An afternoon at JFK

It was almost 2pm Eastern time when we deplaned in New York.  We went up and down various escalators and traversed more than a few moving sidewalks before finally taking a tram to Terminal 7 where our flight would be departing for London.  Once there, I made sure to get aisle seats reserved for the next 2 legs of our trip, then we spent about 20 minutes getting through security so we could go to our gate in the International terminal.

We ate at the food court and, while all the choices were airport plus New York expensive, we were so hungry anything would have tasted wonderful and it did.

We've got about another hour before we board. I'll try to report from London, sometimes with delays in security we have to literally run to make our flight to Nairobi. Thanks for continuing to follow our progress and for keeping us and our mission in your prayers.

Flight to New York

Thursday Flight to New York

Our friend Jay Jennings was on duty with the airport fire department and stopped by for a minute to see us off. What a nice surprise!

We took off from ABIA right on time and the air was choppy all the way to JFK. The captain never did turn off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. Passengers still made their way to the rest rooms as needed, but there was no unnecessary milling around.  There was no meal provided, so I bought a ham and cheese croissant sandwich for $10 with my American Airlines Mastercard, maybe I got a mile or two in return.  It was fresh and good but for $10 I would rather have Texas BBQ! Free soft drinks and a cookie were on the next cart. I'm sure we'll get something to eat at JFK and there should be dinner and  maybe  breakfast on the flight to London.

I sat with a young couple on their way to Baltimore and Washington DC and told them about the mission trip.  Since I was recently in the area and have been to many of the sights and museums before, I was able to steer them in the right direction. It's always more fun if people share in conversation on these long trips and it gives us a chance to witness to them. Even when we used to book flights as large groups of 60 or more missionaries, we would split up the seating on purpose. We view the entire trip as a great way to share the Good News. Who knows?  One encounter might have eternal and profound worldly consequences.

Thursday morning, let the mission begin!

Cynthia and I arrived at Pastor Kevin’s house as planned at 6am for the drive to the airport in his truck with Tammy.  We got there in record time because of the light traffic and we heard from her that she got back to the Redeemer neighborhood quickly as well.  We got through security with very little trouble, one footlocker with my backpack and toiletries in it got searched and swabbed and then we were good to go.  We’ve got about an hour until we board, I’m having a cup of hot coffee because it’s best if we stay up.  I always have a fitful night’s sleep before each trip, just sure that I’ve forgotten SOMETHING.  I shouldn’t worry, after 14 trips I’ve got a checklist of the essential items such as my passport that I go over just before we leave.  The passport and a rain poncho for when we get a real gully-washer are the only two things you absolutely can’t live without.  Working in the city limits of Nairobi, we can get most anything we may have forgotten after the clinic each day anyway.

We fly to New York from Austin at 9:15am and then we have about a 3 hour layover before taking British Air to London.  After another 3 hour layover (with a major security check), we fly to Nairobi before noon London time.  We will arrive in Nairobi about 8pm local time, spend about an hour going through immigration and customs and then will ride for about an hour  to the Little Daughters of St. Joseph convent  where we will be staying the first 2 nights with teams from Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball. 

We plan on going out to Lake Naivasha for a river and lake photo safari Saturday morning.  Even if we don’t sleep well, it’s good to try to get onto local time as soon as possible so we will be in good shape for the start of the clinic Monday.  I expect we’ll see hippos in the river, many different water birds and, if it’s dry enough, we will get to walk around the island among zebras, giraffes and other non-predators.  There’s an 80% chance of rain there on Saturday, but many times those are late afternoon thunderstorms.  We will be there from about 9:30am until maybe 1pm, with lunch near the water’s edge.

That’s about it for now.  I’ll try to get a little more in from New York and London as we progress in our travels.  Thanks for keeping up with the blog and keep coming back.  I’ll report as often as it’s possible.

