We’re driving away from Segera mission. The road contains lots of sharp rocks and our back left tire goes flat. So we stop and exchange it for the spare. Problem solved. We drive a little further and our spare goes flat. This IS a problem. Nationwide may be on our side, but I am not in America.
I remained completely calm and started praying for God to intervene. Just then a large green truck is driving towards us. I flag it down and explain the situation. The guy is happy to give us a ride to the nearest public market area so we can get it fixed.
As he’s driving, I start talking to him and share about my mission trip. He smiles, explains that he is a Christian and is glad I am here. I find out who he is. He is the head supervisor for the anti-poaching of rhinos. I shared with him some of the Word of God I am going to be teaching in Kenya. We reach the marketplace and he gives me his email address so I can include him in my Kenya email newsletter group.
While the tire is getting fixed, I see three people on a bench. A guy on the left, a lady holding a baby in the middle, and a lady in a blue dress on the right. I start sharing with them why I am in Kenya. The guy on the left is all smiles. The two ladies pay little attention. As I start to share the Word of God with them, I discover the lady in the blue dress is a pastor. Or so she says.
She isn’t getting excited at all as I am sharing God’s Word. In fact, she isn’t even paying attention to me. Only the guy on the left is. After I am done sharing, I ask if any of them would like to share their email address with me so I can put them on the Kenya newsletter group. The guy eagerly gives me his email address. The two ladies continue to ignore me. “What church do you pastor?” I asked the lady. She has no answer.
I would find a lot of that in Kenya. People who claimed to be pastors, apostles, etc. who were not really those things at all. Had no passion for providing such a service to the body of Christ. They were using the title for false agendas. I will be talking about ‘briefcase pastors’ in another session.
The tire has been fixed. I pay 150 shillings, equivalent to $1.50. Then Ke
fa and I hop on the back of one motorcycle. The tire is strapped to a second bike. And both bikes head to our car.
It is not uncommon to see three people on a motorcycle. I’ve seen four on a bike. I’ve been told that sometimes they fit five or six people. In the USA we use pickup trucks to haul items around. In Kenya they use motorcycles to haul just about any and everything you can think of. I’ve seen them hauling a bed frame, long pieces of wood, 8 large bales of hay, mattresses, large canisters of water, large pieces of metal pipe, a string of fish, etc. Like I said earlier, we are not in Kansas anymore.
We put the fix
ed tire back on our car and drive away, but don’t get very far before the same tire goes flat. I take a look at it and discover that it is now shredded. No fixing that thing. But I am totally at peace. Not concerned at all because I absolutely know God wants me to get to Webuye. I’ve been called to teach God’s Word there in the morning. God is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. Do you think He can be hindered by a flat tire? Well, make that three flat tires.
The car is now parked next to a 4-way road. Only a few minutes go by when a car drives up, sees us and pulls over. After learning about our situation, they offer to loan us their extra tire. It is not a spare. It is a regular tire. And it just ‘happens’ to be the exact size tire we need. I was expecting God to meet my need. But the quickness of the response! Only a few minutes had gone by and we were now putting a tire on our car that was the exact size we needed. And it had been given to us here in a remote area of Africa. Wow! I’ve always believed that our God can perform miracles but this one was really something!
We put the tire on and follow them into town to a place where they sell new tires. We give the man his tire back. He does not charge us anything. He just smiles and drives away. Was this guy an angel? We purchase a new tire, they put it on the car for us and we are on our way to Eldoret!
About six months ago I had met Pastor Dorcas online. She lives in Kenya and I had been sending her teachings via email. She had been returning emails to me with very good, detailed feedback, sharing specific things that had blessed her about what I had been teaching.
While driving to Eldoret, I discovered that she had just given birth to a child. It was a boy and she had decided to name him after me. I was so excited with the news. A healthy baby and named after me. I told her that I would pray for him to grow up to love God and desire to serve Him, just like me.
