Pokot North

It has been quite a while since I visited, 21st. – 30th. October 2014. The main event was a wedding on the Saturday of two members of the church in Kasei. We tried to make it as simple as possible, but outside influences inevitably get in, especially the PA system and its accompaniments. It had to be performed in a building set aside for worship and the church in Kasei could only hold a tiny fraction of the crowd. For the reception we moved to the recently completed science laboratory in the High School which still could not accommodate the vast crowds. Gifts were given outside, each one being accompanied by singing and dancing Pokot style. Nicholas is a radiologist in a faraway Mission Hospital to where he has taken his new bride Claudina. This invariable happens in rural areas where there are few jobs for educated people.

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There are many encouragements in this work in Pokot North:

Kapterema – the church is finally growing. With a new leader David, where we have only been able to gather a few women, there are now 8 families, some of whom having been recently saved. This is the most populated part of Pokot North up in the hills.

Wasat & Kwirir – Peter Nalunyit is the leader and he is going to rejoin the PTC this month. We are building a house for him at Wasat, but he gets no support from us (something we must wisely rectify). The people in these newer centres are not relying on us for everything, as is so often the case. At both places we gave money for corrugated iron roofed buildings and the people are doing the rest – poles, roof trusses, mudding of walls.

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This is the new building at Kwirir which will serve for a meeting place on Sundays, and for teaching the ECD children weekdays. The walls and floor are of mud, and the roof of corrugated iron. Note the logs that presently serve as seating arrangements.

Apur – A community of about 25 households surrounded by hills on 3 sides.

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Inside the mud building the congregation are sitting on log benches. It is the custom that after a meeting a circle of attendees is slowly formed by everyone greeting those who have already exited, to the accompaniment of their distinctive singing.

Kamketo – The Girls’ High School classroom is now almost complete, and we are still hoping that the first class of around 30 girls will start by February. This is another great opportunity for us to minister, this time to the girls of the area. We have a well-established church here under the leadership of Thomas Lokerisa. With the Primary Boarding School, now the High School (also boarding) as well as the church at Kasepa which is under their care, there is need for another labourer here and a good means of transport.

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Schools – After many years of developing Primary Schools, so that 6 of them have all the classes from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to Class 8, there are now some Head-Teachers and other teachers who are very cooperative with the church. For example, the Principal at Kasei Boys would welcome us twice termly for ‘weekends’, where we could preach to the boys for 3 successive days.

As we give thanks to the Lord for these things, there are the following needs to pray for:

(1) The 4 trained men need to be formally set aside as church leaders. There has been a reluctance until at least two men can be set aside in each church, but we do not have such qualified men, except in Kasei.

(2) There is a great need for labourers, immediately for men to come and labour from outside, then for men from the area to be trained. With the High School in Kamketo, Thomas Lokerisa needs help in order to take full advantage of the opportunity to minister in the schools. Sadly the man whom we had sent there to help left abruptly last year. Andrew Chemolok in Chepkinagh needs help as he has a large primary boarding school and 7 churches to care for.

(3) Completion of the new church building in Kasei, needed because of the students from both Primary and High School are in attendance.

(4) Salary increases for faithful workers and teachers, and salaries for at least 2 teachers at the Kamketo Girls’ School. Presently we must find £1,200/$1,900 monthly for their support.

If you would like to watch videos from Pokot (and Rendille), please enter TrainKenya in YouTube, and you will find 55 videos!

Eldership

Brother Eric Omondi Abwao was duly recognized as an Elder/Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church on December 21st. in the morning service. We had two other churches represented, Joshua Karani of Faith Reformed Baptist in Nairobi, and David Awan Malek of the Trinity Baptist Churches of South Sudan. The other brother was John Muketha the chairman of our Deacons. Pastor Murungi led the service and I was told he “conducted it very soberly, even gravely.” The brother were are next considering for the Eldership later in 2015 wrote, “I enjoyed seeing it, though with some trepidation as I pondered the oaths that Eric took for the sake of God’s people, and thought of the probability of taking them as well. The men who prayed did so very earnestly. I was particularly moved by Karani’s prayer.” We know you are praying with us for a strong, united Eldership that will lead the church forward in the ways of the Lord in the years to come.

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Rendille

I visited 23rd. September to 1st. October 2014 having delayed a couple of months because of my operation.

