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CLC Visitation to East Africa, 2007Travel Journal of Pastor Nathanael Mayhew
During late October and early November, 2007, four CLC volunteers are
visiting our affiliate congregations in Kenya and Tanzania,
accompanied by CLC Missionary David Koenig. The volunteers are
Mission Board member Larry Hansen, Loren Hansen, Russ Schmidt, and
Pastor Nathanael Mayhew. Pastor Mayhew has been sending regular
updates by email, which are presented below, with the most recent at
the top. Check back for updates! (Though we do not yet have current photos from the trip, a few photos from previous visitations to the area are included to give a visual idea of the people and places.)
Received November 13,
2007 Friday, November 9th -- When we met in Arusha for our General Pastoral Conference, I made plans to visit congregations in the CLCEA under Jeremiah. One of the groups I was really looking forward to visiting were people who lived in the hills south of Moshi. Pastor Martin serves one of the districts of the CLCEA and has been sending an evangelist into the hills to preach to these people. They call these people the “ndorobo”, which means “bush people” because many of them do not live in home or even huts. They live in the bush. This was a great outreach effort because most of these people are unchurched, and it was something that I looked forward to being a small part of. Because of the very rough terrain we were to travel, we rented a large 4-wheel drive “safari” truck through Pastor Jeremiah’s son Elisha. On the trip we had Pastor Martin (who is the district leader), Pastor Jeremiah (who is the CLCEA lead Pastor) and Pastor Malyi (who served as my translator), as well as Elisha (who was our driver). On the way we also picked up Evangelist Samuel Mangu who helps Pastor Martin with the congregations in his district and a few others. First we drove to the town of Msitu watemba - the home of Pastor Martin and Evangelist Mangu. We were invited to Mangu’s home for food and tea. Evangelist Mangu is a Masai, and dresses in the traditional clothing of the Masai (which are prevalent in this area). The typical Masai have purple and red clothing wrapped around them like a Roman toga, a three foot pole (for the men) and a large hole in the lobe of both ears (about the size of my thumb). I’m not sure of the meaning of that, or how they do it, and forgot to ask! This evangelist is a very interesting man. He is quite young and is one of the elders of this village. He was telling us about how he used to be a heathen, and had more than 600 gods that he believed in! But then he learned about Jesus from the Bible and the Holy Spirit has worked in His heart, so that he has abandoned those gods, and now preaches about the one true God - Jesus the Christ! What an amazing story! To get to Msitu watemba, we went south out of Moshi, and entered a huge sugar cane plantation (I mean huge). It went on for miles and miles (or kilometers)! Then we came to a huge factory where they bring the cane when it is harvested to burn it. After it is burned they squeeze the sugar sap out of the charred remains which is used to make sugar. The burning process sure smelled bad though. From there we started to rise in elevation and the sugar cane fields gave way to fields of maze (corn). Then the fields of maze disappeared as well and the land became very desolate. Now there were plants, but most of them were thorn bushes, which the hill people use to make fences around their houses to keep out unwanted guests. The rest of the shrubbery was pretty much without life! They have several trees here which do live well. One is the Acacia tree and the other the Baoba tree. The Baoba tree is huge. The trunk width of some of these trees was greater than the width of our car. In order to survive in this dry climate, it stores water inside its trunk. Many of these trees have huge gashes in their sides from animals scratching at it to get the water! The first church we visited was near by Evangelist Mangu’s home. This congregation used to worship under a nearby Acacia tree which offers a good canopy for shade, but now have built a building for worship. It was made of sticks and mud and had a grass roof. Most of the houses in this village were the same mud-waddle houses with grass roofs; very few people here live in stone homes with metal roofing. There were many children that came out to visit us at this congregation, which was great to see! Here we had to use more than one translator since many of the people didn’t speak Swahili. So Pastor Malyi translated what I said into Swahili, and the Evangelist Mangu translated that into Masai! It was quite time consuming! From there we continued further into the hills to see the ndorobo people. The roads here were very rough! In fact most of what we were driving on were not roads at all, but dried river beds and washouts! Very few vehicles travel into this part of the hills. The only ones that do are the trucks that are sent up to collect rock from the mines in these hills. The roads were so bad in certain areas that I could feel my internal organs bouncing inside my ribcage! We came up to a few Masai men sitting under a bush beside the “road” and stopped. One of the men was the evangelist who has been coming up here to teach these people about Jesus. We got out and began talking to them, and noticed more coming out and other standing back in the distance. These were the true ndorobo people. They lived in cave up in the hills above us, and lived entirely on their own. They hunted wild gave for food and got water from springs in the hills. Everything they had was home-made from something in this barren wilderness! One of the men showed me his bow and arrow that he used for hunting. His quiver was full of poisoned arrows to aid in incapacitating the game. Most of the people were afraid to come out of their homes because they weren’t sure who we were or why we were there. But there were about a dozen that came to listen. They gave me an opportunity to speak to them (through two translators again) about the one true God who made the world and sent Jesus to deliver us from sin and death. I used illustrations of things they were familiar with to help them see sin and death and to tell them that Christ has conquered that for us. Pray that through the Word the Spirit works in them the desire to learn more from the man that goes to visit them! From there we continued up the hill to the place where the church was located. This was like no church I had ever seen before! There were probably thirty people that came to greet us here and we were ushered into their church. It was situated under a group of Acacia trees which offered shade from the hot sun. The walls were made of thorn bushes from knee up to waste high in the shape of a large circle. They had hand-made benches formed by tying tree branches together (like a raft) with other branches tied on and going down to the ground for legs. They were very sturdy and well constructed (though not the most comfortable). They also had a small table which they used as an altar. Across the road they have some land where they plan to build a church with stone from the area. May the LORD bless them in this endeavor! Again I was given the opportunity to address the people and I was impressed by their knowledge of Scripture. I started with the creation of the world, Adam and Eve and the fall into sin, and then led into the work of Christ as our Savior from sin and His gift of everlasting life. What a wonderful thing to see these people come to know Jesus as their Savior from sin and death. What a wonder to see God’s Word at work here in the ndorobo people and spreading throughout this land! May the Holy Spirit continue to bless the work here through the faithful preaching of the Word of Life. Saturday, November 10th -- Today I had plans to attend a home-Bible study group at one of Pastor Malyi’s congregations. This wasn’t until the afternoon, so I had the morning to get caught up on a few things. One thing that needed to be done was my laundry. They will wash your laundry here, but we have had some problems. It doesn’t always come back when it is supposed to, plus Russ lost two pieces of clothing in one batch that was sent down to be done. So I’m doing my own. I wash my clothes in the large sink in the bathroom and then hang it out on the rail in front of my room to air dry. In the early afternoon I made a trip to the Internet place and then the money changing place to exchange $ for Tanzania Schillings. The conversion was down to 1120 to 1 from 1145 to 1 earlier, so I changed only enough to get me to Arusha, hoping that the exchange rate will be better there then here. It was actually quite warn out today. The heat is much different than in Atlanta, because here there is very little humidity - it is a dry heat in which you can actually feel the sun beams hitting your body and radiate of the pavement. It wasn’t overly uncomfortable, but I could tell a difference in previous days which have been cooler. At 1:30 Pastor Malyi and I met to go to Marangu which is North of Himo, and very close to the border of Kenya. We took a small public bus called a Dala-Dala (called a Matatoo in