From Home

After 46 hours travel time -- 23 of those on a plane -- I am sitting at our home computer trying to put together all of my adventures of the past few days. I really had an amazing time in Nairobi and in Webuye. When it comes to expressing them I feel at a loss, but I'll try.

I arrived in Webuye last Wednesday. On Thursday I was on the pediatrics ward, which is actually 8 large rooms with about 8-12 beds apiece all linked by a wide hallway, no doors, no curtains. There were 42 kids, mostly with malaria (which is a mercy because malaria is not communicated by human to human contact), but at times they have had over 100. We saw cases of meningitis, AIDS, and TB as well as possible cases of typhoid and leukemia.

On Friday I went to school with a friend who teaches reading. So I read (in English) with the older classes. Over the weekend we went rainforest hiking, complete with muddy water up to your ankles, mud sildes :0), and monkeys in the canopy. That was wonderfully relaxing.

But I have to say Monday was the most 'stand out' day. I got to watch my first C-section! I'll spare you the details. But both Eunice and her son are doing well. That afternoon I finished up packing and the next morning drove to Eldoret to catch the plane, thinking my adventures we over. That was when I got locked in the bathroom. I did the only thing I could think of -- bang on the door and call for help. It took about 10 minutes but someone finally did let me out.

Gratefully, that was the most eventful 10 minutes of my entire journey home. (Thanks to all of you who were praying!) I feel at bit like (this is how my host in Webuye described it) I've been trampled by an elephant but so happy to be home. You know, I don't think my outlook on life could ever go back the way it was before Kenya. Maybe there will always be this 'tugging' on my heart for those people, so welcoming and indomitable. That word (indomitable) was from the man sitting next to me out of Nairboi who assured me that once those kids got a hold of my heart -- I would be back. Well, whether he is right or wrong, I know I can never be the same again.

Day of rest, and nearing the end :-(

Sorry for our absence the past couple days! After a long week completed by a Saturday afternoon in Korogocho visiting and praying with people, yesterday was a great day of rest for us. We headed to church and worshiped with our family there, singing more beautiful songs in Swahili, Luo and other languages as well as English. After the worship, we were asked to share a few more words and tried as best we could to articulate how humbled and honored we were to be welcomed by our brothers and sisters in Korogocho, and to see their beautiful faith. When we finished that, Evans took the microphone and shared a short message of his own. I wish we could have recorded it; he talked about what faith is and was so passionate and encouraging in his speech. Not to mention, Evans *knows* the Word - he put more relevant Scriptures together in 15 minutes than just about any preacher I've seen. The one that stuck with me most was 2 Corinthians 4:18:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

I thought about how cool a verse this is, especially for that congregation, since what is visible to the eyes is often so sad to look at. Praise God that, for as many as have received Christ, Korogocho is not forever, but a better world awaits!

After church, we headed back to the Abungus' home and were later joined by Ben and Evans for a praise and worship jam session. As Justin said, this ought to be a requirement for every missions trip. It was a great time, learning a couple of Kenyan songs and sharing a few of our own with them. Ben is a budding keyboardist and was so excited to learn every new song we could put in front of him. He would have jammed all night if the rest of the room hadn't finally given up and headed to bed!

As I type this, we're getting ready to leave for school again. Today is exciting as we will have the chance to minister to the teachers and give them some gifts of their own. Anna suggested we make sure to focus on the teachers as well as the children, so we hope to be able to minister to them in this way. Today is also a little bit sad as it's Alisha's last day at school. Tomorrow we have other things planned and she is leaving early Wednesday morning for the second phase of her trip - a visit to a teaching hospital in a village several hours away. Justin and I will have most of Wednesday to spend with the children, but for Alisha this is goodbye. We're going to visit each class and talk and play with the kids as much of the day as possible, but it is really sad to know Alisha has reached the end of her time with them and Justin and I are so close. Pray that the stories, love and provision we're sharing with the children would be used by God long after we leave them physically!

The saints in Korogocho

I wish you could meet some of the people we've talked to in Korogocho. As Justin so eloquently said, we've seen just a tiny glimpse into their lives and we can only hope to illuminate a fraction of that via the words, pictures and stories we share with others. But we have been blessed and humbled countless times by seeing the faith, confidence and selflessness of the Christians in Korogocho so hopefully I can show at least a little bit of that here.

