Brew. Kenya Day 2. June 12, 2024

onetimothy412

Jun 14, 20243 min read

I slept well, which is always complicated because bedtime here is wake-up time in Texas.

The morning began with a 6:30 AM prayer time and meeting with the presenters for the day. Breakfast was simple, a piece of fruit, a piece of bread, and Kenyan hot tea.

The tea here is amazing. It is pipping hot and premixed with milk and sugar. They serve it at breakfast then at a mid-morning snack and then again at a mid-afternoon break. Every time I am at one of these breaks I think that we should follow these same habits at home. The fellowship around the cup is always so sweet.

After breakfast, our team met and made some final decisions about our presentation based on what we had seen and heard at the conference. We changed our presentation to make it more focused on this group. This conference has been focusing on how the church can have influence in the seven spheres of society. After our meeting the team left and I went to work incorporating the changes into the conference slides.

I finished as the conference was breaking for tea.

I met with Brian Alarid. His book, By Name, is one of my new favorites. He is as loving and kind in person as he appears in his book. We spent a long time listening to each other's stories and beginning a friendship. I think he will play a significant role in the prayer emphasis I hope to catalyze through the Baptist World Alliance and Finishing the Task.

I then went and met with the AV team and made sure that our presentation would project through their system. We were given the time right after lunch. It always means you have to keep people awake due to the natural sleepiness that follows the food.

Eric lead the presentation. Eric Munyemana (see a short bio) is a Key leader in Finishing the Task. His gift is organization and connections. He then called on me to present a 10-minute version of our conference (down from 8 hours of content). Then our panel talked about the implications of the church impacting the world. I talked about how First Baptist Athens was contributing to the community. I specifically told the story of the Thrift Store.

Then Mary Kamanzi spoke about the impact of the PEACE plan in Rwanda. Mary has been helpful during our process of shaping our message in a culturally appropriate way and her portion of the talk was invaluable. Finally, Lisa Pak spoke about the need to reach the younger generations and how healthy churches involve them in leadership and ministry.

Then we lead the group in table conversations. Eric ended our session with a charge for the group to join in Finishing the Task and an invitation to our workshop on Thursday. Our session was well received and led to lots of conversations.

Our team met to debrief and plan the next day's session.

We then had to make travel arrangements and settle bills at the conference center.

They have a small museum area that I enjoy reading. The training center's original land was taken by the government in an eminent domain case and it took years and lawyers to settle the case. The new location is beautiful.

The work of the day done, I decided to walk in the area.

It is surrounded by tea fields and the hedgerows are filled with birds.