API USA Blog

It is Sunday night in Eldoret. We finished the conference in Lodwar with a group picture and a moving communion service Friday night.

Ben and Pastor William Emase

Ben and Michael react to one of Rob's jokes.

After the service, Rob and Shadrack, Jay and I went stargazing.

Saturday we spent visiting the church in Nataaba and Juluk. We had been able to help the church in Nataaba to finish the walls of the church and we went to take pictures.

Ben and Pastor Leonard inspecting one of the homes nearby

When we got back to Lodwar we visited the church in Juluk, a short drive from town. The church in Juluk is pastored by Beatrice Natoo and has grown so much they need to expand the facility.

We finished up in the Lodwar open market, California, and we drew a crowd.

Ben, trying to get away from the vendors

Sharpening a panga

After returning to our rooms to pack, we went to the airport for the flight to Lodwar

We landed in Eldoret around 6:30 and went to dinner at a really good chinese restaurant. We needed a break from ugali and tsukumuweke.

We have just completed the first conference in Lodwar.    It is about the harshest area in Kenya.  Hot, dirt roads, homes surrounded by dirt, slums of 5' x 5' lean to's in the dirt.  Heat and dust characterize life here.  Wikipedia says that Lodwar has one of the highest average temperatures in the world.  Jan thru Dec, the average high never comes below 90 degrees.  There is no respite from the heat.  Most days after teaching or bouncing around in a 4x4 on a rutted dirt road to visit a remote church in the bush, I would be exhausted. Fortunately, we had air-conditioned rooms ( if the A/C did not break or power go out ) so we could pull the heat out of our bones.  Shower water was never heated and you never wanted it to be.

In this inhospitable area, I met pastors with a burning, heartfelt desire to serve God and His people.   Some of the most inviting men in the most uninviting surroundings.  What a juxtaposition.  It was a privilege and an honor to meet these men and to teach and encourage them from the scriptures.  I met with some of the pastors and for many, the support that our team offered in instruction and personal counsel was something that was of of great joy and comfort to them. They sat for 12 hours in an un-air-conditioned room trying to get as much as they could.  Not only were they taking in the teachings of Mike, Tim, Ben and myself, for their ministry and congregations they were taking home some well-needed personal encouragement. A pastor I met said that his congregation had been in despair and depression.  He has women in their 20s with HIV facing death - very common in Africa. Part of his congregation were attacked in a cross-border attack from the northern border and mothers and fathers were speared to death and children left homeless (which the church took in until the government could take care of them).  He said being there and seeing the blood everywhere greatly affected him.  Hearing him talk, I realized these guys were on the front-lines with the gospel and saw things that I, Lord willing, would never see or experience.  That I could have a small part in encouraging them was one of the most humbling things that I have been involved with.  Lord willing, I will have the chance to see these men again.

God bless these pastors.

Today is Friday and we haven't posted since Monday due in part to the work load and in part to the sketchy internet here in Lodwar.  We've been very busy from 8 in the morning till 9 at night with teaching and interacting with the pastors here. We have around 85 pastors from Lodwar and all over the Turkana region, including at least two from outside the country.  One is a missionary from Sudan and one pastor is a former Muslim from Somalia.

The pastors are continually saying over and over how much they appreciate and love what we are doing for them in teaching them from the word of God. They also realize that we have lots of people behind us (like you all reading the blog) that have given sacrificially to send us to them.  We've been told that they consider us a real blessing from God.  As I was speaking with the chairman of the Lodwar Pastor's Fellowship, Pastor Boniface Rimati, he told me that when he was called to this area as a pastor, he felt like he had three things he wanted to accomplish. One of those three things was somehow to introduce some pastoral training for the pastors of this region.  He said that the API School of Ministry was the answer to his prayer.

Here are some pictures to enjoy of our stay here.

These ladies are amazing - they carry everything on their heads.

These are roadside shops.

Can't leave your car doors or windows open with these guys around.

Kids always have a front row seat.

View from the back of Lodwar High School.

So...what we have here are the latrines. The one on the right is for the women.  The one on the left is for the men.  No, no, not the white building, (which I thought).  The men's latrine is the half-wall on the left.  Nothing like fresh, open air where you can see who's coming to join you in the latrine. Or you can simply have conversations with passers-by.

Here is where the cooks prepare the food.  This picture was taken at about 12 pm and the fire was going.  It's only around 95 today.

It is Monday in Lodwar, and we spent most of the day finishing our preparation for the conference that began tonight at the Lodwar High School complex. We did some shopping to get some power strips, and ink and paper and water. 

Pastor Tim Bourgeois and I are teaching through Acts 20:17-39 on the theme of Shepherding the Church of God. Jay McBee and Ben are teaching a Biblical Counseling series focused on discipleship.

The first order of business was to get the pastors registered for the conference. However, this being Kenya, we will probably still be registering new attendees on Thursday.

Through Together for the Gospel and their Theological Famine program and the generosity of P&R Publishing, we were able to offer free books to these pastors to help them in their ministry.

