There are many places in the Bible where people are encouraged to serve the Lord God with all their hearts and with all their souls. The worshippers in Nickson's church today certainly were putting their heart and soul into it. Neil was reminded of a phrase used by our dear friend Bernie Wing, a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam, to describe some of their landings in enemy fire, "They were coming in hot!" Well, the worship team was in the devil's territory in the Nairobi slum, but Jesus was gaining ground. The worshippers were "coming in hot." Neil gave the woman in red a prophetic word that her worship would deliver people from demonic strongholds. She said that has already begun to happen. She was a visitor with an awesome voice who stepped up to join the team, and stepped the level of worship up a few notches. Then the fellow behind her in the green shirt led the team with an awesome high tenor voice. The team had a professional quality, but their worship was genuine and heartfelt. Neil said there are 3 things that have drawn him closer to Jesus' heart:
- becoming born again
- the baptism of the Holy Spirit
- Kenyan worship
Francis translated Neil's sermon from English to Swahili, and then the woman wearing the scarf translated from Swahili to Kikuyu. With that much time lag between phrases, Neil has learned to keep his sermons shorter and to the point. He compared the metamorphosis from a worm to a butterfly with the metamorphosis from an unbeliever to a servant of Jesus.
The Sunday School children also came forward and sang. There were about 100 people in the church today. The wooden box in the lower left that looks like a house on legs is the offering box. The piece of wood on the floor is covering the cistern, which is a 20 meter deep hole. Outfitters for Adventure had sent Nickson $300 to help with his church building, and that paid for the concrete foundation under the walls. The metal walls are sheets of tin from his former building which had to be moved, because the property location had been condemned by the city. They are now on a street in the slum that has several churches in a row. Neil would like to see them be able to move the church to another location needing churches. A gift of $5,000 would help them build a very solid building.
The cooks were busy preparing a delicious meal for the church. They made a beef stew with a medley of chopped vegetables. They also had cabbage that was cooked until it was just tender, but not mushy. There was no ugali, to Neil's great relief. Nickson's wife Anne visited with Neil during lunch. Anne is due to deliver their 4th child tomorrow, so please pray that all goes well. She has fond memories of Sharon from Canada, who taught at Cosmas' national pastors' conference a couple of years ago.
Neil and Francis had to walk the distance of about two football fields to make their way out of the slum and find an Uber driver to take them back to Joe and Karin's compound across the city. Uber drivers will not come into the slum, because it is too dangerous. Neil paid the driver to take Francis home after they dropped Neil off. Joe, Karin, Esther and Sophia have now headed out for their spring break vacation. In the afternoon, Neil played cribbage with a young man in the compound who won most of the games. Then Neil visited with a woman in her 20s from Switzerland who is a teacher in the International School. She told Neil her story of getting connected with the school and deciding to relocate to Nairobi.
Prayer requests:
- We thank you, Jesus, for bringing the white blood cell count down for our friend Eric from Alexandria, who is overcoming an infection the doctors have been having a difficult time identifying.
- Lord, we trust you to provide the vehicle for Francis and Neil to drive to the Uganda border tomorrow where they will minister in churches in NW Kenya.
- Lord, we also trust you to be with Nickson's wife Anne as she delivers their 4th child tomorrow.
Love,
Ruth Thielke