Kenya). This bus isn’t much bigger than our Pontiac Transport at home, but it has 6 rows of seats that fit about three people per row. Some quick math says that the capacity of that bus would be 18 people, right? Well I have now been in one of those small buses with more that 26 people in at one time! And they even got the door shut! That gave new meaning to our American “can of sardines” expression - Been there, done that! The more people they cram in there, the more money they make for the trip! Add to that the fact that people are getting on and off at almost every stop, and the fact that most people don’t use deodorant. Just imagine! I was glad to get off when we got to Marangu over one hour later! Pastor Malyi has a number of home-Bible study groups going in his congregations because of the distance many of the people come for church. So this is a way to keep them in the Word during the week. They begin with prayer and a few songs, then they have time for Bible study and then announcements, etc. Then they have tea and close with prayer. We had about 12 people there, but many were not able to come because there was a wedding in the village later that night. Instead of taking the bus back to Moshi we decided to take a taxi, because Pastor Malyi was concerned that it was dark and the chance or robbers on the bus at this time of night (his concern was for me and not himself). So we had a little more room and breathing space on the way back. But tomorrow we head back there for church and will be taking the Dala-Dala once more! Sunday, November 11th -- This morning I was to meet Pastor Malyi at 7:30, but he told me he might be a little bit late, depending on the buses. He arrived just after 8:00 to pick me up for our trip to Marangu for church. There was a Dala-dala waiting for us, and this morning it was almost empty! Besides the three men in the front seat and the two that work the door and collect the fare, there may have only been four others. Generally these buss es have two men who operate the sliding door letting people on and off, and recruit riders at the stops. As we are going down the road one will stick his head out the window and yell their destination to the passers-by or whistle loudly to get their attention. If someone wants to ride he will pound on the side of the bus to alert the driver to stop so they can pick up the passenger(s). When the passenger is in, he will pound on the side once more and off we go. Sometimes he isn’t in the bus yet because there is standing room only, so he just grabs on to the rail on the side of the bus and squeezes in while the bus is rumbling down the road! At the bus stops the helpers for the different buses will almost fight over clientele - in an effort to get as many as possible into their bus. I’ve begun to wonder if these recruiters get paid by commission! Although our bus ride started out empty, it filled up in a hurry. As we moved along the road to Himo we picked up more and more people, many of whom were dressed for church it looked like. Some would get on and off quickly, others were on for the long haul. At one point we had 27 people in this little bus! When we got to Marangu we hired a taxi to take us to the church since it was too long of a walk (to get there before church started) and the Dala-dala didn’t go up to that park of the town. We arrived at around 9:45 and had some time before church started. We stood in front of the church and greeted the members as they arrived with “Karibu” (“welcome”) or “Jambo” (“how are you” - this is one of the standard greetings in Swahili). This building is about 10 years old now and is started to show a little age and disrepair. It was again a stick frame building made from a combination of tree branches and 2x4's, with trusses and a steel roof. The walls, instead of being made of wood nailed on horizontally as many are, were put on in a diagonal pattern with split bamboo. They cut the bamboo shoots in half and then nailed those on in an intricate pattern. But at this time some of the bamboo had fallen off in places and their were holes or even sections missing. They had hand made benches for pews that were very nice and well done, and a hard dirt floor. One of the things they would like to do in the near future is pour a concrete floor - but it is too expensive for them at this time (it would cost about $2,000 in our money). Their service was a little different than the others in this area. They don’t follow an order of service like we do. They have an order, but it is not responsive like ours. They begin by singing a few hymns. They are led by a young man who assists Pastor Malyi here at this congregation. These are more African than the ones sung in the other churches I have attended. They sing in harmony, and have a number of parts that come in at different times. It is very beautiful. Then they have time for individual prayer, and after a few more hymns and choruses the service begins. They have two different choirs (female choir and then a youth choir) who sang during the service, they had congregational choirs, they had Scripture readings, and the sermon. I was again given the opportunity to preach to the people to encourage them and build them up in the Word. There were probably about 50 people in church, although the congregation is much larger than that. Many were still helping with the wedding cleanup which was the night before. Most of the people in church were young children and women. There were very few men. After the service several people came with specific prayer requests and asked us to pray for them. There were health problems, family problems, marriage problems and the like. The same problems are faced here as we struggle with in the states. Certainly as Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun!” After the service we were invited to the home of a widow in the congregation for something to eat and drink. They had prepared rice and spinach, bananas, tea and colas. There were a number of ladies of the congregation there who joined us for the meal. After finishing our meal, we met up with our taxi driver who took us down the hill to the main part of Marangu where we caught a Dala-Dala back to Moshi. Monday, November 12th This was my last day in Moshi. My journey (safari) in Africa is nearing the end. From here I will be making my way back to Nairobi, from which I will fly back home. Last night after returning from Marangu I packed up my things in preparation for my trip to Arusha. Pastor Malyi was going to be traveling with me since we were going to visit a few of his congregations on the way to Arusha. We took a taxi from the hotel to the bus station where we caught a bus to the junction which heads to Laguruki. We were supposed to have a driver waiting for us there, but something happened and he didn’t show up. So we waited for a local taxi to come down from the hills so that we could catch a ride up. Finally after a one hour wait one came and took us the 19 kilometers up the hill to where the church is located. When we arrived we were warmly greeted and were invited into the church elder’s home next to the church for some tea and hard-boiled eggs. Then after getting to know the church leaders a little bit we went into the church building for a short service. They began with a hymn, gave some introductions, and gave me the opportunity to address those who were there. After my word of encouragement, we closed with prayer, and shared some greetings. One of the members said that they could not offer much but they said they could offer the Word of God and gave Psalm 125 as their offering to me and the CLC members back home. The church here is on land that was donated by the church elder. They have constructed a nice stone building with a new metal roof. There are no doors or windows in this church yet. We said good bye, packed back into the taxi and returned back down the hill to catch another bus for Arusha. We caught one quickly, and loaded on with all my luggage. It was about a one hour ride to Arusha along the plains between Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru. To the north of the road were all kinds of hills which roll between the two larger mountains which dominate the landscape of this area. At about 2:30 we arrived in Arusha and I booked my room at the Eland hotel where we had our conference the week before. Then we caught a Dala-Dala going back to the East again to the town of Momella to visit one more of Pastor Malyi’s congregations. Once more we were invited to the home of the elder of the congregation for food and drink. There were a number of other church members and leaders here as well. After some informal discussion, I was asked to address them with the Word. So I encouraged them and thanked them for their kindness. Then we walked to the church building to see its construction and size, etc. It also was a brick building with a steel roof, similar to the one in Laguruki, but smaller. This church has about 50 members, about the same size as our congregation in Atlanta! This also was a very warm congregation which was eager to hear the Word of God! What a blessing to see all these people who have separated from the large and liberal congregations and denomination in Africa in