Day 1 in Kenya

I am now in Nairobi!
Travel went as well as 24 hours of travel can go. On the last leg I sat next to a young man who was 1/2 Dutch and 1/2 South African. He had not been back to S. Africa in 5 years; working at a hotel in Holland. The rest of his family was scattered over 3 continents. Certainly different from growing up in the same town your whole life and living next to the rest of the family.

Traveling over Africa in the daylight was fascinating when the cloud cover allowed me to see below. The topography and landscape was incredible. Vast expanses of what appeared to be undeveloped land, at least no visible roads. The route took us over lots of desert, an ocean gulf and ancient valleys and mountains.

My missionary friend Sam had graciously arranged to have a taxi driver meet me at the airport with a sign. Tony is studying car mechanics and hopes to work in a shop soon and quit driving. We stopped at a 24 hr. market and bought a pair of Sprite Lights at my request.

This morning (and sunrise is very early here) I got up for an easy run, mostly to get the kinks out of my legs. The city was already busy and I sought out side streets to avoid the people and car traffic and pollution. Dodging potholes and mud puddles, I came back with a fair amount of red clay dirt on my legs. I saw a few other joggers and drew a few curious looks of my own. Mostly I was working to remember that they drive on the left here and I needed to look over the other shoulder for cars.

Today I am going to cross paths with Sam, to pass along some items I brought for his family and some ashes of a young woman who wanted them scattered in Kenya. I need to contact the Compassion office to let them know I am here. But the bulk of the day will be spent with Boniface, my pastor friend here in Nairobi, seeing his church and work with youth sports outreach.

In your prayers join me in: expressing thankfulness for little things like - all my bags arriving with me, warm shower, and a good breakfast.
Pray for: health (no one likes being sick away from home), my visit with Stephen (the Compassion child we sponsor) and his family that I can encourage him and share God's love with them, and most of all, that God will help me see ministry opportunities and how to step into them

grace to you all