It is rainy season in Kenya, and much of the country has been experiencing serious flooding. On Sunday Adams had word from one of his friends who had travelled from Nairobi to Kitale, that the journey had taken him from 8 in the morning until midnight, as many of the roads were cut with floods.
This was some concern to us, as we had to travel from Kitale to Nairobi on Tuesday, and needed to be at the airport by 7pm for check-in. Adams suggested that we would need to get going as early as possible, and pray that there would not be any problems along the way.
Having sent out prayer requests all over the place, we left at 7am. Praise God, though there was plenty of water at the sides of the road, there was none over the road, and we arrived safely in Nairobi mid-afternoon. After a quick lunch (KFC) we decided to head straight to the airport. I’m so glad we were not cutting the timing fine, or I could have been really stressed. The traffic was horrendous, and it took us nearly two hours to get from central Nairobi to the airport.
Mary had not been able to come with us, as she had business she needed to attend to back in Kitale, so it was just a quick goodbye to Adams when he dropped me off at the terminal. In a way I was glad, as I hate the teary goodbyes.
I was still early, so I had to wait at the cafe near the terminal until check-in time. That was not a burden – they make good cappuccino, and it gave me a chance to catch up with my Bible reading for the day.
Both legs of the flight home were pleasant. Emirates is a great airline, and for the flight from Nairobi to Dubai I had a row of seats to myself (on the plan I had one other person in the row, with a seat between us, but there was a vacant row in front of us so he moved there to allow us both to have a row to ourselves.) On the leg from Dubai to Melbourne there were two of us in the row, with a seat between us.
I arrived in Melbourne at 5.30 this morning, and because I know the distances in Melbourne airport I decided to swallow my pride and ask for a wheelchair. This proved to be a great decision. Not only did it save me a lot of walking when I was very tired, but when it came to immigration it meant no standing in the (very long) queues – just wheeled straight up to the desk and through in minutes. Definitely something I will do again next time (there are some advantages in being old!) I took myself through Customs, as I needed to declare my shoes which had tramped through farming areas in ten different African countries, but even that was fairly quick.
By the time I was through, my friends Rod and Cheryl were there waiting for me to bring me back to home.
The final figures for the trip:
* Out of 184 days, 37 were spent travelling, including 22 flights, 4 long bus trips, countless journeys by car, a few by tuk-tuk, and four short ones by motor bike
* On the 147 days when I was not travelling, I ministered 133 times, at 40 different churches and conferences, in ten different countries.
* 95 people found Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour for the first time, and 29 recommitted their lives to Him. These were not at evangelistic meetings, but in normal church services and Christian conferences.
* As God promised me before I left for the trip, He began healing people while I was ministering, with nine people (that I know about) receiving their healing while I was preaching.
There were plenty of challenges, both natural and spiritual, but it has been a truly awesome time in God, not only for what He has done through me but for what He has done in me.
Now I have six months of ministry at home before heading off for my next six-month mission, God willing.
First the good news: when I woke up yesterday morning the pain that had been so severe on Friday, and continued to be noticeable but not incapacitating on Saturday, was completely gone. Big, big, big Praise God! I have no idea what it was all about. Obviously I had not broken a rib, as I originally thought (unless I had and the Lord healed it.) But I’m extremely glad to be rid of it.
Yesterday I ministered at Great Holistic Transformation Centre, Kamukuywa, which is about an hour away from Kitale. This church is led by Pastor Samson, who has been part of our network for a long time, and I have ministered there several times before, so it was really great to be there again and catch up with Pastor Samson and the people.
It was only a small congregation, but they were responsive to the word, and asked me then to do an impromptu session with the leaders after lunch, which I was very happy to do.
Pastor Samson and the church there face two challenges. Firstly, there used to be a road at the front of the plot where the church building is located, but people have taken over the road and built on it. (Yes, that happens here!) Now the church is blocked in on all sides, and they have to use a narrow walkway through someone’s property to access their plot. He asked us to pray that the government would step in and restore the road so that they can have proper access.
