Archive for October, 2008
Live from Kenya
Oct 17th
Our first few days in Kenya were quite slow. We thought we would be preparing for the conference but it turned out that it was going to be more of a last minute affair! So we spent the first day shopping and driving around the city. The traffic here is crazy. I thought Romes traffic was fun but this is even better. I wish I could have a go!
We are staying at the International Bible Society guest house and through some contacts here managed to get in touch with some people who run an orphanage. We assumed it would be a large institutionalised place, but after driving out of Nairobi for 30mins we found a large house in a semi rural area that housed 10 kids between 4 and 8 yrs old. It is run by a pastor and his family and they are raising the kids as part of their family. They teach the kids English (the speak Swahili or a local dialect), reading, writing, etc. We got some time to play with them and it was amazing to see how many of them just wanted to sit down and read to us! The pastors son, Steve, told us some stories of when the kids first arrived (only a year ago). One boy, George, was not used to getting three meals a day so he would eat until there was no more food available – often making himself sick, In time he learnt that he would always get three meals a day, something we just take for granted.
Steve took us to the place he grew up and where all of these kids are from – the Mathare slums. These are the largest in Kenya and house 600,000 people. He was lucky because his family managed to work their way out of it and he has even been to university to study community development – in Kenya you have to have very high grades to get into university as there are not many places available. The past few years Steve actually move back to the slum so that he could work with the youth there. He was very excited to tell us about 3 of the kids he works with who are sitting their high school exams, something most people from the slums never get to do. It was an amazing time meeting Steve and his family. They are doing so much to give these kids a hope and a future.
Sunday turned out to be the only day off we would be able to take for two weeks so we decided to go on safari! We had been offered a cheap deal to go to Nakuru National Park. It is not as good as the Masai Mara, but they do have 6million flamingos, quite an amazing site – an very exciting when a Hyena decided he had an appetite for flamingo! We saw Rhinos, Water Buffalo, Zebra a Giraffe, Antelope, Gazelle and tons of cheeky monkeys. Quite a fun day despite missing out on Lions and Leopards - the park is 100sq Km so you can’t necessarily find all the animals. I will definitely be back to do a longer safari sometime.
On Monday we started helping out with the conference, setting up chairs, moving tables and other miscellanious tasks. I have been helping with registration so get too meet a lot of Kenyans, Ugandans and other East African residents (including quite a few Bishops!). They are very friendly and love to hear where I am from and what I am doing. I have had a lot of people who,. after speaking with them briefly, have invited me to come and speak at their villages and churches. All very flattering, and it would be an amazing experience, but unfortunately I don’t run our schedule and can’t make the team run around Africa getting to all my speaking engagements 
I spoke to one guy about the village internet cafe he is planning on opening, the next day he brought in his business plan which we went through together and figured out how to start the business with a third of the capital originally planned and focus more on getting the core service right before diversifying too much – hopefully he will be able to raise the money he needs now.
I spoke to one guy about the village internet cafe he is planning on opening, the next day he brought in his business plan which we went through together and figured out how to start the business with a third of the capital originally planned and focus more on getting the core service right before diversifying too much – hopefully he will be able to raise the money he needs now.The general theme of the conference is the same as what we have been taught over the last few months – how to disciple a nation (love God, follow His principles and help others to do the same). Everyone I have talked to has been really inspired to go back to their churches and places of influence and get started.
This afternoon we are leaving for Arua in Uganda. It is a two day bus ride which will involve many potholes and a desire to never see a bus again (we have two more journeys to make after this one). It should be fun!
Our living conditions are about to deteriorate rapidly though – we currently have comfy beds that get made daily for us, an en suite and as much delicious food as we can eat, something we wont experience again until we are back in England in nearly 6 weeks time.
I don’t have any pictures for you this time as I forgot to bring my memory card reader – and even if I hadn’t the internet isn’t that fast!
Another update
Oct 3rd
Last time we talked I was heading off to Bedford to help out with a kids camp. Everything went really well and we had a great time. The camp only went for 2days so it was not much time to build relationships with the kids, it would have been nice if it was a bit longer. But 12 kids decided to start following Jesus so that was really great to see! I managed to make my knee even worse than it was – we were playing British Bulldog and one of the kids tackled me, I fell over and landed on my knee which promptly swelled up like I was a cartoon character that had been hit on the head! I had to spend the rest of the day with an icepack on it, and I haven’t been able to do much more than walking since, although recently it has been better.
We spent the following week living in a Church in Bedford. It was the first time I had ever slept, showered and had meals in a church and it was a lot more fun than I expected. We had the sound system to play with, projector to watch movies on and an auditorium to play creative games we devised. During the week we went out on the streets and talked to random people and got involved in some local projects like a cafe for teenagers. One day we did a free car wash, it poured with rain so the few people who did stop stayed in their cars. Unhappy with only washing a few cars we started giving a way tea and biscuits to passers by.. which turned into giving it to people in their cars as they drove by! We had people running across the street at a busy roundabout handing out tea – even to a car with a couple of cops and someone they had arrested in the back! The last night of the week we put on a program for some of the kids from the camp. It was just a bit of a get together and a nice opportunity to see them again. We did a skit and a dance which was all a bit cheesy – but it was our first time performing together so wasn’t too bad! Some photos of the camp and Bedford are here.
Since then we have had many more lectures. A particular highlight was Godly Relationships where we looked at how families are structured, how issues get passed down from generation to generation and how to stop that. We also spent a week in Notting Hill (again living in a church) learning about evangelism. It was quite different to what I expected and really portrayed evangelism more like discipleship – showing people Gods love for them and helping them to get closer to Him. In the afternoons we went out onto the streets to practice starting conversations and trying to steer conversations towards God. I can’t say I was very good at the latter, but I at least enjoyed making conversation with random people and in situations I normally wouldn’t bother.
So now it is time for outreach! Our team has been split in two. 7 people are going to Milano Italy.. and the other 10 of us are going to Kenya, Uganda and possibly Sudan! Everyone is quite excited – I usually save mine for when I arrive in a new place.. we leave on Tuesday so not long to go now We have been practising some dramas which has been fun. We are doing one to the song Everything by Lifehouse. Hopefully it will look something like this version on youtube. I am playing Jesus but hopefully won’t be wearing that tunic thing! The drama is quite intense but has a pretty powerful message. I imagine we will take a video of us doing it at some point so that should be nice and embarrassing!!
Well not too sure when I will be in touch next, hopefully at least before we get back on Nov 26.
Please pray for safety for our teams and open hearts for the people we meet.
