Elder Darrel Chambers' Journal of Africa Trip

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All is
well with me in Kenya. I am greatly enjoying the natural and Spiritual
blessings of the Lord in this country far from home. The natural
beauty of this land is more than I imagined. The weather is surprisingly
pleasant. The Lord's grace and providence is abounding. We have had
very good and Spiritual meetings and the congregations have been very
responsive. They sing beautifully and with great joy. Many are
sickly and some afflicted with birth defects or show the signs of polio.
Yesterday, we visited a man with prostate cancer and he was
regretting that he could not attend the services that were just next door. He
was bedfast and very weak; but, he struggled to set up with help just to
speak a few words and to have prayer with us. Today, we visited a family
who lost a 16 year old son to Malaria just two days ago. Bro. Martin got
the word while he was traveling with me. He had visited the boy named
Fold, just the day before and thought he was improving. Fold and his
parents are active members in the First Primitive Baptist Church of Kisii
Kenya and Elder Martin Onyoni is his pastor. The family and church members
gathered in the yard of the family this afternoon and they asked me
to speak a few words of comfort from God's word, which I attempted to
do. We changed our schedule today to accomodate a visit with this family
and I am glad we did.

Earlier in the morning we met with this church and were joined by the congregations of two other churches in the nearby area. The small room (apx 20'x20') was filled to capacity with about 125-150 people. It appeared that more than half of these were under the age of 15
and about 40% were under the age of 10. I spoke on Heaven and tried to
encourage and provide hope and comfort to this congregation that had
lost a precious young member. It is late and I have much to do to prepare
for the preachers meetings that begin tomorrow. I just wanted to let
everyone know I am doing fine and enjoying the rich blessings of God. I am
blessed far beyond my comprehension and I thank the God of glory and our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ for His abundant mercy and grace.

The Onyoni family and others really appreciate the gifts that were
sent and I appreciate the support of those who helped bear the expenses
for this trip. Please keep these precious people of God in your prayers.
If the trip were to end tomorrow, it was well worth the effort. I look
forward to almost 2 more weeks and ask for your continued prayers.

Blessings,

Darrel Chambers

Monday, March 28, 2011

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All is
still well and we are greatly enjoying the blessings of the Lord. I have
much more strength than I normally do on my trips to the Philippines
because the travel is easier, the weather is milder, and I am getting a full
nights sleep. I did find one mosquito trapped on the inside of my
mosquito net this morning and he was gorged on my blood. But, I never
found a bite or a whelp. I am on malaria meds so I am not concerned.
I spray the room (with a powerful insecticide that kills everything
immediately and makes the sprayer gag), I spray my clothes and myself
with deet filled mosquito repellant, and we use a mosquito net. There is
lots of sickness and death among the church members and their families, so
I am extra precautious. The eyes of many of the church attendees look
sickly and many of them are very frail and thin, especially the men. Most of
the women appear very healthy and are generally larger than the men (not
necessarily taller).

We had a good meeting with several preachers (some not yet ordained)
this morning. We had very good question and answer sessions and some basic
doctrinal teaching as well. The hotel where I am staying furnished a
nice conference hall at no charge. We purchased lunch from the hotel for
all the preachers which was good. I ate something that looked and tasted
like turnip greens. Brother Martin said it was not turnip greens or Kale
(which they grow everywhere and is a main staple), but he did not know
the name of the green. He said that several American preachers had gotten
sick after eating this, and only Elder Paul Blair had tolerated it.
Well, 8 hours later I am still fine, so I thank the Lord for even these
small blessings. He is so merciful to me, I cannot thank Him enough.