order to hold fast to the truth of God’s Word! Once again we see many similarities between these people and ourselves. There are many Roman Catholic churches, Reformed churches and even Lutheran churches (ELCT ), but these churches recognize the doctrinal problems in these churches and are seeking to remain faithful to God’s Word. May the LORD bless them and us in this endeavor! Tonight I will stay in Arusha and catch a bus across the border to Nairobi tomorrow. Tuesday, November 13th -- Today I met Elisha at the hotel entrance at 7:00, we loaded up my luggage and made a short 15 minute trip across Arusha to the Impala bus station. I booked a seat on the next bus for Nairobi, which left at 8:00am. I had a few minutes to visit with Elisha before I left and to say good bye. Then I jumped on board the bus for my trip back into Kenya after a 16 day stay in Tanzania. They said the bus trip would be about a five hour trip arriving in Nairobi around 1:00. They were pretty close. The first drop off was at the airport on the south side of Nairobi a little after 1:00. But my stop was the last one and it was after 2:00 by then. Still not bad. It was a beautiful trip, and quite reminiscent of my stay. I was hoping to see Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro one more time fro the west, but the clouds were to thick and low to be able to see anything. At about 10:30 we made it to the border town of Namanga where we have to unload from the bus, fill out a departure declaration form for Tanzania and have our passport stamped, then journey to the Kenya side, fill out a Kenya entrance declaration form, have our passport stamped again, and then re-board the bus. One thing is for sure the Kenya roads make the Tanzania roads look great (and they aren’t very good)! The scenery is beautiful with its changes from rolling hills, to barren wasteland, to rich green mountains. The people also very from town to town, some being dressed like westerners and others wearing the traditional clothes of their ancestors. Sadly, even though Christianity is strong in this part of the world, Islam is making inroads especially on the coast. Those who are only marginally Christian (or Christian in name only) are often picked off by this and other heathen religions. That reminds us why it is so important to be here teaching the truth of God’s Word in its truth and purity. This will most likely be my last report. I will be staying here tonight, and have plans to meet with a few of the leaders of the CLC Nairobi tomorrow afternoon. My flight to Amsterdam will fly out tomorrow night around 11:30pm, and Lord willing, I should be back on the ground in the USA on Thursday in the early afternoon. Please pray that the LORD gives me safe travel back home as I return to the flock in Atlanta. Also remember the other Mission Helpers in your prayers. Missionary Koenig will be returning to Nairobi on the 16th and flying to the Congo to meet with the leaders of the churches there, and then returning to Kenya and Tanzania about a week later. The other Mission Helpers are still in Etago (Kisii) working on the orphanage there, and they will be returning to Nairobi on the 19th for their flight back to the states. May the name of the LORD be glorified through the work that has been done here, and continues to be done through so many others! In Christ, Pastor Nathanael Mayhew
Received November 10,
2007 Hello again from Moshi, Tanzania! Here is another report of my work here: Tuesday, November 6th -- Today was set aside for teaching in the seminary. We left at about 8:30 in the morning for the drive from Moshi to Himo, where the seminary is located. There are a total of 13 students in the seminary. The youngest is 21, and the oldest is 50, with all ages in between. Six of the students are married, and live off campus with their families. Some of these students live close to the seminary building, and others have quite a way to come. The seminary began as a three year program, but has been expanded to be a five year program, since many of the students have no college education. There are 8 students in their fourth year who will graduate at the end of next year. There are five more students who are finishing their first year in the sem. The CLC sponsors these students though Project Kinship, so that they may be able to attend the seminary and have help supporting their families while they are going to school. At a little after 9:00 we began with an opening devotion, a hymn and prayer. Dave began with a study from Ezekiel on Homiletics (Preaching sermons). Ezekiel uses many pictures in his prophecies and they are helpful to study and learn from in our own preaching. Dave is very animated in his presentation, and keeps the attention of the students, even though we use Pastor Angowi as a translator. After a tea break I Dave took a break from his presentation and gave me the opportunity to teach Pastoral Theology. We studied the qualifications and responsibilities of pastors as outlined in the Pastoral Epistles of 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. Then we took a break for lunch. They brought in white rice, fried bananas, and a meat sauce for the rice. It was pretty good. (I myself am not fond of the fried bananas but this is banana country, so they eat them many ways, probably so they don't get sick of eating them!) After lunch we started up again. Dave continued on with his presentation on learning to preach from Ezekiel. At 4:00 he wrapped up his presentation and assigned them some homework, since he will be coming back through the end of November, beginning of December. I had the last hour and a half to present a class on the Gospels. I questioned them on the four Gospels, their differences and purposes, and gave them some handouts on the miracles of Jesus found in the Gospels, and a harmony of one section in the Gospels to see the differences and similarities in each Gospel record. After our class we returned to Moshi for the evening. On the way we stopped at Kiboriloni to look at a project that some members of that congregation have been working on to support the work of the church. It was an out door tie-dye ¡°factory¡±. They used huge kettles over open fires to melt the colors for the material, which was mixed with certain chemicals in steel buckets in which the material is soaked into. We were each given some of this material, and one of the sem students offered to make them into shirts for us. He owns his own sewing machine and does sewing on the side to help support his family while he is in sem. Wednesday, November 7th -- Today the others all left. Russ, Dave and Larry all got in the car with Charles to head back up to Nairobi and then to Kisii. So I¡¯ll be spending the rest of my time here all alone. I would have like to have gone to Kisii also, but felt like it was important to visit some of our churches in the CLCEA while I am here also, and get to know some of those pastors and congregations better, so I am staying a bit longer. The other thing I wanted to do was to spend some extra time teaching in the seminary with the extra time I had here. We had made plans to do that this afternoon, but things didn¡¯t work out like that! Pastor Angowi had told me that he had to meet with Pastor Abel about the funeral plans for his daughter in the morning but that when he finished he would stop by the hotel and we would go to Himo for the afternoon and teach. But just after the others left for Nairobi, the LCEA Treasurer found me and said there was a change of plan. He said I was asked to come to Pastor Abel¡¯s house with Pastor Angowi to offer him some words of comfort. Pastor Angowi would be there to pick me up at 12:00 for the trip. It¡¯s a good thing I didn¡¯t waste my money on making copies of papers for the sem students that I would not be using! We left at 12:00 along with Pastors David Yairo and A. King¡¯homella. On the way up the mountains we stopped to see two of the congregations Pastor Yairo serves. The first was Jerusalem church which was a wooden building on land donated to the church. Like most of the others, it was a stick-framed building, and had metal sheets for a roof. On the sides were pieces of wood cut from trees that were used like siding in the states, but with much less accuracy! The wooden pieces did not make it to the top of the wall since they add to them as they can afford. This church is about 3 years old and has about 17 members. That may seem small, but it has two spin-off churches in the area as well which have been started in the past year. The first of these was further up the hill at Osehu and the other down the valley in Mkombozi, both of which have about 15 members each as well. When I asked how he served each of the congregations on Sunday morning, he told me that he does things differently: The congregations rotate worship services. On the fist week all the members will come to Jerusalem, the next week they will all meet at Osehu, and the following week at Mkombozi! A interesting idea as they work to build the churches! Osehu was the satellite of Jerusalem and was built when one of the members donated land for the purpose of building a church there. This building was right along the side of the road, and was not as complete