I'm reviving my blog. I typically use this blog for my trips. I'm getting ready to take an awesome trip so it's time to start writing. I leave January 17th for Israel. I have checked the 2 hotels I'll be staying in and they both have wi-fi so the plan is to keep everyone up to date on a daily basis, time permitting. I am going through the process of deciding what to pack. It seems the weather will be in the 50's. That's cold enough for a coat , but not freezing. I'd like to just carry one suitcase with a carry-on. But that just gives me 50 lbs. I think I can do it, but we'll see. I have a conference call Tuesday night with the trip leader so I should have more details then. Passport is ready, don't need an additional shots than I've already gotten for previous trips. I have my tickets so Isreal here I come. I'm excited and ready to go!

Last Post from Kenya

Well we head home tomorrow evening. It has been an unforgetable trip. But before I sign of from Kenya I'll tell you about today.

We went to Nanyuki Main and Women's Prison. It was a three hour drive but it was worth every minute. This is the smallest of the prisons I went to. The woman's side only had 25 ladies/4 kids. They were cooking their lunch over an open fire when we got there. Gateway International had given them a sewing machine and we got to see it in action. One of the inmates was using it when we got there. 14 women prayed to receive Christ there. The weather was iffy when it was time to go to the men's side, but we prayed and asked God to hold off on the rain till we were through.

The men side had about 500 inmates with about 250 accepting Christ. Also the rain held off until we were finished. God is so good!

As in all the prisons we've been to, afterwards we had to go the Officer In Charge's office for drinks and cookies. And then we were on our way.

One of the things I haven't talked about since I've been gone is the eye glass clinics, and I guess that's because I wasn't ever on one of those teams. But we had an eye doctor with us and at one prison every day we held clinics. The inmates that had eye problems or needed glasses were seen by the doctor and helped. This part of the trip has been very successful. Dr. Curtis so over 1200 patients since we've been here.

It's raining here now. I hope it stops before tomorrow as we are headed to the Game Park in the morning. I've been packing this evening so when we get back all I'll have to do is pack my souveniers.

One of the neat things about being on the team I was on today was that we crossed the equator. We actually stopped and took pictures at the actual spot. They know where the equator is because if you are north of the equator water drains in a clockwise position. If you are south of the equator is drains in a counter-clockwise direction. If you are right on the equator is drains straight. We saw this demonstrated and it's pretty neat. We also saw the largest mountain range in Kenya. Mount Kenya. It's about 17000 feet about sea level. Because of the clouds we couldn't actually see the top, but there is snow on the top all year round.

Well I'm coming home with about 2500 pictures (we're combining everyone's pictures on 4 CD's) so you will all be tired of hearing about it quickly. I've been humbled being on this trip. American's are so spoiled and have way too much stuff. Everyone needs to take a trip like this to be brought down a few notches.

Signing off from Kenya, until I see you all in person!

Time here is Africa is running out, but today was an awesome day. Our first stop was Mutuini Primary School. There were 920 students at this school. The children were very good. They stood on their lines for 30 minutes while we did our presentations. Below one of our team members is doing an object lesson using student volunteers.

Below is a picture of all 920 kids, from youngest to oldest. The girls were on the right and the boys were on the left.
This particular school had a nursery school and we went there afterwards. They sang a song with actions for us and then we handed out "sweets". They thought that was the best part.
The headmaster of the school is the gentlemen in the picture. We had some time to kill after the school visit do our driver "Sammy", who is the Gateway International Kenya Director, took us on a tour. We visited the school he went to when he was a child. And below is his church. That is him in the picture.
The next three are pictures at the hotel of the team getting ready to go out in the morning.

I wanted to show you some pictures at the hotel. This is the main gate which is guarded 24 hours.

Here are some of the beautiful gardens.
Oops, another gate you have to go through to get to your room. You need you key to go through.
More gardens.This is one of the four restaurants at the hotel. Three of them are outside.

Finally, last night we got to meet a lady who had been in prison for 7 years. She had gotten involved with a drug cartel by accident. She needed money. She ended up going to Washington and testifying against them. She has written a book and last night she gave each one of us a signed copy. That's her on the left.

We're off to another day!

Tuesday's Travels

This post won't be as long as some as it is bedtime and we have to be ready to leave at 7:15 in the morning. Today we traveled 3 hours each way and it made for a very long day. We went to Embu Main and Women's Prison. This morning at the men's prison it was awesome. Paster Stan preached on transformation and used the illustration of a catipillar and a butterfly and just as he was finishing a butterfly actually flew by. We had about 75% of the men to get saved out of about 400. They sang for us and then we had the service. This was the worse prison I have been in meaning the quarters where the men had to stay were awful. I've never been in a US prison, but I don't think our prisoners have to sleep in tin buildings with dirt floors, etc.
In the early afternoon we went to the woman's prison. This prison had about 80 women with 15 children. It is so odd to me to see little children running around the prisons, but that is what they do. This was also a good service. We left 2 brand new sewing machines for the women to use and they seemed really excited to have gotten them.
Now for my travel experiences. Today we didn't see any new animals, but did you know that they grow rice in Africa. I just always thought that Asia was the place for growing rice. Well, not so. We saw miles and miles and miles of rice fields today. They other thing we saw alot of was banana plantations. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

This picture is very clear, but I took it driving down the road. This is a banana tree.
This is rice growning.