Finance is also always a challenge, as it is for almost all our pastors in Africa. Their building is very simple, and they are believing for God to provide the funds for them to replace the earth floor with something better.
Sadly, that was the last of my ministry here in Africa for this trip. There is always a sense of anti-climax at the end of a trip, and I guess this one is worse because it has been such a long trip, and so much has happened, so I am feeling pretty flat today. It’s going to be very strange fitting back into life at home, and particularly to ministering only once a week, if that, most weeks. There are also a few challenges to face, particularly finding a new home for my van and me, but I know God will go before me.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the last few days I have been super tired. Yesterday was more of the same, only more so. Not only tired, but aching all over I was feeling really off. I was to speak in the afternoon at a combined home cell group meeting, and I very nearly messaged Adams to ask if I could be excused. But I don’t like letting people down, and I don’t like missing an opportunity to minister, so I went ahead with it.
By the time we got to the house I had a bit of a pain in my side, and it increased through the time of introductions and worship. By the time I was due to speak, it was a constant sharp pain and I was finding it difficult to catch my breath. I preached through the pain with difficulty, but I must have been making faces because one of the ladies, sitting directly opposite me, kept giving me concerned looks.
As soon as I had finished preaching I said, “Now could you please pray for me, I have this terrible pain in my side.” They did, but the pain got worse as we were driving home, and by the time we arrived at Adams’ place I was literally screaming in pain. In my lifetime I have given birth (twice), I have had gallstones, pericarditis and a pulmonary embolism, and this pain was right up there with all of them. I thought I had somehow managed to break a rib.
I quickly had Mary and four very concerned girls around me, trying to offer whatever help they could. Adams called Elder Enock, and he went off to get some medicine. Meanwhile, the girls had me lying down, and eventually I said that I needed to sit up. That helped a bit, and so did asserting strong pressure on the area where the pain was, so by the time he returned I was at least coherent. A needle for the pain, more antibiotics and some other pills, and I was much more comfortable. Also lots more prayer – everyone agreed that this was a direct attack from the enemy.
I woke in the middle of the night in pain, and decided that the best thing I could do was to spend the rest of the night sleeping sitting up it the chair. That helped a bit, but this morning it was getting worse again. So I tried a new form of prayer, going into the courts of heaven. I had read about this but to be honest I had poo-p00ed the idea a bit (and there are still some aspects of it that I don’t agree with) but I was desperate. It worked – instantly the pain eased to almost nothing. I am definitely going to have to check out this form of prayer more closely.
Today I was scheduled to speak to a meeting of pastors and leaders. Adams wanted to cancel it so that I could rest, but I said that I would be ok. As so often happens, the anointing took over and while I was preaching I was not even conscious of my side. This was my second-last meeting for this trip, and I was so happy to be able to do one of the things I love best, pouring into those called to ministry.
Adams’ church runs a small micro-finance scheme to help women start up small businesses, or to expand the businesses they already have.
Micro-finance schemes have been used by many organizations to give people “a hand up rather than a hand-out.” The concept is simple: people receive a small loan (usually less than $100) which is repaid over a set period at low interest. When they have completely repaid that loan, they can get another until their business is fully established. These schemes are generally specifically targeted to women, because it has been shown that women are better at maintaining the repayments than men are.
In the scheme from Adams’ church the women are first assessed to see if their business idea is viable, and if they are capable of carrying it through. Then they receive some basic business training from Mary, Adams’ wife before they are given the loan. When they start their business (or expand the one they already had) they receive regular visits from Mary to encourage them and help with any challenges they may be facing.
On Thursday I had the privilege of meeting some of these women and seeing what they are doing. Some of them are single mothers, and the tiny amount they can make from this business is all that they have for their family to live on. For many the business of choice is a fruit and vegetable stall. They simply set up a kiosk with rough poles and a display area, and some kind of cover, then buy vegetables and fruit each morning in bulk and resell it during the day. They have to be able to judge well how much to buy, otherwise they could either run out of stock or have too much left over that is wasted.