Due to having three flat tires while traveling, I did not arrive in Webuye until after 11:00 pm. Pastor Maurice directed us to meet him at his church. As we pulled up, we could hear music playing. Inside the church, the praise and worship team were still practicing. Ironically, Pastor Maurice was outside, fixing a flat tire! Not the usual things you expect to see this late at night.
Maurice escorted us to his home. We chatted for a while and then went to bed. The next morning, Wednesday, I went on a short drive with Maurice to get some bottled water. He shared with me about his focus on outreach. He has been planning ways to reach people with the Word of God within his community and beyond. It really blessed me to hear about his vision.
On that first day, I taught for about 5 hours. Then on Thursday I taught for another 2 hours. What I taught on Wednesday was pretty much planned. But on Thursday I was inspired to teach on a topic that I was not prepared to teach at all while in Kenya. So, I woke up early on Thursday and put it all together, based on some notes I had brought on the subject. I would be teaching them outreach techniques and encouraging them to witness to people in their community. Many communicated with me how blessed they were to be getting this information.
It was on Thursday morning that I also discovered something. A lot of people who were attending this conference did not have Bibles. It was so sad. And it wasn’t just this church. There are Christians all over Kenya who do not have Bibles. For them, Bibles are very expensive. And so they would need to go without food for a week in order to save enough money to purchase a Bible.
On Wednesday, 
one of the teachings I had done was on how precious the Word of God is. And I had encouraged everyone to make a commitment to spend time alone with God, reading the Bible and praying that God would give them an understanding as to its message as they read it. And now I found out that many were currently unable to make such a commitment, because they had no Bible.
A Bible in the Swahili language costs about $8.50 in American money. I had donated $850 so that at least 100 Kenyans could now have a Bible to read. I donated another $150 to Uganda so they could purchase approximately 17 Bibles.
When I shared with you in the last newsletter about Segera Mission, I didn’t mention that I visited their library. It was one room, maybe a little bigger than a kitchen and a living room of a normal house in the USA. There were five large bookcases, with each bookcase being less than 50% full. I saw no Bibles. All of their Bible-related materials were together on one shelf. It was so sad to me. I saw one Strong’s Concordance. Other than that, I’m not sure there were any practical study materials on that shelf.
I was also told by the school administrator that Segera desperately needs money so they can buy books for the school. I am planning to donate quite a bit of money for the purchase of those books. I also plan to fill some of those shelves in the library with sound Biblical study materials. Then, when I return to Segera Mission, I plan to be there for a minimum of two weeks next time. The staff at Segera has eagerly agreed to allow me to have dedicated class time so that I can teach the children in the older age groups (perhaps 5th through 8th grade) how to use the Biblical study materials. I will be giving them homework assignments where they will go to the library and use the study materials so they can learn how to do their own research in the Bible.
Back to the We
buye church. I enjoyed their praise and worship team. It was African music that I was not familiar with. The songs were sung with great enthusiasm and included a lot of dancing. I have seen this in every church. As the praise songs are sung, many people, especially the children, come to the front and dance while the music is playing. A few put a whistle in their mouth and blow it to the beat of the music. Sometimes they form a train and circle around behind the stage.
What I noticed most of all when this praise music is played is that they re
ally, really enjoyed listening to and moving with the music. From the youngest to the oldest, they love to dance, sing and sway their arms. And as the teacher who would then be going up to the podium to share, it fired me up. I was ready to go! I didn’t understand the words to the songs because they were in the Swahili language. But there was no mistaking the heart and passion that went into each verse.
What was the biggest highlight for me at the Webuye church? It was the receptivity to what I was teaching. Many of the pastors there were very excited about what I shared with them. They would come up to me after I finished each session and say that to me. But I could also see it in their eyes while I was teaching. And I couldn’t help but notice that quite a few took notes.
They are humble men of God. And now they are planning to take what I had taught them back to their congregations. Many of them asked me if they could continue to receive teachings from me. And as with everywhere I went, just before I would leave, they asked, “When are you coming back?”
You will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 26:3 REV
This is the doing of the lord Almighty, may the good lord increase and empower His servants especially Josiah for the great assignments ahead A men