Kitale and ICM - "And so it begins."
On Monday, January 9, at 8:00 a.m., Philip Amoi came by the Snell’s home in Nairobi with ICM’s driver Francis Muthui. Off we went out of Nairobi on Route A104 West along the North rim of the Rift Valley. Cars, trucks, buses and overflowing Matatu vans filled the roadways. People walking; everywhere walking in rural areas and cities.
With side trips to the equator, a drop-in visit to world renowned miler Kipchoge Keino in Eldoret, a fly tying factory in Moi’s Bridge and a stop for supplies in Kitale we arrived at ICM Seminary’s campus around 5:00 p.m.
I was greeted by the smiling face of Bernard Chege, a thin, fit and thoughtful man who serves a the acting Academic Dean. After unpacking in the Founders Cottage where I will be staying, we joined some of the students in the dining hall for dinner.
The campus at ICM is a series of one story white concrete buildings surrounding a soccer field forming a rectangle with the east and west sides twice as long as the north and south. On the southern end are cottages where guest instructors and mission teams stay. Along the eastern side are the Chapel, the Administration building, a classroom building, the Library and on the northern end is a one room building dedicated to prayer. The cafeteria is on the west with single story dormitories for the students and a large garden where most of the fresh vegetables are grown to feed the students. In the southwest corner of the campus is a stable with five cows and two calves. This is an economic development project to produce extra income for the seminary.
On Tuesday, January 10, my class began. I have twenty-two students in my class who gather at 7:45 a.m. for worship each morning. We go until 1:00 p.m. with a break for chapel and tea. Today , after introductions, we read the whole Gospel of John out loud as the early church probably did in order to get a sense of the entire gospel. There are things that happen when you read it out loud that may never happen in a person’s devotions. People laugh when there are funny portions. Students would say “Praise God!” when something great happened in the story. It took nearly the whole schedule to read the gospel!
After class, I visited the home of one of my students, Dixon Ouma. He is an agricultural extention agent for the Kenyan Government with a plan to plant a church hnear his home. He lives with his wife and three children in a small brick home with banana trees on the perimeter and the land cultivated for a garden. A Kenyan brick home is not anything like what we have in this nation. The bricks seem to be almost haphazardly cemented together with cement overlapping the bricks everywhere. The house is three narrow rooms in a line. The living room has door perpetually open to the outside and is about 10 feet wide and twenty feet long. All the family sleeps in the same bedroom and I'm not sure how the other room is used. The oldest child, Jaquelin, was at home alone with her two younger brothers, Dixon, Jr. (4) and Isaiah (2).
Now it is nearly 5:00 p.m. here on my second day of classes in Kitale. The students are eager to learn. They have inquisitive minds and open hearts. Today I spoke in Chapel as well.Tonight I will have dinner with the Dean of the Seminary and his wife. Tomorrow, the seven person team from Colonial arrives with Greg and Deb for a three day stay. I will have dinner with them tomorrow and Saturday.
With side trips to the equator, a drop-in visit to world renowned miler Kipchoge Keino in Eldoret, a fly tying factory in Moi’s Bridge and a stop for supplies in Kitale we arrived at ICM Seminary’s campus around 5:00 p.m.
I was greeted by the smiling face of Bernard Chege, a thin, fit and thoughtful man who serves a the acting Academic Dean. After unpacking in the Founders Cottage where I will be staying, we joined some of the students in the dining hall for dinner.
The campus at ICM is a series of one story white concrete buildings surrounding a soccer field forming a rectangle with the east and west sides twice as long as the north and south. On the southern end are cottages where guest instructors and mission teams stay. Along the eastern side are the Chapel, the Administration building, a classroom building, the Library and on the northern end is a one room building dedicated to prayer. The cafeteria is on the west with single story dormitories for the students and a large garden where most of the fresh vegetables are grown to feed the students. In the southwest corner of the campus is a stable with five cows and two calves. This is an economic development project to produce extra income for the seminary.
On Tuesday, January 10, my class began. I have twenty-two students in my class who gather at 7:45 a.m. for worship each morning. We go until 1:00 p.m. with a break for chapel and tea. Today , after introductions, we read the whole Gospel of John out loud as the early church probably did in order to get a sense of the entire gospel. There are things that happen when you read it out loud that may never happen in a person’s devotions. People laugh when there are funny portions. Students would say “Praise God!” when something great happened in the story. It took nearly the whole schedule to read the gospel!
After class, I visited the home of one of my students, Dixon Ouma. He is an agricultural extention agent for the Kenyan Government with a plan to plant a church hnear his home. He lives with his wife and three children in a small brick home with banana trees on the perimeter and the land cultivated for a garden. A Kenyan brick home is not anything like what we have in this nation. The bricks seem to be almost haphazardly cemented together with cement overlapping the bricks everywhere. The house is three narrow rooms in a line. The living room has door perpetually open to the outside and is about 10 feet wide and twenty feet long. All the family sleeps in the same bedroom and I'm not sure how the other room is used. The oldest child, Jaquelin, was at home alone with her two younger brothers, Dixon, Jr. (4) and Isaiah (2).
Now it is nearly 5:00 p.m. here on my second day of classes in Kitale. The students are eager to learn. They have inquisitive minds and open hearts. Today I spoke in Chapel as well.Tonight I will have dinner with the Dean of the Seminary and his wife. Tomorrow, the seven person team from Colonial arrives with Greg and Deb for a three day stay. I will have dinner with them tomorrow and Saturday.
posted by Glenn Barth at 7:56 PM
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