Greetings everyone. I wanted to get a few updates out before leaving for Kenya on Friday. Pastor Jeremia and I will be visiting our sister churches in the Kisii area, as well as those in Moi's Bridge. We have one seminary student from each place here at Wittenberg, and others from Kenya who may be interested in attending next year. There are also Christian schools in both places which CLC Project Kinship supports. We'll be traveling as far as Nairobi, Kenya on Friday. We will be visiting the Kisii people on Saturday and Sunday, the Moi's Bridge folks Monday-Tuesday. Then we'll return home on Wednesday, God willing. Pastors Loskira and Lengutai will cover our classes while we are absent. Here are some recent photos and comments:
On Saturday I was invited to attend a traditional family feast, where a cow was presented by a bride's family to the family of the groom as a dowry. Pastor Jeremia presided over the official transfer. The cow had actually been slaughtered earlier, and the group of perhaps 75 people feasted on the beef, along with rice pilau. It was a very interesting cultural experience!
Five of the seminary students also attended the dowry presentation, and we posed for this photo.
This is me waiting by the side of the main road for my Arusha printer to deliver our new textbooks. He was running on "Africa time," so I had to leave and teach class. Later that morning I rode back down to meet him and retrieve the books. They are an introduction to Christian teaching using the adult instruction course "Learn from Me," presented in facing pages with English and computer-generated Swahili.
Here is a look at our textbook. Getting these is a major development for the seminary students. Up until now their only "textbooks" are the notes that they may take during classes. Providing them with doctrinally-sound materials in their own language not only enhances their own study, but will be a resource for them for years to come in the pastoral ministry. All of this is made possible by the generous contributions of stateside CLC members to the CLC Mission Development Fund (MDF).
It was an exceptionally clear morning yesterday, for which I was thankful. We're supposed to be at the end of the rainy season now, which can't come soon enough for a guy who rides a bicycle to work. The local peak is Mt. Meru, which stood out boldly on the road that leads up the muddy hill to the seminary. Hopefully the rains are behind us now for a while, so it will be just a dry dirt road.
By the time a typical seminary class is done the whiteboard is usually filled. For "New Testament Survey" the students are reading through the entire New Testament between now and the end of November, and we have reached the end of Mark's Gospel. I am routinely peppered with insightful questions - some on-topic and some off. The brief summary of the four Gospels is translated:
Matthew - Jesus the Promised KING Mark - Jesus the Powerful SERVANT
Luke - Jesus the Savior of ALL John - Jesus the WORD made FLESH
Seminary students at lunch. The staple "filler" food is ugali (looks like a cut cake in the picture). It's actually a very thick cornmeal mush, with hardly any flavor. It serves as both staple and utensil - you take a hunk and press it to make sort of a spoon to scoop up the other saucy dish, which in this case is beans. At lunch the students always ask me over and say "karibu" - "welcome!" I'm still bringing my own lunch, but sometimes sample a little of what "Mama Nuele," the seminary house mother, has on the menu.
I'm sure there will be news to share following the Kenya travels. I am closing in on one month to go before returning to the U.S. for furlough. I am thankful for the prayerful support of so many of you CLC members, and I am glad to have the opportunity to train men here for the work of the Gospel, according to all of God's true Word.
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