Alright, well we got into Kenya the morning of the first after a 10 hour flight from Bangkok airport. It wasn’t a bad flight and we didn’t completely miss out on new years, after all we did get to briefly celebrate in the airport terminal and then again once we got on the plane. But after a few hugs and the proverbial Happy New Year salute, we grabbed a bite to eat and then quickly passed out for the majority of the flight.
Once we landed in Nairobi we grabbed our bags quickly made our way to the curb where we’d meet our contact from the Milimani Backpackers hostel, where we would spend the next couple nights before heading to our ministry location. Upon reaching the curb where our African adventure was to begin, we were met with quite a surprise – IT WAS COLD!! Yeah, that’s right, Africa was cold… definitely wasn’t what I was expecting at all. And to think about it, its kind of funny that of all the countries we’ve been to, Africa was the one country that required the use of long sleeves to keep warm. I obviously didn’t watch enough Discovery channel prior to coming here…
Anyways, we made it to the Milimani Backpackers hostel and began the preparation for the next leg of our Kenyan journey. We met with a pastor that apparently was The World Race’s main contact for Kenya. He was an encouraging man and he gave us all insight on the African culture and on each of our ministries. He explained to us how he told each of our contacts how wonderful we were and how full of the Spirit we are, and how he has never met anyone as passionate about God than we were – and he hadn’t even met us yet….i guess God spoke with him just before we got there. J
One-by-one, over the next couple days, our teams slowly began to leave the hostel and disperse throughout Kenya. Finally it was our turn – our bus tickets had been purchased and are bags repacked. We bid farewell to the two remaining teams, jumped into a couple taxis and headed to the bus station. Personally, I was dreading this part – all the stories I had heard up to this point led me to believe that this was going to be the longest bus ride ever – filled with chickens, goats, no A/C, and packed full of people on top of people. Fortunately I was only partially right. We climbed aboard a bus with no A/C and that was packed full of people, some of which had to sit on top of each other, but no chickens and goats this time. And we embarked on a 9 hour roller coaster ride (if anyone has ever been to Kings Island in Cincinnati – I would equate the ride and its body jostling roughness to that of a 9 hour ride on The Beast) through Kenya.
After our 9 hour bus ride, with too many stops to count, we finally made it to Isebania, Kenya – a border town located near the Kenya Tanzania border. There we met up with our incredible contact, Pastor Abraham (Pastor of Deliverance Church of Isebania) and his son. He and his son led us, off the road and behind and between multiple other homes, to the home of our gracious hosts, whom we’d spend the next 26 days. We were warmly welcomed with handshakes, friendly smiles, and 3 excited children and before we knew it, we had dinner prepared and sitting in front of us. After dinner we called it a night and began to get settled in our rooms.
Tomorrow marks the beginning, bring on the ministry…