(1) Peter Kivati accompanied me. He and his wife are fairly new members of TBC Nairobi. Before he came to see the Reformed Faith as the Biblical Faith he was active in ministry with Life Ministries (Campus Crusade). Seeing the way we preach and evangelize has revolutionized his thinking. He is due to start the PTC in January and has long desired to work amongst an unreached people like the Rendille. It was such a wonderful opportunity for him and we pray the Lord will lead him and the church as we consider the future.

(2) We spent a few days in Korr, the main centre for the Rendille people. We have a church here with about 15 members and we are in the process of putting up a permanent building. Most of the members rely on Nairobi financially, either because of the work they are doing in the church or school, or they are widow or destitute. Sarah recently moved to Nairobi with her children because it is where she can find work to support the family. The 3 leaders are trying hard, regularly visiting in Korr and in the all the goobs (villages) that surround it. We have encouraged them to walk the 20+ kms. to Farakoren and Dubsahaay Chaule, goobs where we are the only ones ever to have preached. But they are untrained, and 2 of them have no formal education. So the church is weak, but still we believe the Lord is able to use them so long as they are true to the Scriptures and so preach the truth as it is in Jesus. We had been hoping that Khobocha would start training for the ministry in the PTC next year, but he has decided to train as a teacher so that he can help his family to come out of their poverty. So we continue to wait prayerfully for the Lord to raise up a man able to lead the work in the Korr region. Stephen Silamo has recently rejoined TBC Nairobi and he and his wife would like to return home to minister in Korr. He is presently studying and has the opportunity of an hour each week on the public radio channel in which he is going through the Gospel of Mark in the Rendille language.

(3) Lekuchula is one of the first places I visited back in 1998, about 25 kms. south of Korr at the foot of Bayo mountain, and I have visited regularly. This was frankly an awful visit with a very nasty public dispute about the 3 teachers we employ in the Nursery and small Primary School. We had also been told that nothing takes place Sunday to Sunday although we had recognized a leader there. One lady who has been such a great support seems to have been covering this up. There is a lot of drinking of vodka-like spirits as seen in the discarded sachets and small plastic bottles lying around. When we challenged one of the leaders of the goob about this he simply lied through his teeth that there is no such thing. This scourge is happening in many parts of Kenya, and of course we know the fruit of it. How desperately the gospel of saving grace is needed. We need to get the School registered with the Government (now County not National) in order to have a continuing influence in the place until the Lord raises up a preacher here.

(4) Ndikir is the goob where Brother Raphael Bulkash and his family live amongst the section of the Rendille called Ariaal whose first language is Kisamburu and not Kirendille. He has seen very little tangible fruit although the word of God has been spread far and wide. A charity called Kind Fund, working with us, has a private school here and with permanent classrooms now being put up we believe this will give stability to the community. We are looking to see how we can put up a permanent house for our faithful brother and his family. Raphael’s younger brother Samuel has been helping in Ndikir for a couple of years since finishing High School and he was also set to start the PTC in Nairobi in January but has decided to train as a teacher. Raphael comes down to Nairobi every other month to record radio programmes in Kisamburu to be aired over TWR.

(5) In my evaluation of this most recent visit we were encouraged by the faithfulness of the few brethren. But the work is hard and demands faith that the word of the gospel will bring forth fruit in the Lord’s own time. The Rendille are very resistant to change being very satisfied with their own traditional religion, believing they are good people before God. There are challenges from the few other churches that are working in the general area. I have read one report of more than 90 baptized by an American visitor, yet when I asked the pastor on the ground he said he has only one man and possibly a few women who are saved. We are having to ask questions. Are we putting our efforts where we should or are they too widely spread? Should we give up some things we are doing? Are we preaching exactly the right message, with the right emphasis? For example, should we be even more forthright in showing the emptiness, even idolatry, of the traditional practices? Most others seem to ignore them and just want people to profess faith in Christ.

I am sorry that there are no photos with this report on Rendille. I am not able to format them at the present time, but I have put an album on my Facebook for those who are my friends.

High School Camp 2014

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From 28th. November to 3rd. December 2014 there were about 60 young people from different parts of Kenya for this annual Camp. Many of them are children of church leaders. The theme was on the Armour of God from Ephesians 6:10-18. We consider this a very vital ministry as High Schools are almost entirely boarding and children easily get deflected or lost spiritually. We want them to know there are like-minded churches in different parts of the country as few are able to travel because of lack of resources. We have already heard of one young man from TBC who has professed faith and we pray there may have been a saving impact in the lives of many others.