as Jerusalem. It had a stick frame, a rise for an altar, and lecturn, and steel sheets on the roof, but there were no walls at all. It was completely open on the sides. We offered a prayer there that the Lord would bless the members of the church there and that their message of salvation in Christ would spread to many others. From there we continued up the mountain and came to the boundary of Mt. Kilimanjaro national park. We got out of the car to look at the forest land that filled the area up the side of the great mountain. It was quite a breathtaking view even if the mountain top was hidden once again behind the clouds! From here we traveled south and east back down the mountain side to Kisaseni. Here they had a small church built on land that had been donated by Pastor Abel. The people of the church came out to greet us with shouting, hugs, and singing! They led us into the small church which was made of wood with a metal roof and a concrete floor. This was the very first church started by the LCEA ten years ago. The choir sang some hymns, and I was given the opportunity to address the people. There were about 16 people there, of the 30 or so members of this church. From there we went next door for some tea, fried bananas, hard-boiled eggs, and roasted pork (the food staples in this area). Then we walked down the hill to Pastor Massawe¡¯s home. There were many people already gathered here under the awning on the front of the Massawe¡¯s home. Once everyone was settled in, Pastor Yairo led the group in prayer and then a hymn. A few words were spoken by Pastor Angowi, and then I was given the opportunity to speak. I told Pastor Massawe and the family that we could not comfort them in their loss, but that the Lord can and would comfort them with the promise of the Lord that He is not a God of the dead but of the living. Pastor Massawe has five children, and the oldest two daughters both have died now. Pastor Massawe spoke about what had happened and how the doctors here in Moshi failed to determine what was wrong with his daughter. He also told us how much he appreciated our coming, and said that our words had strengthened him. After another hymn we said our goodbyes and departed. May the Lord continue to be with this family and comfort them as only He can! By this time it was late in the afternoon and it was still a long way back down the mountain. Thursday, November 8th -- Today we were started at 10:00 on our journey to visit four more congregations north and east of Moshi. This time Pastor Ulotu joined Pastors Angowi and Yairo and myself on the trip. We started with Mkombozi, which was the third of Pastor David Yairo¡¯s congregations. The land up here is full of bananas, coffee, and maze (corn). One of the seminary students lives close by (between Mkombozi and Usehu congregations), so he helps Pastor Yairo with the services on the weekends. This was also a young congregation, started less than a year ago. They have about 15 members here, and most of them were there to greet us. This church has a stick frame, but only about 1/4 of the roof has metal sheets on it. Another 1/4 has a borrowed tarp over it. The walls are again made from mud, and two walls of the church were little over half way completed. They requested about $200 to buy metal sheets to finish the roof before the rains come at the end of this month. I wish that I could help every one of these congregations, but there are so many needs! After the service they brought coffee, bananas and roasted meat for us to eat and drink before we left. This was a hot and sticky day and once again there were three of us crammed into the back seat of a small car. Being squeezed together only made us all the more sweaty and hot. The only good thing was the breeze that came through the window, but on those bad roads you don¡¯t go want the driver to go very fast! From there we travel led back down the mountain to the main road and then went west to Pastor Ulotu's church and Mdawe. This was another older church (about 8 years) and has about 60 members. They do not own their own land but do have a nice building to worship which is owned by one of the members. This is a larger block building with a metal roof (although it doesn¡¯t seem large enough for 60 people!). Again we met in the pastor's office off the back of the building for tea. We were only met here by two of the elders of the congregation, and did not have a service, although I did offer a prayer that the Lord would bless the pastor and members of the congregation in their preaching of the Word of God. Off we went again to the east again to Pastor Dennison's home and the very new congregation at Shia. This congregation was only started about one month ago, and has 12 members (two young children are to be baptized in the coming weeks. We were offered sodas here, and then walked the distance to a home where the church was meeting. While we were there, a man came forward and donated a plot of land to the LCEA for the purpose of building a church! What a blessing! May the LORD bless the people here as they work to proclaim the name of Jesus to the people of this area! Then it was back in the car once more to the congregation at Sango. This is another of the oldest congregation in the LCEA (also about 8 years old). When we arrived, the congregation was outside working on building a foundation for a new church building. There are about 45 members here at Sango, and they are outgrowing their current structure. Right now they worship in a wooden building with a metal roof, about 30x90. They are working now on making a stone building that will ab about twice that size. They have the footers dug for the new building, and the foundation poured for the front wall. Here they are using hand-sized rocks held together with mud. Quite an interesting process! I addressed them from Haggai 2 concerning the glory of the temple where Christ is present. After a short service the members again asked for assistance in building their church and then invited us to have tea, roasted bananas, boiled eggs, and roasted pork! Once again it was getting late, and we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel in Moshi. Once back there I also said my goodbyes to the pastors of the LCEA since I would not be seeing them again. From here out I will be working with the pastors in the CLCEA who also serve congregations in this area. There is a great deal of work to be done here through the pastors and congregations of the LCEA. Please keep them in your prayers as we work together to bring the name of Christ to the people in northern Tanzania! In Christ, Pastor Nathanael Mayhew
Received November 7,
2007 Dear Friend and loved ones, Here is my update on things here in Tanzania, at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I miss you all and look forward to seeing you, Lord willing, when I get back in about a week. Thursday, November 1st -- When I wrote last I left off with our General Pastoral Conference in Arusha, Tanzania. On Thursday we had a “catch-up” day which was quite necessary at this point. Up until this point we really haven’t had a day to relax, or even do the reports we need to do about what is going on while we are here. Every day is full of things that need to be done, preparations that need to be made, and much more. So this day was eagerly welcomed by everyone! But things aren’t like they are in the States! In the morning I worked in our hotel room on the computer, typing up reports on our meetings as well as my e-mail report. Then at around 11:00, Dave, Larry and I walked down the street to find an Internet place. These Internet places are all over, but they are very, very, very slow. So if some of my replies seem short at times, that is why. What I have been doing is typing up these reports on my laptop, saving them to a flash drive, taking that to the Internet place, and then copying it from the flash drive to the text of a e-mail to save time and money (and frustration) at the Internet place. It has worked pretty well, so far. After spending over an hour and a half in the computer place and only reading three e-mails I returned to the hotel to start packing. We were leaving for Moshi at around 4:00 that afternoon. From Arusha, Moshi is about one hour East, and at the foot of another Mountain - one much more famous than Mt. Meru - Mt. Kilimanjaro. Just as we could see Mt. Meru from our hotel in Arusha, we can also see Mt. Kilimanjaro from our hotel window in Moshi. Mt. Meru was beautiful, but Mt. Kilimanjaro was even more so, with its snow-capped peak. It is the highest point in all of Africa at over 19,000 ft (sorry, they put everything in meters here and I’m not going to do the math to figure out what the exact measurement is in feet)! We are staying at the YMCA in Moshi, which is very reasonable. For a double room we are paying less than $17 a night, and its less than $13 for a single. A few other nice things about the Y - we are only about three blocks from a better Internet place, and a few more from an American eatery. The first night we were in Moshi, we went to this restaurant and ordered hamburgers and cheeseburgers with fries! We will be here for about a week, so we will finally be able to settle in a little bit.
