Last Sunday, Rob and I traveled 110 km northwest to Kakuma to hold a two day conference with the Kakuma pastors and pastors from the UN refugee camp there. We were joined by Pastors Boniface Lokuruka, George Lokwawi, and Shadrack Mogesi. 78 pastors attended the conference, about 35 from the camp and the rest from Kakuma Town.
We were hosted by Pastor Benjamin of the Solid Rock Church in Kakuma and the Kakuma Pastors Fellowship.
We had two wonderful days together in God's word, and as the Chairman of the Kakuma Pastors Fellowship was wrapping things up on Tuesday, he said, "We have known API has been in Lodwar for many years but we have never tasted the teachings. Now we have have tasted and they are so good! We want to have more. It would be good if you could stay the whole week here and teach." While we couldn't do that, we are planning next year to have a more extended conference in Kakuma.
As is our custom, we ended the conference with a book handout, and also a food handout. The pastors were not only nourished spiritually, but we were able to feed the 78 families represented by these pastors.
UPDATE ON LODWAR CONFERENCE:
I wanted to share with you what our Conference Director shared with me after the Lodwar Conference, of which I was completely unaware. We had capped the conference at 150 attendees due to space and Covid restrictions. However, somehow more than 170 got registered, and we finally discovered there were more than 200 in attendence. Early on Tuesday, our boarding facitlities were maxed out by out of town guests. But on Wednesday several showed up from far places needing a place to sleep. Informed that the boarding facility was full, these pastors begged to sleep on the conference hall floor, (concrete) without mattresses or blankets. Warned that scorpions were about, they dismissed the danger, asking only that they could be in the compound the next morning to hear the Word of God as it was taught. "We heard the word is so good here and we want to hear it", they said. In fact several had to sit outside the hall for the rest of the week as it couldn't accomodate all the delegates. I thank God for the hunger and desire of these pastors to hear God's word.