Worship Under Open Skies.

On Sunday July 3^rd, Samuel and I left for Isinya to visit with Catherine Maake, a pastor student of the class of 2016. Our visit came after we learnt in May, that Catherine had opened a church plant with Bethel Worship Centre, where she and her husband are pastors.

It all started one day when Pastor Patrick sensed a call from God to open a church plant in that area. He woke up in the morning and left for the place where God would lead him like Abraham. He walked round as he prayed for God to lead him and direct him to the place he would plant the church plant. Eventually he was convinced that the area he was surveying was where God wanted him to open a church. The area is about 10 kilometres from their home, and about 3 kilometres from Isinya town.

Land for Patrick as a confirmation.

As he prayed and surveyed the area, he was met by the owner of the land. After formal greetings, Patrick explained to the stranger that God had put it in his heart to plant a church there. The man’s heart was touched by the lord and he committed himself to giving out one acre of land for the church. Somehow God had graciously confirmed to Patrick that He wanted the church plant there.

Do not despise humble beginnings.

But there was no money to erect structure for the church, however simple. Pastor Catherine was blessed and commissioned to go start the church plant. In March 2016, by the grace of God, Catherine and a few ladies and children from the area had their first service under a tree. Somehow, by God’s providence, he brought an elderly lady to the church. She had been praying and asking God to bring a church nearby, for she was finding it hard to walk for more than two hours to her church. God had graciously answered her prayer by sending Pastor Catherine there.

For about four months, the members have been meeting under a tree for worship. God has been gracious and has brought many people to the church, some of whom have become members. “Sometimes it rains and we cannot hold the service under the tree. When that happens we go to that house (pointing to a house about fifty metres from the church. The home belongs to a member of the church)” said Catherine. For two Sundays she could not get to the church because a valley near their home flooded and there was no bridge to cross it. So the members had to hold the service without the pastor. But God has been very faithful, he has constantly brought people to the worship service.

Right on time for the last worship service under the open skies.

Through the donations of the church members and friends to Catherine, they have been able to raise materials to erect a simple structure for a church building. Some people gave the iron sheets, others wooden posts and others bought nails for the building of God’s house. They were looking forward to worshiping in the new structure on the 10^th of July. We had come right on time to get the glimpse of the grace to worship under open skies.

We visited the church land after the worship service and prayed in the church to be before we released the congregants. God has been faithful and has followed his call on Catherine by bringing her men and women, young people and children to become regular members of the church. The regular attendance is at fifteen now.

They have been able to raise a structure that is halfway done by the Sunday of our visit. According to Catherine, if we delayed one more week, we would have met them in a building. We visited the site and prayed with the church members and Catherine, asking God to make that church a fountain of life and transformation of the community around it.

The word preached in the wilderness

The grace of God is for sure is moving in the Maasai land, turning sinners into saints. Among the pastoralists, Christ is becoming the good shepherd. As I sat there under that tree and Catherine was proclaiming the gospel of salvation, I was wondering how one can start preaching in the open, with homesteads scattered far from where they are starting the church. In the Maasai land, since there is still lot of land unoccupied, one’s neighbouring house is approximately five hundred metres from your home. Some are farther than that. So, the homes you can actually see from under the tree are very few, some are on another valley way from the church. But soon, as Catherine was preached to the few of us that had gotten there on time, people started coming from different directions. One after the other they came and soon the chairs that had been brought out were too few for us. Some more were brought from the nearby home. I could almost see how God brought people out into the wilderness when John the baptizer was preaching along the Jordan. The field is open, with almost nothing except for a few homesteads and a herd of cows in the distance. The rest is bare, like a desert. Yet there Catherine was, proclaiming the word of God, like a voice in the wilderness calling people to the faithful shepherd of their souls. God honoring her faith and bringing people from every direction to hear his word proclaimed.

I couldn’t help but hear the words of the apostle Paul as he addressed his letter the sanctified in Corinth, with all that in every place call on the name of the lord Jesus Christ, both our lord and theirs. Christ is lord of both of those who meet under a tree and those who meet in a home, those who meet under a roofed building or those who meet in someone’s home. It is a beautiful thing to see what the lord is doing among the Maasai. Women are not esteemed there, nor are they respected. But God has raised Catherine and she is preaching the gospel of Christ to all. And this gospel is transforming many.