God is in the Mix

Kenya and Good Shepherd Serving Christ Together

My life had been through two years of tumult and change by 1999. I had left the Southern Baptist Church, worked for Platt’s Funeral Home, and had been attending Good Shepherd since 1997. With the encouragement of Robert Fain, I had applied for admission into the discernment process. After receiving a positive response, Bishop Louttit sent me on the long road towards the priesthood. Part of that journey was to be “anglicized” at Sewanee’s School of Theology.

Honestly, my intention was to get through the hoops and get on with ordination. I ran head on into the adage that says, “You want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans!” I met people and professors who altered my perceptions forever. 

I arrived at Sewanee on a hot and muggy summer day and was totally lost. After a search, I found the School of Theology relegated to a separate part of the campus. I registered and was assigned a room in the German House. Now the rest was up to God, and God indeed had plans that I never dreamt of. 

Sitting on the curb across from All Saints Chapel, was Fr. Zakayo Epus, of the Anglican Church of Kenya. He was as lost as I was. We greeted one another and introduced 

ourselves. Fr. Zak no more knew where Augusta, Ga. was than I knew where Amagoro, Kenya was. But I would learn much. Amagoro was a small town in Western Kenya, about three miles from the border with Uganda. Fr. Zak was a clergyman in the Diocese of Katakwa, one of thirty-six dioceses in Kenya. It was also at that moment that we would both meet Professor Don Armentrout. Already God’s hand was stirring the pot.

I quickly came to realize I had met a man of great respect and dignity. There were many other Africans in our class: Ugandans, Nigerians, South Africans, and one Haitian. All of them treated Fr. Zak with honor. I would come to know why in time.

It was also at this time that God showed his humorous side. All the African contingent treated me with great respect and deference. It was beyond my comprehension as to why? One day at lunch I was surrounded by all the African students in our class, so I took the opportunity to ask them why was there such exceptionally kind treatment towards me? Looking me straight in the face one said to me, “It is because you are a bishop!” Me! A bishop? Not likely, I was brand new and had yet to earn any credence. I asked, “Why do you think I am a bishop?” The answer became one of Don Armentrout’s favorite anecdotes and he never failed to share it when a bishop or two was present. The African answer was, “Of course you a bishop. You are fat. You have white hair. You have a purple stone in your ring. You are a bishop!”

That summer Fr. Zak and I spent much time together. I learned he had studied in Scotland and in Ireland and was now in the United States to complete his Doctor of Ministry 

degree. The friendship became a fast one. In time he would live with me for six months and with the Community of St. Helena and later the Alleluia Community. The wonderful and generous support of the Alleluia Community has been crucial. 

The time with Fr. Zak opened windows into a world I had no comprehension of. Kenya was a place where life was far more difficult than it was here. In the rural areas the average Kenyan could expect one good meal a day. That meal was almost always ugali; a mush made of water and any flour. It was eaten as is, with no salt or pepper added. If dried beans or peas were available they were added to increase the nutritional content. A staple for the poor was a weed called Sukuma Wiki, very akin to our turnip or collard green leaves. It grows wild along the roadsides and in yards. 

I learned that a Kenyan could survive one week on a U. S. dollar. That dollar would buy one some tea leaves, a brick of sugar, a little coffee, a tin of milk, and flour for ugali. That would be supplemented by fruit in season and of course, Sukuma Wiki. Red meat was and is very expensive and seldom eaten. What little protein there is in the diet comes from dried fish and legumes.  

In this meagre system of life lived on the edge, Fr. Zak was able to minister as best he could to Anglican Christians who were threatened by drought and the rising militancy of Somali Muslims who were sneaking across the border. At one point the village men in Amagoro mounted a night watch around his compound because they had learned his name was on a Muslim hit list. Since guns are not permitted to be owned by civilians in Kenya, the guard armed themselves with pangas (a machete). The Somalis had AK-47’s, but thanks be to God, they never showed up.

Fr. Zak, living in the midst of so much poverty, had visions and dreams of ministries for his people. He, along with his equally determined wife, Catherine, began to work on a school for the children around Amagoro. Catherine is college educated and holds a license to teach. In the many times Fr. Zak was away, Catherine oversaw the ministry. At one point she took a chain saw and cut planks from trees to build some type of wall around the early classrooms. These trees were from the farm owned by Bishop Zak and Momma Catherine. The floors were often sand, and one large tree was utilized to teach under when it was not raining. Also, the sand floor doubled as a blackboard!

