Kenya Youth Camp 2011

I had received great strength and abundant blessing for having had the opportunity to attend the 2011 Kenyan Youth Camp held during the first week of December.  The camp has been taking place every year for almost 10 years, however this was the first occasion for me to  participate. 

One of the first blessing we experience was the weather. Kenya had been experiencing a drought  for the past several years, but for the past month the rains had watered the thirsty land across all of Kenya. When the dry lands in the Northern Regions of Kenya  are getting rain, you can expect the Highlands of Kisii to be getting rains in almost  Biblical proportions.  The shuttle drivers who were scheduled to pick children up in remote villages around Kisii and bring them to camp had already told the leaders if the rains do not stop they can not get in to pick up the children.  The night before camp the rain ceased and remained sequestered until the day all the children had arrived back at their homes, then the torrents returned. 

This camp was not only for the Kisii children, but all of Kenya. We had over 200 youth from various tribes and distant regions, some hundreds of  kilometers away; places such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilgoris, Kericho, and Kuria land.  What a tremendous opportunity for the children for all areas of Kenya to come together  in a unity of  faith and teachings. 

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As the children gathered together in a large hall they were taught several classes each day concern their spiritual welfare.  I had the privilege to teach the first class of camp, but all the ministry took a turn at giving  inspirational lessons  to help mold these young minds.  For the most part the youth were prepared with scriptures, pencil and paper when they came to the class. They were attentive and willing participate and take notes during each day’s lesson.                                                                                            __________________________________________________

After some serious studies the students engaged in more physical, but less mental activities. However even the egg carry or sack race had spiritual lessons attached to them, such as faith, endurance and so forth.

Some of these fun activities were very challenging, such as putting all the books in the scriptures in their proper  order.

Steven, the leader of the Baboracho Mission hold up the scriptures and challenges the youth to see who wants to take the challenge . Many children were eager to take the challenge, and some came very close to getting them in the correct order.                

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Food preparation for two hundred is never easy, but when all your cooking is done outside over a open fire , it take a greater effort.  To prepare the maze to be ground into maze flour for ugali, it first had to be spread out on a tarp so the the sun could cook off a chemical that had been applied to keep the maze kernels from molding in the sack.

The youth cheerfully engaged themselves in helping to prepare the meals. These girls are cutting up a green leafy vegetable which will be boiled before eaten. It is a good source of vitamins and is called sukumi wiki in Swahili, (translation- push through the week).

A couple of the men that attended who the Kisii township church came and volunteered to endure the smoke filled room as they stirred a huge pot of maze flour and water being boiled over a open fire to create the Kenyan staple, ugali. After they had the ugali prepared they would turn their attention to cooking the waiting orange barrel of sukumi wiki.

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The Staff

The mass group of brave men which make up the camp staff are the leaders and ministry of about thirty missions and locals . They are pictured above taking a needed break, but waiting for the next opportunity to help. I had gone over to visit with them and was instantly bombarded  with all kinds of questions concerning the work in the world, the New Jerusalem, taking the Gospel to the House of Israel, the work in Mexico and how it got started. I think we could have visited all day had I not been called away for some other activity.

One morning when I showed up at camp the leaders were in enjoying their breakfast consisting of a  cup of hot tea and a half a loaf of bread.  One of the men ran over to me and laid his loaf of bread and cup of tea before me and said I could eat it. When I told him I already had breakfast he made sure I did not want it before he would consume the only breakfast he would get. 

Since all the leaders were gathered together, they asked me to spend some time one afternoon during some free time to teach them or speak to them whatever was on my mind. I took advantage of the opportunity to speak about the importance having every office of the ministry and workers in the churches, it takes all of us to be a complete body.  I encouraged them to labor with their might and to work together. After several hours we all left encouraged and motivated for the service we can do for the Lord.  

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Hold Fast to the Rod of Iron (Word of God)

Much to my surprise, I was introduce to speak to the class about holding fast to the Rod of Iron, or word of God through their life. With only the time I had to walk to the front of the class room to prepare I ceased the opportunity and spoke for about 40 minutes before the children head outside to have a practical lesson about holding fast to the word of God.

 They were all instructed that they would blindfolded and asked to follow a rope, representing the “rod of Iron” or “word of God” until the reached the tree of life to win in the game.

