Hello!
This will be my last update from Kenya, as I fly away from Africa in a few hours from now.
After we left Sombo, near Garissa, we left on a nine hour, over night bus ride to Kapingurria which is in the north- west. It was a dramatic change in climate from the desert town of Garissa. There are huge, blue mountains in the distance and everything is green.
Kapingurria Bible Centre, where we were staying, was luxurious compared to all our short-term homes. There are red-brick houses, running water, electricity (most of the time), and even a small kitchen for our use. The compound was built by Icelanders and Norwegians, which explains where the money came from. We got to know an Icelandic couple while we were there named Fanni and Fjolner.
While in Kapingurria we visited the local churches, taught at bible studies and pastor's conferences, and recieved a lecture on the Pokot tribe. We got to know many of the street kids in Makitano, playing fottball with them, teaching them, praying with them, and helping those of them who are in school with their homework. . One day in town we ran into 10 or 15 of the boys and offered to all get chai, mandazi, and chipoti together. We got a few odd looks from the restaurant owner, but we are used to this by now.
We visited two local schools, teaching on honosty and the armor of God. The class I taught was extremely shy, but I think we did well, and it was alot of fun. I find it easy to teach children as compared to adults because they are much more openand have not had so much religion stuffed down their throats.
On sunday we visted a brand new church for the Pokot people, which is hours from any civilisation, on the border of kenya and Uganda. Later we also visited even more remote villages, showing the "Jesus" movie and visiting a couple of new churches. We were greeted by a large crowd of Pokot people, all wearing their traditional dress of huge bead necklaces and brightly colored clothing. they sang and danced along side, behind, and in front of our Land cruiser, escorting us into the church. After a lunch of Goat stew with ugali, they performed three traditional pokot dances for us. their music is very raw and beautiful, and their instruments are their feet, whistles, bells tied to their ankles, and skin drums.
We also visted the local hospital, praying for all the sick people, and the local prison, sharing a teaching, testimonies, and praying for people.
We have just gotten back from our debriefing in Mombasa. it was an incredibly relaxing time by the Sea. We stayed at the Mombasa YWAM base for a week before returning to Nairobi. We will be finishing our debreifing in iceland, and I will be back in the States on the 1st.
Thank you so much , again, for all your prayers.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Garissa
For the past ten days I have been living in a small community outside of Garissa called Sombo. Sombo is way out in the desert (it was incredibly hot), and the only people who live there are small villages of the Watta tribe, living in grass huts. Garissa and the surrounding villages are much more heavily influenced by Islam than Nairobi.
The Sombo project was started by a man named David, who we stayed with while there. The muslims allowed them to settle right in the middle of the villages because they can offer what they would not get in any other way; free education and medical treatment. Obviously this presents a huge opportunities, as the Kingdom of heaven has settled right in the center of all the villages and the children who go to school there are presented with Christ's love and the gospel.
Much of our work in Sombo was practical. Clearing a plot of land and putting up and fence for a camping ground for visitors, and working in the Garden which provides food for the school kids.
We also felt we were really there to pray, so while there we had a 48 hour prayer time. Just asking God what His thoughts are for the place, getting words of encouragement for the staff, and asking Him to provide for Sombo's many needs.
Some of Sombo's needs that you can pray for are a new water pump and pipes, finances for a new secondary school building, enough food to feed the students for free ( when they run out of food the kids stop coming since some of them walk miles to get there every day and cannot walk home on an empty stomache in such heat.)
we are in Nairobi for the day, but in a few hours we will head out again for a nine hour bus ride to Kapenguria. We will be working a lot with local tribes there as well. We will be there for three weeks before heading back to Athi River for debriefing.
Please continue praying for us in these last weeks of outreach. Sorry this blog is not really detailed, but It seems I never have very much time on the internet these days. Also, you can read the team blog at for more details and what not.
Thanks for your prayers and love!
The Sombo project was started by a man named David, who we stayed with while there. The muslims allowed them to settle right in the middle of the villages because they can offer what they would not get in any other way; free education and medical treatment. Obviously this presents a huge opportunities, as the Kingdom of heaven has settled right in the center of all the villages and the children who go to school there are presented with Christ's love and the gospel.
Much of our work in Sombo was practical. Clearing a plot of land and putting up and fence for a camping ground for visitors, and working in the Garden which provides food for the school kids.
We also felt we were really there to pray, so while there we had a 48 hour prayer time. Just asking God what His thoughts are for the place, getting words of encouragement for the staff, and asking Him to provide for Sombo's many needs.
