Chapter 1

             Aaron was a young energetic minister who at age 30 had accomplished more than many pastors that were his chronological seniors.  With responsibility of a church of over 300 members, he was constantly on the go, helping to organize or supervise one event or another.  His devoted wife Cheryl, like himself had grown up in Christian Charismatic churches and was also a devoted Christian worker.  The two were eagerly looking forward to a proposed missionary journey to the east coast of Africa, but neither had any idea of how drastically their lives would soon be changed.

            A meeting was scheduled with the leader of the team, a native Kenyan who had made the initial contacts for them in his home country.  Aaron and Cheryl would be joined by two other Christian couples.  George and Juanita Meadows were ministers in their church who had been very helpful building up the music ministry over the years.  Having beautiful voices and Juanita being highly skilled on the keyboard, they brought forth a unique but highly uplifting praise and worship service as George’s deep baritone blended perfectly with Juanita’s high soprano.  Yet they too would be shocked at the question the group would soon be asked.

             Kyle and Terry Harrison rounded out the group of six neophytes to head to a foreign country on a thirty day missionary journey.  The Harrisons pastored a much smaller church nearby with less than a hundred members.  They had met Aaron and Cheryl at a marriage retreat and being about the same ages they quickly became friends.  With the whole group assembled, Charles Okinyi who was easily ten years the senior of any of the couples began to tell them what to expect on their maiden trip to a distant land with an entirely different culture.  It was elements of that culture that was to prove to be a shock to them all.

            “Since you’re not staying beyond thirty days,” Charles began, “you won’t need a visa but you must have your passports in order.  Don’t forget to get your malaria pills from your doctors and get shots for yellow fever.  We’ll fly British Airways to England where we’ll switch planes and from there we’ll go on to Kenya.  The total flight time will be about seventeen hours.”

            As Charles went on and on about details of the trip, Aaron’s mind wandered off thinking about the adventure of ministering in a far distant land.  He wondered if he would see elephants or gorillas or lions roaming freely across the jungle.  He also wondered how he would be received by the Christians there when all of the sudden he was jolted out of his daydream as he realized Charles was asking him a question.

            “Do you want to do marriage counseling while you’re there?”  Charles asked.

            “Ah, yeah, sure.  Why not?”  Aaron responded enthusiastically.

            “OK,”  Charles answered before pausing and looking deep into the eye of every person before asking the next question which he suspected would unnerve some if not all of them.

            “How would you counsel a woman who is one wife in a multiple wife family?”

            “Huh?”  Aaron responded as his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.  Wow!  These people really need to get their lives straightened out and get saved,” Cheryl offered.

            “The people of which I am speaking are already saved.”

            “How can that be?”  Cheryl questioned.  “We all know you need to repent of sin in your life before you can be saved” Juanita chimed in.

            “What sin?”  Charles asked calmly with a slight gleam in his eye.  He knew this revelation would be a shock to the Western Christian psyche.  He knew he also needed to prepare them before they got to Kenya and offended some of the brethren there unnecessarily.

            Terry, whose face had turned red, could no longer hold her fury and stood to her feet and slammed her hand down on the table in front of her as she challenged Charles “You can’t claim to be a Christian leader and condone such adultery!  What are you saying?”  She demanded.  She then crossed her arms over her chest defiantly as she tilted her head to the side and eyed Charles out of the corners of her eyes.

            Her husband, Kyle, looked sheepishly up at her as he was a little embarrassed by his wife’s outburst.  He tugged at her arm to indicate she should sit down.  While gently coaxing her, “Come on honey, don’t get so upset.  Have a seat.”  She pulled away from him as darts shot out of her eyes as she looked at him briefly with a look that said “Don’t mess with me right now!”

            She then returned to her defiant gaze at Charles, waiting for him to answer.  Her face was now flushed red almost matching her hair which she tossed back out of her face.  Charles smiled knowingly, then slowly asked “what . . . does  . . . the . . . word . . . say?”  He drew out each of the words for dramatic effect.

            “Well . . .” George broke in  “Maybe we can do a Bible study on the subject after we get some pizza and cokes delivered,” George interjected in an attempt to break the tension that had built up in the room. 

            “We all know it’s wrong, why do we have to have a Bible study?” Juanita responded as she finally entered the fray.  “God made Eve for Adam.  If He had wanted a man to have more than one wife He would have made Adam, and Sally, and Sue, and Maria!”

            “Well in the Old Testament there were men who had more than one wife.  Take Abraham for example.  He had Sarah and then Hagar,” Aaron offered.

            “Yeah!.  And you see what a mess that caused!”  Cheryl responded.

             “Then Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel.”  George added.

             “No, actually he had four wives because the handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah became wives as well” Charles corrected him.

            “No!  That can’t be right!” Cheryl objected.  “He was tricked into marrying Leah and those handmaidens weren’t really wives even though he might have had sex with them.”

            “Is that what the word says?”  Charles asked.

            “Perhaps” he continued “I’ll let you study this a little more before we continue to discuss it.”  Charles, who had coal black skin, stood up to his full height of 6 feet 2 inches.  He held his head high and had regal bearing as he towered above the group which was sitting down and even Terry’s diminutive five foot two inch the hundred and ten pound frame, while she remained standing.

            Charles smiled broadly, spun on his heels and glided toward that door as the others were left stunned, silently glancing back and forth at one another.  None had any idea what the coming week would bring.