Bonsai (James B) here. I
haven’t blogged in a while but I had to blog about the amazing first part of
the week in Kisumu!
We had been in Kisumu since last Friday. The mosquitos are so many, but we haven't let that get us down. For almost all of us, Kisumu has been our
favorite place to visit so far. Oke
(pronounced oh-kay), Ephantis (aka Fanta), Mary, Moses, Jacob, and Dr.
Christine work for LIA in Kisumu. LIA
works in two slums in Kisumu, Objunga and Nylenda. We spent Friday-Monday in Obunga, and are
spending Tuesday-Sunday in Nylenda. I am
just going to blog about our time in Obunga for now and let another Mi2 blog
about Nylenda when we get back to Nairobi.
Objunga slums are new for LIA, as they have only been
working there for six months to see if LIA could do a longer-term
commitment. They started with 13
churches interested but only eight churches were dedicated enough (through
completing seed projects, going through TOT training, and meeting with the
other churches) to be partners with LIA.
Since this is such a new area for LIA, we were the first missions team
that these pastors have gotten to work with through LIA.
Friday: We went to Church of God of Prophesy where we met
pastors and/or TOTs (Trainer of Trainers, they are the people in the churches
who LIA trains to train others on how to do community health evangelism) for
most of the eight churches that LIA has been working with in Obunga. We had a praise and prayer meeting and then
because they knew we were really tired, called it a day around 2 so that we
could rest and get settled in and prepared for Saturday.
Saturday: We did bota bota and fish guts evangelism. A bota bota is a bicycle or a motorcycle
taxi. Since the roads are not as busy as
Nairobi, most people travel the city using these because they are cheaper than
the motorized taxis. We went to a nearby
bota bota deport where the drivers wait for people to come and solicit a
ride. Most drivers were willing to hear
our message and God used me to lead a few of them to Christ. It was really encouraging! While Pastor Mark and I were letting the
Spirit lead us there, the others went off to a place near a fish fillet
factory. They make frozen fish fillets
and the parts of the fish that they don’t use, they give to people waiting
nearby that scrapes every last bit of fish and guts out so they can cook them
in patties to feed their families. Jim
and Amy were together, but since Amy hates fish, her stomach was not too happy
about the very fishy smell.
For me personally, evangelism has been my favorite part of
being in Kenya because we do not normally get the opportunity to practice with
people that are as willing to listen as the people in Kenya. I had not actively evangelized to people back
in the US before coming to Kenya, so being here has definitely eliminated the
barrier that I had attached to evangelizing.
Later Saturday, the Pastor’s Fellowship of Obunga and the
Mi2s got the opportunity to play football (soccer) against the local community
youth (ages 10-18ish). It was so much
fun! For the first half, Rebecca was our
goalie and she stopped quite a few balls.
Jim, Kimber and Daniel mainly played defense and they were really
good. All three of them would chase an
offensive player and kick the ball right back out of our side of the
field. I thought that I would be capable
of playing midfield, which means that I would switch between offense and
defense depending on where the ball was.
However, since I have done very little exercising since getting to
Kenya, my stamina was definitely not where it needed to be. At halftime the score was 3-0. After halftime, Kimber started as goalie, but
very quickly a broad husky Kenyan took over for her. This dude was very built, which I thought
would slow him down. That turned out not
to be the case, as somebody shot at the goal and I see him diving across the
goal to intercept the ball, with his head!!
It was very very very impressive and I was so happy that we had that
Kenyan on our team. After that block, we
eventually were able to score a goal out of luck when another Kenyan on our
team kicked the ball towards their goal midfield, but they weren’t quite ready
and the thing rolled in. The entire
crowd (about 30-40 people) just let out a huge cheer that the American/Pastors
team finally scored a goal! Even the
other team was laughing because we got really lucky that we made that
goal. The final score ended up being 5-2
with the local team winning, but both sides had a great time. Pastor Barrack circled all the youth and
community up and it gave us (we volunteered Daniel to speak on our behalf) the
opportunity to share Christ with the community.
We then presented the youths with a trophy for winning.
Pastor Barack then invited everybody in the community to
come to one of the three churches we would be at. Even though Pastor Barack was pastor of Great
Commission Ministries, he never mentioned which of the three churches was
his. Pastor Barack just told people
where the churches were and to attend the church closest to their house. It might seem insignificant, but that was
HUGE. When you are trying to get
churches to work together, for pastors to be selfless like that speaks
volume. It builds trust with the other
pastors that they are all in this together and it shows the community that the
churches are working together and are truly concerned for them, not just about
their money. This is something that the
church in America could really learn from.
Sunday: We went to
three different churches. Amy and I went
to visit Tehila Gospel Church, Jim and Rebecca went to Azula Ministries, and
Kimber and Daniel went to Great Commission Ministries. Amy, Jim, and Daniel all delivered sermons,
while Rebecca, Kimber, and I shared testimonies are our respective
churches.
Later Sunday, all eight churches in the Pastor’s Fellowship
met at New Testament Church for a revival service. It was a really good service. Daniel preached about the components of a
revival saying “If a revival were a building, it would be made of these
materials….” He is really good a relating a message to language that everybody
would understand. Daniel ended his
sermon by calling people to go out and take the revival to the people. Pastor Mark at the end did an alter call
(something that happens at almost every Kenyan church service) for people who
wanted to commit to going out into the community so that Daniel and I could
pray for them. Ten people came forward
and it was so awesome being able to feel God using me to motivate these people
by praying for them. I could feel the
completeness Holy Spirit in a way as I was praying that I will not soon
forget.
Monday: This was our
last day in Obunga slums. On this day
though, Oke and Ephantis were going around to all of the churches to sign
partnership agreements on behalf of LIA to officially the eight churches that
LIA would walk with them and provide training for them for the next three
years. It was so awesome being able to
be at each church and see the joy in the Pastors face when the work their
congregations have undertaken these past six months is paying off by LIA
agreeing to stand behind them for the next three years.
At the end, we had a goodbye ceremony where representatives
from all of the churches gave testimonies about what they witnessed having the
Mi2s in Obunga. One of the best
testimonies was given by Church of God of Prophecy, where they said that the
community respecting the Pastors more that they had Americans guests
visiting. It is said here in Africa that
visitors are a blessing. The Pastors
said that people asked why we were here and it gave them an opportunity to
share the Gospel to people who they had not been able to reach before. This was extremely encouraging that just our
presence in this community helped open people’s hearts to the Gospel.
Overall, this was the best community that we had been to by
far. The Pastors fellowship has really
embraced the concept of “The Church” whereas we are all part of Christ’s church
and that completion is not productive.
As teachers of the Mi2s, the pastors were really engaging, they had a
lot of stuff planned to pour into us and keep us busy, and they gave us the
opportunity to actually go and do stuff (like evangelize). It was just an overall great experience! At the end they were sad that we had to go,
but I told them that I am sure LIA will bring more short-term teams back
because of their amazing hospitality. We
definitely met some amazing people and our entire team was really encouraged by
Obunga slums.
Bonsai
