The Cross and a Sword

So, when we weren't beach bumming it this past week or being uber tourists and taking pictures of everything -- or nothing; it's hard to tell in this pic

we really did do some class like things.

In one day we visited the oldest standing church in East and Central Africa, as well as the second oldest church in East and Central Africa that is still in use, both established by the same German missionary who had a rather unfortunate last name. Seriously. If your last name is Krapf, (just say that out loud once or twice without coming up with anything unfortunate) you should seriously look into getting a legal name change.

If nothing else, he left a serious legacy with the Anglican (Church of England) congregations around Mombasa in that he's their claim to fame in East and Central Africa. He showed up on the continent in 1844, a couple of centuries after both the Portuguese and the Moors (Arab speaking, Muslim people group) had conquered the area "in the name of God," so he had his work cut out for him.

Unfortunately, the Rabai people that he first settled with held on firmly to their traditional ways, and the mission pulled him out after fourteen years of work resulted in only a handful of converts -- and a fairly significantly sized missions base that is still standing. Cool to visit, but not much real use in reaching people for Christ. Out of all of the "reached" coastal peoples, the Rabai still hold the most tightly to their traditions and the rituals that take place in the Kaya, or sacred forest groves.

We also visited Fort Jesus, a Portuguese fort that later got taken over by the Moors and then the British. The British actually used it as a prison all the way up to 1958, when they decided to turn it into a national historical site, and, after they gained independence, the Kenyan government decided to keep it that way.

It's really cool looking, but the name is rather unfortunate. Even if you are under the impression that you are going to a Christian people, (the first Portuguese explorers to land in India actually thought that the Hindu temple they visited was preforming some sort of a Catholic mass, because they assumed that the entire Eastern world had been evangelized by St Thomas!) there is really no way to enter a land with the goals of conquest and missions. You see, that sharp pointy thing in one hand is called a sword, and the thing that looks like a book in the other hand, that's a Bible, and, no matter how hard you try, it's impossible to use one for the job of the other. They just don't work like that.

Regardless, the built the fort in the vague shape of a human; head, torso, two arms, two legs, and then decided that it looked like Jesus. Ya know...maybe...kind of. I'm fairly positive he had all of those body parts...but then, so have a good number of other people.

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