We got up bright and early and saw the other groups off to their far flung locations. I got to pray with the leaders of the other teams, a very moving experience. We prayed for safe travels for all involved and that the Holy Spirit would move in people’s hearts to come to the clinics, that they would be open to the Good News message we are bringing and that the Spirit supply us with the right words and decisions in every situation to help grow the Kingdom. We loaded up all of our footlockers of vision supplies, medications, Bibles and water and took them to the Springs of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera. Our worship there was very special. We followed one of the Divine Services and there were children from 3 families that were baptised, about 8 other children were confirmed and we took Communion for the first time in Africa ever, for any of our group, including Ralph and Louise who are on their fifth mission to Kenya. We were introduced to the church and each of us said a little something about ourselves and thanked the congregation for their warm welcome. We told them how much we were looking forward to working with our brothers and sisters in Christ in spreading the Gospel and in helping them to grow their church. We made a big point that our number one priority is to bring people to Jesus and that the eyeglass mission is only a very good means to that end. All told, the services along with announcements took around 3 hours and it was wonderful. They had other activities at the church today, such as working on a new church constitution and they are active in the national referendum on a new Kenyan constitution, with a lot of controversy surrounding whether to teach evolution in schools and whether life begins at conception or at birth as part of the overall abortion debate. Does this sound a little bit familiar to those of you in Texas? We agreed to come back at 7:30am to setup the clinic and begin training the volunteers, with a projected time of seeing our first patient of no later than 9am. We have plenty of trained evangelists, but are a little concerned about the number of other volunteers needed for the actual operation of the clinic, since Pastor issued a call for more people to step up during announcements.
After church we went and had a good lunch at an upscale mall and then shopped for items for lunch and supplies for the clinic at the Nakumatt, a place very much like Walmart. We haven’t had Internet at the guest quarters where we are staying for 36 hours, so I haven’t been able to post my updates, although I have been keeping up with them offline. Tomorrow night, if the Internet is still down, they will allow me to make my longest house call ever as a computer repair guy. I hope I can fix it, no pressure! Other missionaries here depend on the Internet as well. More posts to follow, as I can get the word out. Thanks for all of your support and prayers.
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