2 Posts

I wrote these this past week but am only now able to post them... read if you get the time, no big deal.

1 - Nairobi Airport

So Molo was really good. I stayed in the Waweru household with a Foxfire, Joseph. The Wawerus were awesome. Staying with them was a guy named Peter, a girl named Janet, and for a few days, a guy named Kevin. They were not immediately related to the Wawerus, but I think they were nephews and nieces or something. We were all somewhat close in age, and it was really good making friends with them. The mission itself was unlike anything I have done. It was an aggressive spiritual campaign for the town of Molo, including door-to-door, person-to-person evangelism, evening crusades, street cleaning, specialized meetings (couples, professionals, youth, single mothers, etc.), and school ministry. I was involved in each of these facets of ministry in one way or another. I spoke about things like career development and goal setting in front of hundreds of students, helped set up a projector/screen for a showing of The Passion on the street, and even got to lead a lady to the Lord!

I had tea like 5 times a day. And portions in farming town were always huge… if ever I were to gain weight, it would have been in these past few weeks. Maybe I did. After some sweet goodbyes, I returned to Nairobi with a small group of people, two nights before the mission officially ended.

And this is crazy: I met a Kenyan man who met my dad in a taxi in Cape Town and who has an office in the same building as Scott Dawson in Birmingham… my dad’s office. Crazy small world when God is in control.

Yesterday, my last full day in Nairobi, I went to Kebira with a guy named Jimmy. Kebira is the second largest slum in Africa (next to one that is in South Africa). Jimmy took me to buy some awesome Kenyan sandals that are made out of car tires. I got a very good price with Jimmy, less than most Africans. Then we went through the slum. It was humbling to say the least. A “house” in the slum can be rented for about $10 a month… basically the price of a movie. Jimmy introduced me to people as the future President of the United States, Obama’s replacement. Jimmy used to live in Kebira. He spoke of how rough an environment it was for a young person. Drug addiction and prostitution are just a couple of the many problems to be faced in there. But our Lord is faithful, and He has brought Jimmy (a former Fox Fire) out of the slums and the life he led there to follow closely after Christ.

As I write this (although I will not be able to post this until much later, when I attain internet access), I am sitting in the Nairobi airport surrounded by people from everywhere. I am not the only mzungu anymore. Nor am I the center of every young child’s attention, drawn by my unnaturally pale complexion and blonde, unshaven head. However, I am not in the majority either. It’s good.

I’ll be in touch from Uganda later. I pray all of us find our joy in the Lord, our hearts rejoicing at the work of His hands. Grace, peace, and love.

2 - Uganda

First full day in Iganga, Uganda. I have an enormous hotel room all to myself. Big bed. toilet, bath/shower (minus the hot water), and my own TV cable (the TV itself is MIA). I eat breakfast and dinner here at the hotels… good food made to order (goat meat, fries, some cabbage stuff, and water tonight… sausage last night). Today we broke up into two teams for school ministry, much like what I experienced in Kenya. Today, I was asked to briefly give my testimony (after the program at that school had already begun, literally a couple of minutes before I stood up to speak). My audience was a few hundred (maybe even a few hundred more than that… I’m a bad guestimator) primary school students. Ages, I would guess, ranged from 11 to 15 (maybe 12 to 16… I’m bad at ages too). We had a few praise songs, a couple of testimonies, a skit, a message, and an invitation. The majority of the kids made decisions, but I fear that they did not know what they were doing. As we were filling out information cards afterward, a few girls even asked me what to do if they were Muslim. I pray that the Gospel is so central here… Christ and Christ crucified.

Before going to the second school, yet after a lunch of matoke (steamed mashed bananas) and a bunch of other unpronounceable mushy foods, we acquired a guitar. So at the second school, after practicing in their “parking lot” before getting out of the van, I accompanied the worship team in a couple of songs, one of which in the wrong key for part of the time. At the third and final school, the headmaster was not around, so we left until another day.

Pray that I am humble (not just externally) and that God alone is glorified. Pray that I am selfless. Pray that I am focused on Jesus and guarded in every way.

As I write this, I am sitting in my hotel lobby with nine Africans (six of whom are enjoying a cold one) while watching the Netherlands play Uruguay in the semi-finals of the World Cup. Uruguay just scored to tie it at one all (I hear profanity). I am the only white person here, the only white person involved in the mission (even the other Americans are black), and aside from two random mzungus riding on the backs of a couple of boda-bodas (motorcycle taxis), the only white person in Iganga. This is how it feels to be a minority (although “sore thumb” might be a more fitting description of me here).

At this point, I feel like I overuse parentheses as a grammatical tool. However, I feel that they are highly effective. I was even tempted to put them around that last sentence. What do y’all think?