in memoriam

enkijuluús
papai te nkanisa
kitalaita !

sad lamentation
our father within the church
how we’re missing him!

We have just heard from our dear brother and co-worker, Francis ole Yenko, that his father Simpano has completed his race.  He ran well and completed the course, winning his fight.  He was a faithful follower of Christ to the end.  His wife, Kabarisho, is also a believer.  Francis, of course, is an elder of the Olepishet Community Christian Church and the director of the Maasai Discipleship Training Institute.  Simpano was between 80 and 90 years of age.

Francis told me this evening on social media chat of his father’s death.  Due to pandemic travel restrictions, we cannot journey to visit him personally yet, but we had a good conversation.  While we were chatting, I (Joshua) wrote the above lamentation (in haiku form).  I also mentioned this to him, “kingar enkijuluus nagut tenebo, kake meibung ilo sina iyiook, amu kimbung iyiook osiligi osipa te Olaitoriani lang!” (we share deep lamentation together with you, but that sorrow does not hold fast to us, for we hold fast to a true hope in our Lord!)  We mourn grievously, but we do not grieve as those without hope.

Here is a fairly recent picture of Francis with his parents, Simparo and Kibarisho.

Simpano, may your memory be eternal until you rise up to meet Christ when he returns!

Karibuni

30 June 2019

Karibuni! “Welcome back!”

We arrived back in Kenya at the end of April and began to get settled the beginning of May.  We’ve overcome some unexpected challenges in re-acquiring our vehicle (which we’ve now paid for twice) and applying for new work permits.  We’ve dived into to language learning (as we’re needing to add Swahili to our Maa and Samburu).  We’ve been delighted to host guests — some of the Hausers, our good friends who serve as missionaries in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, and the Sapps, representing our support partner Crossroads Christian Church.  We’ve also hosted a number of our Maasai friends and co-workers, working together on curriculum development and planning meetings for CCBTI and DTI. 

More than anything else, we’ve been struck by the warmth, or even intensity, of the homecoming welcome that has been extended to us these first two months of our fourth term.  To read more (and for pictures), read our June newsletter(Note that the pdf is optimized for viewing online; if you would like a higher resolution copy for printing, just ask!)

We also posted a small photo album from last month.  If you missed it, check out our May 2019 photos.

 

Francis Yenko and Joshua work on editing Joshua’s next Maa language book.

first graduation! (CCBTI – Kajiado)

Sometimes you plant carrots.  In two to four months, you get a harvest.  Sometimes you plant avocado trees.  Tend it diligently, and you’ll start to get repeated harvests each year — but not right away.  There will be a few years with nothing to show for your labors.  But slow, steady growth will be occurring nonetheless.

.

Ministry & discipleship is often more like growing trees than growing carrots.  Results don’t always come overnight.  Patience is required.  Some of you may remember that we returned from our first home assignment for our second term in 2010 to discover that the Maasai Discipleship Training School had not had any sessions while we in the States.  It had a five year drought before we were able to help Francis Yenko and the CCC relaunch it in 2014 at a new campus, during our third term.  Then in 2016 the newly rechristened Discipleship Training Institute (DTI) went mobile, reaching new areas of Maasai land.  Since we began in 2010 to work to reestablish this ministry, the harvest has been tremendous.  But we had to wait longer than for carrots.
.
There was a similar story of a slow wait and long work for the establishment of and harvest from the Community Christian Bible Training Institute (CCBTI).  First the Turkana Bible Training Institute (TBTI) was transformed into the initial campus of CCBTI.  Then in 2016 we were able to help the Community Christian Churches (CCC) to successfully establish two branch campuses of CCBTI in Maasai Land.  This year sees the first graduations of the Maasai branches of CCBTI.  Today, 30 November 2018, believers gathered from miles around in Ng’atataek in Kajiado County to celebrate the CCBTI graduation of a group of Kenyan and Tanzania Maasai pastors.  The CCBTI graduation for the Ewaso Ng’iro campus is scheduled for 8 December 2018.

.

Here are some pictures from today’s graduation in Ng’atataek.  Those who are kneeling are the graduating pastor-students being ordained.  The washing of feet was a public demonstration of the nature of servant leadership.  As we are still abroad in America, Ntinga Sam Tome, our colleague and the administrator of the two Maasai CCBTI campuses, sent us these pictures.

EDIT (28 January 2019):  I just realized that I forgot to include the names of the ten graduates.  They are:  Joshua Papa Kimeshwa, Joshua Sinkira Lekoke, Nchoke Kakeu Naipenyu, Jackson Moikan Laisa, Moses Ntete Laisa, Leimaduk ole Solonka, Philipo Naisango koole, Jackson Kapaito Mayiasek, Noah Ikayo Nkoye, and Musanka Sakaya Korema.

