This is a story that happened quite some time ago, but God hadn’t released me to write it yet. I now know why after what was revealed to us in the Kimilili Women’s conference. This story is a little long, so bear with me as I tell it. I will be giving four examples of how a leader or pastor can destroy a church and potentially lead his sheep astray.
When I first arrived to Nakuru, I was asked to preach at a daughter church in a city called Salgaa. I was so excited about the flock I would be speaking to, but not so excited to give my first sermon. They told me of the reputation of Salgaa, it was a halfway point between Nairobi and Eldoret, the 5th largest town in Kenya. It is a town that people say with disgust, as it is a town where many prostitutes work. It is full of alcoholics and addicts. There are gangs of women that will attack men if they are walking alone, rape them, rob them and then proceed to kill them. There really isn’t much else to Salga except for a few restaurants, bars, and a flower farm (a big export commodity in Kenya is fresh flowers).
At the end of the service we had an alter call and asked if anyone needed prayer. The bishop told me to come up and pray for people. The anointing fell after Missionary Ann prayed for the church, which was after I spoke and she gave the alter call. As I was praying for one young teen, the spirit told me to pray for her mother to receive Christ to which she began sobbing and wailing. The next woman I went to pray for fell the moment my hand touched her head. God was in the house! Boy did HE showed up! GLORY Bwena Asifewe!
After the service, the girl that was wailing invited all the women in the ministry to come over to her house for something to drink. So quickly about six of us walked to this girl’s house, it was on a very large compound that used to be a travel resort or motel of sorts. The house we went to was the servant’s quarters, and were told it was her grandmother’s and she took care of the children. There were many other children around the compound taking baths or playing football. We had some orange drink that was a little watered down then we prayed blessings on the house. She proceeded to ask if we could go to another home and meet her mother as she lived on a different property. We walked into the home and I was amazed. The floors looked like they were marble and the furniture was very expensive and luxurious. Three of us discerned in the spirit right away that this home was a brothel and her mother was one of the prostitutes. We met her prayed and left. The girl was so grateful that we came to her home and was able to meet her mother.
After we returned to the church there was a meeting between the Bishop, his team, the Pastor at Salgaa, and the elders of the church. See there had been many problems at Salgaa. After a crusade there where one hundred souls came to know the Lord, the Pastor’s wife began to chase people away from the church by reminding them of their past. She would accuse people and bring up the former things of their past. If they were still walking without completely purity she would tell them how horrible they were. So the number of the church decreased by 75%. She did not LOVE the flock as we are called to do. Bishop was trying to train up the Pastor, so he was giving grace to that Pastor trying to help him to control his wife.
Bishop Madadi told the Pastor he would continue to bring in other people into the church to give the sermon until issues in the church were resolved. This had been going on for two months and the church continued to decrease in numbers. The church at Salgaa was also experiencing financial difficulties as they were behind in rent for at least eight months. The pastor there expected the main church to bail them out, versus try to raise their own money. An elder also left the church because the wife was aggressive and abusive to him and his family. So the meeting was interesting to say the least.
These same issues continued for a couple more months regardless the warnings of removal from the pulpit if another harsh report was shared about the pastor or his wife. Needless to say he and his wife chose to continue to walk in disobedience to the word of God and abuse the flock. Then Pastor Machio called the Pastor from Salgaa into the Nakuru office along with the elder from the church who was being attacked by the pastor and his wife. He explained how there must be forgiveness and reconciliation within the leadership of th church. The Pastor refused to forgive, which is forbidden in the bible.
If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” ~ John 20:23
Therefore they had to ask the Pastor to leave the church.
Another situation that destroys a church happened in Kimilili. God delivered a young woman after He revealed to His servants that she was suicidal. He also revealed to us that when she shared it with an elder counselor in the church, they told her that she may no longer serve by singing on the praise and worship team. She had only expressed that she had a “thought” of taking poison. I can see an elder telling a person who is actively sinning in a servant role to step down, but NOT for a thought.
It would have been a different scenario if a servant was walking in sin, for instance adultery. For instance I know if a deacon who was cheating on his wife. Many in the church knew, but the wife did not know anything. What the flock should have done in this situation is share with an elder, and that elder should have been wise enough to ask that deacon to immediately move from that position. Sadly this deacon was in charge of the marriage ministry in the church. But to tell a member of the flock they must step down for a “thought” is NOT biblical and it is a quick way to KILL a spirit. If that elder allowed that woman to continue to sing on the praise and worship team, it would play a huge part of her deliverance of that spirit. To praise our God would help break the bondage of that spirit of suicide. In addition for an elder to condemn a person for a thought, versus an action, when they trusted the church enough to come to it with counsel, is not the way to build up a church. Anyway she was healed, released and delivered. Bwena Asifewe!
A final and third situation involves a church where the Pastor and his wife continued to counsel a member that they believed the son of another member who committed suicide was in heaven. They knew that member seeking counsel was suicidal, but they continued to tell this member something that isn’t in the bible. That is why we as the flock are challenged to test the spirits.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.~1 John 4:1
You can’t ask God for forgiveness for a sin you haven’t sinned yet. God does NOT grant you pre-forgiveness! You can’t ask him for forgiveness as you are in the process of committing ANY SIN. The process is you fall, you feel bad about it, THEN you repent which means you never do it again. If you continue to struggle in that sin, you ask God to help you not to sin. This is done through prayer and the washing/cleansing by the water of the word. It is a process called the gift of sanctification.
The same thing goes for churches that do not preach the entire truth, or a watered down truth. They tell you that its ok to continue to walk in sin, God loves you anyway! NO we must teach people that they MUST always strive for righteousness everyday. Remember, JESUS IS COMING FOR A SPOTLESS BRIDE!!!
So many people love the verse:.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.~Romans 8:1-2
They seem to ignore the fact there a comma separates an action which is followed by a condition that must be fulfilled in order to receive that action. See in that verse the action there is no condemnation with the condition that you walking in the Spirit. When you are walking in the Spirit you put into the practice of sanctification with a contrite heart, and in that process God will deliver you! He will change you from glory to glory!
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. ~ 2 Cor 3:18
Church we must be careful how we are to walk in leadership or pastoral roles. Remember, THEIR blood is on YOUR hands if you are teaching doctrine that goes against the word of God.
For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things. ~Isaiah 59:3
Oh and let’s not get into how you are accountable, if you are a false teacher or preacher. See at times, those chapters scare me so deeply, that I don’t want anything to do with a leadership role. Please take the time to read Jer 23 and 2 Peter 2. If you are teaching a group or leading a church you better make sure that your doctrine, teachings, preachings, prophecy line up with the word of God because you are ACCOUNTABLE.
“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. ~ Jer 23:1
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them in chains of darkness 2 Pet 2:4
These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity~~2 Pet 2:17-19
They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them... Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.... In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. 2 Pet 2:1-3
CHURCH QUIT TICKLING THE EARS OF YOUR FLOCK AND PREACH TRUTH !!!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
You Will Raise Them From the Dead
I know that I had mentioned in a status that we had a “raising of the dead” on our missions trip in Kimilili, Kenya. What I witnessed was in the spiritual not in the natural. Many people were risen from the dead in their spiritual man, and it was an awesome thing to see. There were many people deliverance from very evil spirits of witchcraft, and so much more happened at that women’s conference. But we had a situation in my previous note, “A picture is worth a 1000 words” where I had asked the pastors, “Why don’t we go over there and raise that baby from the dead?”
They told me, “WeWe (pronounced way way, meaning you you), Becky are you trying to test OUR faith?” I said, “No I just know that God CAN and WOULD do it IF it was in His will. I am so heartbroken over your sister in law and I don’t want the story to end here.” I proceeded to tell them about the famous raising of the dead where a wife brought her dead husband of three days to a Richard Boenke revival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SroD02bP120 She had the faith that God would bring her husband back and she was going to hold God accountable to His word.
They told me they would pray about overnight, and if God said yes they would obey. But they must have heard not to pursue my request anymore, because the next morning we did not go over there. Then they began to tell me their own experiences of people being literally raised from the dead. I was amazed as these stories aren’t being told. This is because of many reasons; they happen in remote areas where there are few people, TIA (This Is Africa) and many just don’t have access to the means of broadcasting to the world, three true servants of God don’t brag about the things that happen to be uplifted by man. They only tell the stories to uplift God and tell of HIS Glory. They KNOW God will uplift them when the time is right.
Pastor Fridah, My Bishop’s wife began to tell a story of when she was first in the ministry. She was a hair dresser by profession, and she was working on a woman’s hair in the salon by herself. She began to poor cool water on her hair, and unknown to her the woman was epileptic and she went into a seizure and died right there in her chair. She was kind of freaked out, and she really didn’t know what to do because she was all alone in the salon. So Fridah just looked up and told God, “NOW would be a really GOOD time for YOU to show up, GOD”. The woman came back to life. Bwena Asifewe (Praise the Lord)!