This afternoon, we traveled up a steep mountain road that the 4 wheel
drive pickup was not able to pull the load of preachers up. We had to
stop and let most of the preachers get out and push to help us up the
road. But, the extended cab pickup was loaded even in the bed with
preachers and supplies. The road was not too bad because it had dried
since yesterday. But, if it had been wet, we would have had a long
long walk up a steep and muddy road. When we got to the top, Elder Martin
smartly turned the truck around and pointed it down hill. It began to
rain before we got into the building and rained hard for a few minutes
while I was preaching. The rain was loud on the tin roof and I had to
preach extra loud to be heard over the roar of the rain pelted tin.
The congregation is a relatively new fellowship that Eld. Martin has not
been working too long with. They were made up of many children (about 80%
of the congregation). The Pastor and his family, including his brother
who is also exercising in the ministry but not yet ordained, made up most
of the rest of the congregation. The building was very large and a brick
structure, but is was far from finished. The pastor said that they
had many more members that really wanted to be there but because it was
the middle of the afternoon on a Monday, they had to work. We arrived
just as the schools were letting out and the children came straight there and
many were there without their parents. This congregation sang in a very
lively and animated manner and they rejoiced and were very responsive to the
preaching. Since this was a relatively new fellowship, I spoke on
some basic principles of the doctrines of grace found in Eph 1 & 2 and in
Rom 8. But, I used a lot of other passages as well. Elder Martin is a
great interpreter and it is almost like preaching without an interpreter as
he interprets very quickly. I felt to have as much liberty to preach as
at any time I can ever remember. It was a great service. By the time
service was over, the sun was shining brightly and I barely had time
to take a few pictures before leaving. We had to hurry to travel to a
mechanic to get the diesel pump adjusted as Eld. Martin thought the
truck should have had enough power to climb the mountain and it was also
running rough. We did make it to the mechanic in time for a five minute
adjustment that seemed to make the truck run much smoother. He plans
to have some major service work done tomorrow before we drive it to
Uganda on Thursday.

After we returned, we needed to buy some supplies at the local
supermarket, and Eld Martin had to take some preachers home. It was
late and they were hungry so I suggested we buy sandwich makings and have a
picnic supper at the hotel before he took them home. He agreed that it
would be better to feed the men before sending them home. They greatly
appreciated the meal and they all wanted me to make the sandwiches for
them. I was glad to have the opportunity to serve these men who have
been so anxious to wait on me hand and foot for the last two days. None of
them had ever eaten mayonnaise and did not know what it was. None of
them had ever had bologna and didn't know what it was. We had sandwiches
of wheat bread, mayo, bologna and cheese. They loved it and really
appreciated it. I told them this was a time of breaking bread
together and fellowship. One of the preachers dumped out the plastic
disposable plates we had eaten on and took them home to re-use. They were very
sturdy and nice plates. We also had potato chips (which they really
loved) and some cookies that we bought for snacks at the preachers
meeting. I made each of them two large sandwiches. All was eaten,
although I could only hold one (and that was more than I needed). We
all ate for less than one of us had eaten at a hotel two nights earlier.
And we have chips and cookies leftover for tomorrow. Also the preachers
took home the remaining bread and mayo.

I'll go for now as it is late and a loud thunderstorm is approaching
and I need to get a shower and some sleep. Please continue to keep us in
your prayers and thank you so much for all your previous prayers.

Blessings,

Darrel Chambers

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Bottom line up front - all is well with me in Kisii, Kenya

It has been an eventful day, but a good day. I awoke to a flooded room
due to a toilet tank leak, and had to be moved to a different room.
While at breakfast, I was informed that a minister was there for the morning
bible study early, so I enjoyed his fellowship during our breakfast
together.

Some of the preachers that came the day before were not able to be there
today for various reasons including a wife in the hospital and one had a
flare up of Malaria. We also had some new attendees that we had
previously met in some of the church services. I had been requested to
speak on the topic of worship on the Lord's Day (Sunday) instead of the
Sabbath (Saturday). The predominate religion in this area is Seventh
Day Adventist, so most of the men either came from that religion or had
relatives still in it, or both. I spent a better part of the morning on
this topic. Then we discussed several other topics that were the
results of specific questions including questions about baptism, tithing, the
use of deacons in the church, and church appropriations of funds, the second
coming of Christ and the events of the resurrection day and the final or
general judgement, Judas Iscariot, the mixing of works and grace as
opposed to the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone, and
several other topics that I cannot currently recall. These men were all already
well-grounded in the basic doctrines of grace,so these times of being
able to get questions answered were deemed profitable by all. I was thankful
to have the other ministers join in the discussions and provide answers
in Kisii instead of only in English. When they answered in Kisii, they
were considerate enough to interpret for me into English.

