Monday and it's time to go to work!

We did have dinner with Catherine and Eugene last night at Rosa Mystica.  It was a buffet, with potatoes, rice, kale, cole slaw, liver chicken and watermelon for dessert.  It was satisfying and I was glad the team all got to get to meet Catherine, our incredible coordinator in Nairobi for our Vision for Africa Project.  We shared a lot of laughs about old times and she updated us on what to expect in Kibera this week.

We will be getting an early breakfast in a few minutes and then it’s off to work.  We’ll spend the first 30-45 minutes getting all 7 of the stations of the clinic ready to go.  Then we’ll have a devotional with our volunteers and Pastor.  We are hoping to borrow a guitar for William to do a couple of praise songs with the group and then we’ll begin to see patients.  It will be good to see some of our old doctor friends and meet a couple of new doctor faces to start the day.  More to follow after we make a start on the week.  Thank you Jesus for calling us to do this evangelism/vision clinic!  It’s to your glory that we have come to do it!  Amen.

Sunday worship and other goings on

As expected, we were greeted by many of our old friends when we arrive at the Springs of Life Lutheran Church for services this morning.  Our new team members quickly got the idea that the Kenyan people are a very warm and friendly bunch.  Kailey and Amanda made many new friends with the little children, it was heartwarming to see.  We veterans were blessed to see our dear friends Bishop Bakari Kea, Sylvester Opiyo, our evangelist Francis, Emmanuel and a long list of volunteers from previous clinics we have put on in Kibera.  There was lots of joy all around.  Ray and Flora’s team and Rev. Dale Schneider’s team were also on hand before heading out to their missions.  As always, the worship was quite a moving experience.  The Holy Spirit was abundantly present in the music of the various choirs singing a variety of Kenyan and Tanzanian songs as well as praise songs and a Lutheran Hymn or two.  Bishop Kea had each of the team leaders address the congregation to tell a little about each of our teams and our missions this week.  He also wanted us to sing for the church, so I quickly let the others know how much Bakari loves the Doxology, and since every Lutheran knows it, our group of about 20 sang it three times for them in full voice, with our well known 4 part Lutheran harmony and a hearty Amen after the third time through.  It felt good and didn’t sound half bad.  The worship lasted about three hours, with a sermon that was delivered in English by Bishop Kea on the John 15 theme of the vine and the branches.  It was a powerful call to bear fruit as a witness to our faith.  A returning missionary who had been stationed in Somalia supplied the translation in Swahili and also said a few words later including that “the safest place to be is in the middle of God’s will”, a wonderful and true statement if I ever heard one.  He’s living proof, as he was in a dangerous place for some time.  We concluded our worship with sharing of God’s peace in a large circle outside of the church and a blessing by Pastor Dale.  We stayed for about a half hour afterwards to continue renewing and making new acquaintances. 

We came back to Rosa Mystica and mine and Laura’s luggage had arrived, while William, Amanda and Ralph were still out of luck, with a promise that more luggage would be delivered Monday.  I’m loaning t-shirts and socks to William and Amanda, Howard is taking care of Ralph.  If Ralph’s stuff arrives tomorrow, he may still join the team he was going to serve with east of Nakuru, about 3 hours from the city.  If not, he’s a welcome addition to our team.  We got freshened up and went to Java House for lunch, many of us had English Fish and Chips, others had Tex-Mex and several other menu items.  It’s like Starbucks but with a full menu.  The food and fellowship were good as we sat in the outdoor portion of the restaurant.  The only thing missing was Catherine, who was tied up with one of the other teams.  She and Eugene are joining us for dinner tonight.  More to follow later, please keep your prayers for a safe and effective mission coming our way!