On the Road

Greetings from Kenya. We traveled to the North this morning for about 2 1/2 hours to Naivasha. We visited the Main Prison, Annex and Women's prison. I'm still amazed that with all the prisons I've been in I've never once felt uneasy or afraid. Now remember we are taking all necessary precautions, but the inmates have always treated us very cordially. They really seem to be happy to see "the visitors". I believe with the three prisons today we saw over 1100 inmates and had 125 salvations. We also did an eye glass clinic and served 163 inmates. As on Saturday we had a wonderful driving experience. Today we saw zebras, gazelles, and a baboon on the trip. Lots of cows, sheep and goats. We also drove past the Rift Valley and this valley goes from Israel to the north all the way to Mozambique in the south. I've included some pictures. Some of you may know that Kenya had some difficulties after the elections last year and alot of towns were burned, etc. I've got a picture of a refuge camp where some of those mis-placed people are not living. Here's the pictures.

Above is a picture of the Refugee Camp I mentioned. A mini tent city.
This is the Acacia tree. Those of you up on your Old Testament might remember that many items in the tabernacle were made of acacia wood including the arc.

Above is the Rift Valley.

Day of Rest

Today was a day of rest, after church. This morning we attended Kahawa West Baptist Church. It was a fairly good size church. They had a tent set up in the front yard for overflow with a tv to watch. We were welcomed in the true African style. They served tea and soft drinks after church to our group. One of our team members is a 10th grader and his youth group back home had sent him with $50 to put to good use over here and he decided to give to the youth group at this church. We also met a young girl who is going to be a doctor and is leaving in December for Oklahoma to study.

This afternoon we played cards for most of the time. At 4:30 (9:30am your time) we had a short devotion and then dinner. It's 7:30 here and we have just gotten back to our room for the evening. Tomorrow we have an early start. We are leaving a 7:00 in the morning for a 3 hour drive. Just doing 1 prison tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Everyone is finally well. Thanks for all your prayers. Keep them up.

Until tomorrow.

A Wild Ride

Today we went to 3 prisons, but the wild ride came in getting there and coming home. It was a two hour ride on the bumpiest road I have ever been on. It was like riding on cobble stones that weren't leveled in the ground. It was so bumpy I hit my head on the roof of the van and scratched it pretty good. Along with that we saw some great animals in there natural habitat. (More about that later with pictures.) We went to the Machakos Main Prison, Machakos Remand Prison and Machakos Women's Prison. There were all at the same location, but separate from each other. I'm having trouble loading the pictures in the right order so I'll just tell you what's going on. Below is the Women's Prison. As you can see there are children. As I said before kids stay with their mother until they are 5 years old. (I don't know what happens after that.) We even had a mother breast feeding right out in the open.

I took these pictures out the van window on the ride home to give you a feel for the terrain in Kenya. I would relate this to a small strip mall, but very shabby. Though this is much better than most as you will see.

This a gas station, but the animal you see in the middle close to the first set of pumps is a cow. Yep there were two of them. Also right after we got by this station we watched a goat go over and drink out of the window washing liquid. Cows and goats are very common walking down the street. Sometimes in the median or crossing the busy highway. Right at this gas station one of the cows started to cross the street and I guess he realized it might be a little dangerous.

This picture shows two people walking on the side of the highway. This is very common. Lots of people walking on the side on the highway.

This is a shot of what we were seeing driving home. Those buildings are not in very good condition.

This is at the men's prison this morning. It was set up like a court yard with rooms on 3 sides where the prisoners stayed. I watched at least 15 men come out of one room. The smoke is coming from the outdoor kitchen which is set up in the middle of the court yard. Lots of smoke while we were there. The item in the middle is a drum that they used while they sang for us. They also had a tamborine and two other instruments I didn't know the names of. All percussion type instruments. This prison actually had a choir and conductor that sang for us. They were very good. They didn't have prison stripes on, so we figured the didn't have to wear them because they were in the choir.

The man on the right is part of our team. He was preaching here and using one of the inmates for an illustration. The man on the left is the translater.

Again the man on the left is the translater and the preacher is a team member. This is Mark Wright, the youth pastor at Arlington. Some of you may have heard me talk about his boys, Seth (2) and Blake (7 mos). The really cute ones that I'm madly in love with. This was taking place at the Remand Prison. I mentioned before these guys haven't been convicted yet, awaiting trial; hence no striped uniforms.

More of the prisoners. We had about a half-dozen new testaments to give away and they were fighting for them. That's something you'd never see in the US.

This is at the Women's Prison again. The girls on the right are singing a song for us. They also had a drum and were very good.

Now the shots below were taken out of the van window on the way to the prisons this morning. The first picture is a school of some sort, I believe. The picture below shows how dirty the landscape is. Someone said this morning they were glad we had littering laws, because if we didn't our landscape would probably l0ok this bad.

This picture on the left shows road side stands. There are hundreds of these as you riding down the road. The next picture is a road side stand of sorts also. Can't really tell what they were selling here.



Here was the highlight of the day. Giraffes. We saws groups of them 3-4 times this morning. They roam like deer do in North Carolina. It was so cool to see them in their natural habitat. We also saw an ostrich, camels, and wildebeest. This about finishes up Saturday. Tomorrow morning we are going to church and we have the afternoon off. Don't know what we'll be doing.

I mentioned yesterday that we had two that were sick. Well the doctor is much better. The other man ended up in the hospital last night dehydrated and his blood sugar skyrocketing. He is home tonight. They determined that he had food poisoning, but he didn't eat anything the same as the doctor. We have narrowed it down to the lettuce he had in his salad. No more lettuce for anyone. Everyone should be back to work by Monday. I did get sunburned pretty bad. It's not because I didn't use the sunscreen. It's the medicine I'm taking, but I'm not about to stop taking it. Just keep us all in your prayers.