According to Google Maps, the bus ride from Nairobi to Siaya was supposed to be approximately 5 hours. Figuring that Google Maps didn’t factor in bus stops along the way, I extended the estimate to 7 or 8 hours. However, yesterday, after 10 hours of tea fields, forest, mountains, valleys, and even a zebra-dotted nature preserve passed outside of our bus windows, we finally arrived at ourministry home for the next three and a half weeks: Deliverance Church of Siaya.
Siaya is nestled in the western part of Kenya, not too far from the Kenyan/Ugandan border. Most of the people here do not speak much Kiswahili (one of the national languages of Kenya); rather, they speak English and their local dialect.The roads are predominantly unpaved and the main means of transportation is either bicycle or foot. As we walked through the townsite today, I couldn’t help but grow in excitement and anticipation at what the Lord is going to do over the next few weeks. Besides daily prayer meetings and gatherings at the church, we aren’t quite sure our time here will fully look like, but we are hoping to host a crusade next week, and then have a children’s program the following week.
We are staying with the Pastor Joseph Osundwa’s wonderful family. His wife, Nellyn, exudes such a fun-loving, joyful spirit, and we have already had several comedic memories with her. They have four biological children ranging in age from 14 to 21, as well as a foster son named Maxwell, who is five. I have truly been so humbled by the ways the Osundwa family has already blessed us… with a bedroom for the boys and for the girls, mosquito nets, a bathroom (yes, it is an actual sit-down toilet… God is gracious!), and incredibly delicious meals. I will be lucky if my clothes button up at the end of the month.
One of the words that has been spoken over our team again and again is that we are to bring life wherever we go. In fact, our team name, BLAZE, stands for Bringers of Life Abundantly, Zealously, and Eternally.This morning, one of the words the Lord gave to me was from II Corinthians 3, where Paul writes that we are the fragrance of Christ… and it is God’s Spirit, dwelling inside us, that brings life. I pray the Lord would use us to BLAZE here in Kenya!
P.S. Side story… Pastor Joseph told us a story at lunch about a woman who went to the hospital to buy medicine for her sick child. The pharmacist told her that she needed to shake the medicine before giving it to the child. When the mother returned home, she gave the medicine to her baby and only afterwards realized that she had forgotten to shake the medicine first. So she picked up the child and shook him instead. Oops.