Missionary Ann spoke of a story where she was in a crusade speaking. A woman came running into the church running up the aisle with her four old boy in her arms. She told her, “My son is dead, will God bring him back to life?” So Ann began to pray, and God told her to pray for his legs. Confused but obedient Ann did just that she prayed for his legs which confused the people at the crusade. The boy came to life and stood up. She then got a word from God that the woman was a devil worshipper, and asked the woman if she wanted to accept Jesus. She did exactly that, so God chose an unusual way to bring this woman into the kingdom. Bwena Asifewe!
So the two women of God and the Bishop of the church in Kimilili began to tell me other stories of people being raised from the dead that they had witnessed. One was at a funeral and the Pastor asked to open the casket at the burial site. They prayed and the man sat up right in his own coffin. Many came to the Lord at that funeral. Bwene Asifewe!
One Evangelist was in a meeting in a stadium and he was preaching the word of God when some people brought in another man limp and lifeless up to the pulpit. He was asked to pray to God to bring the man back to life. So the preacher began to pray. He prayed many prayers and asked the people to continue to pray. He then asked all the people to continue to pray and asked them to keep their eyes closed. He continued praying and would open one eye only see the man was still dead. Then the preacher handed the microphone to another pastor. He told the people they must really pray hard and keep their eyes closed. The preacher began to walk away from the meeting, running down the aisle away from the stage as if he was running away. Then people began to clap and shout, the dead man was raised from the dead. God chose that moment even when the servant doubted God’s power to show His glory. Bwena Asifewe!
Missionary Ann began to tell me another story. Her family was in the hospital and they were praying over her father as he was in his last days and hours. They prayed for him to live, then God revealed that they must start praying for him to live spiritually. She prayed that he may repent, accept the Lord and live in eternity. Her father could not speak or open his eyes. She then was told that the family must release her father as he was NOW going to have everlasting life. So they did pray to release him, and her father died. So that was a situation that God said no, but He still wanted to bring a man back to life in the spiritual.
We all know of people that are spiritually dead. They walk around in a spiritual high for a while then it seems to get quenched by the struggles of life or even worse they walk away from the faith completely. We as the flock MUST breathe life back into the dead bones of these people as what happened in Ezekiel 37. We must bring those who have strayed back into the kingdom, we are held accountable to them as friends and family members. Their blood will be on our hands if we choose to ignore what the words says, as we are all called to be ministers of the word of God. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God~ Isaiah 61:6 . I hope you were blessed by some of these stories, and I know by the time I leave here or wherever is next I will actually see someone physically being raised from the dead by the Glory of GOD! Bwena Asifewe!
They told me, “WeWe (pronounced way way, meaning you you), Becky are you trying to test OUR faith?” I said, “No I just know that God CAN and WOULD do it IF it was in His will. I am so heartbroken over your sister in law and I don’t want the story to end here.” I proceeded to tell them about the famous raising of the dead where a wife brought her dead husband of three days to a Richard Boenke revival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SroD02bP120 She had the faith that God would bring her husband back and she was going to hold God accountable to His word.
They told me they would pray about overnight, and if God said yes they would obey. But they must have heard not to pursue my request anymore, because the next morning we did not go over there. Then they began to tell me their own experiences of people being literally raised from the dead. I was amazed as these stories aren’t being told. This is because of many reasons; they happen in remote areas where there are few people, TIA (This Is Africa) and many just don’t have access to the means of broadcasting to the world, three true servants of God don’t brag about the things that happen to be uplifted by man. They only tell the stories to uplift God and tell of HIS Glory. They KNOW God will uplift them when the time is right.
Pastor Fridah, My Bishop’s wife began to tell a story of when she was first in the ministry. She was a hair dresser by profession, and she was working on a woman’s hair in the salon by herself. She began to poor cool water on her hair, and unknown to her the woman was epileptic and she went into a seizure and died right there in her chair. She was kind of freaked out, and she really didn’t know what to do because she was all alone in the salon. So Fridah just looked up and told God, “NOW would be a really GOOD time for YOU to show up, GOD”. The woman came back to life. Bwena Asifewe (Praise the Lord)!
Missionary Ann spoke of a story where she was in a crusade speaking. A woman came running into the church running up the aisle with her four old boy in her arms. She told her, “My son is dead, will God bring him back to life?” So Ann began to pray, and God told her to pray for his legs. Confused but obedient Ann did just that she prayed for his legs which confused the people at the crusade. The boy came to life and stood up. She then got a word from God that the woman was a devil worshipper, and asked the woman if she wanted to accept Jesus. She did exactly that, so God chose an unusual way to bring this woman into the kingdom. Bwena Asifewe!
So the two women of God and the Bishop of the church in Kimilili began to tell me other stories of people being raised from the dead that they had witnessed. One was at a funeral and the Pastor asked to open the casket at the burial site. They prayed and the man sat up right in his own coffin. Many came to the Lord at that funeral. Bwene Asifewe!
One Evangelist was in a meeting in a stadium and he was preaching the word of God when some people brought in another man limp and lifeless up to the pulpit. He was asked to pray to God to bring the man back to life. So the preacher began to pray. He prayed many prayers and asked the people to continue to pray. He then asked all the people to continue to pray and asked them to keep their eyes closed. He continued praying and would open one eye only see the man was still dead. Then the preacher handed the microphone to another pastor. He told the people they must really pray hard and keep their eyes closed. The preacher began to walk away from the meeting, running down the aisle away from the stage as if he was running away. Then people began to clap and shout, the dead man was raised from the dead. God chose that moment even when the servant doubted God’s power to show His glory. Bwena Asifewe!
Missionary Ann began to tell me another story. Her family was in the hospital and they were praying over her father as he was in his last days and hours. They prayed for him to live, then God revealed that they must start praying for him to live spiritually. She prayed that he may repent, accept the Lord and live in eternity. Her father could not speak or open his eyes. She then was told that the family must release her father as he was NOW going to have everlasting life. So they did pray to release him, and her father died. So that was a situation that God said no, but He still wanted to bring a man back to life in the spiritual.
We all know of people that are spiritually dead. They walk around in a spiritual high for a while then it seems to get quenched by the struggles of life or even worse they walk away from the faith completely. We as the flock MUST breathe life back into the dead bones of these people as what happened in Ezekiel 37. We must bring those who have strayed back into the kingdom, we are held accountable to them as friends and family members. Their blood will be on our hands if we choose to ignore what the words says, as we are all called to be ministers of the word of God. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God~ Isaiah 61:6 . I hope you were blessed by some of these stories, and I know by the time I leave here or wherever is next I will actually see someone physically being raised from the dead by the Glory of GOD! Bwena Asifewe!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
A Picture is worth 1,000 Words –Women’s Conference Easter Weekend
You know they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well here are a couple of pictures that have a heartbreaking story behind them.
So the first day of the conference many women spoke and there were quite a few deliverances. It always amazes me when God shows up to give divine revelation then the anointed know how to pray and lay hands upon the sick or afflicted. There were many deliverances, miracles, signs, and wonders; God showed up in a mighty way, I will try to write about all of them.
We took a break in the evening session before the day’s final evangelist was to speak in a night time revival. We were invited to walk over to the Bishop’s mother’s house which was next to the church. I went back to the church to use the latrine then the entire group was walking back my way. There was a woman with them and a man with a helmet, I didn’t think anything about it.
The group walked back to the piki piki (motorcycle). They told me that the woman, which was Bishop’s sister in law, had just given birth and the man with the helmet was her husband. I was so amazed and asked if I could take her picture. It totally amazed me that a woman would give birth and in the same day come to the woman’s conference to get the word of God. Then the fact that she came to the conference on a piki piki really shocked me. See it is about an hour from the hospital then the roads are horrible and there are many bumps and crevices. Then I was amazed thinking about what if she had been cut, no wonder she was wiping some tears it must have hurt.
My elders corrected me and told me that she didn’t come to get the word of God but to get the Grandmother so she could help her hold the baby on the piki piki on the way home cause they had a long journey. The strength of an African woman just absolutely amazes me daily. Where I live, I will see a pregnant woman with a 5 gallon jug of water on her head and a baby strapped to her back walking uphill. I thank God I was blessed to have lived the life I had lived in the USA, and then I realize that these women do not know any different.
So I continued taking a few pictures and as you can see, after picture number six, I had kind of received a look like I had taken enough pictures.
They know that many mzungu (white people) don’t see many things as normal that are normal in Africa and we make a fool out of ourselves all the time. About fifteen minutes later we are informed that the conference is canceled and we must load up in the car and go to the house where we are staying.
Later that evening Bishop informed us of the truth about what had happened. His sister in law went into early labor at 8 months into her pregnancy. The baby lived for one hour and died. Remember TIA (This Is Africa), and in America this never would have happened as we have the most advanced in medical care. Oh how embarrassed I was that I had taken pictures at such a horrible time. I asked the Bishop, “Hey why didn’t we pray to God and ask Him to raise the baby from the dead”. He said that he wasn’t sure how his very young flock would handle the news about the baby and knew they would be heartbroken. He wasn’t sure if that was in God’s will to raise the baby from the dead and if God said no to the prayer it might hinder his flock’s faith in God. So he let them continue home with their dead baby, as they needed to bury it the next day. They canceled the revival so that the Bishop could drive to pick them up because the motorcycle ran out of gas along the way.
