The Fountain Magazine Issue 01, August 2013

Bible Quiz
ACROSS:
1. And he kneeled down,
and cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had
said this, he fell asleep.
2. I have heard of thee by
the hearing of the ear: but
now mine eye seeth thee.
Wherefore I abhor myself
, and repent in dust and
ashes.
3. And said, O my God, I
am ashamed and blush to
lift up my face to thee, my
God: for our iniquities are
increased over our head,
and our trespass is grown
up unto the heavens.
4. Let the LORD, the God
of the spirits of all flesh,
set a man over the congregation,
Which may go out
before them, and which
may go in before them, and
which may lead them out,
and which may bring them
in; that the congregation of
the LORD be not as sheep
which have no shepherd.
5. Oh that thou wouldest
bless me indeed, and enlarge
my coast, and that
thine hand might be with
me, and that thou wouldest
keep me from evil,
that it may not grieve me!
And God granted him that
which he requested.
6. O LORD, I have heard
thy speech, and was afraid:
O LORD, revive thy work
in the midst of the years,
in the midst of the years
make known; in wrath remember
mercy.
7. And I prayed unto the
LORD my God, and made
my confession, and said, O
Lord, the great and dreadful
God, keeping the covenant
and mercy to them that
love him, and to them that
keep his commandments;
We have sinned, and have
committed iniquity, and
have done wickedly, and
have rebelled, even by departing
from thy precepts
and from thy judgments.
8. O my Lord, let the man of
God which thou didst send
come again unto us, and
teach us what we shall do
unto the child that shall be
born.
9. LORD, it is nothing with
thee to help, whether with
many, or with them that
have no power: help us,
O LORD our God; for we
rest on thee, and in thy
name we go against this
Crossword Puzzle:
Fill in the names of the person who said the prayer
multitude.
O LORD,
thou art our
God; let not
man prevail
against
thee.
10. .... and
said, LORD
God of
Abraham,
Isaac, and
of Israel, let
it be known
this day
that thou
art God in
Israel, and
that I am
thy servant,
and that I
have done
all these
things at
thy word.
Hear me,
O LORD,
hear me,
that this
people may
know that
thou art the
LORD God,
and that thou hast turned
their heart back again.
11..... My soul doth magnify
the Lord, And my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my
Savior. For he hath regarded
the low estate of his
handmaiden: for, behold,
from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath
done to me great things;
and holy is his name. And
his mercy is on them that
fear him from generation
to generation.
DOWN:
1. But will God indeed dwell
on the earth? behold, the
heaven and heaven of
heavens cannot contain
thee; ...... Yet have thou respect
unto the prayer of thy
servant, and to his supplication,
O LORD my God, to
hearken unto the cry and
to the prayer, which thy servant
prayeth before thee
today.
2. For this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth
is named, That he would
grant you, according to the
riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might
by his Spirit in the inner
man; That Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith.
3. O Lord, I beseech thee,
let now thine ear be attentive
to the prayer of thy servant,
and to the prayer of
thy servants, who desire to
fear thy name: and prosper,
I pray thee, thy servant this
day, and grant him mercy.
4. And he prayed unto the
LORD, and said, I pray thee,
O LORD, was not this my
saying, when I was yet in
my country? ....for I knew
that thou art a gracious
God, and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness,
and repentest thee of
the evil.
5. O LORD, though our iniquities
testify against us,
do thou it for thy name’s
sake: for our backslidings
are many; we have sinned
against thee.
6. Then he turned his face
to the wall, and prayed
unto the LORD, saying, I
beseech thee, O LORD, remember
now how I have
walked before thee in truth
and with a perfect heart,
and have done that which
is good in thy sight.
7. O Lord, open thou my
lips; and my mouth shall
show forth thy praise. For
thou desirest not sacrifice;
else would I give it: thou
delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not
despise.
8. Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they
do.
9....prayed, and said, LORD,
I pray thee; open his eyes
that he may see. And the
LORD opened the eyes
of the young man; and
he saw: and, behold, the
mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire.
Find the answers at the
back cover
Till very recently, Rev. Diang’a
genuinely liked me. In a
congregation where young
people were a rarity of sorts, my
regular attendance must have
scored highly with the Reverend.
