Saturday preparation for departure

This morning, a group led by Pastor Kevin headed out to the Lake Naivasha game park. The five of us who had been there before in May stayed behind and had a leisurely breakfast. Ralph and Louise, Howard and Martha headed out to see some sights around town. The Zochs are laying low after a pretty exhausting week. I also am hanging around the Norwegian Scripture House to put some final touches on this blog and will be meeting with ELCK representatives and the team leaders of the other mission sites as they arrive back in Nairobi around 2pm at the LCMS World Mission offices a couple of blocks away. Hopefully, Pastor Kevin will be able to join us at some point. These meetings are good debriefings, where ideas are swapped about what has been effective and what needs more improvement. Our team members from Good Shepherd have commented on how well organized our week was and that is a tribute to our Salem friends patiently teaching us the system that they have been fine tuning for a long, long time. Our veterans always spot more ways we can improve the process and we sometimes are our own worst critics. It was an incredibly successful week and we need to be thankful for that, all the while realizing we can always find more efficiencies and should never stop examining every aspect of these missions, while remaining true to our overarching purpose: fulfilling the Great Commission.

As the teams begin to trickle back here, there will be pizza and Cokes waiting for them. We should leave for the airport between 6:30 and 7pm and fly out for London around 11pm. We always allow plenty of time for the inevitable delays in customs that a group with 60 footlockers can expect to encounter.

Once we are on the plane, I will be going to each of the other camera carrying team members so that I can borrow their memory cards and copy their pictures into my laptop. I love the different perspectives each missionary has, some have wonderful pictures of the children, others focus on nature or the places we have been. The pictures that are attached to this blog up to this point are from the 513 I have taken so far and are heavily tilted toward my work in the dental clinic. I expect to have 5,000 or more pictures at my disposal and will create a new photo album and link it to the blog that adds these other unique viewpoints. I always create a DVD for each team member that has all of the pictures from everybody, the good, the bad and the really ugly! This way, if there is a particular purpose they have, they have access to the collective wisdom of the team. Stay tuned, there will be a few more journal entries about our travel adventures, the new pictures mentioned and, as always, some final reflections on this mission. Of course, that won't complete my work by any means. I will be putting together video and pictures for school chapels and classroom talks at Redeemer and for presentations to various groups such as the LWML, LLL, adult Sunday School classes and anyone else that is interested. I love to show people where their time, talents and treasure are going and the tremendous effect they have had on people's lives, both those we serve and on each of us.

I will also be gearing up right after the first of the year for our mission from May 12-22 to the church in Kibera to host at least a vision clinic and possibly the first dental clinic there. Keep an eye on this blog for info as that begins to take shape.

To God be the Glory!

Click on picture below for the most current set of photos:

Kenya Mission - Fall 2010