Hip Hop VIP

So about a week and a half ago…Tank and a friend of ours were going to go the Kirk Franklin concert here in Kenya. We were really excited about it and ready to go. However, we were delayed in leaving our house for the concert and it was suppose to end only an hour after we were left. I was kinda bummed about it. However, I had been eating lunch and watching tv and saw advertised the Malta Guinness Wolrd Hip Hop Finals.

That would be fun to go to I thought! It was much closer than the concert and we decided to give it a shot. According to the commercial the contest started at about the time we were leaving the house, but we figured we’d give it a shot.

The contest was being held at the Kenya International Congress Center….a huge complex! After walking about 5 minutes we arrived at the door and asked if we could still get in. They asked if we had tickets, but we didn’t have any. I didn’t even know you needed them. We asked where we could get them… and they told us we needed to go the supermarket up the street… which was about a 20 minute walk! We really didn’t want to do that because it would take almost an hour before we could get in. “Well I asked cna we just pay you then?” “NO”…he replied, but if you wait here for 10 minutes we maybe able to reach something” “OK…” I said.

Trying not to look to desperate or conspicuous I picked up my phone and pretended to talk. After about 5 minutes I walked back over to the guy he called Tank and our friend Wekesa over as well. A lady with an official looking event jacket on…came over and aksed us where we were from. “Weird question”… I thought! I replied “America” and she said “oh ok… here you go” and gave us three tickets for free! SWEET!

Once inside the event was running about an hour behind schedule and we only missed the first act! However, it was already really packed inside and me being the short person I was couldn’t see really well! I wanted to move up front and decided to see if we could. Looking around I found a small path in between two sets of rails that led to a large opening where alot of people were standing. I walked back ot get Tank and Wekesa and we walked in. However, just as we moved near the front we were stopped by a security guard and asked to show id bands… apparently we were in the VIP section. We explained that we didn’t know we needed bands and were about to walk back when another event organizer came over and asked the problem. “Well…we wanted to get a better view and thought we could stand here, but didn’t know we needed id bands” I said. He then asked “Where are you from?” “Weird” I thought. “America,” I replied. He talked with the security guy for a sec and then let us through!

We stood 6 rows away from the front of the stage! The concert was amazing! There were groups from America, Kenya, Holland, the Netherlands, France, Tanzania, the Phillipines, and a few other countries! They were all really, really good. In the end I was rooting for the Americans, but unfortunately they came in 4th. The top three acts were the Filipinos, France, and The Netherlands. It was phenomenal!

I hope to see it again!

Another Eventful Day on the Road…

Ok… so this morning was another Kenyan first. I was involved in a small fender bender. Nothing to serious, but definitely a cultural experience.

Traffic is here has rules but no one follows them… everyone “fends” for themselves while driving. Matatu drivers are the worst! They always make thier own road, cut you off, drive on the shoulder, and switch lanes often without warning. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come close to being in a traffic accident. Well…today my luck ran out.

To set the seen… the best way that I can describe the chaos is constant Atlanta rush hour…more like slow hour traffic, combined with the worst road halting construction ever! I had kinda settled in and was ready for a 45 minute drive to school at 6:00 a.m in the morning, pop tarts at the ready and a cold box of chooclate milk and was minding my own business, trying to avoid the Matatu, when i felt my car jerk forward and heard a loud “Crunch”! I had left about 3 feet of space between me and the car in front of me and a Matatu driver coming off the shoulder onto the road thought he would be able to squeeze through.

(Quick note…I complain about Matatu driver and their craziness alot because its alot of unnecessary risk they take in order tot make money. However, they are some of the most maneuverable drivers that I ever seen. They can fit in spots you would never imagine)

With that being said this guy pushed his luck just a little to much. The conductor of the Matatu got out took a quick look at my front left finder and said “No problem just drive off!” I wasn’t about to just drive off in case some major damage was done. A small hook on the Matatu was up under the car and I was afraid it would rip the bumper if he drove off. After about 5 minutes of broken Swahili he understood I wasn’t going to drive off. The driver got out and we talked… similar conversation. (Oh I was still sitting in my car at this point). Getting out of my car, I finally convinced the driver if we would give me his information, insurance, license, etc then we may be able not to involve the police, but only if we could unhook the cars. Reluctantly he gave me his information.