Other challenges they face are tax – government officials go round the stalls to collect taxes according to how well the stall is doing. It sounds a bit like the tax collectors in the New Testament – and the issue of transporting their stock from the market to their stall.
Zipporah already had a small business selling fruit and vegetables, but the micro-loan has enabled her to buy more stock each day so that she is not running out of stock before the day ends. She said she was very happy to have the loan.
Evelyn also already had a business but the loan has enabled her to boost her stock. Lorna, on the other hand, was able to start up a business for the first time. Lydia has also started a business in a slum area, selling maize, vegetables and charcoal. (With an unreliable electricity supply and bottled gas being expensive, charcoal is often the fuel of choice for cooking, so is always in demand.)
Brigit has decided to go a different way. She has started making small items of jewellery and accessories. She works in a beauty salon, and they have given her permission to display her items in their counter until she can build the business to a point where she can go out on her own. She said that before she receive the loan she had been talking to her husband and saying that she would like to start a business, but they didn’t have the money, so when she received the offer of the loan it was like a miracle to her. She asked me to come and bless her house, which I happily did – two tiny rooms made of corrugated iron sheets with dirt floors. It reminded me of the first house I remember living in as a child, though I don’t remember ours being so small – but who knows, to a small child everything looks big.
Other loan recipients, who I didn’t get to meet because the rain had made the roads to their homes impassable, are making clothes or buying and reselling them.
These dear ladies have incredibly hard lives, and I admire them greatly. I wish I were a billionaire and could throw money at them.
Yesterday I ministered at one of Adams’ outreach churches, located in one of the outlying areas of Kitale. This church had all kinds of problems, and had dwindled to almost nothing and was almost at the point of closing when Adams and his church took it over. I was here a few years ago, just after they had taken it on, so it was good to be back and see the growth that has happened since then.
The meeting was to start at 3, but before that one of the deacons and his wife had invited us to lunch. So we enjoyed a lovely meal and a time of fellowship with them before going to the meeting.
Around 20 people had gathered for the meeting, and there was a great time of worship before they handed over to me. I really didn’t expect that there would be anyone unsaved in the congregation – to gather at mid-afternoon in the middle of the week requires quite some commitment. But I gave a call anyway, and one young man responded, praise the Lord.
When I finished, Adams picked up on part of my message and led the people in a time of deep repentance and surrender, which was awesome as the Holy Spirit moved on the congregation.
As usual, before we left there had to be the normal photo call – the people here love their photos!
Adams also shared an exciting testimony. When I was here at the end of 2022, the Lord led me to pray for women who wanted children and who had not been able to conceive. One of those ladies, who had been trying for over six years to get pregnant, is due to give birth this week. God is faithful!
This time next week I will be home. I only have three more meetings here at this stage – a combined home fellowship on Friday night, a pastors and leaders seminar on Saturday, and the Sunday morning service – although it is quite possible they will ask me to do a final service on Sunday night.
The bites are clearing up, and the sore throat is easing, but I am feeling very tired – I have actually slept in the last two mornings. I am assuming this is just the normal end-of-trip tiredness, as my mind adjusts to the upcoming change, but I need to push through it and not allow it to hinder the ministry here for this last week.
My week in Kisumu (actually Awendo, which is some distance from the town of Kisumu) was a mixed bag. As indicated in the graphic I shared in my last post, I was supposed to be speaking at a conference on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, taking two day sessions and an evening session on Thursday and Saturday, and two sessions on Sunday. That simply just didn’t happen.
As mentioned in my last post, I had just one session on Thursday with a small group of young people. On Friday I did the Pastors and Leaders day at Migori, which was great, and I was looking forward to a similar day (but without the car problems) on Saturday.
