5/6/2010 Incredible Thursday in Kibera

Our usual routine of a 6am breakfast and a 6:45am ride to the church was followed today without incident, although we all concluded that anyone who would ride a motorcycle in Nairobi rush hour traffic has serious suicidal tendencies, based on some of the maneuvers we saw a couple of them make. We arrived and while waiting for the church to be unlocked, had a nice conversation with our Vicar, Paul. He is very committed and told of us what was required to go through seminary and then a vicarage, both in terms of education and financially. I have the deepest respect and admiration for his unbending faith and commitment to serving the Lord. He will make a wonderful pastor.

For once, it was not raining first thing in the morning and, in fact, it stayed sunny and was dry all day. We again had a large percentage of patients that were Muslim, and the Imam of the local mosque even came in and wanted a rush job through the clinic ahead of everyone else, so he would not be late for 4pm prayers. We tried to accommodate him, and we were able to fit him with reading glasses, but he still had to leave without getting a prescription filled for distance glasses. If he returns tomorrow, we may be out of the lenses he needs anyway, since it is a minimal correction. Pastor Zedekiah from Kawangware was back today and his ministry bore much fruit, as did Pastor Dennis’ and Paul’s. There are possibly 10 baptisms lined up for the near future and several Muslims seeking instruction in Christianity will be taught soon.

One of the most moving experiences for me so far involves a man of 25-35 years of age with a young son that he brought to the clinic on Tuesday. After receiving eye medication for the boy, the man (who shall remain nameless) was sitting outside of the building housing the Pastor’s office with the boy in tow, looking rather distraught. I was making my rounds and struck up a conversation with him. He told me that we had taken good care of his son, but he had concerns about his father, who was dying and in the final stages of cancer. He allowed that he was Catholic, had worked in evangelism and was in need of spiritual counseling. I told him I knew that the pastors were all busy at the moment and I would be happy to pray with him right then or anytime, but that I’m not a pastor. He said he needed to leave to meet the visiting nurse that was to come at noon to change his father’s bandages. He said he would be back at 2pm and I told him to find me and I’d see to it that he got to work with a pastor. He didn’t return that afternoon or Wednesday, but I did see him late this morning, sitting near the Pastor’s office once again. I greeted him by name and we talked for awhile, with him saying that his father no longer recognized any of his family. Vicar Paul happened by on his way to the evangelism tent and I quickly flagged him down and the two of them headed for the privacy of the office. Later in the day, Pastor Dennis came to me and told me the rest of the story. The man had told Paul that he had asked his priest to baptize his father and had been refused. Pastor decided after also talking to the man that an emergency baptism was called for and agreed to do it this afternoon. He told me that because this situation had come to light as a direct result of the eye clinic and since I had already worked with the man twice already, he felt that I should go with him and Paul when they perform the baptism. What an awesome privilege! The man promised to be back at 4pm. When 4pm came and went, we called on his cell phone and he said he was on his way. We were going to walk with him a mile or two into the slum from the church, and if the clinic ended and our team needed to leave before dark (a mission rule), Pastor Dennis would have gotten me back to our lodging half an hour away. As 5pm approached, we decided that we would try for in the morning. I am hoping that it all works out then and we are in time. All agreed that it would be better to baptize the father and be in error about it than to not do it, and be in error, especially from the perspective of the father’s eternal life and the burden that the young man was carrying due to this. My prediction is that if we are able to do the baptism, that this man will become the strongest new church member that Pastor Dennis could ever hope for! I am asking that you join me in praying for this man, trying to take care of his young family and suffering so much over his father’s spiritual dilemma.

One last note for tonight. We are all well aware that the Icelandic volcano from the place I can’t pronounce, let alone spell, has begun emitting more ash and that the cloud will be in Ireland, Scotland and maybe England by Friday. Portugal is already canceling flights. The reports that we have seen said the plume contains about 10% of the amount of ash that the original eruption did. We are scheduled to fly out of Nairobi Friday night at 11pm local time and be at London’s Heathrow Airport by mid-morning Saturday local time. We are asking you to pray for a cancellation of our flights so that we can remain here in relative calm, safety and in affordable accommodations if this comes to pass, rather than be stranded with 60 footlockers and maybe 40 people for who knows how long. The original disruption lasted a week and 8 million travelers were affected, including LCMS World Mission workers out of St. Louis that were to be in Kenya for 10 days before our arrival and were also to be with our mission groups for several days to observe what we are doing. They never made it here. Our mission has been blessed beyond belief up to this point. Please join us in praying that we end up in the best possible circumstances, and if we do get stranded somewhere, that we are given the strength to be a help and a witness for Christ to those whom God places in front of us.