Friday, April 25, 2014

4-25-2014 Travel to Nairobi and a remarkable woman

Everlyn and Dave on British Air to Nairobi

We did depart London as planned right on schedule.  I thought I was going to have a whole row to myself for the trip to Nairobi.  God had a different plan.  Just before the doors were scheduled to be closed, a woman arrived at my row, carrying a large bag that would barely fit under one of the seats.  She was breathing hard and was obviously relieved to be on the plane.  If she had missed our flight, she would have spent a day in London waiting for the next one.  We made small talk and I learned her name is Evelyn and that she works for a large bank in Nairobi.  More importantly, once she and I had discussed our vision clinic for a minute or two, she let me know that she was head of the women’s ministry at a large Baptist congregation that worships more than 10,000 on any given weekend near where we would be staying.  Each ministry in her church is expected to do a mission of some sort and they are very strong on discipling their members.  Does this remind anyone at Redeemer of our Vision 20/20 blueprint? Also, her sister lives a short distance from Kibera, the site of our clinic.  By the time we were done with the first of a few wonderful and uplifting conversations about our respective walks of faith, I had given her my business card so she could follow this blog and she was planning to come to our clinic for some eye problems she is experiencing.  She plans on bringing some of her family and friends to the clinic as well.  She had begun her trek in California, we had started our travels in Texas and the Lord made sure we met in row 43 on this flight from London to Nairobi.  It is so amazing when a God thing is happening right in front of your eyes and you actually know it at the time.  Thank you, Jesus!
I passed blank Kenyan visa forms out to our team members and encouraged everyone to use mine as a template, so at least we are on the same page and ahead of the game when we get to the airport in Nairobi.  It is always kind of a madhouse upon our arrival.  First, we all need to get visas with the current price being $50.  Once we clear that hurdle, there are footlockers and baggage to gather up and conversion of some our team petty cash and personal money to Kenyan shillings.  For more than 30 people to make it through all these steps without some delays would be unusual.  Then, we have to clear customs with all of our supplies and luggage, which can take a while as well.  Next, is getting all of our stuff to the vehicles that will transport us to the Little Daughters of St. Joseph lodgings that will be our base of operations until Sunday morning.  Finally, there will be unloading and claiming all of our belongings, getting a briefing on room assignments and timing of Saturday morning’s activities, grabbing a shower and going to bed, probably somewhere in the ballpark of 1am local time.
Stay tuned for more stories of anything unusual that happens during our arrival as well as a report on Saturday’s activities and the worship we share in with the other teams that is always late Saturday afternoon, since many of the teams won’t be able to worship with the congregations they will serve with because they will be traveling to outlying areas.

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