The morning session was supposed to start at 9, but 11 came and went with no sign of anyone. Many of the local ladies had gone to another conference some distance away for the week, and had not yet returned. So it looked like just one day session, in the afternoon.
But no. By 3.30, still no sign of an afternoon session. Then a storm broke and rain belted down for about half an hour, so loud that it would have been impossible to do anything any way. So no afternoon session, and no night session. Nothing on Saturday. I was feeling frustrated and cheated, and told Isaiah that I felt that his people simply didn’t want what I had to offer. As we talked he shared that there has been massive spiritual attack against not only his church but the churches in general in that area – something that I should have seen (me saying that, not him.)
That attack again became very obvious on Sunday morning. Something hit the church electrical system, taking out all the speakers and the musical instruments. The church services went ahead (I spoke at both) but with limited worship. The people were receptive, but no responses for salvation even though I felt in my spirit that there were definitely people in the congregation who were not born again.
Apparently they wanted me to do a revival meeting on Monday night, but we had already made the arrangements for me to come back to Kitale. Adams, Mary and Abby arrived around 1 yesterday, and of course Isaiah and Caroline insisted that we have lunch before we left. Then Isaiah decided to come with us because he is planning to come to Kitale in June when John Lamb is here, and he wanted to know where to come. It was a long trip, around six hours, but as usual I was a good baby and slept most of the way. Today I am resting, then I have several meetings through the rest of the week.
To add to the challenges and frustrations of the week, I am covered with what we think may be bedbug bites. Itching like crazy. The wife of the bishop at Migori is a nurse, and she suggested a cortisone cream which has helped but I still want to rip my skin off at times. I also have a very sore throat, but without the cough this time. I have asked Adams and Mary to call Elder Enoch, who is the doctor who helped when I had the badly infected leg at the beginning of this trip, to see if he thinks I should have an antibiotic.
This week I am with Pastor Isaiah in Kisumu. Pastor Isaiah is one of our newest affiliated pastors, and it is a joy to stay with him and his family here. I’m in love with his little six-month old daughter – I’m going to sneak her into my case and smuggle her home. (not really.)
While I am here I am speaking at a conference in his church. Yesterday was a youth meeting – just a small gathering but they seemed to receive the word well. On Saturday there will be a day for pastors and leaders, with the theme of Equipping the Saints. One of my favourite areas of ministry, and one of my favourite subjects, so I am really looking forward to it.
Today we went to a one-day pastors and leaders conference held by a friend of Isaiah’s in Migori. This bishop had come down yesterday to meet me and we “clicked” straight away. Because Isaiah doesn’t have a car he hired one for us to go through to Migori. We were supposed to leave at 8.30, but when he went to pick up the car there was a problem with the alternator and the battery was not charged, so he had to go to get another battery. So it was almost 10 before we got away.
We had gone maybe quarter of the way when to car lost power. He still had the other battery in the car, so between the two batteries was able to get it going again. This performance was repeated a couple of times, and he ended up calling for the car’s owner who came and got the car going (sort of.)
This time we made it to the bishop’s house where, in spite of being already very late, we had to have tea and something to eat. When we got back into the car to go to the church, it was again dead. After several efforts, with no result, they gave up and called another car. Just as that was due to arrive, Isaiah tried one more time, not expecting anything to happen, but to everyone’s amusement the car actually started and we headed to the meeting.
I was supposed to have two sessions, but because of the hold-ups I ended up only doing one, and Isaiah did one. There were around 120 pastors and leaders gathered, and the response was great.
When it came time to leave, again the car would not go, no matter how much everyone tried. Again they ended up calling the owner, and he drove the car home with us as passengers. Three or four times along the way it died, and we were very glad that he was driving and had the responsibility of keeping it going.
The interesting thing for me personally was that at no point during the day was I stressed. I just had absolute peace that God was in control and that everything would work out the way He wanted. God is really doing something in me.