We also schedule about an hour each day for question and answer which is very helpful, both for us and for the pastors.

Sunday morning we took off for Nataaba, a small village around 40 km from Lodwar.  Through the Brad Pederson Memorial Building Fund we were able to help this congregation put a roof over their heads this year.  We also brought with us some staple foods - ugali flour and beans, cooking oil, salt and matches, to distribute to the congregation. We had a wonderful time of worship with the church there under the leadership of Pastor James.

They were very happy to see these visitors from a far country and Ben got a lot of hugs.

We will be returning later this week with iron sheets and galvanized screening for the sides.

After the service we handed out the food we brought and everyone went home with something to eat.  Pastor Leonard later told me that Pastor James had said that there were many in the congregation who would not have had something to eat that day had we not brought the food. Turkana is going through a very hard time and there are people dying of hunger everyday, due in part to a government that has largely ignored their citizens there.

Ben and Jay headed up the food line.

It was a great joy to worship and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Nataaba. 

Please remember them in prayer before the Lord.                            

It was a happy ride back to St Teresa's

Saturday August 15

Saturday was a long travel day for us. We loaded up and left Nairobi around 6:30 heading for Eldoret.

Frank and Jay loading up

We left before having breakfast so we stopped in Naivasha around 8 for some much needed nourishment and coffee. Fortunately we found a new Java House open for business.

The trip was fairly uneventful until we hit Nakuru and the speed trap. We were pulled over by the police and Frank, our driver was informed that he was clocked at 97 km/hour by radar back near Naivasha, an hour earlier. We were surprised since most of the trip we had not been able to go over 60 km/hr due to the heavy truck traffic. Added to that was the fact that we had already been waved through 3 previous police check points who apparently hadn't gotten the alert for this speeding vehicle. Nevertheless, we were 'arrested' and had to go with one of the policewomen to the Nakuru station to sort it out. 10,000 schillings ($100) and an hour later, we were allowed to continue. From the conversations we had during that hour and the lack of any evidence, we concluded that we were simply being forced to contribute to the Nakuru Police Benevolent Fund.

We finally arrived in Eldoret at the home of the Director of the East Africa Bible College where they had prepared a wonderful lunch for us. Our visit was brief since we had to be at the airport for a 4 pm flight to Lodwar, which of course didn't leave till after 5 pm, this being Kenya.

We finally arrived in Lodwar after a 50 minute flight around 6:30 pm, and checked into St Teresa's, a Catholic retreat center, where we will be for the next seven days.

Thank you all for your support and prayers during this time.

We started the day with some early morning conference planning and time together in prayer.

From there it was straight to the coffee house for breakfast and of course... coffee.

Then off to the Village Market to get the phones and internet sticks setup and topped off, money exchanged, followed by a quick trip (is that possible) through the Masai Market.

Ben is looking for bugs.

Checking out the baskets

 Then a jet-lag induced nap back at the Hampton House followed by a mile walk for pizza and back to the Hampton House to carefully re-pack all of the gear since we drive to Eldoret starting at 6am and then fly to Lodwar after that.  Some gear is left in Eldoret for use when we return after the Lodwar Conference.

The Kenyan roads can be a dangerous place so please uplift the team in prayer as Frank drives us to Eldoret and also for the flight that follows to Lodwar. 

We had a fairly uneventful trip from Amsterdam to Nairobi.  We had some delays (pilot initiated go-around on approach), the stairs did not match up with the airplane and had to be re-positioned and the luggage took forever to show up.  Frank was waiting for us and the process of loading all the luggage and getting it to the vehicle all went well. We can already see how the covering in prayer is felt as we go through the logistics of travel.  While we were loading the trailer, Jay laid down his laptop bag so that he could help load.  A car pulled out in a tight turn and "ran over the bag". No damage as the wheels somehow just missed the bag.  We are at the Hampton House now and looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Ben grabs an opportunity to send off a few emails

We just landed in Amsterdam after an uneventful flight from Seattle.  We connected up with Tim and Jay and have a short layover before continuing on to Kenya. Please continue to pray for our travel and our brief time in Nairobi before we head North to Eldoret and then Lodwar.

We left for the airport in Nairobi for a flight to Lodwar. There were some delays in getting some necessary supplies for the trip which put us on the road behind schedule.  Nairobli traffic was its usual hectic mess.  At one point on the way to the airport we finally got up some speed just to find out a car was crossing multiple lanes between other cars and we were destined for a high-speed impact.  All of us felt the hand of God guide the car amoungst the schreeching tires and certain impact.  We came through with un-belief that the crash did not occur and then thanked God for his obvious protection.

 The flight to Eldoret and on to Lodwar was uneventful although we were all a bit fatigued from the trip; some of us more than others.

We arrived safely to the Lodwar International Airport:

A previous flight was not so lucky:

We gathered our bags in front of the terminal.

After packing up we made it about a half mile before we had a flat tire in town. It was a great chance to meet some of the locals.

It is now Sunday morning and we are well rested and heading out to worship in some of the local churches.

Please continue to pray for the team.  Your prayers are felt and are critical to our time here.