They were told that many obstacles would be in their way, and if they let go of the rod of iron  they would could fall into the depth of filthy water  representing the depths of hell.  As you can see from these picture, this was a serious exercise and to let go of the rope would actually bring your life into peril.

Reaching the Tree of life

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I had an extraordinary time that I am so thankful for being able to experience with the youth in Kenya.  I am pictured here with a small girl named Holly, who lives with Sister Margaret, but is the daughter of Paul and Ester, from the Maasai land. Holly is a future camper, but came several times to camp with Margaret. Every time she saw me she would squeal, “mzungu” (whiteman) and come running and jump in my arms. If I was teaching a class she would just stand there holding my leg until I was done and could hold here.  I put my sunglasses on her once and the glasses were never safe from her again.  I feel so blessed to have so many friends here in Kenya,  from the old to the very young.

The Curry Cart

Traveling outside one’s own homeland can be an adrenaline-charge; being faced with unfamiliar culture with all its new sights, smells, tastes and customs. These things of which we are unacquainted provide the intrigue, but also add to a degree of trepidation.

India is not really new since we have traveled there for several years, but it still holds a degree of concern and wonder for me. Most of my apprehension comes from the language barrier, wherein we typically only have one English speaker/translator with us at any given time. Another point of my disquiet comes from having to depend on someone else for everything we do and everywhere we go. I guess my freedom in East Africa, being able to move about at my own will and pleasure has given me a more, at home feeling; more so than when I travel in places where I constantly depend on others.

On Monday, October 24th, after fifty plus hours of airplanes and airports, Duane Ely and I had arrived at the little Rajahmundry Airport, India. This airport is still two hours away from our final destination that we can only reach by car. We had gather our luggage and rolled it out into the little covered area where we were to meet our hired car and translator. The helplessness of being in a country like India was apparent as Duane and I discussed our options if the car and translator did not show up, since there was no sign of them there to  meet us. We knew we could not reach our destination of Amalapuram. Would we have to spend the next week in a Rajahmundry Hotel until our departure flight? The ugly companion, Uncertainty, had already made itself known. Waiting at the airport would not be the last time we sat and waited in uncertainty for our car and translator, rather it was almost a daily event. I had often thought that traveling in East Africa was an exercise in developing patience ,  but anymore I think Africa was just a stepping stone to prepare me for bigger exercise of  keeping my composer in India and keeping my mind from suspicion as I ponder what is really going on. Truth be known, it is most likely the product of being a  different culture, where any number of things can stand in the way of a schedule or agreed plan, and I mean anything like stopping for a cup of coffee, or go visit a friend. 

Our first full day in India we conducted two services. The first was at late morning to early afternoon.  We met at a  congregation called, Anampally.  There was a lot of singing accompanied by a drummer who tastily keeps the beat and provided the tempo for the songs.  Eventually it came time for me to preach concerning the Restored Gospel of Christ.

Late that same night we headed out of our hotel to attend another service at Murmalla.  I must admit, give the previous three days of travelling and a twelve and a half hour time change, we were ready to go to bed more than we were ready to head out to another service. This meeting was held in an actual church building, which is apparently owned by the leader of this group.  After a long drive, we held a service which lasted until 10PM.  They honored us with the traditional garland of marigold flowers, that seem to weigh about 10 pounds each; I was blessed with two of them to wear while Duane preached.  Duane had the opportunity to tell this new congregation about the Church of Christ Beliefs. These independent groups seem to be a mixture of Catholicism and Pentecostal. Again there is so much we can and should teach them about our beliefs, but that will take time. Even though this group was not  part of the Church of Christ, we found them very receptive and inviting, so we felt very much at home among them and look forward to going back in the future.  The service was followed by a meal at the leader’s home then a long drive back to our hotel.  Arriving back at the hotel about midnight, we were exhausted and ready for bed.

Fortunately for us, the following day was national holiday so we would only have one service in the morning  at a place called Padamady.  We were told that this  was also a new place, but in fact I personally have been there at least four times, and I suspect that other missionaries who have been here without me have also been here.  I took the opportunity to preach at this congregation. The pictures seem to be blurred, which is actually is due to the camera lens fogging up in this highly humid environment.

