Africa - Day Five Sunday

It was a cooler start to the day, and I sauntered in from the garden last for breakfast.  The bread had almost run out, so Faith had made us a pile of pancakes.  The jam had gone too, so I tried a filling peanut butter with drinking chocolate powder.  Jason immediately spotted, "Hey, this is the next best thing to a Snickers bar," and made himself three.  We'd all had a good laugh at the comment on my blog from Neil, his TBS boss, that Jason would always manage to find a shop.  He was feeling a little got-at, and put it down to the fact that he'd woken up earlier and more positive this morning than all week.

We got to Gregory's church at 9.30am, having dropped off Wakey at Joseph's meeting.  Things had been in progress since the 7.00am leaders prayer time (see advertised details on the photo).  We had bible study groups for about an hour, and I had to restrain myself when the subject of tithing came up.  Then we had an hour's praise and worship.  This was buoyant and an absolute delight.  The five members of the singing team each took it in turn to take the lead.  I sneaked a sound level check.  Yes, 81 decibels: then this must be the kit we used at the conference.  We had introductions for all the conference delegates who'd arrived, including several pastors from churches in Gregory's network and Alfred from Uganda.

I ministered for an hour on fathering.  Back at my seat, a lady in front passed around to us some hot lemony concoction that replenished our stamina.  Then we rounded off with another hour of communion, singing from the children, and further introductions.  At 2.00pm, having well overrun the official 12.30pm, things wound down.  We slipped off to the adjacent Multiply office for a Stoney.  Just four and a half hours of the total of seven.  Wakey and Joseph had arrived about half an hour before, having also fitted in lunch!  Part-timers!

Gregory had booked to use the afternoon for time with his visiting pastors.  It was great to sit around over lunch and afterwards catching up with their situations.  I tried to draw out of Gregory his "wish list" to lay before the guys at home.  "The Multiply Trust fund to work better; getting recorded stuff posted on line or available on dvd; faster response to flight bookings and deposit payments; confirmation about staffing the office so follow up can happen; spicy food at the MILC conference," and so on.  "But," he added, "Let me say we have come a long way."  It was great to see Gregory's wife, who's quite poorly, smiling and enjoying the exchanges.

His local pastoral team arrived, and we got quizzed about how community functions.  Having explained about our history and common purses, the question came, "Where do you fit tithing in with that?"  Jason confided afterwards he'd felt sorry for the brother, as he was already 'on the ropes' and about to walk into a beating.  I pointed out that the Old Testament structure of chosen nation, separated tribe (of Levi), and anointed priesthood is demolished in the New Testament, and therefore the system of tithes that funded it.  In the silence that followed, Gregory announced, "Well everybody, we need to get off and find something to eat."  I apologised for somewhat barging onto another man's patch.  Gregory was gracious, and we went off for burgers, chicken portions and chips.  Jonny paid, while Jason found a shop where he got us all a stock of  bottled water.

We found three lizards and a millipede in the rooms, and had a stimulating post mortem on the day.  We contacted home.  Wakey got a blow by blow text commentary as our photos were shown at Heart.  I got a run down on the days attenders and absentees.  We hope our faith for the container and Tanzania gets answered.   Tomorrow we go our different ways: Jonny and Jason up country, and Wakey and I to Rwanda.

We went to bed to the sound of heavy rain: it seems the wet season has started a bit early.

Africa - Day Four Saturday

I thought of sticking in a picture of our accommodation here at Musmark.  This is the garden prayer house, equipped with a couple of tables and sets of chairs.  Wakey and I compete for using it in the early morning, and the loser has to be content with a conventional garden bench.

Last night I was kept awake by some buzzing insect dive-bombing the mosquito net.  It wasn't the best recipe for getting refreshed ready for the demands of the conference.  In future I'll keep a spray near the bed.  There's a constant chatter from garden finches all night, punctuated by occasional squarks from a resident pair of egrets.  

