kenya - day 2

Due to inconsistent internet access, my travel updates will have to be posted after the trip has concluded rather than as it concludes...

After one night in Kenya, we are already sleeping under mosquito nets (a reminder of the constant threat of malaria) and we are drinking and brushing our teeth out of water bottles (a reminder of the unsafe water).  We met this morning with the Bishop and General Secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya (ELCK) which is a partner church of the LCMS. I also was able to talk briefly with another American who was at Concordia Seminary when I was there and now serving as the regional coordinator for LCMS missions in East Africa. Then it was back to the airport for a flight from Nairobi to Kisumu in the western part of the country on Lake Victoria.

Traveling back to the airport during the day gave us our first real impression of Nairobi and Kenya. Our driver pointed out the largest slum in East Africa which we viewed from afar as the van traveled along a main road. As I got this first glimpse of the differences between Kenya and the US, I was reminded that the purpose of our church's presence in the country is not to make the Kenyans more like us - more American - it is to learn how the Gospel can be communicated in and to different cultures.  To think we are there to do something or fix something that the Kenyans cannot do or fix themselves would be horrible arrogant and mistaken. Throughout the trip, I found great joy in watching so many beautiful facets of the Kenyan culture and people unfold before me.

Upon arrival in Kisumu we went to the "Lutheran compound." It houses a church, offices of different ELCK ministries, a medical clinic that is yet to be opened, and a school for developmentally disabled children. We met and talked with various local and regional church officials including the pastor of the congregation and the principal of the school.  The great love for and service toward others was especially evident in talking with the teachers of the school and seeing some of the students and their work.  And both the congregation and the school were very intentional in reaching out to the community and those in need with services that included but went far beyond Word and Sacrament ministry.  The main word for the trip was mercy and it was evident from day one in so many ways and in so many places and in so many lives.

Friday night we checked into The Vic - a very western feeling hotel - and then went out to a very Kenyan feeling restaurant where our Kenyan host (Pastor David Chuchu) ordered the most Kenyan meal among the group - a plate filled with a fish head.