Day 26

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Rain

I woke up to the sound of heavy rain. I thought of my clothes, but rolled back over. They will dry eventually. I got dressed and got out my raincoat and headed to church. It is just about a 15 minute walk. Lots of other people were headed to churches all around the area.

Church

I went to the Nairobi Baptist Church again for the 8:30 service. The singing was good and I knew a couple of the songs. The others were good and I tried hard on the Swahili songs to keep up. The sermon I head was fantastic. The wife of the man who preached last time preached this time. She is much better. I took a ton of notes.

It was as if God was speaking just to me. I think all the school, all of the reading, all of the listening just coalesced in the sermon event and I got clear in my head a few ideas. I got a whole sermon series for the fall and felt really energized when I left church.

The Sunday Paper

I bought the Sunday paper and came to Flora and sat outside and read the whole thing. Then I did the Sudoku. I actually finished it. Then I decided that for Father’s day I would go to the movie. The family had seen “The Incredible Hulk,” so I picked that same movie.

I got confirmation that the theater I had seen in downtown was the one advertised in the paper, so with 45 minutes to spare I set off for the movie. It was peaceful and quiet as I walked through town. My route took me right next to Parliament and then the main conference center, then past the basilica, and then finally into downtown.

I got to the theater and bought my ticket (assigned seating), got popcorn and a diet coke all for about $6.00. The theater was very nice, big screen, steep seats, great sound, and the film was not scratched. I loved it. After the show I came back to Flora.

Calendar

I went to work on adding the scriptural text into each day of the calendar. I got through two months in about 2 hours. So that gives me a rough guess of how long that step of the process will take. After I get that completed I will take the 365 readings from Nouwen and link them to each day of the calendar. That will be a huge typing job and a huge undertaking. When I finish that I will start trying to add a photograph to each day. Then I will have a series of questions that amplify or unpack the day. Sometimes I look at it and shut down for feeling overwhelmed. All I can do is the next part I tell myself and try to push on.

My bible program stopped working again, and without it the project is sunk. I’m trying not to think about that while I take a break and write this report. Hopefully I can figure out what is wrong this time and get it back up and working.

Unexpected Dinner

I went to dinner expecting another quiet meal. Then I saw a face that made me think a conversation might develop, but they went and sat at the opposite end of the room. I had passed up sitting with others, thinking we were going to sit together, and when that didn’t happen it felt too awkward to get up and move tables. So I sat alone and ate. I was a little sad. No, I was really sad.

Then a lady came and sat at my table. We started to talk. She is from Western Kenya and near the area I had traveled. We had a great conversation. She was so interested in what I had been learning and my impressions of her area. She couldn’t believe I had a son in college.

About that time one of her friends came an joined us. She is from Zambia and just moved to Nairobi on Monday and is looking for a home. She is on a three year assignment working with NGO’s in trying to help them increase their capacity and especially to help them help women. She was so bright and helpful. She ran a radio and communications division where she came from and is now the director of communications for a large African consulting firm. She was in charge of an AIDS awareness program that sounded really interesting

What they found is that their AIDS education materials were not getting read. There is not universal literary so they tried to think of other ways of getting the information out to people. Public service announcements on the radio get tuned out, so they decided to co-op radio soap operas. Yes, that is what they have hear. Similar to the states, but on the radio.

They hired writers to help write characters and situations into the regular scripts and had them deal accurately with the information. Over time they were able to get lots of good information to lots of people. Very impressive. I was so encouraged by the end of the meal.

Ethiopia Team

I wrote a long report to the team that will be meeting me in Ethiopia. I’m so excited about the trip and think what I am learning is going to set the stage for a number of strategic initiatives in Ethiopia that I believe will bear great fruit for the gospel.

Father’s Day

I called my Dad to wish him a “happy father’s day,” but they were out. I left a message, but since I know he reads this frequently, then I will say it again here, “Happy Father’s Day!”