Finally - PICTURES

Ok so they are not the greatest but at least you can actually visualize a few of the people I'm working with. The fluorestant lights rather ruined the quality of the pictures - oh well, I'll try again another day.


Daniel - a Pastoral Trainee at Nairobi Chapel who is one of Pastor Oscar's "armour bearer"

My Dad - concentrating intensely

John - an intern at Chapel working in the Media Department

Evans - the Media Department second in command

Gedion - another Pastoral Trainee and another of Pastor Oscar's armour bearer

Jennifer (who keeps everyone going) and Nancy

Msafara countdown: 10 days to go!

So with only 10 days to go until Msafara kicks off with an overnight bus trip to Mombasa, life is getting crazier. The media department is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We have so much work: creating ADS for TV, Radio, and Newspapers. Writing stories to get published in the newspapers to help generate positive media about what the church is actually doing. Working on T-shirts, banners, brochures, flyers, booklets and anything else that will help promote Msafara.

My current job is writing, writing, writing. I've written about 7 stories in the past week and I've got a couple more to write tomorrow. I really need to do some editing too. I wish we had a few more people working on this writing project but everyone is spread too thin as it is. I also end up being the liaison between my dad and many other people, especially the Media department. But that is an easy job.

I'm enjoying the people I work with. Especially Roselynn, Sam, John, Gedion and Daniel (who are all interns/pastoral trainees at Nairobi Chapel and are all working extremely hard!). It's been nice to actually get to be around people besides my parents! I'm the youngest in the office but they have all made me feel right at home – actually today I kind of felt like I had a bunch of older siblings as they tried their hands at advice about guys, match-making and all sorts of other fun things.

Yesterday I went to a Gospel concert. I was actually supposed to simply attend – you know enjoy myself with a seat to sit in if I wanted to. But that was not how it happened. The guy who took me (I'm still not comfortable using public transport all by myself) first of all possibly got the wrong impression about my intentions (that was part of today's guy advice session :) and secondly managed to get us jobs as volunteers. So instead of dancing to my heart's content or sitting down when I felt like it, I ended up guarding a door with some other random guy I had never met. So there I was all the way at the back of the church, standing for hours, telling people that this particular door was not an entrance or exit and that they would have use one of the actual entrances/exits. Then we left before the best part of the concert (or so I was told today). Needless to say, I don't think I will ever go any place with that guy again! Oh well, it was kind of fun and I did manage to score a free t-shirt (always a bonus but especially now as I have few weather appropriate shirts – I forgot it was summer when I packed my stuff to come to Nairobi).

Other than all this, I think I really need to go to sleep. Its 10:22 and I have to be up no later than 6 am. Man I don't like mornings!

So my schedule looks like this:

• Write and write for the next week and ½.

• Maybe (and that's a big maybe) attend the Kesha (overnight prayer service) on Friday night

• Fast for 7 days (29^th-6^th)
  

• My BIRTHDAY – one week away on the 3^rd.

• Media Launch (I must attend!) on the 4^th

• Move out of our house on the 5th (the real renters are coming for a couple of weeks and we don't know if we are actually going to be coming back here or looking for a new house)

• Apply to an university here before I leave (possibility for what I'll being doing starting in May)
  

• Msafara starts on the 7^th ( I think I'm going but I still need $300 plus to go)

• Msafara ends on the 17^th

• Life goes back to Normal (whatever that is)
  

So I was going to post some pictures but the uploader is not working. I'll try again another time :(

A Few Rough Days

Yesterday and today were rough days. Nothing bad or anthing just frustrating. Yesterday work was crazy. Problems arose due to communication issues (for those of you who remember I quit my last job working under Kenyans - teaching at my former school - because of communication issues).

Msafara has 7 departments:

- The Secretariat (where Dad works) which is headed by Pastor Oscar (an amazing man with an amazing vision) and is pretty much in charge of everything.
- The Msafara organization department, which is responsible to make sure Msafara takes off as planned, headed by Pastor M.
- The Logisics department, responsible to make sure everything from now until March 17th runs smoothly.
- The Spiritual department, responsible for prayer and fasting now and planning the "spiritual" events of Msafara, headed by Pastor Simon.
- The Communty Networking Department, which has a longer term goal of bringing pastors together to promote peace and unity in Kenya
- The Humanitarian department, responsible to planning and coordinating relief to interally displaced people (IDPs).
- my department, the Media department, headed byPastor Gowi (who is doing an amazing job trying to bring together so much stuff in so little time), which is responsible for media relations, advertising, PR and getting out positive redemptive stories of hope highlighting what the church is doing.

