All You Need is Love

Our seventh month on The Race was in Nakuru, Kenya, 2 hours outside Nairobi. My team, comprised of Missy, Amanda, me, Nathan, Dan, and Chase were by ourselves this month to serve Deliverance Church Favourland. The church is medium-sized and serves the Kiti community in numerous ways. We lived in the small home of Pastors Ayub and Ruth Kayo and their two children, Tim (8 yrs) and Tiffany (4 yrs).  A 20-year-old nanny, Joyce, lives in the home full-time as well. The 3 guys slept on two beds in Tim’s room and the 3 ladies slept on a twin and a double bed across the hall in Joyce’s room. We were so blessed to be living with the Kayos because they embody the phrase, “Your house is my house” and treat us as a part of their family. Additionally, Ruth is a loving mother-figure to us all.

Our main ministry contacts were Pastor Ayub, the lead pastor of Deliverance Church (an Assemblies of God church), Pastor Ruth, Ayub’s wife, Pastor Zak, the associate pastor, and John and Earnest, active members of the church. We spent most of our time with Pastor Zak and John this month. Pastor Zak is an amazing man of God who is incredibly knowledgeable, wise, and humorous! Our team has a saying, “We can’t get enough of Zak!” John is a 24-year-old who serves the church by playing the keyboard for church services, and he came with us to most of our ministry this month.

And boy did we do a lot of ministry!

Sunday church service

We attended 10 AM – 1 PM service every Sunday. Pastors Ayub and Zak taught the services (Ayub would speak in English and Zak would translate in Kiswahili … English and Kiswahili are the national languages). Ruth sings on the worship team and leads many of the congregational prayers. Church is always a freeing and enjoyable time with charismatic worship and sermons that are Spirit-led.

Cleaning the church every Saturday morning

Every Saturday, some church members, such as Earnest, clean the church floor, windows, the chairs, and the children’s ministry building. They also cut and maintain the grass on the property. We assisted with their weekly cleaning.

Door-to-door evangelism, house visits, prayer walking, and handing out church fliers

For the most part, we would split up into groups with Pastor Zak, John, and Earnest to do door-to-door evangelism or make house visits in the Kiti community. We were most of the time served chai (milk tea) as an act of hospitality from the person we were visiting! To increase awareness of Deliverance Church in the Kiti community we went with a church member to hand out fliers of the church services available. We handed out fliers to random people walking the streets, store owners, store customers, and pretty much anyone we could encounter.

Orphanage visits (AKA: manual labor)

We assumed that when Pastor Zak told us we would be visiting numerous orphanages during the month that we would be playing with the orphans the whole time. Well, it turns out that we spent 90% of our time cleaning or doing landscape work!  You never know what God will ask you to do!

Visiting a private general hospital

We also assumed that when we arrived at the hospital we would be visiting the mens’, womens’, antepartum, and pediatric wings to pray for the patients. Well, we did end up doing that for a bit, but for most of the day, we worked on the external hospital landscape. Who knew the hospital manager would serve us free lunch for serving the hospital! He was baffled that mzungus (white people) would do manual labor joyfully and without hesitation.

Visiting schools of all ages

Again, we were surprised to learn that most of our time at the schools were spent doing manual labor. So, to sum up this month of Kenyan ministry in four words, it would be, “lots of manual labor.” Depending on the school, we taught English and math, supervised exams, helped manage classes, cleaned books and workbooks, helped cook lunch, washed lunch dishes, played futbol (soccer) during recesses, cleaned dormitory floors , worked on the landscaping, and fellowshipped with the kids.

This month of Kenyan ministry has taught me to find joy in the minute or mundane service we have been asked to do. I often remind myself to be intentional and relational during ministry instead of just showing up, getting the job done, and moving on to the next project. God has been frequently reminding me to enjoy the journey and find joy in the small things in life. I forget at times that the relationships we build at ministry locations are often times more impactful that the actual physical work we accomplish. I am growing in understanding the value of relationship and serving out of love: A love that parallels the love God shows to me every day.