Saturday at the Nairobi Game Park and the rest of our day

When we got done freshening up a bit at Rosa Mystica, it was pretty apparent that the trip out to Lake Naivasha was out of the question.  First, it’s a nearly 3 hour round trip and we didn’t want to cut the photo safari short.  Second, it was raining in Nairobi and there had been plentiful rain lately at Naivasha, meaning we probably wouldn’t be able to walk around with the animals on the island, a highpoint of that trip when it’s possible.  So, we decided to go to the Nairobi National Game Park near the airport on the outskirts of town and I’m glad we did.  While it remained overcast, we never really got ourselves or our camera gear wet in the two popup vans we took, four to a van.  We saw all the usual giraffes, water buffalo, various elans, antelopes, gazelles, zebras, etc as well as many bird species I know I’ll spend hours identifying.  We also had a couple of firsts for me.  A python laying across the road blocked our way for quite a while until Jackson stirred it into slithering back into the grass by throwing some small pebbles its way.  We also saw a large turtle walking down the side of the road and he was making decent time for a turtle!  I took over 600 pictures, I’m sure the group has a couple thousand more and I will post some as bandwidth allows, meaning maybe not until we are back in the states and I spend a week or two culling through all of our images from this mission trip to narrow things down to the top 300-400 shots as usual.  I’m sure there are some stunners.  I got several of Ibises in flight and we saw a tree full of Superb Starlings, very colorful birds indeed.  Stay tuned for that.

After the safari, we returned once again to Rosa Mystica for a little freshening up and then made our way to the Junction Mall across the street and ate at the food court.  Many of us had various kinds of pizza and William had Chinese food that looked pretty good.  Afterwards, those uof us without our luggage did some shopping for underwear, socks, toiletries and the like and decided to stay clear of stocking up on clothes like shirts and pants and have faith that our baggage would actually get here Sunday.  I rinsed my stuff in the shower and am wearing damp clothes as I write this early Sunday morning.  Ah, the glamorous life of the missionary!

We will be having breakfast here shortly and will head over to Kibera to the Springs of Life Lutheran Church for worship.  I know the newcomers will be blown away by the presence of the Holy Spirit at these services.  I’m looking forward to it myself.  More to follow as time permits!  Blessings on your day!

Flight to Nairobi and what awaited us there

I met a man from Nairobi, Kiprop Lagat, who was traveling back from business in Paris.  He was very interesting, he had a PhD in History and had worked at museums throughout Nairobi for 17 years, first as a curator and then in administration.  We had a great conversation about our cultural differences, how missions can do more harm than good if not handled properly and a whole range of other topics. We exchanged business cards at the end of our time together and I hope to stay in correspondence with him.  Our time together was a blessing and would not have occurred without the events leading up to it.  I guess you do just bloom where you’re planted and good things happen.

The flight to Nairobi was kind of surreal.  The lights were never really dimmed very much, strange for a flight that finally took to the air around 2am.  As with our other Turkish Air flight, a chef, a female this time in full white smock and chef’s hat, made her way down the aisle before liftoff.  Our previous flight had been on a bigger plane and we never saw that chef again, figuring he was pre-occupied with first class passengers.  On our flight, we were awakened to a full meal at around 4am and our chef was helping to serve drinks.  She did it with gusto, flipping bottles and glasses as she worked, reminding me a little bit of the act in a Japanese steakhouse.  I wasn’t sure if I really saw this or it was only part of the bad dream our travel had become.  

We were relieved when we finally got to Nairobi around 8:30am, nearly 12 hours and a lot of wear and tear after our original plan.  I went through Customs first to clear the way for the team and our footlockers were there right away on the baggage carousel.  I quickly flung them out of the way and got them stacked up.  As the rest of the team joined me to wait for our luggage, Howard and Martha’s bags appeared right away.  Not so good for the rest of us, our baggage had been lost.  We spent the better part of the next hour filing claims for it and making sure that it would be delivered to Rosa Mystica, our lodgings for the next week at a Catholic convent.  It was after 10am when we finally met our drivers.  One was Jackson, one of our best drivers over the years for the weekend excursions and for working with clinics throughout Kenya.  The other was to drive a truck with our belongings, what little there were, and our clinic supplies to the convent.  We got there, checked in and took 15 minutes to freshen up before regrouping to decide what could be salvaged of our first day in Nairobi.  Thank you Jesus for our safe travel and for the mostly graceful way we worked with everyone that was placed in front of us in a trying 2 days of travel.