We then very carefully and slowly unhooked the cars hoping no serious damage had been done. After about 3 minutes of careful maneuvering the cars came unhooked and “pop” went my fender… the dent had popped back out. Obtaining the information and little damage I was satisfied, and not involving the police the driver was satisfied so we both went on our way. I finally arrived at school 2 hours later!

What a morning!

A Narrow Escape…from Kenyan court

Ok…so I figured the traffic here would be different, but I didn’t realize how different it would be. As I briefly described in my first newsletter the driving rules here are more like driving guidlines. No one follows them at all…well only when the police are around and even then they might ignore them. Today for instance was an experience. Alot of people make their own roads, two lanes will be four, etc.

Traffic was worse coming home from language school than normal so I decided to take a different route. I turned but came to a complete stand still after 2 feet! Having sat on this road in this traffic before, I knew it would be 20 or thirty minutes until I could move. So… I pulled into the entrance of a bank and backed out, heading in the direction that I initially came from. I quickly reached the end of the street and was about to turn when and the police officer on the corner began motioning me to roll down my window. Wanting to be cooperative I rolled it down. Immediately, he told me to pull over because I was getting a ticket for $60 for driving the wrong way!

My initial reaction was to become defensive, but knew that would not get me anywhere. I didn’t panic because I knew I had not done anything wrong. (The road was two lanes going opposite directions, but apparently stops being a two lane road at a certain point…of which I didn’t know). I had just followed a car that had done the same thing and turned onto the main road. I didn’t relaize he had been pulled over too and was sitting on the shoulder!

The police officer told me to pull onto the shoulder and wait for my ticket. He had my license so I couldn’t just drive off…which was really tempting. Police officers are on foot…so half the time people don’t stop when they are waived down by a police officer. I figured it would be a bad decision… considering I told him I was a missionary and he knew my license plate number. It was not worth spending time in Kenyan jail so I waited for the police officer and had my rolled down my passenger window so we could talk through the window.

After about five minutes the police officer walked up to my car and before I realized it he had reached in opened the door and sat down in my passenger seat. I was hoping he didn’t want me to drive him anywhere… I wasn’t about to be his personal taxi driver! He asked why I had driven that way. I told him, “to beat the bad traffic on the other road”. “Ah, yes but you can’t drive that way on this road.” He replied. A puzzled look must have come across my face because he proceded to explained that the road becomes one way…once you reach certain road. “Oh, ok”, I said, “I didn’t know that…I was only following the other car. I’m trying to get home for a haircut appointment.” He asked where I lived and I told him Thika road… “Oh…you live far” he said. And then the question I was expecting came…”It will cost you $5000 shillings ($60). How much do you have on you? ” There is was ” the question”. The police force here is know for begin corrupt. I was carrying $1500 on me, but was not about to tell him. Reaching into my ash tray I pulled out a 20 shiiling piece. “This is all I have on me”, I said. He chuckled and then asked again, ” How much can you get now?”. I told him, “nothing for two weeks”, which was true…to a point. I get paid only once a month and pay day was coming soon. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of him trying to get money out of me I think he realized I wasn’t going to give him a bribe. I tried to change the subject a couple times, but it always came back to some form of the question of how much money did I have on me or could I get. Finally, he said “Ok, you can go… I can see you were completely honest in your driving mistake”. He pointed me in the right direction and off I went, careful to thank him for his kind decision to allow me to leave.

Pulling onto the road..I counted my blessing that I got off. I wish it would happen in the states more often. I always get a ticket when I get pulled over there. Oh well!

Learning Language

As part of my time here I am focusing on learning Swahili.  The company is paying for it so I am going to put forth my best effort to learn as much as possible.  One of my life long goals is to be fluent in at least 4 languages by the time I’m 30.  Right now I am fluent in one…my mother tongue of English, conversational in Spanish, and can say short, easy, sentences in Swahili. I I’ll aks someone where they are from…Unatoka wapi? or How is your day?…”Habari ya leo”.  I may be able to make some responses.  If I don’t understand what someone is saying then I’ll respond, Nina jifunza kiswahil, which translates into “I am learning Swahili”.  The conversation will then turn to English from there.  

