May 11-May 14
Monday we
awoke ready to head toward Garissa to start our survey trip. We left our
room in Nairobi before the sun came up to avoid the Nairobi traffic. We were in
Garissa town by 11am. The drive in was great. The road form Nairobi all the way
to Garissa is very smooth. We started to see signs of the Orma an hour before
we reached Garissa and the farther we got away from Nairobi the hotter it got
and the terrain changed very rapidly. We
did have to change a tire in route to Garissa.(Repair # 4 of the trip)
When we got
to Garissa we checked into the Almond Hotel. It only cost us $40 a night and
that included breakfast. I will not lie and say it was a dump or that we were
roughing it. The hotel was very nice and even had A/C in the rooms. Believe me
we were grateful every nigh to have a place to rest and recover. After we
checked into our rooms we went to town and began to drive around and see what
we could see.
On the map
Garissa looked like a big town but we were able to circle around the town and
through it in about 30 minutes. Thank the Lord for Google Maps it works great.
We decided that we would look for one of the churches that had a sign board in
town. We drove in the direction of the sign and got down inside of town and
ended up finding a different church than what we were looking for, but none the
less a church called Agape Church. Pastor Fred welcomed us inside and we were
able to have our first meeting.
We
introduced ourselves to Pastor Fred, shared our purpose for being in Garissa, and
then proceeded to ask him some questions about the area. He gave us good information and enlightened
us a little to the spiritual condition of Garissa town. His congregation is
composed primarily of workers from various parts of Kenya who work in Garissa
town. He himself lives on the other side of the river in a village called
Madogo.
Pastor
Fred shared with us that Garissa town is primarily Somalis then on the other
side of the river near Mororo and Madogo is composed of Orma, Munyoyaya, Warde,
and Malakote. His church is hoping to start a school to reach into the
community, but currently they were not reaching the locals. He shared that the
Somalis were hostile toward Christians and when a Muslim converts to
Christianity they must leave the area or not publicly profess because they
will be killed. He said there was an underground church in Garissa but their pastor
had been killed in 2013 so he was unsure of the status of the believers.
Another valuable
piece of information from Pastor Fred was the number of churches in the area.
He said there were around 33 churches in the area but that only 6 were actually
in Garissa Town the others were across the river. He said there was a Pastors Association that met every Thursday. He gave us the contacts of two of the
pastors to include the Chairman of the Pastors Association. We prayed with
Pastor Fred and thanked him for his time and for sharing.
One of the contacts
that Pastor Fred gave us was with Pastor Eliud of the Africa Inland Church. We
called pastor Eliud and went by to see him. The AIC Church in Garissa was
attacked in 2013 and 17 people died and more than 50 injured when terrorist
threw a grenade in the church while the church was meeting for worship. Pastor
Eliud was not the pastor when the attacks occurred he was the one who came in
afterwards. He was pastoring in his home area of Mwinigi and felt that God
called him to Garissa. He and his wife accepted the post after much prayer.
Pastor Eliud began
our meeting by sharing the story of the attacks that took place in 2013 and his
calling. He also told us about the most recent attack that took place at the university,
which is a quarter mile from the church. He said he and his family locked
themselves in their house and could hear the gunfire all day long. The church's
compound is not a walled compound so they are very exposed and Pastor Eliud and
his family live in fear because of the history and the most recent attack being
so close. Pastor Eliud’s resolve to follow the Lord even in light of the
recent attacks was inspiring.
Pastor Eliud shared
that his congregation was people from other areas in Kenya that were in Garissa
working also just like Pastor Fred and the Agape Church. He did say that since
the university attack attendance has been cut more than in half with people
being afraid and many that had left town. He said that the same thing about
Muslims that get saved in Garissa, they either leave or are “silent” Christians.
He did mention to us about an underground church in Dadab. Pastor Eliud said
that many Somali’s say that they know the Christians are telling the truth, but
they can’t profess they’re saved out of fear.
