OUT OF AFRICA: KENYA TRIP

11th - 19th January 2009

Rev. Julie Shimizu, Pauline Jepps & Anna Pisani

Report by Anna Pisani

FIRST LEG - HEATHROW TO NAIROBI

It was a relief to board the seven o'clock flight with Kenya Airways on the Sunday evening, reflecting that 11 days into the New Year I had had a hectic schedule leading into Christmas, the New Year and the trip. However, God is good, the aeroplane was about two thirds full and the three of us managed to sit beside an empty seat which provided extra room and comfort for our 8 hour flight from Heathrow to Nairobi. We arrived at 6.30am, local time, to a very big temperature contrast coming from virtual freezing weather in the United Kingdom into sunny and hot Africa.

Kenya Airways had changed their times for our connecting flight from Nairobi to Kisumu which meant that we had about a 10 hour wait for our 17.20 next flight in order to get us from Nairobi to Kisumu. Julie had arranged, via Living Hope Ministries, for a local pastor to chaperone us during our stay in Nairobi, and we were greeted by a very pleasant, humble and gentle man, John Obayo, who was an excellent chaperone for 3 bewildered ladies!

Our first excursion was to the "David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust" which is about 40 minutes from the airport, where we travelled there via a combination of a ropey bus ride into Nairobi City Central and then an even more ropey taxi service (locally called a "matatu") to the elephant orphanage, which is on the outskirts of the city. However, when we arrived it was worth every bit of the dusty and bumpy journey in order to get there.

The public are only allowed access during the elephant lunch time feeding, between 11am -12 noon, but it was a delight to see these baby elephants in playful banter as they were given bottled milk and then had a good old roll about in the mud pools in order to cool themselves off. This Trust is dedicated to the conservation of endangered species, especially elephant and rhinos. Elephant calves, orphaned by poaching, are brought here from all over the country and receive personal care 24 hours a day from highly dedicated staff who in effect become surrogate mothers to the elephants. They are cared for with every intention of returning them back to their natural environment and into the wild. The keepers give the crowd a running commentary of the individual elephant history and a reminder that "elephants never forget". They have a tremendous capacity to hold onto memories and scents even developing lasting relationships not only with their own species but remembering individuals of humans even when separated for decades. Therefore, it's never wise to double cross an elephant (they don't have the capacity to forget or forgive)! However, the sense of community and a real emotional need came through very strongly.

There were opportunities of sponsoring and fostering an elephant, which did not particularly resonate well with my judgmental side of my character, thinking there are thousands of orphaned children in Kenya who should be more important than sponsoring elephants but I was inwardly reminded that God has called us to be good stewards of our planet and if it were not for the work of these charities, the very real poaching problem which is evident in Africa would completely kill off these beautiful animals to extinction.

Our second excursion was to visit the Giraffe Centre, again another conservation trust, where we had the opportunity of seeing these beautiful animals up close and even feeding them. I hadn't quite realised what long tongues they've got and if not careful could lick you to death!

All this was a reminder that animals not only have bodily but soulish needs as well. However, all human kind have in addition a spiritual need and the next leg of our journey was to highlight this particular point.

SECOND LEG - NAIROBI TO KISUMU

We eventually got our connecting flight and arrived at Kisumu Airport at 18.10 where we were warmly greeted by Christopher, our faithful translator throughout our stay; Nashon a pastor in one of the rural churches and together with his wife Monica arranges the women's conferences; George, a fine young man who is a testimony of the work of the Osare Orphanage having grown up there and is now making a living on his own; James and Rose Osare; David who pastors Life Church at Seme and Ruth, who pastors Freedom Church at Bodi.

We were dropped off at the usual New Victoria Hotel and as our hosts left us for the evening we made it clear that we wanted a prompt start in the morning as it involved at least one hour's journey to the orphanage in Siaya where Julie was to undertake a 2 day teaching conference with the local pastors and Pauline and myself were to interact with the children there.

Over the week we were working to a very tight itenery schedule which ideally needed to be like clockwork. However, we did overlook the fact that in Kenya they have a laid back attitude towards life, compared to what we're used to in the UK, and they don't appear to have any clocks or watches!

For the first year since going to Kenya, Julie had this year been inspired to teach them how to break bread and minister communion together at Siaya, Seme, Bodi and the Kisumu Bible School. This is something that they had not done before, principally as it's problematical to share one cup due to the risk of HIV/AIDS.

However, Julie had bought one thousand disposal communion cups so bread and juice could be ministered. God blessed the communion time we shared at all these places.

Again, as in November 2007, I noticed that when Julie steps out to Africa it seems she shifts to another level, as if God gives her additional enthusiasm and anointing, which in comparison makes her UK persona look ordinary!

