DELAYED BUT NOT DETERRED

Wednesday, February 27, 2024

Kitale Town, Kenya I knew Tuesday evening as I lay in my bed in Kitale listening to the pouring rain what lay ahead. A few inches of rain, and the gumbo mud road from the tarmac to the Mount Elgon Training Center becomes impossible. Just after breakfast Pastor Richard called. I was right. The road was a mess.

All of the ministry tractors have been moved to the farms. It is nearly planting season. Which answers your unanswered question as to why God would not hold off the rains to allow us safe and easy passage to our ministry destination on Mt. Elgon? 

The answer is simple. God loves farmers. Farmers pray too. Just before planting season, farmers go to bed each evening ask God to moisten the soil so it will welcome the seed like a fertile sponge. 

This trip has been seamless. Schedules have been kept. Food has been wonderful. Every ministry stop was well prepared for and the team hit everyone of their marks in delivering the teaching, sermons, prayers, and testimonies that God sent them to Africa to deliver. 

It was time to spice it up a little. 

White=knuckle praying flushes out all the sludge and residue built up from mundane After a brief unscheduled stop in the muddy ditch, a beautiful bright blue New Holland four-wheel-drive cable appeared up the road. There were three farm laborers on the tractor. They jumped onto the muddy road, attached the heavy duty cable, and away we went. 

I noticed the chatter in the LandCruiser switched from nervous banter, to conversations filled with joy and anticipation. 

The Cruiser ahead of us had already made their muddy arrival at the training center. The first preacher of the day was starting his second point. 

I took Teresa by the hand and gave her the tour of the the three amazing building that she only knew through my journals and stories. Teresa, like so many of you and our Kenyan partners, praying these buildings out of the ground of the cornfields God has stored them in. He stored them until one of His servants would come along and join Him in the work he had planned for this beautiful range on the Kenya-Uganda border in eternity past. 

Walking in the reality of a vision is a pleasant walk indeed. 

A full day of teaching is in the books. God used every team member in very particular and specific ways today. As our Cruiser crawl down the now sun-baked roads which Horus ago sucked our tires into their souls like fly paper, we pas pastor after pastor, on his walk back to his village home. I hear stories. I see smiles. The steps are brisk. The pathway fellowship is sweet.

Today was a good African ministry day. 

Tomorrow we head back to Mt. Elgon and a graduation celebration. Dr. Matt Brown, pastor of Germantown Baptist Church in Memphis will bring the graduation address. 

I can check one more box on my wish list for Mt. Elgon. Richard and I asked God to bring us the best and the brightest that God has to offer world-wide to preach and teach to these missionaries in training here at Mt. Elgon. Today, a senior pastor who holds a PhD in theology will preach our commencement ceremony. I think that is just God’s way of showing out a bit.

DISCLAIMER While Teresa and I DID celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary here in Kitale, it is not actually our anniversary date yet. We have also celebrated in Tasia and Mathere. Later this week, we will celebrate in Kakamega at the Light Feeding Station, then at the Rondo Retreat in the Kakamega Forest where we have often rested during our ministry times in Africa. 

I have declared the entire year of 2024 a year of Jubilee for Teresa and I. 

It’s a Biblical concept, but I am taking it way out of context. What that means is we plan to party, travel, and reconnect with as many old friends and ministry this year as possible. Love, laughter, great meals, great destinations, and as much fun as two 70 year old kids can have is on the agenda.

So, for your “literalists”——Our actual anniversary is May 26. 

But, it will take all year to get the celebration to fit into our schedule! 

Teresa says, it is good to be the queen (the title bestowed to her by her grandchildren). I told her it is indeed good being queen. But, she is only queen because those in her life so love and respect her. And, it doesn’t hurt that we have a great, great KIng. 

Off to Mt. Elgon and the next chapter in this great God-adventure I call the Safari of the Soul.

Your prayers = our fuel. 
By, grace, your brother,  Mike Curry 
Eph. 6:19-20