I met Francis on the streets of Mtwapa a year and a half ago, while I was preaching on the streets there. When I met him, he insisted that we work together, and that I come to Tana River where he was ministering. You can read about my first trip to Tana River HERE. Since that time, we have been working together, and I have really come to appreciate his boldness. He called me today, and told me that he was preaching on the streets of Garissa. For those of you who don't know anything about Garissa, the Muslims there are far more aggressive than our Muslim neighbors here in Ukunda. Garissa is near the Somali border, and there are many Somalis there. To preach on the streets there is risky indeed.
In any case, I decided to travel with Francis to Nairobi. This seemed like a fairly simple trip, with little potential for excitement, but I felt the Lord leading me to go. I travel frequently between Nairobi and Mombasa. It is about an eight hour journey. The only danger is the numerous deadly automobile accidents that take place on a daily basis. The road passes through Tsavo National Park.
In any case, as we approached Nairobi Francis wanted me to stop and visit some friends of his that lived nearby. He assured me that the road to their place was good. So we left the main road, entering a place known as "Lukenya". We traveled a few kilometers on a road that got worse and worse.
Soon, this was my view:
Francis wanted me to follow this footpath with my auto to get to the town where his friends lived. Needless to say, my confidence in his driving instructions was dwindling. Saw some wildebeest running around.
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| Some kids in Lukenya. |
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| The Roman Catholic cathedral of Lukenya |
We finally made it to a small settlement inhabited by stoneworkers. I was impressed by their labor in the hot African sun. A skilled stoneworker can cut about 70 of these stones in a day's time, work that will earn him about $6 or so. The next time you feel like complaining about your job, you might want to watch one of these guys!
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| The rock quarry |
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| Finished stones, ready for sale |
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| Francis preaching in Lukenya |
Francis immediately started preaching and praying for people. I joined him. Here he is preaching in the open air, without any kind of sound system. After preaching, one of the women insisted that we stay at her family home, which she said was just nearby. It turned out to not be so near. We ended up driving 15km on very bad roads in the middle of the night. Here is the road during the daytime. At night, it seems a lot worse, especially for a 2wd vehicle.
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| Not what I wanted to see ahead of me after a long day of following Francis' driving instructions |
When we reached the woman's home, we prayed for her husband who suffered from blindness. He told us his seeing improved with the prayers. My heart went out to this family. In the past, they were a prosperous, upper middle class family with a successful business selling stones from the quarry. The problem was, people knew they had money, and their home was located far from the town in the middle of the bush. In Africa, this combination of factors makes you a target for armed gangs. Their home was raided five times by thugs. They would lock themselves inside their home behind the iron bars, but the thugs had ways of getting inside. On one occasion the thugs broke a window, poured some gasoline inside, and lit a match. The family was forced to come out, and to allow all their possessions to be taken. The father was too old and blind to do very much, and the boys were too young to put up a fight.
So now the family is living there with very few possession, and a destroyed business. Crime can really destroy a family's prospects in Africa. If you live far from other people, you can really be in danger. As you drive along the highway, you may see abandoned buildings. In many cases, these buildings were abandoned because they were located too far from other homes. Armed gangs came and took everything, until eventually the owners gave up and left. Sometimes the gangs raped and murdered the inhabitants.
We prayed for the family, and I felt the Lord's peace and protection descending upon them. I believe that they will never again be robbed in this way.
Saturday morning, we continued on to Nairobi. We visited some of Francis friends, and held a meeting with them. Saturday evening, I left to finish some of my own business in Nairobi.
The main reason I joined Francis is because he is a part of our ministry here at UMS, and I wanted to see what kind of work he is doing out in the field. Francis will be moving to the UMS school, and will be leading evangelistic teams into difficult areas. The things I respect most about Francis is his boldness, his faith, and his tireless preaching of the gospel.
Time is short. We don't have years to spend slowly reaching out to the Islamic world with a lot of development projects, hoping that one or two of them will appreciate our generosity and listen to what we have to say. We need to go and preach the gospel boldly, without fear, without being intimidated, without waiting too long, without trying to "buy" their acceptance of us. The power of the gospel alone is more than enough to reach them.
There are so many Muslims who are hungry for the gospel, if the church is willing to go and preach the gospel. God will confirm His word with innumerable signs and wonders, if only we do our part. Francis is doing a good job of preaching this great gospel, and it is a privilege to work with him here at UMS.
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