Friday, November 2nd -- This morning we met with the Pastors of the LCEA (Lutheran Church in East Africa). This group is led by Pastor Jesse Angowi. You may know that there has been a falling out between Pastor Angowi and the LCEA and Pastor Jeremiah and the CLCEA over the past few years. One of the things we wanted to address in this meeting was the problems between these two groups. The problem is not a doctrinal issue. It is mostly a difference of church practices which have caused the division. So we discussed the issues and although there were some very emotional times, Koenig was able to work out an agreement on the part of these men to meet with Jeremiah and try to resolve these issues, so that we can all work together to serve our LORD in Kenya and Tanzania. Praise be to the LORD for this step forward! Please keep this in your prayers that these men would set aside their personal feelings and resolve their differences through the Word of God. After the meeting, we drove to Himo (directly East from Moshi) to see the seminary and meet the students. The property looked beautiful. They had cultivated the land, the trees that had been planted along the road that led to the sem. had grown and were in blossom, and the students were in the process of painting the exterior of the building. It is a nice, big building, with two large rooms on the front - one for a sem class room and the other which serves as a chapel for worship. Then there are four rooms that serve as dormitory rooms for the students, a kitchen, and several rooms that serve as offices. There are also bathrooms, although the building does not have running water at the present time. It was great to be able to get to know the students a little bit, even though we didn’t have much time. Then, it was back to Moshi, which was about a 30 minute drive from Himo. Saturday, November 3rd -- On Friday night and Saturday morning I was working on getting things prepared for the next few days. On Sunday I would be preaching in one of the local churches, on Monday was the seminar for the LCEA pastors and students, and on Tuesday we would teach in the Seminary. So I had to get the papers I was planning to present printed off at a local copy place. But I had planned to say at the seminary with the “dorm” students one night to get to know them better, and see what life was like there. So I left Russ with instructions for copying, and I packed my bag and headed to Himo. In the morning Dave, Larry and I met with the Loan Committee. This is a committee which is set up to suggest ways the seminary students could be helped following graduation, to help get their feet on the ground. We listen to their ideas, ask a lot of questions, and try to get answers which will help us to make a good decision about these matters. There is still one more year before any of them will graduate, so there is still time to get more in from them.
We ate lunch at the seminary, and then Dave and Larry left and I remained in Himo. The first thing I started working on was the lighting. I had noticed that very few of the lights actually worked. Some are fluorescent tube lights on the ceiling, and others are regular bulbs mounted on the walls. We began by testing the tube lights to see if it was bad bulbs, or bad ballasts. Then we went around and took inventory of what would be need. We only had seven tube lights that worked in the whole building (the two big rooms have five in each). In addition we bought 20 light bulbs to replace those which had burnt up. A couple of the students escorted me into Himo to get the tools and materials we needed for the job, and helped me with the work. One of the students invited me to his house to meet his family and watch TV. He has a wife and three children. Then we walked to a home where another student, Davis Machundi, took me to meet his old school teacher who was a member of the church in Himo, and was laid up with a cast on his foot. He was a very knowledgeable man and fun to talk with. Then we walked around Himo a bit more as it started to get dark. The town of Himo has most anything you would want, but is not very nice by American standards. They have many run-down buildings, no side-walks and mostly dirt roads. But at the same time there are beautiful trees like the Jacaranda and Flame tree, and bushes like the Bougainvillea. After our walk through town we returned to the seminary were I spent more time with the students again. We had purchased an electric keyboard for the seminary through a donation from a CLC member and had brought it that morning. So the students were having a good time playing with it. A couple of them are pretty good pianists! So I dug out my Swahili hymnal and we stood around the keyboard and sang hymns for a while. That was a lot of fun, because many of the tunes are the same as hymns from our hymnal! So even though I didn’t know what the Swahili words meant by reading them, I could learn by thinking of the words in our hymnal! It also helped me with my Swahili pronunciation!
After a bit, Jascar Ulotu invited me over to his house again, this time for supper. He and his wife had fixed pork, roasted banannas, and cucumbers with tea. He has three beautiful children, Lori (11) and Johnson and Joanna (6). When I was talking about my own children, he offered to give me one of his! This is not the first time this has happened since I have been here, and I think it is because they are concerned about the future and they want to make sure their child have everything they need. I can’t even imagine giving up one of my children! While we were sitting down to eat, the electricity went out! Lightness lit a couple candles so we finished eating by candlelight! I guess this happens at times and they never know when it will come back on again - sometimes it is only 10 minutes, other times it is hours! After our meal, Davis and I returned to the seminary and I sat down to study for my sermon on Sunday morning. Students would come in and out of the office and would sit down by me and just watch me as I worked. I would strike up conversations with them, and tried to glean more about where they were educationally in their studies. When I was done, I turned in an slept in one of the dorm rooms with three students. They were all asleep by the time I came in and hopped into the open top bunk. It was a restless night. Sunday, November 4th -- I was up early the next morning and began work on my sermon again. Davis offered to iron my shirt and shine my shoes, and Samuel brought me hot water from outside on the fire to wash up with. They were very hospitable! Then they helped me learn the pronunciation of the Swahili for my sermon text, so I could read it to the congregation in their own language. They also helped me with the introduction for the text: “Zaburi ya mia na sita; msitari wa kwanza tu” or “Psalm 106, verse 1 only.” Then I read the passage from the Swahili Bible Loren left for me to use. I also sang some more hymns with some of the students and children while I was waiting for my ride to arrive.
On Sunday morning Pastor Angowi had arranged for each of us to go to a different congregation. Koenig was to preach at Himo, I was to preach at Uchira (between Moshi and Himo), Russ was to go to Kiberaloni (between Uchira and Moshi), and Larry to Machame (west of Moshi). At Uchira they were having a Harvest and Thanksgiving festival, so my text centered around that based on Psalm 106. Their services are very similar to ours in some ways. They have a specific liturgy, which is chanted by both pastor and congregation. They have the invocation, confession and absolution, and some other liturgy, Apostles’ Creed, scripture readings, sermon, offering, closing liturgy and benediction. But it is much more ceremonial then our services. This service lasted over two hours, although it didn’t feel that long! By the time we returned to the hotel it was after 4:00, so we planned to rest up and then meet at 6:00 for supper and talk over the events of the past few days. Monday, November 5th -- We got off to a late start today. We were supposed to start at 9:00, but due to some confusion, we didn’t get started until after 10:30. Pastor Abel came in late and looked rather troubled (usually he is a very good natured man). He told me that his daughter was sick and not doing very well. I let him know that we would keep her in our prayers. Dave and I were both able to do two papers, divided up by tea breaks and lunch. We had all thirteen students in attendance as well as 10 pastors from the LCEA, and a few visitors. It was a very good meeting. At the end of one of the papers, Pastor Abel received a call and asked to be excused. His daughter was faring worse and so we had a prayer for him and his family. Near the end of our seminar word was received that his daughter had died. Our hearts go out to Pastor Abel Massawe and his family, and we pray that the God of all comfort would be with them through all this, and yet we thank the LORD for taking this child from this vale of tears here on this earth! Please keep that family in your prayers. Detail are not clear right now, but as I learn more I will pass that along. I hope to be able to attend the funeral if at all possible. May our Gracious God, who has delivered us from eternal death through the blood of Jesus Christ, and who gives us a future and hope, be with each of you, now and forever! In Christ, Pastor Nathanael Mayhew
