Shinkou

June 26, 2011
Namuncha, Kenya

Over the years, our leader John Johnson has developed a relationship with the people of Namuncha through his repeated mission trips. Simon is the pastor and he invited John to preach at today's service. Simon's good friend Solomon is graduating form college next week and then will be attending medical school. Solomon invited all of us to lunch to celebrate his upcoming graduation. So we piled into the van at 6am for the long drive to Namuncha.

Once we turned off the road after 3 hours in the van, the road stopped and we were driving over sand. We followed a single transmission line for about 30 minutes until it ended. Then we were lost. There were no landmarks and the land was flat. After another 30 minutes are driving aimlessly, John's cell phone rang. It was Solomon! He could see dust from our vehicle in the distance. We stopped and waited for Solomon to run to the van and direct us to the church. When we approached the church, we could already hear singing. The parishioners had been singing for an hour, waiting for us! We quickly entered the dung and mud building and took seats on small wooden benches. What I noticed first was how dressed up everyone was! The men wore suits or native dress. The women wore nice dresses or native dresses. But everyone wore long sleeves. It was warm in this building.

I realized for the first time since I arrived that I was in Africa. I was sitting on a hard bench in a dung hut with more flies than people singing and dancing to unfamiliar music. It was hot, humid and little air movement. And I was enjoying these new experiences! I looked up to see writing on exposed rafters. "Read to Lead", "The Strength of the Lord", "Christopher was born to be a teacher" were scratched into the wood. A young boy behind me tapped my shoulder and pointed to my bible. I handed it to him and he marveled over the tabs. I chuckled thinking he was thinking, "silly American woman doesn't know where the books of the bible are!" And then the music started to become more "lively". The woman behind me put her hands on my hips and pushed them, signifying that I needed to be dancing with them. It was a lot of fun. After awhile, I didn't mind the flies, the heat or the smell. It was great!

After church, we went through a receiving line where we all shook hands with everyone. Pastor Simon then took us for a little walk to show us the Namuncha Literacy Center. It's a building that has been built over the past few years in part by Bayside. They decided not to make it part of the church as many in the community are not Christian. This community center will give free literacy classes and be a gathering place where needs can be met. This center is barren inside, in great need of furniture. Our mission team's fees were used in part to buy 100 chairs. While we were taking the tour, dark clouds rolled in. And the winds picked up and there was lightning! Everyone there said that if it rained, we were the blessing that brought it. They desperately need rain. The air reminded me of living in Chicago right before a tornado! There was energy in the air, the skies were an odd color, and it was sunny and not sunny. Thunder and lightning continued and then there was RAIN!

We all ran to our bus and fit as many people as possible for the drive over to Solomon's hut for lunch. His hut has no electricity so we used our cell phones. The food was good but most of us were a little worried about flash flooding. The rain was coming down in torrents. We ate quickly and unfortunately had to leave early. Our bus driver was concerned we would get stuck in mud. As we left, we hugged our hosts. When I hugged Solomon, I congratulated him on his impending graduation and gave him my cross ring as an early present.

The drive back to Nairobi was long and slow due to the rain.Wendy and I sat out on our lanai watching the rain trying to grasp the concept that people thought we were blessings sent by God.