I am amazed though.  Many people here in Kenya speak two to three languages before they are 5 or six.  It’s crazy!  English and Swahili are the official languages of Kenya, but then there are many tribal languages and then dialects of those languages spoken as well.  I was talking with an African student at one of the universities and they made a comment which made me think.  If  I could learn Swahili, and French then you would be able to travel around Africa with little problem.  I thought how cool would it be to move through an entire continent and not worry about having trouble communicating. How much easier would it be to share about the Father with others too!  

Language is barrier that many use as an excuse not to share.  It should not be. In the states people are ignorant about language.  People make the comment that if someone lives in the U.S then they should speak English…I agree to some point…learn the language of the culture your in. But it goes the other way to, learn another language so that you can communicate with others moving into your neighborhood, co-workers, etc.  The western mindset is much to  me-oriented!  How can they learn if no one is able to reach them in their mother tongue first.  The melting pot of the United States is a great place to learn languages, I wish I has recognized that earlier than now.

Traveling Companions

Well,  I have now currently arrived in Nairobi and am enjoying my time here.  To give you a brief summary…I was scheduled to land on the 4th of July but did not arrive until  a day later.  My flight from the United States arrived on time in London, but as we were beginning to land we were told we needed to wait for 25 minutes to land. They were only using one runway apparently. So we flew around for 20 minutes. I only had one hour to get off the plane, get through security, and reboard my destination plane.  Well, in any airport one hour is not enough time to get across the terminal with all the security checks and things nowadays, but in London apparently you are legally allowed 30 minutes! Whatever person thought of that must be have had more than sugar in their tea and crumpets! It took me 45 minutes to get to the gate once I got off the plane! Needless to say I missed the flight.  However, since I arrived at 10:00 a.m I decided to take the day to site see, courtesy of British Airways. After booking my hotel and rebooking my flight for the next day I headed to the hotel.  

During all this hassle I met two more people in the same predicament as me.  We all three missed the flight to Nairobi, so we all three decided to take a tour of London together.  I rather enjoyed the detour! It was nice to relax and take some time to enjoy traveling, instead of worrying about it.  In the process I made two new friends, one is now in Sudan, and the other a Kenyan who lives here in Nairobi.  Even before arriving to in Nairobi I had already made a friend! I think the Father confirmed that this is where I am to be.

Home for now!

Time home has been good. It’s not been as relaxing as I thought it would be.  In some ways it seems almost more stressful.  I’m not a big shopper, but have been shopping everyday for items since I’ve been back and it wears me out.  I’ve figrued out one-thing, I HATE SPENDING MONEY, especially on myself.  I’m running around trying to visit friends and family…make sure I say goodbyes to people before I go.  Sometimes it almost as hard to makes plans to meet than just meeting with people.  But when it comes to friends and family there is nothing better than a face-to-face goodbye. There are a couple people I know that I won’t get to say goodbye to personally.  It makes me a little bit sad at times, but I am becoming more ok with it.

The Father works in mysterious ways and gives you peace, especially when you are dealing with a lot.  Going to Him allows me to better focus on what I am doing and why I am going overseas.  He helps when times are tough and things are not what you expected. For now I just hate having to travel all around and saying goodbye.

Am I willing?

This past week we spent two days discussing persecution.  I began to think about my persecution here and what I have to go through.  I tried to make a list…bad idea. I was not happy with my results.  The amount of persecution i suffered was limited…in fact I would say if virtually does not exist.  There have been times where people did not invite me somewhere because they knew what I believed and how I lived. But they were not trying to be mean to me, instead respected me enough to not invite me.  I have been called a name or two, nothing bad, or to insulting.  However, the person who called me the name later apologized for his comment. I have had a “friend”, talk behind my back about me, say this or that about my faith, and then act friendly toward me whenever I see him.  (I was told it was because my faith and my actions were convicting him of his wrong doing. I would be hesitant to say that. Its not me that was convicting but the Father.  I might say that through my actions were convicting for him how he should be living).  But I have not had to endure hard pain, mental anguish, physical abuse, for what I believe.  The limits of what I can take have not been reached…I don’t think. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not looking to be persecuted intentionally.  No way…no how is that what I want!  To be beaten and left for dead, spend 17 years tied up in prison, confined to a little cell, with very little food and water, because of what you believe and the fact that you are vocal about it.  I do not have an obsession to be beaten, etc.  But I do have a desire to be bold: enough that it is convicting to others (maybe a tomato or two will be thrown at me), to speak the name of the Father and see people react in such a way that they are both shamed at their lack of faith and disbelief, but see the joy return when they are presented the good news.  There is a tendency to feel sorry for those in dire straights, in hard situations.  We pray against suffering, etc.  However, we find that if we talk to those who have come out of those situations, that they would gladly go back again.  Gladly…are you kidding me! I want the Father’s protection over me and what I do, but if it is for him, and I love him that much can I gladly give all I have for what I believe? 