Received November 1, 2007 Saturday, October 27 -- This morning we were supposed to leave Nyrie by 9:30 to make it to Kangari by 11:00 where our seminar was going to be held. From Nyrie we went south east to Murang’a and then went west to Kangari - you probably won’t find it on your maps. The seminar was going to be at 10:00 but was pushed back to 11:00 and then 11:30 because some of the men coming from Nairobi were running behind because of traffic. We ended up not getting there until 11:45 ourselves and most of the men were already there waiting for us. We started at 12:00 and went until 1:00 when we stopped to eat lunch. Then we picked up where we left off and continued until 5:30. Dave did presentations on the Beatitudes and Inspiration and I did presentations on the pastor’s job and some of the doctrinal differences between the Reformed and Lutheran churches. Pentecostalism is very wide-spread here in Africa, as is Catholicism. It went very well, and we had some very good discussion. The hot topics were the role of women in the church and baptism, which are issues that are being attacked and undermined in many of the churches over here, just as they are in the states. It was very profitable! We had twenty-five men attend the seminar, all who are pastors or leaders of churches in the surrounding area. Four women also sat in and listened. The sad thing was that many of these men did not have their own Bibles! So Charles is going to make sure that these men get their own Bibles for their own private study of the Scriptures, so that they may be equipped to teach the people in their congregations from the Word of God! How much we take for granted! Most homes in the states have not only one Bible, but many Bibles, but there are many families here who have no Bible’s at all. And the amazing thing is that these people are hungry for the Word! They desire to know God’s Word, to learn it and be taught it! Oh, that each of us would have such a desire to know and learn God’s Word! After the conference we drove back to Nairobi where we had a hotel room reserved at the Kenya Comfort Hotel. It was about a two hour drive. But when we returned to the hotel, we found out that they had rented out our rooms, so we had to go to another hotel! So much for our reservations! Sunday, October 28 -- This was going to be an easy day. We had only planned to visit one church in the morning for Sunday morning worship and then return to the hotel and have a relaxing afternoon in preparation for our trip to Arusha. It didn’t quite work out that way. We were to leave at 8:00 so we could make it to the service in Kalawa which started at 10:30. Well, we had a few problems - first there was a marathon being run in Nairobi and they had the major roads closed to traffic. That in turn made for large traffic jams on the smaller roads everyone was now traveling on. We were just barely out of Nairobi by 10:00! We were going south east out of Nairobi toward Mombasa on what is called Mombasa Road. But not too far down that road we ran into road construction and were diverted off the main road. Well, the road we were diverted onto was not asphalt, but dirt and it was very rough and heavily traveled. To make matters worse, there were three of us packed into the back seat of a small Toyota! By the time we got off this road we felt like dice in a Yatzee cup! And this morning I was not feeling good. I had forgotten to take my medication the previous night and so I took it in the morning instead. I think that had upset my stomach. So being in a tight-fitting shaken up car was not fun. Finally we turned off Mombasa Road and headed East into Machakos. Machakos was the old capital of Kenya before it was moved to Nairobi in 1906. By this time it was after 11:00. We continued on, and then turned off the main road to go on country road to Kalawa. These roads were even worse than the diversion roads before, but we did not go as fast on these because there were rocks and ruts in the road that could have ripped the bottom of the car to shreds! Two hours later we would finally arrive in Kalawa, at around 2:30 in the afternoon, so we missed the worship service. But even though we were four hours late, the church was still full and waiting for us to arrive! They sang a hymn, and then Dave and I were given the opportunity to preach to the congregation. He presented the doctrine of the Trinity, and I presented our spiritual depravity because of sin, and our new life through the Word. After the service we were invited to have tea with the leaders of the church and had a good visit with them. We gave them several catechisms and workbooks to study so that they could grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures. At about 4:30 we had to leave in order to get back to the hotel. Just before we left one of the members asked me to come back and say a prayer for a men who was mentally retarded. I had noticed that he wasn’t very responsive during the service, but didn’t know the reason. He wanders from place to place and the people of this small town all know him and help to take care of him. The people of this area are very poor, partially because of the drought they are currently in. These people are from the Kamba tribe, and are known for their carving. Steve, who grew up in this area, told us that they will make carvings and take them to town to be sold in Curios (souvenir shops), but that they only receive 9% of the sale price, so they are looking for other ways to market their products. Part of the problem is that many of these people never make it into the big towns in the surrounding area, simply because of the distance. Such situations really make us appreciate the many blessings we have and often take for granted in the states. The 4 hour trip back to Nairobi was not as bad as the morning trip, although none of us wanted to get back in the car again! Monday, October 29 -- Today was a travel day. We were supposed to leave the hotel in Nairobi at 10:00, but ended up not leaving until almost noon. Charles’ boss gave us a bigger car for the trip to Arusha, which was a real blessing. We are now riding in a Mitsubishi Gallant, which is much more roomy then the tiny Toyota we were using! On our way out of town we stopped at the airport to check and see if Larry’s bag had come yet. It finally arrived! Larry was quite elated since all his extra clothes were in that bag! It also contained extra catechisms, His Bible and a few other odds n’ ends.
Then we began the long trip to Arusha headed south east on the Mombasa Road. Just outside of Nairobi we turned south on A104 to the border and the Tanzanian city of Arusha. It was a very scenic trip. We saw wild ostriches, huge red termite hills that were taller than a human being, bat nests in trees, and many Masai people. The Masai people are one of the only tribes in Africa to hold on to their traditional roots. Many in this area do not wear regular clothes, but the traditional dress of what we might call “togas” of red. Red is the color that is worn as a distinguishing mark of the Masai. The men also each carry a three foot stick or pole often used for herding their flocks, defense, etc. We crossed the border and Namanga from Kenya into Tanzania without any trouble. Of course we found out that the cost of getting a Tanzanian visa at the Kenya border has now increased from $50 to $100! After we crossed the border and resumed our travels we could see Mt. Kilimanjaro in the distance to the east. It was beautiful with its unusual flat, snow-covered top. Quite the landmark! As we came closer to Arusha another mountain began to emerge to the south - that was Mt. Meru. It was very large as well, as we could see the clouds come up to the mountain and then part as it floated around the hulking mass of Mt. Meru. In our hotel in Arusha we have a picturesque view of the mountain out our window (when the heavy clouds are not covering it like they are today)! When we arrived in Arusha, many of the pastors who were to attend the conference had already arrived. It was wonderful to meet these men who are so faithfully serving the Lord throughout East Africa! I met Pastor Yumba from the Congo, Pastor Martin from Moshi, Tanzania, and Pastor Enosh and Fred from Kisii, in northwest Kenya, as well as Pastor Jeremiah from Arusha, as well as some that I had already met up in Kenya. We changed money (from Kenya schillings to Tanzanian schillings) and received a rate of 1140 to 1. In other words, for every one dollar we received 1,140 Tanzanian shillings. Of course, most things are still about the same cost and things in the USA. So the value in American money is about the same here - for most things.We returned to the hotel and had supper with the pastors who had already arrived and had a good chance to visit with many of them and get to know them better. Most of them speak English very well. Tomorrow our two-day conference begins. Tuesday, October 30 -- Today our Pastoral Conference began. I was up most of the night trying to get one finished up for the morning session. It is somewhat difficult because of the printing situation. I brought a laptop along which has been very handy. I have all my files saved so I can choose a topic based on what the needs of the people are at the place we are at. I chose the two topics which I presented at Kangari based on conversations I had with some of our men and congregations before the conference began. So I do some editing on my computer, hook up a printer I brought along and print off one copy. Then you can take it to a local print shop to have it copied. For this conference they had me slotted for two papers, and I only had one ready to go. So I had to work on the other which was an overview of each book of the Bible. It ended up being quite a bit longer than what I expected and I really only did the Old Testament! To copy my two papers and Charles’ paper it cost about $20.
