The Beginning...

Jambo habari ya Kenya! Sorry it has taken us so long to get this blog up and going, and we apologize in advance for the length. First of all, we want to thank everyone in our families, from River Cross Church, First Baptist Daytona Beach, and all our friends who have supported and encouraged us to this point. Your prayers, encouragement, advice and support have been so very valuable to us. We have mixed feelings, we love it here but we can't wait to get back and tell you all about it as well.

To catch you all up on our team, we will start at the beginning. Matt Sietz has been here in Kenya since the beginning of August. He spent nearly 3 months at a small orphange in Kakoye village, near the town of Kakamega. Matt taught English, Math, and basketball to the orphans as well as taught Sunday School and hung out with the kids. In the process, he acquired the talent of killing and cooking his own chicken. We have the video evidence to prove this. TIA! Erin and I arrived in Kenya about 10 pm on Oct 28th, solidifying our team. Our original plan was to arrive with Matt in August and begin working with the University students in Nairobi. Andrew was also going to come but he is holding down the fort for us back home. Luckily we didn't have any trouble finding Matt at the airport, as he is 15 inches taller than anyone else in Kenya, o yeah, and he is white. Matt was joined by the Tidenberg family and we had a great time meeting up with them. We also met the Lee and White families. That night Erin, Matt and I stayed up till about 3 am and didn't wake up until about 11 the next day.

There are a number of different missionary families here. All of them have been incredibly welcoming and encouraging. We have definitely felt spoiled in the last week and a half. Tim and Annie Tidenberg have allowed us to stay at their house during our time here. We spend much of our free time here with them and their daughter Hannah. They have 7 dogs, a rabbit, and a giant tortoise named Sami (even though you aren't here Sami, we think of you everyday.) Its definitely a slower pace of life in Africa. "Fast food" and quick service are not in their vocabulary but thats ok, its actually pretty nice. The first few days we spent some time exploring the city. We ate a lot of ice cream and went bowling. Go figure. One of the neat things to do here is go to the markets. They're kind of like flea markets. You can buy all sorts of pictures, carvings, and African weapons. Its a lot of fun because you bargain with the sellers or they will rip you off. Erin and I had one guy offer us a small necklace and 2 "crocodile" teeth (by crocodile he really meant camel) for about 16,900 shillings. They were really worth about 800 to 1000 shillings. Thats a difference of $210 American dollars. He didn't get any of it but it was interesting.

The weather here is great. It feels like the perfect spring day in March. It usually rains in the evening, which is really cool. One of the most interesting things out here has been the US presidential race. We knew that Obama had family members in Kenya but it seems that all Kenyans believe he is related to them somehow. In the days approaching the election, the country was gripped by "Obama-mania." Everywhere we went we heard his name, saw campaign ads and T-shirts, and even heard songs praising him. We've heard things like "The day Obama is elected, greed as a human ambition worldwide will come to an end," and "when Obama is president the US Congress will give him a blank check to end crime and poverty in Kenya." Kenyans seems to believe that Obama will make their nation a 1st world country. The day after he was elected was declared Obama Day. It was a national holiday in all the schools and most businesses were closed. Its been very sad to see how naive most Kenyans are. They don't ever hear the whole truth about Obama. Many do not know his views, morals or opinions but simply support him because he has half Kenyan. One good thing that seems to come out of this is that many Kenyans seem inspired to work hard and aim high. We just hope Obama doesn't ruin it for them. It appears this country and many others in Africa are banking on him to be a positive influence. In some ways this has given us a lot of material for conversations with the locals. We just have to tread carefully. If it was up to us, we wouldn't even discuss the subject. But thats impossible when everyone knows you are American. We worked on our British and Australian accents but weren't very convincing. So we bailed on that idea.

