Bwanabob

May 23, 1999

Dear Friends,

I want to thank all of you for your prayers these past few weeks. I have had many experiences, some a little frightening, but God has kept me safe.

Where to begin! My daily life is pretty busy, but not a rat race. I have Swahili lessons from 10:30 to 12:30 every morning. I usually ride my mountain bike to class, it’s only about 3 miles to the place. I go into Eldoret either before or after class and take care of whatever business I have for the day, check snail-mail, buy groceries, etc. Several times I have met street boys and have been burdened for them. I have only given them food and if they have bottles of glue I take their glue in exchange for food. I had thought of trying to start some kind of close ministry with them, but just today, Sunday, I saw two truck loads of street boys headed to church. In Kenya you’d call it a local “Lorry Ministry”, (lorry meaning large truck) instead of bus ministry.

I’m getting a good dose of culture lessons here. Kenyans have many of the same aspirations as Americans do, but for some reason many go about obtaining their aspirations the hard way. For instance, a man working closely with me has lied to me several times, not seeming to be bothered in the least about it. The times he lied to me, he got what he wanted. It was a minimal loss on my part and I wondered why an adult would even lie about such trivial things, but in the end I have learned not to trust him and will be wary when he asks for or tells me anything. This is part of the culture.

For fun and relaxation we have a garden in our front yard. I’m very grateful for the seeds that I was able to get at the Aurora Agri Center. Several missionaries have expressed extreme interest in the sweet corn that I am growing. It should be a real treat.

Also this last Saturday, my friend Moses and I went to Kisumu for a fishing trip. It was about a 2 hour drive there and we were able to hire a boat and “guides” for the day. I’ll have to tell you about our bargaining for the price of the boat and crew. I told them that I wanted to fish until 3 PM and asked how much they wanted to charge me. They Hmmd. a little and said 6,000 shillings (about $90 US), I countered with an offer of 300 shillings, ($5 US). This went on for a bit and we settled on 600 shillings, ($9 US). Don’t think I’m cheap now, a good daily wage for workers is $3 or $4 US, so these guys actually made good money on top of their catch of fish from earlier that morning. While we were fishing Moses and I presented the Gospel to the fishermen and they both accepted Christ! We didn’t catch any fish, but can honestly say that we caught two on that trip! It’s incredible how God works things out and directs our steps.

This Sunday I was in a very new Church that was started back in September of last year. They are meeting in a rented room that couldn’t be any larger that 12′ by 12′. The attendance this morning was about 40 adults and children. It was something to see everyone packed into this tiny little room. Most of the women were holding children and the larger children had smaller ones on their laps. I was very grateful for the sitting space that I had been given. Brother Stirewalt brought a great message on how we can’t mix works with Grace. His illustration was a woman trying to mix dirt with ugali, ( corn meal mush). She was trying to make more ugali, but ending up with something terrible. The later part of his message was on how our works show who we really love. “If you love me keep my commandments.” I was able to grasp bits and pieces so that I knew the gist of the message, it was very encouraging to understand a little. At the end of the service we had four or five people accept Christ. There wasn’t even room for them to kneel down and pray, but they accepted Christ anyway!

I will be going to a Bible Institute in West Pokot tomorrow. I haven’t a clue where it is, but have learned to try and remember my way there and back.

Thank you for your prayers and support. God bless you all.

In Christ,

Bob Clark

May 17, 1999

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week has been filled with many new and exciting experiences. For beginners I have started Swahili lessons. My teacher speaks what is called pure Swahili and often laughs at my Missouri accent when I try to say the Swahili words. Please pray for me as I learn.

On Friday we went to a village north of the town of Eiten (Hill Ten). There is a new work there and has already started to flourish. On Friday we held a crusade and had six saved in the outdoor service. It was a great time of singing, testimonies and preaching (most of the preaching I didn’t understand, I haven’t learned enough Swahili). Altogether the crusade had an evangelistic theme. On Saturday we went house to house, or shamba to shamba inviting people to the crusade that night and also presenting the Gospel to people for the first time. I went with the pastor Titus, we had 9 or 10 people accept Christ in a little over 4 hours of witnessing! We had to leave that area on Saturday afternoon, but I received a call today, and they said that nearly 100 accepted Christ over the weekend and 30 were Baptized after the service today! What a harvest! Please pray for the pastor of that young church, his name is Titus and I know that our wicked adversary will do anything to hinder his ministry.