A combination of factors had
played out neatly to ensure that I
was an ever present congregant
on the second last bench close
to the door.
You see, if your grandmother is
one of the Women Leaders in
I Used To Go
To Church
on Sunday
by Maxwell Ngala
the Assembly (not to be confused
with the political units,
these were simply regions in the
Voice of Salvation and Healing
Church) you have few choices
to make in life. Also, because
tithe was low and those days
people were beginning to send
their children to academies all
over, the church had not built the
Reverend a house in the church
compound from where he could
execute his mandate, in popular
parlance. This invariably meant
that the Reverend would from
time to time be hosted at home.
So, to avoid the spectre of being
called a bad egg, I would faithfully
carry his black leather bag
full of his Sunday paraphernalia
to church and tuck myself neatly
by the door and wait for a long
call or the end of the service -
whichever came first - to liberate
me.
In some of those late evening
prayers, grandma would at times
charge me with preaching or
teaching after quoting a verse
from Corinthians or Timothy
about spiritual gifts or youth
empowerment.
With the Reverend and his two
associate pastors in attendace,
I would nimbly take the ‘Witness
Stand’ and simply replay
a sermon they had done. With
gestures and facial expressions
to boot.
So,the Reverend liked me. I
helped him remember the
sermons he had preached and
he must have been glad to
see that someone was paying
attention even as Nya Pap
and her neighbour had been
snoring unapologetically last
Sunday.
Because of my English Language
teacher’s thoroughness,
I soon also became the Reverend’s
Spell Checker when
a letter was being written to
requisition some charts, flags,
etc from the Head Office in
Kisumu. Or when a letter was
being addressed to a man who
had disappeared in Nairobi and
left his mother - and the Reverend
- without ‘something’.
Fruit of the SpiritYet the Reverend
did not understand my conduct
every time the Holy Spirit
came down.
You know, in the VOSH church
then (I still think it to be so seeing
as our home is even closer
now to the church), there were
two sermons. After the lengthy
preliminaries involving the routine
fundraisers and greetings
from one of the ‘sons’ who had
come back from Kapango, the
Reverend would usher in the two
young preachers at around mid
day. Those days you didn’t go to
church if you had Sunday afternoon
plans with your girlfriend
or boyfriend.
The first preacher,called Owen
Experience
Pesa, would
flip his Bible
to some obscure text and begin
‘building’ it. He’d do so till
a streak of sweat appeared on
his face. That always happened
around 1 hour into his discourse.
By this time, the church knew
the Spirit was near... then Ken
Omondi Aura would take over to
quite plainly, to hit the home run.
Ken did not come to ‘encourage’.
He was a fiery preacher who
impressed the few young souls
around me simply because of
his gesticulations and ‘labour
intensive preaching methods’.
One hour into Ken’s sermon, we
were expected - at the prompting
of the Spirit of course - to all
fall down on the floor and begin
seeking Jesus in prayer. Women
would of course lead this great
demonstration of Spirit Power.
Older women would have lesos
at the ready to quickly cover a
young lady upon who the Spirit
had ‘fallen’ without due regard
to the young starving eyes of
young boys behind her.
Men, of course in typical alphamale
demeanour, would ensure
all women have gone down
before following nimbly and
seeking Obong’o Nyakalaga-
-Nyasach Polo gi Piny.
People would sweat, spit, cry and
about 45 minutes later, silence.
Someone would rise to prompt
the beginning of the testimony
session. We’d be told how God
had sent someone a dream
about a lost brother.How God
had ‘chucked’ some evil spirits. I
was particularly fearful of the latter
because the Reverend would
fix his gaze upon me and warn
that during prayer time any soul
not prostrating himself like the
rest would have 7 such spirits
visiting him when they left their
captor.
He would know. I never really
fell when the Spirit descended.
Every time the moment came, I
would repair to the hindermost
part of the church and quietly
seek Inspiration. Beginning with
Grand Ma’s intro: Nyasach
Oganda Israel... Almost saying
“To the Unknown God”.
16 The Fountain | August 2013 The Fountain | August 2013 17