Visitors

Saturday night, November 20, I met two visitors from Living Word International Church in Tennesse at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. They were coming to Kenya to visit Pastor Mireti in Kisii, but he had made arrangements for them to spend three days in Ngong first. Pastor George who is the pastor at another church and a friend of Pastor Mireti drove us to the airport. Pastor George owns a transport company, a real estate company and an advertising company in addition to being a pastor.

The Bishop of Living Word International Church had been to Grace's and wanted them to come here too. The visitors were African America women, Linda and Yvonka. Interestingly enough, Pastor Mireti was under the impression that they were a married heterosexual couple. While we were waiting for them to arrive he told me he had a photo of the visitors, but he had brought the wrong envelop, so we were all a bit surprised when they arrived! But Linda and Pastor Mireti had been communicating on Facebook and knew one another immediately!

The original plan had been for them to be taken directly to the farm, but Pastor George was anxious about making the trip to Kimuga in the dark and the visitors were tired and needed to get a proper rest, so Pastor George found them a hostel near his home. Pastor Mireti stayed at the hotel with the visitors and Pastor George woke his family up at midnight to organize a place for me to sleep in his house!

The next day I met the visitors at the hostel and we all went to Ngong AIC Church. Grace took them to the Swahili service. So besides being exhausted, they were subjected to three hours of understanding nothing! Poor things.

After church we all headed to the farm for lunch. Grace's son David had come to drive the kids and Grace and John to church and home. We had a nice lunch and then David brought me back to Ngong where we visited with his sister-in-law Gladys for the afternoon.

Monday we had planned to take the visitors to Ilkiloret. I went down with a pick-up truck full of materials in earlier in the morning. The visitors followed later in a safari van. We had a wonderful time. (video to be uploaded soon). We had a prayer service. Pastor Mireti preached. Linda and Yvonka prayed for those who came forward for special prayers. We sang and praised the Lord for at least two hours. It was so beautiful!

Then Janet and I presented certificates to my adult students who had taken their first test the previous Thursday. There were a lot of "E" grades but no "F" grades. I believe in effort not failure!

The Maasai put out a market of their jewelery - I bought yet another bracelet. I have so many, but it was really neat! I was given a necklace. One of my students, Hana, later commented that it looked like an airplane... one of the words I taught them that begins with "A." Hana is 43 and the mother of 7. She got a B+ on her test! At that moment all the frustration was worth it.

As we left we encountered a lorry overloaded with bags of charcoal, blocking the road in the middle of the first big hill leading out of Ilkiloret. We all got out and walked up to inspect the scene. Five men attempting to make the lorry roll back down the hill by putting rocks behind the tires so it wouldn't roll too quickly. All this without offloading any cargo. If it sounds ridiculous, you know exactly what we were thinking.

Finally Pastor Mireti, got some of the bigger rocks out of the way and Elijah the safari van driver drove the van up the hill next to the lorry, which at this point looked like it would tip over any minute.

The conversation in the vehicle after we passed the lorry centered around the fact that men (in general) had less common sense than women. None of the men objected too much after the scene they had just witnessed.

Tuesday we had a prayer meeting at the HomeCare center, located in Ngong Hills. HomeCare is a prayer and counseling group Grace particpates in. The group is small, but they had invited their friends and neighbors who needed prayers. There ended up being about 14 of us. Linda gave a message and Yvonda and Pastor Mireti both gave testimonies. We prayed for 4 hours. It didn't seem like that much time had passed. It was so powerful.

On Monday we prayed in the valley on Tuesday we went to the mountain. I mentioned to those gathered that every verse we had looked up in those four hours had been underlined in the Bible I was using. Divine guidance maybe. Wezesha was richly blessed by Linda, Yvonka and Pastor Mireti.

When I arrived at the airport on Saturday night, I had no idea what to expect. When the visitors left of Wednesday morning for Kisii, I had new friends, sisters in Christ, who will forever hold a special place in my heart.