Day 4: Sunday, January 15, 2006

This morning, Jack, John, Kellye, and Katie went for a short walk outside the hotel. There were not a lot of people on the streets milling around, and most of the ones who were out appeared to be headed for church. We notice many small churches off to one side or the other of the main street. One church was singing “Amazing Grace”, another “When the Saints go Marching in”; the others all had something going to – we just could not understand it. It was interesting to contemplate the growth of Christianity within Kenya over the last 50+ years as we walked. Jack was approached by one man, dressed in suite, who was asking Jack’s advice about what to do next in his personal walk.

The Hanochs, Philip, and Drew all went to the church early. The kids were having lots of fun learning some of the hand string tricks from the Hanochs. The rest of the group joined the early goers before the worship service began and walked around the yards some. It was good to see many smiling faces. Gay said “hello” in sign language to one of the groups of deaf children, and they all wanted to talk to her; she could not remember more, so she shook their hands – and they seemed happy enough. Later, Kellye was taking pictures; the kids about knocked her down when they saw the image on the back of the camera – and then they all wanted to look through the lens.

With the exception of the sermon and our introduction of ourselves, the service that we attended was in the native language of Kimeru. It was longer than our services, but very interesting. Things that were noted included:

While we were seated together initially, one of the first things that happened was that the congregation was asked to come and retrieve us to sit among them – so we quickly became dispersed from front to back and each of us had a translator to assist us.

Hearing in Kimeru the familiar: God is good -- all the time. All the time, God is good.

“Thank you for sitting next to me” seemed to be equivalent to “passing the peace”.

There were 2 choirs: one had robes on and contained both males and females; the second was just women.

When it came time for the offering, the first thing held up was a small black bag of eggs; someone offered 50 Schillings. Then, the next thing held up was a half-gallon +/- size container of milk in a plastic bag. This one started at 50 schillings but ended up at 60. These were all that the people bringing them had to offer – but they seemed to be very well received! After these items were given to the highest bidder, the offering baskets were placed at the front, and the people proceeded very orderly from their seat, up to the baskets to drop their offering in, and then back to their seats.

The sermon was entitled “1 + 1 = 1” and it had to do with God’s plan to reach man. It was given by the Superintendent, and he offered a good message.