As I was saying...

Yesterday, there was a man on a latter at Eric's wall working on something to do with the electrical and phone box. We didn't know what he was doing, all we know is that he messed something up, and it was just too bad that we didn't notice until after he had gone. We were left with no phone or internet. This isn't too big of a deal, but Eric had just paid $150 this month to have it hooked up, so we weren't happy about it. Today he hassled the guys over at Telkom three different times, and finally convinced a guy to come out here and fix it, which he did (after Eric went to get him and drag him here). TIA my friends.
Last night, we attended a missionary fellowship that is held on the last Tuesday of each month at a couples house here in Nakuru. There were probably about 15 couples there, mostly around 40 years old. We were there for well over four hours enjoying a potluck-style dinner (it was so good) and having some cool fellowship. I had such a good time there. We got to meet a mass of just really cool people that have been doing this thing for years! One guy was 61, and still out here doing ministry. We ate good food, sang, and someone gave a little bible study as well. Then we spent a half-hour in prayer for the people that would be traveling and for those who were encountering struggles in their ministry. I just can't explain how cool the whole thing was. There were people from all over the world there... Denmark, the U.K., England, and of course the U.S., just to name a few. One couple was from Wheaton where I spent the first few years of my life, and they knew my old church and the pastor there and everything. And all of those people from around the world were there in Nakuru doing what God wanted. We'll be in Samburu next month, but hopefully we'll be able to attend at the end of April. We got lots of prayer when we told everyone about our plan to go to Samburu and Sudan. I felt like I had a whole other family there by the end of the night, even though I didn't know a lot of them by name and they were all much older than me. We were like a bunch of old war buddies swapping stories from the battlefield, even though we had just met. It was a good night.
We are just about done with the truck. We have worked hard the past three days, and today we installed the last couple of windows and did all the painting. We even started putting in some speakers that Eric bought so we could listen to some tunes while trekking across the countryside. We are almost ready to go and are very excited, especially after getting so much affirmation and encouragement from some very neat people last night.

Title

In case you didn't notice, I changed the title at the top and here's why. While we were in Nairobi, we saw the movie Blood Diamond. I don't recommend the movie to those of you with weak stomachs for violence because the movie is very real, but if you can handle that sort of thing, you should see it. The main character in the movie shares a saying with his African friends: they simply say, "TIA" which stands for "This is Africa". We have adopted the phrase and use it often ourselves because Africa is very different from the rest of the world. People say, "Yes, we'll meet at 10:30, African time." which means more like 11:00 or later. Things don't get done around here easily. Eric had to go and pick up the guy who was supposed to hook up our internet because he didn't have a car. The office in Nairobi refuses to meet our need for proper documents on the truck. Sometimes the electricity goes out, or the water won't run. People don't show up when they say they will, and they do show up when you're not expecting it. In all of these situations and more, all that can be said is "TIA".
I thought the saying would make a suitable title for my blog, hence the change.

African Sunset: Priceless.

And we're back!
We have returned to Nakuru today after almost a week at a place called Osegel (which is around 9,000 feet above sea level) in an area where the Massai tribe lives. Most of Eric's ministry is done in Samburu, but the Massai are very closely related, so he can easily work with them as well. They speak almost the exact same language and have a very similar culture. Most of the different tribes in Kenya don't share the same 'mother tongue' and have very distinct traditions, but these two are almost the same. I also love Osegel for it's most beautiful sunsets which I have tried to capture.
We had a very good time there, although we also had some trouble. If you remember I wasn't feeling well last week but then started to get better. I thought I was done being sick so I ate a meal, and after that disaster struck. I became very ill again and had to sit a day out. It wasn't till Friday night that I ate, but now I am fine, for sure. Eric and Bryan also took turns feeling bad, and Bryan had to stay back one day after throwing up. Both Eric and Bryan are healthy now, and we are happy to be back home in our own beds (and have actual toilets to use).
The ministry that we were able to do went well. We visited three different schools, presented the Word at two bible studies, did some visitation, and we shared at church this morning. We've become very good at the school ministry and that wasn't a problem at all. The kids loved it, although at one school the headmaster told Eric he was a Jehovah's Wittiness while we were doing introductions. It was very awkward but we were just glad they gave us a chance to be with the kids, even though I don't think the teachers liked us much.
We gave two topical bible studies: one by Bryan, and one by myself. I felt good about the one I gave on Heaven and Hell (although there were only about 10 people present, including us) and I was encouraged when Pastor Peter asked me if he could have the notes I had prepared for it because he liked what I had said.
We had a good experience there, but like I said before, the most of Eric's ministry is done in Samburu, so the best is still ahead of us. Osegel is one of Shane's ministries and Eric has been there twice before (once last July when I was here) so we had a good time of simple fellowship and sharing. It's nice to follow up and see those people again and I was shocked when the kids at one of the schools remembered my name!
So this week we have to finish up the last few things for the truck (it's come a long way), go to Nairobi to meet with the couple who runs the orphanage in Sudan, and then get our stuff together to leave for Samburu. I have a feeling that after this week, the rest of the trip will fly by. Things like this become a blur when it gets busy; when we are visiting different places and traveling around, I always lose track of what day it is and soon enough it's time to go.
As interesting as the churches here are, a Sunday doesn't go by when I miss MBC and all of you back home. I don't want to leave, but I so look froward to being back. Time is a funny thing, isn't it?