We had quails' eggs for breakfast.  The house keeps a small flock.  They hardly constitute much of a mouthful, but we have no complaints about meals.

Carlson picked us up again, and took a route out along the highway.  He weaved in and out of traffic with great abandon, much to the delight of the guys.  Hence, we managed to arrive at the conference nearer the announced start!  We were underway only a hour late.  Jonny set up the new video camera for some time-lapsed shots of people arriving, but fewer folks arrived than yesterday.  Later we found out it was a national commemoration day for Jomo Kenyatta.

I spoke about the Two Kingdoms, and after a break, our Church's history.  Ian gave a passionate and pointed talk about Apostolic Fathering.  It produced a humble and committed response.  In the UK we have a problem with losing the fatherless generation.  Here - half the population being under 18 - they have a problem of being overwhelmed.

Having rung Mary, I spent lunchtime with Alfred from Lira in Uganda.  We struck up an immediate bond.  Later, Gregory got the dozen or so Ugandan delegates together, and agreed to set up an interim Multiply group under Alfred's chairmanship.  This is great progress.  We're drawing in Carlson: Ian (Wakey) had been given a word of knowledge about a taxi driver.   We're looking for candidates for a six-month internship.  There's also Carlos, from a Rastafarian background, whom Jonny has befriended.

Assembled again, we asked for questions for a Q&A time. It was obvious that many delegates were keenly attentive.  "If one of our young men wants to become celibate, how could you help to instruct him?"  Would Multiply purchase property in other nations?"  "What does you church do for widows and orphans?"  "Do baptisms have to be carried out by ordained ministers?"

We rounded off the day with a session on Kingdom Businesses.  After the hall was cleared we all went to the Manna cafe for a coffee.  We agreed with Gregory and Joseph what we'd be doing about church in the morning.  Back home Wakey rang Huw.  "How are we placed for signing people up for an internship?"  Things are moving fast.  Our meal was roast quail, sweet potatoes and maize meal.  Afterwards, Jonny tried to copy the time-delayed video file to my laptop.  It was 21.3GB and froze both Windows and the camera.  The rest of us settled down to the serious business of getting talks together for the Sunday meetings.

Afterwards, the guys incited me to crack open some chocolate, and we talked for a long time about the Rwanda genocide, and what the call to discipleship means for different cultures.  They've been brilliant.

Africa - Day Three Friday

Well, Gregory had hinted to us that the first day may not start at the advertised 8.30am.  We arrived just on 10 o'clock, to find about 50 delegates were milling around.  I warned the guys that the music was likely to be headache-inducingly loud.  They thought I was overstating the case, until they piled out of the car and staggered into the main hall.  This was just background music until the singers were kitted out with mics.  Then my phone app confirmed it went up over 80 decibels.  Poor Jonny was tied to the computer and projector all day and couldn't escape.  Wakey and Jason boogied around and enjoyed being involved.

The PA finally settled down from its frequent power-outs, and we were underway in about half an hour.  I got to do the "official" talk about Multiply.  Then Ian (Wakey) took over giving some solid teaching on the baptised life.  "The Dove came upon Jesus; the Fire comes upon us."  This carried impact.  At the end of the morning, the numbers had more than doubled.  We ran out of programmes, red crosses, handouts and Multiply dvds.

Lunch was goat stew and rice, all cooked on charcoal in a side room.  I looked for the three pastors we'd met the night before but they'd gone to the local shop.  Jason found them, and also brought back bottles of Stoney, a kind of ginger beer.

We had to drastically prune the afternoon sessions on the Leaders Mind, and the Radical and Prophetic Church.  I finished with two minute to spare before our 4.30pm deadline.  We spend an hour or so de-rigging and chatting to the young guys who were hanging around.  Jonny was doing well with Carlos, and hopes to invite him to UK.  Gregory gathered together the ten or so folks who'd travelled from Uganda for an impromptu discussion how to set up a Multiply sub-network.
 

