Update from Nairobi!

I'm at the computer at our guest house - this has been the first day
that I've felt I had the time and also opportunity to access email
from the office. Its 5:34pm here in Nairobi, on Sunday the 20th - so
about 9:30, I think in Texas. That means we've been gone from Waco for almost exactly a week!

This has been an incredible experience and I'm going to take the time
to give you an idea of what we've been doing so far.

After a 48 hour trip by air and van, we arrived at the Masai Mara, at
our safari hotel. The drive was beautiful but bumpy... it took 5 hours to travel 250 km - because there are no "good" roads yet. We had a short time to shower and rest and then went out immediately on our first game trek. We went on 3 in total and they were really neat - we saw Hippos, Lions, Crocodiles, Buffalo, Elephants, Cheetahs, Giraffes and more. Very amazing. The country out here is beautiful and vast.Going on safari at the beginning was a huge blessing because we were able to overcome our jet lag before we started serving in the Nairobi area.
On the way back to Nairobi, we stopped at the village of Narok, where
we visited a Masai tribal village, took a tour of the local health
clinic and ate lunch.
Friday was our first ministry day in Nairobi, but because its the
rainy season and it had been raining for a number of days.... that
morning our plans for the day were cancelled and we had to create a
plan B on the spur of the moment. It turned out to be such a blessing,though! We went to a women's ministry where they train women to make craft goods (i.e. fabrics and handicrafts, etc) called "Amani Ya Juu" (which means "peace from above". It was an amazing shop and they have a great story and are really doing great work for God there. After that we visited New Life Home Trust, which is an orphanage for children ages 0 - 3. We played with babies and toddlers for about 3hours and it was SOOO fun! Again, we were blessed and I hope we brought some blessing, too.
Saturday (just yesterday!?) we traveled to Karen, Kenya - a district
of Nairobi named after the women who the movie "Out of Africa" was
about (apparently). We worked at the site of the Karen Project -
sponsored by First Love International - doing landscaping (by which I
mean some of us took "slashers" and cut away the grass) and painting (we painted a garage and primed a small house). Good exhausting
physical labor.
Each night we've had a brief team meeting where we've done
teambuilders or sung worship music, or reflected on the day. We have
really been seeing God's hand in these team times as people are
sharing freely, participating actively and enjoying each other.
Today as our Sabbath we went to City Harvey Church in Nairobi, which
is the church we'll be working with for the next 3 1/2 days. It was a
great cultural and spiritual experience and I was really blessed. It
stretched some of our students a little bit, so please pray that they
would transition OK from it and that they would share what they are
thinking/feeling. We also took a driving tour around the Nairobi city
center and saw the memorial for the '98 US Embassy bombing, the houses of parliament, and university of nairobi among other things. When we got back to our guest house (after lunch) everyone had freedom to relax, read, sleep, go to market or wander around the local mall.
Tomorrow through Thursday we'll be with City Harvest, doing a number
of things in the slums. Friday we'll be working with Railia kids club
in the slums and Saturday returning to Karen to finish work on the
field and buildings.We leave on Sunday, next, and its hard to believe
that it will all end so quickly.

We are thoroughly enjoying our time here. We are learning Kiswahili phrases, making friends of nationals and missionaries and learning about other cultures. Along the way we hope to bring the light of
Christ to those we meet - and as many of them are Christians, we also hope to recieve the light from them. Please pray for us as we continue to minister - that we would be equipped for this cause, and prepared for each thing we have to do.

I hope to bring another update before we leave the country.

In the meantime...... Kwa Heri (goodbye).

Tiffani (for Marquette and the team)