The Trip:

The trip went really well. I was kept very busy doing a lot of administration work, working with street children, visiting a school and even doing some preaching! In Tanzania, there were twice as many people that attended a bible study conference (organised by Living Hope) than last year! Living Hope also started a new Bible School in Kenya and the interest from pastors was overwhelming! In the evenings, we were part of a crusade in Nairobi. Many people were prayed for healing from terminal illnesses, and at least 65 people became Christians over four nights. I also had an adventure in Kisumu when I had to be guided through a monsoon to get safely back to my hotel room.

Leaving

My Dad has been working closely with a half Kenyan man "Nick Wassunna", and he has been a great blessing to the ministry. Nick picked us up on Tuesday night and we met up with the team at Gatwick Airport. There were myself, my Dad, a couple from East Grinstead (Val and Nigel), and Pastor Peter Ali from Buildestone in Suffolk. They were all a lot older than me, and I was to learn lots from them. At some point in the trip, each one was mistaken to be my parent(s). The overnight flight was good and we all even managed some sleep. My only concern was that I had forgotten my "Yellow fever" certificate. I discovered this just before boarding! If you do not have this, they could send you home or even keep you in quarantine before injecting you again with the vaccination! Well, I was praying that this might not happen.

We arrived on the Wednesday morning (3 hours ahead of British time) and fortunately there was no one guarding the health passport desk. Thank God! Unfortunately, there was a visa tax to pay to enter Kenya.

So we arrived in Nairobi, and Bishop Stephen Kiguru met us. He drove us to Arusha in Tanzania for our first mission. I felt excited with the long drive. There were flocks of zebras, antelope and donkeys along the route. The road would eventually lead to South Africa! We got passed the border with ease into Tanzania after filling in a few forms. It was frustrating to have so many tribal women around our car trying to sell us various goods there, though! One lady would not let us go and pleaded that we should give her at least something. She was not too pleased, but we gave her a tape of the Christian gospel.

It was sad to see such a dry area in need of water, in comparison to my visit to Uganda in the summer. The animals had little to graze upon. My first impressions were that it was similar to Uganda (with big Coca-Cola advertisement boards and people carrying baskets on their heads). We stopped for lunch, and this is when one of my scariest moments came. I went to use the toilet, and I felt something against my back. I thought it was a few flies, but then there seemed to be more of a them pelting against me! I started to run back towards the car, only to realise it was only sudden hard rain within the African climate.

Arriving in Tanzania

We arrived at 3.30pm, and we unpacked in our hotel, which was situated next to the conference building. The hotel was a very good standard compared to the living standards of the natives and I was very content. I was squashed into a room with my Dad and Peter Ali. We were taken to a church, where we would be taking the evening services for the next few days. The church was the size of a small classroom. There were benches, a small pulpit and a wooden cross at the front. There were many children too. We introduced ourselves, and Peter began by giving an encouragement from "1 Kings" and my Dad preached about Jesus being the King of our hearts. People were prayed for healing and then we ended the day at the hotel with a good meal.

The next day, after a good breakfast, I helped Nigel and Val to register all the pastors coming in for the conference. There were about 100. It was challenging to record all their names and addresses with the language barrier, but an interpreter helped! Peter and my Dad preached all day upon Colossians and Haggai respectively. In the evening, I shared an encouraging reflective word upon "the Lord is my Shepherd" in the church. My Dad then preached. That evening, I stayed up late to write-up the register for the conference in alphabetical order.

Friday came. It was good to see the team functioning so well. Many of the pastors did not understand English and so registration became difficult. People could not find their surnames under their alphabet letter! So I changed plans and just got them to come and write their names! The leader’s conference went well, and I was asked to lead a youth meeting for a separate seminar. I taught about the book of Malachi, after studying it at University, as well as for an essay this year! In the evening, I gave another encouraging reflective word upon the "Lord’s prayer". We had to walk through the church and I felt comfortable walking through the streets as a distinguished white person. I felt very warm after the church meeting, because the people were so grateful for our teachings. They wanted to give us something back, and so they did a great thing and gave us encouraging words of scripture and prayer in return. They said they wanted to give us something that would last forever! That evening, three people re-committed their life as a Christian and four were prayed for healing. Two testified to being healed.