Oh how sick I was over this situation. I begged Bishop to explain and apologize to this family about my stupidity. I asked my mentor women, “Why did we NOT discern this situation, as we were so into the spirit fifteen minutes prior to that moment. God had shown up and many were delivered from evil spirits.” They told me because we were no longer in the upper room as spoke about in the days of the early church. When those things happened and the heavens opened up we were under a spiritual covering. When we walked outside we were no longer under the covering of the heavens.
Anyway, God has His reasons, and who am I to question HIM?!?!
Well I am up to about 823 words, and I am sure I could make it to 1,000 if I really wanted to but I chose not to this time. Just remember when I post pictures of the people or the scenery, there is always a story behind it that is way different than what we would see in America. May Mungu Akupariki (God Bless You)
So the first day of the conference many women spoke and there were quite a few deliverances. It always amazes me when God shows up to give divine revelation then the anointed know how to pray and lay hands upon the sick or afflicted. There were many deliverances, miracles, signs, and wonders; God showed up in a mighty way, I will try to write about all of them.
We took a break in the evening session before the day’s final evangelist was to speak in a night time revival. We were invited to walk over to the Bishop’s mother’s house which was next to the church. I went back to the church to use the latrine then the entire group was walking back my way. There was a woman with them and a man with a helmet, I didn’t think anything about it.
The group walked back to the piki piki (motorcycle). They told me that the woman, which was Bishop’s sister in law, had just given birth and the man with the helmet was her husband. I was so amazed and asked if I could take her picture. It totally amazed me that a woman would give birth and in the same day come to the woman’s conference to get the word of God. Then the fact that she came to the conference on a piki piki really shocked me. See it is about an hour from the hospital then the roads are horrible and there are many bumps and crevices. Then I was amazed thinking about what if she had been cut, no wonder she was wiping some tears it must have hurt.
My elders corrected me and told me that she didn’t come to get the word of God but to get the Grandmother so she could help her hold the baby on the piki piki on the way home cause they had a long journey. The strength of an African woman just absolutely amazes me daily. Where I live, I will see a pregnant woman with a 5 gallon jug of water on her head and a baby strapped to her back walking uphill. I thank God I was blessed to have lived the life I had lived in the USA, and then I realize that these women do not know any different.
So I continued taking a few pictures and as you can see, after picture number six, I had kind of received a look like I had taken enough pictures.
They know that many mzungu (white people) don’t see many things as normal that are normal in Africa and we make a fool out of ourselves all the time. About fifteen minutes later we are informed that the conference is canceled and we must load up in the car and go to the house where we are staying.
Later that evening Bishop informed us of the truth about what had happened. His sister in law went into early labor at 8 months into her pregnancy. The baby lived for one hour and died. Remember TIA (This Is Africa), and in America this never would have happened as we have the most advanced in medical care. Oh how embarrassed I was that I had taken pictures at such a horrible time. I asked the Bishop, “Hey why didn’t we pray to God and ask Him to raise the baby from the dead”. He said that he wasn’t sure how his very young flock would handle the news about the baby and knew they would be heartbroken. He wasn’t sure if that was in God’s will to raise the baby from the dead and if God said no to the prayer it might hinder his flock’s faith in God. So he let them continue home with their dead baby, as they needed to bury it the next day. They canceled the revival so that the Bishop could drive to pick them up because the motorcycle ran out of gas along the way.
Oh how sick I was over this situation. I begged Bishop to explain and apologize to this family about my stupidity. I asked my mentor women, “Why did we NOT discern this situation, as we were so into the spirit fifteen minutes prior to that moment. God had shown up and many were delivered from evil spirits.” They told me because we were no longer in the upper room as spoke about in the days of the early church. When those things happened and the heavens opened up we were under a spiritual covering. When we walked outside we were no longer under the covering of the heavens.
Anyway, God has His reasons, and who am I to question HIM?!?!
Well I am up to about 823 words, and I am sure I could make it to 1,000 if I really wanted to but I chose not to this time. Just remember when I post pictures of the people or the scenery, there is always a story behind it that is way different than what we would see in America. May Mungu Akupariki (God Bless You)
Friday, January 21, 2011
ROGER DIED…. YAY! I killed him, and I have NO guilt about it!
Roger the RAT that is. He died, and I couldn’t be happier. Bwana Asifiwe, SANA!!!
Many of you know me very well and how I name just about everything. The ducks at the pond, my GPS, the Ape hanging from my rear view mirror, even Joe the over-achieving rooster when I first arrived in Nakuru, Kenya. Well since Roger began with an “R” it was only appropriate to name my annoying Rat roommate that name.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THOUGHT HIM, JESUS CHRIST, WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH.~ Phillipians 4:12-13
I know I haven’t shared a lot about my living arrangements here in Kenya. I am not much of a complainer anymore these days in my seasoned years. I have learned, as Paul did the secret to life is being happy in all circumstances. I have been homeless before, lived in a commune, a dorm, with 40 women in one room, many apartments, had a perfect little house in Prairie Village (aka by KC people as “Perfect Village”), then lived in a half million dollar home with a pool, a double wide in the backwoods country of NC, a tent by lakes and rivers, and then countless other living arrangements and now well… it really isn’t all that bad. To be honest with you though, I am very grateful that it is not a grass or mud hut. Trust me I have visited them to pray/counsel with some of the rural tribal people and I am not sure I would be too excited to live 24/7 in one of those. Not that I couldn’t learn to find contentment there. It’s just the whole culture shock thing would have been a little in over the top if that was where I was going to stay at the beginning of this mission trip, especially moving from Beigeville, Johnson County, KS USA.
The house has a cement floor, and cement walls. It has a tin roof, and some type of particle board ceiling. It has two bedrooms, a cooking room, a living/dining area, one inside bath to be used by the family and an outside latrine and bath stall to be used by the slave quarters and guests like me. I am NOT very good at estimating square footage but if I had to guess I would say it is about 600-800 square ft. and that is very generous. Mind you I have had closets bigger than the kitchen which only consists of a sink with no water, but a line that could run from the rain tank, and an area where a charcoal stove is put for cooking. There is also a coffee table for chopping and a tree stump for the women to sit on while they stir each course over a charcoal cooking stove.
The house is on maybe two acres of land, that has a chicken coop, a 5x5 outside cooking area, an underground tank for water harvesting (rain), a 10 x10 “servants quarters” where 3 other pastors live and the rest is all garden area. The current issue of drought has killed all the cowpeas we had planted so no green crops on the east side, but we still have the kale on the west side. One side of the plot has a 10 to 12 foot cinder block fence. Some of the cement block fences plots in this area and the school have extra protection with broken glass at the top of the fence to prevent thugs from trespassing. The fence between our one neighbor is wooden about to fall apart and made out of branches broken off trees. We have bars on the inside and the outside of the windows and the doors, which made me wonder, is this what it feels like to live in KCK? Or parts of Durham, NC.. hmmmm things that make you go hmmmmm LOL
Anyhow, back to Roger. Well after the first week of sleeping here or not sleeping because my time clock was messed up I could hear something upstairs running around. It took me at least two weeks to get up the guts to ask the family what in the world is that running up in the attic, which by the way the crawlspace is completely open and in my room, which I share with Assistant Pastor Jotham’s sister, Millie and the baby, Isabell. She left her family, a husband and 2 other children, in the village up near Sudan and Uganda to come live with Pastor Jotham and Jael to try and get some medical treatment in the city of Nakuru. Three of us sleep in the same room. I asked the Pastor about the visitor above us, he said “um no maybe it is a mouse”. Maybe he was afraid of my reaction, so he said it was a mouse. Sometimes the vocabulary is so different here I have a hard time understanding what they mean. So anyway when Millie told me it was a rat I thought no it has to be a squirrel. Or maybe I was just trying to convince myself it was something other than a RAT.
See Roger was starting to wake me up. Every morning around 3 or 4am it would make a bunch of noise crawl down the closet which is not built in but stationary, and try to get under the door to scavenge for food. Millie was so sweet, as is the entire church and she gave up her bed for me to sleep on when I arrived. So she and the baby slept on a foam mattress on the floor. Eventually, thanks be to the grace of God, I was able to buy another bed for her and the baby to get off the floor. Millie told me and Pastor Jotham that the previous night Roger tried to nibble on her toes. Oh my goodness. Carpenters build hand made NICE bed frames for about $45.
