March 2020 ACTS Africa Kenya Trip
What Happened? Covid-19 Happened.
What happened is not at all what was planned or expected. Very few nations were spared the harsh realities of Covid-19 globally. Hardly anything rolled out as expected for billions of people and millions of enterprises globally.
I want to begin by expressing heartfelt gratitude for so many who’ve prayed for ACTS Africa over the past year or less, knowing what we believed God had called us to accomplish in East Africa during our inaugural trip this past March. Please don’t stop praying! Add to that our gratitude for many who shared the ministry passion in financially tangible ways. Before our inaugural trip on March 9, the first two of the three 2020 trips were fully funded through your generosity. If you were among those contributing, again, please continue! If you weren’t, you can begin by clicking here.
Trip Number Two to Tanzania has been postponed until 2021. It has now been replaced with a trip to Western Kenya on October 11-22. Our prayerful intention is that all the opportunities to which we initially committed will be fulfilled in 2021 [Taveta-Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda]. All the wheels are turning to make sure we’re ready when the world opens up again.
Back to the first question. What happened?
After serious discussions related to Covid-19, the inaugural team – John Rushing, Julio Arriola and Doug Burkhart – moved forward with the plan and departed as scheduled on March 9, arriving in Nairobi the evening of March 10. We took the 4-hour SGR Railway trip to Voi on March 11 to begin the first 3-day conference in Mwatate. From the time of our US departure on March 9 until our arrival in Voi on March 11, Covid-19 had mushroomed in Europe and the United States faster than most of us could have imagined.
Overnight, Julio and Doug were left with no choice but to return to the USA the following morning due to professional and medical concerns, respectively. Pastor Samson and I bid them farewell at the Voi train station on March 12. They made it home safely and without incident. God is good!
I stayed. All the pieces were in place for two conferences in Mwatate and Taveta, as well as outdoor evangelistism crusades in both locations. March 12 – First Conference Day: Pastors and church leaders arrived as we convened under several outdoor tents as the crowd was too large to meet in any local church building. The news of Covid-19 had traveled to this rural area of southern Kenya and concerns were beginning to emerge. By the end of day two, the local county government issued a mandate that shut down all public gatherings of 50 or more people beyond Saturday, March 14. That effectively terminated the second conference to be held in Taveta the following week.
At this point, the writing was on the wall. I had to get back to my wife and my family when I still had the opportunity to do so without being quarantined away from them for weeks, perhaps longer. I barely made it out of Kenya before international flights were halted. Upon arrival in Boston en route to Houston, I couldn’t believe how our world and our country had changed.
So, that’s some of what happened. But there were wonderful things that happened in those three short days I spent with pastors and other spiritual leaders in Mwatate. Let me summarize, and the images you see will tell the rest of the story.
- Over 200 attended the Mwatate Power of Change Leadership Conference!
- Over 200 received their certificates of participation on Saturday morning, March 14.
- Dozens came to know Christ at the evangelistism crusade on the only date it was allowed.
- I met with the Pastors and Bishops and local authorities of Taveta to consider plans to return and complete our mission efforts there at some point in the future.
As this pandemic passes and our world begins to resemble what we knew before Covid-19, the doors will open once again. Planes will begin flying. Countries will open. We’ll resume some reasonable levels of normalcy. Our pastors and church leaders will still be there in East Africa. And we will go. As soon as we can!
