Homa Bay Cultural Festival

In the final Ladies match in the Homa Bay County Cultural Festival, Victoria FC from Kendu Bay and the Suba Lakers from Mbita entertained the fans at Homa Bay Stadium with a very exciting match. The two rivals locked horns knowing that a win would earn them a 1st place finish because they were playing in a league format. In case of a draw, Victoria would emerge as the champions due to their superior goal differential they earned when they thrashed Sophia Queens 4-0 in the opening match. The Suba Lakers had to struggle to a 1-0 win over the same Sophia Queens when Leah Ongojo made a superb individual performance taking the ball from the center line and beating the defenders before she smashed it against the goal post, but with a never say die attitude she circled back to collect the ball again and place it past the goalkeeper and inside the far post for the win.


Against Victoria, the Suba Lakers started slow and were dominated in the first half though it remained scoreless. The momentum changed in the second half with the Lakers taking control, but Victoria was the first to score on a rebound shot with 8 minutes remaining. Undeterred, the Lakers responded within a minute to even the score at 1-1 on a beautiful header by Judith Oketch. Both teams battled to put one more across the line in the closing minutes, but it remained 1-1.

For their efforts, Victoria was crowned the champs with a trophy and given sh. 15,000 with a promise that sh. 35,000 would be paid later. The Suba Lakers were given sh. 10,000 with a promise that sh. 20,000 would be paid at a later time

In the Ladies semifinals for the Suba Council of Elders Tournament in Sindo, Mfangano defeated Kaksingre 1-0 on a goal that came off of a corner kick from Leah Ongojo. In the other semifinal Gembe defeated Gwassi 5-0. After missing numerous 1st half opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, Gembe capitalized in the 2nd half with 5 goals. One each from Syprose Akoth, Alicent Awuor and Irine Achieng and 2 goals from Sharon Bismark.




In the finals, Gembe scored a classic goal late in the second half after a corner kick bounced around in the box and Alicent Awuor pounced on it and sent a laser past the flat-footed goalkeeper. It was the just reward for their domination of the ball possession throughout the game. The winners received The Senior Chief Damianus Ajwang Memorial Trophy donated by Roseline A. Onyuka. Unfortunately the set of uniforms that was supposed to go to the winners was given to the boys runners up instead. Some of the invited guests contributed some cash awards for the young ladies.

Immigration Issues

I have been in Kenya now for 8 years.  Up until this year I have never had a problem with my work permit.  Maranatha Church allows me to be in Kenya under their covering so that I can continue's God's work here in Mbita.  They always take care of those logistics.  In fact, I have never even worried about it bfore.  I am on a missionary work permit which lasts for a couple of years and is cheaper than other ones.  In February of this year my last one was expiring so we applied for a renewal. 

The approval process is supposed to take about a month, but when we checked back a few months later, they couldn't find the file.  The people from Maranatha kept following up, but nothing was happening.  I had to get a 3 months visitors visa while I was waiting, and then had to renew the visitors one for another three months as we waited.  When the visitor's visa expired in December, they still hadn't found the file.  Last week I received a call that I was needed urgently in Nairobi, so I took the night bus on Saturday night after we had finisehd our tournament in Mbita. 

I asked a lot of people to pray for favour with the immigration department and I spent a lot of time in prayer.  In my mind, I thought that since God has called me here, wants me to be here and I had committed the issue to Him in prayer that I would go down to Immigration offices in the 20 story tall Nyayo house, talk to a few people who would quickly find the file, approve it and I would be on a bus headed back to Mbita by the afternoon at the latest. 

As usual in Kenya, it didn't go that way.  All of the government employees I found weren't very ready to help.  Actually they didn't seem to care at all.  One of them simply asked me when I was leaving the country.  They sent me from one office to another, up to the 5th floor, then to the 2nd floor, then the 20th floor, then back down to the ground level, back up to 5th floor and on and on.  No one could find my file and they wouldn't give me a temporary visa.  They said that I couldn't even re apply for a new one.  The only solution was for them to find my missing file.  I offered to start looking through the thousands and thousands of files myself, but they didn't seem to like that idea.  After a few unsuccessful hours going from office to office, I finally found a nice lady named Alice who actually seemed to sympathize with me, though she didn't have any success either.

After beating my head against the wall (and climbing up and down the stairs at least a dozen times), I decided to call the minister for immigration who happens to be the Member of Parliament from Mbita.  Since he knows me well, I thought maybe he could help.  His personal assistant came down immediately and tried to offer assistance with no avail. 