See you don’t want to offend Kenyans by rejecting their generosity, for instance Millie (short for Milka) always insists on washing my clothes and sheets. They get very hurt and frustrated and a little angry if you don’t eat all the food or let them serve you somehow or whatever, so I let her wash my clothes by hand. Every week she hand washes them and hangs them to dry. She wanted to iron them to but I insisted, t-shirts and broom (supposed to be wrinkled) skirts do not need ironing. The only thing I have to wash is my underwear, and it is kind of a taboo secret thing too. You must wash those inside, and then when you hang them you MUST cover them properly with a shawl. Otherwise if I don’t have my underwear, not my bras, properly covered, I have shown the neighbors and the men staying in the slave quarters that they, the women, didn’t show me how to properly wash my most private clothes. Yep, culture shocks all the way around, and sometimes daily.
Back to Roger, well three weeks was about all I could take. Then I started to pray really hard. Lord, I am not complaining, really. You have provided a very nice place for me to stay, and food, internet, television, electicity, and to think about it Lord embarassingly I am quite spoiled. But Lord, you know how important sleep is for me. If it be in your will can you please have Roger find a new home very soon before I KILL one of your creatures. Perhaps the neighbor’s house would be a better home for him. After a week of waiting for my prayers to be answered, I took things into my own hands. I know we are supposed to wait upon the Lord, well I am a human and I will make mistakes and I really just didn’t care if that prayer was answered anymore or not. I was tired of Roger waking me at 3am! When we walked to town yesterday, I was determined we are getting rat poisoning, and I WILL KILL ROGER. Patience is not a fruit of the spirit I have been blessed with, yet, but y’all must be patient with me ‘cause GOD IS STILL working on me.
Anyway I believe Roger must have went to rat heaven last night, as what I heard of him last night was just a lot of radical squirming, flopping and very strange not normal noises. I thought I heard some squeaks, but that could have been the baby Isabella’s breathing. But as for ROGER, he never made it down the closet. Bwana Asifiwe!
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.~. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
May you RIP Roger…….
I will NOT miss you, nor will I have to repent for killing you. Now I can have full 8 hours sleep, and I am a very happy American Kenyan Mzungu (white person).
Many of you know me very well and how I name just about everything. The ducks at the pond, my GPS, the Ape hanging from my rear view mirror, even Joe the over-achieving rooster when I first arrived in Nakuru, Kenya. Well since Roger began with an “R” it was only appropriate to name my annoying Rat roommate that name.
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THOUGHT HIM, JESUS CHRIST, WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH.~ Phillipians 4:12-13
I know I haven’t shared a lot about my living arrangements here in Kenya. I am not much of a complainer anymore these days in my seasoned years. I have learned, as Paul did the secret to life is being happy in all circumstances. I have been homeless before, lived in a commune, a dorm, with 40 women in one room, many apartments, had a perfect little house in Prairie Village (aka by KC people as “Perfect Village”), then lived in a half million dollar home with a pool, a double wide in the backwoods country of NC, a tent by lakes and rivers, and then countless other living arrangements and now well… it really isn’t all that bad. To be honest with you though, I am very grateful that it is not a grass or mud hut. Trust me I have visited them to pray/counsel with some of the rural tribal people and I am not sure I would be too excited to live 24/7 in one of those. Not that I couldn’t learn to find contentment there. It’s just the whole culture shock thing would have been a little in over the top if that was where I was going to stay at the beginning of this mission trip, especially moving from Beigeville, Johnson County, KS USA.
The house has a cement floor, and cement walls. It has a tin roof, and some type of particle board ceiling. It has two bedrooms, a cooking room, a living/dining area, one inside bath to be used by the family and an outside latrine and bath stall to be used by the slave quarters and guests like me. I am NOT very good at estimating square footage but if I had to guess I would say it is about 600-800 square ft. and that is very generous. Mind you I have had closets bigger than the kitchen which only consists of a sink with no water, but a line that could run from the rain tank, and an area where a charcoal stove is put for cooking. There is also a coffee table for chopping and a tree stump for the women to sit on while they stir each course over a charcoal cooking stove.
The house is on maybe two acres of land, that has a chicken coop, a 5x5 outside cooking area, an underground tank for water harvesting (rain), a 10 x10 “servants quarters” where 3 other pastors live and the rest is all garden area. The current issue of drought has killed all the cowpeas we had planted so no green crops on the east side, but we still have the kale on the west side. One side of the plot has a 10 to 12 foot cinder block fence. Some of the cement block fences plots in this area and the school have extra protection with broken glass at the top of the fence to prevent thugs from trespassing. The fence between our one neighbor is wooden about to fall apart and made out of branches broken off trees. We have bars on the inside and the outside of the windows and the doors, which made me wonder, is this what it feels like to live in KCK? Or parts of Durham, NC.. hmmmm things that make you go hmmmmm LOL
Anyhow, back to Roger. Well after the first week of sleeping here or not sleeping because my time clock was messed up I could hear something upstairs running around. It took me at least two weeks to get up the guts to ask the family what in the world is that running up in the attic, which by the way the crawlspace is completely open and in my room, which I share with Assistant Pastor Jotham’s sister, Millie and the baby, Isabell. She left her family, a husband and 2 other children, in the village up near Sudan and Uganda to come live with Pastor Jotham and Jael to try and get some medical treatment in the city of Nakuru. Three of us sleep in the same room. I asked the Pastor about the visitor above us, he said “um no maybe it is a mouse”. Maybe he was afraid of my reaction, so he said it was a mouse. Sometimes the vocabulary is so different here I have a hard time understanding what they mean. So anyway when Millie told me it was a rat I thought no it has to be a squirrel. Or maybe I was just trying to convince myself it was something other than a RAT.
See Roger was starting to wake me up. Every morning around 3 or 4am it would make a bunch of noise crawl down the closet which is not built in but stationary, and try to get under the door to scavenge for food. Millie was so sweet, as is the entire church and she gave up her bed for me to sleep on when I arrived. So she and the baby slept on a foam mattress on the floor. Eventually, thanks be to the grace of God, I was able to buy another bed for her and the baby to get off the floor. Millie told me and Pastor Jotham that the previous night Roger tried to nibble on her toes. Oh my goodness. Carpenters build hand made NICE bed frames for about $45.
See you don’t want to offend Kenyans by rejecting their generosity, for instance Millie (short for Milka) always insists on washing my clothes and sheets. They get very hurt and frustrated and a little angry if you don’t eat all the food or let them serve you somehow or whatever, so I let her wash my clothes by hand. Every week she hand washes them and hangs them to dry. She wanted to iron them to but I insisted, t-shirts and broom (supposed to be wrinkled) skirts do not need ironing. The only thing I have to wash is my underwear, and it is kind of a taboo secret thing too. You must wash those inside, and then when you hang them you MUST cover them properly with a shawl. Otherwise if I don’t have my underwear, not my bras, properly covered, I have shown the neighbors and the men staying in the slave quarters that they, the women, didn’t show me how to properly wash my most private clothes. Yep, culture shocks all the way around, and sometimes daily.
Back to Roger, well three weeks was about all I could take. Then I started to pray really hard. Lord, I am not complaining, really. You have provided a very nice place for me to stay, and food, internet, television, electicity, and to think about it Lord embarassingly I am quite spoiled. But Lord, you know how important sleep is for me. If it be in your will can you please have Roger find a new home very soon before I KILL one of your creatures. Perhaps the neighbor’s house would be a better home for him. After a week of waiting for my prayers to be answered, I took things into my own hands. I know we are supposed to wait upon the Lord, well I am a human and I will make mistakes and I really just didn’t care if that prayer was answered anymore or not. I was tired of Roger waking me at 3am! When we walked to town yesterday, I was determined we are getting rat poisoning, and I WILL KILL ROGER. Patience is not a fruit of the spirit I have been blessed with, yet, but y’all must be patient with me ‘cause GOD IS STILL working on me.
Anyway I believe Roger must have went to rat heaven last night, as what I heard of him last night was just a lot of radical squirming, flopping and very strange not normal noises. I thought I heard some squeaks, but that could have been the baby Isabella’s breathing. But as for ROGER, he never made it down the closet. Bwana Asifiwe!
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.~. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
May you RIP Roger…….
I will NOT miss you, nor will I have to repent for killing you. Now I can have full 8 hours sleep, and I am a very happy American Kenyan Mzungu (white person).
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
BOYZ 2 MEN: The Kalenjin Tribe Initiation into Manhood Tradition
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a MAN, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
I remember in High School the men’s sports clubs, particularly basketball or CHS letter club would have an initiation “session” with the elder classman. Usually this initiation involved drinking a weird mixture of eggs and other junk, maybe jumping into a whirlpool full of icecubes with just their underclothes on and being forced to stay in there for 30 minutes or more. Maybe one of my old classmates can help me remember what they had to do in good ole Cimarron High, but being a girl, we didn’t have to experience initiation. I seem to have gotten old and cannot remember all the memories of my youth. Man it stinks getting old.
I also remember a particular initiation ceremony I partook of which was held at the TKE fraternity very close the women’s dorm called Ford Hall. I remember at that initiation the goal was to get the little sisters of the fraternity um lets just say very happy in the alcohol spirit sense. I remember eating a tequila worm that night and it just about “to killed me” with too much tequila. Oh my, those are NOT the days I want to remember so well. Yikes.
