The journey out of Nairobi first meant travelling through Nairobi – on what turned out to be some of the heaviest traffic of the year. It was school turn out day, on a Friday, so thousands of boarding school children were being returned to parents, on top of the usual end of week congestion. Compounded with this the President was making a 20+ car convoy visit to Central Kenya, so once we headed North towards Mbeere and reached the one lane each way roads not only were we zigzagging around the small motorised bike based transports, Tuc Tucs, which have taken off here as in India, and trying to pass underpowered lorries as they headed up a gentle gradient, but we were also in heavier than expected traffic as President Ruto, the man who dismissed his entire cabinet and backtracked on his economic policies to assuage a Gen Z uprising in June 2024 passed in an expensive looking motorcade.

We were entertained on our journey by the welcome presence and humour of our guide and driver Moses Kimani. As well as being an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Moses (Kim) Moses is a song writer, worship and discipleship leader, the Founding Chaplain for Africa Let’s Worship (AFLEWO) and the Africa Coordinator for United Adoration which empowers artists to create in their own language, culture, and context. As someone passionate about youth ministry he’s been watching Stu Wright on our SOMA UK META Youth videos since we last hung out 5 days ago, and there’s lots to chat about in the car, punctuated by a variety of car games that Toby has created.

The journey lag means we arrive late for the Bishop, who kindly greets us in his family home, which he is developing into a retreat centre. He’s rebuilt the plot to enable up to 10 guests to be accommodated, added in basic farming – cows, goats, poultry, a fish pond, crops, a well and a bore hole, and even has a 5 x 1.5m gas production silo bag where manure can be turned into natural gas for cooking in the kitchen. Toby gets to jump on that trampoline style to aid in the production. Round the corner he is reclaiming woodland into a prayer retreat walk, bees have their hives in the trees and an open space is cultivated where an actual trampoline and other play equipment make a haven for families wanting a visit under the trees, as new water-tanks are installed, a reservoir is dug and the transformation of the space completed in time for his retirement as Diocesan Bishop in a few years time. The idea is to move away for a season at that point so his successor can bed into the diocese unhindered and while continuing to provide space for teams and individuals in this family home.

On the Sunday we met one of the inspirations for this transformation, the Diocesan Treasurer, Sam who works for a major relief charity in Nairobi as an internal auditor. He also volunteers for the Diocese, schools and other great projects in his spare time. Like many Kenyans we met in the city the countryside is where his heart it, and he has side hustles galore there to top up income and prepare for retirement. This was really common among the clergy as well (and worth a thought in the CoE where thousands are petitioning for better pension provision after the debacles of General Synod decisions in time of crisis have been prolonged in time of plenty). One Provincial staff worker has a shop, he wants to expand into a chain, and a farm for cash crops as well as his family farm where he will retire to. Labour to man these is inexpensive so these ‘side hustles’ can build up income and a pension pot. Sam’s is something else though – as well as a solor powered bore hole to make a farm of papaya come alive (grow in 8-12 weeks), he has a mini-zoo of ostrich, crocodiles and a camel in addition to a wide variety of farm animals. It’s a micro-business that he uses to bless the whole community, often hosting the village church (monthly gathering when the parish church shuts for a Sunday, and ‘local churches’ emerge in 6 different locations, with priest from the surrounding deaneries helping out).

In Mbeere we see the green agenda of the ACK in full force. The national church vision is for wholeness, including ecological, and the Archbishop’s Chaplain is a key campaigner. The diocese is lush and rural, and the vision for local churches makes abundant sense as the distances to walk or catch a bike ride to are long to reach the parish centres. It’s also a diocese where the Holy Spirit is readily welcomed in ministry. Our first visit is to help train 100+ lay ministers in healing and deliverance and commission a new group of diocesan intercessors. The morning is glorious and fruitful, building on good work already done for decades, and tapping into a spiritual hunger and vitality that is clearly here. The Diocesan Bishop is the choice of Chair for the new SOMA Kenya, and it shows.

From there we head deeper into the rural areas to spend two nights as the guests of Revd Capt Mary Rukungi, the Diocesan Missioner and a firm friend since our visit together to South Sudan. She introduces me everywhere as her son, and Toby as her grandson. She is a spiritual powerhouse, and some of the highlights of the trip remain videoing her for the SOMA UK Learning Cohorts, and wondering if people in UK are ready for all the training (in deliverance and other spiritual matters) that I am recording and receiving from Mary and other clergy here. She is also extremely brave, as evidenced both in her ministry and in driving her car, rammed with 4 adults, 1 teenager and 2 children down a rain scarred road with crevices bigger than her wheels, that could only be avoided by driving into the undergrowth, in a late afternoon trip to the national park that is in her parish.

On our final day with Mary we commissioned 50+ parish evangelists for a 7 day mission to the deanery, where they swapped parishes and went door to door. It was an inspirational time and the Lord agan gave me strength to speak for around 90 minutes.

A huge blessing to be in the Diocese. What a treat to visit.