Bwanabob

4/21/2008

Dear Friends,

We are all doing well here in Turkana.  Ericka and I are recovered from Typhoid, thanks Richard for leaving us the Cipro!  We are still waiting for more rain, we are having the signs of a good rainy season but it has yet to cut loose.

The ministry is going on well and the last two Sundays we were able to visit churches in Lorogumu and Neramit.  At both churches the Pastor and congregation  were thankful for us turning over the Bible Institute to the Churches.  There have been times we wondered if we were doing the right thing but after seeing how the churches and pastors have responded it really confirms that we were following the Lords leading in this decision.

The Church in Neramit is doing very well, Pastor Paulo’s wife had left him for several months but now has returned home as has openly committed to staying with him this time, please pray for her salvation.  It’s been quite rewarding to see how Pastor Paulo has matured as a leader, remained faithful to the Lord and committed to living an honorable life even when most other Turkana men would have said “good riddance” to their former wife and moved on.  Pastor Paulo has led the little church in Neramit to grow to about 70, it is one of the most interior churches we work with, but one of the strongest.  This Sunday one of the church leaders showed the congregation my letter stating that the Bible Institute was now in the hands of the churches, he then asked if the church members would give to help support their student, Moses, and the Bible Institute.  Right there members gave about 200 shillings and committed another 300 over the next two weeks.  This is only about $8, but would be the equivelent of roughly three days wages for a casual laborer.  To see this happen in the church was a huge blessing to me.

On Friday I was able to teach two lessons at a leaders meeting held by the one of the churches here in Lodwar.  They asked me to teach on Leaders With Vision and A Church that Makes Jesus Happy.  The lessons were very well received and at the end I challanged the church to have a vision for areas where it is difficult for us white missionaries to go to, namely Sudan and the Loima area of Turkana.  Right away Pastor Losike spoke up and said that they have a church member from the area of Lomeyan, a villiage at the foot of the Loima hills.  As soon as Pastor Losike mentioned the name of the church member everyone sat up and began talking about him and how easy it would be for him to go with Pastor Losike to preach in his home village.  Pray that the Berea church will keep this vision and be a church that continues to please Jesus.

Please continue to pray for us, our safety and Kenya.  The government seems stable now and any of you planning a trip to Kenya this year shouldn’t have to worry about any more violence like we saw in Dec. and Jan.  On the other hand it seems to me that the concessions made by the government and opposition were simply done to make sure that both sides were given ample opportunity to stuff their pockets before another election or referendum.  Please pray that Kenyan leaders will address core issues that will continue to cause problems in the country.  Also, if you have an opportunity to write a letter to your Senator, Representative or The President please ask them to keep up the pressure on the Kenyan government to address issues of injustice steming from the post election violence.

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

In Christ, Bob Clark

Dear Friends,

I’m glad to report that everything is calm in Lodwar and our seminar finished up well.  The Kikuyu policeman who shot and killed a young boy was locked up in jail, so that put an end to the rioting.  The police chief also locked up all the police weapons in the armory which defused tensions with Turkanans who were threatening to come to town with their guns and teach the police a lesson.  We are very grateful for your prayers and a few local leaders who made some wise decisions.

Our seminar went very well and even though town was tense the first two days we just asked all of pastors and church leaders to stay at the Bible Institute compound so as to not be caught up in anything that might happen in town.

The lessons on the importance of faithful Godly church leaders were received very well.  There were many in attendence who have been examples in their churches for years and we were able to point out that the churches who had faithful leaders of vision had grown considerably over the past nine years we’ve been here.  Ericka and I both taught on personal, “romantic” relations with our spouses.  Anyone who knows Turkanans would attest to the fact that there is nearly zero “romantic” expression of love between husband and wife.  From talking to pastors and others we have learned that this is often one of the factors that pushes a man, even a pastor, to seek a second wife. So, rather than stick our heads in the sand we dove into the dry pool of Turkana Romantic Love.  My the responses we got!  Ericka taught from the book, “Created to be his Help Meet,”  and I taught from the book, “The Five Love Languages.”  The lessons were definately a huge clash of cultures, but we reminded everyone that the only right culture is the one God has given us in His Word.  In the end, the Pastors, their wives and church leaders expressed thankfulness for these lessons and told us that they were grateful for us teaching the “whole counsel of God,” because they knew there were blessings in each bit of Gods Word they practiced in their lives.

The final portion of the seminar focused on the Bible Institute.  I made it official that I would no longer be involved with the Bible Institute and that I was very encouraged by how the pastors had already been conducting classes and taking care of all of the administration.  My final part will be to help make sure that all of the small construction details are finished nicely.  The pastors all agreed that they wanted to see the Bible institute continue to bless the churches with well trained leaders and committed to put their support behind it.

At the end of the seminar it seems that I came down with malaria, not sure how I got it, but now that I’ve started on the treatment I’m feeling much better.

Please continue to pray for the country of Kenya, its leaders in Nairobi are showing themselves to be gluttons at the expense of the poor and exploited. Thankfully most Kenyans are content with their day to day needs met and peace.  Our only hope is in Christ.

The final donations we received for help to those who were burned out and displaced went to resettle Kikuyu pastors in Central Province, Kikuyu homeland.  We have reports that they have already started one church and are working to rent or buy property on wich to start others.  There are still many thousands who are still in camps for displaced persons, but as far as we know all of the Pastors and Christians we knew personally around Eldoret have gotten a fresh start.  The issue of those remaining in the camps seems to be very complicated and I don’t believe we are in a position to try to do any more from here in Lodwar.

God bless you all and thank you so much for praying for us.

In Christ, Bob Clark