If its Tuesday, it must be Kenya...

Hi Friends and family! This internet cafe experience (I am with a few of the team at the "Easy Surf" at the "Ya Ya" Mall - next to the Gracia Guest House) takes me back to my trip to Chile in 2001. The keys are a little different and when I try to press "shift" it is actually... \ and even though when I press the button for this " it does it.... its marked with an ampersand.

Anyway, I digress. I'm here with Paige Williams (she says, "HI") who is going to help me create today's update!

The last update was Sunday night, so we will give you some info on today and yesterday. Our first two days with Pastor Edward and City Harvest Church have been challenging, in a good way. On Monday we spent a few hours with Pastor Edward and some of his staff, learning about their ministries. They served us tea and taught us a few songs and dances. It was pretty fun. Paige says, "Kenyan worship is very spirited and full of traditional African music."

After our initial introduction, we walked around the corner to the "VCT" - which is the Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre. There are a number of these government sponsored testing centers around Nairobi and Kenya, but this one is sponsored by City Harvest Church and so all the counselors are believers. One of them is actually HIV positive, and has a passion to help others who may find themselves the same way. We learned about the social stigma of HIV and AIDs in Kenya and after our visit to the VCT we traveled to Mutumba slum and sat in on one of the AIDS support groups (which are part of a program called "PACE" at City Harvest).

This group has about 10 women. Most of them are widows and have a number of children. The stigma of HIV and AIDS makes it difficult for them to keep jobs (they are often fired when they are discovered to have the virus) and they are often abandoned by their families. We heard their stories and asked questions and then had the chance to pray with them in small groups. I had the priveledge to pray for Rose and Maureen, Paige prayed with Theresea. Afterward some of us visited their homes (one room shacks not bigger than 10' x 10') and others did some door-to-door evangelism. It was an incredible experience over all. And we were blessed by the women.

Today (Tuesday), Pastor Edward met us at Gracia and we drove together to a place in Karen (a suburb of Nairobi). "We toured Karen and noticed the beauty of the natural environment," notes Paige. Karen is the richest suburb of Nairobi and it borders Kibera - the poorest. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa, with approximately 1.4 million people occupying 1000 square acres. From a vantage point in Karen (which was at the edge of the slum - they were actually building new shacks while we were standing there) we could see Kibera from one end to the other. It was pretty incredible. Ask the team members you know about "flying toilets" and other things they learned there.

We next traveled to Mukuru Kayaba slum to meet with another AIDS support group. This was also a special experience for us as we are getting to know these women and their hearts, faith and needs personally. We again broke into small groups and prayed and were moved by the willingness of these women to tell us about their lives.

After this we traveled to a different part of Kayaba to visit the future home of "Olympic Hairdressing School" (which was relocated from an area which was too expensive for the church to keep) and saw where the school will be. All during this time we have been accompanied by some new friends: John, Wycliffe, Mordecai, Sylvia, Rosemarie among others. Mordecai lives at the Hairdressing School property, so he showed us his house where he lives with his brother - a one-room home about 8x5. Then we came back, had some team rest time and then some team time traveling to the Ya Ya and ATM machine (and this here internet cafe).

Please pray for our team. We are experiencing a lot of new information, and learning. And we aren't sure how to take it all in. Please pray that the Lord would be near to the members and they would be able to finish this week strong and not grow weary. Please pray that we would be able to preach the Gospel fearlessly and that we would soak up the joy that these people have in Jesus. Tomorrow we are spending the entire day (8-3) with children - so please pray for our energy levels and that we wouldn't be too tired. And pray that we would begin to see how God wants to use this trip to change us.

Thank you for your prayers. I can't wait to get back to the states and upload some pictures so that you can see what we've been seeing.

But in the meantime, for me, Marquette, Paige, and the others. God bless you and be with you.

Bwana Asifiwe (praise the Lord),
Tiffani