There are now five satellite schools in Kenya. Each place we have been this year, including in Tanzania, has had its own “Wow.” In September, we graduated ninety-six Maasai students from the Bible Schools in Kenya. The passion they have to know God and to study His Word continues to amaze us.
When we were in Oli’Talk,Talk the pastor, who is one of our graduates, had met with us because a man in the community had met with him and wanted to give us land to start another school. As we talked with him, we began to share about the hunger we were experiencing everywhere we have been. We have no need for land. What we are basing starting schools on now is, “How hungry are they?”
All we need to start a school is a church to use a couple of days a week, a generator and a TV, a facilitator, and a commitment of ten students, and we start a school. We have never started a school with only ten. Usually, the cut off is 50, but they are so hungry that we have started a couple with 65. This hunger isn’t just with established pastors. But it is with Apostles, Bishops, young people, women, and educated people who work for the government. Memsie had told me she had gone to Nairobi searching for a school, but she came home discouraged because it was far away and so expensive. She feels like God has brought ISOM here just for her. As she translates for Kathy Holy Spirit is revealing even more to her about the class material.
Now we are seeing a hunger for the advanced studies ISOM offers. They are expensive and are only in English, but they are willing to pay the price. We will still hold to the requirements of “How hungry are they?” And the minimum of ten to start a class.
On the 1st day of class in Maparusia, a pastor came from the other side of the mountains, which we can see far off in the distance. The next Monday, the pastor in the “Pink Suit” came from over a second range of mountains that we can’t see. That day, Kathy had taught on “Jesus, the Servant King.” After class, he told her that this message was just for him. He has a large church, and he had all the people serving him. He was going home to revamp what he had been doing.
The next day, five more pastors, all from different denominations, came from even farther away. What an amazing thing for them to come together as the Body of Christ and study His Word together.
There is nothing easy about getting to school. You can’t always get there; bad weather causes flooding and landslides. We even had to ford a river when we were evacuating. Wild animals are another issue; you don’t mess around with wild elephants. Several young women are walking as much as 34 km a day, they have families and children to take care of when they get home, and there is no drive-in for food for them. When we drop them off along the side of the road, they are grinning from ear to ear. Sometimes the roads aren’t really roads. Our biggest obstacles this year were herds of camels in two different areas, and the rain that kept us from returning to the villages. Our two-hour drive in a car is nothing compared to what they are doing to get to school.
At graduation in Maparusia this year, the Lord gave them an encouraging word, comparing the Maasai to King David. He was just a boy tending his father’s sheep when he was anointed to someday be a King. He knew about sheep and how to worship God. He knew how to abide in the Presence of God. This is why people were drawn to him. That is why he was anointed to be King of Israel. He went through years of training before taking the throne. Scripture says that as a King, he cared for the people around him the same way he had treated his sheep. The Maasai know how to take care of sheep, and they are learning how to abide in God’s Presence. They will make the kind of leaders God is looking for.
Standing amazed in all God is doing deep in the villages of Kenya.
Harry and Kathy
