I hope your worship today was as great as ours here in Kenya!
We had 2 different stops today:
We picked up Pastor Enosh (from the Etago school Friday) on our way to Chotororo - he had an assistant covering his church service today in Etago so he could take us to Pastor Fred and his congregation and another afterwards (below). They rent a tent and chairs every Sunday for outdoor church in Chotororo. We had a very warm welcome - they are so appreciative of the fellowship we share with them from afar and were delighted to meet us and hear your greetings and prayers that are with them often from the USA. It means so much to them that we are making this trip to see them!
We joined them for a couple hymns in Swahili throughout the service (and pronounced the words quite well!).
Blair had a great lesson for the children in both places talking about Jesus blessing the children. Pastor Nolting preached about God's Word being out greatest treasure.
They wanted to meet with us after worship at both places and share their history and tell of their progress and needs in serving their communities.
They wanted lots of pictures and handshakes as we prepared to leave. They also wanted to feed us, first at Chotororo right after church - rice and choma (goat).
Not too far away was Pastor Isaac's church in Kenuchi. First thing when we arrived? They wanted to feed us! This time it was rice and matoke (peeled and boiled bananas that taste like potatoes!). Then we walked a little way uphill to their church building - mud and wood walls with a steel sheet roof.
There were introductions both ways here as well. They were very pleased to hear that Carl is my son and that he has been in school to be a pastor! They also cheered to hear that Nyibol wants to go to a nursing college and then return to her native people in Ethiopia to be a nurse there!
Then worship continued with a similar program of songs and sermon and kids lesson. They have a microphone and stereo and a loudspeaker outside for the public to hear what they are doing. They played fun music that the kids danced to!
After church and a quick meeting we had more pictures and headed back to our hotel in time for supper.
Please continue to pray for us all! I have heard that some teams have had a little sickness bothering them. Pray for continued safety, but most of all that God's Kingdom work would prosper as He sees fit!
As they chant:
GOD IS GOOD - ALL THE TIME
ALL THE TIME - GOD IS GOOD
THAT IS HIS NATURE!
(try to put your own Swahili accent on that - if you can't, ask me to tell you when I get back!)
Phil Strike
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