Where do I begin?

So much has happened in the last month, I’m not sure where to begin. Our trip to Nairobi has left my head spinning. We left home at 6 a.m. on a Wednesday and spent most of the day bouncing on the road to Loki, the Kenya/Sudan border town. There were 11 of us in the LandCruiser. I didn’t even think it was possible to fit that many people in an automobile. After a milkshake and a shower, a couple of the teammates and I took off in Steve’s LandRover to drive through the night. Not going to lie—driving with Steve is pretty sweet. This man knows what’s up. Anyway, it turned into a dense theology lesson for me, which was superb. Steve and I feasted on some Greg Bahsen; Kim and Martin took the opportunity for some shuteye. Not everyone shares our love for theology.

It was a little crazy, to start out in Lopit one day, where it’s in the high 90s and humid, then pull into Loki, where it’s more like a desert, complete with the obnoxious, terrible desert wind and sand, then cruise through the night through more of a desert, then suddenly open the window at a police stop in the mountains and realize it’s frigid outside. And suddenly, it’s late Thursday night and we’re in Nairobi , an entirely different world than what I’m used to.

We went to a grocery store that first night while we were waiting for Steve’s family’s plane to land. (Samaritan’s Purse had room on a Loki-Nairobi flight that day and took the wives and children. Thank you, SP. Thank you, Franklin Graham.) I was so overwhelmed when I walked through isle after isle of food and stuff. This isn’t even an American supermarket, but, wow, when you come from a place where there is nothing but… well, nothing… it’s quite intense. My head was spinning. And that’s how it went the entire time we were there. I felt like my cultures were colliding again. A prime example: At one point, I found myself with a huge Turkana basket full of laundry on my head, talking to my team leader on my cell phone. WEIRD. We definitely don’t have cell phones in the bush. And, in a way, I’m really glad. J

Anyway, Nairobi was a nice break. It was nice to realize, first, how great modern conveniences can be. But, also, moreover, it was nice to realize how much I don’t need that stuff. The folks at Diguna wanted to know all about the bush and how things were going, and they’d often say how hard it must be, to live out there, to minister out there. But I’ve realized that I’m comfortable in most ways—the electricity thing, the plumbing thing, the lack-of-supplies thing, it doesn’t really seem like much of a factor anymore. And I realized the people are becoming our friends, our community. And I dig that.