Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Our last day in Moshi. Our shuttle from Moshi to Nairobi left the hotel at 11:00am, but we had a lot to accomplish first. At 8:00 I had a meeting scheduled with Pastor Angowi and the Treasurer, Josephat Lewis. They have been so busy with preparations for graduation and other meetings that we had not yet had the chance to meet. We talked about the finances of the LCEA and discussed new procedures that we would be putting in place for the coming year. We talked about the seminary, needs and concerns related to it for the coming year. In our time at the seminary we noticed that not all the students had Swahili Bibles. There were about three of them and they were passed around from student to student. So we came up with and implemented a plan: I sent Russ to the Bible Book Store to buy 20 Swahili Bibles (like our pew version). These were to be used in the seminary by the students so that everyone would have one for classes and their own personal study during the years they are in sem. But the students will not keep these. Instead, upon graduation they will receive a nicer and larger Swahili Bible with cross references for their use in the Pastoral ministry. We hope that this will be a blessing to them and enable them to better study God’s Word.
It was also requested by Pastor Angowi that all the students have English translations of the Bible for study. While I was here I gave away two English Bibles (one which I had brought from home and another which I had picked up from Kisii), but I will plan to bring more back next year. We were also glad to work out an arrangement for another full time teacher at the seminary for the coming year to help Pastor Angowi with the teaching and supervising work load. Now we just need to work out some financial arrangements. Over all it was a very beneficial meeting and I have high expectations for the coming year. There are eight graduates this year, and there are three students that are already prepared to enter as first year students, and many more applications still coming in. May the Lord bless the work here!
After running a few errands and hitting the internet café after my meeting with Angowi and Lewis, I sped back to the hotel just in time to meet Russ who had checked out of our room. Within minutes our ride to the bus station had arrived, and we were off. At the bus station we only had to wait a few minutes until our shuttle arrived. It was a smaller bus, although bigger than the Matatoo’s used for general public transportation. It could seat about 20 comfortably, but there were only five people on it for this leg of the trip. This shuttle took us from Moshi to Arusha, where we had to get off and board a different bus for the trip to Nairobi. We arrived in Arusha at about 1:00pm and had to wait until 2:00pm when the Nairobi bus left. This bus was about the same size, but it had more people on it. Our excess luggage was loaded on the rack on the top of the bus covered with a tarp and roped down. This bus still wasn’t full, but every row had someone sitting in it. Russ and I sat at the front of the bus and had a friendly conversation with our driver, Naftali. He was full of information and we learned a lot. He makes the trip from Nairobi to Arusha (of vise versa) every day and it was clear by the way he handled the road that he was very familiar with them. We had no problems crossing the border back into Kenya. (They even let Russ back in even though he only had a single entry visa which he purchased at the airport when we first arrived!) It was a very uneventful trip – just the way we prefer!
It was a long and tiring journey and we finally arrived at our destination in Nairobi at about 8:00pm. We checked into the Terminal Hotel in downtown Nairobi and immediately went to find something to eat. We had already decided on Steers where we could order Pizza! We didn’t have much in Kenya schillings, but were thankful when they said they would take US Dollars! Just after we placed our order, paid and sat down at a 70's style table, the power went out. We wondered if we were ever going to eat! It was interesting to note people reaction to the power outage. There were a couple of "Woo"’s, but other than that, it didn’t seem to bother anyone. Russ commented, "If this happened in the states, everyone would be in a panic!" There has been a lot of trouble with power outages this year as they try to implement new power strategies.
Hopefully it will get better soon.
Well, that’s all for now. We fly out from Nairobi tomorrow night....
In His service,
Nathanael
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