Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The Villages

One of our teachers, who is here teaching church history for a few days, has been able to set up a wifi hotspot from his phone, which is allowing me to post, though probably not photos.

My son, Jonathon, was the first to succumb to the dreaded runny tummy (on top of sun burnt feet). His indisposition lasted only 12 hours, for which we thank God as he was able to head out to the village today.

Gary, my co-teacher for Bible Pathways, and I "took the day off" so we could also get to the village once in our time here.

I've been looking forward to this all week, and it didn't disappoint. The people are so hungry for instruction, so open to the gospel, and so grateful for the ongoing care that Share International provides so many in so many ways.

Every month a medical team goes around to the villages, but they've coordinated with our visit, along with the Jesus film showing last night, the animal vaccination team, the eye doctor and food distribution.

We do our welcomes in the rudimentary church building, which has literacy blackboards in the corner, and then head out to different Acacia trees to minister to different age groups.

Jonathon, Clea, Edi and Maggie are with the children, some of the Nairobi team, and their interpreters. And around 400 kids. It's the biggest group so far. They do a great job teaching Jesus's parables, and the gospel.

I go and join the men's team and each of us share in turn. I talk about Jesus as the Good Shepherd from John 10, and bring in my New Zealand experience of sheep to these fine goat herders. The translation doesn't miss a beat until I get to "sheep dog." The translator struggles. He knows what a sheep is and what a dog is, but not quite how these two come together. We finally break the impasse and move on.

Sammy wraps everything up and calls men to take a step of faith in Christ. Seven respond.

There is a man with a large and deep cancerous wound who has not been followed up properly by the medical clinic in town. The ministry arranges for him to go by ambulance to the specialists in Eldoret.

I love the holistic work this mission is doing to really change lives, both for eternity, and in the present.