Nairobi News

Humjambo (hello) to family and friends!

Thank you for much for the prayers over the team, for there are certainly many requests. We have been in the city of Nairobi for two days now, after two days of seamless flying. Luggage made it; we all made it safely, maybe a bit smelly, but whole. So thank you very much for praying.

The Nairobi is a big change definitely. Even with jet lag, we are finding it quite exhilarating to be here, in Africa, after so many months of planning and fund raising. Our home base in the city is the Mayfield Guest House, a site run by African Inland Mission. Here have had the privilege to meet many missionaries with incredible stories. Murray and Diana Schmidt have been excellent hosts to us, helping us get around the city and teaching us of the culture here.

Recently, the team has had the opportunity to attend a series of workshops: culture orientation, learning about Islam, a small but very dominant religion in Mombasa, and a lesson in Swahili, one of the national languages of Kenya. Fortunately, English is also well-spoken here -- Kenya's official language -- so we have been able to interact with the locals to a good degree.

With Thursday coming up, the team will be flying out to Mombasa, on the coast. Our team leader Jesse Hein and our host Murray Schmidt have driven out today to the city, with a van load of our team's sound equipment. We will be traveling to the airport at 5:00am (a wonderful hour) and flying out around 6:00am.

The next leg of our trip will be the SIL Wycliffe conference in Malindi. At a resort there, we will be doing some intense running around, looking after the little ones and the older teens as well. Jill Hagen is going to lead worship for Wycliffe and we have a homemade film festival planned. The group is definitely excited over such a unique ministry.

Prayer:
- Jet lag; we are all still getting over it. Pray that it passes quickly.
- Rest in the next week; the conference is a very packed schedule -- we would like pray for a good rest in our down time and sleep.
- Health; being in a new culture with new food and water can be draining on our bodies.
- Unity; the team has only recently come together. We are still learning our little quirks and pet peeves, strengths and weaknesses.

Praise:
- Flying was seamless; all of us and all of our luggage made it to Nairobi with us.
- Murray and Diana have been tremendous hosts to us.

As one in Christ Jesus,
Jordan (the blogger) and the rest of the Kenya team.

Interesting fact: One American dollar exchanges for 75 shillings, making 100 American into 7,500 shillings...impressive eh!