Ben and Evans are two single guys in their mid-20's. They both live in Korogocho and their circumstances are typical of young men in the slums. They have to provide for themselves and, with a high school education at best, a regular job is nearly unattainable. Day labor (hauling water or helping out with construction) pays around $4 for 10 hours of work but even these jobs are not consistently available. Given this reality, theft is the leading category of "employment" for young men in the slums, and alcoholism is the norm. But Ben and Evans, having heard the Gospel as a result of the Abungus' ministry, have chosen to live differently. When they accepted Christ their material prospects didn't improve - they still live in the smelly, dangerous slum and still have to struggle for each meal and to pay the rent. But their spirits are totally changed. They don't live according to the norms of the world around them, and you wouldn't even know they were poor from talking to them. At least I didn't, not until several days afterwards. They are both full of joy and have an attitude of putting others first. Evans is a responsible and trustworthy guy whose heart is clearly about serving, and Ben is so good at encouraging others - he's tall and goofy and his smile makes your day when you see it. They remind me of James 1 where it says the poor person is to glory in his high position, and they seem totally content with where God put them and willing to trust Him with what comes next. Their spirits have continually lifted ours up, and I don't know what we would have done without their service and encouragement.

Eunice is a widow who lives deep in Korogocho. Her home is a tiny, one room shack crowded in among scores of others along a narrow footpath. She shares the space with three children. She has had no consistent means of provision since her husband passed away in 2003, and has to fight with the landlord constantly to keep from being thrown out of her tiny home. When we met her, though, Eunice was an absolute picture of grace and dignity. She warmly welcomed us to her home and began to tell us about her life, somehow through a smile. After a little while she asked if we would like something to eat or drink. I initially offended her by trying to refuse, but after realizing how important it was to her to serve us we said ok and she disappeared out the doorway. A few moments later she came back with Cokes and cookies for everyone. Tom said he was certain she didn't have the means to pay for such a feast, but clearly Eunice would not have dreamed of treating her guests with anything less than the best. I enjoyed the Coke and the conversation but at the same time was left in awe by the hospitality of a woman who had so little to give. We got the chance to see Eunice for a second time today and though there wasn't time for more snacks the warmth of her spirit was again a blessing.

Conditions in Korogocho are as bad as you can imagine and probably will be for a long time. The needs of its residents are intense, and this is true of Christians and non-believers alike. But at the same time God's power is shining so brightly through His people here and lots more stories like the ones above could be told. Praise Him for that and pray for His provision and power to continue to be shown in the lives of our brothers and sisters!

Visiting Mary

Yesterday, we went to Compassion's Nairobi field office out near Dagoretti where Mary lives. Mary has been my family's Compassion child for 10 years. She is now 18 years old, in Form 1 (about 9th grade), and wanting to attend University for medicine. I couldn't come so close to her home and her school and not visit.
We finally made it the office over an hour late, due to traffic and cryptic directions (a tourist would never have made it). I was so excited but more than a little apprehensive. I wanted the visit to be comfortable and natural, not forced or compulsory. That would have been rough if it had just been me going. But having Anna, Zach, and Justin made it so much better -- and of course, everyone loved Julia.
We met Mary at her old primary school and had sodas -- which are apparently something of a staple in Kenyan hospitality. After a quick tour, we drove to her house which sits on about an acre of cultivated land. The garden was beautiful. Unlike Korogocho, which is more brown than green, Dagoretti was very green and the hedges and the vines hide a lot of the poverty.
We visited for about an hour. I felt like we were just getting to know each other and it was time to go. For me, it was the first time I've really connected a real person with the pictures and letters we got periodically. It was truly a blessing of God for me to get to meet her, hug her, and talk to her, to see she is so much more than a face on a picture.

