Kenya Team - Travel and Arrival

Our Missions adventure began Late Sunday evening at the San Diego airport where 19 of us boarded a United flight to Washington DC . to connect with a 15 hour Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa. I must confess, having never flown Ethiopian anything, I had a few concerns about the airline. But to our delight it was a mostly comfortable flight, decent food and except for being a bit saddle sore, and of course a few non-flattering pictures of each other trying to sleep (snoring) it was uneventful. The two teams parted company in Addis Ababa, Pastor Ray and his group of 7 headed to Entebbe, Uganda, the remaining 12 of us boarded our flight for Nairobi , Kenya.
 
We were greeted in Nairobi by Nathasha, the guest house manager and all enjoyed seeing Austin Priest and the loud loving reunion with his sister Ashley, one of our team members. We arrived at the guest house, a new 3.5 bedroom condo and got settled. We are separated into guys and gals bedrooms with 3 sets of bunkbeds in each… it was there that the 1st miracle of our trip took place- 6 men in one room- 6 women in the other and after 2 days of exhausting travel and no one snored! The same kind of miracle happened on Pentecost in Acts 2- a miracle of noisy speaking and hearing… Either we did not snore or did not hear it! That’s my story- I’m claiming it.
 
Our 1st full day in Kenya we are under precautionary lock down due to an important election taking place today. A few years ago they experienced riots and violence here during a national election for president. However, this election is more about ethics issues and decision to no longer recognize Kenya as a Christian country to make room for new laws that accommodate Muslims. Violence is not expected but it is a major shift in identity, a shift which our government has been encouraging sad to say. As a result of lockdown, we have been going through culture orientation, safety tips and helping set up the new guest house which they moved into only this week. We cleaned, did some windows and hung some pictures on the blank walls. In spite of the many opinions of wall decorations and a few extra holes in the walls (Sorry Pastor Wes- we’ll reimburse you for the holes) the place is a home away from home.
 
Tomorrow begins our 1st day of ministry, we head out to “Able in Christ” Elementary School for a 3 day VBS. The school is in the Kibera Slum, the largest in east Africa where over 1 million people live in shanty aluminum houses and very difficult 3rd world poverty. Pray for us that we go in the Joy of Jesus.
 
Pastor Gary