We left Lodwar on Sunday afternoon on the 27th and traveled to Kakuma for our 3rd annual Pastors and Church Leaders conference. The picture above is of what is supposed to be a water fountain on one of the round-a-bouts in Lodwar, but hasn't been quite finished yet. We call it the Leaning Fountain of Lodwar. And it's been there a while.
We had 100 pastors together in Kakuma for this conference on the book of Ephesians and they were dialed into the word. They rarely got out of their seats during the sessions despite the temperature inside the building reaching well over 100 degrees. Rob said he was going to bring a thermometer next year to find out just how hot it was. Last year some of his electronics bit the dust because of the hit, but we had no problems this year.
Many pastors from the Kakuma Refugee camps attended this year. We had pastors from Ruwanda, Burundi, Congo, South Sudan, and Ethiopia attending. Most of them I talked to were intent on returning to their home country when they could and expressed their great appreciation for the training they were receiving.
We held Q&A sessions at the end of the teaching day and we were impressed by the quality of questions and the level of understanding among these pastors.
We closed out the conference with our resource handout, including food. I was told by one of the pastors from the refugee camps that what they received from us in food was more than they received in a month from the U.N. Part of the problem with food distribution in the camps is that although the food is given free by western nations, including the U.S, the camp administration is run by the Kenyans and is very corrupt. We have seen barrels of rice, corn, wheat and beans being sold in local markets even though they are clearly marked as U.S Aid.
All of these pastors were so grateful, not only for the resources, but for the word they received. Pastor Ben of Elim Pentecostal church sent me an email yesterday that read: "Thank you so much it was such a blessing to have you in Kakuma for three days. Have been blessed by the solid teachings from the book of Ephesians. I am considering by the grace of God to start teaching the book of Ephesians in our church in series.I am fired up!"
Yesterday, Rob and Tim returned to Nairobi to fly back to the U.S. tonight. But Pastor Boniface, Paul our driver and I are on a road trip to East Pokot. Tonight we are in Eldoret and then we travel tomorrow to Tengulbei to spend Saturday night. We will be in Kresia on Sunday to dedicate their new church building. Please pray for us as we travel and minister.