I was told to come back in an hour so I ran out to the bus stage to see if I could get a bus back to Mbita anytime before Christmas.  The bus drivers in the country were threatening to go on strike during the peak season.  Everyone was trying to leave Nairobi to go to their upcountry homes for Christmas, but there were no buses.  The bus stage was packed with people who had been waiting for over 24 hours to get a bus out of town.  They didn't have any seats available for that day or the next day until 8:00 pm the next night, and on top of that, they didn't know if they buses would even be moving because of the strike.  So I booked that ticket for the following night, hoping that the buses would start moving soon.

As I headed back to the Nyayo house, I started questioning God.  I was asking him why he wasn't answering my prayers and wandering how long this process would take, and if I would have to leave the country, and even if things did work out, would I be able to get back to Mbita before Christmas? 

Once I returned, nothing changed much; except I was doing less walking from office to office and up and down stairs, and now it was a lot more waiting.  At least Alice and these personal assistants of the minister were concerned and trying to help.  After nine hours of no progress, I was told to go home and they would continue to look for the file.  I was a little concerned that if I left town, everything would stall again. 

At this point I had spent the entire day, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, trying to sort out this issue.  I was tired and frustrated.  I had booked a room at a guesthouse for the night, but before going there I decided to check the bus stage again.  All of the same people were there waiting and a few more had joined them.  I found a few friends from Mbita who had spent over 30 hours waiting for a bus to come.  As I started to leave, one of the buses pulled in.  People quickly boarded and I asked one of the employees if they had any extra seat.  Within ten minutes I was on the bus headed back to Mbita at 6:00 pm. Somebody had booked a ticket but had given up hope and left just before the bus had arrived and that is what opened up the space for me to travel.     

Even though I hadn't succeeded with immigration at least I was able to get a bus and return to Mbita which seemed very unlikely a few minutes earlier. 

We reached Homa Bay by 1:00 am and I slept on the bus for a few hours before getting another vehicle to take me down the dirt road to Mbita.  I reached Mbita by 6:30 am, showered, changed and by 7:30 I was leaving the house to go pick up our football girls to play in a tournament in Sindo.  By 10:00 am I received a call from Alice, the one nice lady I met in the whole 20 story building in Nairobi.  She had gone down to the registry and personally found the file herself.  It has been misfiled among the tens of thousands of files (a needle in the haystack).  She promised to put it in front of the committee by the beginning of the new year and see if it can get approved quickly.  I will still need to go to the border and get a new visitors visa while they finish the process, but praise God the file was found. 

Later that evening I was reflecting on all that had happened.  Sometimes when we pray we think that God should answer our prayer the way that we want it done.  We think it should be done a certain way and when it isn't we start to blame God or question him.  Yet He is all-knowing.  He sees things and understands things in ways that we can't even comprehend.  He knew exactly where the file was and how He was going to answer my prayer.  But I think he was trying to teach me a few things through the process such as patience and how to trust in him.  I was putting a lot of faith in other humans such as the Minister of Immigration and his assistants. 

God was ready and able all along.  He answered my prayer (and many others) in His perfect timing and in His perfect way for His glory and honor!  Much better than my way!

Council of Elders

The Suba Council of Elders is sponsoring a tournament at Sindo for the Greater Suba/Mbita. Teams are competing in Men's and Women's Football, Volleyball and Netball from Mfangano, Rusinga, Gembe, Kaksingri and Gwassi.


Instead of taking the Suba Lakers as a team, we allowed our girls to play for their home regions. Six of them are playing for Mfangano Island, two others are playing for Kaksingri and our Gembe team is made of entirely of Suba Lakers from around Mbita (some in primary and some in secondary)

In Girls football, the Gembe region (our team) defeated Mfangano 3-2. Gembe started strong in the first half on two goals from Irine Achieng. The first one was on a penalty kick and the second one on a good shot from just inside the box. At the beginning of the second half, it looked like Gembe would cruise to an easy victory when Sharon Bismark scored to put them up by three goals, but Mfangano would not give up that easy as Leah Ongojo (another Suba Laker) fought hard to pick up two goals to bring them within one. Though it was too little, too late and the game ended 3-2. Mfangano came back in their 2nd game defeating Gwassi by a score of 1-0 on a goal by Dorothy Adhiambo (Suba Laker).

In the final game of the day, Gembe scored an early goal from the smallest player on the field, Teresa Atieno (6th grader), in the 7th minute after a nice pass from Primerose Achieng. Gembe created numerous chances, but couldn't add to their lead and the game finished with Gembe defeating Gwassi 1-0. Primerose hasn't played much football over the past couple of years because she is on a basketball scholarship at one of the top secondary schools in Kenya. So most of her time is spent in basketball. She is only home for about a week, but was ready to come and play football with us. It is great to have her back with the team.