Some of Sombo's needs that you can pray for are a new water pump and pipes, finances for a new secondary school building, enough food to feed the students for free ( when they run out of food the kids stop coming since some of them walk miles to get there every day and cannot walk home on an empty stomache in such heat.)
we are in Nairobi for the day, but in a few hours we will head out again for a nine hour bus ride to Kapenguria. We will be working a lot with local tribes there as well. We will be there for three weeks before heading back to Athi River for debriefing.
Please continue praying for us in these last weeks of outreach. Sorry this blog is not really detailed, but It seems I never have very much time on the internet these days. Also, you can read the team blog at for more details and what not.
Thanks for your prayers and love!
Monday, January 24, 2011
From my Diaries
I almost do not feel prepared to write about Nairobi. i have found it difficult to translate my experiences and encounters, emotions, sights and sounds into legible thoughts. The vast, endlessness of the shabby make-shift market shacks and the chaotic sea of people is stifeling after the peacful Athi River. Everywhere we go are crowds of begging street kids, and we spent a lot of time getting to know them and bringing them fruit and vegitables.
The street kids all live outside of the city center, because the policemen here, who are merely theives and opressors in uniforms, armed with automatic rifles, beat them and chase them off the streets.
When visiting the slums, i feel a lot more peace. And as we walk through the streets crowds of children follow us chanting "how are you! How are you! " Because it is the only english they have learned in school, and it is actually what they call white people. I suppose because we are always asking it.
The living conditions in the slums are not good and are unjust. The gap between the rich and poor is enormous, and the rich treat the numerous, huge slums as embarrasing eye sores and nothing else.
Yet the people living in the slums have so much joy, and I really enjoy hanging out with them.
two nights ago I met a young guy named Douglas, and he was asking if the conditions in Nairobi, and in Kenya, were what I expected. I also asked him what he thought about the condtion of his own country. He explained about political corruption and violence, mass poverty because of lack of jobs, the need for good education for everyone and not just the rich, and the problem of the great divide between rich and poor.
I agreed with him and got to tell him a bit of my own world view. How change can only occur when the individuals spirit is changed by Christ. No people have ever been able to make significant and lasting social change towards justice. People are unjust by nature, and so we must change our nature by putting on Christ's. If the individual has real hope living inside of them, their lives are completely changed, and quality of life if better, even if their living conditions remain the same.
He commented how rediculous Americans are for talking about change and putting so much hope in Obama, which was refreshing because most Kenyans are have blind hope in Obama, mostly because he is from Kenya.
Douglas seems to have a really level head and is really aware of the problems around him, where many kenyans ignore them or except them. I think that he could potentialy be a really influential person.
I asked if I could pray for him, and I told him what I thought I saw in him. I hope to talk to him again over tea one evening.
The street kids all live outside of the city center, because the policemen here, who are merely theives and opressors in uniforms, armed with automatic rifles, beat them and chase them off the streets.
When visiting the slums, i feel a lot more peace. And as we walk through the streets crowds of children follow us chanting "how are you! How are you! " Because it is the only english they have learned in school, and it is actually what they call white people. I suppose because we are always asking it.
The living conditions in the slums are not good and are unjust. The gap between the rich and poor is enormous, and the rich treat the numerous, huge slums as embarrasing eye sores and nothing else.
Yet the people living in the slums have so much joy, and I really enjoy hanging out with them.
two nights ago I met a young guy named Douglas, and he was asking if the conditions in Nairobi, and in Kenya, were what I expected. I also asked him what he thought about the condtion of his own country. He explained about political corruption and violence, mass poverty because of lack of jobs, the need for good education for everyone and not just the rich, and the problem of the great divide between rich and poor.
I agreed with him and got to tell him a bit of my own world view. How change can only occur when the individuals spirit is changed by Christ. No people have ever been able to make significant and lasting social change towards justice. People are unjust by nature, and so we must change our nature by putting on Christ's. If the individual has real hope living inside of them, their lives are completely changed, and quality of life if better, even if their living conditions remain the same.
He commented how rediculous Americans are for talking about change and putting so much hope in Obama, which was refreshing because most Kenyans are have blind hope in Obama, mostly because he is from Kenya.
Douglas seems to have a really level head and is really aware of the problems around him, where many kenyans ignore them or except them. I think that he could potentialy be a really influential person.
I asked if I could pray for him, and I told him what I thought I saw in him. I hope to talk to him again over tea one evening.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Kenya
Hello!
I arraived in kenya ten days ago and have been staying at the YWAM Base at Athi River, which is in thwe middle of the bush bush, so I have had no internet.
This has to be short beacause I am at a internet Cafe right now in Nairobi, and I am a poor man.
My first days in Kenya have been amazing. Athi River Base has a wonderful community and I got to know a lot of the people there very well, as well as another DTS team from Germany who was staying at the same time.