We started at 9:30 with a welcome and an opening hymn and devotion by Pastor Enosh from Kisii, Kenya. Twenty-one men were present for our conference. Pastor Koenig began by presenting his paper entitled “Why are some saved and not others”. Following his paper there was time for questions and comments on the paper. After a tea break Pastor Fred, from Kisii, Kenya presented his essay on “Christian Growth”. This also was a good paper on the topic of sanctification, and evoked some good discussion. We broke for lunch and took some time to meet with some of the pastors individually to talk about what was going on in their churches. This was very beneficial because you get to know more about each pastor and the work they are doing. After lunch I gave my spot to Koenig to present his paper on Justification. This also prompted some good questions and discussion. Then I was able to present my paper on the Reformation and the events which led up to and followed Luther’s nailing the 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. I thought this might be too much history for some of the men but there were a number who said they really appreciated the overview. Then we had supper, and met with more pastors again after that and they went until about 9:00 in the evening. At every free chance I get, I like to sit down and visit with these men to learn about themselves, their home areas, churches, and work. And they are so welcoming and eager to visit as well. Loren and Russ met up with us again this morning, and Loren has been trying to get a video interview with each pastor so that our people back home can get to know them as well. At our meeting most of the men speak English well. But there are three Masai men, one man from the Congo(Yumba), and a man from this area (Martin) who do not. So for their benefit we translate the whole conference into Swahili for these men. I noticed that one of the men, who works under Pastor Panpani in the south-eastern region of Kenya, did not have a Bible at our conference. He is a young man of 18 years, whose name is Simon. We had a Swahili Bible in our hotel room, and so during one of the breaks I brought it down and gave it to him. You should have seen his eyes light up, and how much he appreciated it! The Swahili Bibles are a little less expensive then those in Kenya, around $6.50 each around here, and that translation is very widespread in Tanzania. May the LORD bless his study of God’s Word! Wednesday, October 31 (Reformation Day) -- Today is the last day of our conference. The four men from Kisii had to leave at 6:00 this morning to catch a bus back home. It is a long trip that they will be taking two days to make. One day to Nairobi and another to Kisii. I went to say good bye to them last night, since I would not get to see them again. The other men are going to be headed to Kisii when they finish here, but I won’t be able to make it up there on this trip. It amazing how close of a connection there is between us even after only one day. What a wonderful bond the Word of God offers to us in spite of our different cultures! Our conference began at 8:30 this morning with devotion and a hymn. Then Pastor Gwendwe (pronounced Gone-dway) presented his paper on Christian Leadership based on Paul’s second letter to Timothy. It was entitled “Be strong in the Grace” based on 2 Timothy 2:1. It was a very encouraging overview of Paul’s work and ours as pastors. Then Charles gave his paper on Infant Baptism. He presented this in a way I had never though of before, referring back to many references in the Old Testament that speak of children and their part in the many judgments of the Old Testament, showing that they are not innocent as some think, but are just as guilty as the rest of us, and are in need of the regenerating power of baptism. This also prompted some good questions and comments by many members of the conference. This brought the conference to a conclusion, so we finished with prayer and a hymn. Then we met with pastors of the CLCEA to talk about finances and organization in the churches of this area. Many of these churches I will be visiting while I am here over the next two weeks.
After lunch many of the men started to pack up and leave, so we spent time saying goodbye to them individually. Then at 3:00 we left for Pastor Jeremiah’s church here in Arusha where we were going to participate in a cornerstone dedication. They currently have a stick building which is about 15x30. (A stick building consists of a frame made from small 2-3" diameter sapling trees nailed together very sparcely, with rough tree slices for siding. There are many gaps in the siding, but it has a steel roof to protect from the sun!) They are now in the process of making a block building which will be three times larger and much more sturdy. They had forms up for keeping everything level, and ditches dug for the footers along the front of the new building site. Then they had the front wall’s footer poured, and on one corner a block wall four courses high, with a concrete cornerstone inscribed on it with the congregation and pastor’s name, and date. Their footers go down abut 2 ½ feet and 18"wide. Then they throw in big rocks which they fill in around with concrete. Then they pour a footer about 6" thick on top of that. Then they lay a course of block about 4x12x18 flat, and then on that base course they go up just like we would. They figure it will take 4,500 block and each block costs 1,400 shillings (a little over $1) and they hope to have the walls finished in one year - three years for the entire project. It will be slow not because of the work, but because of the money that is needed for the materials. The dedication was very nice. We began outside, with the reading of several Bible passages in Swahili and English. Then we had two choir pieces, one from their choir and one from ours (Larry, Loren, Russ and I sing when we are asked to). Then a hymn was sung as we proceeded into the existing church building for th remainder of the service. They have a liturgy here similar to what we have, with pastor-congregation responses, readings, sermon, and hymns (except they do their service in Swahili!). Loren bought me a Swahili hymnal that I will be able to use and follow along with while I am here. I wish I would have taken it there! After the service we were invited to Pastor Jeremiah’s house for refreshments. We had time to visit, and I got to know Pastor Jeremiah’s son Elisha (pronounced Alisha) much better. I had met him at lunch today but had heard a lot about him from Loren and Russ. He is 24 and drives car for Safaris for a living. At about 7:30 we left Pastor Jeremiah’s and returned to the hotel where Dave, Larry, Loren, Russ and I met to discuss the events of the past week and make plans for the coming two. It has been a hectic but very rewarding couple of days. Tomorrow is a catch-up day for all of us. Loren is going to be heading back into Kenya all the way to Etago (to the west of Nairobi by Lake Victoria) to begin preparations for the work on the orphanage classrooms up there, and the rest of us will be headed east from Arusha to Moshi, where we will be staying for a while. Tomorrow we meet with Pastor Angowi and the Bishop’s Council of the LCEA, and on Monday we will have a Pastoral Conference with the LCEA pastors. The weather remains very comfortable, and so far we have not had much rain. Sometimes they get so much rain during this time of year that the roads wash out! We thank our Lord for safe travel, good heath and good weather though our entire trip so far. May the LORD continue to bless our work and remaining travels! Thanks for all your prayers and words of encouragement! I’ll write more in a couple of days -- Pastor N. Mayhew
Received October 27, 2007 Hello everyone, Here is an overview of the last few days. Thursday Oct. 25 -- It has been a long couple of days, visiting churches and spending a lot of time on rough roads. We have visited two of our churches every day since we arrived. The first two days were spent in Nairobi and the surrounding area. Yesterday our group split up. Loren and Russ traveled South to Tanzania while Larry, Dave and I left Nairobi and headed north and a bit east to Murang’a. Actually the name of the city we were at is off the beaten path and not on the map - a place called Kangari. This is where we will actually be meeting for our conference on Saturday. This was a very beautiful place right on the steppes between Mt. Kenya and the Aberdares Mountain range. This is a very hilly area, much higher in elevation, and the culture and climate is very different from that of Nairobi. It has been raining lightly here since 12:00 last night, is much cooler, and is simply gorgeous. The mountain ranges and hills are light green with tea leaves which they harvest for tea, coffee beans, bananas, and even pineapple. This is a very agricultural area. We visited two congregations yesterday that were very close together, but it took us a long time to get from one to the other because they were in the hill country and the roads were horrible. It was mostly dirt roads that were fit only for a four wheel drive truck, and we were driving a little Toyota mid-size car! There were some places that the old asphalt road (now long gone) would stick