The Heart Of The Slums

I wish we could show you everything we've seen today. I wish we could express it to you with words. I wish you could have looked through our eyes and seen the world as we saw it. I'm sure, thanks to Zach, you all will see a lot of pictures from this trip very soon. You'll see homes made of mud and drift wood, rivers of sewage slicing through dirt roads, people and pigs sifting through garbage like equals and many other things. We spent the afternoon in the slum visiting members of Tom's congregation. As you can imagine, Zach's camera was clicking away all the while as we walked from house to house. When we got home, we spent some time looking over photos (there are a lot of them and some are really good). Comparing what we'd experienced with the photos was interesting, and as I continued thinking about it, this idea of thunderstorms came to mind. That may seem like a really odd connection to make, and it probably is, but please allow me to explain ;P Thunderstorms don't come 'round very often in New Mexico, but I remember a few pretty good ones from back when I was youngster. At those times my room was completely blanketed in darkness. I would sit on my bed with my covers wrapped around me and I would stare out into the void. Suddenly, lightning would rip across the sky and cast a white glow all about my room, but just as quickly as it had come the light would go and everything would be dark again. In that brief moment I would catch a glimpse of my room, but I couldn't really see my room the way it truly was. I would often see things that weren't really there and miss things that would have been obvious if I had flipped the light switch on. I think that's what a lot of what we're going to share will be like. We can offers you glimpses, lightning flashes, of Korogocho and what it means for a child to grow up in such a place, but we cannot bring you their whole story, or even our whole story, in blog posts and facebook albums. We can only give you glimpses, and I'm becoming more and more convinced that even after all the things we've seen so far on this journey, all we really have is a lightning flash ourselves.

I think We The People have become numb to a lot of things in recent years. There are so many charities and organizations groping for our wallets and flashing pictures of starving children in our faces that we don't know what to do. Sure, we feel bad at first, but as the phone calls keep coming and the commercials keep rolling and another place needs my generous donation of $30 a month, we can begin to feel overwhelmed and even throw up our hands in despair. What can we really do in the end? We only have so much money to give! So eventually, our eyes begin to gloss over when we get a new request for aid, our ears block up when we hear about the starving kids in Africa. After all, we've heard it all before. We've done our part and that's good enough.
I'm not trying to bash Americans in this post, that is most certaintly not my goal. The things I've written above were my own thoughts, my mentality. When Tom came to visit us in New Mexico, I could look at all the pictures he had of the slum and the school and not really be phased because I'd seen similar things before.
But what about now? Now I'm here, and things that were only pixilated before are now full of life. It's one thing to see a crumbling town in a photograph, but it becomes a very different thing when the smells fill up your lungs, and you can taste rotting fish in the air, when little faces with little hands are reaching out to pull at your clothes, and you can hear their voices all around. It's one thing to see them on your TV screen, it becomes a very different thing when they can see you, too.

That's really what I was trying to get at with the whole thunderstorm spiely dealy earlier. There are so many things we're thinking and feeling right now that we just can't put it all into words. It's a little frustrating because we really want to share this journey with all of you, but at the same time it's really helped open my eyes. This trip has already blessed me in so many ways. I'm learning and growing along with precious children, and I'm being encouraged by men and women much wiser than I am. We have seen terrible things, places where using a term like "living conditions" would be ironic, but at the same time we've seen incredible faith and hearts of gold. Hidden in the slums of Nairobi are precious souls, some lost, some found, and all in need of a little more Jesus. We plan to spend all of Saturday in Korogocho and that is going to push us. We're over half way through our journey here and we cannot keep on through our own power. Pray that we never forget that the God of peace goes with us every step of the way, even to the heart of the slums.

P.S. I'll try to have an actual play by play of the day up in the near future (just for you, mom :D). That was what I'd originally planned for this post to be, but that fell apart pretty quickly, and now I'm afraid that it's too late for another post :P. I'm also not entirely sure that I thought this post throguh very well, so I apologize if it doesn't end up making very much sense. Anyways, new posts to follow shortly! Your continuing support has meant the world to us! Thank You and Goodnight!

Laterz,

Justin

yesterday and the boys

First of all, thanks for all the comments because we're super-encouraged by reading them! And sorry for the long time between posts - between long days and internet that only works some evenings we're not able to get on here quite as much as we'd like!