Today we traveled to the area of Busia and visited a church that had been planted only 3 years ago. Their attendance this morning was around 160, with close to 80 adults. God has truly blessed that work. This young church has also started another work about 3 miles away. About 7 men from this new work walked all the way to the service this morning! What faithful men, I’m sure if they continue in their faithfulness they’ll become pillars in a new strong church in Busia district!

With all of these meetings and fellowship there was a lot of food involved, all of it was really delicious, but at one point I found a chicken head in my dish. My Moma taught me to eat what was on my plate, and I was prepared to do so, but all of the men started laughing and one of them grabbed the head before I started eating it. Whew! Getting to the launch part. I truly feel like I have been launched into a ministry that is waiting for me to catch up. I really need to learn Swahili before I will be effective. There are currently 109 churches that Brother Stirewalt has had a part in starting or maintaining. Out of these churches have come over 100 young men currently being trained as pastors. All of these young preacher boys have the goal of starting new churches in their home areas or wherever God leads them. The potential for new churches being planted from this ministry is a testimony to the greatness of God. Pray that God will give me strength to help continue this great ministry.

Apart from feeling launched, we were physically launched today. Let me explain, in Kenya there are speed bumps in most towns as well as at unexpected places on the highways. We have joked that these should be called launching pads rather than speed bumps because of the size of some of these things. Anyway, today we had just such a launching encounter. It had just started raining and visibility was poor, we never saw the launching pad until we were on it. We figured our speed must have been 80 – 90 km/h when we hit. It was a real wake up call, everything hit the ceiling (including us), the poor little Isuzu Trooper was airborne and for a second I thought we were going end over end. The front hit first and Jonathan managed to keep us on the road. I know the Lord was watching over us because none of us were hurt and nothing was broken.

It’s a real blessing to work in such a fruitfull ministry, thank you all for praying and making my work here in Kenya possible.

In Christ,

Bob Clark, flying missionary.

P. S.

Monday. 17-5 I’ve found an older Toyata Land Cruiser. It looks about mid 60′s. Is 4×4 and diesel. The engine runs pretty good and the price is right. The Land Cruisers are known to be some of the toughest trucks in the world. It needs lots of work to be ready for a long trip, but labor is cheap and Toyota parts are readily available. Pray that God would lead me on this.

May 12, 1999

Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters,

Things have gone smoothly since I received my bags on Thursday. So much happens in just a few days I hope I can remember all of the details. On Saturday we went to the teaching and referral hospital here in Eldoret. It is supposed to be the best one in town, I have to admit it was a scary experience. From the moment we walked in I could tell that the place was not at all clean. The floors throughout the hospital were dirty and didn’t appear to have been swept in about a week. The smell of the place was not a sanitary one. I truly hope I never have to be taken there.

Today we went to a Church in Kapsabet, it was about an hour drive from Eldoret. Most of the road there was paved (tarmacked in Kenyan terms), then we turned of onto a dirt road and made several other turns, every time the road got smaller until it was just wide enough for the Toyota we were driving. The church was made of mud mixed with cow by-product, ( it holds the mud together). The church had a coat of paint, inside and out, so it really looked nice. There were about 80 people there, this little church was about a mile or two from the town of Kapsabet, but there were plenty of people. I must say that it was a real blessing to be in a Kenyan service, the people love to sing and there were many testimonies given as introductions. I didn’t preach but was given a seat in the center of the little podium behind the pulpit. Talk about being treated well. During the sermon I looked up the scriptures in my Bible to be able to follow the message. Brother Stirewalt preached on living a consistent Christian life, his main text was Colossians 3. After the service several people came forward to pray, but none came to accept Christ. After the service we sang several more songs and the Church presented the Stirewalts with gifts of one gallon of cooking fat and about 30 eggs. Now that’s a country church! Then we had dinner at the pastors house next to the church. Dinner was boiled yard bird (chicken), rice and Coke. It was pretty tasty.

