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Published: April 24th 2008
Rev. Tony
Tony inside of the small school which is connected with the church.What an adventure we had today! I went out with Tony on the circuit while he preached to a youth council. The road there rivals (and in our opinion, beats) the stories of roads crossing rivers which my Dad told me about when he travelled around Mexico when I was a kid. We went to the church in a 1970’s Land Rover which was exactly like the one we had in the 90’s when I was a kid in Costa Rica (I may have thought it to be the same one, if the steering wheel had been on the other side of the car). The drive took about 45 minutes, much of which was along a road which would have been considered an unmaintained hiking trail in WA State. Tony and I were both sincerely amazed that the old Land Rover was not only able to make it along the road, but did not end up popping a tire on any of the crazy huge rocks all on the road. These pictures do not do the road justice. As it turns out, this area was uninhabited until about 20 years ago, and is about 6 km from the Meru National Park.
Preaching
Tony giving his sermon, while it is translated into Kimeru. So, they said that sometimes you see lions, elephants, etc. around the church area! We only saw some big lizards…
Once we arrived at the church, Tony gave a sermon to the youth. After his sermon, the Rev. James Muriki gave a one hour speech about courtship, engagement, and marriage. After his sermon, was a question/answer time. The kids wrote out their questions, and he answered them aloud so that you could be anonymous in the asking. Some of the questions were: “If my boyfriend tells me he loves me, how do I know that he really does or if he’s just saying it?” “If my wife that I marry is not able to bear children, is it ok for me to marry someone else too?” “If the wife is unable to bear children, is it ever the man’s fault?” “My girlfriend is from a rich family, and her parents say we cannot get married. What can I do?” “If I know that I will marry my girlfriend 100%, why is it wrong for me to go to bed with her?” The Rev. answered the questions as best he could, and he ended up asking for assistance from some
Youth
The youth of this circuit listen to the sermons. of the other ministers for some of the questions. We learned that the Methodist church of Kenya (MCK) is officially against female circumcision, and the church in Kenya (Methodist and others) encourages the young men to be circumcised in a hospital, rather than out in the bush (or wherever the alternative may be!). Also, the church is officially against men having more than one wife, and against divorce. A very interesting discussion indeed!
After the service, we had a meal of rice and beef/potato stew, which was given very graciously to us. Then we got back into the Land Rover and drove back to the hospital. Tony said he prayed the entire time we were in the car. I was just glad I now have a story to rival the ones I have always heard from my Dad!
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alicea
non-member comment
the roads!
Starla, now you know what we were talking about!!!! Isn't it fun :) This last summer we would just hang on to the bars above our heads and pray that we would make it up to the house and back down to the hospital. It looks like you may be traveling in the same jeep we were in this summer. There was a sticker on the back window about proper preperation...