Africa Mission Blog Day 1 (Travel Day)

Well, Day 1 and Day 2 are basically behind us and we just arrived, but we are here and safe.

Sunday, June 9

The day started off by getting to celebrate Stacy’s birthday before going to church. Although the celebration was short with a busy day ahead of us, I wanted to make sure Stacy knew how much her children and I love here.

We all enjoyed a great morning at church. Many of the travelers had mentioned to me they were so excited they hardly slept the night before. I told them that was good it would help them begin to adjust to the new time and with jet lag. The focus of the church service was on prayer. The sermon centered on James 5:16 and praying for one another. A challenge was given for the entire church to commit to pray daily and fast on a day specifically for our mission trip team. The altars were full of people praying. After four individuals made their public profession of faith by following their Lord in baptism, we had a focused time of prayer for each member of our Africa Mission Team. As they each came forward at church I encouraged all that could and would to come and lay hands on each person and pray over them. Again the response was humbling.

As soon as church was over the team met to claim an “extra” piece of luggage to be responsible for on the flight. These extra pieces of luggage were for supplies, food, gifts, etc. while we are in Africa. Most then scattered to grab a quick bite for lunch and we met back up at the airport.

Upon arrival we learned that our flight had been delayed from a 4:20 PM departure to a 5:45 PM departure. This gave us more time for bonding prior to our flight taking off.

Because of the rain we got pushed back to start a little later but by 6:45 PM Houston time we were in the air and on our way.

We were all fortunate enough to be able to sit fairly close to one another and we all had aisle row seats to allow a “little” extra leg room. Most everyone watched movies, or played games, or read books for the flight, but the most common thing everyone did was sleep.

We made it to London a couple hours later than planned so we had to hustle to make it to our connecting flight. After making our way through another security check point we made our way to our gate with about 30 minutes to spare. In London we met up with a couple other travelers that would join us from there to Nairobi. It was a short layover but everyone enjoyed stretching their legs out for a bit.

We left London at 10:45 AM London Time preparing for another 8.5 hour flight. We had already survived the first 9 hours. There were mixed feelings about being “half-way” there. I guess it separated the glass half full from glass half empty crowd. The plane to Nairobi was identical to the plane we had just gotten off of and many were sitting in close proximity to where they were before so it felt like much of the same.

On the flight to Nairobi everyone completed their Visa application for admittance into the country so it was getting to be very “real.” After the plane landed we made our way off the plane and managed to “find” a shorter line to purchase our Visas. This process was almost completely painless. We made our way downstairs and this is where the wait began for all of our baggage. As the rest of the team made their way to the baggage carousel I stuck my head out past customs and saw a very welcome sight … Sandy and Karen Baird. They were reading and waiting on us with our transportation. We waited a while but VERY thankful that all of our luggage made it (I heard later that we are the first of the groups to come in so far that has been this fortunate). I told the group to wait until we were all ready and we would go through customs together. This is always a crapshoot. I was able to talk to the person facilitating customs and he let us all go through without stopping anyone. God is good!!!

Sandy and Karen were waiting for us and after several hugs we made our way to the bus waiting to take us to our lodging for the evening. Bus rides are always fun in 3^rd world countries as we pack in as tight as we can be.

After about a 30 minute drive from the airport we ended up at the Ndemi Place Guest House (www.ndemiplace.com) about 11:30 Kenya time. Sandy gave us a few bits of instruction before getting off the bus and then we made our way into our rooms.

We are very excited to jump in tomorrow morning. We will have a brief orientation here at our Guest House after breakfast and then head over to Kibera to help with a Sports Camp.

I think it is obvious already that God completely orchestrated the members of this Mission Trip. It was a true joy to be able to talk with and get to know everyone on a much stronger level. Great things are in store these next few days!!!

As you read this pray that we would all get a good night of rest. It has been a LONG 24 hour period. I didn’t hear a single person complain though. Pray that we can wake up in about 8 hours ready to go. Tomorrow for many will be very eye opening as we make our first visit to Kibera. Something I learned a long time ago was we oftentimes have to “Look beyond what you see.” It will be very much a culture shock but we must look beyond their present circumstances and see who they are and can become in Jesus Christ. Pray for safety as we travel and meet new people. Pray for boldness and opportunities to share God’s love. Most of all pray for changed lives!

Until tomorrow …