Before I left the Namirembe Guesthouse, I took a quick photo of the lovely lady that serviced my room each day that I was there and engaged me in such rich Christian conversation - her name was Teopista.
And when I got out of immigration at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, I also snapped a photo of Patrick, the driver that Sharon Crean had organised. He was over 60, was a great conversationalist and a thoroughly good bloke!
We went straight to a shopping centre so that I could exchange some money and get some airtime for my Kenyan SIM card,collected the keys to the Crean's apartment at their workplace, dropped off my luggage and finally Patrick drove me to another local shopping centre for my first meeting.
I was to see a Bishop Gerishon, a contact that was made for me by Howard, one of the guys I work with at Christian Venues. He arrived with his daughter, Sacred, and another white guy called Mike. Mike turned out to be an Australian pastor that I had been trying to contact for about 2 months before I left home. He had been working in Uganda with his wife for 13 years but had recently run into some visa problems and wasn't allowed back into the country. He was therefore living with the bishop. Gerishon has established his own church called "The Wings of Life" and it had expanded to about 80 locations throughout Kenya. Like in most places in Africa, the pastors of these churches are not paid anything and I really have no idea how they cope. Mike and Gerishon have a great plan do do something about it - quail farming!! Quail eggs are in high demand and can sell for about A$1 each which is a huge amount in Kenya. They bought their first batch of 100 7-day-old chicks this week, so it's exciting to see how they go. Apparently the females start laying an egg per day at about 4 months old. I might be assisting with an incubator & generator sometime after New Year if everything goes to plan. We chatted for about 2 hours over a drink and a pizza and had a wonderful time of fellowship.
Then at 4 pm, I met up with a guy called Steve Kiteto who is on the Board of Christian Camping East Africa & is the Executive Officer of Tanari Trust ( www.tanari.org ), an organisation that disciples young people and runs a camp. We spent 90 minutes talking flat chat about Christian camping in out respective areas and again, had a wonderful time. They are just starting out and so we may collaborate over certain issues in the coming years!
At about 5.45 pm, Steve had to go and I had to walk back to the Crean's for dinner - as it turned out, they had arrived home late so we ate outside in the balmy atmosphere of a local cafe. In the morning, Pete took me to see a bit of Kibera slum, home to about 1,000,000 Kenyans and a thoroughly degrading place. It's hard to see how the problem of poverty can be fixed in this particular place but the Christian community is active there and doing what it can with the resources available.
After this rushed visit, it was back to the Crean's place where Patrick was waiting to take me back to the airport. A flight to Abu Dhabi and another to Sydney, the trip is over and I'm back home. The things I related to you are just a snippet of the rich fabric of life and people that God had prepared for me long before I left for Africa. Sure, the travel was a pain and life in that part of the world can be inconvenient and frustrating, but I wouldn't have missed a second of it! I have been mightily blessed by the experience of God's people, His protection and His provision. And for these things, I am truly grateful.
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