The Day that the Lord Made

This morning I had the opportunity to preach at the Emmanuel congregation of Kimbo Parish. My ride was a little late so I made it to the Vestry five minutes before the service. While I knew it was in a more rural area (aka pastors have multiple congregations), I was not aware that I was the one leading the service (so the pastor could preach in another congregation). I was under the impression that I was going to meet the pastor who would lead worship and that I would just be preaching. Wrong. When I showed up, the elders looked to me for direction so I had to come up with liturgy and a children's sermon on the fly. This is definitely not my preferred method of worship planning, but all things considered, it went quite well. That service also brought an unexpected blessing. Today I lead worship alongside five female leaders from that congregation. It's the first and only time I've lead worship with a team of women and it was life-giving! I certainly never dreamed something like that would happen while in Kenya. I think this was mostly because the PCMF (Presbyterian Men's Fellowship) was attending a celebration at another service. Totally not complaining....  

Emmanuel was a church plant just two years ago and already has over 300 members. We had a little less than 100 in attendance this morning. One of my favorite aspects of the service was that the children helped lead. They had special small chairs in the front of the congregation so they were front and center for the first half of the service before they left for their lesson. Much to my surprise, they were very well behaved. At the beginning of the Children's message, they sang a beautiful worship song for the congregation. During the portion of the service where groups are invited up to make presentations, two sisters came up to share. They were approximately 3 and 6 years old. One lead the congregation in a fun Sunday school song and the other recited scripture from memory. This view is how worship looked every day.  

After worship, the congregation gathered for tea and mandazis (little triangular pastries). Then, a couple from the congregation drove me back to Sukari. I made it back to Sukari just in time for Pastor George's sermon. I was thankful to have been present for the end of the service. After it was over, many members of the congregation greeted me. It was just last week that I realized I have roots here now. People know me by name and I know them by name. Many of them mentioned that the missed seeing me on the platform during the service today and that was very touching. Then, Florence and I rushed home to prepare lunch. We had four university students over this afternoon. They met George and Florence while doing evangelism earlier this spring and have developed a special relationship. None of them are studying religion at the university, but I have a feeling one (if not all of them) will end up in ministry one day. They are on fire for Jesus and are more Biblically literate than any college boys I've ever met. George and I were not able to visit with them very long because we had to go back to the church. This afternoon was the wedding rehearsal for one of the couples we have been doing premarital counseling for. The young woman is the daughter of a local preacher and the young man is the son of one of our elders. The couple is absolutely hilarious and they have some pretty funny friends too. That also meant a lot of chatter during the rehearsal (George was not a fan) but it was all in good fun. We did a dry run of the wedding ceremony and on Saturday we will do it for real! I have only been to a few wedding rehearsals before so it was good to see the whole thing from the preacher's perspective. I've started developing a relationship with the couple and am looking forward to taking part in the ceremony on Saturday. We returned to the manse to find Florence and the boys right where we left them: sipping tea and discussing the Pauline letters. We weren't able to stay long because we had another commitment. We left to go attend a bereavement fellowship for a member of the congregation. Shortly after the loss of a loved one, district members and neighbors gather at the house of the bereaved to have a small service. I had not been to one of these before and it seemed kind of like our version of a receiving line. It was an opportunity for the family's support network to join them in worship and fellowship as they begin to grieve. It was very moving. Also, Cucu (pronounced sho sho aka grandmother in Kikuyu) came to visit. George's mom is spending the night with us because tomorrow they are traveling together to take care of some family business. We picked her up on the way to the bereavement fellowship and she joined us for dinner afterward. She is very sweet and her English is surprisingly good for a cucu from the countryside. She even got the chance to meet my mom on a video call. So, yeah, another busy day full of amazing opportunities and I'm pooped! ~ sending big hugs from a sleepy Nell in Nairobi