Kanyadet, Siaya district
Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th January 2009

The day did not start off well on the Tuesday. Pauline woke up with a sickness bug and was looking a very odd colour. In addition, our plea for a prompt start did not materialize as we had to fit in with their agendas of visiting the bank first, getting photocopies of teaching material and we also found that somebody had borrowed our driver! We eventually arrived in Siaya at least one hour late but we found that this tardiness set the pattern for the rest of the week, as did cramming 10 people and a baby into one car to the various places we visited.

However, once we got to Siaya the delays were incidental as God certainly moved powerfully during the time we spent there.

This orphanage, called "Home of Hope", is set in a very rural area and has 65 orphan children resident there and a further 45 usually come in everyday for food and education. Julie visits the orphanage every year and personally endeavours to support them wherever possible, together with teaching input to the rural pastors in the area. Since our last visit in November 2007, we certainly felt that great strides had been made here.

New dormitories for the resident children had been completed, (which Julie officially opened this year) and there are strong, godly leadership qualities in the leadership and those who manage the orphanage. One of the orphans who grew up at the Osare Orphanage, Erick, has now permanently moved to Siaya and is managing and administrating at the orphanage. He's a fine young man and a real blessing. The new quarters have been built, set up slightly on a hill which gave the impression that it's to be "the light on the hill" and to the surrounding community.

At the moment it does not have fresh water facilities, drawing all it's water needs from a local river which is not clean and is frequented by crocodiles and hippopotamus. We are praying that God will provide sufficient funds for a borehole to be installed at the orphanage in the coming year so that fresh water can be available not only for the orphanage but the surrounding community.

Pauline and myself interacted with the children, which on each day totaled 145 so somehow local children from the community had managed to make their way in. On one day we made sock puppets with them and on the second day arranged a treasure hunt game. I was very grateful of Pauline's rich wealth of teaching and singing experience and she has a real heart for Africa. It was a real blessing to see the children having fun.

The church there is called Hope Church and Julie, separately, preached, on "The Life of David" and she advised that during the services there were several who came forward for salvation and there were also several who testified to receiving healing, including Nashon, a local man who faithfully fetches water for the orphanage with his donkeys, who testified, with a beaming smile and joy (see photo on right), to restoration of his eyesight to clear vision.

We were all very distracted when Julie spotted a lady in the congregation wearing a t-shirt with a vulgar slogan (to vulgar to put in print) which the lady obviously was oblivious to it's meaning. We made a decision to replace it with a new t-shirt with a very apt slogan of "Jesus is the Answer" the very next day.

The children sang for us and they did an excellent rendition of Jesus temptation in the wilderness.

Incredibly, we learnt that Kenyan children are required to purchase uniforms in order that they can attend school.

The orphanage needed 90 uniforms in order to send the children to school and we felt this was something that we could personally support, for the purchase of the uniforms. We also provided a donation for the purchase of mattresses for the newly built dormitories.

We were also able to treat the children there with biscuits, sweets and cake and also bananas. We managed to buy 300 bananas from the local women in the market at the side of the main road before turning off onto the narrow roads into the bush.

Seme, Kisumu district
Morning - Thursday 15th January 2009

This is where Life Church plant is situated, birthed in 2006 and is pastored by David, who was the first orphan taken in by the Osare Orphanage. He's now a fine young man and got married towards the end of 2008.

When we last visited in November 2007, there was a freshness about this church plant and such a hunger for the word of God. However, this year we sensed that there had been a shift and it seemed that all was not entirely well. David and his wife had moved out of the local community and were living in rented accommodation and it seemed that David was being hampered undertaking his calling. It also appeared that the community was being dominated by one particular village elder, Jacob, and who was not being a godly influence. It also appeared that the hunger for God's word, which was so evident in 2007, was not quite the same.

However, in the following two days we saw God move powerfully. That day, Julie preached a powerful message from the letter of Jude, highlighting that as believers God has entrusted us with His Word and it is our responsibility to guard the truth and calls for the Church to stand firm on His Word. This appeared to receive a very "luke warm" response from the regulars. However, God's presence was clearly there, that day, and 5 people came forward for salvation,including 3 Muslims. The Muslim's testimonies, afterwards, included that they had come due to David's invitation but had no intention to convert but it was only after hearing the word of God that they were convicted and made their commitment. They removed their Muslim gowns which were later destroyed and they have committed to being discipled by David the pastor of the church plant.

Julie also had a word of knowledge in that she felt that there was someone there who was involved in witchcraft but on that day no one came forward. It was very evident that she was burdened about Jacob.

