Day 3
Finally, a day we did not travel. It is Wednesday today and we were able to sleep in a little, enjoy a breakfast and visit and get to know some of the people here at the facility where we are staying.
This guest house is a part of the iWana Radio Broadcasting center which broadcasts Christian music, teaching and other entertainment 24 -7. A Guest house is actually an African version of a roadside motel. We passed several of them along the journey. Some are fairly nice and well established while others look to be very small and most likely just a mud room with a bed. However, the place where we are staying is a fairly impressive compound. There is an administration building, the radio station broadcast center, a large chapel and then a wing with sleeping quarters and a kitchen. Most rooms have multiple beds with a private shower and bathroom in each. The grounds are well kept and the shrubs are manicured. We even have a guard at the gate 24 hours a day. We are very fortunate to have a facility like this. Though it is a lot less than we might be used to it is still a palace compared to the living conditions of most of the people around us.
Our morning was leisurely and we enjoyed a meal that at least felt common to us; it was sausage, hard boiled eggs and toast. I tried chai which is African tea since they only had instant coffee. Some on our team enjoyed the tea but soon I was just reaching for the coffee. I figure that, now being a few days into this journey, I am at least 3 pots of coffee behind on my normal consumption. The girls are having dreams of Starbucks.
We relaxed some but there was a lot of activity at the iWana Radio Station compound. The family responsible for starting this ministry upmteen years ago was actually here this week. In fact, we found out that we arrived into Nairobi on the same flight from Dubai just a couple days ago. They are hosting a leadership conference here at the iWana center and so there has been a lot of activity today. Extra staff are here getting the grounds ready, volunteers are setting up tables and cooking meals, guests are arriving and the chapel has been pumping out African worship music all morning. So a day to relax and recoup from our trip was still rather full of meeting people and hearing and telling stories.
Just before lunch we met a young man that volunteers at the radio station and is trying to develop a ministry as a Christian comedian. He had the biggest smile. As a Kenyan, he had very dark skin, a shaved bald head and huge white teeth. And with his accent I wasn’t always sure what he was saying but when he smiled you could not help but laugh and smile with him.
It was amazing to hear about all that he does to share Jesus with people. He does comedy on the radio station a couple days a week, another tv program starting at 5am on Sunday morning before going to church himself, street comedy trying evangelize to teenagers, and even works with some homeless. Then he also has a video ministry on Youtube where he uploads interviews, testimonies, comedy and other recordings. His passion for sharing Jesus through comedy was infectious and we talked with him for a good while.
After that we ate some lunch, cleaned up, did some cleaning in our room and Michael showed up with a great surprise…he brought Pastor Barasa to visit us. It was a very joyous meeting that has been about 8 years in the making. I was actually a bit in shock and didn’t know how to respond. We embraced and cried and laughed and stood there for a few moments not sure what we were supposed to do. Still it was not awkward, we were just a little awe-struck.
We sat at a round plastic table under and an umbrella and got to know each other and hear about his vision for the church and the ministries of Shim
I learned this, SHIM is actually an acronym for
Strength
Hope
International
Mission
Pastor Rogers Barasa likes to make acronym names for his ministries. Another one is ACT which stands for All Churches Together. I like that one too. They have a great vision for churches working together from all over the county and beyond for prayer, education and community transformation.
It was fun to share with him that Pastor Mark Wheeler and I serve together on an action focused board in Spokane called the GSAE and we are working towards many of the same goals. We work to encourage churches to come together, fellowship, pray, learn and seek ways that we can partner for the purpose of world transformation.
This must be the goal of Christianity. We are working to build the Kingdom of God through Salvation and then working to bring the Kingdom of God to earth through the ministries that repair what Satan has stolen. We cannot be saved only for ourselves. We have to see that we are saved from sin and we are saved for mission. Our mission has to be to work to restore lives. Whether is it is hunger or broken relationships, or medical needs, or pain in our lives or anything else we carry the light into the darkness. We shine that light into the dark corners that we travel through. We can share joy, we can share hope, we can share peace, and we can do work that lifts away the suffering in people’s lives.
With far less resources than we have in America, these Kenyan Christians are accomplishing so much mission and have a great vision to do so much more. When their lives are already so difficult…maybe because their lives are so difficult…they are very committed to evangelism, church worship, helping each other in community, and working to alleviate suffering.
The church in America could learn so much from these men and women of God.
The Fellowship Church of Spokane can learn so much from the men and women of God.