Preparing for our next mission to Nairobi later this week

It's time to crank up the blog again, as we are in the final stages of preparing to head to Nairobi Thursday.  This time we will be serving with a new congregation near the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport called Pipeline.  We will be serving with some of our old friends from the churches in Kawangware and Kibera including Pastor James, volunteers from Nuru (the Lutheran Hour Ministries in Kenya) and Gloria.  There will be 5 of us coming from the States and Gloria will join us as our 6th team member.  We will also have many volunteers from the Pipeline congregation.  The team will be led by Pastor Kevin and myself and we will be joined by Ralph Genz, Merrilee Walker and Cynthia Lux, who will be on her first trip with us.

We were commissioned and prayed over this morning at Redeemer on Mother's Day, which made it very special.  Pastor Dave explained from Scripture the reasons we do mission, both as a congregation and as individual missionaries.  He prayed a beautiful blessing over us as we opened the 9:30am worship service.

I say a few words to the congregation about where we are going and what we expect to accomplish

Pastor Dave commissions the team

4 of us are flying British Air out of Austin this time.  With the tourist season just beginning, we couldn't get a direct flight to Europe, so we will be flying the JFK in New York and will have a layover there before catching a flight to Heathrow in London.  From there we will fly to Nairobi.  Merrilee was able to book an outstanding deal on KLM and she will be flying by way of Amsterdam and will eventually meet us in Nairobi late Friday night.  I will be going on my 15th trip.  On all previous trips, I have traveled wearing my lucky red Adidas shirt, making me easy to spot for the rest of the team as we globe trot.  Two trips ago we got diverted to Istanbul and last time Pastor Kevin and I were refused passage by Air France over a mix-up with our visas.  I am retiring the lucky shirt after it has failed on 2 trips in a row!  Now I need to decide on a new one.  All kidding aside, the Holy Spirit has always been with us on each of these trips and no really serious incident has ever occurred.  We have been blessed as we blessed others.  

More to follow in the days ahead.  Please come back to this blog often, I will be updating it during out travel and as often as time and the availability of both electricity and Internet access allow.

A Blessing on the last day of our Fall 2015 Clinic

Pastor Kevin and I were meeting on the last afternoon of the clinic with Catherine, Pastor James and Jarrod of Nuru (the Lutheran Hour Ministries in Kenya) concerning our future clinic locations in and around Nairobi when we got word that there was someone who wanted to see us.  It was little 4 year old Blessing and her mother, come to thank us for her successful double cataract surgery of a year ago.   Blessing looked and acted like any other precocious 4 year old.  Catherine reminded us how special this moment was when she likened it to Jesus healing the ten lepers and only the one came back to praise and thank Him.  Blessing's Mom was just overflowing with thanks and praise and told us how grateful she was in Swahili with Catherine interpreting for us.  My response to her was that it was cases like this that kept is coming back again and again to be the hands and feet of Jesus and that all the glory belonged to Him for putting Blessing in our lives.  There was not a dry eye to be seen.  We posed for the following picture.  The story of our original encounter with Blessing at our clinic in November of 2014 follows this image.

From a December 2014 post:

Over the next week or ten days, I’ll be adding more stories about what happened of note on the trip and several more pictures from other team members.  Here is the first of these stories and it deeply moved all of us.  It happened Friday afternoon, on the last day of the clinic.  We always bring a budget of $1500 for each vision clinic team for the purpose of paying for cataract surgeries or other procedures at local Nairobi hospitals.  The average cataract referral costs us about $50, so this means that 30 people regain the sight in at least one eye on each of our missions.  We had already approved 31 cataract surgeries, one more than the budget and had also agreed to help with half payment for a pair of contact lenses for a young boy with keratoconus (a condition where the eyes are shaped like the end of an American football rather than being more spherical) if the family and community could raise the other half.  I thought we were more than done with surgeries and we were already beginning to assess when we would have to close the clinic in order to get packed up and have a closing devotion with the volunteers from the congregation. 

