Bill Schrull
On Sunday, I had the chance to visit St. Peter’s Church in Masala, Kenya. I sang “Blessed Assurance” with the congregation, as they were familiar with the hymn, especially the chorus. I used a guitar tuning called DADGAD that gives the song a bright, open-string sound. It was well received and sung by the congregation and choir. One of the highlights was the choir. They lead the congregation in many songs, choruses, and liturgical singing throughout the service. And again, it was all acapella, so you could hear the harmony in the voices.
Afterward, we moved on to Nyagoko Secondary School, where I was the guest preacher for a dedication service for the students. I had the same scriptures that we had at St. Paul’s on Sunday. I spoke about the Mark passages, which read, “If you want to be first, you must be last and servant of all.” My challenge to the students was to be ambitious but for the best reasons: to serve the Lord’s purpose and not for any selfish reason. I shared a story from my experience where I learned this important lesson. I encouraged them to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added you”.
Along the way, we planted a few trees on the school grounds. I’ve done that several times with Bishop David at various church gatherings. I’m unsure of the significance, but I’ll have to ask the bishop when he returns from Nairobi.
Monday was the start of the new server setup for the existing Thin Client network. They also have installed StarLink Internet. It is a vast improvement over the 3G LTE Data service, which was spotty at best. With StarLink, we could download various drivers and files that we needed for the installation in no time at all. As I noted in one of my previous blog posts from 8/27, one of my goals for this trip is to update Bishop Okullu College’s computer lab with new equipment to run the virtual server environment. 
They have two five-year-old Mac Mini computers running the virtual server environment. It was time to upgrade and speed up their operations. The great thing about thin client computing is that we can still use the original units (which are nine years old now) and get a big boost of speed for the MS Windows sessions the thin clients run just by updating the server hardware. We spent all of Monday and part of Tuesday and Wednesday working on and configuring the entire setup. I also took some time to go through some TCP/IP network training with Robert and Lynette. We also repurposed the Mac Mini computers. One is now set up to be used as a Library Catalog system. The other is configured with a large screen monitor in the seminar room for presentations and online meetings. 
Tomorrow, we’ll finish moving the StarLink WiFi router to the main office and run a wire back to the computer lab to connect everything up. All in all, it was a productive few days. I’m glad we could get so much done in a relatively short time.
Greetings, dear friends and visitors. After all of the activities with the Mission Boat, I had a day off on Wednesday, 9/19, while Bishop David went to his office to get some administrative work done. I relaxed at the Kodia home with other family members and shopped for equipment with Lynnette and Laura. Since their house is right in downtown Kisumu, it was easy to walk to the city center and shop for computer items we need at the college. I picked up a computer monitor with HDMI output, which we will need for the server PC setup. I also got some replacement keyboards and mice for the student workstations. In dusty environments, as they have here, eventually, they need some replacements.
On Thursday, we had a busy day visiting three schools sponsored by the diocese. The three schools are:
- Majengo Mixed Secondary School. (1000+ Students)
- Nyamira Girls High School. (2300+ Students)
- Ramba Boys High School (2200+ Students)
I spoke to the students at each school and, hopefully, inspired them to continue working hard on their studies and deepen their relationship with God through Jesus. As you can see in the listing above, I spoke to over 5,500 students at all three schools. At the girls’ school, in particular, they covered a large area of the campus. It was a privilege to share my story and my faith in Christ with them.
At each school, I also visited their computer training centers. In each case, the I.T. staff expressed their greatest challenges. At each school, the challenges included the need for more workstations, lower heat production from the computers, reliable electric power, and networking with high-speed Internet. I spoke with them about Thin Client computing, which we employed at Bishop Okullu College. Thin Client computing would satisfy all of the issues they spoke of, including being able to run from solar power and batteries, as we have done at the college.
Friday was another off day for me. That was welcome, as Thursday was a long day with three school visits and driving around the area. I got a lot of consulting work completed for my customers back home in the US.
I’m grateful to the Lord for the time and resources to be here in Kenya (and Tanzania next month) and be available to our friends here to help in any way that I can. I appreciate your continued prayers as I continue on the journey.
Asante Sana Bwanna Yesu.
Bill Schrull