrived later that night to meet with us and discuss our schedule for the coming days.
This morning (Monday) we ate breakfast and met up with Pastor Malyi again. Tomorrow I have been asked to come to court to represent the CLC in the court case for our seminary building in Himo, Tanzania. This case has been going on for three years now, since the LCEA tried to sell it without our knowledge or permission. We were caught up on what had been going on in the case and prepared for the hearing. We will be going to court tomorrow morning at 9:00am (2:00am EST), so please keep this in your prayers today. May the Lord’s will be done!
In the afternoon we met with another Pastor from Kenya in order to make plans for my visitation in the coming weeks. He is working among the Masai across the border in Kenya, and we had planned to spend almost a week with him and teaching at the seminary he is running there. But the Somali’s are living among the Masai people and wreaking havoc among foreigners who are encouraged not to travel into remote areas. So instead of spending a week there, we will only spend one day there working with the pastors and students in that area. We will spend extra time with other pastors in this area and in Kenya with our extra time.
May the Lord be with His people here in East Africa and give them the strength and the zeal to proclaim His salvation faithfully!
Thank you all for your prayers during this first leg of our visitation!
In Christ,
Nathanael
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