God had another plan and brought us a 3 year old little girl named Blessing (shown here with her mother, me and Dr. Patrick).  She had been born with cataracts on both eyes.  Her young mother had been born the same way.  Our doctors had seen this hereditary condition before and recommended surgery for both eyes and said the cost would be around 20,000 Kenyan shillings or approximately $250.  They weren't sure if that would be for one eye or both, but that general anesthesia would be necessary.  Normally, we fund one cataract surgery at a time, mostly for older people because of the chance of infection and the possibility of permanently losing sight in both eyes.  In the case of a young one like Blessing, the risk of going under anesthesia twice far outweighed these other risk factors, so both eyes would need to be corrected at the same time. I asked that the doctors make some calls and firm up the cost that we were talking about and I also asked if there was any way the family and the community could come together to fund raise for half of the cost, as is our custom in cases like this.  After phone consultations with their colleagues at various clinics, our doctors reported that both eyes, including anesthesia would be a little less than 40,000 KSH.  After a few more calls, we learned that there was an angel donor at one of the clinics and if we could arrange for cash to be paid at the time of the procedure, he would pay about a third of it.  After hearing this and a little prayer, I was moved to OK the operation and little Blessing will have the best Christmas gift of her young life, sight in both eyes!  Thank you, Jesus!  But wait, the story gets better.  Since our return to the States, I have spoken via Skype with Catherine.  There was a similar case to Blessing’s at one of our clinics in a rural area and a program to help children in desperate circumstances was found to help pay for his care.  We are now hopeful that Blessing also qualifies.  Looking back on it, I believe that the Lord brought this little one to our attention at the eleventh hour to teach us yet another faith lesson.  He was going to care for His child all along, He just wanted to invite us along for the ride.  I’m so glad that we accepted His invitation.  Matthew 25:40  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Back in Austin, fighting jet lag today and a few final details about our travel back to the States

Alison and I drove straight through to Austin after we left Bush International in Houston.  I called Adrienne to let her know I was OK and contacted Kevin to report on the last day of the clinic and our Saturday.  He told me about his trip home and the wedding, as well as The Sound of Music at Redeemer and how everyone felt Jack was a budding star.  I decided to worry about getting the footlockers back to the church in the next day or two, so we could drive straight to my place, where Alison had left her vehicle.  It was a struggle to remain alert for the last 15 miles or so.  The jet lag can really be crushing.  We arrived at my house about 7:30 pm, which is 4:30 am in Nairobi.

I put the footlockers in my garage, moved my luggage into the house, got a hot shower, added a few lines to the blog and then crashed about 8:30 pm.  I actually did pretty well for a first night back and slept until 3 am.  I'll probably make it until 4 am tomorrow morning and finally 5 am or so on Wednesday morning, which is pretty close to my usual routine.  My 16 year old cat was very unhappy with me for being gone so long, but she finally calmed down around midnight.  I really thank my good friends Jom and Kathy Binneboese for wathcing my house, getting the mail, feeding the cat and taking care of cat box duties while I was away.  It takes a village...

I planned on taking today to decompress a bit and get a work schedule laid out for the rest of the week, as well as doing mid-month invoicing.  ATT had a different plan.  I looked through my snail mail and had received a letter stating that if I didn't pay a past due amount by November 13th, (which has been in dispute since June and which ATT has admitted was charged in error),  my service would be cut off.  They were true to their word.  No Internet, no phone and no TV when I got up.  It took exactly one hour and five minutes on the phone with a very nice lady in Pakistan to get it turned back on.  It's kind of hard to run a computer repair business without a phone or Internet connection!  I was promised it would be taken care of, but I've heard that now for 5 months in a row.  The disputed charge for equipment I never ordered and had returned right away is the gift that keeps on giving.  ATT has a record of receiving the item, but can't seem to remove it from their account system.  My agreement is up in February and I WILL be shopping around.