We came back to Musmark for tea.  This time the almost-predictable traffic horror involved getting gridlocked buy a bus undertaking, a lorry coming towards us on the wrong side of the road, and two vehicles converging attempting to turn right.  In addition, Wakey had suggested we should eat outside, and it was already getting cool.  But, chicken and rice always wins!  With fresh mango juice, and melon to follow, we felt like kings.  As we summed up the day, Jonny confided, "I was praying the power would go out."  We though this was a bit (uncharacteristically) mean, until he explained, "The worship with only the voices was just so good."  We had a chat about who would go to which church to preach on Sunday.  Interesting.

Lots of folks from home had texted or rung with greetings and requests for prayer.  So we knocked up a wish list:
1 The container of donated equipment makes it to Kimilili early next week.
2. Jason and Jonny get good supervision from Pastor Dan, so the time's well spent.
3. We make progress with some young guys who can make it to the UK, with internships in mind.
4. The Multiply leadership team grows, and from Kenya we establish an East Africa regional impact.
5. We get the arrangements for Tanzania sorted out!

Tomorrow really will be an early start.

Africa - Day Two Thursday

The day started with Wakey getting a call from Joseph to say his car had broken down.  He'd be delayed beyond the nine  o'clock we'd agreed.  So breakfast was a pleasantly leisurely affair.  We exchanged impressions so far.  Jason had got angry about the billboards advertising the consumer dream - new cars, phones with two SIMs, etc, "As if that's any kind of lifestyle for them to be aiming at, when they've got so much in their lives together."   Wakey shared the feeling that Jason had expressed last night about being served.  John simply felt the time had been almost overwhelming.

We finally got underway in a car Joseph had managed to borrow and headed out on the A104 Kisumu road towards the Rift Valley.  This requires a bit of geography.  East Africa is riven for about 3,500 miles by this dramatic feature.  In fact modern Nairobi came in to being as a rail stop on the Mombasa to Uganda railway project that British engineers ran in the late 19th century.  The steep landscape of the Valley finally defeated them at the point we overlooked from the roadside viewing platform.  As soon as the car pulled up traders appeared from nowhere, offering carvings and other local craft items.  Their persistence proved tricky for everyone, despite the fact that I was the only one possessing Kenya shillings!  It was amusing to see the many donkey-drawn carts.  They took whichever side of the road was more convenient, regardless of traffic.

We had lunch at Java Cafe, Westgate, back in town again.  The guys prayed for Hezron, the waiter who'd served yesterday too.  Joseph spoke to a church-going waitress who'd observed this, and wanted to know about getting born again.

We headed for the Umbrella conference venue, and set up our projector etc, to get the right position for the presentations.  We needed every bit of kit we'd brought.  Heavy rain broke out when we got to Gregory's church centre.  It was dark before we reached his home for evening meal.  He'd been joined by three pastors from Kimilili, including Dan, who'll be looking after Jonny and Jason next week.  I was ready for a cup of chai, and Wakey was looking forward to more boiled bananas.  Jonny had commented to Wakey, "I'm was glad that someone representing the Farm had finally come on a Multiply event."  Wakey recognised that, to date, this had been a weakness. He resolved to have people staying for the May/June MILC conference.

A young guy called Carlson drove us home.  He opinionated about corrupt council officials and minibus drivers.  He'd have the lot of them shot.  "Hmm," I mused to the guys later: "A strong sense of justice; and the black-and-white mindset of a prophetic type."  Thereafter Wakey sought to win him, and he became almost part of the team.

We were quite late getting back to Musmark, but the first day of the conference meant an early start in the morning.

Africa - Day One Wednesday

I guess some excitement was inevitable even before we boarded the plane.  Jonny’s huge rucksack of power tools, saws and goodness knows what else, had to be treated as exceptional luggage.  Heathrow check-in wanted to see the Church credit card used for the original booking.  Mercifully, Pete had stayed around after dropping off the guys, and the card in his name was the right one. Then we four nipped into the multi-faith prayer room and shared bread and wine as an impromptu Agape.