In the semifinals on Thursday, Gembe will face Gwassi while Mfangano will take on Kaksingre.

Holiday Classic

The Suba Lakers Hosted their first ever regional girls football tournament.  We had strong teams from all over the western part of Kenya including Kendu Bay, Kisumu and Rongo.  The people of Mbita finally were able to see how fun and entertaining it can be to watch ladies football.  In fact there were several players that had just flown back into Kenya from Lesotho where they had been playing for the Kenya National Team.  The true football fans around here were given a big treat. 

Rongo ended up winning the tournament, defeating Victoria 1-0 in the finals.  In the third place match the Suba Lakers were defeated by Kisumu Leeds United.  The Lakers played so well in the semifinals before losing a close one 2-1 to the chamions.  The third place match was also a narrow 1-0 defeat.  Our Junior tea, comprised of all primary school girls, also competed in the tournament against the old women.  They did a great job and gained a lot of valuable experience and confidence.  They drew two matches and lost the other one 2-1.  They almost qualified for the semifinals. 

I was happy because the tournament was very well run.  All of the matches started on time, the refereeing was very good and there was no problem with the schedule, fixtures, brackets, prizes, meals, etc.  It is very rare to get a tournament in Kenya without having big arguments and lots of drama, but God enabled us to do it.  All of the teams were very complementary towards the organization and running of the tournament. 

The best part of the tournament is that it was more than just football.  Before the first match we had Lillian Ombori share with the girls for a time about relationships and peer pressure, giving some great demonstrations about how a small drop can pollute a glass of water.  She really had the girls attention.

In the evening on Thursday, we showed all of the teams a video with different international athletes giving their testimonies and then had Pastor Amos share a short message with them, encouraging them to seek God first in their lives and to follow his ways. 

It was a lot of work and ended up costing much more than we had budgeted for, but we were thankful for the sucess of the 2 day tournament.  For more detailed information, you can check out http://www.subalakers.com/

Wasichana Tunaweza

The Suba Lakers returned from Kitale on December 13th. It was a great experience spending 4 days in a new place, meeting new people, hearing new ideas and playing against strong competition. The players liked the place very much, except for the cold weather. For young girls that have grown up at sea level on the equator where the temperature is consistent year round, the high elevation "cold" weather was a bit of a shock to their system. It was hot during the day, but cooled down to around 50 degrees F at night.


The first two mornings the players participated in group sessions with the girls from other teams where they discussed how to keep their dreams alive. They shared challenges they face and how to overcome them so they can build a better future. During the discussion times and even during the nights, the girls formed strong bonds with the other teams from various parts of the country that were there.  One of our girls who has had a very difficult life with many challenges, told me that when she heard the stories of some of the other girls and what they had overcome, she was greatly encouraged to keep persevering! 
On the field the team couldn't take advantage of their leads to finish off the games. In the first match we opened with a goal from Dorothy Adhiambo in the first ten minutes and controlled possession against SEP from Oyugis. Unfortunately we had a let down in the 2nd half and allowed them to equalize, finishing in a 1-1 draw. On the 2nd day we played the hosts TYSA, a very strong team. Again we jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal from Irine Achieng. Within a minute TYSA scored to keep the game even. The 2nd half was back and forth until TYSA scored a second goal to win 2-1. In the last group game we domintated against KYFA, winning 2-0 on goals from Dorothy Adhiambo and Irine Achieng. Unfortunately we finished 1 point behind the other two teams and missed out on playing in the finals.


We were thankful for the opportunity to travel to Kitale and make new friends while being exposed to a new area of the country.

Special Clinic

This week we hosted internationally renowned coach Bob Oyugi in Mbita. Bob has been one of the main men in Kenyan football for the last 25 years. He has spent time coaching some of the biggest clubs and national teams and has travelled to every continent of the world attending coaches trainings and conducting clinics and camps. He has been certified as an trainer of coaches in several countries and is also a representative of the National teams, National Youth Talent Academy and UNICEF. Even though he has been to every continent and the U.S. over 20 times, he has never been to Mbita before this week.


Bob worked with 60 of our players during his three days in Mbita and at the same time conducted a coaches training for over 25 local coaches from all over the sub-branch. He was also assessing our players to see if some of them could be invited to the Under 17 trials in Nairobi next month. It didn't take him long to see that we have some of the best young girls in the country. He left Mbita very impressed at what he saw.

It was a very successful week as the club was able to help the players and all of these local coaches with this opportunity. We hope that as an ambassador of Kenyan football, Bob will be going back to Nairobi with a good report of what we are doing in Mbita so that other partners may be able to join us in developing girls youth football in the country.