23 August 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness. REINHOLD NIEBUHR
Before I begin, I want to say that we have had some problems with our email account and thus are changing our email address for now. We may return to MAF but we ask you to change our address to
savutokenya@yahoo.com Thank you!
I also want to say that the last time I sent my F&F all the emails sent to comcast.net, tx.rr.com, valornet.com, sbcglobal.net, flash.net, swbell.net, and prodigy.net were undeliverable because they were blocked. If that is the case then those with those services will not receive my emails. If you have one of those addresses and did receive my email, please let me know. If you know others that have those email services, you can let them know I will soon be taking their email addresses off my list as I literally received over 100 emails back.
On Wednesday, 13 August, Bill and I drove to Nairobi for the opening of the new Methodist Church in Kenya (MCK) Conference Ministries Center. Maua Methodist Hospital sent 21 people to the event and received an award for the donation that the hospital made to this vital church project. On Thurs. morning we arrived at the Methodist Guest House at 7:30am. The 21 from MMH were already there. (I was so proud of the hospital as they did not only send our top management but staff from every cadre of the hospital). This opening was during the MCK annual conference. Exactly a year ago President Kibaki had come to the ceremony to begin this project. We are in absolute awe that in one year this building could be completed!
We had been told that the opening began at 9:00am but actually it did not begin until 11am. However, that gave us a wonderful opportunity to visit with friends and pastors from around the conference. We had such a joyful time and saw so many people we knew. The Conference Ministries Center is right next to the Methodist Guest House.
Around 9:45am we were asked to go outside and begin taking our seats. It was a very cool, cloudy day. The Annual Conference delegates sat on one side of the parking lot that had been set up with chairs and a covered area for the special guests. We sat on the other side. The team from the hospital was able to sit in wonderful seats. From my seat I had a perfect view of the special guest, His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki, C.G.H.,M.P. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya. For the next 70 minutes we watched final preparations for President Kibaki.
For about the last 40 minutes the Master of Ceremony, who travels with the President, entertained us with his instructions and wonderful humor. There were many Methodist groups from around the country who had come to provide entertainment. There were children, youth and adults who sang and/or danced. There were so many that we saw four before the President arrived.
Methodist Primary School Children that danced and sang The view I had of the President’s chair from my first seat
The President was due to arrive at 11am. He would go directly to the Conference Ministers Center to cut the ribbon and then take a tour of the new facility with our Presiding Bishop, Rev. Dr. Stephen Kanyaru. The President arrived exactly at 11am and went next door to cut the ribbon and then to take a tour. After that he walked past all of us into the Methodist Guest House to have tea with the Presiding Bishop and the 12 Bishops (District Superintendents). He came out at 12noon and the event began.
Between 11am and 12noon people were removed from the general seating area to under the tent that was for the special guests. Though Bill and I kept our heads down, as we really wanted to sit where we were, we were chosen to sit up front.
From 12noon to 12:40pm we were entertained by 7 groups: Nanyuki Sunday School Children; Meru Children’s Home, SPYC (a youth team) from St. Peter’s Methodist Church in Nairobi, adult choirs from Ruraka Methodist Church in Nairobi, Lavington United Church in Nairobi, Kinoro Methodist Church in Meru and Kiroguri Methodist Church in Meru. We were so thrilled to hear and see the dancers and choirs. (We were told that the Ruraka Methodist Church, which is located between Nairobi and Thika, had raised 7.5million Shillings to build a new sanctuary for 2000 people. This church is growing and doing amazing things. It is not a church of the rich but of the middle and lower class Kenyans.)
The sermon was given by Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, of the Methodist Church in Kenya, who was elected general secretary of the World Council of Churches in August 2003 and is still in that position and lives in Geneva. He spoke on our Annual Conferences theme, “Reconcilliation”. It was an excellent sermon that was so timely for all of us in Kenya and was extremely challenging and thought provoking.
We then had an offering followed by a talk by our Presiding Bishop. He talked briefly about the history of the Methodist Church in Kenya. It began on the coast, near Mombasa. In 1862 with British missionaries from the British Methodist Church. In 1912, the missionaries moved from Mombasa to the Meru region. In 1936 the head quarters of the church moved from Mombasa to Meru. In 1967 the MCK became an autonomous Methodist Church. In 1986 the Conference Center moved to the City Center in Nairobi. Presiding Bishop stated when asked where the Conference Offices and Center were he always replied, behind the Presbyterian Church, as they were located directly behind the largest Presbyterian Church in Kenya. There was a great need for a larger facility but there was no room on the land the church owned in the City Center. In January 2004 they began to pray and dream of a new Conference Center. Today those prayers and dreams have become reality. The Conference Ministries Center has two buildings and many of the offices will be rentedby others to help pay for the building costs.
Conference Ministries Center in back ground President Mwai Kibaki giving his speech
At 1:30pm Mr. George Saitoti, Minister of Internal Security, introduced President Kibaki. Mr. Saitoti
mentioned the ministries of the Methodist Church which included medical services (Maua Methodist Hospital), higher education (Kenya Methodist University) and all the primary and secondary schools the Methodist church built throughout the country.
President Kibaki then gave awards to those persons and organizations that had given a significant amount to the building of the conference center. At 1:45pm the President began his speech. We greatly enjoyed it. He again mentioned the medical services, education and Tumaini Na UNdugu (Hope and Brotherhood), the organization that the MCK and other churches and some businesses created to help the Internal Displaced Persons in Kenya.
(There are still approximately 10,000 Displaced persons in Kenya. Tumaini Na Undugu continues to help them.)
At 2:30pm President Kibaki joined our Presiding Bishop and others for lunch and the rest of us enjoyed a delicious luncheon prepared by the Methodist Guest House. At 3:40pm Bill and I left the Guest House. We had such a wonderful time at the opening. It was a day I will never forget.
That evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal with Dr. Mwenda, our previous Medical Superintendent at MMH) and his family. We had the opportunity to meet their new son, Emmanuel and were amazed at how Makena and Mark had grown. We continue to praise God for Dr. Mwenda and his work for all mission hospitals.
Today is an AIDS Orphan’s fun day. I will be going there in a few minutes. We are expecting 400+ children to attend.
Bill has been ill this week. He has had amoeba again but this time he was put on two medications, with one to kill the cysts they found in his stool. We are so grateful for your prayers for us and the ministries of Maua Methodist Hospital.
In His grip,
Jerri & Bill Savuto
savuto@maf.or.ke
Maua Methodist Hospital
Box 63, Maua 60600
Igembe, Kenya
“A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” ~Donna Roberts
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