After yesterday's post, Jeff and I were able to meet with Steve and Alene for an hour or so regarding the Correctional Ministry's needs and Grace Church's participation. We were both encouraged because we now understand more about the ministry and the environment and can hopefully relay that to the mission team.
It's been wonderful to get email from readers. I received a comment from Becky that this trip sounds both amazing and exhausting. It's funny, because yesterday and today, I've been coming to understand that myself.
AGC Compassion Widow's Ministry
Today we hit the road at 9, and got to a small church out in a village where we would participate in a widow's gathering. Leaders from six regions came. I think there were well over 60 widows, and they represented over 900 widows back home. The theme was encouragement to each other, sharing their stories, and discussion of microfinance for starting business. Hazel was able to share about how her program works in South Sudan, and Mike brought greetings.
This was a long service, by your standards. The neighboring Mosop (the area) school kids sang with motions and some in english. The widows came up and sang joyously for several numbers. Several thank yous, introductions, and long testimonies were given--all through translators. After over 3 hours, Sam, who had patiently sat in the front row on a hard wooden bench pew, asked to see my watch. I said, "Hang in there Sam". He said "Huh?" Smiling, I told him "This is what I've trained you for. This is the World Series of church services." Brooks it reminded me of that Lyle Lovett song. We lived it.
Then it was time to break for lunch. That took about 40 minutes, then singing started again, and I think it was about 4:45 when we left.
Many of the women, several with many children (6 or 7), had testimonies involving years or decades of living with rejection by their communities and by the church. Some had husbands who died early and some had husbands who left them. Many of the women's financial needs, beyond sustenance, were to pay for their kid's school. I'm not sure if I mentioned yesterday when I got the tour of the school, but secondary school (grades 7-12, I think) cost money, about $1200 per year. Through all of the stories was a common theme articulated by one of the leaders, of pain, bitterness, aloneness, having no one to love you, understand you, or ask "what can I do?". They are very thankful to God for his gifts to them, and to each other, and now, to this widow's ministry through AGC's Compassion branch. The widows were very very very thankful for our visit. Alene tonight explained that Kenyans are thankful to us because we came from so far away, and we care enough to be with them and listen to their stories.
I mentioned that they fed us. They fed us a very big lunch, of rice, chapate, a chicken-like bird, and local vegetables. We were stuffed. Just stuffed.
Flexibility, Humility, and Hospitality
As the days have turned into weeks, and the emotional strains have been felt, this team is starting to discuss and joke about it. One of the conversations has been about climbing Mt Kilomanjaro, and 19,000+ mountain here in Kenya. Comparing it to a Colorado 14'er, Jeff pointed out that the secret is: just put one foot in front of the other. We've related that to this trip as we grow weary. Just put one foot in front of the other. Just try to pay attention to where we need to go next and when we need to show up to get there. Don't look at your watch when you're there!
Arriving back at Tenwek boarding house about 5, we had about an hour to rest before a nice supper made by Livingston. As I was headed out to get some Kenya shillings from the ATM up by the hospital, Mike said "hold it!". We had been invited to dinner at the hospital CEO's house.
A phrase comes to mind that I learned from my friend, Guy, who learned it from his Marine Corp officer brother: "Semper Gumby". That translates to "Always Flexible" in Latin.
We had a lovely dinner at the CEO's house, served to us by his lovely wife and family. I'll give you one guess as to what we had. Bonus points to anyone who's counted how many times we've enjoyed that. It was very very tasty, but somehow I got the giggles when the mountain climbing analogy changed in my mind from "one step at a time" to "one bite at a time". We were stuffed. If I take one more bite, I'll explode. Stand back and pass the sukumowiki!
After tonight's session, we met briefly with Steve and Alene to get some photos of the prison day transferred (recall I couldn't bring my camera into the prison, so you'll see these later, perhaps), and to take a photo with them. This will be the only picture from today. I left my phone charging up by mistake, so Jeff took some photos to cover us for later.
Tonight we pack, and early tomorrow we'll head to Masi Mara for a game drive and overnight stay in the game park. I'm betting they won't have wifi there, but perhaps I'll be able to share some photos when we're back on the net.
That Lyle Lovett song is called "Church".
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