First weekend in Nairobi

For some reason we are not able to sent pictures across on blogger this morning so the following will just be updates over the weekend. We are having a great time and lots going on the first few days with each day following even more, no rest on this past Sunday.

Everyone is doing great and having a ball. We are off to the Masai village today.
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Jambo! We made it to Nairobi on Saturday night after a long 24 hours of flying from Houston to Washington D.C. then to Zurich and finally to Nairobi our final destination. We are thankful that we did not have any problems, even though 2 of our connections were about 45 minutes late. But thankfully there were more passengers later than us, so we had to wait on them and also their luggage. All of our bags made it, including the guitar and special drum Josiah brought so that he could play. Most of us took a few cat naps in flight, except for one girl I won’t mention (B.R.?) who did not sleep the entire trip.
As you can see, Phil was already leading the team astray before we ever left the Houston airport by teaching them the card game of Rook. He seemed like only he knew the rules and after Diane gave up after one hand, Madison took over and won the first with a perfect score of 360, which I don’t know what that means, but we were all quite impressed.
We got settled in our home away from home for this week, the Anglican Guesthouse, then off to bed and good night’s sleep for all.

Sunday morning started off with breakfast and then a drive to a local church, actually outside of town about 40 minutes. It was one of the 7 sister churches that Judy Mbugua, the director of our ministry partnership, belongs to. It was packed! As you see in the photos, there were well over 1,000 all under a tent. It was a really good service, and one of the worship songs they sang was great, even thought we did not know a single word of the Swahili, but it lasted about 15 minutes. Let me just say they we excited and enjoying the worship time. We got to share in their communion, which is always special, but the entire church was just finishing 7 days of prayer and fasting, and this was their breaking of the fast. Then Samantha Wegner sang a song and it was incredible; she really did a fantastic job and was so well received by the church.

We left church after 2 ½ hours, though the service had not quite yet ended. They were just winding down with the sermon from a guest evangelist from Nigeria. I think it probably went a while longer, but we had another event to join in on. We had a quick lunch and jumped back into the van and headed out to Limuru, which is actually where Judy was born so got a little history lesson on that. We went past a soccer field that she told us she used to play on in school, 6 miles from her home, but they walked there without a thought about the distance.

Limuru Homecare Fellowship center is the first of the 22 branches of the ministry in Kenya to have a permanent facility for ministry, one that took five years to build and was built entirely with funds raised from the women in Homecare. For women with little resources, this is quite a feat and testimony to God’s faithfulness and the women’s commitment to serve. Women meet regularly at the center for prayer, worship, encouragement, and service. We got to meet with the women who meet on Sunday afternoons, and what a joyful group of women they were. They had waited patiently for us for more than an hour while we fought through traffic, singing and praising. Yet they wanted to sing even more for us once we arrived. Though many of these women are grandmothers left with raising their grandchildren after losing sons and daughters to AIDS and struggle to provide basic needs, they have the joy of the Lord! Their heart is to share Jesus and reach out to their community with the hope of the gospel and practical help. Now that they have a facility, they are praying for equipment to set up vocational training so that people in the community can support themselves and care for their families. (Unemployment is extremely high in Nairobi, and so many are not educated or skilled to find any sort of job.) Their desire is to create a sewing business, a cosmetology school, and bakery. They have seen God’s miraculous provision for the building, now they are praying to fill it and put it to great use. Their demonstration of sacrificial giving is quite humbling.

The Wegners sang some worship songs for them, the team as introduced, and a devotional shared by Diane. Judy presented some new African Bible Commentaries that will now be available at the center for study, and we joined in the dedication and thanksgiving for these gifts.

Before we could get in the van to return to Nairobi, many of the neighborhood children gathered, and as always, there was singing, smiles, and laughter. After many digital photos, which delighted each one as they saw themselves, we headed back to the guesthouse, experiencing a big of “lag” at the end of the day.

It was truly a great first day for the team; we got to be a part of joyful, exuberant worship where Jesus is truly lifted up and met special people who love the Lord and want to serve him and see their city and nation know Him, too. We look forward to tomorrow when we will spend the day in Masai land with this very interesting Kenyan tribe. Many have come to know the Lord through the outreach of our ministry partners, and we are praying for a great time of praise, worship, and declaring with them the Good News. Today has certainly been a Karibou day….a day of welcome, and we already feel quite blessed.