I will be preparing to preach in the next week or two, as all of the pastors around find out I’m here they will begin to invite me in. I look forward to it, but preaching with an interpreter is a little tough. Pray for me on this. Daily life is a little different here. Getting the most simple things done takes much more time. Installing a telephone into my house has been a two month ordeal and it’s not completed yet. For entertainment we work in the shamba (garden), or torch termite holes with gasoline (it’s pretty safe Mom).

Pray for me as I seek a way to minister to the street children in Eldoret. Most people say they have run away from their homes and orphanages and that is why they are on the streets. I wouldn’t want to do anything to reward or promote their rebellion or glue sniffing, but I must find a way to connect with them while telling them about Jesus.

Pray for me as I begin Swahili lessons. It will be very important to learn to speak and preach in Swahili.

Thank you all for your prayers, e-mail and support.

In Christ,

Bob Clark

May 9, 1999

I arrived in Kenya on Saturday May 1. My luggage didn’t arrive with me and I just received it on Thursday. I want to thank all of you who were praying on this matter. All of my things were intact and I was given absolutely no trouble by customs. As a matter of fact, the only paperwork I had to do was write a handwritten bill of receipt for the baggage worker to keep on file in Eldoret airport. God is so good!

This past week I’ve spent much time working on getting to know my way around Eldoret, hook up phone, get keys to P.O. box and basically make my house livable. Am working every day at Swahili trying to write out verses I want to memorize and words that I need to know and ones that I’ve picked up. Will start formal studies next week.

Here is a little of what I experience in Eldoret. Coming out of a bread shop a small boy stops me to beg for money, I immediately see his glue can he has been sniffing from. I tell him this is bad and he should quit sniffing the glue. Speaking through my Kenyan friend Moses, he asks me to take him to America and I tell him that the America would only cause him more problems. I told him he didn’t need glue but Jesus. He really didn’t seem very responsive, so I told him if he would get rid of his glue I would give him some bread. He gave me his glue can but I gave it back and told him to smash it. He took few minutes to do it, but when he did we immediately gave him some bread. I then told him glue would never make him truly happy and only knowing Jesus would. He took the bread and walked away singing a little. I see many of these children when I am downtown Eldoret, the worst thing I could do is give them money, their only hope is Jesus.

I have already had many people come and ask me for money and favors. Most of them I could help, but if I helped them all I would quickly spend every dime I have here. The Kenyans aren’t very bashful about asking for money from any American. I don’t plan to hand out money to every person that comes by. Please pray that the Lord would give me wisdom on how to deal with each situation. Just today a street boy came and pushed my bicycle up a little hill and then ran beside me asking for money. After about a quarter mile I stopped and told him he looked like a fine strong young man able to get a job. I told him there was no honor in a strong man begging for money and that I would give him none. I told him he needed Jesus and that was the only thing I would offer him. He then motioned he would go, but before leaving gave me the street kids sign. Not sure what it meant, but hope he remembers my words.

Had a juakali carrier made for my bicycle today. Juakali means something like, hot sun worker. So, now I have something to carry loads on my bicycle in the hot sun. The place that made the carrier was off a back alley with several men and boys working with antiquated tools, no gloves and no face shield for welding. The guy doing the welding would hold the mettle pieces with one hand and weld with the other, that’s tough. The carrier cost $2.80, I had them paint it for another .30 cents.

Please pray that the Lord would give me wisdom and discernment in dealing with every person I meet. Pray specifically for my friend Moses, his child is sick and his wife doesn’t want to live with him in Eldoret.

Thank you all for remembering me and checking up on me.

In Christ,

Bwana Bob, Your Juakali missionary

May 5, 1999

Dear Everyone,

I’m sorry to keep sending these generic e-mails but I have quite a backlog of ones to respond to. When I finally got online this evening I had 18 messages waiting! Thank you for all of the encouraging mail. I believe that the jet lag has finally been whipped. Spent about two hours this morning trying to get my phone turned on (government owned company for you). Had to go stand in line at the post office for an hour to get new keys to the P.O. box. The others were lost before I arrived. Went to the Bible institute today, what a ministry. Young men and women come for about one week a month the train as pastors and church workers. It is free and doesn’t take them away from their farms for too long.

My baggage is being held in Nairobi waiting for a flight to Eldoret. They cannot release the bags until they clear customs in Nairobi or Eldoret. The problem with getting them here is that Kenya Airways doesn’t follow their schedule. Flights were to come every day this week, so far none have come in. Air France assured me that the bags were locked in a secure cage and safe, that was very reassuring. Thank you all for praying in this matter. Pray that I can get to Nairobi or the bags will be sent here soon.

