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.