Githurai and Graduation

Today was a presbytery-wide pulpit swap. It's exactly what it sounds like.... The Ministers and Elders of the presbytery were all randomly assigned to preach at different parishes. I had the opportunity to preach at Githurai Parish which just happens to be the church of the Presbytery Moderator. I preached their English service and their Youth service. I ended up using the same sermon I preached a few weeks ago at Kimbo Parish. I hadn't planned to start reusing sermons this early in my preaching career, but when Rev. Samson Wang'ati asked me to preach about their yearly theme verse John 15:12, the one I had already written was perfect. It went well and I got more positive feedback than I’ve gotten for so anything else. My preaching style is very different from most ministers here in a way that people seem to appreciate. It was a big crowd (probably around 500 or so) and we had a wonderful time worshiping together. Here’s a picture of em and Moderator Samson.  

The first service was a pretty typical worship service. There were lots of hymns, presentstions, and prayers. One of my favorite parts was when the children lead the congregation in a song entitled "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." They were adorable and it was definitely the highlight of my day. It seems like every time I'm with the little humans, it's always the highlight of my day. Maybe I should reconsider Children's Ministry...  

The Youth service was also a good time. As I've mentioned before, the term "youth" here refers to young adults (not teens). At Sukari this means the youth are a bunch of folks in their upper twenties. The youth service I attended today was much younger. They ran the entire service by themselves and after it was over, we did a bible study on Genesis 15. The nice thing about this service is that it was much more intimate (like 30 of us) and I didn't have to use a microphone from the 1980s. We spent the entire afternoon attending a graduation blessing ceremony for the daughter of one of our elders. We celebrated Joy's accounting degree with prayers, singing, dancing, a message, and lots of speeches. It was a fun afternoon for me because I was able to spend quality time with Joy last weekend when her family had me over for dinner. While working on her degree, she had some serious health problems so it was an emotional, but happy day for all involved. It had me feeling sentimental about the wonderful graduation party my mom threw for me last spring. 

I got really excited today when I was able to identify so many church members in the crowd at the party. I now know people's names and their families. This revelation was an exciting one, but it will also make it much harder to say goodbye in two weeks. ~ Nell in Nairobi