Monday, February 15, 2010 (Cazzell)
Do you remember the old worship song, “Let’s all go up to Zion?” I don’t hardly remember the words myself. But you repeat, “let’s all go up to Zion…” and then sing “the city of our God”. “Sing hallelujah…”, etc. Well, anyway, I was singing “Let’s all go up to Turbo” as we drove out this morning, and guess what?... God was out there today! I can’t explain quite where Turbo is, all I can say is to “Google” it.
As we did some errands this morning, Pastor Joseph of the GFE Life Center here in Eldoret shared his testimony. He was living in Nairobi in 1988 when his brother became saved at an open-air crusade. He said his brother really changed and suddenly was respectful of their mom, and was being responsible around the house. They asked him what had happened to him. When he told them that he had accepted Christ, Joseph said that he made a lot of fun of him, and gave him a generally continuous hard time about it. The God ambushed Joseph at a meeting with some friends, and he surrendered his life to Jesus. Soon afterwards, he found Ben Bahati in the slums playing an acoustic guitar and witnessing for the Lord. He liked what Ben was doing, and decided to throw in with him in ministry. They lived in a very meager place in the slums, even sharing a mattress to sleep on. And now, here they are… overseeing a fantastic ministry based here in western Kenya.
When we had dinner last night, we saw Valentine’s decorations at the restaurant, and again here at the hotel. I asked Ben how Valentine’s Day came to Kenya, because I thought it was a unique U.S. holiday. He said the media brought it here (I had thought maybe U.S. missionaries had brought it). I told Ben that this was a very big day for the women in the U.S., maybe even bigger than Christmas! Then I told him about my terrible mistake on the 1st Valentine’s Day I had with my wife… only 6 weeks after we had been married. I told him how my family never really bothered with the day when I was growing up, but Kathy’s family made a very big deal of it. Kathy & I were still students at the U of A, Fayetteville, and after I came home from classes that day, she had fixed me a very special dinner… with candles, and chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner she gave me a very sweet card and a gift. Then, I gave her…. a kiss, but that was it. It didn’t occur to me to even get a card (even at the gas station). I asked Ben, “Do you know how long it took her to forgive me? Ten years!” I went on to say. He laughed and said, “She forgave you on the installment plan!”
This story is just to say how great (and sharp) the Kenyans’ sense of humor is. We laugh all day long at stuff. It’s like I would never have the time to write it all down.
The meetings today were pleasant. Powerful, & well received by the group today. The church building is located on the bank of a small river running south of the town. It’s a beautiful venue for a pastor’s conference… completely different from the noise, hustle & bustle of Nairobi. We are still missing Paul, but we both agree he was vital in the 1st two weeks, whereas here the receptivity is greater. These guys are very appreciative of the fact that we would come to them out here in the country. It is not only verbalized, but you can see it in their attentiveness. These pastors are literally like sponges wanting to soak up every last tiny drop.
Doug is writing his reflections, too. So read on. Please pray hard for this final week! We love you all, in Christ, Richard Cazzell
Monday, Feb 15, 2010 (VanDevender)
Eldoret, Kenya
This morning we ran a few errands with Ben Bahati and his associate pastor Joseph of the GFE Life Center Church, and then headed west for the forty minute, bouncing drive to Turbo, Kenya. (And NO, we don’t know how it got the name Turbo!)
Turbo lies astride the railway line and national highway connecting Uganda with Kenya. It reminds us of a west Texas cattle town in the 1870s: primitive, dirty and alive with grassroots entrepreneurial activity.
This part of Kenya was wracked by the political violence of December 2008. Several tribal groups occupy the area and antagonisms are real and just below the surface.
Into this mix God has brought scores of Kenyan evangelists and church planters who are penetrating the area with the Gospel. One almost has the feeling, from a sociological perspective, that this area is in a race between the healing, reconciling grace of Jesus and the forces of violence and social chaos.
Ben organized the meeting, inviting pastors and evangelists from all the surrounding churches. Only about ¼ of the 45 or so participants belong to GFE (Ben’s group)—the rest are from independent churches and other denominations. The meeting didn’t start until 11:30 as some pastors had to walk long distances to attend.
As one pastor at the end of the day said with amazement, it is extremely difficult to get these diverse individuals and religious perspectives into the same room together.
Yet, as we taught through the day---really pushing the envelope as change agents with applied scripture, there was a quiet unity of acceptance to the message God had given us to deliver.
I opened with the theme of what God is doing in the world: creating a People for Himself out of every tongue, tribe, nation and people-group---a People called by his name---a People in whom He can come to dwell. I identified this People as a new ethnic group, a new race really, that produces a new people with more in common with each other than the non-participating people we grew up with.
We are a People who know God, love, God, worship God, obey God, serve God, represent God and enjoy God, now and forever.
Then we looked at the ministry of Jesus in Luke 4:16ff: to evangelize the poor, heal the sick, peel the darkness off folks, heal wounded & broken hearts and to declare that GRACE is “in season”. We noted that this Age of Grace is still in season, but will come to a definite and dramatic end---possibly quite soon---with the appearing of Christ to judge the nations.
We understand our calling as becoming functional members of God’s Forever People with the determination to bring along as many other folks with us as we can.
Richard taught on Ephesians 4:11ff---that the ministry of Jesus is not only for clergy, but for ALL of God’s People. He spoke as one who is not in the clergy, but as a “mere saint” as mentioned in 4:12---yet fully capable (because he has been equipped) to teach pastors and do the power ministries of Jesus.
Richard also taught on the centrality of FORGIVENESS to the Christian faith (versus other world religions). He dealt with the personal aspect of God providing us forgiveness through Christ’s death on the cross. And reminded everyone that forgiveness is a conditional offer from God (Matthew 6:14-15), i.e. you can have as much from God as you are willing to give away to others.
Following his excellent presentation, I led the group in a group prayer using the conversational prayer, and God appeared to be doing a deep work within many.
Ben closed with the request that we begin Tuesday’s session with testimonies of what God had been speaking and what He had been doing during the meeting in general and during the prayer time in particular.
Although this group of pastors could easily be overlooked because of their remote location and abject poverty, God assured us that this was as important as any meeting we would do in Nairobi and Mombasa, and He is being good to his word.
This entire mission has been characterized by peace, unity and fruitfulness. The only concern I would express today is that I feel the extraordinary prayer covering we have enjoyed the first two weeks slipping a bit. Perhaps that is just a reflection of Paul’s departure and a shift in focus of his community.
I would plead with all of you to hang in there with us for a few more days. We are doing solid meetings Monday – Saturday, literally until the last moment before we dash to the airport to fly home. Each day is crucial for the participants, and Richard and I cannot even begin to do what God has put into our hands to do without unusual “spiritual cover”.
Thank you all so much.
Blessings,
Doug VanDevender
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