Father gave his only son…can I at least give something? 

I’ll leave you with a short story…

A man was asked what would make him most proud.  He thought about for a moment.  Not long. He then replied, as if he had been preparing the response but only needed the moment to gather his thoughts “If I am jailed and taken away from my family and I hear that my family was taken, or beaten, and asked to deny their faith, that they not.  I would be most proud to hear my 12 year old son, wife, young daughter died because they did not renounce the name of Jesus.   

Father words are:  - Above all else be faithful until death.

D.C – Cool As Could Be

So this past weekend I went to Washington D.C  with Christy.  I could not have asked for better weather and a better person to spent the day with.  It was nice to go somewhere other than the local spots we always hit up around town…wal-mart, target and the occasional movie.  We had an awesome time seeing Now, the  last time was about nine years ago for a promise keepers conference. I had a great time with my dad and the guys we went with but I was sick for half the visit and…as a result did not get to see everything. It also rained too…at least I remember it raining.   This time I was hoping to get to see more. 

 We started at the Washington Monument then made our way Capitol Hill and then stopped in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for a bite eat. After eating an 8 dollar hamburger from McDonalds we continued to walk and made our way to the Lincoln Memorial. It was quite and impressing site, as were both capitol Hill and the Washington Monument but what I enjoyed more I think were the little gardens we found that can be found along the side streets.  These gardens added to the beauty of the buildings.   I never knew how beautiful Washington was.  Majestic is the word that normally comes to mind, but not beautiful.   In little nooks and crannies are beautiful, colorful gardens.  I encourage you to stray slightly from the obvious monument to take some time and stroll down a side street here and there. You might be surprised at what you see.  Because we had not or did not plan our rout we stumbled on several garden that we would have otherwise missed.  I think I enjoyed seeing those almost more than I did the monuments.

Two Weeks Have Flown By!

I am continually adding to my list daily but I wanted to go  ahead and take the time to write and keep you updated on what goes on with me and how you guys can talk to Father for me just in case we don’t talk that day.  

 I am currently at training for the my two year trip overseas.   I will be here for two months. What do we do for two months here you ask!  Well, actually alot!  These past couple weeks have been amazing, but also very hard. During the course of a day we spend approximately 5-6 hours in class, not what I was expecting! This past week we spent the better part of the morning, between Monday and Wednesday discussing spiritual warfare.  Those were intense but very much needed sessions.  Dr. Jerry Rankin, came and shared his experiences with spiritual warfare during his time on the mission field. We heard about  that he encountered which included demon possession and consistent sickness.   I could spent three or four hours discussing what we learned, but that would be boring.  The most important thing I learned from that session is to be aware of the spiritual side of things that occur.  We need to be aware each day of the battle is going on.  However, we do not need to be overly concerned with it, just aware.  But know that wherever it talks about spiritual warfare there is also hope given in close. I encourage you to look it up.  There is never a time when we are completely overcome and cannot find help. Amazing, even in times of struggle Father is there!  I’ve always heard it, but sometimes things need repeating.

Well the rest of the weeks have been comprised of finance meetings, insurance meetings, and other not fun stuff, but necessary.

PR’s: 

For my health of my back. It’s getting better and I want it to continue in to heal.

Also for an open mind and heart. Sometimes I don’t want to sit in class all day, but what we are learning is good and will be beneficial to us.

  Abide in Him and He will abide in you!

What’s Up!