En route for Migori we stayed two nights in Nairobi and met Gathoni Hamilton-Foster, head of Alpha Kenya, and picked up 20 copies of a kiSwahili manual which is a combination of the green Alpha Manual and Questions of Life. This is the only Alpha material in kiSwahili, the primary language used in Migori. We also took 150 “Why Jesus” booklets, 10 “Questions of Life” 10 green Alpha manuals and 6 purple Leaders’ Guides. Gathoni planned to send us one of her staff to forge a link with the Migori church.
Migori Worship Centre was founded in 2000 by Bishop John Okinda. Since then it has been transforming this town of 60,000, located near where Kenya and Tanzania meet, with access to Uganda. The 1000-seat church is packed on Sundays, and Bishop John sees the need for a 5000 seater. Half-built are a pastor training centre, and an orphanage for the many AIDS orphans in the district.
Bishop John had visited Ottawa in November 2004 at the invitation of Harry and Vinita Baker, and it was on that trip that he caught the vision of Alpha. He had spoken at St. Paul’s Anglican, Kanata, where we worship, and spent an evening at our home with other guests (when Laurie-Ann served him the traditional Kenyan dish sukuma wiki), and we had reinforced the Alpha concept. He had invited Meaghan Kidd, also from St. Paul’s, and Alanna Box to Migori for three months to help him prepare paperwork and records for his AIDS orphanage, and he then invited us to Migori in July to be speakers at his “All People’s” conference scheduled from12 – 16 July. He wanted us to introduce the Alpha course, and we suggested expanding the scope to include coaching his pastors and lay leaders on how to run the course.
On our arrival in Migori, Bishop John told us that we would have three hours teaching time each morning at the Worship Centre, and a further two hours each afternoon at the Migori Showground where he was running a crusade, where the audience would be different but with maybe 20% crossover at both venues. This gave us more scope than I had dared to hope for in terms of time speaking. In addition, he and his pastors would be preaching during the late afternoons at the crusade, and in evening services at the Worship Centre. We had been asked for financial help in several areas, including Alpha materials, feeding the conference and crusade attenders, some of who were expected from distant locations, and also kiSwahili Bibles, and bicycles to help pastors get to the people other than on foot. Thanks to the remarkable generosity of friends in Alpha and in our church, we had been able to meet all these requests, though the air fares we funded ourselves.
Laurie-Ann had seven hours of tried and tested teachings she has used on SOMA missions in Kenya. We had 23 hours available, so that left 16 for Alpha. My plan was to cover 12 of the Alpha talks first, and then have three hours on the principles and practicalities of running Alpha, and one hour for Alpha Kenya. Everything would be translated into kiSwahili, sentence by sentence.
We were extremely impressed by how Meaghan and Alanna had won the hearts of everybody, with their bubbling personalities and broad smiles. They had been particularly effective with the children and youth, including orphans who would in the future live in the orphanage.
Our first exposure to the Worship Centre was the 3-hour Sunday service on 10 July. In his introduction, Bishop John mentioned that Laurie-Ann had served him sukuma wiki in Canada, and it had touched his heart! Each of us gave “African greetings” to the congregation, and were warmly welcomed.
At 5:30 am on the first morning of the conference, July 12, we were given another reason why our plan to use Alpha in a new way might work: “Morning Glory”. Pastors and lay leaders were gathered in the church for two hours of prayer, praise and preaching. How could we have imagined we could prevail without major prayer support?
So we got started that morning at nine. We tried to simulate the Alpha “recipe” by starting each Alpha hour with a praise song (I accompanied L-A on guitar). The talk followed, and with the translation time, we finished with 10 minutes small group discussion. For the first session I needed to teach them about Alpha discussion group style. I asked if someone had a question. Someone did. I then asked if anyone else had something to add. Then a third – by which time the original question had been answered. After my second talk, I asked them to form groups of 10 and discuss among themselves in the same way. It worked – without discussion group leaders. We know it worked because after 10 minutes we had to insist they stopped discussing. The audience of lay, pastors, and a brace of bishops all seemed to have benefited from Nicky Gumbel’s teachings.
One reason it went down well (I believe) is that while the people get plenty of fiery preaching, and loudly, in this environment, some had not received the basic logical underpinnings of our faith in detail, and softly, such as “Who is Jesus?”, and “How can I be sure of my faith?” From my personal perspective, when first I took Alpha, learning these basics, which I had never before been taught in a systematic way opened the door to understanding why I should believe.
Laurie-Ann’s talks from her SOMA experience (Christian unity, Friendship evangelism, Evangelism by love and commitment, Ministry of lay people, Christian growth, Return of Jesus, and Christ and culture) added additional perspective and a different voice, which augmented the impact and reduced listener fatigue. The whole Alpha course in four days is quite a challenge for listeners. For reasons I can only put down to the power of prayer I did not find it tiring as the teacher.
