Final Thoughts on Kenya
Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Kenya is home to some of the best safari in the world. It seems almost surreal to be driving in a car just 4 miles away from the city center of Nairobi and to be able to see wild lions, giraffe, rhinos and other animals you’ve only ever seen before on National Geographic. Nairobi has over 3.3 million residents and is one of the most prominent cities in Africa. It took us over 2 hours to drive the 11 miles from the airport to our hotel. The traffic in Nairobi was some of the worst I had ever seen due to the fact that the infrastructure of the roads is unable to keep up with the rapid growth of the city. We had just arrived a week after 147 Christians had been killed at a Kenyan university a few hours outside of Nairobi by a Somalian-based militant group. We weren’t sure whether it would be safe to enter the country until the very last minute. Once we arrived, it was obvious that security everywhere was high. Even as we drove into our hotel, every piece of baggage we brought with us had to be scanned, and we had to walk through metal detectors to get into the hotel in the presence of armed guards. It was hard to know whether we felt more secure or more uneasy. We never ventured out of the hotel at night and we heard protests going on during the day in the back of our hotel at Freedom Park as people sought justice for the 147 students who were killed. It was a reminder that even in this 85% Christian country, religious tensions were high and peace was not something to be taken for granted.

We stayed for 3 days in Nairobi, then drove approximately 1.5 hours away to Limuru. All of a sudden we felt like we were in a different country. We had left the metropolitan city of Nairobi behind and now entered into an area where there were only dirt roads, where the huts of the street vendors were held up by wooden sticks and where the slums of the city were less than a mile away from the church building.

During our first full day, Harvest Spring Lake led a Vacation Bible School for the children of the tea plantation workers in a nearby field. Hundreds of children showed up, most being extremely dirty and looking sick with runny noses. Limuru can get very cold in the evenings with frequent rain, and since most of these children did not have adequate clothing, most appeared to be sick. Although it rained a little bit during the VBS, it didn’t deter anything and the kids continued to stay, even those without socks or shoes. The children were taught worship songs, learned about Jonah and obeying God, made salvation bracelets, played games and even chased a drone flying over their heads as we captured video of the day.

The day of the worship service we had two services, but almost everyone from the first service stayed for the second, so we had 400 adults crammed into the brand new worship center. We also had 370 children over two services who fit into a room about the size of an average American’s bedroom. The worship was both dynamic and vertical. There were Swahili songs where we were dancing and clapping our hands, and the worship ended with a song in English that I will never forget: “We give You glory, Lord, as we honor You. You are wonderful, You are worthy, O Lord.” It is such a simple song that we were able to learn it and not just watch, but fully participate in the worship together with this church from halfway around the world. The day ended with a spontaneous baptism service, which is no small feat when you’re in an area that lacks regular access to water. But Pastor James Omwamba and his leadership team were able to make it happen, and we watched 17 people get baptized in front of the church. It was a great launch service for Harvest Limuru and a great privilege for those of us from the U.S. to be a part of this joyous day and to celebrate all that the Lord has done together.