Yesterday was an eventful day. We headed to school a bit earlier than usual to make sure we had time to visit each class before lunch. We brought with us little activity pages with some things to color and Bible passages on them - Mark 10:13-16 and Psalm 23. We went to each class, starting with the oldest (equivalent to 3rd graders here), and talked about Mark 10 and how God wants to be with the little children, and how He wants them to approach Him and talk to Him. We gave the lesson to each class and then turned them loose with crayons for a while and let them have fun coloring. The older two classes also worked with Justin on a bigger painting project (really cool, btw, look for pictures later on) and a play to act out the story. I really wish we had more chances to go in depth with each child, but with so many kids, so few of us and so little time we just have to do the best we can. My prayer is that the words we got to share do not return void, but rather that God uses them - now or later on - to bring the children around to an understanding that they can trust in Him and talk with Him about the situations and problems they face in life.

Also on yesterday's agenda was an unexpected item - some manual labor which turned out to be a good change of pace. Sadly no concrete was involved, but we did get to paint one of the rooms in the new building. We worked through most of lunch and into the afternoon alongside five other guys who are all members of Tom's church, and got the base coat finished. They'll probably wait until after we leave to do the rest.

Speaking of the guys, wanted to let you all know about them because they've been a big part of our experience. Evans, Ben, Eric, Freddy and Josh are all guys aged 18-25 or so who live in Korogocho and help out with whatever needs doing at the church and school - from worship on Sundays to translating for Americans to painting and any number of other things. Sometimes Tom pays them small salaries for specific tasks (like most in Korogocho they have no regular employment) but usually they're just there to help. All five have great, life-giving spirits and have been huge blessings to our team as peers who we can work alongside and joke and talk with. Monday and Tuesday we played after-lunch soccer matches with them which were lots of fun! Would love to tell you about each of them individually, but that may have to wait until we get back (there's another to-be-continued for you, Tyler)

That's it for now, need to get off for breakfast and another day! Today we will be working with the youngest kids who are still at the church, as well as visiting with some residents in their homes in Korogocho. Pray for energy for us as we do both, as some mid-trip exhaustion has begun to set in and we're very much in need of Christ as a sustainer right now! ps thanks Bonnie for Isaiah 58:11, it was a really good verse to read at this point in the trip!! Talk again soon...

Stories

It was so sweet. Today we played with the kids for a couple hours in the afternoon and then walked back to the church with them, where they sleep. Two hands may mean you can only hold the hands of two kids but you have wrists and arms too, which means at least 5 or 6 kids can certainly walk with you. It was challenging to walk surround as we were, tripping over kids in front, kicking those behind, and trying to move the kids on both sides so that other pedestrians can pass. It was adorable one of the girls that was holding my hand saw that her friend wanted to walk with me too. So she shifted her grasp so that her friend could hold on to my pinkie. It was so cute amd so very humbling.
Actually, that was only the first thing today that made me feel completely inadequate. As we were walking back to the new building one the young men that helps at the church and the orphange was telling me about his childhood, when he didn't have shoes. I had no idea what to say -- what do I know of that? No response seemed appropriate. But even as I couldn't figure out what to say, he concluded: God has always been so faithful to me -- a kid who didn't know this day would ever come, a day when I would be wearing shoes.

Unaitwa nani?

We probably should have learned this phrase, which is Swahili for "what is your name?" before we met the kids on Monday. But alas, we hadn't done our homework and were left trying to learn the names of 100 kids, all between 2 and 10 years old and most only comfortable speaking their native tribal tongues and Swahili. Despite our linguistic struggles, the kids were all very polite and welcomed us enthusiastically. The youngest were anxious to show us their workbooks and the older ones to play soccer and jump rope together. We brought about 20 jump ropes, three soccer balls (the first the school has ever had, we're told), and 48 scrimmage jerseys, and had a wonderful time hanging out with the kids for a few hours! We plan to bring the rest of the sports equipment, school supplies and toys the last day for them to have when we leave.

The setup of the the school and orphanage has changed since Tom visited the US and what has transpired is pretty exciting. Most notably, Tom was able to trade the plot of land he had planned to build on, plus a little bit of money, for a new space with a building already almost complete! The new building is in a better spot than the old land, just about a ten minute walk from the church where the kids are currently staying, but still outside Korogocho itself (the slums seem to have very defined boundaries). They have been able to move classes for all but the youngest kids to the new building, which has ten rooms and the rebar in place to add a second floor as is common practice in Nairobi. The kids can't sleep there yet, though, because electricity and water are not yet in place, hindering them from receiving a permit. Ironic, considering that they currently pack the 65 orphans into the tiny church building in Korogocho that has neither of these amenities. All the same, exciting stuff and it was super encouraging to see the progress!