On the Saturday, I registered the pastors in successfully with an interpreter. I even got them to mark the days they were here. We managed to bless them by giving out bibles to senior pastors and evangelists. They also gave Peter, my Dad and Val a clothing material as a sign of acceptance. Val and Nigel were even given a stool. It was a good farewell, but it was uneasy responding to those in need. There were many requests for bibles and financial help.

The afternoon consisted of a long journey back to Nairobi. The border was again quick and easy and the journey was pleasant. There was a lizard, and there were donkeys and even camels on route. There was even a slight rainbow, which fell short into a heavy cloud. It was a joy to see rivers flowing with water again, after being dry for months! We then broke down in the middle of the highway between the Tanzanian border and Nairobi. None of us were mechanical, but there was something wrong with the accelerator. Peter tightened something inside the bonnet with a piece of wire, and that held the car until Nairobi. We arrived in the Christian Guest House in Nairobi to clean up.

We then met up with Nick Wassunna’s parents in a very nice hotel and shared good fellowship. It was a contrast to the environments that we had just been to, because the food and the hotel were so good! It was encouraging to see the Wassunna’s being very much at home and comfortable in Africa. Despite the great troubles, Kenya is a special and welcoming place, where people enjoy their lives.

Sunday came and it was a joy to see the guitar that I had taken. It had been stored since I arrived at Nairobi, in a local church. I just love to have a guitar to help me relax. My Dad preached in this church for the morning in "Buru Buru", and I shared a brief testimony with about 250 people. I was then later taken with Peter to another church in "Dandora" to share a testimony and Psalm 8. This was a poor area, and kids surrounded our car before we got in. The church consisted of about 300 people all cramped in together. The church was fortunate to have sufficient instruments. We left with kids everywhere again. One kid looked especially poorly and he was asking Peter for something, and his condition was hard to ignore in your heart.

We then left to visit one of the worst slums of Nairobi, where we would be doing the evening crusades. We visited a school set up by Nick Wassunna, and led by "Pastor Christopher". Dad and Pete preached to prepare the locals for the crusade. This was the most packed church that I had been to. About 60 people were packed into a small classroom. We gave some gifts of clothing from England. The kids were so happy and excited about even a smile or a wave from us.

As we drove along that day I felt safe. The markets were dirty and full of basic things to sell, such as live chickens. It was amazing to see many numbers of churches. We went back in preparation for the next day, which was to be one of the longest.

Monday. Up at 5am! Peter and I had a plane to catch. There was a contact (Pastor James) in Kisumu (near Lake Victoria), and my Dad said that he would send some people to preach. I had just prepared a short sermon upon "The Lord is My Shepherd" for the evening. We found the airport (eventually!) and we left our friends to commence the "Living Hope" Bible school of Kenya. Poor Nigel and Val had got up at 4AM, thinking that we needed to leave at 5am.

The flight was on time and it was good. Kisumu was a beautiful "green" place full of hills, the lake and wildlife. We waited for James, and he soon arrived with friends. One was a former orphan who now taught at the school. We went into Kisumu to check in at the hotel. Kisumu had lots of services and seemed to be a prosperous town by African standards. The roads were good too. The hotel was not great - there were cats running around the corridors and we had no toilet seat, but the rooms were clean and comfortable. We had to wait a good 15 minutes for the taxi driver to drive us to the village. In the meantime, there were lots of people trying to sell us goods. When the taxi seemed full enough, we went to the village. The village was full of simple mud huts. The classrooms were very small and cramped full of children. Each one just had a small blackboard on the floor. Our white faces and our cameras fascinated the orphans. We were taken to James’ hut for breakfast. We sat in comfortable chairs, but it was amazing to see chickens and even a duck wonder in and out. There was also a very thin cat, because nobody was in a position to look after it. To my surprise, they had prepared a crusade for me all day! My first slot was 11.30-12.45! I preached upon Malachi in detail within the open air. I happened to have the music of Matt Redman’s "Holy Moment" song and I related that to Malachi’s call for purity. Somehow, I spoke for the whole time, with plenty to say after lunch!

