The next village presented great resistance. The Lord gave me John 15  - “I am the Vine and you are the branches” - and I used as an example a pomegranate tree that stood in the center of the village. After I rebuked a distracting spirit, to the Bishop’s amazement people came out of their houses and sat down on the benches to listen. Even the old men came. The anointing and my preaching became very powerful. To conclude, I raised my hand to heaven, looking over to the old men, shouting, “Jesus Christ lives! To this I am witness, for I have seen Him. I declare to you that He alone is Savior, Son of the only Living G-d! There is no other G-d and there is no other Savior!”

A breakthrough was had in this village, which up to then had resisted the Gospel, being a stronghold of witchcraft. Even the village elder came for prayer, receiving Jesus as his Savior, and one of the leading women received a healing in her chest and abdomen, testifying the next day to the whole village (as the two young pastors left in charge of the new believers reported to the bishop). Meanwhile, the pomegranate tree in the village square serves as constant reminder of John 15.

After each preaching (also during the conference) I handed the microphone to Bishop Simiyu to invite the people to receive Jesus unto salvation. The Lord showed me it was the Bishop’s birthright as Kenyan, African and as G-d’s faithful and humble servant. This man is filled with deep love for His Lord and compassion for his people.

The demonstration of God’s power was both impressive and convincing. Beginning on the second day of the conference, dark rain clouds gathered, despite it being the dry season. As we rebuked the clouds to prevent them from interfering with our ministry, the power of Jesus’ Name proved a mighty witness to all who saw those heavy clouds fade away. 

Our final 4 days were spent at Bishop’s village. With a rented bus and driver, we drove through beautiful country side toward Kitale. Kitale is one of the larger towns with some white folks, as evidenced by nicer homes. We picked up “Mom” Lilian who lived in a “better” mud house and drove deep into the interior. Here, people had not seen a white person for decades!

At first, the smaller children ran from me, never having seen any other skin color than black. But once they overcame their fear, they approached in large numbers, eager to touch me, to shake my hand and look at me. The news of a white woman preaching in a tent made quickly the rounds, and large numbers began to gather in the afternoons, some stopping down by the road to listen but too shy to come near.

The bishop’s village is in the vicinity of Lake Victoria, the famous lake discovered by Livingston as the source of the river Nile. Perpetual rain clouds form with lightening over that lake, and despite much praying and rebuking, we could not prevent heavy rain from falling at night. But most of the days remained dry and clear. We lived in a mud house, the packed dirt floor covered with the plastic red flower “carpet”. Our “bathroom” was out in the yard, consisting of a chair with a large plastic bowl filled with hot water and burlap hangings draped around tree branches for cover. Our toilet was another outhouse with burlap hangings and a hole, but they had packed my movable wooden toilet without my knowing it. I was most grateful for it J

A container of glowing charcoal warmed us in chilly nights, while kerosene lamps lit the darkness until the young men brought the generator from the tent where we had needed it to empower our microphones, speakers and keyboard. When the generator failed and we lost power at two of our meetings, I used it as an example of how we too need repeated infilling with the Holy Spirit. Just as the generator needed refueling for power, so also do we need the Holy Spirit’s frequent “refueling” to live as overcomers. Consequently, a good number of people got baptized with the Holy Spirit and learned how to get “refueled”.

One night, with kerosene lamp in hand making my way to the outhouse, I happened to look up -- and shouted, “hallelujah!” I hadn’t seen such a multitude of stars³ for many years, such clarity of sky, with the bright and morning star over the horizon. It was a most beautiful and breath taking sight out there in the wilderness of Kenya!