Another major challenge has come up in the last couple of days. I contacted Michelle, the lady in whose yard my van is living, to say that I will be home on 2nd May. She replied that she is selling the house, and that I would have till the beginning of June to find somewhere else for me and my van. Again, I have perfect peace about this, even though at this point I have no idea where that place might be. I have put out prayer requests here there and everywhere, but I just know that God is not going to have me come home from Africa to be homeless.
One of the hardest things about the kind of short-term missions that I do is that you are with people long enough for them to get into your heart, then you have to leave.
It’s been like that with Pastor Mac and his wife Rose, and their family. I have been with them for the past month, and Mac has gone with me everywhere that I have been ministering. When we have not been away in another area I have stayed in their home. So there was a certain sadness yesterday when it came time to say goodbye.
My flight was scheduled to leave at 6.30, and (remembering the debacle at Accra) I had said that I needed to be at the airport by 3. There was a bit of a mechanical problem with the car on the way, but nonetheless we arrived by 2 – only to be told that the flight was delayed and now would not be leaving until 11! Check-in would not be till 6. Unlike Australia, where you can wait within the terminal till check-in, in Africa they will not let you in until check-in opens. So Mac, Rose, and I went and sat at the little cafe that is next to the terminal building.
Four hours of doing nothing. My phone had very little charge, so I couldn’t even play games. After a couple of hours Mac went to check – check-in was not 6.30. Just before 6 he went to check again, and this time came back and said that we needed to go, as there was already a long queue. Finally it started moving. Wait. Shuffle forward. Wait. Shuffle some more.
Eventually I got through the door and went on to check-in, immigration, security and finally to the boarding gate for another 5 hours of waiting.
When boarding time came, the older people were given priority and a nice lady helped me to the bus and then with the actual boarding of the plane (up those steps!) and saw that I was settled in my seat and my luggage stowed before the other passengers began to board.
The flight itself was uneventful, and I did manage to catch a couple of hours sleep, but of course by the time we arrived in Nairobi it was well past the scheduled departure time for my connection to Kisumu. In Monrovia they had told me that Kenya Airways would provide an alternative, but when I checked that flight was not going till 5.30. I was exhausted and just couldn’t face another five hours waiting in the airport, so I messaged Adams to ask if someone could pick me up in Nairobi.
Fortunately his nephew manages a hotel complex which is part of a ministry organization here, and he picked me up and brought me to the hotel, where I have a nice cool room for the night. Adams will come through in the morning.
My throat has been improving over the last couple of days. I’m still coughing but not quite as much, and my throat no longer feels like I have been swallowing razor blades.
The past two days I have been ministering with one of our most long-standing affiliated pastors, Pastor Charles. He joined the network around 15 years ago, so it has been really great to meet him in person.
We have had two meetings, one on Thursday night at Divinity Church in West Point, which is Pastor Charles’ main church. Three people responded for salvation, and one for recommittment. One lady testified that when she came to the meeting she had chest pain, but as I was preaching she felt God touch her and the pain went. Praise God for His awesome power.
Yesterday we had a morning meeting at Brewerville, where Pastor Charles operates a school for 108 children. When they first went to this area there was no school in the community, so it is a real blessing that they have been able to provide education for these kids.
Brewerville is around 2 hours drive from Pastor Mac’s home. He had a funeral he had to attend, so he drove me into town where we met Pastor Charles and continued from there in a kik-kik (tuk-tuk).
The meeting was supposed to be for pastors and leaders, but I gave a salvation call at the end of my message anyway – and sixteen people responded! This was almost half the congregation.
This anointing for salvations is growing. Last month the total for the month was 27, for the first two weeks of this month it is already up to 26, with one more meeting to go. I love what God is doing, but it has totally baffled me. I am not an evangelist. My call is to the Church, not to the lost. And, as I have said before, I usually don’t preach “salvation” messages, but rather fairly strong messages to the Body of Christ – and yet people respond.