Today we started off by heading to downtown Nairobi to pick up some building materials and change the rest of our money for Kenyan shillings. Every part of town we've been to has its own very unique vibe which maybe I can write about later, but for now just know that the two things they all have in common are people everywhere and absolutely horrendous traffic. A trip to the supermarket a mile away can take 45 minutes at the wrong time of day.

After our errands downtown and fighting our way through a few thousand matatus (their version of a taxi), we got back to the new school building in time for lunch and some more, slightly better organized, soccer and games. At the end of the schoolday around 4, we got to walk with the kids back to Korogocho. For me this was one of the coolest things we've done so far. About 15 kids each were trying to hold hands with Justin, Alisha and me. They didn't talk a lot given the language barrier and some remaining shyness, but just wanted to be around us as much as they could. After we got back to the church, they all sang us a few children's Bible songs and we talked for just a few minutes about the rest of what we have planned for them. It starts getting dark about 6pm and Tom has said over and over how unsafe the slums are at night, so we soon had to say goodbye for the day. Looking forward to more time with the kids tomorrow!!

really, it's true

I'm in the middle of writing a longer post about our first couple of days with the children, but in the meantime here's a fun fact: Kenyans love their TV dramas, but the most-watched television programs in the country are not recycled American soap operas as you might expect. Instead, the most popular shows (by far and away) are Spanish Telenovelas, poorly dubbed in English. I'm not kidding. There's one on in the room right now and Justin seems quite engrossed :-P

Sunday in Korogocho

Yesterday we had our first in-person experience with Korogocho and it was eye-opening to say the least. Tiny one-room shacks made of mud, tin and scrap lumber pass for homes, with most families paying $20-30 per month for these accommodations. The streets are narrow mud paths with trash strewn everywhere, and ruts down the middle which serve as the community sewer system. We walked just a few blocks in the slum, but it was more than enough to give us a sense of the world these people live in day to day.

We had come this morning for Sunday church, and I have to say the service was a beautiful contrast with the surrounding slum. They were already in full song when we walked in, singing beautiful hymns in Swahili, English, and a number of local hymns. About 70 people in a very basic room, accompanied by just a keyboard, were singing loud in these amazing African harmonies, lifting their voices to God in hymns and in prayer! It was at the same time beautiful and convicting to me, how these people could worship with such joy when surrounded by circumstances that were anything but joyful. Worshiping in Korogocho, when combined with a view (albeit brief) of the neighborhood of the congregants, was such a humbling experience.

The next 45 minutes consisted of hymns interspersed with announcements ("everyone needs to get involved in a small group" - sound familiar?) and testimonies form church members. The actual events were similar to an American service, but with about 1,000% more emotion and expression all the way through. After this, Tom came up and had Justin and Alisha introduce themselves. Afterwards, he brought me up and asked me to give the message that morning. He had warned me he would do this the day before, but it was still intimidating to say the least. I had thought through some things to say but I had no idea what I could possibly share with people whose life experiences were so far removed from my own, and whose passion for worshiping God seemed already to be so much greater than mine. I decided to follow the Gil Flores principle and pretty much just stick to Scripture and, with the help of a Swahili translator, gave it my best go. I focused on Psalm 23, which is one of the passages we've been hoping to share with the kids, and talked about God's promises expressed in the chapter. After I finished about 20 minutes later, the service concluded with offerings and more singing, and several people thanked me for my "good words" and commented that it was the shortest sermon they could remember. Apparently 2 hour sermons are more the norm.

