It is Friday night (8:30 actually). Sherry and I finished up our teaching assignments today. For two days, Monday and Tuesday, I taught about stewardship. Most of those sessions were with the men who were there. Several of them were pastors associated with the church who is hosting us. The last three days the men and I talked about how we interpret the Bible. After some general guidelines for interpretation, who is the author, who is the audience, when was it written, why did the author write the book, etc. I went over several specific genres. How do we interpret the stories (narrative)? How are epistles and letters to be dealt with? We talked about the wisdom literature, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. I concluded with the way we handle Psalms and Hebrew poetry. I believe that the teaching time was well received and quite helpful. That is the report anyway.
Sherry also did her teaching with the women of the churches who were represented. I will leave it to her to report on the topics and themes she addressed. I know she talked about women who encountered Jesus, and other women in the Bible. She was loved and received several special gifts. One of those gifts was a new name. I will let her tell you what it is and what it means.
We have been asked to consider returning next Summer, August, to teach for a gathering of pastors and church leaders. There is an annual conference of the associated churches and about 150 or more attend. We are honored by the reception we have received and the invitation. I have one more assignment, preaching on Sunday morning. Then the journey home begins.
Tomorrow is a fun day. We are going to a game park. We are going with the thirteen other people who make up our team as well as a number of Kenyans who have been part of our time here. I am excited for several reasons. First, it will give me a chance to spend some time with my teammates. There have been two distinct parts to this team, the medical and the church. The former group arose early, travelled sometimes several hours, did a clinic, and vaccinations, and came back as it was getting dark. It was fun to listen to the stories and share our stories of Haitian trips. There were three of us on the church team, sometimes referred to as the non-medical. Tomorrow will over the opportunity to spend the day with them. I am looking forward to it. The other reason is I love to visit these parks. This will be our third park this year, twice in Zimbabwe and now Kenya. Not only do I love the animals, but also the flowers, the insects, and other small creatures God has made. It will be a good day.
As tomorrow promises to be a long day, we leave at 4:00am (And the church team is used to a 9:00 departure), I most likely will not have the time or energy the update this page. (Several nights we did not have Wi-Fi so I couldn’t.) Sunday is a resting and reflecting day. t will be a time when I will report on the totality of this trip. Until then, good night and God bless.