August has been a busy month for the church leaders, the Hope & Kindness management and us. After the visit from the national church leaders we were taken up with preparing for and running the first Youth Encounter, and last week, another Farming God’s Way training seminar. Despite it being the school holidays and most of the children in the Home having gone away to visit relatives, it has been a challenging time for the management team here, with various issues to be tackled, and we’ve been trying to support them in this.
So after a busy few weeks we got away at last for a 2-night break in Kisumu, two hours’ drive from here. Two of the children were not going to get a holiday of any type because, in one case there are no known relatives, so we took them along with us. So together with Vivian and Mercy we visited the Impala Sanctuary (a cross between a zoo and a small wildlife reserve) and the Museum, and took the girls shopping. A new experience for them staying in a big hotel, but overall we think they enjoyed the time away. Our only problem was the hotel – we had asked for quiet rooms but where did they put us? – right above the bar, where a karaoke session (mostly populated by students from British universities on a holiday) blared out till midnight. The rotten singing made it even worse!
The news in Kenya has been dominated by two major incidents over the past week. The first arose from a festering dispute between two tribes in Southeast Kenya over land and cattle grazing rights. This escalated into outright armed conflict between the two groups and hit national headlines when one tribe massacred some 80 men, women and children in a revenge attack on their rivals, destroying a whole village. Certainly, disputes over land and cattle are common in some parts of Kenya, but this incident shocked the nation.
A couple of days later, nearer at hand (in the same county as we are), another disaster occurred. Eight girls, locked in a school dormitory at night, perished in a fire. The investigations and recriminations are continuing, but this is having repercussions for our own school here – fire safety has been reviewed and some small changes made. The school exam system is so competitive here, with Standard 8 children being given extra classes early in the morning, at weekends and during holidays to help them revise. The Education authorities have been cracking down on schools giving extra tuition during holidays, and are using this tragedy to enforce their position, because the girls who died should have been at home on holiday. Our own school takes different holidays from the state schools and was due to open today, but this has had to be postponed for another week. TIA !
Monday 27 August 2012
Tuesday 7 August 2012
Ten years on
We’ve had a great weekend here in the church, and I hope Terry doesn’t mind me copying parts of his blog to tell you about it.
This weekend saw the final step in our church becoming part of Elim Gospel Church Kenya. It was a very exciting day and an extremely appropriate time for this development. Exactly ten years ago to the day, Terry and Judi and their children Tom and Ellie spent their first Sunday in Kosele and planted a small church, by starting a Sunday School with the children in the new Children’s Home they were setting up.
The church has been through its share of ups and downs. We’ve experienced a pastor being driven out of the area because of the post-election violence in 2007. We have been widely ridiculed in the community because of our Pentecostalism and we have seen church numbers go up and down depending on the number of Mzungu (European) visitors to the church. Like any church we have been let down by conflict between individual members of the church and conflict between the leaders of the church. The church family is, really, not very different from our own families. Like a good family we have held together through the ups and downs, celebrating together, grieving together and giving together.
In today’s service Pastor Paul, (who had to leave Kosele in 2007 because he came from the wrong tribe), said how delighted he was to be in church at this momentous time. Despite only being the pastor for a short time, Paul was loved by the church members and they were pleased to see him back for this visit. Paul and his colleague Pastor Reuben are members of the national leadership of the Elim Gospel Church in Kenya. (Ours is the only Elim church in Nyanza province.) Becoming part of this movement links our church to a number of others in different parts of the country and to a wider global family of Elim churches with a headquarters in the UK.
In a very moving service, Paul and Reuben anointed our new Pastor Kennedy and co-pastor Dorine, and their leadership team, all by the popular acclaim of the church members. Reuben preached the sermon in the service and coined a completely beautiful phrase. He was extolling the virtues of loving one another through showing each other kindness and creating hope in brothers’ and sisters’ lives. He said that as a result of this “the friendship becomes fatter”. It’s a lovely image and a wonderfully African sentiment.
Kennedy, our new Pastor, reminded the church of its roots in our Home ten years ago. Looking round the church and seeing the happy faces, young, old, men, women, boys and girls I was reminded of a New Testament scripture from 1st Corinthians 3:6-7 which says:
“I planted the seeds, Apollos watered them, but God made them sprout and grow. What matters isn't those who planted or watered, but God who made the plants grow.”
The church today is unrecognisable from that little group ten years ago, and I wonder what it will be like in another 10 years – how will it compare with today’s congregation? We are confident that Kennedy and Dorine will lead it well because it has became clear that God has called and equipped them and set them apart to serve him in this place. We feel privileged to be a part of what God is doing here at this time.
This weekend saw the final step in our church becoming part of Elim Gospel Church Kenya. It was a very exciting day and an extremely appropriate time for this development. Exactly ten years ago to the day, Terry and Judi and their children Tom and Ellie spent their first Sunday in Kosele and planted a small church, by starting a Sunday School with the children in the new Children’s Home they were setting up.
The church has been through its share of ups and downs. We’ve experienced a pastor being driven out of the area because of the post-election violence in 2007. We have been widely ridiculed in the community because of our Pentecostalism and we have seen church numbers go up and down depending on the number of Mzungu (European) visitors to the church. Like any church we have been let down by conflict between individual members of the church and conflict between the leaders of the church. The church family is, really, not very different from our own families. Like a good family we have held together through the ups and downs, celebrating together, grieving together and giving together.
In today’s service Pastor Paul, (who had to leave Kosele in 2007 because he came from the wrong tribe), said how delighted he was to be in church at this momentous time. Despite only being the pastor for a short time, Paul was loved by the church members and they were pleased to see him back for this visit. Paul and his colleague Pastor Reuben are members of the national leadership of the Elim Gospel Church in Kenya. (Ours is the only Elim church in Nyanza province.) Becoming part of this movement links our church to a number of others in different parts of the country and to a wider global family of Elim churches with a headquarters in the UK.
In a very moving service, Paul and Reuben anointed our new Pastor Kennedy and co-pastor Dorine, and their leadership team, all by the popular acclaim of the church members. Reuben preached the sermon in the service and coined a completely beautiful phrase. He was extolling the virtues of loving one another through showing each other kindness and creating hope in brothers’ and sisters’ lives. He said that as a result of this “the friendship becomes fatter”. It’s a lovely image and a wonderfully African sentiment.
Kennedy, our new Pastor, reminded the church of its roots in our Home ten years ago. Looking round the church and seeing the happy faces, young, old, men, women, boys and girls I was reminded of a New Testament scripture from 1st Corinthians 3:6-7 which says:
“I planted the seeds, Apollos watered them, but God made them sprout and grow. What matters isn't those who planted or watered, but God who made the plants grow.”
The church today is unrecognisable from that little group ten years ago, and I wonder what it will be like in another 10 years – how will it compare with today’s congregation? We are confident that Kennedy and Dorine will lead it well because it has became clear that God has called and equipped them and set them apart to serve him in this place. We feel privileged to be a part of what God is doing here at this time.
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