New Year's Eve Update

Friends and family,

The events over the elections appear to be calming down quite a bit. We thank you for your prayers and will continue to keep you updated.


We just want to wish you a Happy New Years and ask that you would continue to keep this nation in your prayers.

Monday Afternoon Update

Friends and family,

Just wanted to send you a quick update that everyone at Gideon's home is safe. We are currently without power and are unsure of how long that will last, thus we don't know when our next email or blog will be sent. We are hopeful that things will calm down soon. There is no source for news right now, so rumors are spreading quickly and it's hard to know what is true and what is not (so you may know more about what is happening than we do).

Please pray for this nation, that peace will come quickly. A few of the pastors we work have stopped by and so far their families, homes, churches, and church members are all okay... we pray to hear more news like this.

The gift of democracy... We never knew to be so thankful.

Blessings to each one of you.

Sunday Night Update

Well, it has been a long day in Nairobi..everything is closed because of election tension, the streets are bare and everyone is huddled around the TV. The Electoral Commission of Kenya announced the former president as the newly elected official...despite an overwhelming number of appeals from the opposition and neutral parties. He was sworn in within 30 minutes and fire has erupted throughout the slums. Our home is less than 1 km from Kibera, a stronghold for the losing candidate. The fires are going, gunshots firing and people screaming.

I am a bit emotionally charged right now but ask that you pray for these people. Mandy and I (as well as Gideon and his family) are safe and well, but there are people that cannot run, hide and remove themselves from the slums which are overpopulated to begin with. There is going to be a long road ahead in healing the corruption (whether perceived or truth) that has taken place this weekend.

Today was a step backwards for Kenya as it attempts to build a mature democracy.

We work with pastors that are in the most vulnerable areas of the city. We ask that you pray for them, their families, their congregations and even their church structures as things are a bit chaotic. We hope to contact them soon and learn of their safety at this time.

Again, we are safe...but there are many people that we know and that we don't that are caught in the middle.

We'll keep you posted on any developments.

Update

Just wanted to drop a note and say that we are doing fine here in Nairobi. I am guessing that Kenyan politics has made it to your respective places in the world through the international news. Unfortunately, violence has erupted in the slums and given the current situation will most likely be here until tonight, when the election results are revealed.

Please pray for peace and justice in this process...and never take democracy for granted:)

Quick Trip

We left for the coast approximately 36 hours ago, hoping to enjoy a few days on the Indian Ocean. Somewhere along the way, things took a turn and here we are...back in Nairobi again!

We had an awesome train trek out there...it was a 14 hour trip, most of it during the night hours but train travel is just a great way to travel. It included dinner and breakfast, where we got to enjoy time with other travelers from Nigeria and Denmark and we had our own sleeping compartment. The only noteworthy hitch with the train ride between Nairobi and Mombasa was the German and/or South African woman in the compartment next door. While entertaining, her pompous traveling behavior was ridiculous. When the lights went out in our car, she made sure that EVERYONE heard about it, not to mention her “VIP” status, which little did she know, everyone is considered to have. The meals were way too salty and there was no way that she should have to pay for breakfast because apparently she is God's gift to East African cuisine. Mandy and I would like to salute her for the priceless entertainment, her loving character and prize-performing complaint fest. We would also like to salute the Kenya Railway staff (all 12 people that had to deal with her at least once-both on the train and at the office in Nairobi) for resisting the temptation to sneak her into the bathroom and send her through the toilet (a hole in the floor where the tracks are visible below).

