With Love from Kisumu

Hey Everybody!

This post has been long over due but it's finally here!!

This last week was spent in Kisumu, Kenya; the place were I came last year with the Post College mission team, the place where I first experienced the love that God has for this place and the people of Kenya and the place that I met the 2009 Mi2 team and felt the burning desire that God lit inside me to come back as an Mi2 the next summer. So needless to say I was really excited to come back here. This last week held so many fun and amazing experiences for our entire team. We worked with James Oke, Ephantis, Mary and Moses of the Kisumu LIA Team and the five churches that LIA partners with.

Our week started on Monday with the bus trip out to Kisumu but besides that not much really happened.

Tuesday we went to New Hope Evangelical Ministries to meet some of the pastors and their TOT’s (Trainer of Trainers) from the different churches. After the greet and overview session we had some lunch and then our team went into the village to do four home visits. The home visits that we did today as well as all the others from the week were to visit and encourage widows who through hard times or struggles were taking care of their children and sometime children that they had taken in. On the third home visit we talked with and lady named Margaret and through a series of questions found out that she wasn’t saved and after talking to her for a few more minutes she told us that she wanted to become born again! Robin was leading the conversation but turned it over to Ephantis for the prayer and helping her accept Chirst’s love. After the home visit we all felt that we needed a bit of a refresher on how to lead someone to Christ through evangelism, and scheduled a mock training session for the next morning with Oke and Ephantis.

Wednesday we woke up and had our breakfast and met Oke and Ephantis in the living room of the guesthouse for our evangelism session. Through this session we watched Oke get saved by Ephantis and then Oke turned around and save Ephantis. The ball then rolled to us to do some role play evangelizing, Jacob saved Oke, and Bailey save Robin…to think they had been waiting to be lead to the Lord all this time! We left the guest house with our new training and headed to meet the next church group at Revival Church. After a very short meet with the pastor, TOT’s and the bishop we left to go on our next set of four home visits. After the morning set we had our lunch and then headed back to the church to get back in our group and go out to do some door-to-door evangelism. During one of the visits Evie had the privilege to help lead a woman named Janet to Christ and join the family! The last part of the day was a bit of Boda-Boda evangelism, which involved getting on the boda-bodas (bicycle taxis) and riding down to one end of the street and talking to them about their lives and then telling them about Jesus Christ and the immense love that He has for them. This was a really fun experience and lead to three of the dozen or so drivers joining in to the family of Christ!

Thursday was the day that Robin was out sick and had to stay back at the guest house while the rest of us went out for the days adventure. We meet at New Wine Fellowship church and meet the Pastor and TOT’s of the church and then head out for four mor home visits. The houses we visited were out in the more rural, farmland parts of Kisumu. God allowed us to work up some conversations with two of the people we visited that lead to them wanting to be born again! The day was a half-day with the afternoon for rest. We went back to have lunch and pick up robin who as feeling a bit better now and went to Hippo point on Lake Victoria in the evening to watch the sun set and then when out to eat at a restaurant that we later found our also served as the areas local Karaoke bar when 30+ Europeans came in and took the stage to “I will survive.”

Friday was the day that Evie was out sick. We went to spend the morning with the Street Child which was one of the things I have been looking forward to the most about coming back. Last year when I came with the Post we took part in LIA’s launching of the street children program in Kisumu that helps 50 teen and young men get back on their feet and work them selves out of the streets and into a new life. The teens that we saw today were almost completely different then those that I saw last year. The morning was spent playing with a soccer ball, some cards and talking to the boys. The morning also held one other fun surprise… we found RoboChicken 2.0 (refer to "Gus time' does not equal 'Bus time” blog post) whose “robotic" update from the 1.0 version was an improvement to his legs which now work normally. We also found a large white fat Rooster that was immediately named Disco Chicken due to the white fethers that went down his legs forming “leg Chaps.” Jacob and I thought it would be fun to get pictures and with the help of the boys we cornered both chickens and caught them for some photo shoots…don’t tell the US embassy, they don’t like knowing that we touched live stoke haha. The afternoon was filled with four more home visits and the joining of a new member to our family! In the evening we were able to sit down and hear the amazing testimony of Ephantis and his life growing up in Nairobi and being selected to be a Compassion Child and being supported by a man from England when he was 11 years old and how the experience eventually changed his family.

Saturday Evie was unfortunately still feeling under the weather. We went to Pentecostal Deliverance Church to meet the pastors and help them with a Children program. We found out that the widow’s ministry was going to be there instead and that the children program would be pushed back to the afternoon. We had to split up to do the four home visits because of the limited time between the programs, so Bailey and Robin went with one group while Jacob and I went in the second group. We met a lady named Cypros who remembered me and the large camera that I was carrying last year when we came for a home visit, Jacob and I talked with her and to our amazement she wanted to become born again. This was amazing to me because she didn’t want to the last time that I came with the Post team came. God truly works in wondrous ways! The children program started in the mid afternoon after a quick lunch. I told the story of David and Goliath and we all taught the children the song “Father Abraham” and then played the most successful game of “duck duck goose” we have ever played here all summer! In the evening we got to hear Oke’s story of how he met, proposed and married his wife!

Sunday we split into two groups consisting of Jacob and Bailey going with Ephantis and Moses to Emmanuel Deliverance Church and Robin, Evie, Oke, Mary and I going to Pentecostal Deliverance Church. Robin and I spoke and Evie lead a song for the congregation. The afternoon held a “youth” rally I use quotation marks because the “youth” were in their 20s. We thought that the attendance was going to be children so Evie had prepared to tell the story of Jonah and the Whale and have the children act it out…so since we had prepared it that's exactly what happened! Evie told the story while Oke translated and then over half of the attendants were picked to be in the story. The whole group of pastors, TOTs and Youth really got into the story and laughed and had a lot of fun acting like children again. The evening was rather sad though because it hit us that this was the last place we would be going for the week in Kisumu but it was also the last night of the last place we would be going for the summer, say for going to Methare in Nairobi in the coming week. Lots of hugs and goodbyes were given to the pastors and the many friends that we had met over the week.

Monday morning was a bit slower paced compared to the rest of the week, Oke brought over his Motorcycle and we all got turns learning how to ride the bike up and down the road. We said our final goodbyes to Moses and Mary and then climbed into a tuk-tuk to go to the bus stop and head back. At the bus stop we were able to say bye to Ephantis and thank him for all the hard work, the fun and the amazing times that we had with him over the week and climbed on the bus with Oke back to Nairobi.

The week was an amazing end trip before our last few days in Kenya. We were able to see an awesome set of programs that came from both the Churches and LIA that have been and are continuing to be tremendously blessed by God. This week we will be working with Dr. Tom and his Medical team from Louisville, Kentucky in the Methare slum. We have a few more blogs to post before we head back to the states, along with some more amazing and great things to write about so keep an eye out for the next one in a few days!

We love you all and thank you so much for your continual prayers and support!

The Mi2’s

Zach