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Train to glory keeps spirits on right track


As the train huffs and puffs along the lines, the last thing one would expect on it is a church in session.

Yet Christians from various denominations assemble in two of the wagons as the locomotive heads to its destination, either town or Embakasi.

While some commuters may be caught unawares when the sessions starts, others know what to expect.

Joel Masinde, a first timer on the “spiritual wagon” says it took a few minutes for the whole thing to register.

“Some fellow began singing. I thought he had gone crazy but soon others joined in,” he says.

Bethlehem and Jerusalem are the names adopted for wagons 3 and 7, where congregants are treated to songs and homilies.

A preacher soon takes to the floor to give a sermon. Whenever he utters a powerful statement, the travellers respond in one accord, depicting a scene from a typical church setting.

Some of them are standing because the train is always congested but when it is time for worship, all that ceases to matter.

No offering

So deeply engrossing are the praise and worship sessions that some worshipers speak in tongues and many more are moved to tears.

Unlike the ritual in a typical church, the congregants here do not give offerings.

“We are not here for financial gain, rather for spiritual nourishment,” says Antony Baraza, a pastor in the Bethlehem wagon.

The only time worshipers are called upon to give is when one of them is in need.