Victoria Diocese, Kenya Mennonite Church

The local gas station in Magunga

Wednesday, March 13, we left Nyabange and drove to the town of Magunga, a small town in western Kenya, around 50 kilometers west of the town of Homa Bay. This is Victoria Diocese of Kenya Mennonite Church, with around 10-12 churches. It is a scenic, hilly area, and in the background are the Gwassi Hills, which separate Magunga from Lake Victoria to the west. It is a more isolated area than most, with no paved roads, no running water, and electric and even cell phone service was not reliable.

Joe, Bishop Elisha Osewe, Pastor Charles Kimwamu
in front of Kigoto Mennonite Church

Pulpit built 40 years ago by missionary Clyde Shenk

We came to conduct the “training of trainers” for pastors who will train others to prepare them for church leadership. The training was scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so we planned to arrive Wednesday. When we arrived, we discovered that, in spite of our efforts to clarify, they were planning for Thursday to be the arrival day, with the actual training beginning Friday morning. But they were very gracious, and agreed to begin on Thursday with those who could attend. In all, about 25 attended the training. Some came out of curiosity, or simply the desire for Bible teaching. Others have committed to conduct training groups in their home areas.

The main church here is Kigoto Mennonite Church. The building was built by missionary Clyde Shenk in the early 1970’s, using corrugated iron sheets for both roof and walls. The Mennonite families who began the church had moved here from Tanzania in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They were originally from Kenya, but moved to Tanzania for land. When Tanzania gained independence and moved toward socialism, some of them moved back to Kenya, but found their family lands were not available, so they settled in areas where land was still available. In time, they began holding church services.

This is different from Tanzania, where Mennonite churches spread to other areas of the country as people moved to the cities for education and jobs. In Kenya, the spread was to other rural areas in search of land, less to the cities (with the exception of Nairobi).

Seminar participants in worship

In Victoria Diocese, we faced more of a language barrier than anyplace we have been so far, due to two factors. One is that Luo is the main language. Many can function in Swahili, and some in English, but Luo is the “heart language” and other languages present difficulty. The second factor is that those without higher education (beyond primary school) are primarily oral in their communication. They can read and write, but it is not a natural way to communicate. The written word just does not have the same impact as the spoken word, and it seemed to affect how well they understood the Bible. Several do not even own a Bible, because they are not available locally. To us, it raised the question of how to best present the training so it is understood. That is an issue we will continue to look at.

Ezron Ojambi, 84, one of the early members, walked daily
about 6 miles each way to attend the seminar.

Now we are back in Nyabange, Tanzania, where we expect to spend the next few weeks, working on additional study materials.

Just this update: we have been told that our residence permit applications have been submitted to the Tanzania immigration. Thanks for praying about it. We hope to hear soon whether the applications have been accepted, and then they need to be processed. In the meantime, we continue to be "tourists" in Tanzania. 

Making Lemonade

Our granddaughters, Zoe and Mykah Bontrager-Thomas,
with their lemonade stand in their own living room,
because outside is winter.

We are not really making literal lemonade, although it would taste good to have a glass. I am thinking about the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Just for fun, I added a picture of our granddaughters and their lemonade stand. 

We were invited to attend the bishops’ missions workshops the last few days of January (see the previous blog post). The main purpose for the workshop was to build vision and ownership among the bishops for missions outreach, and then they will share the material with their pastors. We were asked to put the proceedings and presentations together in a format that the bishops can use it as a manual to present to their leaders.

Now for the lemons. During the workshop, we were told that our residence permits for Tanzania had not yet been applied for (we have been here 4 months already) because some documentation was still needed, and that we should not begin leading seminars in Tanzania while we are in the country on a tourist visa. We won’t go into detail about the missing documents, just to say that we had submitted them but they apparently got misplaced.

We had scheduled 2 training seminars for the 2 weeks following, so suddenly we had 2 weeks unscheduled, available for whatever. As it turned out, we decided to go to Nairobi, where we needed to check in with a couple people anyway and we would have a quiet place to work on the missions manual.  So that is what we did. By Wednesday of the second week, we had finished the manual and took it to a local copy center to make bound copies for the bishops. It includes the presentations, and we wrote and added a study guide to help with presenting the materials to others.  So the manual was the “lemonade” that came from the “lemons” of our permits being delayed.

Workshop participants gather for prayer.

The presentations included biblical foundations for missions, Anabaptist perspectives on missions, the role of African churches in missions, and practical pointers on engaging in cross-cultural missions. Our prayer is that the workshop and the manual will energize the churches to follow Jesus’ command to “preach the gospel to all peoples.”

Another bit of "lemon" came after we printed the manual. I took the finished product on a flash drive for them to copy. When I got back, I discovered a virus had gotten into the flash drive and corrupted all the files. Apparently, the virus came from the copy center. But at least, I had the hard copy. However, I did a Google search and found a way to recover the lost files, and it worked. So grateful!

