"you don't want to stay in the hotel? You would like to stay with my family? Really?.
“Absolutely!” I replied, “I’m excited to experience your culture, and do life with you guys.”
It took the pastor a day and a whole bunch of construction to get one room in his home up to the standard he felt presentable. Then after a day of ministry to pastors and leaders in several meetings he had arranged, it was time to go home.
A smooth strip of tarmac along the coast joins the cities together but as soon as you turn off of that, everything is dirt with mudholes which the little car managed to navigate by driving up around the edge to at least keep one wheel on visible earth. Then the road dwindled to a path barely wide enough for the car to squeeze through.
When we arrived at the pastors home, dinner was being prepared out behind the house since it was too hot inside to cook. An open wood fire blazed while next to it a pot simmered over coal. The older daughter who teaches in the pastor's school hacked at a coconut with a machete while ducks played around our feet. A neighbor girl came over who I later learned was a Muslim. The conversation turned to evolution which is being taught prolifically throughout the schools and - as I learned the following day when I went to minister to the school teachers - all of them are confused and full of questions. I provided ample scientific proofs of creation and Christ.
The next day as we drove to minister to more leaders, I commented to the pastor, “the Internet says Kenya is 86% Christian.” He made a face. “When they do the census, anybody that's not a Muslim for the most part they just mark them down as Christian.” In fact, the traditional beliefs of spiritism and witchcraft are very much alive here, and Islam is evidenced everywhere.
On my last day the pastor said, “I'd like you to meet my mother.” This was surely a great honor. We went walking along a path between jungle and fields where tender shoots of corn struggled to survive the sandy clay and saline water. I did a lot of research and a great deal of discussion with the pastor trying to see how to solve both the water problem and the soil fertilization problem.
Under the eve of a small hut sat his mom, wizened and toothless but very happy to see us. Another younger lady was bustling about and the pastor said, “that's my dad's other wife.” Polygamy is still practiced. Later I would learn that the pastor's mother was a spiritual/herbal medicine woman. She had yet to put her faith in Christ.
After Kenya, another three leg journey to Zambia with some drama in flights being late, nearly missing the next flight etc. How much culture do you get to experience in a five star hotel? Not much usually, but in this hotel it was different. Here, the safari comes to you. When I stepped into my hotel room I immediately noticed a movement on the other side of the curtains outside the patio. Pulling the curtains aside, there stood a zebra not three feet from the patio window. zebras monkeys, and Impala's are drawn to the lawns of the hotel for the grass and have become so tame they just keep right on eating or playing while people gawk and take selfies. One evening as I headed for my room walking across the dimly lit hotel lawn, a movement ahead caused me to stop in my tracks. I was walking straight into… a giraffe! Yes even the giraffes come in to eat usually in the evening or night.
I came to Zambia to participate in a Kingdom business forum. Large investors are empowering the small farmers through helping them develop poultry farms and then finding large scale export markets. I was fascinated to learn what they're doing since the Lord is leading WIN in the direction of creating Christ-based solutions that both solve a problem in the community and also demonstrate Christ and generate revenues for ministry work.
I appreciated the message delivered by the founder of the movement. Referring to the Parable of the Talents, he observed that Africa has been likened to the servant who was only entrusted with one talent. We think of it as poor, under developed, and full of problems. However he argued no, Africa should be likened to the servant with five talents because it is full of untapped potential! How does that apply to your life? Many of the things we think of as hopeless or impossible are actually potential filled miracles waiting to happen. When we see them that way it releases them to come into their fullness. The Zambian government sent a delegation to participate in this event and during the speech someone asked, how has the cutting of US aid affected Zambia since a vast percentage of the income of the nation was being provided by it? The government representative declared wholeheartedly, it is a very good thing that the aid has been cut because no at last Zambia can become strong and develop our own resources. When we treat other others as if they were poor or needing support, it actually locks them into that dependency cycle. But when we believe in them and help them in ways that calls them upward into accountability and honest work, their destiny is released.