We landed in Nairobi, Kenya late last night. When we arrived at the airport, a slew of travelers were asleep on the floor, I suppose awaiting their next-day flight. We loaded up our 30+ bags into two vans and drove out to a Christian guesthouse for the night.
The vans were filled with excitement and we strained to see out the windows into the Kenyan night. Although it was dark outside, we could see the palm trees and the poverty around us. There were not many people out, and the city seemed much more developed that I had imagined.
We arrived at the guesthouse, got ready for bed, and the girls gathered into a room for prayer. I was blessed to hear my sisters’ hearts for our King as we prayed, and we ended the night with fellowship.
We woke up early Friday morning, just in time for a pancake breakfast. The maple syrup and mango juice were delicious! We then traveled to a market to exchange our dollars for shillings, and met a colorful character greeting people by the door. I began to share the Gospel with him and asked if he believed in Christ – he smiled and seemed to mock me with his response “uh, yeah!” - and I asked him if he had a Bible. He said he did not, and I asked him to point us to a bookstore where we could buy some for the people that we would meet in Maai Maihu.
Everyone in Kenya has been extremely helpful and polite thus far – the bookstore salesman helped us pick out Swahili and Kikuyu Bibles, which they thought people in our area would speak. We purchased a handful of them, and walked back to the exchange rate place to give one to the man.
He spoke Swahili, and asked for one of those – I asked him to read John 3:16-17 and he read it in Swahili words that I couldn’t pronounce, even if I had tried! He then smiled really big and said “this means that God loved the world and gave His Son so that we will not perish and have eternal life.” – I was overjoyed that he seemed to have a firm grip on the Gospel and seemed to love the Lord – he thanked us for the Bible and said that he had been wanting to get one.
Our team stopped at a Java house, and Kenyan coffee is great! We then proceeded to drive to Kijabe, which is where many missionary families live, including Isaac and Esther Karanja, the pastor (and his wife) of the church that we are helping to plant.
The Karanja’s are very hospitable and fed us a wonderful meal of rice & sausage, green beans, carrots, and bell peppers. After lunch, we drove down a rickety dirt road to Maai Maihu, a town notorious for prostitution. We met the other Kenyan pastors and congregants for Rift Valley Fellowship (RVF), and worshipped the Lord together before we went out to share the Gospel in the surrounding neighborhoods.
We broke into teams of four, each with two Kenyans and two Americans. We stopped by several houses and met many people, most of whom had heard of Christ and proclaimed that they had been saved. It was difficult to interact with them, even though we had translators with us. I did my best to share the hope of the Gospel with them, and hope that it encouraged some of them. I had also put together a longer version of the Roman Road to Salvation in Swahili, and we passed these out to those who seemed receptive to our message. I am very grateful to have had those with me because of the language barrier.
I was encouraged that so many people had heard of and claimed Christ as their Savior, but because of my own history with nominal Christianity, I usually hesitate to drop the Gospel conversation even after people say that they are Christians. Even if they truly are saved, I hope that hearing the Gospel again encourages them in their faith (as it does for me!).
We invited the people we met to come join us for fellowship on Sunday at RVF, and many of them said they would come. After about an hour, pastor Isaac and the Rift Valley Fellowship worship team did some open-air evangelism. We sang, shared testimonies, and Pastor Isaac gave a sermon on Matthew the tax collector’s call to follow Christ. The message was very fitting, and I was very grateful to hear Pastor Isaac drive the Gospel of Grace home – we are all sinners, we are all filthy, and Jesus came to save us despite this. Jesus loves us so much that He gave His life for us, even while we were yet sinning against Him. After Isaac’s message, we had a time of prayer and many children came forward to greet us and to be prayed over. I was touched that the children seemed very grateful for prayer, and it reminded me of Jesus’ desire to let the little children come to Him.
We headed home and had to take the long way back to Kijabe, since the path down the mountain was too difficult to climb back up. It took about an hour, and I think that almost every person in our van fell asleep. We were awakened by the potholes close to Kijabe, and preceded to end the night with a Kenyan meal with Esther and Isaac. After that, we headed to our Kijabe guesthouse and talked about how the day had been. We shared encouraging stories, some concerns, and brainstormed about how to best point the people who we meet to Christ. It has been a fun and tiring trip thus far, and I am hopeful and excited to see what God will do tomorrow.
Goodnight!
Blessings & Love,
Lauren
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