Leaving For Kapsowar Tomorrow!

The day isn't over yet, but I was packing for tomorrow when this huge flying something with really long legs came into my room so I decided now would be a good time to leave and come give an update instead.

This morning I went to AIC Church Ngong Road. AIC stands for African Inland Church. From the name it is easy to guess that they are associated with African Inland Mission. The church was made up mostly of African nationals and a few westerners. The service was held in English which was nice for me. We had almost an hour of singing, announcements and prayer and then an hour of a sermon and communion. During the beginning of the service they ask for who is visiting and we are all asked to stand and announce to the church who we are, where we come from, etc. Afterwards all of the newcomers have to go outside to the front of the church and form a type of receiving line like you would see at a wedding and shake everyone's hand as they come out the door. In Africa whenever you come into a room you must stop and shake everyone's hand, a simple hello in passing is not enough. Needless to say, I felt VERY welcome.

I came back from church and enjoyed lunch at the Mayfield Guest House. We had fried chicken today. They don't have KFC around here so this fried chicken was made from scratch...pretty impressive. I sat with two people that I have been spending some time with here and want to tell you a little bit about. This guest house is just a melting pot of people doing all sorts of work for the Lord with some truly amazing stories.

The lady that I sat with is from Oregon and she now lives in Uganda. She came to Africa in 1992. She is a trained veterinarian which has opened up some amazing ministry opportunities. In Africa many of the tribal people's most prized possessions are their animals. Someone that can help them keep their animals healthy and alive is an invaluable resource. This woman started out in Uganda working with a very peaceful, timid tribe. She works to use both modern medicine and adapts tribal medicine to treat the animals. This builds trust between her and the people as she learns from them and they learn from her. This tribe is enemies with a neighboring very violent tribe. The violent tribe often comes and raids their camps killing people and steeling their animals. Over the years as the peaceful tribe has come to know Christ they have begun to pray for their enemies and decided that they wanted to minister to them. This vet also felt the same call on her heart. She started on the boarder of the tribal lands to offer to help with their animals. Soon the word spread and they were inviting her, begging her to come in further to their homes and treat their animals. This is a tribe that has run missionaries off in the past and killed some of them. Trusting the Lord and praying through everything she decided to go. They have accepted her and this violent tribe has taken to personally protecting her. As she works she continues to share the Lord with them. She is the only westerner working with these people and she has now trained several of the tribal people to also do vet work. As the tribal people have come to trust her and know the Lord many have decided that they want to live in peace instead of violence. They have gone to their neighboring tribes and have asked for forgiveness and now 11,000 people from both tribes are living together in the "no man's land" between the two villages peacefully. What an incredible story. This woman, only trained to be a veterinarian never dreamed that she would be conducting peace talks halfway around the world.

The second person I want to tell you about is an older gentleman (probably in his mid-70's) from the US who has the desire to start a sustainable hospital system in Sudan. He is a dental technician by training, but many years ago felt God calling him to pursue this project. They are in the process of building the hospital in Sudan now and he is here to learn from other hospitals how to build an effective system. When he heard that I will be going to Kapsowar he was very excited because that is one of the places he wants to visit and learn from. He contacted the missionary leaders of the hospital and has arranged to fly up there with me tomorrow. It is always nicer to have someone else to go with, I am glad to have him along. I have been concerned that this smaller domestic flight might give me trouble with the amount of luggage I am going to be taking, but now there will be two people to spread it among which should greatly relieve any of the problems. This man is from one of the places that I am ranking for residency. He says that if I end up matching there he and his family (wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren) are going to adopt me...nice to already have family :-)

I will be leaving at 6am to catch my flight to Kapsowar. I am excited to get there and also a little intimidated as I know that I have so much to learn. Many of the disease I will encounter will be new to me. I pray that I will be a fast learner and be helpful. Thanks for all of the payers for my stomach, so far so good which is a miracle in and of itself.

I am not sure how much access to internet I will have once in Kapsowar. I will try to update as often as possible, but I am not sure that I will be able to get to a computer daily. Thank you for all of your encouragement and prayers.