My memory also recalls that now in America almost ALL initiation ceremonies of any kind in the High School and/or College levels are strictly against the law and punishable by the court system, even up to imprisonment. If those responsible for initiation parties and or practices are found that they are putting others at risk by making them do things that are considered dangerous to their health by consuming intoxicating substances and or ritualistic practices, those parties can spend time in jail. This would ruin their potential career while still in college, if over the age of 18 years old.
During my stay in Nakuru, I have learned that certain tribes also have initiation ceremonies where young boys gain their right of passage into manhood by completing a certain initiation process. This tribe called the Kalenjin tribe initiates their young men by circumcising their young men at age 12 years old. Then during the healing process there are certain things they are taught by men leaders and teachers of the tribe.
Mind you there are 42 tribes in Kenya. Talk about having racial issues. I am not sure how many classes of people there are in the Indian culture, but can you imagine 42 tribes in a state the size of Texas all fighting, judging each other, and having their own mother tongue language….YIKES…Then the racism due facts they cannot do business with certain tribes and they can’t sell to certain tribes. Then they are expected to NEVER intermarry and if they do they are considered outcasts among their own tribal people. If the husband of a mixed tribal marriage dies, which is the case of my house mom and the Pastor I am living with at this time, the wife must go live with the husband’s tribe and not even her own mother if she cannot provide for herself. You know I think there was a great woman in the bible named Ruth who chose to do the same thing. But these women do not get to choose, they must go live with the husbands tribe.
One thing I MUST tell you about this Kalenjin tribe, which is really sickening and sad is that they are one of the tribes in Northeastern Africa that still practice the FGM/FGC of little girls ages ranging from 8 to 10yrs old. This is a practice where they circumcise little girls and then sew them back up to prevent them from losing their virginity before marriage. They only leave a small hole for urine to escape, and during the process of “sewing” there private part back up they sometimes use thorns to hold it together till it forms a massive scar. Many girls die from the process, or they have life long infections, or they cannot conceive. It is a horrible practice straight from the pit of hell. Then when the parents present the girl in marriage there is proof she has never been with another man, she has the scar. Also in this mutilation of the female private parts all pieces that give the female pleasure in relations with her husband are removed, because that tribe does not want the wife to enjoy her husband. In this manner he has the right to have many wives and the men practice polygamy and have many children.
Two weeks after I arrived, the local news announced that there had been a rescue of 100 girls from this AWEFUL tribal tradition. GO GOD!!!!!!
Pastor Jotham is of Loyha tribe. Many of the Pastors and church members I work with have chosen to intermarry with tribes they went evangelizing with over a 3 year period to find their wives. My house mom was of the Kalenjin tribe. I hated the Kanenjins until I found out this fact, and I was confused because she is so quite and reserved and oh the love of JESUS just resonates off every fiber of her being. How God, HOW can SHE be a Kalenjin, and oh Lord PLEASE tell me she isn’t cut. Lord I just don’t know how I could handle it if she shares her memories with me. Well when I finally asked her about it. I was informed that her mother was a Christian and she was saved from this horrible “tradition” of keeping their child pure before marriage only by the fact that her father died when she was 3 yrs old. Her half sisters are all cut. PRAISE GOD! Her father had many wives, and she has many siblings whom she isn’t all that close to or talks about. When I first arrived, Jael my house mom took me for a walk out by the cliff, my special spot. Then she took me through the bush, out to the area where maybe some of you remember I posted a couple of pastors almost got cut by a couple of tribal men with machetes before the baptism at the river. Anyway she told me that I could sit at the top of the cliff alone, but never go down through the cliffs and NEVER to the bush. She said it was “OK” with her with me but NEVER alone.
Oh how I love to go out by the cliff where I spend many of my mornings in quite time with the Lord as I watch the African rhythm begin its day. See there is this strange musical like rhythm about everything in Africa, from the crazy way people walk, ride their bikes, the picky pickies (aka motorcycle taxi’s), or the public transport buses (14 passengers), to the cattle, sheep drives in traffic as they move from water to grazing pasture land, or even the sounds of the animals. At all hours of the day and night there is a specific sound and rhythm that seems to beautifully flow and just gives you this amazing drive to carry on. You can actually feel it in your chest. I don’t know if true African’s or Kenyans can feel the rhythm of Africa, but I see it, feel it, and sense it in EVERYTHING, everywhere. In all the major cities I have been in all over America, London, and Paris, I have never experienced anything like this perfectly timed movement of people, mechanical objects and animals.
Oops Rabbit, lol if any of you have seen that movie “UP” you know what I mean. Sorry I got sidetracked I hope you can follow my writings as they hopefully are written exactly how I talk. Lol….
Anyway as my house mom and I were out on our walk, she pointed to the bush. Then it was explained to me that area is where her tribe has a ceremony for young boys to become men. Then she explained the process to me. At first I shared with someone on Skype how I thought that was kind of cool as they had to go through something really painful and then they were taught the traditions of their tribe.
Later the Bishop’s sister in law, Mwatime (I call her Muah for short), explained the truth to me as we were sitting in the grass waiting for pastors to find the perfect spot for 6 souls to become baptized. Those boys are put in animal skin from head to toe, the only opening they have on the animal hide is for their eyes. If they get an infection from the circumcision they are taught which weeds will take it away, and if it is painful, tough you must learn to fight in pain. You are not fed any food or drink, you must hunt or eat wild greens, bushes or berries to survive. You drink out of the river that all the animals drink out of and if you get sick, tough it out.
They do many dances at night and the parents/family members can go watch them dance. You cannot tell which son is your son, because the mother puts one small mark the size of the circumference of your small finger somewhere on the skin to identify her child after 30 days. That is if the young man chooses to allow his mother to see him after the final dance. Many of the young men never return to the parent’s home. The men of the tribe train the 12 year old boys how to steal, lie, fight, use weapons and basically become thugs. They are taught to beat women, cheat on their wives, and have many wives. They are told to from now on you treat your own mother and grandmother as if she were dirt.
When the pastors were chased away with machetes, I was probably 20 or 30 yards away as they jumped in the river to escape the men, they were having the 30 day ritual. I didn’t see the scuffle but I did hear it as there are many types of tall grass in that area. The men did not want us to see the boys without their skins on, nor did they want us to use the river that close to the boys as they might see and hear what we were doing down at the river.
Oh Lord Touch that tribe…
LOL.. WELL GOD ALREADY DID EXACTLY THAT….regardless of my pleas to HIM, He already had the wheels in motion. He is just too cool!
Two weeks after the exciting baptism I was invited with many other pastors, the Bishops wife Fridah, my house family and a few other church members to another initiation of boys to men in the Kalenjin tribe, across the river. I was kind of leery about going, then I found out this was a party to celebrate the Christian version of Kalenjin initiation of boys to men. I could not wait to see the twist on this tribal tradition.
These 12 year old boys are circumsized by a doctor, not a tribal leader with a unsanitary knife, in a church and attended to by a nurse in case of infection. If they have infection they are treated with 21st century medications. They camp out for 30 days at the church and learn to dance a WAY COOL DANCE. I really wish I had trained the pastor who loves to let me just sit and enjoy the ceremonies while he takes all the pictures, how to use the video of this dance. Then the boys memorize many scriptures at the church and recite in perfect unison back to the family and crowd. They give small testimonies and tell their favorite verse. There is a huge feast, every celebration there is a ton of food, I am NOT losing the amount of weight I was hoping to by now, but you have to understand how much they love food, and feeding pastors and missionaries. Oh my. ….
After the feast the boys and family are hugely recognized. Let me tell you something about Kenyans, whenever there is a microphone around you can guarantee that every member of the family will be recognized and they will talk. Everyone loves the mic… lol. Anyway there was about 8 women with me and the Bishops wife and we had to leave a tiny bit early because there was a marital problem way out in the Kalenjin mud housing area where the husbands family were trying to get rid of chase away the wife and children because she was not a Kalenjin. We all rushed there to consol, counsel and pray with her. She was of the Louyha tribe, I think they are cousins of Obamas Loua tribe. Regardless we did not get to see the ending of the boys to men celebration and witness the non Christian men and boys waiting outside the plot compound to fight the men and the boys of the Christian family because they broke tradition of the tribe and did not send their boys to the bush to become ‘real’ men.
But you, LORD Almighty, who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, Jeremiah 11:20
So you know through all of this I have learned not to judge a certain group of people, just from the tribe or culture they have been raised in. Shamefully, once again I was a little mad at God for a while for letting certain practices occur here to his children, the youth of the Kenyan people. Especially when I thought of the special relationships that mothers have with their sons then once again I have to realize Romans 8:28
Once again I am reminded how GOD is in control, and I am not.
