During the daily debriefs at the Children’s outreach in Mt. Elgon, one man stood out. He gave the reports of his class in unadulterated Swahili, much to the amazement of the group. He used some words like, ‘mshike mshike, mawaa, bugtha’ and many more that some of us had not heard in a while and only thought they belonged in inshas. But they were not just words thrown in sentences to sound good, there was flow and cadence and order in his speech that was immaculate.
It’s not like when someone brought up in some upcountry village trying to speak Swahili with the coastal accent and you just want to close your ears. No, this guy had it. Did you know that Continue reading The Broken Vessel→
Sometime in 2017 Rev. Wandii Rukorio, a missionary pastor who was based in Northern Kenya preached in our church. He talked of the great work that God was doing in Northern Kenya extending to South Sudan. It was quite interesting to hear about the intrigues and unique challenges of evangelizing to the ‘unreached people groups’ in that area and how God was working everything out.
But one statement stood out for me and I have been pondering over it ever since.
He said that he had purposed in his life that he would not do those things that the world can do.
He went on to talk about how people in South Sudan, when they heard that there was a missionary in their midst, came to him in a delegation, to let him know that they did not have a hospital, a school and good roads.
Opinion is colossally divided about what we have come to know as ‘gospel music’. There is a big concern that most of the new school kind of gospel music is not really about the gospel. Many argue that it’s about performance, showbiz, fame and money. The old timers, especially in church are particularly disturbed, they don’t understand the ‘perversion of the sacred’ that is going on. Even people who vaguely understand Christianity have an opinion on this.
But I think we need to take a step back and think about the definitions, which is where we got it wrong in my opinion.
In all other professions people go about their business without being labelled Christian, gospel or secular except in music. There are no gospel lawyers, gospel teachers, gospel doctors, secular engineers or secular writers. But we have gospel musicians. Why? Continue reading Gospel musicians or musicians who sometimes sing gospel music→
The Friday night when President Uhuru Kenyatta was announced the winner of the presidential election was a conflicting night for me. Even before the certificate was given, I heard screams and cheers of celebration on the street outside our apartment. The celebration became louder once the final announcement was made. I went to the gate to witness the celebration and it was intense.
I have never seen so many people on our street at night, most of them in red. They shouted, screamed, sang, made all kinds of noises to make sure the message was heard, that their candidate had won. Motorbikes, lorries, matatus hooted as they were driven up and down the street. I did not realize that I live in a Continue reading Kenyan or Christian first?→
Is the future written? Is our life’s path decided or do we have a say in it? For most of us, being at the right place matters, we are always at odds of whether we are where we should be.
But there are times in life when you know that you know that you are at the right place. One of those times for me happened in the summer of 2010, when a trip to a small town in the middle of European Russia changed my life. It is definitely one of the ‘wow’ moments of my life and that is why it’s fresh in my memory as I write it seven years later.
First of all babushka is grandma in Russian. Russian grandmas have to be some of sweetest people you can ever meet. They somehow have food to Continue reading Babushka in the spirit→
