A Big Sunday in Nairobi

The teams that were heading out into the field for Trinity Klein were staggered, with the first one leaving after a 7am breakfast.  I got the best Saturday night's sleep ever, I must have been exhausted from the huge safari and other Saturday activities plus the short night on Friday night after our travel.  I managed to sleep all but about a half an hour between 10 pm and 6:30 am.  I had breakfast with the early team and took a group picture for them with one of their phones and with one of my cameras for good measure. 

I visited with other teams and continued having some coffee while Alex had his breakfast.  Cynthia started having stomach problems on Saturday and we all agreed it would be best if she just took care of herself rather than joining us for worship.  It proved to be a good decision, since the church service from beginning to end was three hours and fifty two minutes and it was all incredible.  I saw my old friend Bishop Bakari Kea before church and when he had Alex and I introduce ourselves to the congregation, he said there was no need to introduce Dave because everybody already knew him!  He loves to give me a hard time.  Alex said a few words about himself and we were greeted warmly by the congregation.  During my remarks, I said it was good to be back home, since Kibera was the first location I was a team leader for back in 2010 and I have always been treated like family there.  As usual, the music was outstanding and included children's choirs, several women's and inter-generational choirs and everything from standard hymns to African music to praise songs that people in our 10:45 service know by heart.  And it all was absolutely excellent.  A guest preacher delivered the sermon and our friend Isaac with Nuru Lutheran Hour ministries translated into Swahili for him. 

Alex being blessed

During one phase of the worship, people were called to be prayed over by Bishop Kea, Isaac, the preacher and our evangelist friend Francis.  It was very moving, each person, including Alex, was prayed over individually for several minutes.  I'm sure when Alex looks back on this trip, this will be one of the signature moments for him.  It was very moving for me because I saw many people who have become life long friends through these mercy missions.

After church, we went to the Junction Mall and had lunch with Isaac.  Cynthia joined us and at a light meal.  After lunch, we went to the large store in the mall that is similar to a Super Walmart and bought the incidentals we would need for the clinic like paper towels, glass cleaner, hand sanitizer, water for our personal use, etc.  We got back to Rosa Mystica a little after 4 and had free time to relax until a 7 pm meeting we had to discuss the layout of the clinic and what it would take to get it up and running as efficiently as possible Monday morning. 

At the meeting, I used a layout I had drawn that we used during our last clinic at Kibera that had worked well and explained step by step the workflow that we usually followed.  Bill Goodoff from Salem was also there, having arrived from serving on a mission last week near the Tanzanian border.  He is joining our team and is a valuable addition as he is also a veteran of many clinics and can do most any job needed.  It will be like having a second leader to help out and use as a sounding board.  He will be joining me for several days of wildlife photo safaris after the clinic, something I'm really looking forward to.  He had some good input on when to send children directly to the doctors and other ways of doing business that I'm sure will pan out nicely.

Well, it's nearing bedtime and tomorrow will be a big day, the opening of a clinic is always a minor miracle in itself.  Things won't run very smoothly at first and we will be correcting problems with paperwork and traffic control for the bulk of the day after physically getting the clinic set up.  Luckily, it's been rainy lately and the first day is generally the slowest, allowing us to iron out snags as they arise before we hit our stride as the week progresses.  More to follow after the clinic tomorrow!  Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission as we care for the vision and spiritual needs of the people the God brings to us this week!