We arrived in Kitale, where Adams and his family live, on Thursday night. It was great to be welcomed again to their home as one of the family, with Adams and Mary calling me “Mum” and their kids calling me “Grandma.”
Yesterday (Friday) was to be a day of rest, and it was … for most of the day. Around 2pm Adams came and said that there was going to be a home meeting at 4, celebrating the birth of a baby to one of the home group members, and they wanted me to speak and to pray for the bub.
We went with Elder Benson, whom I know from previous visits, and after everyone in the group had had a turn to share, he introduced me. He surprised me somewhat, saying that it was an honour to have someone “of [my] standing” come to speak to a small group. He made me sound like someone great. It was all I could do not to interrupt and say, “Hey, I’m nobody special. I’m just Lynnie, an old lady from Oz” (hmmm, sounds like that could be the beginning of a limerick.) I appreciated him honouring me, but I felt distinctly uncomfortable with it. Anyway, the meeting went well, and I ministered the word and prayed for the sweet little boy.
The church where I was going to minister today had not been able to organize a meeting, so last night Adams told me that we were going to a youth conference in Mt. Elgon. Mt. Elgon is around 50kms from Kitale. The roads for the last bit of the trip are extremely rough, but the views are absolutely worth it. I don’t think I have captured them well enough in this pic, but I hope you get the idea. The iron building at the extreme left of the photo is the church where the conference was held.
They welcomed us with leis of tinsel, and brought us into the building in procession, which was kinda fun, though I have definitely not mastered the kind of shuffling walk they use for such occasions. There were around 50 to 60 young people, and even though I was preaching a fairly heavy word about Christian growth, at the end three people came out for salvation! Praise the Lord! Almost all the rest came out for prayer and to commit themselves to going further in their Christian life. By the end of the session, my legs were cramping badly, but it was more than worth it.
Tomorrow I will be ministering at a local church here in Kitale, and next week I will be teaching my Called to Battle spiritual warfare seminar over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.