God's flight delay?

Wednesday April 4, 2012

Well we started the day off early as we had to get to the airport by 6:40am for our 7:40am flight so we thought.   George ran in to the house at 5:50 am much to our surprise as we don't see him until later in the morning usually and we had said our goodbyes yesterday.   “You have to sign the guest book he says.”  I said you could have called and he said no no I did try but Rashid had your phone for charging and I didn't know where the book was so Rashid picked me up and here we are.   We signed the guest book and off to the airport we went.  That shows George’s dedication.  

It was sad to leave Rashid, he helped us so much during this trip.   He was still talking about the orphanage that we visited yesterday and how we could improve upon it slightly but that it was such a great concept.  He was still so excited.  I will take Alan today he says.  It was so great to see his passion for this idea, even though he lives there and grew up there so this is not new to him.  

Then he helped us off with our only 2 bags and we were off to the airport. (We came with 6 bags so we are leaving very light.) We waited in line at Kenya Airways and then the guy sends us down to another line for Nairobi flights (not labeled of course).  After about 10  minutes, a lady to waltz out every so slowly, slowly to tell us that we booked online and they booked us on a flight that did not exist and that our flight was really leaving at 9:40am not 7:40am.  Though I was frustrated, as we got up early for this, I asked politely why they did not inform us of that prior as I booked long ago and they had an email address that was checked regularly.  She never did answer me that, but instead stamped us for the Safari Longue where we got breakfast - free drinks and Sue got coffee for the first time all trip and most importantly, air conditioning!

It was definitely a God delay.  Sue and I spent the time cull our notes of all our “to do’s” when we get home.  It is at least 4 pages if not more.  Then we had a few extra minutes as they indicated the flight would be delayed by another 30 minutes so we were brainstorming ideas for the name of the orphanage.  After very little discussion, "New Heart Family - Kenya" came to life.  It is perfect as the orphanage we are looking at is for adoptions but we will have space for the children to grow as well in a foster family situation.  The orphanage we went to Good Life in Mtwapa was perfect - mom and aunt with 12 kids all different ages - only 2 babies at the most.  The older ones help clean and with the younger ones and it feels totally like a family, not an institution.  And we want these kids, the staff and the whole community surrounding to have a New Heart with God.  It is perfect.  We have ideas for the logo and we want to sell T-shirts and some other things to raise money.  Not sure how to go about doing that, but that’s one of things on the to do list. 

We also came up with the idea of Tumaini (Hope in Swahili) Tuesdays.  To pray for the nation of Kenya, the missionaries, the schools, the communities, and also for direction on what to do, how to do it, and also to take some of the “to do’s” and start working on them together.   Fox River people focusing on Fox River schools and communities and day care and people coming working on whatever pulls them.  We are starting this on April 24 if you’re interested in coming or helping in anyway, inbox me and I will send you my address or a list of needs.   It was amazing how God pulled that all together in our “wasted” time of the airline mistakes. 

God wasn’t finished amazing us yet.   The flight on the way to Nairobi, they sat us on the window side – though she asked us and we requested aisle.  Then the man in the row with us asked for a window seat.  He asked if it was ok to change and we said certainly.  That started us talking.  One of things we have been thinking and praying about is shipping baby items and binders and other administrative type things over here from the States.  We have been wanting to talk with Chris Moore, a missionary from Texas here in Mombasa, who was working on shipping stuff from Texas and we hadn't gotten a chance to call.  So this guy asks what we were doing here and we told him and then Sue asked him what he did and he said shipping.  We told him about the idea we had about shipping and he indicated he could do it for half off so he could help Kenyans as much as we were helping Kenyans.  He indicated the problem people have is that they ship over and then hope for the best when things get here.  He said the proper procedure is to get permission to ship first from some minister and then he will instruct on how to go about doing that in writing and then you ship and there is no problems as long as his writings have been followed.  Everything has to be done up front not once it arrives. We are very hopeful and optimistic that this will help us.  He was scheduled for the 9:40 flight so if we would have gotten on an earlier flight we would have never met him. 

God was really at work on this flight delay.  First we got some many of our ideas together.  Then He gave us a little extra time to get the New Heart Family together which will help so much in fund raising and then we got to sit by someone who would not have been on an earlier flight and had exactly what we needed to know.   God is good even in flight delays.  And we got free food, AIR CONDITIONING, and drinks.   Amazing.  In addition, it had rained really, really hard in Nairobi all morning anyway so we wouldn't have gotten too much accomplished.  

We arrived in Nairobi finally at 11ish with our bags to find Rose and Paul waiting for us.  Rose is awesome.  She’s from the US living in Iowa right now doing work with kids with behavior analyst for autism and wants to bring that work here.  She is moving to Mombasa in August.  That is very exciting and scary too, lots of decisions to make - what kind of work to do, who to work with, etc. 

Traffic was bad and we had a meeting with a Lutheran missionary Sheuan and Krista Trump at noon which we were running late for.  We had to head to the hotel first to get the address and then we headed up to their home which is in Karen, which is south of Nairobi I believe.  We finally arrived at 2:10pm.  The phone number I wrote down was wrong and so I couldn’t even call.   They were very gracious and invited us in anyway.  

It was a beautiful estate.  Very, very nice.  They made us lunch and it was so, so good.  We so enjoyed it.  They and their small, small children were great.  We had  great conversations with on what they are doing in Kenya and Tanzinia and what we are working on in Mombasa.   This is a connection we are hoping to make to facilitate a Lutheran Church in Franklin, Wisconsin, Risen Savior Lutheran to work on sponsoring a school on South Coast called Tumaini.  So we are praying this connection works out to help the kids of that community.    We will meet with them again on June 15 and hope he might be able to come and view the property in June also but not sure.  

Then we headed to the baby elephant orphanage that is in Nairobi but that feeding time was over so we made plans to come back tomorrow.  So I guess the theme of the trip is orphanages of all sorts!

With all the driving, being stuck in traffic for hours and hours at a time, we made the most of it.  We were making lists of US companies that are advertising/selling in Kenya so we can hit them up for donations in the future.  Anyone know of any ways to break into these companies?    Johnson and Johnson, Shell, Hershey, Cadberry, Fed Ex, Kenya Airways/Delta, Avis, Subaru, Audi, Toyota, Citibank, Samsung, LG, Black and Decker, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Barclays, Nestle, Goodyear, Dunlap Tires, CAT – catipillar Mantroc, and Coca-Cola.

Then we thought we could maybe visit with some missionaries Joel and Maryann Weaver here in Nairobi.  They had prayer/ bible study at their church so we thought it would be great to walk there - will after a huge hill and thousands of puddles, broken glass, numerous sidewalk closures which lead you to the 2 lane street in rush hour, near misses with cars, etc in my flip flops we arrived 40 minutes late to prayer group.  They were in their little groups and we tried to be as quiet as possible as we came in.  It was great to see them again and reconnect for a minute.  Then their son Paul gave us a ride to the hotel.   They have run various Christian camps for youth in the Nairobi area and are looking for property to continue that work.  

We are staying at the Grace House which is nice enough and now it is off to bed.  Very tired - long, long day.