We didn't have a formal lunch, but we did enjoy snacks of potato chips,
bananas, cookies, etc. This was about 1:00, then we had another round
of discussion topics that were part of the topics included in the previous
list.

Afterwards, we traveled over an hour to the Ogemba Primitive Baptist
Fellowship. This trip was supposed to take 20 minutes but we were hit
with a terrible storm. It was sunny and pretty when we left the hotel,
but by the time we approached the top of the mountain it began to rain.
Then it became very windy and I asked if they had tornados in Kenya; and
Bro. Martin said, no. Shortly, the van began to shake, and I wondered
if we had a flat, then I realized the van was shaking from side to side and
the tops of the spindly trees were pointing almost horizontally in one
direction. I told Bro. Martin that the 5 other preachers in the truck
with us were worth their weight to keep us from turning over. We crept
along for several miles on the top of this mountain. Shortly after I
noticed the trees pointing in one direction, I noticed the trees were
now pointing in the opposite direction, so I knew there was circulation in
the wind. Water and debris was all over the road and the driving, even at a
snails pace was treacherous; but Bro. Martin is a very good and careful
driver. By the time we got to the dirt and steep road that escalated to
the pinnacle of the mountain, the storm had passed and it was only
sprinkling and the wind was almost calm. The soil in this area is the
same red clay that they have in Madison County, AL and it is very stick
and slick when wet. The ruts and gulleys in the road kept us from
sliding off the side, but made it impossible to turn into the driveway of the
Pastors home. We slid and spun for half an hour it seemed and even had
people all the other 5 preachers pushing on the truck that had all 4
wheels slicked over and spinning with no traction. It was a mess.
Finally we just left the truck where it was and walked to the house. We
were supposed to meet at a nearby outdoor lot, but because it was still
sprinkling, we met in the leaders house. We had a full room of people
in the mud hut, tin roofed, mud floored, simple home. But we had a
wonderful service with outstanding singing once again. I spoke on the account of
the Rich Young Ruler and salvation by grace apart from works. With men,
salvation is impossible, but with God all things are possible, even the
salvation of a thief on a cross, or a Saul of Tarsus. The accounts of
all three of these men were discussed, with the majority of the time spent
on the rich young ruler. An elderly woman requested to be baptized at the
end of the service. We already had two believers who had requested baptism
and we had planned to baptise them in the river near the church after the
services. However the storm had left the river a raging rampage and
unsafe for a baptism, so the Kenyan brethren decided to move the
baptismal service to tomorrow at a swimming pool in Kisii. I was relieved,
because Eld. Martin forgot to bring his extra clothes and was relying on me to
baptise them.

We managed to back the truck for almost a quarter of a mile with the
brethren assisting to keep it pushed in the middle of the mud road til
we could find a spot level and wide enough to turn it around and travel
back down the hill to the plateau area of the mountain. The sunset was
beautiful as we traveled back down the mountain and it was dark by the
time we reached the supermarket. I asked the Elders if they wanted to
return home after their long day, or if they wanted me to fix them
sandwiches again first. They opted for the meal. We also bought some
other supplies for our trip. We had a wonderful meal of
sliced/processed beef, ham, and cheese with mayo and ketchup on brown wheat bread. Elder
Charles ate with us tonight and was not with us last night. This was
his first time to eat brown wheat bread, processed beef, or processed ham,
or mayonnaise. He did not know what mayonase was, and asked if it was peanut
butter. They all thought the sandwiches were great, and I doubled up
the meat on all of them, because they greatly need the protein and the fat.
The I treated them to some ice cream and Elder Charles had never had
that either. The ice cream made Bro. Martin's sensitive teath hurt. I
planned to send the leftover meats and cheese home with one or more of the
brethren, but none of them had electricity or refrigerators to store it
in. So, we were allowed to store it in the refrigerator at the hotel.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship and discussed some of the church
issues with these faithful leaders of the Kenyan labors.

Tomorrow promises to be another long and eventful day, and I look
forward to the opportunity to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ
with hungry children of God once more. Thanks again for your prayers.

Blessings,

Darrel Chambers

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Bottom line up front - all is well with me in Kisii, Kenya

Actually it is already 1:00 AM on Thursday and I still have to shower and
do a few things prior to going to bed. Tomorrow we have an early meeting
at 7:00 AM and then an all day trip to Uganda after visiting the bank and
a few other errands.

