I Say Yes!
Lael Barkman, Pastor of Sunrise Chapel Mennonite church, was in Kenya in early March 2006 with a team of fifteen. In an interview with the website crew, he talks about how he finally said yes to the call of God after numerous wasted years in rebellion.

I have been to Kenya numerous times. The good thing is that each year brings with it new and wonderful experiences. This time I brought with me a team of fifteen which is just the perfect group size. We like to bring fifteen and always give priority to those who have been here before. We’ve realized that it’s better even for the people here when they know someone. For example, last year we had Dan with us and on coming to Thika, everyone is asking, “where is Dan, where is Dan?” We need Dan here. So when there is already a connection, there is more strength. There is a blessing when people already know each other. Of course it’s a blessing too when new people come to extend their horizons but the blessing is primarily on those that are coming a second time.

James Greg was a great example. He has been studying the language and had people write on paper various phrases and what they mean. So he has been teaching his family and his wife, “Habari yako?” that is, “how are you?” and other such phrases. And so he has been teaching the team we came with all the commonly used phrases so that they are more prepared for the mission.

It’s always so good to come. We can’t wait to get here while we are planning for it. And when we get here, it’s hard to leave. This is the most difficult year for us to leave now because we feel like there is so much more that we could do. My wife’s and I hearts have really connected with Neema. We feel one with them and it is such a tremendous blessing to minister to them. We wish we had more time for the church there. They would love for us to teach them more, maybe even hold a revival. Next year, the work will begin very early because we get here late Friday then Saturday evening, we begin revival at Neema. This will continue for Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Monday evening. Then from Monday evening to Tuesday evening we will be holding crusades. It’s going to be a very full time. My desire would be to bring another minister with me. So for one or two nights he could preach in the crusades to give me a rest. That’s my goal. Maybe I could bring even my very own brother, Gay Lloyd Barkman.

You know I have a sister in Kisumu. She’s been a missionary there for now almost seven years.

Would you consider long term mission in Kenya?
If God would call me to that but right now I do not consider it as my gifting. The first calling that God placed in my heart was to evangelism and revival. He called me at a young age of nine. I felt the first call and rejected it and then the second call came at the age of fourteen and I ran away from God into rebellion. It was an ugly life. I was an alcoholic, but I will never forget the night I surrendered to God. I got saved and said to God, “Whatever you call me to, I will do it.” And he called me to preach, to evangelize. Interestingly, I never thought that I would be a pastor. I always thought that I do not have the gifting of a pastor but God still called me. And so if God calls us to be here in Kenya, that’s fine. Right now our work is very great. We just took up the pastor in a church that had been without a pastor for the last four years. God is really healing lives there and there is a lot of pain. They have been abused by the pastors who had been ahead of us those years ago. And God is really healing. He is pouring out his Spirit and he is healing lives, the hurts, the wounds, and so our work will be there am sure for quite a while. My goal is to have an assistant pastor in about one year and then maybe about five years from then have him be the senior pastor, train him and mentor him to pastor. This will free me up of course to go out and work some more on evangelism. That’s my goal that I believe God is putting in our hearts now for the leaders at Sunrise Chapel. It would be good for us to just have a home church base where we can rest, where we can go. My wife and I hold about five to six revivals across America, from the East coast to the West coast. And then of course that’s not counting the annual trip to Kenya. So that makes seven. And then of course we go to visit our family and that puts us over once a month away from the church. That’s too much. And so we are cutting for the next years. I am usually scheduled about two years in advance for revivals and so what we are doing now is cutting back to four or five revivals a year. And trying to contain them to a certain time of the year because I am also a football coach and that’s daily in the afternoons. That’s only supplementary income coz I am a full time pastor. And so we are still very busy.

My wife has a flower shop. She arranges flowers and sells them and so we were very busy before we came here because Valentines Day in America is the biggest flower sale of the year and she was very busy? We are dealing with, as far as I know, flowers from Columbia and Venezuela, primarily. She started it because obviously a pastor is not a high paying position, I think even here in Kenya. But I think in Kenya it’s even higher than other jobs as opposed to in America. Like here, the pastors get more than the fundi’s (carpenter’s) unlike in America. Fundi’s are very well paid in America. The carpenters in America make in one hour more than they do in a week here. So in America, the pastors are among the most lowly paid. And so we have to make do with supplementary incomes like those of selling flowers and football coaching. We also raise puppies, dogs, we have two very expensive female dogs, and one day during a week I also do landscaping. It’s all in trying to supplement the income so that we have enough to pay for our house.

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