I also changed my credit card info on a half a dozen vendor and service accounts that I have auto-pay options for. I found another $600 divided among 4 fraudulent charges on the cancelled credit card account and spent more time on the phone with Citibank about those items, three were at Autozone and one was at O'Reilly Auto Parts on November 12th, right after the legitimate charge was made at the restaurant in Nairobi.  What a mess...

I did learn through Alison that the Salem teams arrived in Houston with very few team leaders, but managed to get all of their footlockers and luggage OK.  Also, Paul, Kevin and Catherine had been able to get out of Nairobi after all on Saturday night and had traveled back to Houston by way of Germany, arriving as the Salem teams finished getting their baggage.  Thank you Jesus!  I guess one of the themes of this trip was leaders getting separated from their teams.  In each case, everyone picked up the slack and it all worked out in the end.

Keep an eye on the blog, I'll be adding more stories and pictures for the foreseeable future. The team is all thankful for a great clinic, it was well worth the challenges we overcame.  Seeing old friends and making new ones, serving the people of Kawangware and spending time in Nairobi far outweigh any inconveniences.  Plus, we have some stories now and it will all look funny after a while!  As usual, I'll let the trip sink in for a few weeks and will right a final reflection on what it meant to us.  That is easier after a little time passes and we have a different perspective.  Thanks again for all the prayers for a successful mission and for our safety during our travels to and from Africa.

Paris to Houston

We would have taken off right on time from Paris at 10:30 am except they held the plane for 45 minutes for two late passengers.  The pilot assured us that he could still get us to Houston on schedule. As usual, Air France is going to shine when it comes to cuisine.  I just got the menu for the first meal on this 10 hour flight. We started with a vegetable salad followed by either chicken in a carrot cream sause, vegetable julienne and mashed potatoes with cheese or salmon fagottini pasta, fennel cream sauce with lemon. Dessert will be Camembert cheese, Clementine and a brownie. Wow! My clothes have shrunken on this trip or I've gained weight.  We were well fed on all of our travels and had big breakfasts and we were invited to dinner or took friends out every day. I'm afraid to hit the scales.

I plan to get some more sleep after lunch, since I didn't do real well in that department on the first flight. I need to be fresh for gathering up all of our belongings at the airport and for the drive home this evening.

We have had lunch and the chicken was excellent.  After the brownie, I ate the miniature orange that was a surprise on my tray. A great way to wash down the meal. If everything else is equal, I'll fly Air France, KLM and Kenya Airways for their food and good service.  Our only option for direct flights from Austin to London to Nairobi so far is the partnership of British Air and American Airlines.  We always weigh that convenience against lower costs through Houston or Dallas. This time, we were able to get $768 on Air France by booking early versus $12-1500 from Austin.  That's a big difference,  even after gas and long term parking is added.

We are now less than 4 hours from Houston as I write this portion of this post and are approaching Montreal.   The cabin crew has just served everyone an ice cream bar, probably the last thing I need but I'll return to my usual eating and exercise habits once I get back to Austin.  Heck, I might be tempted to stop for Blue Bell when we get to Brenham!  I expect we'll have one more meal before the end of the flight.

I was right!  They served a pizza wrap about an hour and a half before we got to Houston.  It came with a fruit salad and some soupy cheese in a container.  I had a cup of coffee to begin perking up before our plane arrived within about 5 minutes of being on time.  We were all in the back of the plane, an Airbus A-330, so it took a while to deplane.  We went through immigration in about 15 minutes and went down to the baggage claim area.  The footlockers arrived fairly quickly, but some checked luggage took a while.  Once we had retrieved all of our clinic and personal baggage, we proceeded to get into the very long line for Immigration.  Even though I tried to lead the way, the agent started questioning Robert about his footlockers.  Before we knew it, we were all herded into another room for an X-RAY scan of all of our bags and footlockers.  I explained what we do in Kenya and they asked me how much they paid me to do this.  I told them we're volunteers but the rewards are eternal and they waved us through after a quick look at the rest of the team's items.