Although we prayed for the people in the church we did not envisage the powerful work of the Holy Spirit and the transformation of Jacob. Two days later, Jacob, would make the journey to Kisumu, where Julie would be preaching at the Bible School, and committed his life to Christ. He testified that in the preceding two days he had been so convicted of his involvement in witchcraft that he had destroyed everything connected to it. He was repentant and promised that he would confess to the people at Seme that he had deceived the community and he would acknowledge David as pastor of that community. The visible transformation in this man, within two days, had to be seen to be believed. Only the Holy Spirit could achieve this work. Glory to God.

Jacob is the man in the green jacket in the picture on the left and is in the brown safari suit in the picture on the right.

Julie highlighted that Jacob in the Bible, meaning "deceiver", God had changed his name to Israel. Jacob also asked for his name to be changed and he will now be called Isaac (meaning "laughter") from now onwards.

Bodi, Kisumu district
Afternoon - Thursday 15th January 2009

This is where Freedom Church plant is situated, also birthed in 2006 and is pastored by Ruth Atieno. Since our last visit in November 2007, they had built a new building and Julie's service was to dedicate this new building. She preached on Acts 2 and the importance of devotion to the Apostle's teaching and to the "Word of God", "Fellowship": a love for one another and "The Breaking of Bread". There was a real presence of the Holy Spirit that day. 2 people came to Christ.

This community is mainly made up of young people and there is a real freshness about this church. There are strong leadership qualities, in Ruth, and an anointed worship leader Benjamin.

Women's Conference, Kisumu Central
Friday 16th January 2009

There were approximately 95 women who attended, mainly coming from local and rural churches. The worship there was amazing and I must admit that generally speaking African ladies have been blessed with some powerful lungs! The churches don't have musical instruments and quite frankly they don't need them as when they sing they bellow out some powerful and melodious songs.

The conference theme was "Born to be Beautiful - being beautiful from the inside out", Julie highlighting that the world is concerned at how we look on the outside but God is more concerned about our inside and looks at our hearts. He created us for relationship with Him and with others.

The African ladies have a way with words and one of the ladies prayed that we would "receive something hot direct from the kitchen of the Most High God..." and we most definitely got served something which was indeed "hot" and we also "saw and tasted that the Lord is good!"

There were 6 testified healings and separately 6 who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. The most dramatic was a lady who came forward for salvation but was manifesting demonic activity. The sight of 90 passionate African ladies rallying around her and once she had been delivered the instant transformation on the lady's face and demeanor will be a sight I will never forget. It was exciting as there was a sense that God had given great victory over this past oppression.

All the ladies there appeared to leave changed people and they were visibly touched by the Holy Spirit.

Osare Ophanage, Bandani, Kisumu district
Saturday 17th - Monday 19th January 2009

The plan was that Pauline and myself would spend half a day or so photographing the sponsored children and that would give us at least one day to arrange a treasure hunt or be in play with them. As is usual in Kenya that did not go to plan!

The first thing we found is that their system for finding each child didn't fit in with ours! Then having found the child we then had to verify that it was the correct child and we were somewhat hampered as both James and Rose were called away to attend to other matters. We ended up spending the best part of two days in frustrating administration, photographing, an unfruitful search for Luo Bibles and teaching books and a four hour church service which included a one one hour community talk!

We also had wonderful praise and worship there and folk were dancing. Many folk came forward for prayer and healing. It was thrilling to see again Rose who had been delivered of demonic powers at the Ladies Conference and she came forward and testified about her new experience with the Lord. She had had a struggle during the first night back but God was in control and her husband also testified at the marked change in his wife and how he had heard her praying in tongues in the middle of the night.

However, the good thing is that we have established that the actual number of children who are resident at the orphanage are 90 in total but there are further children who come in for food and education and who don't actually reside there.

It was great to see the playground which had been built in October 2007 was still being extensively used and forms a central part of their environment.

James and Rose play a vital role within the community. They are in effect like surrogate parents to these orphan children, they treat each child there as if they are their own, not only nurturing and caring for them but arranging a basic education and practical skills training in the hope that the children can be self supportive in the future. The seeds that they have sown, in God's name, have clearly taken root and are now bearing fruit such as David now being a pastor in Seme and Erick administrating in Siaya.

New seeds for the next generation of students at the orphanage are currently being sown and there is evidence of fine young people coming through with prospects of having a hope and a future.

The £10 a month that goes towards each sponsored child is well appreciated but clearly not sufficient to meet each child's need but what is clear is that God's hand is also working in there.

There is no doubt that each one of us has a spiritual need for God and to Him be all the praise and glory.

Jesus said: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing..." John 15:4-5