As guests, they had slaughtered a duck for us. They produced a plate full of duck and rice! I was not too hungry, but I ate as much as I could. We were blessed by their best food, and it could have been literally more than these people get to eat in a week (I’m thinking here of a part of an Indiana Jones film). Anyway, it started to pour with very hard rain outside and so I could not preach outside. Instead, I was given an hour slot between 2.30-3.30PM at the adult meeting with Peter. I concluded my talk on Malachi and words kept on coming from my mouth. I never thought that I was one to speak for a long time! This was good (Thank God!), and someone even asked for my notes! I thought "notes??? I don’t make notes". So, I need to send some notes out to Kisumu! I was then summoned to visit the school, because they had a song for me. After this, they wanted me to give them a word. So, I ended up telling bible stories from Noah to David to Jesus. There was still time in school and it started to rain hard outside. So, despite not having the greatest voice in the world, I sang to them lots of English songs. They were most amused by the "wanna see" bit of "We wanna see Jesus Lifted High".

The rain became a monsoon and it had been raining hard for 2 hours. The teacher told me that it would not stop for another two hours. This floodplain was flooded and over a foot deep. I was stuck in a mud hut, but I decided to go back and find Peter. Two natives carried my bag and shoes and they even let me use their floppy shoes! I walked across and I slightly scraped against a wire, I was bitten a few times and I eventually found the main meeting hut! The most annoying thing was that I was wearing jeans. I just could not fold them up so that they would stay up! We were given Kenyan tea and the evening crusade was to be postponed. People were rejoicing because of the rain, that Peter happened to pray for that day! They had not had good rain all year. We then had to trek through the floodplain back to our hotel. This was a half an hour walk! I was thinking "God don’t let me come back here again!" However, deeper inside I had this feeling of a shepherd guiding me in safety and I knew that the safest place was where God wants me to be. So here!!!! One native guided me through the whole way. He told me how my father had prayed for his wife to give birth and how, despite hardship, the couple had a child. I had earlier seen the baby and it was called "Richard Brunton". This is the second child in Africa to be named after my Dad that I know of. At least four natives were present carrying our things and they even had an umbrella for us.

It was a real adventure. There were strong river currents, where we had to hold hands to get across. There were lots of sudden drops in ground level, and even groin-height levels of water where we were piggybacked across. We got to the main road and took a completely unsafe taxi home to the hotel. We discovered, when we were in, that the doors did not shut properly! The car needed to be hot-wired before starting too! We got to the hotel and thanked the guys for their support. They had to get back in all this! We were so happy to be in a warm hotel despite it’s standard!

The meal was okay and I shared good fellowship with Peter before bed. I was so glad I did not bring my guitar that day!

The next morning, we had to be up early again. After breakfast, James and his wife, Rose met up with us with three others. The area was very wet to go to, and two children were also just rushed to hospital with malaria. The area was very badly hit with malaria, with its proximate position to Lake Victoria. James shared his needs, which was primarily food for the village. Yesterday, we had seen them pour out small cups of beans and rice for the children. They also provided plans for two new buildings (a school and an orphanage). They also would love to have a keyboard and an amplifier. We gave James a gift from England and he was blessed. We were driven back to the airport and had a good farewell. Peter is considering bringing a youth team, in the summer, to work at the school from Suffolk. I need to decide too if I should take part in this.

The return flight was smooth and I began to plan ideas on how I could go about working with street children in Nairobi. We were taken from the airport back to the church in Buru-Buru in Nairobi, after being stuck in a huge traffic jam. I was so pleased to be back with the team. After lunch, I went with Val to visit the local street children. It was a very dirty area with rubbish dumps everywhere! I had to wait for Val to arrive in the car, and so I began teaching the kids different styles of clapping, as well as Basic English. We sat them in a "communal big shed thing" and began to give out two slices of bread and squash. The kids loved it. Val taught the kids "123 Jesus loves me, 12 Jesus loves you", and they liked it. I tried a song too, "Deep and wide", but it didn’t seem to work! So Val taught them about Noah’s Ark and God’s salvation plan for mankind. Val had a boat, which helped them to visually learn too. We had promised the security official of the area that we would be bringing T-shirts. So the word got around to cause a problem. We had to give them out one by one in the shed, but lots of children became excited! Unfortunately, so did some of our African helpers! They began to try the T-shirts on too! So people were grabbing at T-shirts. The security guard found it hard to control the situation. We had to leave the area, because it was becoming unsafe with so many children grabbing for T-shirts.

We then visited another slum area for the evening crusade. Six people became Christians. Then there was a call for someone with a terminal illness, and someone bravely stepped forward. We prayed for him as a team, and I had a sense of so much power as the man fell to the ground during the prayer. We do pray that he was healed. I was then able to eat and refresh myself in the evening. I had a good quiet time, playing the guitar, before bed.