Keep it real. Watch Lost for me. And eat Jr. bacon cheeseburgers for me. Those are so good...I craved one today.

High Gear

As some of you might have heard, I haven't been feeling well for the past couple of days. At first I was showing signs that I could have malaria, but the worst of the sickness lasted only for one night and now I'm just left with no appetite and a very weak body. I'm doing alright now, and I assume I'll be fine by tomorrow.
Which is very important, because tomorrow we leave in the morning for a town called Narok in Massailand. We are not actually staying in that town, but we'll go there first to buy our food and some other supplies and then head to our ministry location. This is an area of high altitude which can become very cold at night and during a cloudy day, even though it's the hot season in Kenya. It's not too rough out there though. We have buildings to stay in and two main churches that we will be working with. On building is brand new, thanks to a team that Shane led a few months ago. Shane builds these places called Hope Centers equipped with a church room, school rooms, eating area, and solar powered lights. We'll be staying there for the week going out to schools and living areas from there.
After today, we will have minimal downtime and lots of work to do for the rest of the trip. From here our schedule is very tight and we'll have to always be watching to make sure we make the best use of our time.
Thank you to those of you who left comments, it meant a lot to me. If you would like to get in touch with me personally, and so that I can write you back, feel free to e-mail me at jesusfreaktonfry@yahoo.com
Of course, I won't be able to get back to you until we return to Nakuru next week, so you'll all hear from me then. That is also the time when I will have some good pictures to put up because life here isn't nearly as exciting, and I'm not a good enough photographer to find shots worth sharing.
Thank you for your prayers and support; it means so much to me that everyone back home is reading this. I miss all of you very much- you have no idea. You'll hear from me in a week.

A note on pictures.

Because the Blogger picture upload is rather fickle, I've started to post my pictures on my photo blog which you can access by clicking the link to the right. I'll be posting the rest of my pictures there for your viewing pleasure so check there often. I'd like to have a new one up every day, but I can only do my best. By clicking on the "large" button at the bottom of that site, you'll be able to view the pictures in higher resolution. And if you like RSS, you can even hook that up, too...

We've got work to do.

Everyone: thank you so much for taking time to write comments! I love reading them. I get the comments sent to my e-mail, and this morning there were lots of em, so that was nice. It's good to hear from you.
We've been staying pretty buys over here. We've been in Nakuru for the past week continuing to prepare our lessons and our hearts. We have also spent some time catching up with friends from last summer which I've been enjoying. Eric is having us read a book called "Building on Firm Foundations" and I really like it. It was written by a missionary who found that the best way to teach people the bible is to teach it in its entirety, starting with a good Old Testament base that sets up the coming of Christ. If you're a person in a teaching position, I really recommend this book.
Yesterday we attended some Life Ministries meetings. Life Ministries is the East African branch of Campus Crusade. I really enjoyed it. We attended The Bridge Team which is sort of like the college group, but it focuses on kids who are done with secondary school and have yet to start college. It was nice being around people our age, because we don't see many of them. A lot of them are at boarding schools, so all of our ministry is done with younger children or adults and it was really nice just hanging out with some people our age. Sen. Obama is from Kenya, so all the Kenyans really like him and when they heard that I was from Illinois, they asked if I'll vote for Obama. I had to explain to all of them what was really going down and dash their hopes. The truth hurts.
We are also starting to give the truck a face lift. A lot of the wood it is composed of is rotting or breaking, so we bought a bunch of wood yesterday so we can do some repairs. The truck looks a lot different already. We have most of the rotting panels removed, and we'll but cutting the new ones soon. The only trouble we had was that whoever put this together did it with no pattern or method at all. Everything used different sized nuts and different bolts...it was like a puzzle. As you can see, we ripped that puzzle apart.
There is always some work to be done or business to take care of, but at the end of the day, we usually have a little treat. After we do a devotional together, we'll pray and maybe sing, and then we start up the projector and watch a couple episodes of 24. Behold the power of Bower!
We'll be heading out into the bush early next week. We weren't planning on going to Narok this time around, but I really wanted to so Eric said we could. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but we'll be there for about a week. After that, we'll come back here for a few days and make final preparations for the big one. One month out in Samburu. Next month is really going to be the meat of our trip, and I'm looking froward to it.
This morning we made a new friend. A street cat was hanging around Eric's gate last night, and this morning it came into the house. She's not very bothersome, so we will keep her around. Eric hadn't named her, so I named her Arwen. She is warming up to us nicely although she did get stuck in the couch this morning. Eric has pretty lame furniture and Arwen explored a little too far for her own good.