Needless to say the things done in each department overlap and that means sometimes we are doing double work.

Then yesterday I felt redundent. The only thing it seemed I was contributing was my computer and my typing skills - necessary but not very fulfilling.

Thankfully by the end of the day I had a few more things to do, like helping Pastor Oscar write and edit a message for Pastors to help them know how to get involved. I enjoy working with P. Oscar because he expresses himself in a way that I easily understand and grasp onto. I also got some information about a posssible story I can write.

Today was a lazy day. I didn't do much. But it was one of those frustrating and discouraging days. Reflecting on the difficult and unenjoyable parts of the past week didn't help much. However, another GO missionary - Rhonda - came for lunch and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and then we went into town for a little while.

I know that no matter how rough the past few days have been tomorrow will erase it all. I love going to our church. Amazing worship, good teaching - the whole service, even the announcements, are uplifting and focused on God. I can only say thank you to HIM for bringing the church into our lives.

Now if I could only find some friends! And get rid of the ants which have invaded my room!!

Hopefully I get some pictures taken this week and posted. I'm sure you are all bored of continual words and no exciting visuals.

Msafara and My Week

Wow, its been a busy week and I know…It's not over yet. I started my volunteer job on Monday. Dad and I go in between 8:30 and 9:00 each day and it is a 30-45 minute drive there. The National Alliance of Churches Spiritual Arm Secretariat has its offices at Nairobi Baptist Church on Ngong Road. The Former Secretary General , Mutava Musymi, (a current Member of Parliament) is also the former pastor of Nairobi Baptist and one Pastor Oscar's mentors. Pastor Oscar is the head pastor at Nairobi Chapel (our current church) and the point man for the Secretariat.

The Secretariat has six offices – Spiritual Guidance (under Pastor Simon), Logistics (Under Pastor Owino Odera), Humanitarian Assistance to IDPs, Community Networking, Msafara: Wheels of Hope(Under Pastor M), Media (under Pastor Gowi Odera), and The Secretariat office itself (under Pastor Oscar). I am working under Media and Dad is working directly with Pastor Oscar.

There are so many things going on that it would take a lot of space to explain them all! So I won't. However, I will tell you a bit about what is going on. To start with, let me use the so nicely crafted message of Msafara Media Department. This message is the basis of everything we do and was the first job Bev (a woman I'm working with) and I got assigned to. What a start. As my Dad says: The volunteers are doing things they have never done before and probably don't know how to do, but they will get them done and then they will know what they are doing for another time!

Msafara Message:

Msafara Wheels of Hope is a church initiative that will act as a catalyst to lead the country into spiritual cleansing and bringing hope to Kenyans. A secretariat of eight pastors are coordinating logistics, mobilizing resources and team building to travel to Mombasa, Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, and Kisumu. These five (5) major urban areas were where election violence initially erupted [after being targeted by spiritual forces of darkness]. With a focus on restoration, reconciliation and prayer, Msafara hopes to enable five hundred (500) pastors in each area to lead their people in healing. In each area Msafara will conduct pastors' workshops in reconciliation while others will distribute humanitarian aid and provide counsel to traumatized internally displaced people. Finally, there will be a cleansing, healing, prayer and jubilee service for each area. Msafara will be actively involved in spreading redemptive stories of hope through the media. It will also help resettle displaced people. In the same spirit of Ezra and Nehemiah, Msafara calls Kenyans to unite in the spirit of hope for the future.

 

That in a nutshell is Msafara!

My jobs right now include things like writing a packet which will be given out to pastors in each of the five urban areas. This packet will help them inform their church of what will be happening and ways to get involved. We need major involvement! Msafara will travel with 100-200 pastors and 200 volunteers. In each urban area we hope that 300 pastors join Msafara for two days as well as 200 more volunteers. Right now the Secretariat needs 200-300 volunteers to get everything done that it needs to do. In each urban area we hope that at least 30,000 people will attend the prayer service. Of course a venture like this needs money. The Secretariat needs immediate funding for things like stationary, computers, internet access, phone connections, printers, advertising, transportation etc etc. The Secretariat also needs funding for Msafara itself – 300-400 people will travel across the country in 10 days. We need buses, cars, trucks, whatever to travel in as well as places to stay and food to eat. Msafara is also planning major Humanitarian aid, including food and personal supply packs. This is a major initiative which will show that the church in Kenya is not sitting still watching the country be devoured by the enemy instead it will flaunt in Satan's face that the church believes God is in control. It is a major initiative to take back Kenya from the enemy and stake out God's territory. Its something that has never happened before in Kenya and it is being led by exceptional leaders who believe in a mighty and all-powerful God.