IMMEA Workshop 2013

Richard Showalter presenting to the workshop

IMMEA stands for "International Mennonite Missions of Eastern Africa," an African Mennonite mission agency formed about a year and a half ago by Mennonite bishops from Kenya and Tanzania Mennonite churches in a joint meeting. The purpose is to build awareness and carry out cross-cultural missions on behalf of the African Mennonite churches.

Bishops in discussion: Dominic Opondo, Stephen Mang'ana,
Moses Otieno, John Nyagwegwe

We just returned from attending a 3-day workshop on missions for the bishops. We met in Mwanza, the second largest city  in Tanzania, located on the southern end of Lake Victoria. Eight bishops attended the workshop with presenters Reuben Ezemadu, a Nigerian church leader and mission administrator, and Richard Showalter, American mission administrator and international missions consultant. Other attendees were Aram DiGennaro, EMM's regional representative in Eastern Africa, and we, Joe & Gloria Bontrager as theological education consultants. We were invited to attend as "observers," but after arriving we learned that means more than just being there and watching. We were asked to lead reflection sessions and to develop the workshop material into a "handbook" for the bishops to use in sharing the material to their local pastors.

Bishops Philip Okeyo and Christopher Ndege 

Aram DiGennaro and Bishop Hellon Ogwada  

Even the chairs felt the "weight" of the issues!

It was stimulating to reflect on the information given, and then to sense the enthusiasm of the bishops for reaching out to places "least-reached" with the gospel, defined as those where less than 2% are evangelical Christians. This includes areas within their reach throughout Kenya and Tanzania. According to the information provided, there are 36 "least-reached" groups in Kenya totaling nearly 4 million people. In Tanzania, there are 39 "least-reached" groups, totaling nearly 56 million people. Besides these, we heard reports of nearby villages that have no Christian witness and where many of the people have not heard the biblical story, but are open and seem ready to commit themselves to follow Jesus when they hear the gospel message. It seems God has prepared them and opened their hearts.

Participants gather in a circle for prayer at the end of the workshop.
From left: Bishop Moses Otieno, Pastor Eli Wang'ombe, Bishop John Nyagwegwe,
Bishop Philip Okeyo, Bishop Dominic Opondo, Presenter Reuben Ezemadu

The bishops expressed eagerness to return to their regions and present the vision to their pastors and congregations. One of their highest priorities is prayer as they discern the best way to move forward. They have limited financial resources, but willing people and open opportunities, and they are seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit in finding the best way to move forward.

Siaya Diocese, Kenya, Training of Trainers

We have just completed our first "Training of Trainers" seminar. The seminar was in Siaya Diocese of Kenya Mennonite Church, northwest of Kisumu. We met at Majiwa Mennonite Church. It is an unusual, 8 sided building, with the sanctuary in the center and classrooms around the outside. This church also operates a pre-school for local children to prepare them for entering elementary school.

Standing with some of the leaders who attended the Training of Trainers seminar, Majiwa Mennonite Church in the background

There were 10 regular attenders, including bishop Moses Otieno. The purpose of this seminar is to prepare pastors and other leaders to lead training groups in basic leadership training. Many of the lay leaders, and some of the pastors, had no training in Bible knowledge and leadership skills, yet they have been placed  in leadership positions because there is no one else to lead the new church fellowships. The trainers are those who have had some training in the past and have experience as a church leader.
The seminar introduced them to the concepts of training and to the curriculum they will be using, which are 1) life of Christ and 2) Mennonite history and faith. They were especially interested in the lessons on Mennonite history and faith. We heard comments such as, "Now we know what the name 'Mennonite' means," and "we have never heard that before."

Meeting with future leadership training "trainers"

At the end, we asked them to describe the training group they will be starting, and they described groups to be held in 10 locations, with possible attendance of 6 in each group to 40 in each group. They have a lot of vision and enthusiasm to start their groups. For us, this represents answered prayer. But we continue to pray that they will follow through and the training program will prepare many for church leadership.

Fishing boat on Lake Victoria, near Homa Bay, Kenya

On the way back to Tanzania, we took a shortcut that includes a 45 minute ferry ride across part of Lake Victoria west of Kisumu. It was a pleasant ride and a chance to relax before continuing the journey on to Tanzania. Again impressed with the natural and cultural beauty of East Africa.

