Bwanabob

10/21/2001

Dear Friends,

This last week after Bible Institute classes five pastors, four students, a cook and I traveled to Lokichokio to help start planting a church. Loki, short for Lokichokio, is the last place in Kenya before going into Sudan. It’s a world of extremes, on the one hand you have UN offices, cars, airplanes and staff -all the best the west has to offer and on the other hand you have Turkana people, villages and traditions that may be a century removed from how we currently live.

Lokichokio has an International Red Cross surgical hospital for war victims from Sudan, offices for Voice of the Martyrs and countles other NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) an airport and runway the same size as the international airport in Nairobi. Most of the services of these places are not offered to the Turkanans, but the Turkanans do benifit from jobs and perks of the UN opperations.

The actual village we went to start in is about a mile outside of Loki. There are no churches there and although a catholic priest has given out free rosary beads the people had never heard about Jesus. My Swahili was completely useless there because none knew any language other than Turkana.

When we first arrived in the village our reception was quite cool. We started by walking from one cluster of huts to another presenting the Gospel and inviting everyone to a meeting near the local water well. Right away many wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior, others said they didn’t want to bother with strangers. At our first meeting near the well/hand pump we had about 30 come to see us. Because we were so close to the pump we had a promblem with noise from the pump-handle, so several of us took turns working the pump to minimize it’s noise and allow people to still get water.

While we were in the area we used that pump to get our water, which brought another problem. Some ladies from the area claimed we were “using up” their water and that we should go somewhere else to get our water supply, we were using something like 30 gallons of water a day. The second time we preached there and got our water we had quite a confrontation, thank God pastor Areng was able to talk with one of the village elders. Somehow the elder remembered pastor Areng from Lorogumu, a ten day walk from Loki, and considered him a friend, thus the matter was finished and we were able to get water. Later one of the ladies went to the local chief and complained that we had come with a 5 ton truck and loaded it with water, fortunately we had already met with the chief and he knew we didn’t have a 5 ton truck.

We went walking in the village three different times and each time people were willing to accept Jesus as their Savior. We held three different meetings near the well and each time several came forward to accept Jesus. I’m not sure of the total number that accepted Christ, I just pray that those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior will come to a full knowledge of Him.

Before leaving we intorduced the young man who will be leading the new Christians, his name is Geofry Lomchai. When we introduced him one of the old ladies began clapping her hands and saying Lomchai, Lomchai! Come to find out she is one of his distant relatives from years gone by. Please be praying for Geofry, he has been a good student in our Bible Institute and should finish his studies next year. Geofry’s home is here in Lodwar so he will have to travel to Loki and back quite often.

Before we left Loki the pastors, students and I had a little goat roast. The goat was good and I don’t believe I’ve ever heard so much lip-smacking in all my life. In all, the trip was a great blessing, it drew our pastors closer and confirmed our calling to plant churches throughout our district. We already have plans to visit another area called Lokori next month.

Please pray that we would use our time wisely and go through the doors the Lord has opened for us. We have three building projects started, the Bible Institute and churches at Kalemenyang and Lodwar. We need to persevere with our Bible Institute classes and help plant new churches. Pray for me that I won’t be overwhelmed with the work and will delegate as much work to the pastors and students as possible.

Ericka is doing well, she’s been quite tired lately, not sure if it’s from the heat, stress or other factors, but do pray for her. Her ladies group is going very well and she has had great opportunities to share her faith with a new Belgian lady here in Lodwar.

Thank you all for praying for us and God bless you.

In Christ, Bob Clark