Part 4: Bwana asifiwe! ("Praise the Lord!")

KIBERA, Kenya -- Each morning and evening during the working portion of our trip, the worship services at New Life Restoration Centre began with raucous praise.

It was, basically, the only part of the service for which our LEAMIS International Ministries team wasn't responsible.

The praise team at NLRC was great. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool United Methodist, and I like nothing better than hearing Lori Schuler coax beautiful music out of the First UMC pipe organ, but there's also something liberating about praise music that makes you want to raise your arms and dance in the aisles. This was that kind of praise music. The harmonies may have been a little unfamiliar, and most of the lyrics were in Swahili, but I and my teammates could still be moved and excited by what was going on.

LEAMIS is nondenominational, and the Kenya team came from different religious backgrounds, including several United Methodists besides myself as well as several other members from a charismatic background.

I'm still not certain what, if any, denominational affiliation the church had. I didn't get to hear our host pastor, the Rev. Paul Mbithi, preach, but his remarks in church and in person were always very mainstream, theologically speaking. He first met LEAMIS co-founder Rev. Debra Snellen at a conference many months ago, and they connected right away. Rev. Mbithi immediately began trying to talk Debra into sending a team to his church.

After the praise and worship team finished each night, Rev. Mbithi would briefly introduce the LEAMIS team. Someone from the team would share a personal testimony; another member of the team would make a few brief remarks about giving and call for the offering, and then one of the LEAMIS staff members would preach. All three of these components were translated into Swahili for the benefit of those church members who didn't speak much English (and to help out with any high-level English metaphors that might be difficult for someone who speaks English as a second language).

It was my job to call for the offering one evening. I was a little bit ill at ease about this, though I didn't tell anyone. It was one of the few things for which we hadn't been well-prepared in training. I wanted to make sure the people of the church understood that this was still a church offering, to benefit them, not anything that was going to fatten the comparatively-wealthy American visitors. But Pastor Paul is a firm believer that everyone needs to give -- for their own spiritual benefit, if nothing else -- and I tried to take that approach in my remarks.

The church had a simple sound system, a keyboard, a guitar and a drum set. Kylene McDonald, in addition to all her other roles, is the drummer for The Blessed, a Grundy County-based Southern Gospel group. She noted the poor condition of the church's drum set and has resolved to buy some new drum heads -- and some drumsticks, to replace the twigs the musicians are currently using.

My copper foiling workshop involved the use of solder and soldering irons. One evening, two of the church members came up to me with a couple of guitar or microphone cords that had faulty connections. I've never really done any electronic soldering in my life, but they assumed I could do it, and so I gave it a shot, with some advice and moral support from my teammate Bob Willems. I was able to reconnect the wires in both plugs, and was feeling quite proud of myself as we went in to worship that evening.

A few minutes later, as the praise band was playing, the church's power went out. Bob later insisted that my workmanship was in no way responsible and said the church members have told him that the power goes out frequently in the Kibera slums.

But at the time -- sitting in the darkened church -- I felt sure I had somehow blown a fuse or circuit breaker with a sloppy soldering job.

One afternoon, we broke up into three teams and did street ministry in the Kibera slums. A couple of church members preached, in English and Swahili, and then the LEAMIS team members in each group did a skit of the parable of the Prodigal Son. In my group, we aroused some interest but not a whole lot of fervent attention. I was narrating as my teammates were miming the skit; a gentleman from the neighborhood kept coming up to me and trying to speak to me in Swahili, as if correcting me or disagreeing with something I had said. I had no idea what he was saying and had to go on, ignoring him. One of the church members eventually pulled him aside. I never did find out what he wanted.

On other days, we conducted activities for the children of the church -- both spiritual skits and fun activities.

During one of those children's services, I had to recreate my Prodigal Son narration on short notice. I went to pick up my Bible and Kylene, who served as our team's skit coordinator, told me to just do it from memory instead. I did so, trying to keep it simple enough for the translator and the kids.

We also did balloon animals for the children of the church one day, which delighted them to no end. I was sad that Bob Willems wasn't able to join in the fun; he was outside the sanctuary at the time conducting a demonstration of the water purification system. I knew from our Nicaragua trip that Bob is a wonderful balloon animal artist, one who can make a show out of the process as well as the finished product. Bob had brought the balloons and balloon pumps, and yet he didn't get to join in the fun.

During our last evening service on Friday, Pastor Paul invited anyone who wanted prayer to come forward, and the various members of the LEAMIS team moved around praying with those who had come forward. We promised to continue in prayer for them in the days ahead, and I wrote the prayer requests of the three people I prayed with inside the front cover of my trip journal so that I could refer to them later, and in the days and weeks to come.

TOMORROW: Behold the carnivore