A safe arrival in Nairobi

Monday/Tuesday September 5/6, 2011

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! (Psalm 67:1-3)

It has been an exceedingly long day. I was up at around 3:30am this morning to catch a 5:50am flight out of Atlanta to Washington D.C. We were an hour late pulling away from the gate because of a spring malfunction on the door of the airplane, but someone from maintenance finally arrived and tightened a screw on the spring so that we could get the OK to fly....

I arrived in our Capitol city at around 9:00am where I waited for an hour and a half for Russ Schmitt to arrive from Minneapolis. His plane was also delayed an hour for maintenance and they finally had to exit the plane and reboard a different one. We were in danger of missing our flight to Addis Ababa, but made it just in time to the chagrin of the Ethiopian Air lines representatives at Dulles airport. From Washington D.C. we had a 12.5 hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean, Europe the Mediterranean Sea and Northeastern Africa to the capital city of Ethiopia. As we headed east and into the sun it was somewhat disconcerting to see that the sun was going down at what my watch (and body) said was 3:00pm!

By the time we arrived in Addis Ababa, it was 7:00am local time. Even though we had lost seven hours of the day and flown through the night we were only able to get a little bit of rest on the plane. An hour here and an hour there, but definitely not REM sleep! We exited the plane down stairs to the tarmac at the small but growing headquarters of Ethiopian Air and took a bus to the terminal where we had to wait for three hours for the last leg of our journey. Muslim men and women were as prevalent here as flies on a dead animal. It is depressing to see how Islam is taking a hold of this part of the world, and the increasing spiritual darkness and depravity that they are bringing to the African people.

Our 777 from Washington to Addis Ababa, The Victoria Falls.

Finally we boarded our flight to Nairobi. It was a short two hour jump from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, and we arrived on the ground at 12:30pm. Since we were on a smaller plane, we sailed quickly through security, but were delayed when we discovered that Russ’s checked bags did not arrive - probably due to the short connection time in Washington D.C.

Pastor Mike Gurath and Nairobi leader Charles Gikonyo were there to meet us. We were welcomed at the home of Jemima Kivuto who lives in Nairobi. Jemima is the daughter of Anna Sagala from Mois Bridge where Mike is serving for the remainder of this year. Although I had never met her before, Jemima welcomed us into her home with a loving heart and open arms. She prepared a wonderful lunch for us and provided rooms for us in her spacious home. Mike stays with her regularly when he is traveling to Nairobi, and has a”permanently reserved” room at Jemima’s home!

Jemima and her two sons, Joshua and Elvis.

After a wonderful lunch and some visiting, Mike and I hired a Taxi to take us to get some Hymnals, Catechisms and other resources in the local dialects of Kiswahili and Kisii. The Book of Concord has also been completed now, but will not be available until the end of October. We came away with several boxes of materials and a jump start in preparing for our work here in the coming weeks.

We thank the Lord that we have arrived safely after a very long trip, and have already begun our work. Thank you also for your many prayers on our trip so far. Please continue to hold us up in prayer over the coming weeks as we continue our travels. Please keep our families back home in your prayers as well.

In Christ,

Nathanael