I'm excited to be involved and I hope that I get to write about this for many people to hear about. Right now I'm trying to contact Christianity Today to see if they are interested in an article. They published an article on Pastor Oscar about a year ago so the Media team and I are hoping they will be interested!

 

That's all for now but check out these sites:

www.msafara.co.ke – The official Msafara website, which should be up, and running by Saturday

www.everythingisinbalance.com/kenya - Pictures of Kibera and Nairobi at the beginning stages of the crisis. Taken by Bob Miller, who I got to know while he was here in Nairobi

http://www.pbase.com/sdimitriou/the_crisis_in_kenya - a photojournalist blog of the crisis. Some amazing pictures. Be sure to go through all the pages to see the most recent pictures

http://negst2008.blogspot.com/ - blog for the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. It has two recent posts from Pastor Oscar explaining the reason behind Msafara and lots more information about what it's all about.

www.nairobichapel.org – The church's website and lots of information about it, its history, theology and ministry.

 

Pictures from the Halfway House

Here are a few pictures of the families at Ngenga's halfway house.

Esther (far left) with her mother and sisters

Hannah and her three children

Collins and his mother

The boys: (from left) James, Francis, Collins, Stephen, and Joshua

(They should all be in school)

Halfway House

Mr. Ngenga normally runs a thriving international and local tourism business. His two large four-wheel drive 10 passenger vehicles are used to carry adventure travelers going to climb Mount Kenya or Mt. Kilimanjaro Tanzania or hike through Masai land and see Kenya's beauty and way of life. His large home, with six bedrooms, usually hosts his clients while they are in Nairobi before or after an adventure.

However, this year business is slow – the tourism industry is suffering major setbacks due to the recent violence in Kenya. Mzungus (Americans and Europeans) aren't risking the danger just for a climb, hike or an amazing experience; instead, they are canceling their reservations, making new ones in Tanzania or waiting for a safer time to visit Kenya. Ngenga's rooms should be empty.

But they are full. Four women, all struggling to start life again, all wondering what the future holds have, with their children, found shelter at Ngenga's house.

These four women and eleven children are the current occupants of Ngenga's bedrooms but they haven't been the only ones. Ngenga's house has become a halfway house and welcomed a number of women and children since the start of the election violence a little over a month ago. These women need a place to sort through the remains of their lives, a place to look to the future and try to piece their lives back together. Most of the women and children who have passed through Ngenga's house come from Kenya's largest slum – Kibera.

Kibera experienced riots, tribal clashes, looting, burning and chaos in the opening days of the violence and throughout the past month. The violence pitted neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend and most importantly tribe against tribe. The constituency of opposition leader, Raila Odinga, enraged by the claims of a "stolen election," poured their anger on their neighbors believed to have supported Raila's opponent, President Mwai Kibaki. Kibera was no longer safe for women and children and especially not for women and children of the "enemy" – the Kikuyu. In the words of a Kibera pastor, "Kibera is now more that ever divided into sections with clear tribal boundaries where if you are in the wrong area and you are all alone, you might lose your life."

As women and children fled Kibera, they found safety at Jamhuri Park (Swahili for republic). Jamhuri Park's main function, under normal circumstances, is an annual Agricultural Show put on by the Agricultural Society of Kenya. It is by no means, a refugee camp, but that is what it quickly became in the early days of January. The Red Cross, NGO's, the UN and FBO's (faith-based organizations) all came to help the internally displaced people. They fed, clothed, housed and sanitized at least 1000 displaced people, and probably a few more living nearby who showed up for the free handouts.

Then the camp was closed and three days notice was given for the "residents" to leave. But many didn't have any place to go. They couldn't go back to Kibera, it was too dangerous and their houses had either been reduced to ashes or "stolen." Many didn't have money to travel to their relatives' homes and others couldn't go because the roads they needed to travel on were too dangerous. Many of them needed a place like Ngenga's halfway house to start their lived afresh.

Today, three Kikuyu women and one Luhya women share the living space at Ngenga's. They cook together, clean together and try to figure out their lives together. Their children play together, listen to music together and wish they could go back to school. Esther, who should be in 8^th grade and studying hard for the big end of year exams, remarked sadly, "I can't think about school, because there is no money for school fees and I don't know where we will end up." For now, she sits quietly by herself, watching the other children (mostly boys) talk and play.

