Final Reflections Part 1

Hi everyone, Thanks for keeping up with what we were doing while we were gone. I have more pictures up on facebook and I'd be happy to talk about Kenya if you're interested. It's a wonderful and diverse and complex place and I feel blessed to have been able to spend time and make friends there. I'll plan to post once more this week...

Goodbye Kenya

We're hanging out in the London airport after relaxing and looking at amazing animals at Masai Mara game park (the Kenya side of Serengeti Park in Tanzania). Last night our final farewell with the Kenyans on our team and our host families. It was kind of sad but at the same time a celebration of what God had done over the past few weeks. The guys on the team came to the airport with us and here is my final picture with the three guys on the team, Joshua, Jerry, and Victor. I'll really miss all of them.

I was talking to our matatu driver on the way out about what a great place Kenya is and trying to soak up my last images of the streets. Several food sellers, including young kids were in the road selling us peanuts and sugar cane. We didn't get any peanuts but the sugar cane was a wonderful final Kenya food. Between the 12 or so in our car we got 5 bags and were spitting pith out the window most of the rest of the way to the airport. Here's a photo of our team now in the airport, sleeping, reading, etc. And now as I'm writing we're boarding...back to Baltimore.

Rest of the time in Nairobi

The last couple days in Nairobi were a blur for me. Sunday morning I couldn't believe it was already time to say goodbye to my host family. One highlight of the last couple days for me was meeting the people involved in the microfinance ministry. Here we are with two of the benificiaries of the loan program. The woman holding the child in the photo, Dorcas, is a beneficiary of the loan program. She used the seed money from the ministry to expand her baking business and has done well, paying back her loan and saving money while supporting a family of four. The woman in white to the left of her i also in the program and has a business selling vegetables. People with blue World Relief lanyards are on our team and other people are either staff for the program or members of a local church. A number of women in the program are HIV positive and single mothers like Consulata, who is a talented artist and makes crafts like the tree with the birds she's holding in her hand to sell.

The young women to the left of me in the photo are her daughters who she's been able to support through school so far. We met several small business owners like these, asked them about their business, and in most cases prayed with them. Their stories are inspirational, they have hard situations but make the most of it in large part out of love for their children.

The trip back

We drove back to Nairobi today. Here's Matt, James, and Lorelei in the front of the beefy truck we've been riding around in. We also crossed the equator on this trip.

Rendilles

These people up in the Chalbi desert were so cool. They herd goats and camels and are incredibly joyful, welcoming and generous. They were even welcomed me after I met them with the greeting of their enemy tribe. Their way of life is hard though, with a drought and recent mercury poisoning in their water. A camel skin is stretched out to dry in the first picture. The second picture is of a well where women have come to draw water.

Marsabit construction and Jesus film update

We spent each morning in Marsabit doing construction. Our two main projects were a concrete floor for this church and digging a pit for an outhouse.
Several people on my team have good pictures of these processes but I don't have them now to put up on the blog, sorry. The church is right next to this village, and we talked to some of the people in the village. One woman, Jeli, asked for prayer as she is a Christian but married to a Muslim. Hundreds of people from this cluster of homes

and surrounding villages came to see the Jesus film and several made commitments for Christ.

The Jesus film

We're watching it in Borano (the language of the local tribe in Marsibit) RIGHT NOW. Part 1 is tonight and part 2 is tomorrow. Please pray for people seeing it, especially those hearing the story for the first time. A teenager from the church I was chatting with before the movie started told me there was a good response in his village when the film was shown there last year.

Marsabit

We've seen all kinds of stuff in the Marsabit area. Some very happy herders who live in huts in the desert, an oasis that's supposed to have healing powers, a passionate church service in a building with a partially finished concrete floor (the one we're working on. Our driver was nice enough to make a special trip into town for me so I could catch a cell phone signal and get online. I'm supposed to be back in 2 minutes and we're stopped in the road while he gets something from a shop. Also there is a donkey standing in the intersection. None of this seems too unusual though. Blessings!
Jeff