Third time to Kenya

I have been to Kenya twice before. Once, briefly, on my first trip to Kenya and Uganda back in 1984 when I was a sophomore in high school. On that trip we spent a week in Kenya prior to our month long stay in Jinja, Uganda. I did not realize just how difficult a trip we took, too young to know better. I went with a group called Global Outreach, and we spent a month teaching Ugandans how to play organized basketball, and we sponsored revivals and preaching engagements as well. It was a wonderful trip for me, although the majority of students from the states swore they would never do it again. I fell in love with mission travel on this trip--and I've had the desire to go abroad ever since.

The second trip we went to Kisumu, Kenya in 1991 to plant a new Baptist church and train local pastors for a month. I went with several students and professors from Criswell Bible College. Again, I had a wonderful time (would have been better if I had not gotten stomach sick).

The first two trips are related in this way. The second trip was based on a Macedonian Call from Kenya. A young man had received a tract about the Gospel and prayed to become a Christian. He sent a letter to Criswell College explaining to them what had happened. He had their address from the tract. The only other time tracts from Criswell College had been distributed in that part of Kenya was on the previous trip in 1984. So, I wanted to go back a second time and see the results of the first trip. The irony is this: we didn't even go to Kisumu the first time--we only stayed there one night.

So, here I am planning to take another trip to Kenya, this time in a fairly controlled environment, if such such a thing exists in Africa. I am very grateful to Wayland Baptist University and the Kenyan Baptist Theological College for providing the opportunity. This is one of the reasons why I felt God wanted me to obtain a PhD: to train people all over the world for the preaching of the Gospel, and to give accreditation to the education process by having my "terminal" degree (insert your own joke here about terminal degrees.)

Because of the university location, I won't be travelling near as much as I did the last time. But I am looking forward to getting to know fellow pastors in that part of the world. Who knows? Maybe I'll meet a pastor who is working in the Kisumu area and has been impacted by the two previous trips I've been on. Now, that would be something . . . .