Moral of this story, everyone including me may not recall Corinthians 13:13? But I need to remember this verse in Corinthians a little more, you might recall it because is recited at almost every Christian wedding.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Oh in 10 days I get to attend a Kalenjin wedding. The bride and groom are Christians the family members are not. They attend the church at Salgaa where I gave my first sermon. This wedding should be interesting, although I do have many pictures of the pre-pre-wedding practice. Where maybe 30 family members got to use the microphone and it was very ceremonial and actually kind of cool, but that is a story for another time.
Maybe a story of two weddings….with movies I am working on. Stay tuned!
I remember in High School the men’s sports clubs, particularly basketball or CHS letter club would have an initiation “session” with the elder classman. Usually this initiation involved drinking a weird mixture of eggs and other junk, maybe jumping into a whirlpool full of icecubes with just their underclothes on and being forced to stay in there for 30 minutes or more. Maybe one of my old classmates can help me remember what they had to do in good ole Cimarron High, but being a girl, we didn’t have to experience initiation. I seem to have gotten old and cannot remember all the memories of my youth. Man it stinks getting old.
I also remember a particular initiation ceremony I partook of which was held at the TKE fraternity very close the women’s dorm called Ford Hall. I remember at that initiation the goal was to get the little sisters of the fraternity um lets just say very happy in the alcohol spirit sense. I remember eating a tequila worm that night and it just about “to killed me” with too much tequila. Oh my, those are NOT the days I want to remember so well. Yikes.
My memory also recalls that now in America almost ALL initiation ceremonies of any kind in the High School and/or College levels are strictly against the law and punishable by the court system, even up to imprisonment. If those responsible for initiation parties and or practices are found that they are putting others at risk by making them do things that are considered dangerous to their health by consuming intoxicating substances and or ritualistic practices, those parties can spend time in jail. This would ruin their potential career while still in college, if over the age of 18 years old.
During my stay in Nakuru, I have learned that certain tribes also have initiation ceremonies where young boys gain their right of passage into manhood by completing a certain initiation process. This tribe called the Kalenjin tribe initiates their young men by circumcising their young men at age 12 years old. Then during the healing process there are certain things they are taught by men leaders and teachers of the tribe.
Mind you there are 42 tribes in Kenya. Talk about having racial issues. I am not sure how many classes of people there are in the Indian culture, but can you imagine 42 tribes in a state the size of Texas all fighting, judging each other, and having their own mother tongue language….YIKES…Then the racism due facts they cannot do business with certain tribes and they can’t sell to certain tribes. Then they are expected to NEVER intermarry and if they do they are considered outcasts among their own tribal people. If the husband of a mixed tribal marriage dies, which is the case of my house mom and the Pastor I am living with at this time, the wife must go live with the husband’s tribe and not even her own mother if she cannot provide for herself. You know I think there was a great woman in the bible named Ruth who chose to do the same thing. But these women do not get to choose, they must go live with the husbands tribe.
One thing I MUST tell you about this Kalenjin tribe, which is really sickening and sad is that they are one of the tribes in Northeastern Africa that still practice the FGM/FGC of little girls ages ranging from 8 to 10yrs old. This is a practice where they circumcise little girls and then sew them back up to prevent them from losing their virginity before marriage. They only leave a small hole for urine to escape, and during the process of “sewing” there private part back up they sometimes use thorns to hold it together till it forms a massive scar. Many girls die from the process, or they have life long infections, or they cannot conceive. It is a horrible practice straight from the pit of hell. Then when the parents present the girl in marriage there is proof she has never been with another man, she has the scar. Also in this mutilation of the female private parts all pieces that give the female pleasure in relations with her husband are removed, because that tribe does not want the wife to enjoy her husband. In this manner he has the right to have many wives and the men practice polygamy and have many children.
Two weeks after I arrived, the local news announced that there had been a rescue of 100 girls from this AWEFUL tribal tradition. GO GOD!!!!!!
Pastor Jotham is of Loyha tribe. Many of the Pastors and church members I work with have chosen to intermarry with tribes they went evangelizing with over a 3 year period to find their wives. My house mom was of the Kalenjin tribe. I hated the Kanenjins until I found out this fact, and I was confused because she is so quite and reserved and oh the love of JESUS just resonates off every fiber of her being. How God, HOW can SHE be a Kalenjin, and oh Lord PLEASE tell me she isn’t cut. Lord I just don’t know how I could handle it if she shares her memories with me. Well when I finally asked her about it. I was informed that her mother was a Christian and she was saved from this horrible “tradition” of keeping their child pure before marriage only by the fact that her father died when she was 3 yrs old. Her half sisters are all cut. PRAISE GOD! Her father had many wives, and she has many siblings whom she isn’t all that close to or talks about. When I first arrived, Jael my house mom took me for a walk out by the cliff, my special spot. Then she took me through the bush, out to the area where maybe some of you remember I posted a couple of pastors almost got cut by a couple of tribal men with machetes before the baptism at the river. Anyway she told me that I could sit at the top of the cliff alone, but never go down through the cliffs and NEVER to the bush. She said it was “OK” with her with me but NEVER alone.
Oh how I love to go out by the cliff where I spend many of my mornings in quite time with the Lord as I watch the African rhythm begin its day. See there is this strange musical like rhythm about everything in Africa, from the crazy way people walk, ride their bikes, the picky pickies (aka motorcycle taxi’s), or the public transport buses (14 passengers), to the cattle, sheep drives in traffic as they move from water to grazing pasture land, or even the sounds of the animals. At all hours of the day and night there is a specific sound and rhythm that seems to beautifully flow and just gives you this amazing drive to carry on. You can actually feel it in your chest. I don’t know if true African’s or Kenyans can feel the rhythm of Africa, but I see it, feel it, and sense it in EVERYTHING, everywhere. In all the major cities I have been in all over America, London, and Paris, I have never experienced anything like this perfectly timed movement of people, mechanical objects and animals.
Oops Rabbit, lol if any of you have seen that movie “UP” you know what I mean. Sorry I got sidetracked I hope you can follow my writings as they hopefully are written exactly how I talk. Lol….
Anyway as my house mom and I were out on our walk, she pointed to the bush. Then it was explained to me that area is where her tribe has a ceremony for young boys to become men. Then she explained the process to me. At first I shared with someone on Skype how I thought that was kind of cool as they had to go through something really painful and then they were taught the traditions of their tribe.
Later the Bishop’s sister in law, Mwatime (I call her Muah for short), explained the truth to me as we were sitting in the grass waiting for pastors to find the perfect spot for 6 souls to become baptized. Those boys are put in animal skin from head to toe, the only opening they have on the animal hide is for their eyes. If they get an infection from the circumcision they are taught which weeds will take it away, and if it is painful, tough you must learn to fight in pain. You are not fed any food or drink, you must hunt or eat wild greens, bushes or berries to survive. You drink out of the river that all the animals drink out of and if you get sick, tough it out.
They do many dances at night and the parents/family members can go watch them dance. You cannot tell which son is your son, because the mother puts one small mark the size of the circumference of your small finger somewhere on the skin to identify her child after 30 days. That is if the young man chooses to allow his mother to see him after the final dance. Many of the young men never return to the parent’s home. The men of the tribe train the 12 year old boys how to steal, lie, fight, use weapons and basically become thugs. They are taught to beat women, cheat on their wives, and have many wives. They are told to from now on you treat your own mother and grandmother as if she were dirt.
When the pastors were chased away with machetes, I was probably 20 or 30 yards away as they jumped in the river to escape the men, they were having the 30 day ritual. I didn’t see the scuffle but I did hear it as there are many types of tall grass in that area. The men did not want us to see the boys without their skins on, nor did they want us to use the river that close to the boys as they might see and hear what we were doing down at the river.
Oh Lord Touch that tribe…
LOL.. WELL GOD ALREADY DID EXACTLY THAT….regardless of my pleas to HIM, He already had the wheels in motion. He is just too cool!
Two weeks after the exciting baptism I was invited with many other pastors, the Bishops wife Fridah, my house family and a few other church members to another initiation of boys to men in the Kalenjin tribe, across the river. I was kind of leery about going, then I found out this was a party to celebrate the Christian version of Kalenjin initiation of boys to men. I could not wait to see the twist on this tribal tradition.
These 12 year old boys are circumsized by a doctor, not a tribal leader with a unsanitary knife, in a church and attended to by a nurse in case of infection. If they have infection they are treated with 21st century medications. They camp out for 30 days at the church and learn to dance a WAY COOL DANCE. I really wish I had trained the pastor who loves to let me just sit and enjoy the ceremonies while he takes all the pictures, how to use the video of this dance. Then the boys memorize many scriptures at the church and recite in perfect unison back to the family and crowd. They give small testimonies and tell their favorite verse. There is a huge feast, every celebration there is a ton of food, I am NOT losing the amount of weight I was hoping to by now, but you have to understand how much they love food, and feeding pastors and missionaries. Oh my. ….