Much to our joy, as we longed for some rest, there was no evening service this night. We were told that all our people would be busy celebrating the India Holiday called, Dawali. The celebration calls for a lot of fireworks and lights. Dawali is defined as; “One of the major Hindu festivals, it is celebrated to commemorate the victory of good over the evil, when Lord Rama defeated Ravana and rescued his wife Sita from his custody.”  Foregoing church services to celebrate a pagan holiday dedicated to  false Gods, does not seem to actually be victory of good over evil. But personally the nights rest did me well, in spite of all the noise of fireworks.

We held services at one of our established congregations, referred to as Beach, being located among the rice paddies and coconut palms and  near the Bay of Bengal.  The leader at Beach Congregation is a young man named Jacob. On this particular trip, Jacob’s oldest son, Abraham, decided to travel with us from the time we were picked up until we were dropped off at the airport.  As we met at Beach, Abraham took the duty of playing the drum as we (they) sang. You can see him pictured here. As we travelled to other places, Abraham was always in the service, following along and helping with whatever we were doing. It was a delight to have such a young man show this much interest in the work.

A late night service was in store for us once again as we traveled to Marlipalem, a congregation meeting in a  small building constructed of palm branches. This location was also a new congregation for us to teach at. We were welcomed in with the plating of a marigold garland around our necks, I in fact ended up with two of them and Duane  got three to wear. It was my turn to preach so just for fun I kept the garland on, so Duane would have to leave all three of his on. It is difficult to tell a group everything they should know in one sermon, but I tried to give them a good overview of our beliefs and we hope they will invite us to come once again for further teachings. After the preaching service, we had to do administrations, just as we had done at ever other location. To do administrations at an India congregation means you administer to everyone in the congregation. Everyone coming up for a blessing is traditional of a Hindi service and I believe the request for administration is just a carry over from that practice and not according to scripture. I keep striving to teach them the proper use of administration, but as of yet the message has not been delivered even though I have tried, bringing more concern for me on how effective we really are in this land. For this exercise of fifty or more administrations/blessings we both took off our flowers.

It is my desire and prayer that someday the churches in India will come to a understanding about the use of administration, because I believe when they do they will have blessing more abundantly.

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We attended yet another new congregation that meets in a permanent church building. The pastor of this church, is the father of one of our members, so I suppose that is how we got the invitation to come.

The pastor is pictured here with some of his family.

We had a pleasant service followed by the administrations.  After the administration at the church we walked over to a nearby house to pray for a very sick girl, just as commanded in the scriptures.

That evening we attended another late night service at Mogulamore.  We were very excited to go to this congregation since it is the congregation of a man named John. John has been attending services for several years, and is always diligently following along in the scriptures as we preach. I refer to John as the best member we do not have. He is pictured here playing the drums at a meeting. Not only is he a good drummer, he is a very pleasant and humble man, always a joy to be around.

John is hesitant  to join the Church of Christ because we require baptism. He states he has been baptized and he believes in only one baptism as stated in the Bible.  I geared my sermon to that particular subject. John came and thanked me afterwards and invited us back. I hope the Spirit will make known to him the truth of such things. Of course we were honored once again with the  garland of flowers.

  After the meeting and administrations we went to a nearby home to bless a newborn baby.

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Our final day was a joint Sacrament service for all the congregations. We traditionally hold this meeting at a building we rent in Amalapuram. However, on this day we were told that building was not available because the owner was trying to sell it so we could not meet in it.  We held our meeting in Gollaville, across the street from Sharrat’s home. Sharrat is our translator and host while we are in India.

The congregations gathered in a temporary building and first listened to a sermon from Duane Ely, then I conducted a communion services and had testimonies afterwards.  One testimony was that we had prayed for a young child last time  Duane and I were there, and the child was greatly blessed. You can see the mother holding the child below. The child could not hold food down until the administration. Now the child can keep food down so today they had me feed the baby, as well as several others women came up and gave it a spoon of food. The baby has some serious problems, and cannot walk, so we prayed again for the baby, and your prayers would be appreciated also.

After the service we were fed lunch  then we headed off to the Bay of Begal to perform a baptism for one man and four women. We returned to Gollaville to perform the confirmation service and welcome our new brother and sisters into the Church of Christ.

Pictured below is Brother Sharrat and his young family. They are expecting another baby in December.

We were delivered successfully back to the Rajahmundry airport for the long journey home.