Kenya 2011 Teaching Trip Report

 

When we left the U.S. in April for our fifth teaching mission to Kenya, Laurie and I were prepared to see old friends, speak at schools and churches, and do our best to encourage believers wherever we went. Even though we thought we knew what to expect, we were not prepared for the overwhelming doors of opportunity that opened for us during our time in Kenya.

For the last five years my core responsibility has been to teach a group of around 30 pastors and church leaders for two weeks at the Manna Bible Institute outside Nairobi. Laurie, concurrently, leads women’s seminars at various locations on prayer, women’s issues, and now, peacemaking. This time was no different, and we were blessed to meet new students who have come to further develop their ministry skills. While I had a mere five-minute drive to Manna, Laurie had a two-plus hour drive just to reach the church in Kitengela where she lead a three-day seminar.

Our first weekend brought us to the All Nations Gospel Church in Nairobi South B, an area bordering a slum.  We have known the pastor of the church, Bishop Samuel Munai, for five years, and were blessed to return to speak at the two Sunday services at South B (the first in English, the second translated into Swahili). There were around one thousand believers who attended the services. After the second service Laurie taught a seminar on peacemaking for the ladies of the church.

For our second weekend we had been invited to come to Kabarak University, located about 300 kilometers from Nairobi near Lake Nakuru. Kabarak has a university, law school, high school, junior high and elementary school, and is renowned for its academic excellence and for championing education from a Christian perspective. Last year was our first visit to Kabarak, and we were privileged to have been invited to the home of the founder of Kabarak, His Excellency, President Daniel Arap Moi, the second President of Kenya (from Kenya’s independence in 1963 to 1978 Moi was the Vice-President of Kenya, and from 1978 to 2002 he was the President; the current President, Mwai Kabaki, was Moi’s Vice-President). President Moi graciously spent more than an hour with us, hearing our vision, and giving us his perspective on many things affecting Kenya and the world. Kabarak’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dankit Nassiuma, was also at the meeting.

For our visit to Kabarak this year, I was invited to speak at the Sunday chapel service. Laurie and I were joined on our excusion by Bishop Munai and Pastor George Muguro, Principal of Manna Bible Institute. Before chapel we met the campus pastor and others, and while the chapel filled with around 2,000 people, ranging from 10-year-old students, to university students, to members of the public, we waited out front. President Moi arrived with his security detail, and we followed him in a processional. I was honored to sit next to him, a man whose face appears on the coins of Kenya.

After hearing several songs of special music from various student ensembles and choirs, I was introduced. I lead off with a gorilla story that had them roaring with laughter, and was blessed to challenge them to consider their calling (I Corinthians 1:26) and purpose in life. It was one of the most attentive audiences I have ever addressed, and I realized that I was looking out at the future of Kenya as I spoke to many of the leading students in the country. After the service President Moi made a point of telling the Vice Chancellor that he wanted us to come back and be part of Kabarak.

We had a mountaintop experience at Lake Nakuru, with more happening than space permits me to include. Suffice to say that doors were opened wide for us, and we were humbled to have been chosen to minister at Kabarak.

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, the Lord’s grace again exceeded our wildest dreams. We had a chance to meet the new General Overseer of the denomination (P.E.F.A.) that founded Manna Bible Institute. We had heard about Bishop Moffat, who pastors a large church in Doonholm, on the outskirts of Nairobi, and when we met him and his lovely wife, we felt an instant connection. Bishop Moffat invited us to consider speaking at a future PEFA pastor’s conference where often 1-2,000 pastors assemble, and his wife invited Laurie to speak when they host a PEFA-wide women’s conference. We look forward to seeing how our schedule can accommodate these future seminars. There would likely be several Manna graduates among the pastors that would attend the pastor’s conference.

The day after we met Bishop Moffat, I was invited to appear on a Christian television show that airs all over greater Nairobi. I was interviewed for half an hour by the charming host Winnie, who gave me plenty of opportunities to make a case for the resurrection (this was just a few days before Easter, which they refer to as “Resurrection Sunday” in Kenya) and talk about Rolling Stone Ministries (including why two lawyers from America keep coming back to Kenya). The interview went quite well, and we are confident that the show reached the right people who needed to hear that Christianity is an intelligent faith, rooted in history.

We left Africa on Good Friday, but before our afternoon flight out of Nairobi we stopped off at a PEFA orphanage where we had visited the year before. Seeing those beautiful children reminded us of the challenges of sub-Sahara Africa, and the scourge of H.I.V. that has taken a whole generation of parents, leaving so many children to be raised by relatives or in orphanages. I was able to toss the football (actually a rugby ball) with the boys as Laurie interacted with the girls. I get misty eyed thinking of those dear ones, always wishing at the time that I could secret a couple of them in my suitcase and bring them back to the U.S. It is comforting to know, however, how well they are taken care of at that orphanage, including their spiritual needs, educational needs, and physical needs, due to the commitment of caring Christians. It is the compassion and sense of calling among believers from all over the world who come to Kenya to serve that has assisted the church in fulfilling her ministry of evangelism, discipleship, and ministry to the poor and needy.

Those of you who partner with us with encouragement, prayer and financial support have made possible our ministry in Kenya. We thank you for your confidence in the work of RSM, and we truly could not have done it without you. But the Lord knows our needs, and he has been meeting our needs through you so that we can continue our work.

Bwana asifiwe! (“Praise the Lord” in Swahili).

 

Click Here to see photos of the trip.
See Photo Gallery for photos of past mission trips to Kenya.