A very full Sunday

We packed up all of our rooms and moved to Rosa Mystica, another convent we have stayed many times before.  It is closer to our clinic and has great access to a shopping mall right across the street.  We then drove to the Springs of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera, to worship with the congregation and the volunteers who will be serving their community along side of us.  We were treated to a wonderful worship experience, with many different choirs and styles of music fitted into a liturgical service that lasted nearly 3 hours.  I am always amazed how time flies.  One of our local Lutheran Hour workers, Isaac, gave the sermon and as a courtesy to us, spoke in both English and Swahili.  Our dear friend Bishop Bakari Kea also participated in the worship and poked fun at me as I introduced our team to the church.  This is a sign of being old friends, as we kidded him right back.  There were lots of hugs, laughs and tears of joy as we renewed old acquaintances and began new friendships.  At lunch, Diane and Elena commented on the fact that they had understandable reservations as we drove through the slum to the church, but they all melted away when they experienced the welcome we were given.  It feels like home to be back with our friends in Kibera.

After church, we rearranged the pews and the other contents of the sanctuary to the approximate layout of the clinic.  We will fine tune things as the clinic proceeds.  We also got all of our supplies safely stowed in a locked room, so everything is staged and at the ready for a quick setup of the clinic tomorrow morning.  Our missionary and friend Gloria joined us for lunch at Java House.  Following our meal, we exchanged some money at the Forex and got a much better rate than at the airport.  I took the ladies into the Naku-Matt and showed them where snacks, water and other necessities for the coming week could be found.  I then added about $10 in minutes to our team phone, an old school Nokia candy bar "not so very smart" phone, so that we could contact our families today and during the week.  It's only around a quarter a minute, much less than using one of our cell plans overseas.  Technology has improved over the years, and much of our communication is done via the Internet, using Whatsapp, Facetime, email and messaging services for free rather than phones.  The team phone is still our best lifeline in case of emergency however.

Elena was able to text back and forth with Jack in London and Pastor Kevin was also able to get an email to us letting us know they had boarded a plane bound for Nairobi which is set to arrive here around 9pm local time.  We should have our full team in the morning.  Thanks for answered prayers, Lord!

The ladies and I will dine in a few minutes here at Rosa Mystica and then call it an early night, getting some much needed rest before a big week ahead.  Stay tuned, I hope to report again tomorrow evening after our first day of the clinic.  Blessings everybody!