Day 24 Experiences--Saturday, July 11

No power of man, beast, or machine, no not even African internet can keep me from posting my last days before I leave. I will still do the other sum up posts and more pictures when I get back, but for now here are the rest of the days.

Well, today was day 24 here. Today was the day of the youth conference of the area Nairobi churches, held at the church at Uhuru Highway.

-First things first, the conference was scheduled for 9am. The bishop of all of Kenya was there at 930. Pastor Winterle brough Matthew and I there at 10. No one else was there until well after that. We were unable to actually start the conference until 11:45 when enough people were there. We were definitely operating on Africa time… and people think I’m late.
-The conference itself was very good, the bishop gave a great and very interesting presentation in English, so I was able to follow along. He talked about what makes us Lutherans, and where we came from, and how we came to believe what it is we believe. All in all, it was a very interesting presentation, and I was very pleased to be able to meet the man in charge of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya.

-During the presentation, most of the youths were taking massive amounts of notes. There seems to be a strong hunger and desire to hear and learn God’s Word. Towards the end, it became apparent though that the youths had had an agenda that they wanted to speak with the leaders about. They wanted to bring up to the leaders that they felt they did not get enough attention. I got a list of the questions they had posed typed out and everything. They included things like, “What part does prayer, praise songs, etc. have in a Lutheran worship?” or “What is the Lutheran church's stance on Kenyan culture?” These were questions that were basic enough, but that they had a desire to know. They want to know God’s will for their lives. They want to learn about God’s Word, but they feel like they have no one to teach them. They feel like they do not have a pastor or leader that sits them down to learn these things. It would be my guess that they don’t have any sort of catechism classes or anything like that.

After the adults all left I stood up as they were having a youth only meeting and pledged to do my best to provide them whatever support they need. I promised to pray for them and to share their story back home. It is my goal to be able to send them Bibles in Swahili and English, and to send them catechisms and other such materials in Swahili and English. One girl had asked for an English Small Catechism and I made sure that she got one from Pastor Winterle. She came up and thanked me at this meeting (which was about a week after she got it) and thanked me very sincerely for getting her one. I think that these people want to learn. They want to grow. My heart goes out for them and their struggling youth program. They are working to get it off the ground, they are organizing themselves on their own, but they need help.

The big difference I see between us back home and them is in the substance. They believe and have faith from what they have been told and what little some of them may be able to read of the Bible. Their faith has no substance with which it is built on. They desire the substance, they desire the knowledge and wisdom that comes from knowledge of Jesus Christ, but they simply don’t have the resources to do so. I see many of them joyful when they get the chance to hear and learn about the word. The difference I see with us, is not that our faiths are vastly different, it is that we have all this great wealth of Christian resources at our finger tips, and yet many of us do not believe. Though for having the faith they do in the situations they are in is very commendable, though I have seen tough heartbreaking situations in the US in which faith preseveres. All in all it is not my place to judge their faith or anyone elses. Even the ones that do believe, how many times have you dreaded going to Sunday School? How many times have you dreaded sitting through a church service? How many times did you try to get out of catechism class as a kid? We have all these gifts, and yet I think sometimes we either take them for granted or simply don’t care to learn about God. These people seem to want to have that knowledge and I want to help them to have the tools to grow. “Blessed are those who have not seen, but do believe.” “Unless you enter the kingdom of God like a child, you will not enter it.” are two verses that come to my mind. They have the faith of children, simply trusting in God, but many of them not knowing much more. They haven’t seen much more, or have much more and yet they believe. We have so much more, and we have seen the truth over and over, but do we reject it?

-I got to take the long walk to the bus station with many of the youths after the youth meeting was over. I have become good friends with many of them. The parting with many of them was a very sad one because this was the last day I would see many of them. I will truly miss them. They are wonderful young men and women. They welcomed me with open arms, treated me with respect, helped me along my way, and are my friends (even when they laugh as I try to pronounce their words).

-They like to do greetings here when they stand up to speak in front of a group. Similar to our, “Christ is Risen!” to which everyone responds? Here they do many things in Swahili and a few more in English. The one I like is “God is good” reply: “all the time.” Speaker: “All the time” reply: “God is good”

-I was thinking today, how do we worship God? I think the biggest way is by obeying his commands. What are most of His commands summed up as, by Jesus? Love your neighbor. Therefore, I think that we worship God when we serve our fellow human. I think that’s one of the biggest parts of life, is to serve others, to treat others with respect. Life is about two things, God, and people. We love God and obey him and worship him alone. The rest is people. They are what is important. I am reminded of what my late grandmother whom I loved dearly used to say. We used to all go out to Colorado as a family (I miss those huge family trips) and then we’d stop at some scenic overlook and get out for a picture. Some people would ask if they had to get out of the car or if we could just take the picture of the mountain. My grandmother would always say that everyone would have to get out of and get in the picture. Her reasoning, “20 years from now, the mountains are still going to be there to take pictures of, but all of us won’t be.” My shout out today goes to her, and all those loved ones that are no longer with us. My grandma Esther Brockman was a wonderful person, and she had it right, people are what are important.

In Christ,

Joseph Highley