Madera!
Traveling Friday morning from Eldoret to Madeya, we mistakenly took a terrible ‘short cut’. We thought is was only a few kilometers long, but turned out to be over 25 kilometers. The road was so rough, it almost destroyed our cars. We did find out later that it had managed to destroy the CV joint in Richard’s small Toyota, but more on that in a minute.
When we made it to Madeya, we found absolutely nothing we had planned, was going to come about. The battle begins. What we did find was our wonderful overseer Gilbert and his family, opening their hearts and home to us all.
The next morning Gilbert’s family was busy with household chores when we arrived. Hauling the water, drying the Maize (Kenyan corn) and cooking a great breakfast of chai (Kenyan tea) and mandazies (Kenyan donuts). Ummm good.
Richard and I decided the problem with the car was indeed, a destroyed CV joint. We sent word for a local ‘mechanic’ to come, who, upon arriving, exclaimed… “You called the right man! I am the wheel hub doctor”. Sure enough, after he had traveled to another small town because the electric had gone off in Madeya, he returned and fixed the car in two hours, only charging us a whopping 800 shillings (8 American dollars).
Shortly afterward Richard, Nguge and Jonathan left for home to oversee their Sunday gatherings. Richard called me later and said … on the way home, they had stopped by another group of people who want us to come and begin working with them. Things are beginning to take on an exponential feeling.
Gilbert, our overseer in Madeya, and his wife Beatrice are some of the sweetest people we know. Beatrice is certainly a wise woman who has built her house on the solid rock. Relatives, neighbors and church members were in and out of her house all day long and the fellowship of Christ was evident everywhere. Her children were helpful, friendly and content to play with their expensive volley ball – homemade out of plastic bags.
We had come to spiritually build up the Body of Christ and construct a gathering place for our Madeya brothers and sisters. For months we had gathered resources and workers from our other churches in the Nakuru area, and were eager to build. Brothers and sisters had left their homes, work and had traveled many miles to help our Madeyan brethren. I was very, very proud of them.
Although… we had no idea the problems we would face, we persevered and overcame all obstacles. Next post … the challenges and rewards of putting up a meeting place!