PCM Mokoyon

Today was a busy day, made even more complicated by the need to get Scott back to Eldoret for an evening flight. Scott, Nathaniel and I spoke at 3 different churches in combined worship services. Scott spoke at the Assembly of God church near Kapchesoy, I spoke at the PCM Church in Mokoyon and Nathanael spoke at the BOC church near Bukwo.
I was welcomed warmly by Pastor Patrick Sabila. Pastor Patrick has led the church for 26 years. He is a primary school teacher by profession, but hopes that at some point the Lord will allow him to focus full time on his ministry work. When I entered the building many people were praying and they prayed with great passion. We started the service at around 10AM with testimonies. Many people came forward and talked about the ways in which God had been at work in their lives. This was followed up by musical numbers from the youth choir and the women’s choir. I was tickled by a young woman who would come up midway through each number yelping and throwing confetti.
After that the keyboard player came up to speak. As he came up, I realized that he was blind. I had not noticed this beforehand. He challenged the people to live in their anointing and to consider the power of their testimony. When he had finished all of the guests were greeted. Each one came forward to introduce themselves. This was followed up by the offering. Gifts given included a live chicken and several bags of crops.
When it was my time to preach, I was led to the pulpit by the pastor and a group of young women who celebrated and threw confetti. I spoke from 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 on the power of your testimony. I challenged the people to consider not only their individual testimonies, but the testimony of the church as a whole. When I finished we prayed for a woman in the church whose child had been kidnapped on Saturday. I was asked to pray specifically over this abduction.
The service ended with a few more testimonies, greetings and announcements. It was now shortly after 2PM. I always marvel at how short our attention span is in America when compared to other parts of the world.
Since Scott had to return to Eldoret, other travel arrangements needed to be made for Nathanael and myself. I had lunch with Pastor Patrick, John Chebures and Bon Labu. I have spent time with both John and Bon on my previous visits, so we used this opportunity to renew our friendship. Once lunch was over, John and Bon departed and Pastor Patrick and I made our way to a porch along the roadway to await my transportation.
Over the next few hours we were joined by several of the local pastors and we discussed a wide range of interesting topics. This in fact became the highlight of my day. Much of our focus was on the needs in the region. There were 2 things that were very prominent in the discussion. The first was for a need to bring the pastors together to work through some Biblical understanding of some of the challenges facing the church. The second was a need to identify and raise up a new generation of leaders to come behind men like Pastor Patrick.
About 6PM, my ride arrived with Nathanael. Nathanael was overjoyed by what he had seen during the day. The service he had been a part of lasted for nearly 7 hours and many had given their lives to Christ during that service.