Pastor Eliud also
told us that the church is only allowed to worship on Sunday’s from 9-12
because the government has restricted them. There are guards posted during any
gatherings and if the services run late the soldiers rush them. He said the
government officials are Muslim so they are sympathetic to the Muslim
population. He also shared some of the
speculation about the university attack and investigations the government is
doing into the head officials of Garissa and their part in the university
attacks. He said that we were not welcome or safe in Garissa Town, but that on
the other side of the river in Mororo and Madogo we would be welcome and that
Christians have more freedom there.
Our time with
pastor Eliud was sobering and challenging. It was sobering to know that
Christians had died in the very building we were standing in and challenging to
see Pastor Eliud and his wife’s faith to continue the ministry. Pastor Eliud
had a sweet spirit and was very helpful. He has only been in Garissa for the
past two years and they have been two years of turmoil so we had to take that
in to account with all that he said.
We went back to our
hotel after our meeting with Pastor Eliud because we had to be in before 6:30pm
due to the government imposed curfew on Garissa Town. The curfew has been in
affect since the University attack last month. We were able to make an
appointment for the next morning to meet with Pastor Joseph Mwema who is the
pastor of Church on the Rock and the Chairman of the local Pastors Association.
We got his contact from Pastor Eliud.
On Tuesday May 12
we met with Pastor Joseph at Church on the Rock. After our introductions
and sharing the purpose of our visit to Garissa pastor Joseph shared a little
about his back ground and how long he had been in the area. He actually grew up
in Garissa. His father was in the government and later he was in the government
but had returned to Garissa as a pastor in 2001. He was able to give us some
history about the area as well as how he saw the current situation.
He confirmed some
of the things we had already heard about the underground church and it’s pastor
of 22 years being killed in 2013. He did add that he believed there were at one
time 70 believers in this underground church but since the death of the pastor
they no longer meet. He shared like the others that if a Muslim converts to
Christianity they are killed, must leave, or be “silent” Christians. Pastor
Joseph also shared with us the term “Gala” and about the funeral ceremony that
is done by a family for a person if they convert from Islam to Christianity.
They are considered dead to the family and are chased away if not killed
literally.
Pastor Joseph also said
that his congregation is the same as the other two churches we visited and was
composed of workers and people from other parts of Kenya working in Garissa. He
said they had converts to Christianity from the community but they had to leave
immediately after converting. He shared that his church has never been attacked
because they are near the Administrative Police camp so there are always
soldiers around the church. They also only meet on Sundays with guards present.
The attendance at the church was nearly half what it was before the university
attack. He said if believers come and see no guards they turn around and go
home. He also said that it was not safe to openly walk in town carrying a
Bible.
Pastor Joseph said
that the first church in Garissa was a Pentecostal church that came in around
1982. He spoke a little about the attack at the university and about a meeting held
last week among the Christians and Mulsims in Garissa. He said the Muslim
leaders say that those that attacked were not Muslim but Pastor Joseph said
that most Christians do not believe them. He specifically said you could trust
no one in Garissa and that they live in fear waiting for the unexpected. He said it was impossible to know who was Al
Shabab and who was not so to consider everyone as Al Shabab. He estimated that
80% of the Somalis have guns in Garissa including Muslim teachers.
We asked him about
Americans and if we were safe or welcome. He said that when the Somalis see
Americans they assume we are spies, Christians, or CIA and they do not like us.
He said it takes many years before being accepted or for any type of
effectiveness. Pastor Joseph himself and many of the other pastors in
Garissa town moved across the river to Madogo after the university attacks
fearing their safety. Pastor Joseph also shared the speculations that officers
received money before the university attacks happened. Corruption is a big
problem in the area.
The other contact
that we got was for Pastor Sammy of the Upper Room Baptist Church on the other
side of the river in Mororo. After our meeting with pastor Joseph we prayed
with him and thanked him for his time then went to visit Pastor Sammy on the
other side of the river.
Pastor Sammy met us
on the other side of the river in Mororo then we went by foot interior to his
church. He has been in the area since 2008. He is working with the Kenya
Baptist Convention. It was very clear that by crossing the river we had
entered a very different enviroment to that of Garissa town. Pastor Sammy said
that they had more freedom on the Mororo side of the river and they did not
have guards posted during worship time. He said that he walks freely in Garissa
and does not get threatened or anything. He said that it is true that Somali’s
hate Americans, but that we were safe because they usually do not randomly
attack it. It is well planned and specific when they attacked. He also assured us
that the hotel we were staying in was safe because it was owned by a Somali and
Somali’s would not attack a place own by another Somali. However he did say
that any big group of Christians is a potential target so there is always a
threat.
