Smelly Business

The Diguna Mbagathi station opened officially today (Monday 17th January 2011). The morning session was a fellowship event in which the preacher was Pastor Richard Chogo from Mashariki Chapel in Nairobi. He was talking on the topic of The God of Missions. It was very enlightening as he shared on the missionary heart of God, the first event being His sending of His only Son as a missionary to earth.

There was tea followed shortly after by a station aptly named ‘The State of the Union’ in which the leaders of the key departments in the station summarily shared on the past year and highlighted the main priorities for this year.
Lunch was a very tasty combination of chapatti and green gram stew followed.

The session after lunch was basically hands-on. We were all involved to some degree in the general cleaning of the compound. Together with Oscar Wekesa and the assistant station leader Moses Migwi, we volunteered to wash the toilets adjacent to the Diguna Conference Centre. It was an amazingly interesting experience as we shared on life in general and on ministry and some challenges we face as we do mission. The most amazing part of the whole duty was watching Moses at work. He is a husband, father of two boys, a pastor in his own right and a station leader, yet he humbly did everything together with us. At no point was he barking orders and supervising, instead he was always involved, never afraid to get his hands dirty. I was deeply moved by a statement he made to the effect that most people would normally wash the toilets quickly to get the job over and done with. He does it to his satisfaction, to the level of cleanliness that he himself would appreciate if he were to use the toilet himself.

Seldom in today’s ego-driven leadership styles do you see this kind of leadership. When the leader does not simply delegate duties and retire to his corner office leaving his underlings to break their backs toiling…instead, the leader shows the way, demonstrates the direction of work and follows up to see that the job is well done. I am happy to serve under such a leader….the toilet ministry was smelly business, but the lesson learnt left a sweet smell in its wake.