Bwanabob

1/17/2000

Dear Friends and Supporters!

We had our first months lessons at the Bible Baptist Institute of Lodwar! We began with 11 students from the villages of Juluk, Lorpur, Katilu, Lorogum, Kalemenyang, and Lodwar. I’ll start from the beginning of my trip there this month.

When I arrived there on the 3rd of January the electricity had not been connected to my house yet, but by the following day the power was on and I had replaced the breaker box inside the house. Next there was a problem with water, we thought there would be enough coming on our regular water line but after the students had been there just one day we didn’t even have enough water for all of us to bathe that evening, (very uncomfortable in a dusty, wind-blown, desert environment.) The next day I ran and bought extra jerry-cans, filled them in town and then set out to run a new water line directly from the water main a block away. The line I was on served many houses and the size of the pipe was too small to carry enough water. As we started to dig the new ditch my neighbor, the first wife of a member of parliament, came out and gave us a hard time saying that we couldn’t dig on what she said was her plot. We were actually digging on the road right-of-way and she just needed to squak a bit. The next day the Lord helped us with many hands to dig and a good fundi to connect the new line to the house and praise the Lord we had plenty of water!

In actually starting the institute we spent the first day interviewing the students and asking them basic questions about their qualifications, desire to serve the Lord and background. One question we asked that you might find odd was, “How many wives do you have?” Here in Kenya and especially in Turkana a man having multiple wives is quite common, but we make it very clear in our churches that a pastor is to have one wife. The entire first day was filled with interviews, filling forms and taking a general Bible knowledge test. The second day we began classes and everything went quite smoothly. I had brought two good pastors from up-country to teach, one of whom is the Dean of our Bible Institute in Kapenguria, and we had a third pastor to teach from Turkana. By the end of the four days of lessons the students were very tired, but excited about what they had learned and looking forward to their future ministry. We encouraged them to teach lessons on things they had learned at the Bible Institute and several said they would be doing just that. Some of the students were so excited that they wanted to just go right out and begin new churches, but we had to remind them that they were still under their local pastors and we wouldn’t start any new churches with them until after they had completed their 3 years of training and their pastors had commissioned them out of the local church. It was such an encouragement to me to see how much the students and Turkana pastors were encouraged by having their own Bible Institute and a commitment to grow together.

When I left the States I knew the Lord was calling me to go to unreached areas, but I didn’t know that I would be fulfilling that call through training nationals to go where I couldn’t. Already one of our pastors is traveling with his students to villages along the Turkwell River and evangelizing people who have migrated there for food. Right now there is great famine in Turkana district which has forced many people to move from very remote areas to places closer to some food source. Most bush Turkana live off of sour milk, blood and meat, but most of the herds of cattle, camels, donkeys, goats, and sheep (they eat them all) have moved very far south to try and find pasture. This has left most of the people without their herds to live on and has brought many people to live along the Turkwell River. Pastor Areng has been evangelizing in one such area and this last Sunday I was allowed to baptize 46 people who have accepted Christ as their Savior! Please pray for these new Christians that we will be rooted and grounded in Christ before they migrate back to their home areas when the rains begin in April and May, Lord willing. Also, pray that we will be able to follow them when they move.

Living in Turkana is difficult but it has some light moments to keep life fun. My guard won’t open the truck door from the inside he always reaches through the window and opens the door from the outside, I’ve tried to show him how to open from the inside, but…… My guard also asked me to pick up a large cooking pot for him in Eldoret so he could water his goats with it, I told him I would just buy a kariah (metal wash basin) because it would be cheaper, he refused and said that he couldn’t cook with the kariah. Most of the time he would water the goats with it and sometimes he would want to cook with it.

Quote from a student. “If that piki piki (motorcycle) goes so fast when it is small, it must really go fast when it grows bigger.” :]

Quote from a pastor concerning scorpion stings. “It is just a bite, you will not die from it, but you may loose consciousness.” Hmmm.

I’ve returned safely to Eldoret today, the drive was two hours shorter because of road repairs and also finding a newer paved road that isn’t on any map. I’ll be teaching a lesson at the advanced Bible Institute here in Eldoret on Saturday. I wasn’t able to communicate from Lodwar because I don’t have a phone and as of yet haven’t found anyplace to connect and use E-mail.

God bless all of you and thank you for praying for the ministry here.

Tumeanza — we have begun. Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

In Christ, Bob Clark