Pastor Sammy gave the
same testimony of his congregation that we got from others, that his church is
composed of people from other areas of Kenya and not the locals. Although he
did have one man attending that was a Somali but that was it. Pastor Sammy said
he had ten preachers in the church that he was training and that one thing they
all needed was training in how to reach Muslims.
We asked Pastor
Sammy a little about the Dadab refugee camps. He said that he has been there
several times with a man from Texas who comes from time to time. He said there
is a church in the camps but it is made up of Ethiopians not Somalis. He said
right now with all the tension it is not possible to go to Dadab but before he
would go from time to time.
We had lunch with
pastor Sammy then he took us to Madogo to meet Pastor Katiso who is the
secretary of the Pastors Association. Madogo is also the area where most of the
pastors from Garissa town live. Pastor Katiso was probably our least helpful
pastor. He really was just trying to sell us his vision and get sponsorship
more then help answer our questions. He had a falling out with the Anglican
church in Garissa town so he was trying to go out on his own to establish
Emanuel Worship Center and a school.
Pastor Katiso wants
to start a school to reach the kids so that in ten years they will make a
difference. He told us about Life Ministries (Campus Crusade ministry) that had
a school that many kids went to and how they were having some success but not
much because they allowed Muslim kids to have Muslim teaching in the school.
When we asked him how successful other schools had been he said they have not
but his would be different.
We walked to Pastor
Katiso’s land where he wants to build a building and some day a school and
prayed for him. It was not a bad visit just not very profitable. Pastor Katiso
was the least educated of the pastors we visited and least helpful. After our
visit with pastor Katiso we passed by pastor Sammy’s house to greet his wife
and pray for his family.
Pastor Boniface
stressed the difference between Somali’s and Kenyan tribes. He also expressed
the need for teaching and unity to reach the locals. He said the key to working
in Garissa is integrity and sticking with it. He was obviously perturbed with
all the pastors that have left Garissa because of the security issues. He said
there were way too many pastors and missionaries on the other side of the river.
He said the opposite of what some have told us about working in Garissa town.
Everyone else has said Americans could not live in Garissa or work, Pastor
Eliud even had told us that you would not be able to rent a home because
Muslims would not rent to you.
Pastor Boniface was excited and passionate about the gospel and the
need in Garissa town. We really pushed him with our questions because he was
telling some things that were so different from the other pastors. In an effort
to defend what he was saying he said that Joan had worked and lived in the area
for many years and that there was a missionary family that lived across the
street from him that had been in the area since 2008. This was our first time to
hear of American missionaries working in Garissa. He said that the missionary
was named Jason and was doing farming along the Tana and that he lived in
Garissa with his family. Pastor Boniface visit was very profitable. He
confirmed the work of Tobias the Tanzanian missionary working on the other side
of the river also. He said he would send us Jason’s contact when he got home. Another
big contact that we got from Pastor Boniface was Pastor Bocha’s contact. He is
an Orma Christian that is trying to reach Orma. Boniface gave us his contact
and told us he was living in Garsen.
We prayed over pastor Boniface and were a little unsure what to
think because of the conflicting things we heard from him but we knew if we
could talk to Jason it would help us clear up some of what we were hearing. It
was a bit odd that no one in two days had mentioned Jason but we still had no
contact for him. Later in the evening Pastor Boniface sent us the contact for
Jason Witt who is an American missionary working in Garissa. Clayton called Jason
and he said he could meet with us on Wednesday and would love to even show us
his farm. We originally planned to pull out of Garissa on Wednesday, but we could
not pass up meeting Jason and talking to him so we stayed another night in
Garissa.
Thursday morning we met with Jason and shared with him the reason
for our visit and asked him what he could share with us about Garissa. He told
us he and his wife and four girls lived in Garissa town along with another
American couple with their six month old. They are part of Bethany International. His home church was a Southern Baptist church but he did not
come to Kenya with the IMB but through
Bethany where he had received his missions training. He and his wife have
worked in Garissa since 2008. Jason has worked with many of the churches in the
area to include pastor Fred our first contact in town(their relationship ended
on a bad note).
