Rallying to the Rally…

Once every term…like the wildebeest migration across the Mara river to the Serengeti plains from the Maasai Mara, Seventh-day Adventist students from secondary schools across the city of Nairobi converge on a chosen school for the termly S.D.A School’s Rally. 2nd Term 2008 happened to be at the Nairobi School. Having agred to meet at church at exactly 8.00am, it was quite disorienting to recieve a call from Chris telling me that he and Joseph opted to meet at The Hilton enroute, and that numerous other In-Tuners had jumped ship and decided they would proceed to the school immediately. At 8.00am…alas, it was only Ronnie, Edwin and myself at the NCSDAC premises…

When you’re a student, trust me, 40 bob on transport is alot of cash to dish out…but for the sake of punctuality, we had to board two buses- one to town and the other to the school in westlands. There we were to find Craig, Joseph and Chris, as panicky as ever on hte inside yet as cool and reserved on the outside. Ted Okoth happened to be on the programme, as well as George who werent here and we were set to start in a bit. Practice is just the thing to settle our nerves…and in no time at all, Jamo was in and so was Tichy, so everything was indeed falling into place.

The prgramme co-ordiantor urged us to commence with the programme, as Lenana School, State House Girls and Eastleigh High Schools had already arrived. The moment we entered the chapel is the moment I knew that I was to MC the Sabbath School programme. Everything went well except for the time when I started the choruses with a high note and almost shrieked, otherwise I have to say that the congregation was quite receptive…this could of course be attributed to the aura of excitement that enveloped us consummately. The theme of the Rally was LIVE IT Matthew 7:24.

Ted arrived a little too late, after we had occupied the pulpit, and therefore sat at the sidelines while George took over the closing prayer he was to give. In-Tune stole the morning show by hogging the presentations and singing three items, though nobody was complaining…and by the end of the session, the chapel was full to capacity, around 1000 students.

The preacher during the sermon psychologically prepared us for a long sermon by telling us upfront that he would not take less than an hour…true to his word, he took two!…by which time hunger was evident on anumber of faces…moe clearly portrayed though by the bobbing heads of dozers.

Lunch was a smooth yet economical affair. Smooth because their were no incidents or mishaps, and economical…because the food that was given redefined ‘little’…lol. No complaints though, the chef was fantastic! Other students and church youth tok the opportunity to mingle and socialize up until the afternoon programme. In-Tune hence had a spur of the moment practice with ‘The Ones’, an acappella group from Lenana School. It was indeed a spiritually uplifting moment.

At the end of the day, I would say, it was a win-win situation for all. The Church Elders held another successful Rally, the students had a wonderful time I presume…from the looks on their faces, the youth look satisfied and In-Tune had a ball…though for us, the fun was just about to start…

Mutual Nourishment…

July 5th served as the sate In-Tune as a whole would first set foot in the Kenya High School in its continued high school ministry. The trip had been planned for quite a while but never seemed to materialize….though through Craig, it finally did indeed happen on a morning that for the first time in recent history, I happened to be the latecomer by over two hours! Ted, as is worryingly becoming the trend, bailed out on us at the last minute…he happened also to be going for some outreach ministry with the youth out of town with hte Church Youth Pastor, Pastor Okioma, to Gilgil.

On that articular day, most of the In-Tuners were rolling….Jose had his ride, as did Andy and Kevin Nyamweya, a former member, gave the rest of the guys a ride. On arrival…and for those of you who have been to the school before, we were simply breath-taken by the beauty of the school’s surroundings. Plush lawns and open spaces, smooth and well-paved paths and sidewalks, regent buildings and a petit chapel with architecture vaguely resembling a byzantine cathedral.

We all met up at the entrance to the chapel and went to the balcony for some warm up practice as the girls were on a break. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Millicent would be preaching again and coupled with Craig’s charismatic and welcoming father, Elder Atebe, who also happened to be the Elder in Charge of the Kenya High School, this was bound to be an unforgettable sabbath in more ways than one…

Elder Atebe kicked us off by calling for us to give at least four items as we welcomed in the students for the second half of the program. This we did in, thank God, the best of fashions, as we chose to sing ‘Glory and Honour’. Jamo was in his element thankfully, and Chris and Craig were on point in their tenor 1 renditions. Even without the lead bass, Ted, I have to say Edwin executed the voice quite well without his co. Anderson on the other hand also matched up satisfactorily, despite the fact that he had been MIA for a while; this of course, was due to Joseph’s encouragement and faith in the world and everyone in it.

The morning sermon was as fresh, if not fresher, than it had been with Sis. Millicent at Nairobi School,where she talked about the 7 Fs that Jesus had and which we all should…I’ll talk more about that on a future article, but she clearly spelt out the fact that being a CHRIST-ian means striving to BE like Christ…and thus striving to be like Him in every possible way.

Lunch was a sordid affair at the begining when everyone of us was thrown into disarray when it was discovered that the school hadn’t afterall organized alittle something for its guests as promised earlier. Knowing the combined apetite In-Tuners have…akin to a mini-economy, I knew the guys wouldn’t last long (okay I admit…I’m also a food- addict, if not THE…) and thus something had to be done. But as God would have it…everything worked out rather well when The Onyonyi’s, Craig’s Mum and Mrs. Damaris shared with us their lunch and some loaf which was brought in by Anderson and Joseph…I could suddenly see the smiles from Chris and Ronny…

The afternoon program started off an hour or two late due to the fact that the students were being taken through a fire drill for quite a long time. Special items were inter-woven with what the speaker of the day had to tell us and it was a pleasant fellowship indeed. Lesson learned? Food is VERY IMPORTANT to In-Tune…hehehe, but ultimately spiritual nourishment is much more satisfying…Good day