I am finding out more and more how much work there is to be done. They are already planning on me working in the Turkana region after training in the Busia region.

I had better close for now, thank you all for writing, it’s great to receive so many messages.

In Christ,

Bwana Bob

5/3/1999

Dear Friends and Loved Ones,

I’ve made it to Kenya! Am settled into my home and am trying to get things packed away. My bags were lost in Paris, (now I know why they call it Air Chance instead of Air France). The Stirewalts and Mohlers did a fantastic job of getting the house cleaned up and ready for me to move into. It is a 2 bedroom place with a nice living room and kitchen. I have hot water and electricity (most of the time). My phone was to be hooked up two months ago, but, hey, this is Africa–these things take time or a bribe.

My surroundings are beautiful. Anyone who likes to take pictures would go nuts here. It is the beginning of the rainy season, but has been mostly sunny since I’ve come. The clouds that come through are just magnificent. The only ones that I’ve ever seen like them were in Alaska. On the trip to Eldoret we passed by baboons and zebra right next to the road! Just like driving through a game park.

Most of the people here are very nice. They tell me the country people are much more polite than the people here in the city. Many people try to butt in line if you haven’t crowded the person in front of you in a que. It really bugs me but that’s part of culture adjustment. We went to the open market today. That was something! We bought many fruits and vegetables. Most of the kiosk owners gave me extra things as a first time gift, and a couple of guys tried to cheat me–what a country. The market aroma was quite interesting as well. One area smelled just like a feed lot or cattle holding pen. It reminded me of my milking days–the only problem was I wanted to buy food.

I haven’t started my language studies yet but I hope to by the end of the week. Am working on it myself and trying to pick up common words that you use shopping and greeting. Jonathon Mohler and I have been visiting quite a bit about his current ministry and my joining him as part of my training. Jonathon works with about 30 churches in the Busia area which borders Uganda and is very close to Kakamega district in Kenya. Most of these churches were started some time ago. Jonathan visits with each of the pastors and encourages them and gets an idea of how he can help them. Even though many of these churches have been started over eight years ago the pastors have difficulties and need encouragement to grow. I see this ministry as almost the same thing the Apostle Paul did by writing to the early churches. Although there are 30 churches in this area many villages have no church at all, especially the ones off the main roads. It would be like having 30 churches in the area of three or four counties in the US. This ministry with Jonathan should really help me learn the best way to start a new church, help it grow and also give me an idea of the areas of greatest need.

Please pray for my safety as I drive and patience as I stand in line. Pray that the Lord will direct me to the right vehicle to buy. God’s deal is the best. Pray that I’ll learn Swahili and be an effective witness.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Bwana Bob

5/2/1999

I’ve arrived safely in Eldoret. What a trip, very long and tiring. My bags didn’t make it to Kenya with me. I figure they are in Paris, but should find out Monday exactly where theory at.

On the trip out to Eldoret we saw Baboons and Zebra, then locked the keys in the car at a gas station. There ended up being about 10 people around the car working and giving suggestions, wish I had taken some pictures. You wouldn’t believe how beautiful it is here, clouds and rain, but the sun is so bright when it comes out.

I’m really tired and will try to stay awake till around 10 P.M.

5/3/1999

Dear Everyone,

Things are going well here. Jet lag has been a little tough on me, am waking up at 3 am and going to bed at 9 P.M. Please pray that I will get my bags soon and that everything will be in them. I was trying to figure the replacement cost on all of the things that I have in them and believe that it would be pretty high. Pray about me getting a vehicle. It seems that I should try and find a 4 by 4 truck. The Mohlers and Stirewalts have 4 vehicles but none are a 4 wheel drive truck. They said that this would be a real asset to all of our ministries. A good truck will cost about seven to ten thousand US, more than I had planned, but know that it will be worth having.

Interesting stuff:
Am doing a little laundry by hand till my bags come in.
Met my friend Moses from Nairobi, he is now living in Eldoret.
Found some rhubarb at a stand and will plant it in our yard, mmmmmm…

Miss you all, hope some of you can come some day to see the works going here.

In Christ Bwana Bob