The Istanbul Airport

We arrived at Istanbul with a little over an hour and a half to go before our final leg to Nairobi and then were out on the runway for several minutes.  We then were let off the plane and down some steps onto the tarmac, so our team can honestly say we’ve been on Turkish soil.  It never was on my bucket list, but we did it just the same.  Once on the ground, we were herded to a waiting bus and started towards the terminal.  All of a sudden, there was a lot of plane and equipment activity on the ground and we sat for the better part of 15 minutes as we all wondered if we would miss yet another flight and be stranded in Turkey for the night.  Once we finally got to the terminal at a little before midnight, we were greeted with a sea of humanity.  Every square inch of the airport seemed to be taken up by people, many of whom had been stranded there for long periods of time.  One guy had been waiting since 7am in the airport and was very vocal about it with the gate agents, who obviously had no control over the situation.  As it worked out, our plane left for Nairobi at least an hour and a half late, so we finally had hopes of ending our travel adventure within the next 12 hours.  Only one 6 or 7 hour flight to go!

Flight out of Heathrow or I never thought I'd find myself in Istanbul!

Our plane to Istanbul didn't have a gate assignment with only half an hour before scheduled take off.  The automated screens said 'Please wait' and warned us not to make the 15 minute walk to our possible gate, B41, until instructed to do so. We double checked with a gate agent who acted like we were crazy for believing the screen after he thought it was B41.  As it turned out, our plane was late arriving from Istanbul and needed fueling and cleaning.  We departed Heathrow about 45 minutes late. We had a 3 hour Istanbul layover and now that's tightening up.  We are due for some better luck.

We did have the blessing of meeting a wonderful young woman named Madison when we were in line at Heathrow getting switched over to Turkish Air. She was obviously distraught and near tears. She was also a victim of our late flight from DFW and couldn't get any cooperatIon in making her way to Kurgistan, where she was going to study Russian in an intense 10 week course. She had a cross necklace and an Aggie tshirt on when we first saw her and Amanda immediately began to comfort her.  We all tried to help her resolve a horrible first time experience with international travel.  Her big adventure seemed to be going up in flames.  We spent the whole layover with her and had lunch at a restaurant that had great pot pies and soups. She is on the flight to Istanbul with us and will spend the night there before figuring out her next move.  She has been a blessing to us and we have enjoyed getting to know her and being there for her.  I was right.  God did place Madison and the team in each other’s company for a reason. We exchanged contact info with her and we are all interested in how her time in Kurgistan works out. Thank you, Jesus!

We will soon be having dinner. It starts with Smoked salmon with yogurt potato salad, a choice of Turkish style minced beef or stuffed eggplant with chicken followed by cheese cake and a choice of oven fresh breads.  It sounds good, anyway.  And, now that I’ve eaten it sometime later, it was indeed good.

More Fun at Heathrow

We arrived at Heathrow about half an hour after our flight to Nairobi had boarded and was probably already on it's way.  We've been switched over to Turkish Airways and have to fly to Istanbul at 4:30pm London time,  This is another 6 hour layover now here in London and we will have have a four hour layover in Istanbul and then will take a flight at about 1:00 am to Nairobi, arriving at around 7:30am.  We will set a new record for the longest trip by a Redeemer team, which isn't easy, considering our problems on one of the trips caused by the volcano in Iceland.  I have been trying to reach our friend Catherine in Nairobi to alert her to our situation.  We could conceivably still go out to Lake Naivasha directly from the airport if she can arrange for our luggage to be delivered to our hotel.

Hurray! I just got an email from Catherine and all might not be lost.  She's working on us still doing our usual activities Saturday since we really do need to get used to Kenyan time.  If we can sleep from Istanbul to Nairobi, it might not be too bad.  It'll just be tough not getting a shower until Saturday afternoon.  Travel is glamorous!

I'll be able to cross Istanbul off of my bucket list now, wait a minute, it wasn't there!  Our big hurdle now is whether American Airlines can manage to get our luggage to Turkish Air.  If nothing else major happens, this should all work out pretty well, considering what's happened so far.

Please pray for travel mercies and I'll post another report as soon as I can.