Day 1

Hello from Nairobi, Kenya!

Josh Taylor, Dave and Linda Kemper, Steve Kemper, Megan Garris and Tim Parsley all made it here safe and sound late Saturday evening. After a quick bite at a local fast-food chicken restaurant, we hit the sack – hard.

Woke up to the beautiful sounds of morning birds chirping – and the rattle of a smoking generator (electricity went out around 5 am at the hotel). We all gathered for a very nice breakfast on the patio and enjoyed a cool morning drizzle.

After being driven through the city, we arrived at the Mathare Valley slums in time for bible study and church services at the Kosovo church. While we were inside, a strong rain pounded down on the steel roofing, making it hard to hear the soft-spoken Kenyans lead their bible studies. The service was very lively with much singing, dancing, and preaching. I (Tim) was asked to come up and introduce the Cincinnati crew – and then later to pray for several 8th grade students who were preparing for this week’s “exam.” (8th grade students test to see if they qualify for high school – even then, only about 1/3 are allowed to attend due to limited space).

After services we had a nice lunch with several members of the church/school staff and Mary and Wallace, founders of the mission schools. We then took a tour of their new building addition – 3.5 stories (the top floor is still being finished) – and were given a panoramic view of the Kosovo “village” of the slums. At one point one of the pastors of the congregation pointed to a row of steel roofs below us, about 60 feet in length, and said that about 80 people likely lived in just that small segment. Mary said that last year their total enrollment of students was just over 1000 – currently they are serving over 2300 children at several schools.

Kosovo – the area of slums LifeSpring is specifically working in – is noticeably different than the surrounding slums. There are many more roofs with shiny steel surfaces, whereas the surrounding areas are rusted and blackened. There are also extensive power lines in Kosovo (though they are not live yet). We were told that these improvements – some of which are government sponsored – are due to Kosovo’s improvement as a community.

During our lunch, Mary shared a wonderful story about the mission’s role in peace-making during the violence that ripped through Nairobi earlier this year (post-election). She described “peace soccer matches” with tribally-mixed teams, peace fashion shows where “Mr. and Ms. Peace” were awarded, and a giant “peace cake” where two conflicted tribal youths were handed a knife to share, hand-in-hand, and simultaneously cut the cake and serve to others – a powerful symbol of unity and forgiveness.

After just one afternoon it is already clear to each of us: We are among some of God’s most impressive servants.

After a couple of hours of relaxation time at the hotel (to catch up on jet-lag), we had dinner at Oliver and Ednah’s home with several ministry leaders and missionary interns. Like all we are meeting here – very hospitable and generous. Everyone here is so warm and welcoming.

Tomorrow promises to be a very good day. Most everyone arrived at the hotel tonight very tired, and ready for a solid night’s sleep. So we should be balanced out and ready in the morning! We are scheduled to have an orientation tomorrow, as well as a more up-close tour down into the slums themselves. Tuesday begins the actual roll-up-your-sleaves-and-work!

More to come… stay tuned!

(BTW – internet here is very spotty, so if there aren’t regular updates to this blog, that’s why)