Amagoro Junior Academy, founded on May 9, 1998, with about sixteen students, has grown to more than three hundred. Part of the continuing dream is to add a facility for boarding students. Unfortunately, the vagaries of life in Africa have forced adaptation. At one point when the drought was so bad, the wells ran dry in Amagoro and students had to be sent home. Another aspect that would sound strange to us, is that school tuition is often paid for both with money and with goods: flour, potatoes, beans, firewood etc. Such is Africa.

The Good Shepherd connection with Bishop Zakayo and Kenya, really began with my meeting him at Sewanee. I brought him to Augusta and he became fast friends with Mr. Bob Jones (deceased) a member of Good Shepherd, and Fr. Zakayo also engaged the 

Alleluia Community. Through the very generous gifts of Bob and others, real money began to flow into Amagoro. In time, Good Shepherd was the source of enough money to install a working computer system in the diocesan office, buy a suitable vehicle (Bob Jones again), replace the old wooden school buildings with concrete block and metal roofs, aid substantially in building the concrete block cathedral and install a concrete floor (Bob Jones’ personal gift). Money was sent to buy food for the school children when stocks were low, and recently a new vehicle was purchased by the anonymous gift of a kind and generous man who attends Good Shepherd. This vehicle allowed Fr. Zak to better minister the people under his care as well as helping with school needs. Therefore, the vehicle serves multiple purposes.

Men from the Alleluia Community made several trips to Kenya to deepen the bore hole in the village well and install a new pump. Kenya has been in years of drought and at one point all the surface water around the Amagoro area dried up and so did the well. Again, gifts from Good Shepherd enabled the direct connection of a neighboring well water to the school’s storage tanks. It was, at the time of the drought, deeply moving to see the students of Amagoro Junior Academy line up to receive one of the five cups of water they were allowed per day!

In January of 2007, Fr. Zakayo became Bishop Zakayo! He is loved and respected by his people and his clergy and his ministry to them is one of hands on love, Christian 

discipline, preaching the Gospel, and growing the Church. It is necessary for the reader to understand that this is all done with no support from the Anglican Church in 

Kenya. Without God and the support, prayers, and love of the many people who 

undergird Bishop Zakayo’s ministry, he would have been unable to keep the love of Christ burning brightly in the Diocese of Katakwa with its eighty thousand Anglican Christians.

This story cannot be written without talking about Catherine, Bishop Zakayo’s wife. She is a tall, striking woman who loves God and is herself, a powerful force for Christ. One of her jobs is to oversee the Mercy Ministry. In Kenya, the government is a democracy in name only. In reality it is a military dictatorship and in no manner does it aid its citizens. There are many orphans and widows, and thousands of sick and suffering people in and around Amagoro alone. The Mercy Ministry, simply put, is to provide something for those who have nothing. Catherine oversees this ministry and also is the Bishop’s right arm when he is away. She is as beloved as he is and is held in great respect.

The Kenyan government’s Education Ministry has noticed the success of Amagoro Junior Academy and the high quality of its students. It has asked the Bishop to further modernize the school and allow it to be used as a model and a training center. However, this request comes with no government financial aid. Again, such is Africa. 

Bishop Zakayo is being led to build a “dream school” with boarding facilities. A modern school where Christian values are taught, children receive a top-notch education, and are assured of food and as much safety as can be given. Some construction has been done, but there is much left to do. One of the pressing needs is to get glass panes installed in the classrooms. External and internal walls need to be plastered and painted. There is still much work to be done.

To those of you who have given to the Kenyan Fund, your money has been well spent and all of us at Good Shepherd have been blessed by the support provided to lift up the church in Africa. God bless you all for your grace and charity. Remember, the work still goes on. If God leads you to further support this ministry just indicate “Kenyan Fund” on your check made out to Good Shepherd. The current goal is to raise $26,000 to complete the first stage of the project. In time, when the situation allows the addition of a second floor (male and female dormitory rooms, a custodian’s facility, storage rooms and offices) the Dream School will be complete. It is estimated that this addition will cost $208, 000 US. 

Far away, an ocean and the better part of a continent, separate two very different groups of Christians. We are different, yet the same, for we all serve one Lord. It is a bit thrilling to know that on the East coast of Africa, there exists a place where the Church of the Good Shepherd is prayed for on a regular basis and we worship the same God together.

In Christ, 

Andy Menger+