Back to Butere, Kenya!!!

January 30, 2008 Blog

What an incredible time we have had! Political upheaval & chaos in Kenya – still unresolved & so uncertain. Our mission to Uganda was delayed as we couldn’t move anywhere in Kenya because every village & city had barricades erected across roads by irate citizens keeping the nation at a standstill! It was dangerous to even consider travel as there were people at every barricade wielding rocks & bricks to attack anyone who dared to pass. We watched the situation a few days & then hatched a plan to make an early morning exodus to Uganda.
We arranged with a private van taxi to pick us up at 6am & it arrived with barely any fuel & little hope of finding any nearby. We prayed & left our Kenyan residence trusting God to make a way – knowing the director of IMS, Rev. Mike Jones had enlisted a world-wide prayer team to ‘cover’ us as we made our escape.
We traveled back roads & found a place that sold us a minimal amount of fuel, but enough to make it to the border. We hoped to find more there for our friends’ return to Butere. Not long after getting the fuel, we had a blowout. The tire didn’t want to come off but we persisted & were successful. Barricades were evident in every village we went through but we found our way around them. As we neared the border, policemen on the side of the road motioned us over & one got in our van to escort us to the border. Many police are corrupt in Kenya, but the Lord provided us with one with the right heart. We all rejoiced as we went over the border to Uganda without any problem.
We staying in Kampala for a night & continued on to Kaihura, to ‘Bringing Hope to the Family’, a ministry we’ve been involved in for over 4 years. We met up with Faith Kunihira the director & enjoyed a reunion with all the orphans at ‘Home Again’, the building that they live in. Our two kids, John & Enoch were so happy to see us again – lots of hugs. Of course, the rest of the kids call us Mama & Papa & are thrilled when we come to visit. Jon, Nick & Geordie had their hearts touched in a big way & saw why we’re so drawn to these kids & this place. They are all praying about what they can personally do to help.
We’ve been involved this week with our friend, Marvin Mutongole of ‘Destined to Win’ International Ministries. He has put together his first ‘believers’ conference & it’s been a rousing success with 1500 people in attendance. All involved were overwhelmed as we were expecting around 2-300. We thank God for his provision as all attendees had to be fed & looked after. We can’t wait to see what happens next year!
After spending about 10 days commuting from Bringing Hope’s compound to Katoke, about 45 mins away where the conference took place, we went back to Kampala City for other ministry. I (Greg) preached at Marvin’s home church – Jesus Alive Center – and we were blessed to spend time with the congregation.
During the week, we met up with Canadians Greg & Sandy Lemky, who have had a ministry (SOLMA – Spring of Life Ministries) for the past 10 years in Uganda. We were inspired & blessed as we shared dinner & fellowship & heard of their ministry challenges & success. They gave us many great ideas for money generating projects & other terrific ideas. The fruit of their ministry is evident everywhere.
After a week in Kampala, we had several open days without obligations, so we headed back to Kaihuru to Bringing Hope’s orphanage where we surprised the kids & spent 4 days ministering to them with daily devotionals, helping ready the new building for the kids by painting & moving furniture & just loving the kids. All of us were so blessed & happy to have more time together.
We came back to Marvin’s home in Kampala for the final weekend before returning to Kenya. I preached in another church & the Spirit of God moved on the people & blessed so many.
So we made the decision that Monday, January 28th was our day to return to Kenya. We got it all together, hired a private vehicle to take us from Kampala City in Uganda to the border & shoved off early. God always seems to have a purpose I can’t immediately see – the guy who was our driver was a Muslim when we began our journey & by the end of the first hour, we led him to Jesus, praise God!
The trip from Kampala city to the border is about 4 hours – when we were in our last hour, we started to receive phone calls from friends in Kenya that trouble had erupted again & especially at the border crossing we were going to! Argh! So, we altered our plans to go to the next crossing, which cost more money & added delay. As we were heading for the other crossing, we get more calls that all the towns to pass through for the ride we hired to pick us up had erupted in more chaos. Then we wondered what the heck to do – we were out of Ugandan Shillings; we didn’t want to get ourselves into a problem in Kenya again, but expenses have gone through the roof for us & it’s cheaper for us to be in our home in Kenya. So we prayed & moved on. Calls kept coming in from our Kenyan friends & even when we arrived at the crossing, the border people said they weren’t sure if we should go across. Issues – never-ending sometimes.
We opted to go across & trust God. Once across, our ride called to tell us they were only 10 minutes away from us. We met up, they took us for groceries in a larger town close by as we had nothing to go home to in Butere & heard we couldn’t go to Kisumu to shop as there are huge problems there – so we stocked up & should be good till we leave in March for Nairobi & Mombassa.
Our tentative plans are to minister in and around Butere for the next few weeks. If anyone is wondering, Butere is probably one of the safest areas of Kenya at the moment as it isn’t close to any major city & has few of the Kakuya tribe around (the one related to Kibaki, the current president) as the few that were here were chased away at the end of December. We feel relatively safe here & are prayerful about our situation and hope others will continue to pray for our safety & wisdom & favor in our decisions.
Jonathan Start, who is with us from England has flight out of Nairobi on February 18th. We have booked him a connecting flight from Kisumu, so please pray for the timing for him to be able to get through on the road without problems.
As for the rest of us – we are booked to fly out on April 1st – our last 3 weeks of March were to be spent doing ministry in Nairobi & Mombassa, but if problems continue, we will opt to stay in and around Butere for ministry as there is plenty to do.
Thank you to everyone who is praying for us. Do not worry or be anxious about our situation as we have great people around us who are looking out for our well being & we trust in a God who never leaves us or forsakes us. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world!