Day 37: Mavuno Church

Today was a Sunday and so of course we went to church. This day marked the 5-week marker; Brian informed us that we would actually only be Kenya for another 12 days and would be home before we knew it. Today, Brian brought the GP team to Mavuno Church, an urban church that was founded by Oscar Muriu, one of the speakers at Urbana 2009. Most of us on the GP team had spent the last three Sundays serving in rural churches, so many of us were interested in seeing what a church in Nairobi would be like. We were pretty surprised. The church was set up in a large tent that probably fit a good thousand or so people. They had a enormous stage, stage lights, crazy sound system, DVDs for visitors, etc. They had a worship song about soccer, and a sermon about witchcraft, illusions, and good versus evil. And I kid you not: they even showed a trailer of the 7th Harry Potter movie.

Maybe it's because I was raised in a Baptist church or had just spent the last three Sundays in Weru, but I walked out feeling like I had just been to some sort of concert or entertainment event. I wanted to talk to someone about what the heck just happened in that service, but Brian must have read my mind, because he explained to us that we shouldn't be critics of the church. He told us that the church reaches out to the residents of Nairobi in the best way it can. It's not right or wrong, but just different.

Later on, we went to a Massai market to do some souvenir shopping. At last, we could put our bartering skills to the test. It was fun afternoon where we could just have fun, watch other tourists shell our ridiculous amounts of shillings for stuff, and see how much we could lowball people to get the best prices. I spent the afternoon hanging with Mike, one of my teammates from Michigan, and getting to know him better. I also spent the afternoon laughing at him whenever the Kenyan merchants asked if he was Pakistani or Indian (he's half white and half Chinese).

I think I realized that at this point in the missions trip, there wasn't much more time to let God reveal what He wanted to show me. Part of me just wanted to go home, but the other part just wanted to serve God wholeheartedly. I was in part distracted by thoughts of seeing friends and family again while the other part of me was already planning how to integrate what I had learned in Kenya into my American life. I just prayed to God that night that I would remain in the present and that my eyes and ears would be seeing and hearing what God still had to teach me. Would I just be just as "transformable" here in Nairobi or wherever we were going to be as I was in Weru.

Outside Mavuno Church

Inside the church

The Massai Market