Well, that's all for now. Check back again, soon.

Some Pics!

Hey, got the first picture up. Wow, that only took 10 minutes to upload each one. But hey, I'll take what I can get.
So there I am, sitting at the computer in Eric's office (a small room adjacent to his house that's probably more comparable to a sauna than anything) working on the lessons I'd been assigned. I am doing Heaven and Hell, Justice and Judgment, and the Bible. These lessons are what we will be bringing out into the bush and will be the major part of our ministry. We made a list of all the different things that could be taught, narrowed it down to fit our time frame, and then distributed the topics amongst the three of us. The laptop I am using belongs to Eric, but as you can see, an external monitor has been connected. We didn't do that for the bigger screen, but rather because the laptop screen died recently. So that's cool I guess.
The other picture is of Bryan, 19, who is a friend of Eric's from his home church. He's a great guy, and we are all getting along well.
And as you'll see, he is working on a MacBook, which I have thought about stealing and running off with. If you know me well, you might know the unending love I have for anything Apple produced, coupled with a hate towards Mr. Gates and his evil plan to rule the computing world with a inferior operating system. Vista's advertisements read, "The wow starts now". "Wow..." I thought to myself..."It look just like Mac OSX!" I'm glad to say that I left the country just before the release of that overpriced and overrated piece of work. Long live Macintosh!
But I digress.
So yeah, that's Bryan.
We're back from Nairobi once again, and with us we have the proper travel documents that will allow us entry into Sudan. And it looks like we will be driving after all, through Northern Uganda. Needless to say, I am very excited. We might take the truck, but we will have to get insurance for both Uganda and Sudan. So that might end up being quite expensive. The other option is to take a bus, but the nice things about the truck is we could sleep in there comfortably, and we are free to travel at our own pace, say, if we wanted to spend a few days in Uganda instead of just pass through. And I would like that. So we'll see. But for now, we continue preparing for our Bush ministry.

Game Plan

I thought we would be in Nairobi longer, but we actually left on Thursday. Eric, Bryan, and I have been in Nakuru till yesterday, when we came back to Nairobi (where I am now). We just got DSL back at Eric's house, so I should be able to get some pictures up once we get back.
It's been a quiet few days. I've enjoyed some time to get into some good books (C.S. Lewis is my homeboy) and we have spent some time in the Word, planning out what we want to accomplish in the next few months. We want to make sure not to spread ourselves too thin, but at the same time we want to be able to bring a rich amount of knowledge and understanding in the short time we will have at our different location. The hand powered tape players Eric bought using money raised at the CYC winter retreat will help us continue to feed believers and non-believers even after we are gone.
Our game plan is coming along very well. Hopefully it will be a little more effective than the Bears' was.

We are back in Nairobi for a few reasons. One, we need to get the proper travel documents to allow for a trip to Sudan. Second, we need to look into getting a flight there because if we don't, we are looking at a four or five day trip, and we would probably have to drive through Uganda, right through an area where the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have been abducting children and creating youth soldiers. The film Invisible Children highlights this horrific issue.
Over the next few weeks we will spend time in some books that Eric has purchased for us, and we will write out all of our lessons. There is also a possibility that we will be going into the bush at the end of this month for a week or so, but it's not certain yet.
Thanks for checking back, and I'll get some pictures up once we get back to Nakuru.