Collins, who should be in 5^th grade, is of mixed ethnicity. His mother is Luhya and his father is Kikuyu. Their home was taken away when they left Kibera. Now all his mother wants is a small house somewhere safe and to "start a small business even if it is just selling vegetables." Collins, like Esther, is longing to go back to school. He also would like to play soccer with his friends from the halfway house, but they don't have a ball, or a place to play.

Members of Ngenga's church are working on finding the women housing and possibly jobs. Two of the mothers hope to be able to move out in a few days. Their rooms, however, won't remain empty long, as other women and children seeking to get their feel under them will take their place.

 

Note: I thought I would publish something "journalistic" on my blog instead of my normal ramblings about myself and my life. Enjoy! And also beware that my facts might not be entirely correct – this is for my blog – not a newspaper and I just wrote it based on what I know in my head and what I've heard in passing or in the newspaper. If it was to be published there are a few facts I would definitely need to verify. (EG. How many people camped at Jamhuri Park – I actually think the figure was way over 1000 but I don't know. Another one: I'm not exactly sure who helped the IDP at Jamhuri – I only know Red Cross for sure along with some churches, the others I think but I'm not sure). This is more of a "my take" on things than a completely factual article.

A Rainy Day

It hasn't been raining much in Nairobi lately. I think the last rainy day we had was a couple of weeks ago when there were opposition rallies planned (we were so happy it rained because we hoped it might keep people inside instead of outside doing stupid stuff). Yesterday we thought it would rain but it was just really hot, humid, and cloudy off and on. But this morning when I woke up I could hear the rain. It's dark and dreary and I think I'm getting a low-pressure headache. But the change is nice cause it's been really warm and I don't have very many short-sleeve or sleeveless shirts – actually when I packed, silly me, I mostly packed ¾ length shirts not remembering the fact that Nairobi is ALWAYS hotter than Londiani and it is January/February, meaning it is SUMMER time here. So yeah today, I will get to wear something different!

Things are looking up! Today, hopefully, we are going to visit a place where there are some of the displaced people, mainly children (or so we think). Mom and Dad went to a meeting at our church (Nairobi Chapel, Ngong Road) a couple of nights ago. They were working on planning a strategy for helping displaced people. My mom said that Pastor Faith (the pastor heading the teaming helping displaced people) said no one could leave without a job. But my mom didn't really hear about anything that seemed to fit her and afterwards she was talking to Pastor Faith about just touching lives and children and Pastor Faith told her about this place really close to our house where she could do just that. We would have gone yesterday but there was a rally planned and you can never be sure what is going to happen when there is a rally planned.

Yesterday we kind of just hung out. We went shopping and I think it was the slowest paced shopping trip I've ever been on. We (mainly mom and I) just moseyed our way through the store. It was kind of silly because one of the things our church is doing is fasting every day, and here we were, fasting and wandering around the supermarket looking at….FOOD. Needless to say, it made us a little hungry! In the evening, we went to take back movies – I think we are keeping the DVD rental store in business. Of course we got a few more to watch, then we went out to eat at Java House (Mom and Dad are fasting 6-6, I'm fasting lunch). I also did a little shopping and for the first time in my life actually bought workout clothes! Cute black and grey capris and a white and grey tank top for those that were interested in the colours J. Mom also bought me a birthday present – a cute new outfit, but I don't get it for almost a monthL.

Back to the future: Dad got an SMS (text message) yesterday for Pastor Oscar (the head pastor at Nairobi chapel). We had originally asked him if he could help us find someway to help. Anyways Nairobi Chapel in working together with a number of other churches in Nairobi figuring out what to do to address the crisis in Kenya. They have set up a secretariat and are doing a number of different things. They are planning a Caravan of Hope. This will involve 300-500 pastors from Nairobi area who will go out from Nairobi to visit all the area of violence. They want to spiritually cleanse the country, dealing with witchcraft (the politicians regularly consult with witch doctors to ensure that they win), and bloodshed. They will also take supplies to area in need and will counsel people who have been affected by the violence. They are hoping to get the Caravan going within a month or so. Another thing that the Secretariat wants to do is bring a positive influence on the media. They want positive stories to be published instead of the constant negativity. They said they would pay for them to be published if necessary. They will also work closely with the relief work and helping the displaced people.

So in light of all that Pastor Oscar said that they need lots of help at the secretariat which has been set up at Nairobi Baptist Church (the former pastor of Nairobi Baptist is also the former head of the National Council of Churches of Kenya – a very powerful Christian influence on politics and polices of Kenya – and a current Member of Parliament). He wants Dad (and mom too I guess – if she wants to) to help down at the offices and he wants me to work with the media team!! We are supposed to show up on Monday ready to get started!

God definitely seems to be up to something! Finally J.