There's so much more to share about yesterday - we had great conversations with Tom about the church, its history, some of its members and Tom's own story. Also visited a shopping mall that showed the other side of Nairobi - it would have easily been the nicest in Albuquerque - and got stuck in a slightly scary traffic jam that evening. I'll leave that for others though. In a few minutes we leave for our first time with the kids at the orphanage and I'm excited and again a little nervous. We've decided to focus our first day mostly on just having fun with the kids playing football (soccer) though, which suits me just fine :-P

Yesterday

Yesterday was a day and a half -- but it was completely worth it: We went on safari at Masai Mara National park. It was incredible, sitting 10 yards away from a zebra or wilderbeast (who seem rather expendable). Did you know they have hippos here? Well, they do and God let us see one out of the water! They look like the pictures (only 3D :0). I'll let the others fill you in on the other animals we saw but my favorite animal that we saw were the warthogs (Pumba). I think they look like javelinas that kneel while the eat.
All the animals really testified to God's handiwork as did the landscape; Miles of Nebraska-like grassland broken up only by a tree once every quarter mile or more. Surrounding the plain were rolling hill that looked, to me, NM's sagebrush covered hills. Only these bushes were not sagebrush and they were armed with 2 inch spines!
This post could easily be a couple of pages long, but I'll resist.

P.S. I got my final bag, which is good because it had soccer balls and my sunscreen, that will hopefully keep me from returning home a crispy red crab.

Eetsaboi

GOOD MORNING AMERICA! Tom informed us recently that he and Anna are expecting their second child! The baby is due in January and they are very excited. They found out while they were in Oregon that it is a boy, and Tom has referred to it as "a good ending" :). Please keep the new baby in your prayers. Sorry we didn't get a post up yesterday. We do have a reasonable excuse, but I'm gonna let somebody else tell that story. Please continue to keep us in prayer! We will try to have another post up very soon.

Laterz,

Justin

Nairobi!!

We're here! Tom and his friend Jared picked us up from the airport early this morning and we headed through Nairobi to he and Anna's house. The air has that great developing-world smell of dust and diesel, and the city itself feels rather chaotic. The roads are full of buses and "matatus", the mini-buses most people use to get around, as well as all kinds of people getting around by bike and by food. The sides of nearly every street are lined with shacks selling food, fuel and the like and behind those are rows of mid-rise apartment-type buildings, many unfinished. I'll let others share their first impressions later on too (perhaps once we've gotten past our exhaustion from 36 hours of travel over 9 time zones), but so far for me at least so good! Once we got to Tom's place, we had some breakfast and showed Tom and Anna the things we had brought for the kids. Tom told us about some good developments with the orphanage, which I'll write about when I have a little more time. For now we're trying to wake ourselves up and decide where to head for this afternoon and tomorrow.

btw - a praise and prayer request - all but one of our bags made it, so praise for that and prayer the other shows up soon!

Amsterdam

quick update from the Amsterdam airport - our flight out here was forced to land briefly in Maine due to a medical emergency. My understanding was that the passenger, a three year old child, was expected to be ok, but couldn't make the flight across the Atlantic. As a result we missed our connection to Nairobi and will now be showing up there at 6:15 tomorrow morning (local time). We've been taking turns wandering around the airport the past couple of hours waiting for our next flight and are more than ready to be off again! The delays make me all the more excited to reach Kenya, see Tom and Anna, and get our time with them started...the next post will hopefully be from Nairobi!

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

Well, our countdown has transitioned from days to hours and I'm starting to wonder if I will be able to fall asleep tonight. Our little group has already had some interesting adventures, and things are only just getting started! I am so ready to put all this logistical red tape behind me and get to what actually matters... the kids! Thank you so much for all your support up to this point, you all have been an incredible blessing for the three of us. Please, keep on praying for us over the coming weeks. We will do our best to keep up with the blog, and I can promise you with a fair amount of certainty that Zach and Alisha will be sending mass amounts of pictures your way. Once again, thank you all so much, we love you (in Christ), and we are looking forward to telling you all about the journey.

Laterz,

Justin

the calendar

Wanted to share with you all our schedule and a little more about some of the things on it. Here's the calendar, although I can guarantee that things won't pan out exactly the way we've planned them!

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
September 12	13	14	15 Leave Albuquerque	16 Arrive in Nairobi, Kenya	17 Travel recovery, safari excursion	18 Return to Nairobi, prepare for the week
19 Church, buy supplies for the children	20 School, sports time, and drama	21 School, sports, drama, community outreach	22 School, sports, drama, community outreach	23 School, sports, drama, community outreach	24 Visit Compassion International	25 Sports, drama, evangelism meeting
26 Church in Korogocho, evangelism	27 Last day with the children	28 Visit Living Water Int’l	29 Leave Kenya	30 Arrive in Albuquerque	October 1	2

The morning after we get to Nairobi we'll head out with the Abungus on a short trip out of town - I'm looking forward to the time to get to know them a little better (or for the first time in Alisha's case), enjoy God's creation and get ourselves psyched up for the coming week...not to mention recovering from 9 time zones worth of jet lag.

