For the past two days I have been ministering in Kisumu. This carries some sadness for me, as I was supposed to be speaking at a conference there at the end of 2023, but sadly the pastor, Bishop Edward Kunani, died about a month earlier. Bishop Edward was one of our first affiliated ministers, and I had watched him and his church grow over the years. I remember the first time I ministered there, back in 2010. Their building was just a few tin sheets for the roof, held up by rough poles and with sheets of plastic for walls. He confided to me that a previous visiting speaker had rebuked him, saying that he should be ashamed to worship God in such a building. I was furious. I told him, “The God who chose to be born in a stable is not ashamed to be worshipped in a humble building.”
They had begun building around the existing structure, a few bricks at a time. At that stage (2010) the new building was about 2 bricks high. When I returned in 2019, the new building was complete and beautiful.
Bishop Edward himself had been battling cancer for many years, and early in December was freed from that battle and went home to the Lord. My ministry these last two days was with a pastor whom I initially met through Bishop Edward, and who then became affiliated with us, Pastor Henry.
As is so typical here in Africa, before we went we were not sure whether we were going to be there for two days or just one. The meetings started on Tuesday, so we had to leave Kitale around 7am Tuesday morning for the three hour drive to Kisumu. We arrived to find the street filled with cows – yes, it was another cattle market. At first I was a little concerned that the noise might be a disturbance, but that turned out to not be a problem at all.
The building where this church meets is tiny, typical of the small shops that line the streets of Kenyan towns. The main room would be maybe four metres square, with a smaller room in front. On the first day around 20 people managed to cram into this space, mostly pastors and leaders. On the second day there were more.
I thought I was going to be taking one or maybe two sessions on Tuesday, but it turned out I was doing three. As I have said before, I love ministering to pastors and leaders, because I know that whatever I share is going to be multiplied as they then share it with others.
Yesterday I was only supposed to have two sessions, as we were travelling back to Kitale in the afternoon. However, they requested that on the second session instead of speaking for an hour, I take an hour and a half – then afterwards they threw in a “Q&A” time, which basically became like a third session. It was great to have these men and women of God asking intelligent and probing questions, showing that they had indeed taken in the things that I had been sharing.
At the end they all prayed for me, then I had the privilege of praying for some of them (I had also prayed for some of those who were there on Tuesday, including Pastor Henry, who confirmed yesterday that part of what I had prayed for him on Tuesday had already come to pass.)
We were supposed to be going on to Busia today for another conference, but that has been cancelled, so I am having a rest day (for which I am grateful) and will be here in Kitale till Tuesday.