Welp, I’m in Kenya. We’re doing ministry with Pastor Gideon
in Busia, Kenya. It’s on the border with Uganda. This month we’ll be working
with the churches 2020 vision of doubling their church numbers each year, so by
the year 2020 there will be 64,000 members and half of Busia will know Christ
and go to their church.
Today we went morning church starting at 7:00. There are two
services and the second one is much louder and crazier than the first. I think
because by 10:30 everyone is awake and ready to party.
To start off the service, they have prayer. Elections are
coming next month and last election year, 2007, there was a lot of violence. So
they’re praying for peace this year as well as their 2020 vision. Then we have
worship. In this particular church of Kenya, they can actually sing! It is very
refreshing. They are loud, and everyone in the congregation is singing and
dancing, running and jumping (we literally ran in church today during worship).
There was even a lady who used the chair she was sitting in
to raise in the air, up and down like she was exercising her arms and yelling.
Everyone knows the words to the songs and motions without any power point or
song sheet. It’s so fun being a part of that.
One of my favorite songs that they sing here in Africa is ‘Winner
Man’. But you must understand something, when Africans say the word winner,
they’re saying it with an accent so it sounds like wiener. So I think you might
understand our immature laughter and giggles when they sing, “Jesus is a winna
man, I am a winna too! You are a winna! Winna, winna, winna!�
Sam gave our message this morning about bring Heaven into
your homes, she did a wonderful job! Pastor Gids sure did like it and four
people turned to Jesus at the end of the second service. We were able to sing
three songs at the second service.
At the end of the service for announcements, Pastor Gids got
up and advertised the books he was selling in the back of his car. When we
arrived at his house yesterday, the coffee table was full of books, all by Dag
Heward-Mills. We have never heard of this guy, but he sure does have tons of
books, all of which Gids has. The best part was how he was describing them to
the congregation, making sure they understood truly how they would change their
life. He would hold the book up, read the title, and say something about it.
“Magazines, guys you need to be reading these magazines to
learn things.�
“Church Planting. If you want to minister in the
church, you need to read this book. You need to know how to church plant.�
“How to Attract and Attain Quality Husbands. Women, you need to read this book.�
“How to Succeed in the Business World. Use this! God
can make you succeed (only when he said
succeed it sounded like sexy)!
Then he advertised t-shirts for the church. “You need this. They are influential.�
After that, I really wanted to buy each of the books. To us,
it’s not questionable that the same author knows about everything in life. We’re looking forward to more time at church, meeting the
members, and spending time with our new family.