Transition

We are trying to move into a different phase of our work. Since we arrived near the end of September, we have been visiting the Mennonite church locations, talking with bishops and pastors, listening to their vision, and trying to distill what we are hearing into a leadership training plan that will strengthen the churches. That was the first phase and we decided to use the first months, to the end of 2012, for that. Now we have done it. So we are moving from the exploration phase into the implementation phase, and trying to adjust our thinking in that direction.
In summary, the plan we are proposing is to prepare local pastors to lead training seminars for their lay leaders. We are committed to work in the background in a "capacity building" role so the program will not depend on us or other persons and resources from outside donors. In the past, when missionaries left, too often their programs also stopped eventually, because they depended too much on outside expertise and funds. We were told, "We want a program so that, when you leave, we can carry it on." So one of our priorities is to keep it as simple and "grass-roots" as possible.
The Mennonite churches have vision for evangelism and church planting, but they lack people with training to put in leadership in the new churches. So that is the need we are focusing on first. Some of the subjects they would like to focus on are Mennonite history and faith, discipleship, Bible study methods.
We will begin with "training of trainers" workshops for the pastors, and we are scheduling them in the various dioceses (the Mennonite churches in East Africa is organized in dioceses, each led by a bishop). The focus is on basic, entry-level Bible study with training in discipleship and leadership. As we have presented the plan to the leaders, they have all said, "this is what we need." We will begin with the first of these, in a sort of pilot program, on January 21 in Kenya, with others to follow in February.
So we feel like we are about to begin what we came to do, even though we are still working to develop materials. Books and printed materials are too expensive for many of the people in rural areas, so we are developing most of our own materials, using the Bible as the main textbook. Recently, we have been thinking about the need to provide materials in Swahili, especially Anabaptist-oriented, and we are considering a special project to develop a translation team to make some of the key books and materials available. On our recent trip we had a request for a Swahili translation of the "Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective" by a pastor who has read it, and that started us thinking. Several times we heard concern that the younger leaders are borrowing from other traditions and denominations, and therefore a need for more awareness of our own tradition.
There is a spiritual struggle as well. Some of the churches face a need for revival, to move beyond a focus on organization to working and walking with God in the power of the Holy Spirit. So as you pray, think of the training programs and those who will benefit from them, pray also for the present church leaders, for sensitivity to God's Spirit.

Morogoro

Morogoro is a small city a couple hours drive west of Dar es Salaam. The Mennonite church in Morogoro is in the process of building their place of worship, as many buildings are built in Tanzania. The first Mennonites in Morogoro were from northwestern Tanzania where the Mennonite church started in the 1930's, and had moved to Morogoro for jobs. That is the way many of the Mennonite churches started in the cities throughout Tanzania, and even today, many of the churches in the cities are mostly people with roots in northwestern Tanzania.

Morogoro Mennonite Church

When the Mennonites  were given a plot of ground several years ago, they put their building plans on hold and built to serve the local community instead. They built a computer lab to offer classes to local youth, a classroom where they offered sewing classes, and a preschool. They soon discovered church attendance was increasing with the increase coming from the local area.
Later, they began to build their building, which is now under roof, but not yet completed. The pastor, Michael Rubingu, is native to the local area and relates well with the community.

Children playing on the grounds of the church-sponsored pre-school

We also enjoyed the hospitality of cousin Mary Hershberger and her husband, Dave Kraybill. Dave is on the staff of Sokoine University, through an arrangement with Ohio State University, where is a professor of agriculture.

Pastor Michael Rubingu, his wife, Gloria Bontrager, Dave Kraybill in front of the church

Christmas in Dar

We are in Dar es Salaam, the largest city and capital of Tanzania. Actually, several years ago they tried to move the capital to another city, Dodoma, but that was only partially successful. Dodoma is the official capital, though. And it is warm here, current temperature at 6 pm is about 91 degrees. It feels good to stay in our hotel room, which is air conditioned. As I am writing this, I hear the Muslim call to prayer. 

Last week we were at the Mennonite workers retreat at a conference center just outside Nairobi, in Kenya. It was good to meet others working with MCC, mostly, and a few with EMM. We had a speaker who talked about transition and transformation. Life is always changing, even when we like the way things are now. He made a comment that "being touched by God is not the same as being transformed by God. Transformation is a process that comes from a lifetime of obedience." 

Overall we are doing well, being received well everywhere we go. It helps that we have previous experience and many that we did not know before have heard our names and seem able to trust us. Since we came in September, we have been mostly traveling around visiting the various church locations and talking with the bishops and pastors about their leadership training needs. We have one more bishop to go, in the city of Dodoma, where we will be next weekend. Then we will get back "home" around January 2, near the town of Musoma. In mid-January we will begin training seminars to begin to implement the program we have been developing and proposing. That will be done in each of the Mennonite dioceses in both Kenya and Tanzania, so we have plenty to fill our schedules for the next several months. The training seminars will be 3-4 day events mostly with local pastors, who will be encouraged to begin having training sessions with their leaders and congregations. 

Christmas here is not so commercialized but there is a little of that. Still, we have been able to avoid most of that, having a mostly quiet day. It has been refreshing to focus on the true meaning of Christmas without the distractions that so often come with the season. This morning we attended church with the Mennonite pastor, in whose home Beth stayed when she was in Tanzania with the EMU semester abroad program in about 2000. It was good to meet them and thank them for providing hospitality for Beth. 

God bless all of you through the Christmas season and in the New Year.