I will also be without internet while in Uganda and it will be sometime
next week before I will likely be able to write again. We had a very
prosperous day with meetings with preachers and others who feel to be
called of God and are studying to be preachers. The afternoon service was
cancelled because the preachers wife is pregnant and was having
difficulties and had to be admitted to the hospital. The preacher and
several of his congregation went to the hospital and it was too late to
reschedule to another location when we got the word. Elder Charles also
missed our meeting this morning because he had to carry his wife to the
hospital. We replaced the scheduled afternoon service with an additional
study session with the ministers. This proved to be very beneficial
according to them and actually made better use of our time.

Tonight we visited Eld. Martin's 9 yr. old daughter in a boarding school.
It had been quite awhile since Eld Martin had seen her and they were glad
to see each other. We bought a few pieces of carved soapstone souvenirs
that were very nice as we drove by the actual artists locations that were
located near the school. In the retail stores these are very expensive,
but they were very reasonable buying directly from the artists.

Then I treated Eld. Martin's family to beef and ham and cheese sandwiches,
which they had never had before, and we ate them in their home. They
treated me with the utmost of hospitality in their mud home that is
actually very nice. The mud walls are straight and square and almost as
smooth as a sheetrock wall. They have the color and texture similar to a
clay flower pot. We had a great time of fellowship with the family. Eld.
Martin has a 3 year old son Vernon, with quite a reputation for
mischievousness, but he is always quite and well behaved in my presence.
Eld. Martin's wife Annah jokingly asked me if I wanted to take Vernon back
to America with me. I said sure, my wife would love to have another
little boy. Vernon is quite attached to his grandfather who lives next
door, so I asked him if he wanted to leave his grandfather and mother and
come to America with me. While still clinging closely to his mother he
said yes. They laughed because they knew he misunderstood my english as
he would hardly look at me and never let go of his mother.

Mixtures of joy and sorrow flooded my emotions as I said goodbye to my new
friends and brethren today. They were all so kind and complimentary and
we had many African handshakes and hugs as we departed company. I have
finally learned how to properly shake hands with my son-in-law who always
attempts to give me an African handshake (he is from South Africa). I am
glad to still have another week with Eld. Martin and I look forward to
meeting many other good brethren on the remainder of my trip.

Look out Uganda, here we come!

Got to go get a shower and a little sleep.

I am having a wonderful and blessed time. Thank you all for your
continued prayers.

Blessings,

Darrel Chambers

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All is well
with me in Uganda. I wrote this yesterday morning and last night, and I
spent about 2 hours attempting to send it last night. We kept having
power outtages and the internet would not work afterwards. Everytime I
got it almost done, we had another problem. My phone stopped working
Thursday and Bro. Martin has temporarily changed SIM cards with his phone
and determined that the problem is likely with the SIM card. We will
attempted to get it reconfigured or changed today. We tried yesterday,
but we arrived 5 minutes prior to the store closing and they asked us to
bring it back tomorrow (Now today). Bro. Martin’s phone is also out of
minutes and there are no Kenyan company phone stores him for him to
purchase more. So, we are cut off from communications until - hopefully
this morning. I am borrowing the hotels internet using Eld. Martin’s
laptop to send this message. Since Donna doesn’t always check her e-mail
regularly, maybe someone can call her and tell her we are fine and to
check for this e-mail.

We had a good trip Thursday from Kisii, Kenya to Mbale Uganda, crossing
the equator and driving by Lake Victoria and many beautiful mountains in
the process. We drove through Kisumu, Kenya, which had a large shopping
mall that we stopped to buy water and food supplies, and I also I bought
some souvenirs. The people of Kisumu were very proud to note that Kisumu
is the former home of President Barack Obama. We were not accompanied by
Bro. Chris as planned as he had a sick wife. It seems that death and
sickness cause these people to change their plans on a much more routine
or regular basis than we are used to.