But yesterday afternoon the Lord gave me a bit of an insight into it. As I thought about the fact that sixteen people out of a gathering that was supposed to be for Christian leaders had not been born again, I found myself wondering, How many people are there in our churches who go through all the motions, sing the songs, do the stuff, but have never entered in to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ – and are therefore heading toward an eternity without Him? That thought makes me very sad. Then I realized (I won’t say God spoke, but I know He was the one behind the revelation) – my calling to the Church includes calling the Church to Christ. How can she ever fulfill her destiny of becoming like Him, when so many of her members don’t even know Him?
My time here in Liberia is almost over. They are having a farewell meeting for me tomorrow afternoon, then on Monday it’s off to Kenya for the last two weeks of the trip – this kinda feels like going home before I go home. Looking forward to seeing Adams, Mary and the kids again, and to the ministry there. I’m sure they will keep me busy.
Meanwhile, I have begun preliminary planning for my next trip, which will be to visit our Asian pastors at the end of this year into the beginning of next year.
I was supposed to have a meeting on Tuesday night, but the pastor there has been ill so the meeting was cancelled. This means that I have had three days in a row with no meetings – for the first time since Burundi.
Yesterday I was very grateful for this. I thought that the cough that has bothered me for more than a month had finally cleared up. I actually had a couple of (almost) cough-free days.
But I was wrong: it was simply regrouping for a new onslaught. It started to stir up again on Tuesday night, and by yesterday morning it was back with a vengeance. I was coughing up great gobs of yellow gunk, and my throat felt like I had been swallowing razor blades. By mid-morning I also felt like I was going to throw up. And just to make life even more interesting I had developed an intermittent sharp pain in my right rib area, under my armpit – I suspect that with all the coughing I have managed to pull a muscle. Feeling utterly wretched I took myself to bed for most of the day, and thanked God that I didn’t have to minister (and it’s not often you will hear me say that.)
In between naps I flicked off prayer requests to a couple of people. One of them, my friend John, came back to me and said that one of the guys in his church had told him that the Lord woke him up and told him to intercede for me. That tells me that this isn’t just a “normal” throat infection, but a direct demonic attack. So into warfare mode, and getting excited about what it might be that the Lord has planned that the enemy is so keen to stop.
At a practical level, I did give in and get some antibiotics – Pastor Mac’s wife is a nurse and runs a small pharmacy, so was able to supply them for me (no need for a doctor’s prescription here.) I really hate taking antibiotics, they do terrible things to the friendly bugs in your gut, but in this case I felt it was the sensible thing to do (as well as lots of prayer.)
Today I am feeling slightly better – yesterday I couldn’t even swallow water without it hurting, but this morning I was able to enjoy my breakfast. Continuing to pray for God to either fully heal me this afternoon or override the sickness as I have meetings tonight and tomorrow morning.
The combination of the heat and the rolling power outages here is a major challenge, particularly when the power is out all night. It means you can’t really do any work, and whereas during the day you can at least use a hand fan to keep cool, you can’t do that while you are sleeping (or trying to.) Monday night was one of those nights – too hot to sleep, tossing and turning half the night.
Then half way through the night a storm broke. I love storms (as long as I am snug and safe indoors and enjoying them from a distance) and storms are something that Africa does really well. Bucketing rain. Temperature dropped at least 10 degrees in a few minutes. One massive crash of thunder/lightening that must have hit very close to here. (Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, sound travels at 12.7 miles per minute. Even though at the point of impact the flash and the crash are simultaneous, the light goes out from there at massive speed and the sound lopes along after it like a dachshund pup chasing a greyhound, getting further and further behind with each step. So the less time elapses between the flash and the crash, the closer the point of impact was to where you are.) I loved it, even though I still didn’t get much sleep.
Last night again we had no power from 6.30 pm till around 8 this morning, but again the Lord turned on a fantastic display in a storm that cooled everything down and provided a brilliant light display.