Pacific Hills Lutheran Church - LCMS, Omaha, Nebraska

Pacific Hills provided the primary funding for these facilities.

From: Claude & Rhoda Houge

Our trip to Kolowa was such a contrast, moving from the cool, forested hills of Kapenguria into the sparse valley below. It is usually very dry country, but it had been raining a lot, and many of the rivers and streams were very full. There are few bridges, so we had to make our way through difficult crossings several times.

We arrived for Sunday services at the MTC building. The facility has the classroom/worship center, a small house for the pastor, a kitchen, and an outhouse.

.Sunday morning worship above includes singing. Shown above are Morten Eglend, Pastor Philip, and Claude Houge.

The pastor's house below includes a sleeping room, an office, and storage. The kitchen is in use although not complete.

We had a chance to talk with Pastor Philip Lodwar (who has been in Kolowa 3 months) and the church leaders about the situation there. The MTC was constructed before actual mission work had begun so that it could be an outreach center. However, the local people didn’t know what it was for, so even though many have become Christians, they do not have a sense of ownership with the facility. This was evident in the way they asked for various things to complete the project, such as beds and mattresses to use during training sessions, finishing the kitchen with doors and windows, etc.

It is true that the people are quite poor. The photos show the dry, sparse land. The people are nomadic with their herds of goats and cattle. This makes it hard to reach them since they are always looking for a place to feed their animals. Most of the members live in the small town of Kolowa and have a hard time earning any income. Education is also a real problem. It is hard to train church leaders due to the low literacy rate. Because of this, no formal training has begun at the MTC, but they are trying to find a way to make it happen. However, small groups of women and men are meeting at the church regularly for Bible study and prayer, and other “camps” or seminars take place for church people from time to time.

The main focus of the work here is evangelistic. The area leaders recently made a trip to surrounding areas where people have never heard the Good News and no one is reaching out to them. Even the government seems to have forgotten them with no education or health care. According to Pastor Philip, they only know about robbery and the use of guns. Since they are Pokot and Turkana, the church would like to send a Pokot evangelist and a Turkana evangelist to this outreach area. They want to bring peace to the area.

There are two other churches that have been planted in the area. Distance is a real problem to get people together because there isn’t a lot of public transportation. Pastor Philip has a motorcycle, and he said bicycles would help to get people from the other two churches to come for training. This is an area with a great potential for outreach to many people, but education and distance are big challenges. Because the people are so poor, there will be a continuing challenge in not creating too much dependency.