Getting some sleep on the plane defeated most of us, too.  Wakey (how apt!) only had two hours sleep the night before, but still couldn’t drop off.  Jonny spent the time sketching various postures that had proved a failure.  The 6.30 bright sunlight found everyone fully awake, if not alert.  

Four of the local leaders’ team had formed a two-car reception party.  Anyone who’s experienced the drive from Jomo Kenyatta into west Nairobi’s suburbs will guess what followed.  Jason, with professional truck-driver’s eye was first to comment on the five lanes of traffic squeezed into three carriageways, matatus and all.  Of course, we spiced up the journey with a friendly chase.  

Over a cup of tea, Bishop Joseph whispered, “My area of oversight has grown by two more districts.  I now cover 450 churches, 100 more than last year.  But I haven’t finished what I want to do.”  He’d been in Kigali the day before, with other FourSquare national superintendents.  We took a couple of snapshots before they left, and we finished a late (second!) breakfast that Faith and the Musmark house team supplied.  Thereupon Wakey and Jonny crashed out.  Meanwhile, Jason unpacked his case bulging with TBS freebies and found a litre canister of PVA wood glue had split, coating everything else.  It took a couple of hours to mop up.

Gregory and Joseph Took us to the conference hall we've booked when they reappeared later in the afternoon.  It's a glorious corrugated roofed structure on the main western dual carriage way out of town.  There's one 13amp plug socket by the stage that serves the whole auditorium.  An extension cable reel was a wise choice of packing!  The two new gents toilet cubicles outside are equipped with an eight inch by eight inch hole in the concrete floor, and piece of wire to wrap round a nail to secure the door.

At the building that houses Gregory's church and ICT training project, he's set up Multiply office facilities.  Wakey bagged the executive chair behind a large desk, but the main office accommodated us all comfortably.  We wrapped up the afternoon at Gregory's home and stayed for evening meal, which we hadn't thought about!  The guys got their first experience of having their hands washed before eating.

Threading our way back on the darkened smokey roads, we were all about reaching sensory overload.  Then Joseph realised we needed some petrol.  The next garage was near closing time.  Mini-coaches, trucks, cars and motor bikes were jostling to get to the pumps.  It was sheer chaos.  Later, Jason, my room-mate said, "I think that summed up for me what we've found here.  Man, I still can't get over being served."

Gratefully back at Musmark, we found the whole place in darkness.  Faith apologised that we were in the middle of a power cut.  She promised to put on the generator in 15 minutes.  I squinted at my watch, and announced, "Nine o'clock. I can be in bed by then."  So it came to pass.  We all crashed out by 9.30pm, unbelievably just 15 hours since we stepped off the plane.

Why I didn't grow up bitter and twisted

"I walked past those two brothers," my wife confided, "And they were both talking about how they'd had their model cars stolen when they were boys."
"Hmm. Actually bullying's quite a big issue," I offered. "You can't be too certain what's set it off."
She didn't seem convinced, and pressed, "Can't you expect that they'll have got over it by now?".

But before I could frame a reply, the tune started off in my mind.
"Do you know, when I was about six, my Mum used to sing this song.  The original went, 'Johnny won your marbles  / Tell you what we'll do / Dad'll buy some new ones right away...'.  Only, my best friend was called Barry, and she used to make it:  'Barry stole your marbles / Tell you what we'll do / Dad'll buy some new ones right away...'"  Now I was in full flight, unconcerned who may catch me singing.  "'...Time to go to bed now / Little man, you've had a busy day.'  Only he rarely did," I added, referring to the marbles.
"But that didn't matter.  I was consoled, and that's what mattered."


