Saturday, August 29
We finished our conference Thursday in Kakuma with 140 pastors and church leaders where we taught through Christ in the Old Testament. Pastor Tim, Bishop Boniface Lokuruka and I took turns teaching throughout the week. This was the most challenging of our trainings as the daytime temps were 98 - 100 degrees outside, and much hotter than that inside the venue where we were holding the conference. We got some relief when we retired to our hotel and blessed AC after each day's sessions.
We did have multiple fans blowing the hot air around, but that did little to stop us soaking through our clothes each day. But all the pastors and church leaders who attended seemed to bear up fairly well, listening, taking notes, and asking great questions at the end of the teaching day.
You will notice that Tim sat down to teach while I remained standing. Tim claimed that he was just following Jesus' example of sitting down to teach.
We had a lot of great questions during our Q & A sessions at the end of every day, and these pastors appeared to be tracking with what is a fairly difficult topic.
One of our long-time associate teachers, Stephen Lobolia, could not attend the sessions, so Frank and I went to see him and pray for him. Stephen has suffered from back issues for a long time but recently they have gotten worse to the point that he is virtually bed-ridden. Stephen has not only been a pastor and church planter in the refugee camps in Kakuma, but he has been a tireless missionary to the Toposa people of South Sudan. But the bad roads and long distances have taken a toll on his back and his health. His last trip to the doctor confirmed that he needs surgery to correct the problem in his vertebrae. Currently, our team is working on a plan to get him to the hospital in Eldoret where he can get the surgery. He hasn't been able to afford pain medicine that would allow him to walk around, so we found some in Kakuma to give him. After taking the meds, he was able to get up and walk around his compound. Please keep Stephen and his wife Grace and their family in your prayers.
We want to thank Crossway and Ekklesia Afrika for providing Global Study Bibles and other book resources for these pastors. Crossway donated what they call the Pastors Library consisting of seven books on the Atonement, Justification, the Doctrine of Scripture, the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Person of Christ and the Attributes of God. These guys were elated to receive them!
Frank handled all the conference logistics and kept everyone fed and well-watered!
John did an excellent job with all the media and sound.
Thank you again for your prayers for this ministry!