It was a very eventful flight from Cairo to Nairobi, but now we’re here in the slums of Kibera – and loving it!
One of the more eventful aspects of the flight involved the fate of our beloved Sarah Rinn. In perhaps the most drastic and last-minute plan change of an entire trip filled with drastic and last-minute changes in plans, an offer was extended to Sarah to join the Yellow and Lime Teams in Tanzania for the month, rather than staying with us in Kenya. Sarah took the offer. The same offer was extended to and accepted by Jessica Sisson of the Brown Team. So it looks like the Bread Team (Brown Team + Red Team = Bread Team) will be down a couple of slices during our ministry in Kenya. Make sure to check out Sarah’s personal blog to follow her adventures with the South Africans this month.
Then, the eventfulness continued with the airline’s loss of not just one or two of our bags, but more than half! Luckily, this trip more-than-prepares one to spend three days in the same clothes, without toiletries, in a foriegn country. What would have been a major irritation eight months ago is now a minor inconvenience. And by yesterday, all of the missing bags had arrived. We picked them up, along with a cool $80 USD each for our trouble. Ice cream’s on us, baby!
Our home here is the AIM base in Kibera. It is a group of three or four houses on the edge of the slums with a fence and 24-hour armed guard service (so all you moms out there don’t have to worry). Our hosts are three Canadians who are involved with a drama and street evangelism ministry called DRIME. (Check it out at http://www.drime.com .) They have been here for several months, scouting out the possibility of a DRIME base here. They have been amazing servants to us, and we can’t thank them enough for their help in these early days. Please pray for God’s blessings for Mark, Shelly, and Lillian, our new Canadian buddies.
Yesterday, we worshipped at the church we will be working with while we are here. It was a jubilant celebration of the Lord’s goodness! There was much singing, some dancing, very loud whistles, and more. It was a blast. They have this great tradition where whenever someone brings them greetings from another church or another group of believers, that person waves at the congregation, and then they wave back energetically. It made me smile every time.
We were very warmly received. Today one of the pastors, Pastor Mike, came by our place to talk about potential ministries. It sounds as though we will be doing a number of different things, including outdoor revival-type outreach events and door-to-door evangelism in the slums. It should be an amazing time of ministry! Please pray for our ministry plans, that God would lead and guide, and that He would be preparing those to whom we will minister.
That’s all for now. More later in the week.
-Gary, on behalf of Team Doulos