That was a word I've never used before in connection with my mother.  Consoled.  I was surprised at the strength of it.  Recalling the endless childhood times Barry beat me at marbles, I could picture our two houses, six doors apart.  No, not a hint of a hang-up.
Why did my mother seemingly manage to get it right?  How come these two brothers apparently hadn't fared so well?  I wondered how many other injustices in the world may be healed by consolation.  How do you build that into a disaster relief aid programme?  Or even a parenting course?

Our arrival at the Sunday morning meeting shut down my musing.  I wasn't bothered.  The only scripture I could think of involved 'consoling breasts' (Isaiah 66:11) and I didn't want to over-elaborate.
When I Googled the lyrics of the silly insistent song, I got another surprise.  Before the 'marbles' verse comes: 'Little man you're crying / I know why you're blue / Someone took your kiddy car away /...'  "Oh, I don't believe it," I muttered to Mary.
Later, we found the YouTube version with Henry Hall's orchestra and Phyllis Robbins singing.  But it doesn't match my Mum's.

What is it about me and Medics?

Two letters awaited me at home last night, both from the medical fraternity.

One was a tacky computer-generated page of A4, offering a free PAD screening for just £129.  You may know what PAD is.  I didn't, but the letter announced it's potentially life-threatening- Peripheral Arterial Disease.  So that bit grabbed me enough to engage my brain, numbed after three hours of tiresome M1 traffic, to grapple with the free/£129 paradox.  If you hold on, I'll explain their logic.

But first why I wasn't really impressed.  The screening would be held at a local Methodist Church, and the letter boasted that only 61 appointments are available on the day.  I'm not unduly conceited, but the idea of a life-saving screening amongst 60 other mugs herded into a random Church hall didn't all add up being specially credible. But, last year I'd undergone a very impressive hearing test through a mailshot like this, so, who knows?  The letter chirped, "ultrasound... can visualise the build-up of fatty deposits".  No, I felt I was more a victim of a scare-mongering aimed at the elderly.

I re-read it for the freebie bit.  Ah, you get a PAD screening thrown in free if you undergo three other paid-for procedures.  A snip at £129.  I quote: Heart Rhythm Screening (Atrial Fibrillation); Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening; Osteoporosis Risk Assessment.  Fearfully and wonderfully made, as the psalmist said.  Actually, last time my doctor checked me out, he declared, "That's obscene. You've got the blood pressure of an athletic 17-year-old."  I'll stick with that.

So, the second letter.  From "The Regional Department of Audiovestibular Medicine Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service (Sheffield)".  To you and me, where you get NHS hearing aids.  There followed an impressive list of staff and phone numbers.  To proceed, you need to know that last year I had an MRI scan.  How did this come about...?  How long have you got?  That free mail-shot hearing test sent me running to my GP for an audiology referral.  Basically, I'm as deaf as a post above 4 khz.  Ask my wife.  The Consultant Audiovestibular Physician poked around for a bit, and concluded, "We need to send you for a brain scan to see if we can find anything".  Seriously.

7.00am on a Wednesday found me waiting at the Department.  "Early start," I joked.  "Is this to make sure it fires up and runs okay on cold mornings?"  Nobody moved from their screens.  I swear they were checking the overnight Australian football results.  When the headphones explained the first pass was "just to see if it's working okay", an eerie feeling crept over me.  After all, this was just a glorified microwave, and you know what they're capable of when they go haywire.  With your head in a tubular steel rat trap, and shoulders jammed into a medically approved front-loading washing machine, you have to get a grip on your imagination, regardless of the effect on the brain patterns.

But then no results had come through (they'd found nothing: ha, ha, ha) until I chased it up.  Now the auspicious letter was in my hand.  "The MRI scan has not shown any problems in your ears.  However, they have shown some inflammation in your nasal sinuses which I am taking the liberty of referring to our nose specialists."  Only I can go to hospital for a hearing aid, and get prescribed nose drops.  Why is this?

One day I'd tell you about the time I went for a standard eye test and came away with bright yellow bogies.