We are in the Mash Park Hotel in Kisii Kenya. We have been very busy studying our sermons and preparing for each night. On Friday, we had to prepare for Friday night, Sabbath morning AND Saturday night. I don't know why I'm not more tired, but I actually am feeling pretty good.
Kisii is in the Kenyan highlands. I came prepared for hot African weather, based on my previous experiences here. Fortunately, I brought one fleece jacket. It is quite cool at night, but the countryside is beautiful and green. This area grows a lot of tea and some coffee.
There were about 55 people at my site on the first night. I have, fortunately, one of the smaller sites. Sabbath morning, there were over 300 (membership in this church is around 100). Last night, there were 170 in the official count but Rollie (who is doing health talks at my site) and I think it was half again higher. There are people standing along the road. We see their outlines when cars go by. Last night we made an alter call and had about 20 come up. The local elders said there were more who came up to them after the meeting and asked for decision cards. I can only say this has absolutely NOTHING to do with me.
The Milimani church has a prayer team that meets at 3 pm every day to pray and prays again during the sermon.
Rollie and Julie (Smith/Oliver) Hedrick brought their kids and the kids have been very well behaved. I'm amazed that they aren't worn out from all the traveling and all the interest in them.
As in my past trips to Africa, the people have been wonderful to be around. We have made lots of new friends.
Some in our group have fallen victim to travelers' GI distress. Fortunately, antibiotics are easy to get. I didn't eat any fresh produce so I haven't gotten sick. I think the rest have decided to eat nothing fresh unless they prepared it (which means soaking in water with a few drops of bleach for 5 minutes before peeling).
As a first-time preacher, I have so much studying and preparation to do I'm pretty much stuck in my room. I'm trying to study and prepare ahead so that next week won't be quite so challenging.
Breakfast is included with the room rate. Lunch is 200 Kenya shillings per meal. That's just a little under $2 a day! I think our room is as big as or bigger than the pastor's living room. The pastor lives on conference property in a very typical African home. Very simple and basic, and well kept.
Kristy Smith/Oliver/Biggerstaff is my roommate. Her husband is coming on Thursday or Friday next week so she will move to another room for the weekend. He'll stay to go on the safari to Masai Mara Game Park. They say this is prime animal migration season so we should see large numbers of animals. And, of course, birds.
The trip from Nairobi to Kisii was about 7 hours on the road. Most of the road was pretty good but we hit several construction spots. The detours are 'interesting' to say the least. On the way, we saw a heard of 5 giraffes, several herds of Thompson's Gazelles, and a few heards of zebra. One herd was right beside the road, and they had babies. Would you call those colts?????
I just learned last night that I can use the hotel's Internet card (like my AT&T card) for 250 ksh for 30 minutes (about $4). We can get high speed Internet at a nearby Internet cafe for 50 ksh an hour but it means dragging everything over there and I don't want to give up my study time just yet.
I'm download Picasa as I type this. The presentation software we are using works pretty well for the presentations but it hijacks the computer and creates all kinds of problems for showing videos or doing other kinds of projection. I've figured out how to backdoor a lot of things but it's still a pain -- except during the presentation times.
There are 12 from the Vancouver Church (including me and the extended Oliver clan), two more Americans, 4 from Hong Kong, and one from Honduras. It's a very nice group. Dave Allen has been leading our morning worship and the discussion of the key points for the evening message.
I will write more later as I begin to relax a bit from all of my preparation time.
We have told the people here about the prayer cards Mary Jo made, and that you are praying for us and for the people here. It means a lot to them.
I think Ginny is trying to journal our experiences. I will probably have to rely on Ginny's journals to remember this trip!!!!!
Thank you all for your spiritual support, for your thoughts and prayers. We are excited about the work here but we are also looking forward to returning home.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louise Craig