Physically adjusting to life in Nairobi has been interesting. The weather is great, the elevation and smog... not so much. We are about 6000 ft above sea level. We "played" basketball for about 2 hours last Sunday. We now know why Kenyans win all the marathons. The food has been an adventure in itself. We've eaten everything from Kenyan, Ethiopian, Indian, to American food. Some of it doesn't even look like food at all, but it almost always tastes great. Whether or not you hold that opinion a few hours later is a different story. We've faced a few bumps along the way but nothing serious. Aside from a few stomach issues, Erin's had a small cold, we drilled a hole in Matt Seitz's big toenail, and he spent 2 nights in a Muslim hospital called Aga Khan. Actually, his toe wasn't too bad, just gross, and he stayed at the hospital with a missionary friend of ours who had a minor surgery. All in all its been great, and we've definitely been blessed.

I'm sure by now, most of you are wondering what it is we are actually doing here. Our original plan was to arrive here in August as a team of four(Matt Seitz, Andrew, Erin and I) and spend 4 months working in the universities of Nairobi building relationships and doing discipleship. The plan didn't work that way, it worked better. When the plan changed, our team came across Ephesians 3:20 which says, " Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly more than all we can ask or imagaine..." That has definitely been the case. We arrived here as a team of 3 on October 28th. Our plan is still to do university work, but that has hit a few bumps as well. This is an entirely new ministry here and things are moving slowly. There are definitely some cultural factors here that we are learning to deal with. As of right now, only Erin and I are permitted to go on the Nairobi Institute of Technology campus. There seem to be a lot of political hoops to jump through. so far Erin and I have spent about seven hours on campus and talked with Christians and students who don't yet know Christ. We've spent time talking with Ben, Lee, Micah, John, Jeff, and Billy. Of them, four are Christians. We are encourgaed by this. Our goal is to train and encourage them to share their faith. The goal of the mission here is to get Kenyan Christians to share their faith with other Kenyans. That is the only way the gospel will truly take hold here in Kenya or anywhere else for that matter.

Since the school ministry is slow starting, we are looking forward to other ministries as well. The three of us came across a soccer field where we found a Kenyan organization called Christian Sports Contact. They are local Kenyan Christians who spend their time ministering to the street kids, some of them past street kids themselves. Streetkids are children who live on the streets, in the slums of Nairobi and are often involved in drugs and theft. The organization's goal is to share the Gospel with them, keep them off the streets, clean of drugs, and teach them soccer, a productive alternative. We hope to sepnd some time with them in the future. There are several other ministeries we will be working with here. As soon as we find out, we will let you know.

This trip has been and definitely will be an amazing opportunity to see God do what only He can do. One of the really neat and challenging things we have seen is the importance of Christians truly putting their faith in Christ and intentionally living their lives for Him. Many times people think that the goal of a mission trip is to convert as many people as possible. While our goal should always be to introduce as many people to Christ as possible, our passion should come from a godly desire to see people come to know Christ and never to come back with a report that glorifies us. All the glory should be to Him. If we can get a handful of Kenyans to truly live out their faith, they will be far more successful in seeing Christ change their country than we ever could be. There is a problem here with many local Christians being too dependent on American missionaries to evangelize instead of doing it themselves. As a result, the Kenyan Church has plateaued and may possibly begin to decline. Its similiar to the situation in America. This is an interesting thought to entertain. We wouldn't expect Kenyan Christians to be missionaries in America, recognizing the work to be done in their own homeland. We often forget that work is there in the US as well. As Christians, we need to stand upon the Word of God and our faith in God and intentionally live lives as ambassadors of Christ. This trip has been a challenging reminder to our team of the responsibilty we have. Whether you are in Nairobi, Kenya; Pucalpa, Peru; or the USA, the need is the same. The Gospel is the same. And we serve a God who does not change and has invited us to be part of the greatest adventure imaginable.

There is definitely much mroe we want to share with you and we hope to have another post within the next few days. We are so thankful for all your prayers, support and encouragement. Please pray for the missionaries and locals here in Kenya. The challenges here are spiritual in nature and your prayers are the most valuable thing you can do for us. We love you and miss you all. We'll be talking to you soon.