Currently Jason has a farm 10 kilometers interior from Mororo along
the Tana River. They also run a clinic once a week on the farm. Jason was given
30 acres of land to farm and has been in process of developing 10 of the acres
for farming the past 4 years. Jason is not a farmer but is learning. He is
working with the Malakote, Pokomo, and Warde. His hope is to use farming and
the clinic to build relationship and bridges for the gospel. Jason and his
family have hosted 16 different interns for 16 month internships through
Bethany international as a part of their degree program. He is obviously one of their outposts for training.
The other couple working with him were former interns that have returned to gain
experience with hopes to move to South Sudan in the future.
Jason was able to take a lot of the information we heard and filter
it for us from an American, christian perspective. He said they
have not had any problems living in Garissa. They have evacuated several times
for a period of time then returned. They understand the dangers of the area but
Jason said it is where God has called them. I asked Jason what he attributes
his family's longevity to in such a harsh environment. He said first of all the
Call of God, second his wife’s support and belief in the calling, third his
organizations leadership, and fourth the internship program that provides
fellowship.
After lunch we went out to Jason’s farm and took a look at what he
is doing near the river and met some of the men he is working with. Jason has
established himself in the community and is obviously respected. In the local
language he is called by a name that means, “Beard”. Recently an Assembly of
God group came to see the area and Jason agreed to show them around and they
ended up buying Jason a tractor and massive diesel pump for his farm. That was
just two months ago so it was awesome to see these new tools in action.
We really enjoyed walking around the farm and hearing about Jason’s
vision. He has a heart for the people and a desire to reach people with the
gospel. He is trying any way he can to make that a possibility. After visiting
the farm we came back to the hotel and met Jason’s family and the wife and baby
of the other family Jason is working with. It was nice to visit with Jason’s
wife, Rebekah a little to hear how she does living in Garissa especially with
four little girls. Rebekah has a heart for the ladies and a passion to help and
educate. Female genital mutilation is a big problem among the tribes and
Rebekah along with others she works with in the community are trying to help
educate and stop this practice among the young ladies.
Jason was such a kindred spirit. We enjoyed our visit with Rebekah
and the girls as well as meeting their ministry partners wife Emily and her
little one. Jason has promised to come see us on the coast in June so I am sure
we will learn even more. Jason again provided us a filter and clarification of all
that conversations that we had while in Garissa. We went to bed Wednesday
praising God for an amazing time in Garissa.
Thursday we hit the road after breakfast heading to Bura and Hola.
We heard that the road was bad but we had not idea! We traveled about 5 hours
from Garissa to Bura. It was crazy! The road conditions were the worst I have
ever seen in Kenya. We stopped off in Bura to see the town. It is built around
a huge irrigation scheme sponsored by the government. This town has no churches
in it. Back in 2003 all the churches in Bura were burned by Muslims over the
arrest of a Muslim cleric and have still not been rebuilt. There was a
spiritual void in the area for sure.
We just past through Bura to go down to see the Tana River. We drove
deep interior crossing deep water in the Land Rover and finally reaching a
cluster of huts next to the river. Some ladies from the village took us to the
river and showed us around a little. They told us about the Hippos that are very
dangerous and eat all the crops at night. We even got to see the hippos in the
river. It was a cool little detour in our trip to see how Malakote folks live
along the river.
After our river drive we passed back through to Bura and had lunch.
Then we went on to Hola. The road from Bura to Hola was no better than the road
from Garissa to Bura. Brother Chad rode on top of the Land Rover a few times to
get some relief from the roads and being squeezed in the back seat. We got to Hola
and found our hotel. I got the hotel contact from Kleopus. It was not as nice
as the Almond in Garissa but it was still good. We got our rooms then we
noticed that the radiator was leaking water on the Land Rover.
Clayton and I spent a few hours with a half drunk fundi taking out the
radiator and putting it back. We could not repair the leak but we did clean it
up and put some stop leak in it to at least get us back to Malindi. Thankfully
it worked and we had no problems. ( Repair #5
for the trip)
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