Sunday worship in Kawangware

We got up early and breakfasted with the other teams that were heading out to do vision clinics all over Kenya, some had to go 6 hours or more to reach their destinations.  We got a big group picture in front of the beautiful compound we had stayed in the first 2 nights and then we helped the other teams load up and head ‘em on out.  We were the last to leave, as we only needed to be at church by 10am.  Pastor Kevin was prepared to preach, having been asked the evening before.  The local pastors are very gracious with giving our pastors the opportunity to preach and teach in their churches wherever we go.

We arrived a few minutes late to a packed church and had a wonderful worship service, with all different styles of music ranging from traditional hymns to Swahili choirs to praise music and everything in between.  All the elements of a Lutheran church service were there including confession and absolution, the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Benediction, etc.  Pastor Kevin chose the passage from Luke 4 where Jesus returns to Nazareth, reads the scripture from Isaiah pointing to Him as the Messiah and is rejected in His own home town.  The theme was “Is God here in church today?” and Kevin did a wonderful job of involving the congregation in answering this question.  After nearly 3 hours of worship, which flew by as it always does, we went outside where the choir did one more song and then Pastor James gave the Benediction.  We spent about half an hour greeting old friends and introducing Billy and Linda to everybody.  We then rearranged the church for the clinic and this took some brainstorming on our parts, since the flow of the clinic has changed a little since we first started doing clinics in Kawangware.  This took about another half hour, so we left the church around 2:30pm and had a nice lunch at the Java House restaurant (think Starbuck’s with a full menu!) with Catherine and Sylvester at the Junction Shopping Center, a block from where we will be staying the rest of the week.  After lunch, we walked to the Nakumatt and were glad to see heightened security.  Guards were running wands over everyone coming into the mall and they were also present at every turn.  We thanked them for their service and told them we felt safer due to their presence.  We bought snacks for the week and supplies for the eye clinic including hand sanitizer, toilet paper and other essentials.  We are blessed to be staying a block away from such great shopping and restaurants, knowing we can stock up on anything on any given day.  They even have the first Subway in Nairobi, which was just opened by an American entrepreneur.  As Billy stated it so eloquently “I didn’t come 8,000 miles to eat in a Subway!” so I doubt there will be any group meals there anytime soon.

All is well, we are raring to get started on the clinic tomorrow and are now in our rooms around 8:30pm.  Internet access is sketchy in the building where we are staying here at Rosa Mystica, so I may have to walk down near the office to post this.  If I had a better signal in my room, there might already be the first of the pictures for you to see.  I have a wireless repeater with me, but I can’t reset it to factory condition to make it work here without a paper clip. My BIC ballpoint pen won’t do it, so hopefully a paper clip will appear in the next day or so.  That’s all for now.  Keep a safe and effective mission in your prayers, we’re ready to serve.