Day 9, Thursday 6-25

I didn’t sleep so well last night, I was FREEZING! Who knew it would be so cold when we’re so close to the equator….
Skipped breakfast this morning. Everyone packed their bags (the guys suggested that all the girls share a bag because they’re all taking their own. Nuh-uh…) and we all went for a drive!
We stopped at the equator and took some pictures of the team and our very fancy, hand-made “equator” sign that had all sorts of crazy arrows pointing in god knows what direction. It was cool.
We stopped again in some city (I think kisumu? I don’t know.) to have lunch at the Imperial (which is a “guest house”…) had samosas and coke. Kept driving… many long hours….
Eventually we got close enough to the town that we could go shopping for food for the next few days. I guess we’ll be essentially in the middle of nowhere, so food shopping is a good thing. Also got to make a quick stop at the internet café and sent some e-mails. Sent my mom some prayer requests, so I really hope the e-mail went through.
Anyway, back to the van: It’s really not so much fun to carry a 3-4 gallon water jug on your lap, with 2 pieced of luggage at your feet, people on either side of you, and going on a VERY bumpy road. I should also mention that whoever’s luggage was in the trunk of the van (because I’m usually placed in the farthest back seat of the van) kept hitting me in the head every time we hit a big enough pothole. Poor Jan had the pleasure of pushing the luggage away from my head every ten or 15 minutes, until we decided that it was easier to keep that piece of luggage at our feet. Wow, getting to Kisi has been quite the adventure!
After a bit more driving, I started to feel the atmosphere tense up. This is the kind of spiritual warfare that I’ve been expecting to see on this trip. I could tell we were getting closer to Kisi (the witchcraft town) because my breathing got a little more labored, I became acutely aware of my surroundings, and my spiritual concentration was at an all time high. The spiritual attacks kept coming, and God kept protecting me (and the team) from them. I just did my job- prayed heavily to God; for his protection, for his will to be done in Kisi, for his will to be done in our team, for the people of Kisi (that their hearts would be softened and opened), for the messages that we were bringing, for our team to be careful about what we do and say (so that anything noticed by the people in Kisi would reflect God and not our own downfalls) and for the health and safety of the team.
FAST FORWARD>>>>>>> (we’ve arrived!)
We’re staying at some couple’s house. We have two rooms inside this compound style house. The girls have one room, and the guys have another. It was funny, the guys couldn’t fit all the tentcots in the room unless they left the door open. The other alternative was to make Jim sleep outside (we seriously considered it) but, in Brad’s words, “I’m not having you sleep outside”. I guess sleeping in a tentcot outside is entirely different than sleeping in a tentcot in a room with the door and window open all the time. My teammates amuse me…
So, the guys left early for the crusade down the street, save for Mike who opted to escort us pretty ladies when we were finished setting up our room. The cruisade had already started by the time we arrived. There was a (very rickety) stage that was built for us to use, and Webb was on it singing and dancing with the rest of the dancers, and blowing on his whistle. Whistles seem to be a hot commodity around here. Jan, Sharon, and I had to sit close to the stage so that the locals would stop paying attention to the mzungu’s and start paying attention to the lesson.
Speaking of the lesson, I should tell you- Brad gave the most incredible testimony. It was a great way to kick off the crusade, and it gave me a lot of insight to his character, and I have a much greater respect for him now than I did at the beginning of the trip. I personally thought it was a GREAT intro to Jesus. Jim followed after Brad and gave a truly profound teaching, covering some difficult issues of being a new Christian. I felt truly blessed that I had the opportunity to see the faces of the people as Jim was onstage talking. When I looked into their eyes I saw many things. The kids were so curious and happy, some were scared. When I looked at the adults, I saw some that were so happy! Some of the people were listening quite intently to the lesson that Jim was teaching. Yet, as I looked around the crowd, I saw some people that were filled with so much hate, anger, and coldness. I really feel that God is going to do something amazing here in this little town. Oh, and another personal victory- tonight is the first time I’ve been in front of the stage to help pray for people. Not many people were brave enough to come up to pray, but that’s beside the point.
I got to play with the kids for a little bit, but was rushed to the van because it was getting dark outside. I guess when the sun goes down, the kids start to “misbehave”… that’s when the hair gets pulled, the clothes get ripped, the glue get’s passed around…. We (as in Brad and Jan and mark and I) waited for the rest of our team to make it to the Van, we played with the kids through the windows. They kept asking us (over and over) what our names were. Mark and Sharon used our “van time” to inform me that some guy named Chris was “actively and aggressively” looking for the “beautiful mzungu girl” (boy, please…) that was with them. Mom, you’ll be very happy to know that I didn’t get married tonight. And the jokes start flying…
Had a wonderful dinner prepared for us tonight by whoever owns the church in Kisi. We had Chapati, rice, been, “soup”, ugali, and chai. Only half the team decided to go down to dinner, and they totally missed out! It was great to get to know the pastors and everyone without the hassle of distractions. Pastor Webb tried tobasco sauce for the first time. He kept telling us about how “Africans love spicy” and kept shaking more and more tobasco sauce on his plate. We kept trying to tell him to stop shaking the tobasco sauce, and that it was hotter than most of the stuff that they had in Kenya, and he just didn’t listen! When he finally took a bite of his food (with WAY too much tobasco sauce in it) he burnt his tongue and actually started crying!!!!!! It was so funny!
Sharon braided my hair tonight so that it will be curly tomorrow and I won’t have to do much to it. We had plans tonight to talk through some stuff that’s been bugging me, that way I won’t be so distracted for the rest of the trip. Couldn’t get any kind of alone time to just have her and me talk without everyone else around, so I wrote her a letter and left it in her cot. Hopefully she can help me through this, or the next week or so is going to be pretty rough till I can figure this out on my own.
That’s pretty much all. I felt so bad because I was being a little loud going to bed tonight, I got a bit hyper-tired and giggly. Wow, I was trying to avoid that happening on this trip!