Upon our arrival in Mombasa, we took a ferry to the south shore and a matatu to a place called Tiwi Beach. It is said to be a dangerous 3 km walk to the place that we wanted to stay, so we got a lift from a security company that was headed out in that direction. They dropped us off 200 meters from the entrance of the lodge. No more than 60 seconds later, two thugs took our hip pack and ran off into the woods with it. After a chase, reconvening the security outfit, settling down the Kenyan women that had witnessed it all and a ride to the police station in the back of a Kenyan police car (which are much more comfortable than matatus), we found ourselves 500 km out of Nairobi with no money, phone, camera, Bible, journal, hip bag, headlamps, Nalgenes and sunscreen lip gloss. Thanks to Mandy's great memory, we were able to call Gideon in Nairobi from the police station when he told us of an Anglican Guest House in Mombasa (20km north of where we were) that we could ask to borrow money from. A few phone calls later, a trip to Mombasa in the police car and with extraordinary generosity from the Anglican Guest House, we had $50 to get us back to Nairobi...and a bit of extra for some food for our hungry bellies. We ended up walking around Mombasa for 5 hours just to check it out (although it was extremely dead because it was election day). Although many have ranted and raved about how great Mombasa is, it wasn't quite what we had anticipated-partly due to our frustration with what had just happened and partly due to how much was closed due to the elections. We enjoyed sodas along the coast of the Indian Ocean, stuffed our faces with Indian food and caught an overnight bus to Nairobi.

We arrived in Nairobi at 6 AM this morning, eager to get things sorted out, to get home before the election results are announced and to see if any of our stolen items would be covered by insurance (which they are not:( ). Thanks to Gideon, email and Adam (in Tacoma), we were able to get stuff canceled right away and will be up and functioning again soon. We are safe, well and rebounding from our little escapade.

As for the elections, stay tuned-we will learn more today!

Well, our 5 day trip to the coast turned into 36 hours. The sour taste has dissolved and we will try again sooner than later...perhaps when our friends Robby and Karl come out from Tacoma...next week. On second thought, this is the 2^nd time that Mandy and I have been robbed near a beach-maybe we will stay put or go to the mountains:).

Merry Christmas from Kenya!

What a gift it has been to have the opportunity to spend a Christmas in Kenya. While the familiarities were far away, we were exposed to a refreshed look at what Christmas is all about. Although a few of the shopping centers have Christmas Lights and Santa sessions, the lack of commercialism that we associate with the season would have made it easy to pass December 25 without noticing. A few things that we learned along the way...

• Although our songs about winter and snow neglect it, Christmas comes during the summer for the entire southern hemisphere!

• Gifts are not a universal norm around the holidays. It was incredibly freeing to not have to worry about gifts this year!

• Movies are big in Kenya on Christmas Day...from 10 AM-1 AM the next day, you will find most Kenyans from Nairobi hovering around a television with food, friends and family.

• Doors are open on Christmas Day...if you are not hosting the party, be ready to make the rounds visiting 4 or 5 homes throughout the day visiting with others.

• Many people travel to their home villages at this time...although this year was slightly different as voters needed to stay in their home area until December 27 to cast their presidential vote.

• There are very few Christmas Eve or Christmas Day church services.

• Chicken and Chipati (a tasty version of a tortilla) are the staple foods for the holidays.

We joined some friends from Ontario for a Christmas lunch followed by a Kenyan feast at home in the evening. 30+ visitors came for some tasty eats, a movie or three and one last discussion on the elections 2 days before voters head to the booth.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and hope that you have had the opportunity to enjoy it with family and friends.

On a side note, it is interesting how we have tainted the Christmas story to be something that it is not. Jesus wasn't born in the Mayo Clinic, nor did he pretend to live as the part of our modern day population that lives on over $1 a day but perhaps, He came to bring hope for people whose world looks a bit more like this...

Hell's Gate = The Lion King

Last week, Mandy and I had the opportunity to visit Hell's Gate National Park located 150 km west of Nairobi. We found ourselves singing songs from The Lion King in search for African wildlife. We rented bikes to travel through the park. Even tough they weighed about 50 lbs each, it was a great way to check out the area. We enjoyed a stay at the YMCA hostel on Lake Naivasha where we tracked hippos. We didn't see any this time around but found plenty of their enormous footprints. It was a great getaway weekend...one to be relived sooner than later.