After a swell night’s sleep, we all awoke to find that we
were amidst a very beautiful land.
The
black of the night cloaked the landscape as we arrived and we were unable to
see that we were amidst some of the greenest and finest land of all
Kenya.
We also discovered that the town we arrived
in was called Tendwet.
I had never heard
the name before, but was glad to be there.
Breakfast was served: all the tea you could drink and some
buttered bread.
The day’s plans had been
set in motion as we were to split into two groups and go door to door to
evangelize.
However, prior to going, my
group was required to pick up a generator for the open air meeting later that
day.
The village had no running water or
electricity; ergo, we were required to find an alternate source of power.
The one group headed down the mountain and I
drove the other to the unknown location of said generator.
On the way to the generator rendezvous, we stopped at the
house of one of the church members.
They
welcomed us warmly and I recognized that they spoke no English and very little
Swahili.
We were glad to have a
translator who spoke their mother tongue, Kalenjin.
While there the man of the house went to
fetch his father that he may greet us.
His father, in Kalenjin, seemed to be saying something conveying his
vast excitement.
It was only later that
I learned he was thrilled to see a white person.
He was seventy-eight years old and had never
seen a white man before him.
Later that
day we came to learn that no one had seen a white person as none had ever been
to that village.
Through such a truth I
have learned that the life of a celebrity is a demanding one.
Prior to leaving the house, one of the sons
confessed his need for Jesus Christ and we prayed with him there.
This began the day of many mighty works from
the King.
About halfway to our destination, I recognized that the road
was getting awfully narrow.
On one side
was a perilous cliff while the other side went nearly straight up.
Eventually the road ended with no apparent
method of turning around and backing up was not an option.
At that moment I was thinking in my mind, ‘I
signed up to preach the gospel to the world, not drive around the bush in
horrific conditions.’
Well, whether I
signed up for it or not didn’t change the fact that we were in a terrible
fix.
The Kenyans saw no issue however as
enough nationals can push, or lift, a vehicle anywhere.
We eventually got turned around and decided to leave the van
to begin door to door evangelism.
The
first man we met was a fellow by the name of Mosoli.
He was a true Kalenjin, understanding no
English.
On his head he wore a cap that
said ‘Jesus loves you’ and over his shoulders was draped a blanket, their
traditional covering.
I haven’t a doubt
that he found us white people rather novel and am sure in his eighty years of
life he had never planned on seeing a white man.
Due to tremendous lingual issues, I had to speak to him
through two translators: one from English to Swahili, the other from Swahili to
Kalenjin.
Yet in speaking to him
although he was not saved, I learned that he had a strong grasp on his need for
Jesus.
The whole time he had been
wearing a hat, proclaiming the love of Christ yet never knew it for
himself.
Ergo, there in the steady rain
of Tendwet we dropped to our knees and he asked Jesus Christ to create him
anew.
What a blessing to see someone so
old accept the Gospel!
From there we
visited several more homes with every inhabitant getting saved.
It was a high day in Tendwet this Saturday as
so many came into the kingdom.
Later in the day, after our lunch of rice and some sort of
soup, we held an open air service in the main square of the village.
No less than two hundred people were there,
gathered to hear what manner of word was to be shared.
The presentation of the Gospel came and
several came forward to be saved, one being another old man from the
village.
Truly it was unusual to see so
many older people coming to the faith; these things just don’t happen on a
regular basis in
Africa.
Clearly the Lord was moving powerfully among
the inhabitants of Tendwet!
We went to bed that night, after a meal of ugali and some collection
of bitter greens.
It was rather easy to fall
sleep after having walked the hills of the area carrying the Gospel.
Praise the Lord for his work, for He has done
tremendous things in our midst!