After the feast the boys and family are hugely recognized. Let me tell you something about Kenyans, whenever there is a microphone around you can guarantee that every member of the family will be recognized and they will talk. Everyone loves the mic… lol. Anyway there was about 8 women with me and the Bishops wife and we had to leave a tiny bit early because there was a marital problem way out in the Kalenjin mud housing area where the husbands family were trying to get rid of chase away the wife and children because she was not a Kalenjin. We all rushed there to consol, counsel and pray with her. She was of the Louyha tribe, I think they are cousins of Obamas Loua tribe. Regardless we did not get to see the ending of the boys to men celebration and witness the non Christian men and boys waiting outside the plot compound to fight the men and the boys of the Christian family because they broke tradition of the tribe and did not send their boys to the bush to become ‘real’ men.
But you, LORD Almighty, who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, Jeremiah 11:20
So you know through all of this I have learned not to judge a certain group of people, just from the tribe or culture they have been raised in. Shamefully, once again I was a little mad at God for a while for letting certain practices occur here to his children, the youth of the Kenyan people. Especially when I thought of the special relationships that mothers have with their sons then once again I have to realize Romans 8:28
Once again I am reminded how GOD is in control, and I am not.
Moral of this story, everyone including me may not recall Corinthians 13:13? But I need to remember this verse in Corinthians a little more, you might recall it because is recited at almost every Christian wedding.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Oh in 10 days I get to attend a Kalenjin wedding. The bride and groom are Christians the family members are not. They attend the church at Salgaa where I gave my first sermon. This wedding should be interesting, although I do have many pictures of the pre-pre-wedding practice. Where maybe 30 family members got to use the microphone and it was very ceremonial and actually kind of cool, but that is a story for another time.
Maybe a story of two weddings….with movies I am working on. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
BUT GOD...............
So, I know that I haven’t been writing like I had promised when I first left for Kenya. Please forgive me. I have really been busy in the ministry and trying to get things to going here. Secondly, it has been quite an adjustment in just about everything. But I believe I have adjusted well and that issue is starting to slow down. Then to tell you the truth, there have also been some bad things happen here that I just couldn’t bring myself to share with everyone. But today we had a miracle aside from some of the healings we have seen, and we saw the hand of God working a miracle over a period of time.
When I first arrived I was very excited to share my visions of empowering women with some minor domestic skills and/or potential small business opportunities by teaching them some crafts, knitting, sewing, beading, etc. To my surprise, the church I am living/working with had the same vision along with other ideas to transform this entire community. To add to my excitement was the opportunity to create a 5 year “business” plan for the church, a job which was my passion in the corporate world. Yes, I actually was able to use the skills that I have a degree in and I couldn’t believe it was in another country getting paid absolutely nothing. Ha! I also had the opportunity to create and design a website for the church. It is attached below and you can learn a little about the slum community I am working in that has been oppressed for almost 20 years due to tribal wars, the political uprising, and many other horrible conditions some which I will have to explain later.
Anyway there are many things that I need to write about with pictures, but I need to share the news as of late. It begins almost a week before Christmas for me. Every Friday they have what they call home fellowships, which is very similar to what many churches in America practice. We have to rent the “home fellowships” as nobody here has a home that can seat up to twenty people, still the concept is the same¸ smaller groups of the church in environments that are more intimate. This particular fellowship Pastor Joseph wanted me to attend was in the neighborhood called the “Deep” which is one of the more depressed areas of the slums. Mind you, areas of the Deep still look like a war zone to me when we walked through it. But appearances didn’t matter to us or God because we had our fellowship, and it was wonderful. After the fellowship, one of the women asked the entire group to go with her to her friend’s house to pray over her friend’s baby who had been sick for a couple of months. So we did just that, then the Pastor gave the woman some money to take the child to the doctor. He had diarrhea and vomiting for almost two months, which was a direct result from not having clean drinking water. We left and I felt like everything would be ok.
Two weeks later, the first week of January, we had an amazing missionary team from Australia volunteer to come give a conference on breaking generational curses and strongholds. The first night I was walking home from the church and the Pastor stopped me to introduce me to the father of the little boy we had prayed for as they were having a conversation by the gate. He had died, and the father was asking the church to provide funds for the family to take the body to a rural tribal location and bury his child. The pastor could not provide the funeral costs, but was trying to consol him and offer him wisdom about burying his son locally.
I was crushed in so many ways when I found out this little boy had died. I cried in my bed and questioned God. I knew in my mind this child would be OK even if God chose not to immediately heal him, it was a simple visit to the doctor as they told me. Then things turned around and he died. God had healed a couple of other people on some other serious issues, malaria without medications, and now this? WHY?
I even got kind of angry at God a little because it seemed so unfair. It felt unfair to me that something that is taken for granted so easily in America as water is such a precious commodity over here and people are dying because of the lack of it. It actually made me sick to think of all the water that companies, apartment complexes and homes waste watering their lawns. How many mornings did I see it just running down the gutters. I actually felt guilty about purchasing cases of bottled water when I was home instead of using tap water. I could have saved the money and sent it to a country that needed it desperately. Now, out of all things, water is the one thing I miss the most. It is strange not being able to go to a faucet and get a glass of water.
Then I found out the truth....
The boy died because the parents decided to use that money for food instead of going to the clinic. Oh how this news made me sick. Then to know how much it cost to go to the clinic, about 350 shs (about $4). I guess when you haven’t eaten in a while sometimes your decisions are swayed. Fortunately, I have never had to be in one of those situations. The church tells me this happens all the time. Oh Lord please help me remember this verse:
And we know that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord, and to those that are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Well I am not telling you all this sadness to make you sad. There is an awesome ending to this story, just be patient with me and I promise my next story will not be as long. In the budget I helped the church develop we had visions of many things, a water project, a feeding project, a school, and a clinic among many others to change the lives of the people in the community. As of late we have had a couple of American churches that have wanted to help with some of the projects, as some of them really aren’t all that expensive. But for various reasons, they have been delayed and we haven’t really been able to start on any of the projects. So I started getting a little discouraged.
Last week I started researching grants that we might qualify for assistance in our vision, and if you feel led please pray God connects me with a 501(c)3 organization so I can start applying for many of them. I have read many Grantor mission statements and I know without a shadow of a doubt that we would qualify for some which would make a huge difference in this community. Since I really didn’t have a church sponsor me over here, just prayer umbrellas of many churches, and I didn’t have an extra $2K to start my own 501(c)3 organization, once again I started feeling like I was up against a wall and felt more discouragement.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come pray to me and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:11
You know I thought I had faith, but the faith these people are teaching me, I have never experienced. I know everything is going to work out, I mean it IS God that is in control, right? Still at times it can get very discouraging, and you wonder why you are here and if you are even making any kind of a difference. So I start making plans for the easiest target to try and raise money for, the water project for a mere $2K. Then fear started to come in, I really hate to ask people for money. Kind of a bad quality for a missionary, huh…. lol
BUT GOD…..
For NOTHING is impossible for GOD! Luke 1:37
But God had other plans. Little did I know that He wanted one of the most difficult projects to be completed first before all other projects. The one project Bishop and I both KNEW would take at least 3 to 4 years to finish, He would put together in five months. Then to top it off, He took $8K out of my budget. HE ORGANIZED the project faster and cheaper than what we planned.
GO GOD! (As one of my dear mentors would say, *sigh* I miss her.)
Anyway we had planned to provide a scholarship for a nurse and a pharmacist to go to college and get the necessary education to open a free clinic. Then we would need some funds to construct a clinic. We knew it would take 3 years to complete because of the education piece.
He goes before me and after to prepare the way as we are taught in the old testament... “My Angel will go before you, and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittes, Perizzites, Cannonites, Hivetes, and Jebusites, and will wipe them out.” Exodus 23:23
Back in September, a young American woman named Haley held a free clinic on the church compound and since then she has been creating an organization to have mobile clinics all around Nakuru west and some of the more rural tribal areas. Since then she started a not for profit organization in honor of her brother so that she would be able to provide some medical assistance to those who can’t afford it.
She and her native nursing assistant must have really noticed the spirit within the pastors and the church here because they were looking for some land to put up a headquarter nursing station and YESTERDAY they came to ask the church I was working with if that would be something they would be willing offer in exchange for the ability to provide free services for their community. See when they had met with some of the other churches, they had given them the impression that the churches would try to make some money on the clinic, instead of offering free services.
This young woman has been in Nakuru, Kenya for two years. She has done all the ground work necessary to run the type of an organization she is going to run. For instance she will be getting all of the drugs needed for a clinic for free from the government. Which to me is absolutely amazing in it’s own right. See the government doesn’t assist any of its people in ANY sort of ways. It is completely different than America here. There is NO ASSISTANCE FOR ANYTHING. But the ministry (department) of health has a stock pile of medicines, because they are supposed to be sending out teams of people to distribute them. Because the government is so corrupt, they have chosen to pocket the money that is supposed to be used to send out the teams, and the medicine/vaccines are sitting there in warehouses expiring in their usefulness. When she went to the Ministry of Health to ask them about medicines and vaccines, they said “Here take them before they expire and you can come get more”. PRAISE GOD! We have a means for free medications!
