Core Combat Eldoret: Whoever Serves Me Must Follow Me

Core Combat is an initiative of The Navigators Eldoret and Western to train students to become laborers.  Our theme for this year was John 12:26 which says (let me see if I can quote it from memory), "Whoever serves me must follow me.  And where I am my servant also will be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me."

Here I was leading a study on "Devotions or Devotion"and
we learnt that God wants us to focus on "the one thing"
Psalm 27:4.  

We spent the first half of the time getting ourselves heavily into the scriptures, prayer and fellowship.  We learnt to work together as team and do chores together.  We did everything for ourselves - cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, fetching water and firewood.  Some of us did some things we are not used to doing or never did before.  For some like me it was washing clothes in a flowing river and for others it was either reading ten chapters of the bible a day, memorizing scripture or cooking on three stones.  Hence Core Combat.  They says pictures speak louder than words, so enjoy the slide show or not!

Going to the river to fetch water.  

On the right, you see me with a can and a friend fetching water.  The river was not very far but it was a long distance enough for us to review between 5 to 12 verses on the Topical Memory System (TMS).  The TMS is a simple, easy-to-use tool developed by The Navigators to help believers memorize key verses that point to basic truths and important instruction.  The one we are currently using has only 60 verses that are grouped into 5 (12 verses in each group).  One of my highlights was memorizing the verses in the evenings and there are some verses we had to repeat soo many times because some unnamed individuals kept adding things that were not there or removing others like an "S" or "the".  We laughed so hard it took us an hour or so to memorize 12 verses word perfect and share what we heard God speaking to us from the verses and praying back those thoughts back to God.

It was our turn to prepare dinner.  

Time to prepare dinner was not only time to bond as we showcased our "good cooking skills" :-) but it was also time to catch up on our scripture memory and bible reading.  On the left, you can see Paul seating in the background (he was not feeling well) but he read 10 chapters for us from the book of Mark while Njoro and I prepared dinner.  On other days, while our group fetched water, another group listened to the audio bible while making chapatis.  They did not employ the services of Paul to read for them....ha ha.

It was fun to wash clothes in a flowing river  for the first time in my life.

In the "Conference Room" doing a study

           

Studying God's Word under warm sunny weather

Leaving Eldoret to Sirembe, Siaya for ministry outreach 

The "soldiers" are equipped and on
their way to transform the Nations

                                                                                                                                                     

Some fun & adventure!!!

               

Ministering at Sirodha Primary School in Sirembe.  Almost the
entire school (Class 4-8) prayed to receive Christ. 

Ministering at Ndegwe Seconday school.  About 7 students
committed their lives to Christ.

Relaxing in Sirembe after an afternoon of ministry.

On our way to Church on Sunday.

A friend I met at Church.  She taught me
a few Luo words.

In Church in Sirembe after the service.  We were fed like kings
and queens.  It was such a nice meal that you can even see from
our faces.

Waiting for a Matatu to Kisumu in Kodiaga.  

We got to Kodiaga from Sirembe on
motorbikes.

In short, whoever serves Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same must follow Christ.
We must follow Christ in obedience to the great commission he has entrusted to us.  And we also follow him as we seek to become more like him.  Eventually, as we spend time with the one we love, we become more like him.  We become like him in the area of character and how we respond to pain and suffering.