I have kearned somucgh this past week just from talking to people and hearing there dreams and visions and the way they love people. The interdependent way of life here, with everyone helping to get things done and encouraging eachother and just worshipping with everything that we do, is the way that followers of Christ are built to live.
We have done alot of practical work this week. We helped with our freind Able's project, which is to build a village where married couples come to live with one or two of their own children and then they would adopt 8 to 10 orphans. This would give these children a chance to grow up in a normal family setting, with two good parents who establish strong roots in Christ for them. We helped by planting a garden and some mango trees and to cement a water well and chop the grass.
We also went to an orphanage called "Springs of hope", where helped paint their chapel, and others of us helped cut their grass, or played with the kids and helped with the babies. The woman who ran the place had a lot of caring and compassion in her eyes, and as we told her each of our names, she recalled one of her children with the same name who had lived at the orphange at one time or other (except Thorgills).
For two of the days we helped a woman named Angela who has a dream of building an orphange on a few acres of land she has bought. We helped by planting lots of shade trees, mango, and banana trees, and a shamba for flowers. It was beautiful to hear her faith in God's providence for her orphanage. And he has already provided clean water on her land, while all the wells around that place are salty.
On sunday we also visited a church in a town called Makitano, where Benjamin gave a teaching. It was a very interesting experience in the small aluminum shack church, with the preacher shouting for four hours in to his old, crackly speakers. They were very welcoming though, and it was amaing to see the Holy Spirit working in them.
Today we arrived in in Nairobi. It is pretty hectic here, but I really like the hostel we are staying in. We will be staying here for four weeks and then move north to a town beside Lake Victoria called Kusumu. While in Nairobi we will be helping with a ministry in the slums and visiting the orphans and widows.
I have been doing really well this first week. God has been teaching so much with the people I talk to and the culture I am living in, and just all the sights and the sounds. I wish i could write much, much more. Thank you for your prayers, and continue to pray for our team, for unity, that we will go where the Spirit leads, and know how to love people well. Also fow health, as some kind of flu was going through the whole group last week, but we are all feeling better now. Continue to pray for financial things, that God will provide everything and work out all the kinks.
I love you all so much! I will try to write more details later.
I arraived in kenya ten days ago and have been staying at the YWAM Base at Athi River, which is in thwe middle of the bush bush, so I have had no internet.
This has to be short beacause I am at a internet Cafe right now in Nairobi, and I am a poor man.
My first days in Kenya have been amazing. Athi River Base has a wonderful community and I got to know a lot of the people there very well, as well as another DTS team from Germany who was staying at the same time.
I have kearned somucgh this past week just from talking to people and hearing there dreams and visions and the way they love people. The interdependent way of life here, with everyone helping to get things done and encouraging eachother and just worshipping with everything that we do, is the way that followers of Christ are built to live.
We have done alot of practical work this week. We helped with our freind Able's project, which is to build a village where married couples come to live with one or two of their own children and then they would adopt 8 to 10 orphans. This would give these children a chance to grow up in a normal family setting, with two good parents who establish strong roots in Christ for them. We helped by planting a garden and some mango trees and to cement a water well and chop the grass.
We also went to an orphanage called "Springs of hope", where helped paint their chapel, and others of us helped cut their grass, or played with the kids and helped with the babies. The woman who ran the place had a lot of caring and compassion in her eyes, and as we told her each of our names, she recalled one of her children with the same name who had lived at the orphange at one time or other (except Thorgills).
For two of the days we helped a woman named Angela who has a dream of building an orphange on a few acres of land she has bought. We helped by planting lots of shade trees, mango, and banana trees, and a shamba for flowers. It was beautiful to hear her faith in God's providence for her orphanage. And he has already provided clean water on her land, while all the wells around that place are salty.
On sunday we also visited a church in a town called Makitano, where Benjamin gave a teaching. It was a very interesting experience in the small aluminum shack church, with the preacher shouting for four hours in to his old, crackly speakers. They were very welcoming though, and it was amaing to see the Holy Spirit working in them.
Today we arrived in in Nairobi. It is pretty hectic here, but I really like the hostel we are staying in. We will be staying here for four weeks and then move north to a town beside Lake Victoria called Kusumu. While in Nairobi we will be helping with a ministry in the slums and visiting the orphans and widows.
I have been doing really well this first week. God has been teaching so much with the people I talk to and the culture I am living in, and just all the sights and the sounds. I wish i could write much, much more. Thank you for your prayers, and continue to pray for our team, for unity, that we will go where the Spirit leads, and know how to love people well. Also fow health, as some kind of flu was going through the whole group last week, but we are all feeling better now. Continue to pray for financial things, that God will provide everything and work out all the kinks.
I love you all so much! I will try to write more details later.
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