By the afternoon of the second day we were already up to the Holy Spirit “trilogy”. I had decided to do the first two talks at the showground, and the third at the worship centre so that both audiences could learn more of the Holy Spirit. I included the gifts and fruits of the spirit in the third talk: “how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?” At the end of it the power of the Holy Spirit was almost tangible in the room as we prayed with individuals to rededicate their lives to Christ and receive spiritual gifts. Laurie-Ann received a word of knowledge for an elderly man, that he would bring the word to other elderly people, and we prayed for his health that he could do that.
The next afternoon at the crusade was also a powerful time in the Spirit, as I taught “Does God Heal Today?” We prayed with many who came up for healing prayer, for several of whom Laurie-Ann received words of knowledge. The elderly man from the previous day testified publicly that immediately after we had prayed with him a long term ailment had “fallen away” from his body. He was dancing in joy that afternoon.
The three hour session for leaders on how to run Alpha is material I am practised in, and this audience of lay leaders, pastors, and a couple of bishops received it very well. They were being taught to fish, rather than just being given a fish. Towards the end of this, Fred Omondi arrived from Alpha Kenya as we had expected, and for the rest of our time in Migori his contribution was crucial as we cemented the Alpha organizational story and forged an Alpha bond between this distant community and Nairobi. Fred at 22 is a motivated proactive mature Christian with all manner of leadership skills and gifts.
For parts of the music ministry both in evening services at the Worship Centre and at the showground, we had been invited to sing, and because I can play electric guitar, several of which were always available, Laurie-Ann, Meaghan, Alanna and I delivered a selection of western praise music. Their favourite was “Trading my Sorrows” with kiSwahili inserts of “Neo Bwana” for “Yes Lord”. The Migori Worshop band played reggae style tuneful repetitive loud accompaniment to teams of very enthusiastic singers which was a great draw to the local people who couldn’t help hearing it at the showground.
On the Saturday afternoon, Fred and I were taken to Migori prison, where for three years Pastor Peter Kebaso Onkangi has provided prison ministry. I was able to speak to 450 inmates, most of whom are Christians and joyful in the Lord, as are most of the prison guards and the Superintendent, as a result of Peter’s ministry. This prison feels more like a church, and they call their superintendent “Bishop” Martin.
I estimate that primarily through the showground crusade, there were between 50 -100 new Christians that week. This included one prison warden, several policemen, and an ex-soldier who gave a powerful testimony in church our first Sunday and repeated it at the crusade. Several times we were introduced to people who had come to Christ the day before. The primary goal of the Migori Worship Centre is to bring as many people as possible to the Lord and the evidence of their success is all around them. It is my prayer that our contributions will help them in their goal, and from the encouragement and feedback they were never slow to give, I believe they will. I was told by one man that we had been more than missionaries; we had become very close to them as friends.
On the final Sunday, both Laurie-Ann and I preached (as well as Bishop John) at the regular 3-hour service packed with more than 1000. My text was Rev 3:15,16, and I told them that had St. John been talking about their church, he would never have called them lukewarm, - but hot! I invited any who may not have surrendered their hearts fully to the Lord to come up after the service for prayer with us, and five young ladies dis exactly that. How I would dearly love our Canadian congregations to witness the pure joy in the Lord that we saw day after day in Migori. It was like Jerusalem must have been on Palm Sunday.
After the service, we accompanied seven to the river for baptism. There in a setting resembling the Jordan, Pastor Peter baptized them, including Gilbert, prison warder. The image of them each being immersed in such a setting will stay with me a long time.
In Nairobi on our return home, we reported to Gathoni Hamilton-Foster, with Fred as our enthusiastic witness, that a model combining Alpha teachings with principles and practicalities, leading small groups and ministry, can work very well in a short term mission setting. I do believe the talks must be done live unless local language video versions are available and the target group is TV oriented, neither of which was the case here. This means that anyone with good experience at Alpha course leadership, and certainly any Alpha advisor, with a heart for the great commission, could do it. It was my first mission trip, though I leaned heavily throughout on Laurie-Ann’s experience. Is there any more important work to be done? Alpha could be a crucial tool for this work in the future.
We want to thank all of those AFR subscribers and ARM supporters who supported us in prayer for this mission, and thank them for their patience while the ARM office was closed during our time in Kenya. Your generosity was appreciated so much by our new dear friends in Migori. There is enormous potential at Migori Worship Centre for an increase in the Christian harvest, given the funding. The completion of the orphanage and the pastors training centre will proceed as funds arrive from supporters and people hearing about what has already been achieved. This fall a large youth conference is planned when new young workers for the Lord, like Fred, will undoubtedly receive the Holy Spirit in their lives. The organizer of the youth conference, Pastor Boniface, asked us specifically to see if we can encourage financial support for it.
Reference: For a detailed journal of our Migori mission, please visit alpha.ncf.ca/migorijournal.html
Tony Copple is the ARM webmaster and Laurie-Ann is ARM’s secretary in the national office. Both are Alpha advisors in Ottawa and attend St. Paul’s in Kanata, Ontario.
