Friday

When we were getting ready for takeoff at LAX a flight crew member accidently deployed the emergency escape slide, I’m sure they had a lot of explaining to do later.  That led to a 4 hour delay so I got to spend several hours in Amsterdam airport waiting for the next flight to Nairobi as I missed my connection.  I bought a touristy t-shirt at the airport and was able to take a shower so I was a little refreshed.  I arrived early morning on Tuesday and had a full day of meetings.

In the last 3 days I’ve, visited 6 prisons, spoken to several churches around Kenya and reconnected with many friends. A highlight for me was meeting with some young men (teenagers) in a youth correctional training center in Nairobi.  They are arrested for a variety of crimes and have a 4 month stay at YCTC in an effort to rehabilitate them. Unfortunately many of them end up in prison later.  There is a group of brave souls that are in the first step study.  Since their stay is short, they are meeting 3 times a week and so they can complete the full step study before they are released. They are just starting to write their inventory so we spent a lot of time talking about that. It was awesome to see the hope that they have of having a different future. I was asked to encourage and inspire them, I think I got the blessing because they certainly encouraged and inspired me.

Today (Friday) I have no meetings but am getting caught up on a few logistic things for my remaining time on this trip and finally have some time to post a blog.

Pray for the meetings this weekend. I’m attending a step study graduation tomorrow morning at Athi River prison where I get the honor of presenting each participant with a certificate of completion of a step study.  It’s the second group to complete step studies at this prison.  I’m meeting with the CR group at Deliverance Church Kitengela in the afternoon then attending their church on Sunday.  Please pray for good rest for me, arriving in the morning on Tuesday instead of Monday evening has really been hard on my sleep cycle.