GO GOD! Once again Romans 8:28…..Once again, GO GOD!
She has organized a whole list of volunteer nurses and community workers that are ready and willing to come to Nakuru West. The community workers do all kinds of things like help with family planning and nutritional follow ups. If the family does not comply, the community workers can actually report them up their chain of command, almost like a social worker in America, to the police who would force a mother to continue to take her child to a nutritionist if needed. In addition a nurse can distribute medicine without the need for a pharmacist.
PRAISE GOD! We have workers!
Now all we need is a building and believe it or not it isn’t going to cost much more than the water project. I can’t wait to see how God is going to play this one out!
So God willing we are going to have ourselves a free clinic in February!
I just can’t thank God enough. I can’t find the words to thank Him that I will not have to know of any more stories like the little boy from the Deep, because we can just tell a mother come to the church clinic for free.
Praise GOD!!!
I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move, nothing will be impossible for you. Mathew 17:20-21
When I first arrived I was very excited to share my visions of empowering women with some minor domestic skills and/or potential small business opportunities by teaching them some crafts, knitting, sewing, beading, etc. To my surprise, the church I am living/working with had the same vision along with other ideas to transform this entire community. To add to my excitement was the opportunity to create a 5 year “business” plan for the church, a job which was my passion in the corporate world. Yes, I actually was able to use the skills that I have a degree in and I couldn’t believe it was in another country getting paid absolutely nothing. Ha! I also had the opportunity to create and design a website for the church. It is attached below and you can learn a little about the slum community I am working in that has been oppressed for almost 20 years due to tribal wars, the political uprising, and many other horrible conditions some which I will have to explain later.
Anyway there are many things that I need to write about with pictures, but I need to share the news as of late. It begins almost a week before Christmas for me. Every Friday they have what they call home fellowships, which is very similar to what many churches in America practice. We have to rent the “home fellowships” as nobody here has a home that can seat up to twenty people, still the concept is the same¸ smaller groups of the church in environments that are more intimate. This particular fellowship Pastor Joseph wanted me to attend was in the neighborhood called the “Deep” which is one of the more depressed areas of the slums. Mind you, areas of the Deep still look like a war zone to me when we walked through it. But appearances didn’t matter to us or God because we had our fellowship, and it was wonderful. After the fellowship, one of the women asked the entire group to go with her to her friend’s house to pray over her friend’s baby who had been sick for a couple of months. So we did just that, then the Pastor gave the woman some money to take the child to the doctor. He had diarrhea and vomiting for almost two months, which was a direct result from not having clean drinking water. We left and I felt like everything would be ok.
Two weeks later, the first week of January, we had an amazing missionary team from Australia volunteer to come give a conference on breaking generational curses and strongholds. The first night I was walking home from the church and the Pastor stopped me to introduce me to the father of the little boy we had prayed for as they were having a conversation by the gate. He had died, and the father was asking the church to provide funds for the family to take the body to a rural tribal location and bury his child. The pastor could not provide the funeral costs, but was trying to consol him and offer him wisdom about burying his son locally.
I was crushed in so many ways when I found out this little boy had died. I cried in my bed and questioned God. I knew in my mind this child would be OK even if God chose not to immediately heal him, it was a simple visit to the doctor as they told me. Then things turned around and he died. God had healed a couple of other people on some other serious issues, malaria without medications, and now this? WHY?
I even got kind of angry at God a little because it seemed so unfair. It felt unfair to me that something that is taken for granted so easily in America as water is such a precious commodity over here and people are dying because of the lack of it. It actually made me sick to think of all the water that companies, apartment complexes and homes waste watering their lawns. How many mornings did I see it just running down the gutters. I actually felt guilty about purchasing cases of bottled water when I was home instead of using tap water. I could have saved the money and sent it to a country that needed it desperately. Now, out of all things, water is the one thing I miss the most. It is strange not being able to go to a faucet and get a glass of water.
Then I found out the truth....
The boy died because the parents decided to use that money for food instead of going to the clinic. Oh how this news made me sick. Then to know how much it cost to go to the clinic, about 350 shs (about $4). I guess when you haven’t eaten in a while sometimes your decisions are swayed. Fortunately, I have never had to be in one of those situations. The church tells me this happens all the time. Oh Lord please help me remember this verse:
And we know that all things work together for good for those that love the Lord, and to those that are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Well I am not telling you all this sadness to make you sad. There is an awesome ending to this story, just be patient with me and I promise my next story will not be as long. In the budget I helped the church develop we had visions of many things, a water project, a feeding project, a school, and a clinic among many others to change the lives of the people in the community. As of late we have had a couple of American churches that have wanted to help with some of the projects, as some of them really aren’t all that expensive. But for various reasons, they have been delayed and we haven’t really been able to start on any of the projects. So I started getting a little discouraged.
Last week I started researching grants that we might qualify for assistance in our vision, and if you feel led please pray God connects me with a 501(c)3 organization so I can start applying for many of them. I have read many Grantor mission statements and I know without a shadow of a doubt that we would qualify for some which would make a huge difference in this community. Since I really didn’t have a church sponsor me over here, just prayer umbrellas of many churches, and I didn’t have an extra $2K to start my own 501(c)3 organization, once again I started feeling like I was up against a wall and felt more discouragement.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come pray to me and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:11
You know I thought I had faith, but the faith these people are teaching me, I have never experienced. I know everything is going to work out, I mean it IS God that is in control, right? Still at times it can get very discouraging, and you wonder why you are here and if you are even making any kind of a difference. So I start making plans for the easiest target to try and raise money for, the water project for a mere $2K. Then fear started to come in, I really hate to ask people for money. Kind of a bad quality for a missionary, huh…. lol
BUT GOD…..
For NOTHING is impossible for GOD! Luke 1:37
But God had other plans. Little did I know that He wanted one of the most difficult projects to be completed first before all other projects. The one project Bishop and I both KNEW would take at least 3 to 4 years to finish, He would put together in five months. Then to top it off, He took $8K out of my budget. HE ORGANIZED the project faster and cheaper than what we planned.
GO GOD! (As one of my dear mentors would say, *sigh* I miss her.)
Anyway we had planned to provide a scholarship for a nurse and a pharmacist to go to college and get the necessary education to open a free clinic. Then we would need some funds to construct a clinic. We knew it would take 3 years to complete because of the education piece.
He goes before me and after to prepare the way as we are taught in the old testament... “My Angel will go before you, and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittes, Perizzites, Cannonites, Hivetes, and Jebusites, and will wipe them out.” Exodus 23:23
Back in September, a young American woman named Haley held a free clinic on the church compound and since then she has been creating an organization to have mobile clinics all around Nakuru west and some of the more rural tribal areas. Since then she started a not for profit organization in honor of her brother so that she would be able to provide some medical assistance to those who can’t afford it.
She and her native nursing assistant must have really noticed the spirit within the pastors and the church here because they were looking for some land to put up a headquarter nursing station and YESTERDAY they came to ask the church I was working with if that would be something they would be willing offer in exchange for the ability to provide free services for their community. See when they had met with some of the other churches, they had given them the impression that the churches would try to make some money on the clinic, instead of offering free services.
This young woman has been in Nakuru, Kenya for two years. She has done all the ground work necessary to run the type of an organization she is going to run. For instance she will be getting all of the drugs needed for a clinic for free from the government. Which to me is absolutely amazing in it’s own right. See the government doesn’t assist any of its people in ANY sort of ways. It is completely different than America here. There is NO ASSISTANCE FOR ANYTHING. But the ministry (department) of health has a stock pile of medicines, because they are supposed to be sending out teams of people to distribute them. Because the government is so corrupt, they have chosen to pocket the money that is supposed to be used to send out the teams, and the medicine/vaccines are sitting there in warehouses expiring in their usefulness. When she went to the Ministry of Health to ask them about medicines and vaccines, they said “Here take them before they expire and you can come get more”. PRAISE GOD! We have a means for free medications!
GO GOD! Once again Romans 8:28…..Once again, GO GOD!
She has organized a whole list of volunteer nurses and community workers that are ready and willing to come to Nakuru West. The community workers do all kinds of things like help with family planning and nutritional follow ups. If the family does not comply, the community workers can actually report them up their chain of command, almost like a social worker in America, to the police who would force a mother to continue to take her child to a nutritionist if needed. In addition a nurse can distribute medicine without the need for a pharmacist.
PRAISE GOD! We have workers!
Now all we need is a building and believe it or not it isn’t going to cost much more than the water project. I can’t wait to see how God is going to play this one out!
So God willing we are going to have ourselves a free clinic in February!
I just can’t thank God enough. I can’t find the words to thank Him that I will not have to know of any more stories like the little boy from the Deep, because we can just tell a mother come to the church clinic for free.
Praise GOD!!!
I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move, nothing will be impossible for you. Mathew 17:20-21
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