A big part of our time after that will be spent in Korogocho with the kids living at the orphanage. We (well ok, mostly Justin) have put together a drama for the children to act out based on Mark 10:13-16, and we're going to be heading out to a field with them to play sports in the afternoons as well. To be honest, I'm pretty stoked for the sports part - just the chance to relax and have fun with the kids sounds great all the way around!

I was telling a friend about the trip and how we're going to get to hang out with 100 kids every day when it hit me...we're going to be hanging out with *100* kids every day!! And there's 3 of us, and we all have some definite introvert tendencies. Prayers for big doses of new energy every day would be much appreciated! Even more than that, pray that through the skit, sports, helping out with school and everything else, we would be able to show the kids that they are loved and valued by God. That if they trust Him, He will not leave them as orphans (John 14:18) but will come to them and be with them always. Praise God for His promises!

Getting Close

It is going to surprise a lot of people but this is my first true missions trip. I’m very excited but pretty nervous at the same time. How can I minister to these people? We are from opposite sides of the spectrum. Yet we share one thing in common and He is all that matters. Through out the world we are bonded through the blood of Jesus Christ to other Christians whether in Kenya or right here in the States.
We have been supported by great church family that has simply showered us with crayons, pencils, paper supplies, and a bunch of other goodies, like soccer balls and sports pinnies. I lost count after 75 boxes of crayons, 47 boxes of pencils (along with 52 pencil sharpeners :0), 73 notebooks, and 18 pairs of scissors. To all of you who gave, you have been blessing to us and we plan to pass that blessing on, so pray for us as we do.

the journey up to now...

It's still a few days until we physically leave for Nairobi, but I feel like it's already been a journey just getting to where we are today! It was as early as this March that God began to speak to me about this part of the world, at first through articles I read about the East Africa region and everything going on there. I wasn't thinking "mission trip" at the time, but I was curious about the region and beginning to pray for some of the events going on there. I saw Nairobi as a particularly intriguing place - the most important city in the region and a hub where people from all over East Africa have converged. Driven by conflict and poverty, millions of people have moved to the Nairobi area from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Congo as well as other parts of Kenya. To me this is pretty exciting because we're called to tell all nations about Jesus, and in Nairobi people from so many of them are all gathered in one place.

Not long after I began thinking about all this, our church received a visit from Pastor Tom Abungu, his wife Anna, and their 2-year-old daughter Julia. Tom had begun to do ministry in Korogocho, a slum in northeastern Nairobi, four years ago and was in the United States to tell people about the work and ask for help in growing it. He told us about everything going on, which is a lot - from a community church plant, to a school and orphanage that is currently caring for 100 children(!), to a well-drilling ministry providing people with a source of clean water. Pastor David, myself and others from Celebration were touched by what we heard and felt the Spirit's leading to send a team to Kenya this fall. God clearly called me to be a part of this, and over the following months He called Justin and Alisha to go as well.

So here we are, not 100% sure what to expect but ready to serve alongside our brothers and sisters in Kenya and see what God has for us. We've worked out all the logistics, collected an arsenal of school and craft supplies that would make any homeschool family jealous, set up meetings to learn from people already at work in Nairobi, and prepared activities for the kids through which we can share the love of Jesus. The message we want to get across is that every child - whether an American church kid or a Kenyan orphan - has a Heavenly Father who loves them and, what's more, wants to hear from them and to care for their needs! We're going to tell the kids about Mark 10:13-16 where Jesus says He wants the children to come to Him, and we're going to tell them about Psalm 23 where God promises that if we let Him be our shepherd, we won't ever be in need.

We'll write more between now and Wednesday about what kinds of things we have planned, but for now I just want to invite you to pray with us and get excited about what God is going to do. Like it says in Philippians 1:3-6, I'm so grateful for you all and for your partnership with us as we go!