Thursday was the first day that we did not have a worship service,
although I did get to spend the day with other preachers and we had prayer
at various times. The trip was enjoyable, but tiring. We were very
thankful to have no problems with the vehicle and to have safe journeys.
Driving must have been very difficult on the roads we traveled and I
appreciated Bro. Thomas, our driver and fellow church member from Kisii.
It took 10-1/2 hours including our 2 fuel stops and one stop at the
supermarket. This also included the time spent at the border. We
purchased food for sandwiches at the supermarket and I made sandwiches and
we ate them as we bounced down the road. Much of the time we drove on the
dirt shoulder of the road because it was much smoother than the pothole
pocked surface of the road. Pothole is not actually a good description
for the craters that are in their roads. Elder Martin drove for awhile to
let Brother Thomas eat. I sure wanted to keep our driver strong and alert
for the treacherous road conditions.

The border control area was a very congested mess of large trucks, people,
beggars and confusion for me. I would have had no clue how or what to do
without my African guides, who even called ahead and had another guide
arranged to help them through the process expeditiously (if you can call
it that). We had to get a temporary license and insurance for our vehicle,
costing over $100, and then I had to go through the Kenyan office and
complete forms to leave the country. We then went through a security
check point and paid for my Visa (only $50) to enter Uganda. We had no
problems purchasing my Visa. Then we waited in line and had our vehicle
inspected. They only asked about the contents of our bags and did not
check them. Elder Martin was very cautious at the border area which was
very congested with people and large trucks that almost ran over you
although they were moving very slowly when they moved at all. At one time
Eld Martin suggested that I secure the camera and roll up the window as
there are many pickpockets in this area. I should have known this and
agreed and complied immediately. The lines were very long and part of the
job of our guide was to help us bypass some of the lines. He was paid
nothing, but Elder Martin said we would give him a tip after he helped us
on the return leg of this journey. Even with the guide, this process
still probably took over an hour.

There were many crippled folks in this border area who rode on tricycles
pedaled by their hands. Their legs and feet were withered and deformed
and it appeared to be the results of polio or some birth defect. None of
them seemed to be begging or asking for aid though. There were many young
children running between the trucks and everywhere including a number that
were playing in the trash heap. All during my trip, but especially on
this leg of the trip, people would stare at me, some waved, or said
“hallow” (hello) as I would pass. Some laughed and said funny things, and
I was told that others were derogatory in their comments that I could not
understand. I was also told that many of these people had rarely if ever
seen a white man. One man pointed and said, “look, a white man.” I told
my embarrassed brethren that this did not bother me as I am also a very
curious person and would likely stare and investigate someone who was so
different in appearance than what I consider normal.

After getting through the border control area, we soon drove through the
area where baboons are normally seen playing in the woods beside the road.
It was nearing dark, and we did not see any of these creatures as they
normally do. They assured me, we would likely see some on the way back as
it would be earlier in the day. Our goal was to arrive at the hotel
before dark, but we were about 3 hours late for that. The hotel was
beautiful and nice except for the bullet hole in the top of the ceiling
and the termites that scurried along the baseboards. The floors are
marble, the television has a news channel where I was able to get a little
world news, there is a fan, and a good supply of hot water. The bed has
no mattress as we know it though. It is what we would call a foundation
or box spring. It still feels good by the end of long days and I sleep
well on it. I slept for almost 7 hours without waking Thursday
night(thank You Lord!), but I only got about 5 hours last night. I am
having some nasal drainage from a sore throat (probably minor allergies
and abuse of my voice with singing, teaching, and preaching all day). I
do not feel sick otherwise.

When we arrived at the hotel, I thought all 4 of us were staying in two
rooms that each had a double bed. So I arranged to meet the brethren for
breakfast at 8:AM. Then, two of the brethren left to stay with church
members and I had a room to myself. The next morning, at nearly 8 I
knocked on Eld. Martin’s door and he had overslept and my knocks had
awakened him. He was dizzy, groggy and feeling poorly. I gave him some
snacks high in carbs and protein, and at breakfast all he wanted was hot
water. I insisted on him eating some of the meal that was included in our
bill, and he had an egg and some bread. He seemed to be feeling poorly
most of the day, but by suppertime (10 PM) he was feeling better.