On Wednesday, I woke up and I was taken to see where the Living Hope TV programmes were broadcasted from in Nairobi. These programmes are of my Dad preaching. They are put on at good times during the day too. The people were friendly, and especially when they knew I was "Brunton’s Son"! The lift went very fast (irrelevant point!) and it was good to see the mass and variety of Christian music used on the radio.

I then returned to the Bible School, where I helped to register the pastors in. I then started to prepare a 21-page cartoon story based upon Moses for the afternoon. After much prayer, we decided to return to the slum and fortunately there was a lot more organisation. Kids came from all corners to show us a picture they drew of Noah’s Ark, after we gave out a crayon and piece of paper the day before. It took a long time to give out bread and squash this time, but it was organised as children got into line. Due to yesterday’s havoc this was the last time! I told them my story with my pictures and I reminded them about God’s salvation plan and it went well. Prizes of a crayon and another piece of paper were orderly exchanged for their Noah pictures. But it took a long time and we were in that congested, hot shed building. It was good to be out and it was again hard and slightly intimidating telling the natives that we had nothing more to give on the way out of the slums. However, two children had asked one of the helpers how they can know more about God and this will be followed-up.

In the evening, we returned to the crusade again. The kids were stuck to the doors of our car again! People could listen to the crusade from everywhere. There were people on the tops of flat buildings, around street corners and the market place. There were even children playing on the tops of rubbish dumps. 18 people responded to the gospel that evening, (12 men, 4 women, 2 children). Every time a gospel response was given all the kids always respond too. About 100 kids put their hands up in the front row, and so it is hard to know how many of them wanted to become Christians too. There were also around 10 people that responded to prayer for healing concerning sexual diseases. The sermon had included the issue of wrong sexual relationships.

That evening, we were able to see another complete contrast to the slums we had entered. Our British Airways ticket allowed us two nights in a four star hotel, and so we saved this for the final two nights. The hotel was very rich and we were also invited to the Wassunna’s house for dinner. We had a very good steak meal provided by one of their two servants. We had the guitar to give away, but we did not know who to give it to. So we left it with the Wassunna’s, and so it is to be stored for "Living Hope" Crusades etc. The only time the guitar was really used was to teach a few pastors some basic chords that day.

I woke up on the Thursday morning after having a lovely shower and a cooked breakfast in the hotel. Nigel was unwell following a stomach ache and so I was able to sort out all the registering that day. The registering was not too demanding that day. One pastor wanted me to come and preach at his church sometime too! A church security guard was very encouraging to me and he told me how he thought much good work had been accomplished with the bible school. Before the crusade, we left to see the school that Nick set up. This is a school that needs a lot of work and we are praying about how we can support it. Text books were one expressed need at the time. The living conditions were very poor, and it was the same place where the crusade was. The crusade was good again. 17 people became Christians, and 1 person responded for prayer to be healed. We went back to the hotel for a good meal - it was ostrich in mushroom sauce that night! The driving was absolutely crazy on the way out of the crusade as always. Drivers just don’t look! The biggest bully gets the space in the traffic, red lights do not necessarily mean stop, and people jump on the backs of trucks for lifts!

Finally, it was the last day. The morning included registration and I also had a talk to prepare on "The Names of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit". I introduced the names and verses to look up (as it was the Bible School), but I also gave a word of encouragement too. In the afternoon, we divided into groups to obtain feedback concerning the Bible School. It was very positive. There were also many suggestions and requests for the Bible School that we need to pray through. For example, providing more teaching and more materials. We finished the school with worship and prayer for each other. There are almost 100 interested in being committed to the Bible School.

Our final mission was the last crusade. 24 men and women were saved that night. 1 lady also came forward concerning a long illness and mothers were prayed for with sick babies. I went to talk to the children (that had all put their hands up to be saved again!) and I took some photos. It was amazing to see the joy from the roar of excitement that sounded when they saw my camera flash! We left for the airport and met the Wassunna’s again. They had come to pick up their car that they had let us borrow for the week in Nairobi. They told us that the place of the crusade was one of the worst areas of Nairobi! It was amazing that we had been okay as white people. Only once did someone kick our car, and that kick was only a non-aggressive brush against it!

The flight home was good and we shared good fellowship before departing. So I’m home and fine now and I’m getting used to our English weather again!

God Bless
Phil


 

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