Our Time In Kenya: Day Three

Day Three was Monday, Sept. 7th.
We loaded up Don Cameron's 2003,Toyota Pada 4 Wheel drive diesel with our luggage and equipment to be dropped off at a Maasai village on our way south to a place on the Mombassa highway called KIBWEZI. It was our first real highway adventure in Kenya with driving on the left and real third world traffic.
We stopped for lunch at Hunters Lodge where we will be staying towards the end of the week. I had a salad made of onions, cabbage, bell peppers and a very hot pepper. It was delicious but left my mouth on fire. I was able to lesson the burn with some Oreos we had in the car. We saw several large monkeys while we waited for our Maasai guide to arrive and lead us off road to the Maasai village Olosinya. His name was Meshack. He is the 17 year old son of Pastor Justice in the Olosinya church. It was a good thing we had a guide lead us because the landscape was truly off road, dusty with trails and paths going everywhere and no real distinguishable road markings. It took us over an hour to go eight miles.

Suddenly, there appeared in the middle of nowhere a little church made of concrete blocks and steel roof about 50' by 100' in size.  There were freshly painted white rocks surrounding the church with a heart shaped formation of rocks in the front that said "Welcome" in English. About 50 yards away was a newly constructed out-house made of corrugated steel. It had a concrete floor with a hole in the middle. Truly a "one-holer" for all to use. We were delighted to see a fresh roll of toilet paper hanging on a wire. We were expected!

After unloading the sound equipment and generator, we held an impromptu worship service in the church with about forty people who just seemed to appear. Then with our guide leading the way, we departed for KIBWEZI a different way than we came. Along the way, we saw giraffes and zebras all around.

On our way to the main highway we came to a dry river bed and noticed a group of women drawing water out of a hole they had dug in the river bottom. It was about twelve feet deep. They had dug it out with two rusted out shovels and were filling old yellow jerry jugs with water and strapping them to donkeys. We stopped and took pictures. They seemed happy that we showed an interest in what they were doing.

Our journey to the highway took us over some rough terrain filled with volcanic rocks, washed out gullies and very little trail. We passed a couple of villages and even a school and small clinic.

We finally arrived back at the highway and gave Meshach some money for gas for his motorcycle.

Our next stop was the town of KIBWEZI.
This is a typical African town built on a crossroads and used as a market center for people to bring their fruits and vegetables to sell. This is where Pastors from all over Kenya are coming for our two day seminar.

We checked into our "motel" which was not too bad for $7 a night. It had hot and cold running water, toilet, sink and shower (all in the same space) two twin beds, and a steel locking door. This place was chosen primarily for its secure parking driveway with locking door. We stayed Monday and Tuesday nights.

Immediately after arriving and unloading our stuff, Don and I and Shadrack Maunda went to a nearby village to deliver a special built wheelchair to a little girl who is crippled up badly. She was very happy to get this new chair that is designed to help straighten her spine. We then went to deliver another wheelchair to a crippled man who had been given a hand cranked bike earlier but was having trouble using it. He refused to trade for the new chair though, so Don later found someone else to bless..

Following an interesting hamburger at a street cafe, we went to the church for the evening "revival" service. It was held at the Pentecostal Assembly of God Church in KIBWEZI. The Pastor is also a Burning Plow Team member.

I preached "Jesus Has Something Cooking" from John 21:9 and encouraged them to come tomorrow hungry for what Jesus is cooking up.  They responded very well. I could tell we were in for a powerful conference.