Kenya 2024 Outreach

OUTREACH TO KENYA 2024

Stephen Akin-Olatunde and I were invited to preach in Kenya. We left on June 16, 2024 and returned on June 25.

MINISTRY ON THE WAY

In the airports and planes we had remarkable opportunities to witness. I was waiting to board one plane and was eating an unusual nutrition bar when I noticed a young lady from Finland was staring at it. It turned out that she had just eaten the same exact bar a few minutes before. We were launched into a conversation in which I witnessed to her for about 30 minutes and gave her a Billy Graham “Four Steps to Peace” tract. When she was called to board the plane, the large group of people sitting around us told me that they had enjoyed “listening in” on my testimony and explanation of the Gospel.

Arriving in Nairobi, Stephen and I stood in the document check line and talked to a Catholic couple who’d come for a safari. We discussed about knowing Jesus personally and how no church can save you, but only Jesus. And personal relationship with Jesus is non-negotiable. They shared with us that God put a cross on all donkey’s backs as a reward for the donkey carrying Jesus into Jerusalem at the triumphal entry (possibly from the beginning, prophetically?)

We arrived late in Nairobi and got a taxi to take us to our hotel. We witnessed extensively to the taxi driver. The next morning two men from Molo arrived to take us on the 4-hour drive to that city. The driver was a young successful farmer and the other man an associate minister at the Molo church. We had very interesting conversations. At Molo they took us to a mansion – a five bedroom beautiful house, formerly of a wealthy family who ran a large farm there. The grounds were lovely, as was the house. The house had four servants – a gardener, a young man who took care various household tasks (whom Stephen witnessed to and prayed with), and two lady hostesses, who we also witnessed to. I prayed with one of them for salvation and gave her a “Four Steps to Peace” tract.

THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY OF KENYA & ITS PEOPLE

The countryside of Kenya is beautiful, with towering hills and the luscious Rift Valley with its beautiful lake, and the richest green growth you’ve ever seen. The temperatures are very moderate – between low 50’s F and low 90s. Also many lower areas of the country are covered with the savannah lands, where wildlife still roam free and you can drive your car among them (or your safari van) and they pay no attention to you. The land is very fertile and often the roads are lined with local farmers selling their fruits and vegetables. Everywhere you see herds of sheep and cattle, always with a shepherd nearby. Near the wildlife refuges, it’s not unusual to see baboons in large numbers, lining the roads to receive handouts from passersby.

One of the most remarkable sights are the motorcycle drivers. The common people can’t afford cars or trucks, so the taxis are motorcycles. I watched a number of well-dressed ladies in ankle length dresses arrive to church on the backs of motorcycles! Everyone uses motorcycle taxis to get places. Motorcycles are also the cheapest mode of transporting merchandize. You see couches balanced on motorcycles! You see 300 pounds of potatoes in sacks hanging from the backs of motorcycles. You see great mountains of boxes, 12-foot 2x6s turned sideways, 6-foot acetylene welding bottles, sacks and sacks of vegetables and produce. I have seen as many as 4 people riding on the same motorcycle. I did see one driver who tipped over and crashed with hundreds of pounds of potatoes. Such feats are dangerous, but poverty compels them to try dangerous things.

The average number of children born to Kenyan families is five children. So you see 3-4X as many children as in the U.S. On school mornings an army of children are marching down the roads making their way to school, without their parents; but the environment is safe for them. All the children wear uniforms. Regular jobs, as we know them, are few in Kenya. Probably half the population are farmers, next shepherds, vendors, taxi drivers, and service personnel. Many are in poverty. Hundreds of young men roam the streets until midnight. Often they look hopeless and discouraged. As far as Christianity, it seems very similar to the United States. Many profess Christ but they don’t attend church. They have a Christian background but probably aren’t born again. Kenya desperately needs revival before this generation of young men & women move away or get set in their ways as nominal Christians.

THE MOLO OUTREACH

Bishop Joseph Karanja, Pastor of the Molo Happy Church, hosted us for a two-day minister’s conference. (Molo has about 100,000 people in it). I had 3 messages planned to preach to the ministers (with fill-in-the-blank outlines and powerpoints), with an anointing service on Thursday evening. But they had other plans. They planned I should preach 7 hours a day. So on Wednesday I had to add an extra message – “Anywhere but Nineveh.” Then on Thursday I used one of my messages for Nakuru – “God’s Fire only Falls If There’s a Sacrifice.” Then I preached a divine healing message – “The Lystra Cripple Healed,” followed by an anointing service where we anointed all the hands of the ministers with oil and prayed over them. God allowed the messages and prayers to have a powerful effect on the ministers. Praise God! On Thursday night we were transported to Nakuru, a city of almost 1 million people.