We had a great day of fellowship and bible study and singing in the home
of a Ugandan Physician (who was at his clinic) on Friday. His wife and
children hosted us. The doctor’s name is Boaz, his wife is Freda, and
their children are Dora, Mary, Elizabeth, and Caesar. Caesar is a very
cute 3 year old that I enjoyed giving candy to, giving him horseback rides
on my knee, and tickling. He was also intrigued by my laser pointer,
especially when I showed him that it would shine through my ear. We hit
it off great. All the African children I have seen are extremely well
behaved. We studied on the 3 types of Justification found in the Bible (
Legal through the blood of Christ, Personal in a believers mind through
faith, and justification in the sight of others through good works).

We also discussed the Federal Headship of Adam and of Christ for their
respective children. Adam represented all his children and passed to them
the nature of sin and as a result they do sin and die. Christ represented
all his children and bore their offenses on the Cross and paid for them
with His blood and suffered the wrath due us for committing those sins.
As a result, the grace of God and the gift of Eternal Life is given to all
represented by Jesus on the Cross (His elect Children). We then answered
several questions of the brethren regarding some of the types and shadows
of the Old Testament and some of the Genesis accounts of Adam and Eve.

We visited a Bible store last night and purchased several bibles, one for
the pastor (Elder Charles) and 5 smaller bibles for members of the
Fellowship group. We also went to a copier center and purchased several
copies of Eld. Dolph Painter’s Daily Devotion that the African Ministers
have really enjoyed. We also shopped and purchased a shirt for Elder
Charles as he ruined his white shirt by leaving a pen in his pocket today.
We returned to the hotel and fellowshipped with several brethren until
8:15, and then I rested and watched some news while Eld. Onyoni took a
shower. We went down to eat around 9:00 and then I finished this update.
I was so concerned for Elder Martin’s health earlier Friday, as he was
really weak and exhausted. He says he never eats so much as when he is
around Americans, but he really needs to eat much more than he does. I am
glad he is feeling better. The church members are planning to prepare
meals for us today (Saturday) and also tomorrow, and I have tolerated the
type of food they plan to prepare, so I may eat a little and supplement
with some MREs and snacks.

Ugandans speak a British accented English in addition to Ugandan and if we
both speak slowly and repeat ourselves, we can usually understand each
other. The Ugandan language is difficult to read/speak as many words do
not sound anything like they are spelled. The Kenyans even have to use an
interpreter. There is a mountain within sight that they want to take me
to visit after services late tomorrow evening. There are many beautiful
waterfalls there. They say that on top of the mountain it is a different
world and is like a separate country within their country. The people
there are largely sheltered from outside contact, and live mostly like
their ancestors, although they do have schools. The land there is very
fertile and most of the fruits and vegetables sold commercially in this
part of Uganda is grown there.

Got to go for now, perhaps I will get my phone fixed today and will be
able to report in again then.

Blessings,

Darrel Chambers

April 7, 2011

Greetings to all. Other than being very sad because this is my last day
in Africa, I am fine. I have already said goodbye to everyone except Eld.
Martin. We are currently in the Nairobi Airport, and the contrast in the
beautiful weather here to the sweltering weather we left in Tanzania is
cerainly refreshing. We are outside plugged into an electrical outlet
next to the refrigerated coke machine. We flew early this morning from
Dar Es Salaam and had prayer in the airport with about 7 of us present
(Me, Elders Martin, Kenny, Anthony, Moses, Thaddeus, and Brother James. I
want to spend the next few hours visiting with Eld. Martin before we
depart. A lump enters my throat when I think of leaving my constant
companion for the past 2 weeks. He is a prince among men and a great
Christian friend. I will forego writing a lengthy account at this time
and may write one by hand when Elder Martin and his laptop depart later
this afternoon. I have a 9+ hour layover here before departing late
tonight for Amsterdam, arriving early in the morning there. I will then
leave mid morning for Detroit, spend about 4 hours there, and then return
to Huntsville, AL. I hope to be able to catch an earlier flight from
Detroit to HSV, but it is doubtful that I will be able to do so. I am
doing great physically; but I know I will be very tired as the entire trip
takes 1-1/2 days due to time changes. I hope to add some updates, perhaps
later today from an airport internet cafe, or after I return home in a few
days. Thanks again for all your thoughts, prayers, and support. This has
been a wonderful trip with many rich experiences in God's Kingdom among
His children in 3 countries in Africa.

Thanks again, and God bless you all.
Darrel Chambers