[SIZE=7]Kenyan Pastors Buried After Futile Resurrection[/SIZE]
The two senior pastors at the Kingdom Seekers Fellowship were finally buried in one grave at the Nakuru North cemetery on Thursday even as a section of the faithful remained in prayer for them to resurrect.
Just as they were friends in life and died together, the church management decided to bury its leaders next to each other.
Emotions ran high with some people wailing as the two bodies were lowered into the grave, one after the other.
Several speakers who addressed the congregation during the memorial service for Pastors Patrick Wanjohi Wanja of Nakuru and his Nyahururu counterpart Francis Kamau Ndekei said they would inter their leaders if God did not resurrect them during the service.
It turned out that the resurrection was not in God’s plans and the two pastors were laid to rest.
A section of the faithful accompanied the families and church leaders in a convoy of close to 100 vehicles including a large caravan truck to Valley Hospital Mortuary to view and collect the bodies.
However, the convoy had to go through Oginga Odinga road instead of Kenyatta Avenue within the Central Business District after the Nakuru divisional police boss Johnston Ipara denied them permission to pass via the busy area.
Back at the church, the bodies which were ferried on an open decorated carrier were welcome with a standing ovation by the hundreds of faithful. Ten big tents had been erected to shield the faithful from the sun but they were still not enough and many others had to bear the scotching late morning rays to witness the service.
The carrier was pulled from the main gate by pall bearers who were dressed in white suits along a red carpet sprinkled with rose flower petals to an equally decorated tent.
At the service, there were only a few cases of people crying as the church leaders had declared that they were not mourning the dead but celebrating their lives.
Several bishops among them Bishop Dr Arthur Kitonga of the Redeemed Gospel Church and Bishop Harrison Ng’ang’a and gospel musician Jane Muthoni attended the ceremony.
Thursday’s ceremony sharply contrasted last Saturday’s when the bodies were taken to the church for a “raising the dead” prayer service.
The chairman of the Federation of Evangelical and Indigenous Churches of Kenya, Bishop Joseph Methu said the church was not wrong in hoping and praying that the dead may rise because “everything is possible through God.”
Kingdom Seekers Fellowship general overseer, Apostle John Kimani William said to believe in raising of the dead was not going beyond what was written in the scripture but practicing what was plainly recorded in the bible in numerous passages.
He said the leadership and members of his church were publicly voicing their forgiveness for everyone who thought that they had gone astray by daring to believe God’s word.
Apostle William said many dead were raised in the old and new testaments and that Jesus declared that he was the resurrection and life for believers.
“Jesus said that those who believe in him shall do greater works than even those he did and Kingdom Seekers believe in this full gospel of the end-times,” he added.