Personal vans, moto-taxis, tuk-tuks, jeepnees, an army jeep, chicken buses, and our favorite: our own two feet.
This month, we are using Matatus.
They are 15 passengers vans that they somehow cram 20 people into. They cost anywhere from 25 cents to $1.50 and can go anywhere you want.
There is a driver, who has to quickly navigate through crazy Nairobi traffic at high speeds, and the tout, who hangs off the side calling to people on the side of the road. They jump out when the Matatu stops, and run after it when it takes off again. It is actually really fun to watch.
Well, anyways, a young man from our church is a tout. His name is Tony, and he invited a bunch of the drivers and touts to come and have tea and bread with us one morning. He told Pastor Joseph that only 20 of them would come, but to be safe Pastor decided to make food and tea for twice that much.
So, I stayed back from morning ministry to make about 50 bread and butter sandwiches.
Anderson, our wonderful chef made enough milk tea for 40 people in the meantime.
That is a lot of tea!
Anderson pouring the tea into thermoses.
The rest of my team got back, and we were off to the local slum!
Krystle, Jessica and I crammed in the backseat. Krystle is sitting on either Jessica’s lap or Jacinda’s…
Deliverance Church Southlands actually has two churches. They have their first one, a blue and white building in the middle of the local slum and their new location, the hall in the Ngei Primary School compound. From 1pm-2pm Monday-Friday, we have an hour of prayer in the old church.
But on this morning, we used it for ministering to the Drivers and the touts.
So, we arrive and start to set up. We have 40 mugs, over 40 sandwiches, about 20 bananas and a whole lotta’ tea.
The first few trickle in, and we put the benches into a square so we are all facing each other.
20 minutes later, we have about 30 drivers and touts. Tony and Pastor Joseph are thrilled, and we start our mini service. We praised God with them, we talked about God’s Word with them, and we prayed with them.
And then, right before we were started serving the tea, more came in the door. By the time people stopped coming in, we had nearly 50 men in the room! That is thirty more than we ever expected. So Pastor asked James, another brother from the church, to run and grab some more mugs and tea.
By the end, many of them were smiling and excited for the next meeting.
It was a pretty awesome event to experience! These drivers and touts see hundreds of people a week. If they are willing to tell the people they meet about the church and Jesus, they could make a huge impact in this area.
This little church plant is suddenly exploding with potential…
…and I am really excited to get to see it first hand.
Next time: Passing out Project Christmas Child in Africa’s biggest slum: Kibera
