Jinga, Ndori, and Homa Bay!

Well, it has been a while since I’ve blogged, and that is
because we have been traveling for almost three weeks.  I just wanted to update you on the general
happenings in my life here in East Africa, and I will be writing more blogs
over the course of this coming week to give you details of more significant
events and people.  So, I have devoted a
paragraph to each of the places I have been and given you a short summary of
each:

Our first outing was to Jinga, Uganda for debrief.  We traveled together as a team to Jinga and
met three leaders from AIM there.  Once
we arrived, we stayed in dorms at this cool place called Adrift that is on a
cliff right alongside the Nile River, very close to its source.  Arriving in Jinga was quite the
culture-shock.  I had not seen so many
Mzungus (white people) in one place in a very long time, and even just the feel
of the place, being run by Kiwis (New Zelanders) and inhabited by so many
Americans and Europeans, was odd to step into. 
The first night, I found myself staring at the other white people,
curious to see how civilized people behave (OK, so maybe it wasn’t that
extreme, but I was staring…).  During the
debrief, we got to spend time in Jinga town and shop and hang out at the coffee
shops.  One of the places we found was an
art gallery of a man named Michael.  He
paints some of the most beautiful art, mostly African-inspired (since, after
all, Michael is an African).  We were
able to visit with him and watch him paint a few pictures.  He paints on canvas with paint and brushes
meant for interior decorating and turns out the most incredible works.  One painting takes him about five
minutes.  In addition, Michael is a
Christian and does art therapy ministry at several schools using the proceeds
he earns from selling his paintings!   He
was a really cool guy.  And of course, WE
WHITEWATER RAFTED THE NILE!!!  Needless
to say, rafting class 5 rapids on such a famous river was so much fun.  And though we do have pictures, it is an
experience that I will not need the pictures to remember, nor will I soon
forget it.  The whole time in Jinga was a
wonderful time to relax and just hang out- a break from the stresses of the
weeks before.

Immediately after we came back from Uganda, we went to Ndori
(it is in, as our African friends call it, “the bush bush”).  While we were there, we stayed with an
incredible woman named Mama Mary.  She is
approaching seventy years old, is a widow, a pastor of a church that she
started, teaches Sunday School on Saturdays to one hundred or more children,
and is on the board of all of the local schools.  And before all of this, she was a teacher for
many years and then served as the first female commissioner of the government
branch in Kenya that is in charge of all of the teachers in public schools in
Kenya.  During her time in the
government, she traveled all around Europe and North America, and she is very
culturally aware in a global context. 
Plus, she speaks the best English of anyone African that I have met to
date.  So, we pitched our tents in the
front lawn of her compound and settled down to live with her for the week (yes,
any time we go on outreach, we are living in tents)!  Most of our ministry for the week consisted
of visiting schools to meet, hang out, and talk to the students (the education
in Kenya is very impressive, especially when compared to what we saw in Uganda)
and visiting people in their homes.  My
group met several people but spend a vast majority of our time a Mama Mary’s
neighbor’s house.  Her name is Magdalena,
and I will be writing an entire blog about her and our time with her very soon.

After Ndori, we traveled to Homa Bay, a bigger city.  There, we pitched our tents in the yard of
one of the local pastors that we worked with for the week.  Most of our time in Homa Bay was spent going
door-to-door, and though I am usually wary of the quick-hit, numbers-focused
mentality that often accompanies such an approach to ministry, our time really
proved to be a blessing.  We were able to
spend as much time as we were led to spend with each house, and some people
were very honest with us.  We did see
several people accept Christ, which was wonderful, but we also got to encourage
many others.  One observation I have made
is that, at least in the bigger cities, most people  have heard of the gospel, which means that if
they have not accepted it, they have another reason than being uninformed.  These are the situations when relational
ministry is so effective.  When you get
to know people as individuals and as friends, when you know their struggles,
then you can share with them how the gospel applies to all of their lives and
struggles, and how Jesus loves them and cares about each of their
problems.  I think this is probably true
for much of Africa: the western focus on evangelizing Africa has been fairly
successful, but people now need to know that there is more to our Lord and
Savior than what the pictures on an Evangecube display.  In addition to the door-to-door, we also were
able to visit a school and children’s home. 
I was also able to preach (as I have done many, many times here in
Africa) on the Sunday morning at the Pastor’s church.  But this time, I realized something new, and
that is how much I truly enjoy teaching the Word of God.  But again, I think that will have to be another
blog!

So, that is what I have been doing for the past few
weeks.  I can’t wait to post blogs to
tell you more about Magdalena and preaching in Homa Bay!  Oh, and i had typhloid fever when I got home from Homa Bay.  Thankfully, there is an facility not far from the base with a good medical clinic, so I caught it early and recieved the antibiotics that I needed.  And now, I’m very healthy!