Day 8 Wednesday January 29

This morning we woke up at Alice Mukui’s farmhouse located in Maasai country. We spent the night here because it was closer to Lawrence’s church (where we will have one more day of preaching and fellowship).

A lot happened on this day. While I originally wished to journal this day in the same prose style of my previous posts, instead (to save time) I will journal in a bullet style.

…woke up early and finished my sermon on Ephesians 4:1-6 (which I will preach today)

…brewed coffee and walked around outside to listen to the birds sing in the early morning hours (listen to audio clip below). I was able to hear and record the sounds of some unique and pretty birds. These included the white-browed sparrow-weaver, bluebird superb Starling, and the white-bellied-go-away-bird. As I was drinking my coffee and taking in the bird sounds, Ray joined me outside. He brought out his drone and took some beautiful aerial footage of the property and the nearby mountains.

…we had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes (pmore like crepes), fruit, sausage, and hard boiled eggs. Jacque asked us if there was salt. We all said, “yes” and proceeded to eat our meal without actually passing her the salt. Alice brought to us some Tanazanian peanut butter. It was still sealed. It took the effort of the whole team and about 10 minutes for us to successfully open the Tanzanian peanut butter. I wish I had recorded this comedic moment.

…after breakfast we packed our bags (since after todays conference we were going to drive straight back to openhand) and drove to the border of Tanzania to cross the border (just to say we did it). Upon approaching the border we thought we spotted Mt. Kilimanjaro (which apparently can be seen on a clear day). However, the mountain we saw was actually Mt. Meru (still impressive). Our team began talking about hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro on our next trip to Kenya.

…we then drove to pastor Lawrence’s church for our final meeting which would consist of 4 sermons (2 by Tyler, 1 by me, and 1 by my dad), lunch in between, singing, 2 shorter illustrative sermons by Ray and Jacque, and gift exchanges.

…before the service began, both dad and Tyler broke the chairs they were sitting in (chubby muzungas). Just kidding. These were somewhat flimsy, plastic chairs. One had to almost go out of there way NOT to break them while sitting in them.

…Tyler led off with 2 sermons and then we had lunch. During lunch I spotted a big rig driving in front of the church. I ran out to greet it. I really wanted to video up close a big rig in Kenya to see how it differed from big rigs in America. This truck was a Isuzu cab over (all the trucks here seem to be cab overs. That means the engine is under the cab instead of in front of the cab. Kenyan trailers are also shorter than many American trailers (although Kenyan trailers have more tires. This makes sense because there are less paved roads in Kenya and thus more chances of getting stuck). I half-jokingly asked the driver, William, if I could drive his truck. He said “yes.” It was a lot of fun to drive. Everything is opposite from the U.S. I wasn’t sure I could shift with my left hand. Thankfully, it was mind over matter and I handled the rig quite well. William, wanted to stay in touch (he hopes I can find a way for him to drive in U.S.). William was hauling sand and he himself had been stuck in the sand and mud and water for the last 3 days (there was a lot rain and thus some flash floods in this part of Kenya). He showed me a video. So, when he passed by our church he was grateful to be given lunch by the Maasai congregation. When dad and Tyler saw me speaking with the driver, Tyler said, “there is no way he is going to actually to drive that?!” Dad responded, “I know Frank. Yes he will.”

…my sermon went pretty good. I felt much better preaching this year with a translator then last year. Eric was my translator. Afterward, Alice told me the sermon was “conk and simple.” I think that was a compliment. “Conk” means strong. During the sermon I found myself interrupted by a stray dog that had ran into the church building. Some people were trying to drive it out. I am told someone kicked the dog. The dog hit the tin siding of the building, which made a loud sound. The dog then ran out of the church. The dog was okay. But, the sound of the dog hitting the side of building sounded like a gun and caused me to loudly say, “whoo, whoo” during the middle of my sermon.

…Ray gave a “conk and simple” illustrative sermonette about the need to loose ourselves of the backpack that weighs us down. The backpack is our sins that we carry with us. Ray actually took Jacque’s backpack and threw it outside to illustrate his point…like I said, it was conk.

…Jacque gave a memorable and “conk” illustration on sin and deliverance by using a screw, bolt, and washer. She developed this illustration on her own. She has been been encouraged to make it into a book. I hope she does.

…dad gave the final sermon. He spoke from Ephesians 6 about children obeying their parents, etc. he had a different translator then I did. At times this translator seemed to be speaking his own sermon, which was interesting. For example, the, length, passion, and tone of the translation didn’t often match dad’s. So, whatever sermon the Maasai actually heard, I hope it was a good one.

…when all the sermons were complete Lawrence gave us Maasai names. Since Tyler and I already had Maasai names, they passed over us and named the rest of our teammates. Kamar was named “Meguni” (warrior). They named Bruce what sound like “Lucky.” I can’t remember the other names. Perhaps I will retrieve them and re edit this post later.

…the Maasai of the church then gave us each Maasai garb and walking sticks (for the men only). Jacque asked for a walking stick and pastor Lawrence said it’s only for men. Jacque responded with showing him why she would need a stick. She jokingly showed herself taking a stick and using it to hit her husband. Everyone laughed (she still did not get a stick). So instead of a walking stick Jacque was given jewelry. The gifts were given while beautiful singing and head bobbing was done. The song was “conk but repetitive.” Translated, it said “Lord is our deliverer, Lord is our refuge.”

…a few other people we met at the church were sister charity (she owns the nice house overlooking the church and is an activist. She is not a “member” of the church, but just came to visit). we will also remember Wilfred Ntetia, pastor Eric, Harrison (Lawrence and Grace’s son), Godfrey (Mason working on Lawrence’s house), John Lete, Elizabeth (73, one of founding members), Lucy and Abraham, the 3 elders names Joseph, Joseph, and Yeshua. I almost forgot Tycious Lenini (pastor Lawrence’s brother).

…we then planted trees outside and bought some gifts made by the Maasai women. We left Lawrence’s church at sunset. We had a long drive ahead of us to the orphanage. Most of the driving would be done at night. We were not stopped on the way home. Sometimes the police set up roadblocks to stop vehicles and check them out. Charles, our driver, said it was illegal for a tour vehicle to transport tourists at night.