5/30/2024 – I was so exhausted after yesterday that I was able to sleep most of the night almost on a Nairobi schedule. I had some water and granola bars in my hotel room at 5am because I needed to catch the Hotel Hoppa, the shuttle bus, at 6am to get to Terminal 5. The staff told those of us waiting for the bus to sit inside since it was about 55 degrees. The bus saw nobody waiting and passed over us. The next bus was not until 6:30. If I missed that one making the flight to Nairobi would be iffy. I waited outside. Once on board, we stopped at multiple hotels and it was nearly 40 minutes before we got to the airport. Luckily, going through security wasn’t too bad so I had time for a hard-boiled egg, cheese and mayo baguette and an Americano coffee, which I needed to get going. I made my way to Gate C63 by taking a lift (British for elevator) down to an underground tram that got me close. Heathrow is huge, even using buses to get you from one terminal to another. As I arrived at the gate, there was Rudy. Yay! The others in Philly came on a flight that was an hour later and we hadn’t seen any of them yet. Rudy and I boarded British Air Flight 065 and parted company. He’s one row away on the other side of the plane. As people were passing by my seat, I looked up and there was Amanda! And soon Ken, Sandra, Elizabeth and Finnegan. They made it!
The Saegerts sent a picture of them on the train to Emali as they made their way to Amboseli for wildlife safaris. Here they are.
As I wrote this on the plane, we still need Pastor Kevin and Jon to make it to Nairobi today and we’re still unclear as to when Arron and Sarah would make it. They were stuck in Chicago and got rooms for the night. Arron texted out how good a hot shower felt and how nice it was to sleep laying down instead of in a chair! I’m hopeful that they arrive Friday night. What a start to our mission!
Lunch was either chicken curry or vegetarian curry. I chose pollo. It was OK. At least it filled me up. About 6 hours til Nairobi, but it will be a little painful with much of the team needing to file for missing luggage. My checked bag was supposedly in London yesterday, we’ll see if it joins me! I sure could use fresh clothes and my own toiletries.
This is all small stuff compared to the mission we have been called to. Both of our clinic locations are hungry for our vision services and we know many will respond positively to our Gospel message, both by what we say, but also by how we show love to all whom we serve. Countless times at past clinics people have been amazed that we are volunteers serving them at our own expense. This often prompts being asked why and we each have a personal answer but it all boils down to what He did for us first. Many great conversations that started with that question have ended in baptisms, conversions or with seeking with open hearts and minds to know more. We are in the mission field for literally a blink of the eye so we can only plant seeds and may not see the results of our going and telling. I always remind myself and my teams that it is above our pay grade to think we are to convert people. Our calling is to go and tell. Others will water the seed, prune the plant and so on.
We are in Nairobi, my bag got here, many of the others are missing theirs between here and Philly, New York and parts in between. We filed lost luggage claims and hope it is delivered soon. More to follow as I get a chance, it's 12:40am here and many of us have an early morning. We are at the Little Daughters of St Joseph convent. I got a hot shower and feel much, much better. All except Sarah and Arron have now gotten here about a day late. Blessing everybody, keep us in your prayers for a safe and effective mission!
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