End-Month News July 2025
Jimoharries@gmail.com
Wonderful Church Fellowship Visit
A church fellowship visit I made on 10th July was a wonderful example of the fruitfulness of my theological education ministry to indigenous churches …
After 10 miles of cycling, I arrived at the home of the bishop, long crippled by polio. He was, as usual, sat in his duol. That is, ‘man’s house’. (This bishop has three wives. Men with multiple wives typically construct a duol (some translate that ‘office’) where they can sit without making any wife jealous that he is spending too much time in another wife’s house. (Each wife has her own house.)) This duol was adorned with images of Jesus, crosses, and candles used to help remove evil spirits from people who came to him for help. (Removal of evil spirits is not totally distinct from ‘counselling’.) I prayed for this man, in the name of Jesus.
“I’m not going to the fellowship” he told me. This is probably due to his severe disability. He suggested I visit his son, the pastor to the church. I cycled up a track, to a smallish but very smart house with a car parked outside it. The pastor was preparing to walk to the fellowship. 10 minutes later we set off together. Walking together gave us opportunity to talk. I told him of my teaching across the border in Tanzania, where he (or others) could study God’s word for 2 weeks of intensive classes using Swahili, for a total cost amounting to about 60 UK pounds (including temporary passport, travel, accommodation, and so on). He is definitely interested. We discussed his church and other things.
Although our route was a bit circuitous, even the pastor didn’t know the direct route to this home, we arrived just in time for him to put on his robes, and begin the service in our host’s sitting room. Before long, about 20 women and 8 men had gathered. I must admit, I have come to appreciate what in the early days was just very noisy (with drums and cymbals) singing and dancing, that locals clearly enjoy. After some interpretations of dreams, and collecting money, I was given opportunity to share God’s word. As usual – it was a great honour to be able to do so in the people’s own mother tongue, Dholuo. My rapt audience listened intently. Most of them are very capable preachers themselves, although they typically do not relate one part of the bible to another or expound except in a very literal and immediate way. When I’d done, they had another singing and dancing session, followed by special prayers for the sick and troubled. We then all shared together in a fellowship meal, constituting tea, bread and a cooked maize/ beans mix that locals love. I left to cycle the 10 miles home.
This is a church I have visited regularly for over 30 years. Showing up just once every few months is a small contribution, yet in some ways, by God’s grace, very significant. It amounts to a demonstration of love, and a sharing, in full human frailty, a very limited message, that I trust God can use to change people’s hearts.
Second wonderful Church Fellowship Visit
I visited another church fellowship on 23rd July. (I made many visits in-between, but am only reporting on a few of the more interesting ones!) We were cramped into someone’s relatively-small sitting room. About 6 men and 25 or so women present. The highlight for many, is some extremely noisy (in UK terms!) singing and dancing, accompanied by drums and crashing cymbals that want to crack your ears open. Half an hour or so of this, with almost all of the folks apart from myself dressed in robes, mostly white, was followed by ‘business’ time. That is, collecting money for various needs of the church. Younger ladies sat on the floor, their segs stretched out before them. Older ladies and men got to sit on chairs. Two candles burn on the table at the front, with some leaves in an improvised vase between them.
I have never experienced such raucous in response to my preaching / teaching! Hardly had I launched my topic, gossip, as illustrated by that between widows, rooted in Acts 6:1, that raucous laughter and almost ‘heckling’ began! I obviously hit on a relevant issue. It seems questions of how to help, and how to arbitrate between, widows, were on the church agenda. Unknowingly, I jumped into the middle of this, telling those present that, apparently out of frustration with widows, Stephen focused on preaching the Gospel. Perhaps inspired by his realization of the damage done by empty words (gossip, complaining) amongst widows, his portrayal of the Israelites in Acts 7 was such as to have him martyred. My audience remained spell-bound as I went on with that classic theme in the Bible – the Exodus from Egypt. Who says the Bible doesn’t speak into contemporary times?
Danger in my Home Village
A murder of a local woman was followed a few days later by a motorcyclist being clobbered to death then his bike being stolen. The motorcyclist died later in hospital. Bother these killings happened within a few hundred yards from my home. Many more killings of girls and women have continued in the vicinity. All locals are distressed. Please pray for us all! … Update. As I write on 24th July, the spate of killing seems to have eased, although the culprit has apparently not yet been apprehended.
Hand to Mouth
Many people in the world live from hand-to-mouth, we are often told. The implication is that they make the money on the day that they use it to buy food for their family. If they couldn’t work that day, then there’d be no money. … When living in a ‘normal’ home in a village, I used to keep certain things in stock, i.e., buy in bulk, like maize. That way one gets things cheaper. Now that I am living in a church compound, in a house that people are used to wander in and out of, things are having to change. Locals evaluate how we are doing according to the food available, I am told. If I have it, and they need it, then some will take it. The solution? Don’t have it! Instead of buying food to keep in store for later use, the practice of the ladies here has even more than before become: buy what you need on the day you need it!
Webinar
We (the Alliance for Vulnerable Mission) put on a webinar on 24th July, that I attended. Claire Chong presented ways in which the category of ‘religion’, considered by many in the West to be a self-evident category, was very different in countries dominated by Theravada Buddhism. It was an intriguing time, providing much thought to missionaries, on how to introduce participants in ‘other religions’ to Christ.
The next month or so …
I will, God willing, travel back to Tanzania on 25th July. 26th July is to be a graduation event at the Bible school I teach at in Musoma, Tanzania. A week later, for 2 weeks, students come and classes begin. I am to teach students ‘how to preach’. The following weekend I am to visit friends in Kampala, Uganda. Right at the end of August I plan to do a cycle tour with a Canadian missionary friend. Then, I plan to be in UK and Germany in October and November.
Your prayers valued,
Jim