up 8" out of the middle of the road! It had been washed away by the rains common in this area. They are working on putting in new roads but they have a long way to go. The congregations we visited yesterday were large compared to some of the others we have visited and the people very knowledgeable concerning Scripture. They have about 50 members but over 100 people attending their services! It is a full time job for the pastors to teach the people, but most of them are supported only a little by the church and have other jobs as well in order to support their families. We are trying to help these people get Bibles and catechisms for the instruction of their members. The only other support we offer is to help with the cost of building a structure for them to worship in. Usually the Mission board encourages the congregation to get started on the framing and walls and then offers to help with the roofing or something like that, depending on the congregation. The first congregation had been given land and had built their church all on their own. The second congregation is renting a building now, but it is too small for them. It was probably 12x50 and had every seat full, plus people and kids standing outside the doors and windows. They have also been given land, and would like to build a bigger building. We were able to see the land they were given, and told them we would help with the cost of the building - this would come out of the CLC’s Mission Development Fund (MDF). There are so many churches that we have seen that our outgrowing their rented buildings and would like to build something bigger. But we can’t help all of them, because there just isn’t enough money in the MDF! Last night after the services we traveled from Kangari (Morang’a) north and a little west to Nyeri - a city of 800,000 people and which is the seat of government for the central region of Kenya. From here we will continue northwest about another hour to Nyahururu where we will be visiting another church this morning. Then we will be returning to Kangari for the pastoral conference tomorrow. We are expecting about 30 pastors from this area, and Dave Koenig and I will be presenting papers to the pastors and helping them to grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures. This will be from 10:00-4:00. After the conference we will be returning to Nairobi again. Friday Oct. 26 -- Today was a busy day on the road. We left our hotel in Nyrie at about 10:00. When Charles came to pick us up, he brought a man from the Nyrie area to visit with us. He and eight other pastors in the area have been in contact with Charles because of disagreements with the churches they were affiliated in areas of doctrine. Charles had given Steve a catechism and he wanted to get together and talk with us while we were there. So we set something up to meet with him that night after our return from Nyahururu. So we set out from Nyrie headed Northwest to Nyahururu, which was about a three hour drive. As we drove away from Mt. Kenya, the land began to change. It started to level out and was no longer used for farming, but became flat grassland used for grazing cattle and sheep. Some of the land didn’t look much different from that of northern Nebraska! (For those of you who know what that looks like.) Because of the distance we only planned to visit one church this day, and it was in a very small and poor town. The congregation in this city were meeting in the home of one of the members because they were not able to make the rental payments for the hall they had been renting. Many of these people did not have Bibles of their own either, so we are going to work at trying to get Bibles for these people. They speak Kakuyu which is a dialect in Kenya that is very widespread. In Kenya there are 42 tribes, which make up the 33 million people here. The Kakuyu tribe makes up 11 million or one third of the people of Kenya. There is a Kakuyu Bible available which we can purchase for about 500 shillings which equals about $8. But the catechism is not available in that dialect, so we are working with some of our men here to try and get the catechism translated into that language for the members of our churches here. Almost all of the churches that we have visited so far have been Kakuyu people. Some understand English, some understand Swahili, but most understand only Kakuyu. After that meeting we had lunch at Thompson Falls - a very large waterfall. It was very beautiful and very dangerous. An interesting tidbit: the river that forms at the bottom of the falls forms a short river that flows only a short way and then disappears into a mountain. That was our sight-seeing for the day. Of course just about every time we get in the car there is a great deal of sight-seeing, just seeing the way the common people live which is so different from what we are accustomed to. When we returned to Nyrie, we met with two of the men who have churches in this area and were interested in learning more. We sat and talked with them for over an hour about doctrinal issues they were concerned about and what our church teaches, and they are very interested in being trained more. What a wonderful blessing to see men concerned about the truth of God’s Word and seeking the truth which it offers! From Nairobi (again) -- Pastor N. Mayhew
Received October 24, 2007 Hello all, After a very two very long flights I finally made it to Nairobi, Kenya! Thank the LORD for safe travel for all of us. Of the five of us that came and all our luggage, we only lost one bag which we think missed the plane from London to Nairobi. The Internet is very slow here but at least I have something. I had an eight hour flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam and in addition lost 6 hours on the flight (I left at 5:00pm and landed at 7:00am in Amsterdam). Loren and Russ were there waiting for me when I got off the plane (they flew in an hour earlier from Minneapolis). We had a three hour layover and then boarded a 747 for Nairobi which was another 8 hour flight (this time we only lost one hour - making us a total of seven hours ahead of you in the Eastern time zone). There we met up with Missionary Koenig, and Larry Hansen flew in several hours later from London on British Airways. It was 7:30 pm Monday night when we arrived in Nairobi. Nairobi is a city of about 3.5 million, about the same size as Atlanta. It is very busy and very technological. The people are very business-like, men and women wear suits and clothes like you would expect in the states. Many women are working women also (very different from India!). They have big and nice buildings but they also have some very run-down areas. This city is very clean compared to India, but the fumes from the auto-exhaust is very potent (if they want to clean up pollution they should start here)! Surprisingly it has not been too hot - very comfortable (though not cool). The nights are a little uncomfortable since it doesn't cool off much at night and the air doesn't move in our hotel room. It stays about 70 degrees year round here, because they are so close to the equator (which is just north of Nairobi). Also Nairobi is up in the mountains, so the bugs are not bad here. Yesterday (Tuesday) we visited two churches in the Nairobi area, and today we will visit two more. They congregations we visited yesterday were in the outskirts of Nairobi and in very rundown areas. Yet the people come dressed in their best (the pastors wear suit and ties even!). Dave Koenig and I each offer a short sermonette, we meet and encourage the pastor and members and distribute catechisms for the members. The two churches we visited yesterday are about the same size (members) as ours in Atlanta, they rent buildings to worship in, although they are much smaller than ours in Atlanta. The building we went to yesterday was only about 15x15! But the people are very excited, and thankful to have us come and preach the Word to them. What an amazing thing to see these people coming on a work-day to hear the Word of God! On Thursday we are going north to Murang'a to visit more churches and have a conference (Saturday) with the pastors of the area. Dave and I will be doing presentations at that conference. I will be discussing the differences between the Reformed and Lutherans in areas of theology, since there are many Reformed churches in this area. The religion is predominantly Catholic, but the Reformed churches are making strong inroads in inner Kenya. We will be attending church on Sunday up in that area and then we will drive to Tanzania for the conference in Arusha on the 30-31st. From there we will be going to Moshi to spend time with Pastor Angowi of the LCEA and the at the seminary in Himo. That is where I will be spending my last two weeks in Africa. The food is pretty good here in the big city and you don't have to be quite as careful in the big city of Nairobi, but that will change when we leave for the more rural areas. That's all for now. I don't know what kind of Internet service we'll have when we go north, but I will try to keep you updated and send more later. If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll answer to the best of my ability! In Christ, Pastor Nathanael Mayhew
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