2013–2017: An Overview

Successes and failures and ongoing challenges. During our first eleven years in Kenya, we’ve seen our share in each of these categories. In this update, we want to share with you some of our key successes from our third term (2014-2017) as we continue to work with our support partners in the work of expanding Christ’s Kingdom in Kenya.

To learn more, read our August 2018 update here.

new church plant: Oltarakwai CCC

new church plant:  Oltarakwai CCC — 2018 June 10th
photo credit: Thomas ole Pesi

Unhindered Disciple-making

Christ’s Kingdom in Kenya is continuing to expand and deepen in so many exciting ways!  …  Since our last newsletter, we have witnessed baptisms, heard of many other baptisms and new church plants by our national co-workers, planted two new branches of our Community Christian Bible Training Institute (CCBTI), and have our Discipleship Training Institute (DTI) on track to have two sessions this year instead of just one.

Our missionary team has grown during this term — we are now twelve adults and twelve children.  As part of this time of growth, we have been working on developing a new vision and strategy.  Our team vision is simple — unhindered disciple-making.  To read more, including about these pictures, here is a pdf version of our latest newsletter.

For a copy of the newsletter with better image resolution for printing, drop us a line.

site maintenance: video clips

An update of the WordPress site architecture was causing all of the embedded videos we have posted to display only the now archaic and out-dated code instead of the actual videos.  This has now been corrected, both on the video pages and in various posts.

Of special note are two new Maasai worship songs recently posted:  one sung by the students of my recent CCBTI class and one written during this year’s DTI session.  So if you haven’t seen those yet, we invite you to take a look.

June 2016 update

Greetings from Kenya!

It is a wonderful privilege to serve as a co-minister of reconciliation of Christ Jesus our Lord and friend. We would love to hear what God is doing through and around you in the place God has you. To read a sample of a few of things God is doing through and around us in Kenya and to see a few pictures, here is a pdf copy of our latest newsletter.  If you are on our postal mailing list, you should receive a hard-copy soon.

(If you want a higher resolution copy for printing, let us know.)

 

The parable of the goat

We often emphasize the giving of tithes and offerings and neglect the broader and deeper aspects of total Christian stewardship.

Christian stewardship is like a goat. Generous giving (often expressed in tithes and offerings) is the skin of the goat. The only way to have a large, healthy goat skin is to have a full-grown healthy goat. If the goat-skin is too small, or full of holes, that is a clear indication either that the goat is still immature or that it is malnourished or sick. When it seems that the giving of tithes and offerings is too little to meet the needs of the congregation, that is a clear sign that the “goat” of stewardship needs some attention. …

Read more …

holiness is what I long for

While we spent a week earlier this month in the bush with our Discipleship Training Institute, I started singing the chorus “Holiness, Holiness is what I long for …”, except I sang it in Maa and taught to the DTI students and our dear friends Francis Yenko (the DTI Director) and Moses Mashipei (the DTI Assistant Director).  It made for great campfire music, along with the song of the night-time grazing zebra, under the Southern Cross.

Here are the lyrics (see below for the audio):

esinyatisho, esinyatisho enayieu
esinyatisho, esinyatisho ninye ayieu
esinyatisho, esinyatisho, eniyieu te nanu

intayu oltai lai, intobira
intayu enkishui ai, imbelekenya
tolino, tolino, li Aitoriani !
tolino, tolino, li Aitoriani !
tolino, tolino, li Aitoriani !

intayu oltai lai, intobira
intayu enkishui ai, imbelekenya
tolino, tolino, li Aitoriani !
tolino, tolino, li Aitoriani !
tolino, tolino, li Aitoriani !

esinyatisho, esinyatisho enayieu
esinyatisho, esinyatisho ninye ayieu
esinyatisho, esinyatisho, eniyieu te nanu

 

Discipleship Training Institute

One of our favorite ministry opportunities has always been time spent with our DTS (Discipleship Training School).  In order to avoid confusion with the similar ministries of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) that use the same name, we just changed the name to Discipleship Training Institute (DTI).

We’ve just spent a week out in the bush with the DTI.  Ruth has written a delightful blog post that touches on our time there.  And check back here later for another update.

Visit our Ministry page for more details about the DTI (you’ll need to scroll down).  You can also revisit our older post, “Discipleship Training School reborn“, read the full story of that rebirth (.pdf file), or browse the “Reader’s Digest” version of that story (shorter .pdf).