Kenya Email Update #9

June 2005. Without a doubt one of the most crazy, enjoyable, stressful, unique and surreal months of my life! In less than 30 days I drove through a herd of Cape buffalo, walked around a filthy slum with a kid I used to baby-sit, ate fresh lobster while staring out at the Indian Ocean, wandered through a strange Kenyan city with my old Xbox playing buddy and listened to a sermon by a guest preacher from a far away country (who also happened to be my dad). Hah! Just reading that sentence makes me laugh. Did it really all happen last month???

Yes. Yes it did. And I survived to tell the tale! Barely…

After a week and a half of crazy, last-minute preparations, June 11th was finally here. The chapel pastors and interns rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes, and drove out to the airport as the Saturday morning sun began to rise. What we met there was a sight that must have chilled the blood of the customs worker – 67 young Americans with bloodshot eyes and confused expressions, staggering off the plane into a country they’d never visited before! If it weren’t for the fact that I knew many of them, I too would have been paralyzed with fear!

A barrage of bleary-eyed greetings and hugs kicked off a trip that would deeply impact many young lives, affecting hundreds more in the process.

Now, there’s no way that I’ll be able to give a detailed account of the entire GCC team experience, so I’ll just give a really broad overview. The Grace team was divided among the five church plants of Nairobi Chapel. Each of the five teams did some similar activities, but had completely unique experiences. For example, all five churches had a slum visit day, but this looked completely different for each team. Our team (Mombasa Road) visited the congregation members of a church in the slums, while other teams helped at slum clinics and showed evangelistic films. You get the idea…

Of course, some of the differences were really unfair. Hehe… The meeting place for Mombasa Road was only a few minutes walking distance from just about everywhere in tightly packed South B and C. The Ngong road team however, had to walk roughly a billion miles each day (give or take a few). At the end of the week, all the members of that team could have easily walked from Grace to I-465 without even flinching! Seriously! They all had these weird, sculpted leg muscles that looked like the mannequins in some sporting goods store…

Each of the GCC team members (kids and adults alike) were hosted individually or in pairs by Chapel’s congregation members, which led to more than a few interesting stories. Some of the kids stayed in gigantic houses with like 30 guard dogs, roses decorating their room and hosts who would tuck them in at night. Other kids stayed in these tiny, run-down apartments that make inner-city Chicago look like Beverly Hills.

I believe the whole experience was life-changing for everyone involved. The Grace team was obviously impacted deeply by the things they saw and experienced. The Chapel staff was totally energized about the many new ministry opportunities offered by the GCC team’s presence. The Chapel congregation was also exposed to things they had never done before (most of our Chapel team had actually never been inside a slum!). The list goes on… I didn’t even mention the way this trip influenced financial supporters, families of team members and people in the communities where we worked all week! This was a huge event in the lives of both Grace Community Church and Nairobi Chapel!

Oh, and where do I even begin to describe all the things I personally felt, heard, experienced, and learned while the GCC team was here? For one, I discovered just how much I’ve changed in the past 6 months! Chris Yonan and David Byers (the only Mombasa Road team members who knew me before I left) were both surprised at how much I’ve grown.

I spent some real quality time talking and laughing with my family too! Lucy was part of the Ngong road team (she probably walks to church now!), and my parents came to discuss partnership issues with the Chapel pastors. I was amazed at how easily we picked up where we left off. As many of you know, my family is absurdly close (though absurdly small by Kenyan standards), so it was easy for us to reconnect and share.

During the second GCC week, the whole team (my family included) went out to Massai Mara for safari and debrief. The debrief was great. The safari was… not quite as great. We saw very few animals (it was off-season according to our driver) and spent our morning safari getting our van pulled out of the mud, imagining what safaris with real animals must be like…

On top of all that, our driver kept trying to make up for the lack of animals! Once we were cruising along, enjoying the view, when all of a sudden he slammed on the brakes (throwing us all over the place), pointed out the left window and nearly screamed “Look! Warthog!!!” We looked, straining our eyes to find this glorious animal. Finally, after almost giving up, I saw it… One of Kenya’s most majestic warthogs, walking along the horizon about 3000 miles away. Of course, at that distance, it could have been a Ravenous Rift Valley Horsebeast and I wouldn’t have known the difference… Good times!

Sadly, the GCC team left a couple days after Massai Mara, just as I was getting used to having them around! The whole experience felt at once like 3 months and 2 days! Does that make any sense? I was so sad to see them go so soon, but so relieved that we could get back to reality again. Our usual day-to-day stress was amplified into 2 weeks of veritable chaos (just imagine hosting, feeding, transporting and watching out for 67 Kenyans for two weeks and you’ll know how we felt)!

While the rest of the Chapel staff was unwinding and getting back to life-as-usual, I was hanging with Chris Yonan, who stayed in Nairobi for an extra week. We had a great time watching movies, eating food, riding matatus… and of course being really stupid (it’s good to know not much has changed between us!). Our trip to the coast was one of the best vacations of my life, but I won’t write about it here. If you want to read my account of our experience (as well as a few updates written about the GCC week), check out my blog (www.barryrod.blogspot.com). The best option if you want information about our adventures would be just to go talk to Chris himself! You’ll find him wandering around Grace daydreaming about Mombasa and the most perfect beach in the world…

Well, that about brings me up to the present. As I write this sentence, I’m at a church planting team retreat. We’re vision casting, planning, and praying at this nice retreat center about an hour outside of Nairobi. In less than three weeks we’ll be moving to our new venue in South C! From that point on, we will be a completely independent congregation, handling every aspect of our church by ourselves. I’m so pumped!!!

I’ll be sure to update you more as things develop. For now, enjoy your blazing hot summer (We’re struggling through bitterly cold 65 degree weather right now! I think I’m turning Kenyan… You should have seen me blowing on my hands and jumping up and down as these Grace guys walked around in T-shirts!).

Anyway, gotta run! We’re meeting to discuss our volunteer raising strategy in 10 minutes! Keep in touch!

Barry

p.s. Thanks for all of you who have sent me pictures! It’s great to see all your smiling faces!