Mwalimu Hotel: Raising cain and following Abel

KEUMBU, Kenya -- I first met Abel Onchari a year ago.

Even though our 2005 LEAMIS International Ministries team worked in Ndonyo, the leaders of that trip -- LEAMIS co-founders Rev. Debra Snellen and Gail Drake -- had been in Keumbu for a few days before we arrived conducting a pastoral training seminar. They took us by to visit Abel and the church he pastors the day before we headed to Ndonyo. He eagerly described the work of his church in feeding orphans, showing us the church's chicken houses and gardens.

A van was supposed to pick us up at the church, but when it did not arrive Abel led us out onto the highway and we walked a mile or so up to the small collection of shops which is Keumbu proper. There, he arranged transportation for us back to Kisii Town.

T-G city editor John I. Carney, left, hands dental supplies to Jane and Abel Onchari as Carney's mission trip teammate Jim Upton looks on. The supplies, considerably more than the amount pictured, were obtained for Carney by the dental office of Jay Davis in Shelbyville. They were distributed to orphans and church members at New Life Restoration Centre in Keumbu, Kenya. [Click to enlarge]

This year, we spent our week of ministry working at Abel's church, and the incident repeated itself. The bus which carried us back and forth each day to the Mwalimu Hotel in Kisii Town was late arriving one evening. Abel had promised the local authorities that his mzungu visitors would not be out after sunset, and so we once again marched up the highway to Keumbu to find alternate transportation.

As I say, it was only a mile or so, although in the thin air of the elevated Kisii region it seemed much farther.

Young, energetic and focused, Abel leads New Life Restoration Center as if planning an invasion.

"We have a big vision for this region," he told us one night back at the Mwalimu Hotel, our headquarters.

Bob Willems, left, of LEAMIS International Ministries explains the operation of the McGuire Water Purifier to a reporter from Kenya News Service. The purifier, a U-shaped plastic tube which Willems is holding, uses common table salt to produce chlorine gas. It runs off a car battery, a common source of power in Developing World countries. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Click to enlarge]

LEAMIS works with a local host pastor on all its trips, and the four trips in which I've participated have had one thing in common: no matter how carefully the trip leaders have planned the schedule, the host pastor can always change it at a moment's notice. One day in Keumbu, Abel decided at the last minute to swap lunch and our afternoon cottage industry workshops. The word was passed throughout the LEAMIS compound, including to our team leaders, who knew nothing about it.

"He's calling an audible," I said to Bob Willems.

But maybe schedules aren't as important as we Americans think they are.

At any rate, our normal daily schedule, if there was such a thing, went like this. A morning worship service began about 10 a.m. inside the church. Following that, there was a health and nutrition workshop, during which time those of us who were leading cottage industry workshops could set up our various classrooms. After that came lunch, then our cottage industry workshops (or vice versa, as we discovered). Then we had an evening worship service in a little wooded area down the hill from the church. I hated the setting of the outdoor services, which was damp and on a slope.

One morning, a drunk had to be removed from the morning service. I had not been watching when he became disruptive; I only saw him removed from the sanctuary. I happened to be standing near a window and saw someone kick the man, who by that point was lying on the ground outside. Actually, it looked less like a kick and more like a stomp. This seemed needlessly cruel and it bothered me.

Later, in a team meeting, I heard the whole story. The man had seemed to threaten Willems; the church members had tried to give him a wide berth before finally deciding they had no choice to remove him. The man who kicked the drunk was not one of the church officials who had removed him but a bystander who happened to run up on the scene, and he was immediately chided for his actions by the church members.

New Life Restoration Centre feeds 41 orphans at Keumbu. Many have been orphaned by the HIV / AIDS epidemic in Kenya. During our trip, Willems supervised members of the church in installing a water purification system. LEAMIS purchases simple chlorination devices from New Life International ( http://www.missionsalive.org/newlife/ ), an Indiana-based ministry. (The similarity in name between the church in Keumbu and the water purification ministry is a coincidence.) The McGuire Water Purifier, a U-shaped tube about the size of a briefcase, uses common table salt and power from a car battery to produce chlorine gas. A series of four plastic drums, one filled with rock and another filled with sand, filters the water, and that combined with the chlorination process produces a safe, potable product without the risk of typhoid. (Car batteries, by the way, are a common power source in the Developing World.) The unit is remarkably inexpensive by U.S. standards, although still out of reach of many churches and communities which need it.

Godfrey Orina, a colleague of Abel's who has a church in Kisumu, is already trying to convince Willems to bring a water purification system to his community.

We had several visitors during the week, including a regional Kenyan official and two different representatives of Kenya News Service, a government-owned agency similar to the Voice of America. They seemed impressed by both the cottage industry workshops and the water purification project. Abel, somewhat understandably, was proud, and pleased to show off the process to his VIP visitors.

During our first worship service at New Life, we were introduced to the oldest man in the congregation -- who also happens to be Abel's father. He told us that his dream is for his son to one day visit the United States.

WEDNESDAY: In it for the long bar