The plan was to meet Pastor Garrishon in downtown Nairobi for a luncheon meeting. Timo is our driver and he came to pick us up. We traveled a short distance into town and the ministry planning meeting began. As we sat there, men and women, Pastor Garrishon had invited, began to come. We met Pastor Makounge, Priscilla (the Pipeline church secretary), Benjamin (the man responsible for our security during the day's travel), Mary and Priscilla from Compassion Children's Orphanage and a couple others. While Paul coordinated our itinerary with the men, Priscilla taught me some Swahili. Bless her heart she was so patient with me as I wrote out my phonetical spellings and referred to my notes one hundred times over. I knew I would like Priscilla the moment I met her. Why? She showed up wearing PINK !!! Pink, thank you Lord, something familiar from back home. :)
After Paul and the other pastors finished sketching out our plans, we went with Pastor Garrishon to visit the place he grew up. The pictures I have posted are from that area. As we walked along, we prayed for the people that asked for prayer. We fed the children that followed us from a potato vendor. And visited a one room school house for young children. Benjamin, the man in charge of our security would say to me, "Come now. We musn't stay too long. We must be out by dark." But... prayer was all I had to give. The needs were so great. As I walked, I asked the Lord that for every man, woman and child I locked eyes with, smiled at, or touched that they would somehow experience the presence and love of the Lord. It sounds so lofty, but I prayed that, as a carrier of Jesus, we changed the atmosphere in that place.
On the drive home, I was told that our visit was most likely the African children's first time to see white kids. I suppose that explains why they followed us for miles, laughing and giggling as they tried to get Micah to play their games and speak Swahili. Note: Ministers have been into that area but Paul was told that no one had ever taken their family in. Leave it to the Finch family to find an ADVENTURE.
Thank you for coming along in this adventure and blessings to you, Danielle
