On to Nairobi...

I always try to ask God to use my flight time for something meaningful!  Today I had just flown into Addis from Tel Aviv and now had to fly the rest of the way into Nairobi, Kenya.

My seat mate on the aisle was a Muslim businessman and the one in the middle seat was a scientist who dates trees and plants back thousands of years!

The Scientist noticed my Bible and said you must be a Christian, and I said well, sort of! I said most people think of Christianity as a religion but I’m not really interested in religion. I think I shocked him, so I think he tried to shock me right back and said boldly,  I’m Orthodox - in such a strong way that I think he thought, that ends the discussion!

But I said that’s wonderful, tell me about it. So he started to, but said I want to know more of what you mean by relationship with Jesus… We had a great discussion and at the end, I thought we would just go back to doing our own thing!

But our Muslim friend wanted in on this one!  He directed some questions to the Scientist with constant arguing!  After awhile, they asked what I thought. I said I love an honest discussion, but if you have already made up your mind then the discussion is over.  I was directing these thoughts to him and he stopped everything and just looked at me like I had shot him in the forehead!  

The Scientist switched from being institutionally focused, to what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus!  My uppers almost fell out!  I was just praying up a storm, that God might open up both of their hearts to Himself and what that means! 

After 20 minutes of intense conversation with increasing volume, they asked me again, “what do you think?!"  I gave them a couple of verses like I Samuel 16:7 and a little Pascal, like the God-sized vacuum in each of our hearts, then, Matt. 22:36-40.

I kept watching to see when they had had enough, but they were leaning forward in their seats, nodding their heads and talking about the Person and life of Jesus Christ, and how that model leads all of us to Truth and gets us home!!  It finished just before we landed 2 1/2 hours later! 

There was the sweetest spirit over the last hour of our time!!  And, Joy, like we had just scored a goal together!  Our Muslim friend said, this is what the World needs to know, then we could solve all the problems!  We all shook hands a couple of times and the Scientist wouldn’t leave the plane until we had exchanged e-mails.

We all agreed, there is more to know and more work to do- and we will be responsible to God at the last Judgement, for how faithful we are to getting it done!!  II Cor. 5:10/ Rev. 20:12-15

It was a fun flight, and I think we hooked in a few rows around us who wanted to hear and see where this thing was going…

We soon landed in Nairobi, and on my way to Enos’s house we picked up Sierra and decided to celebrate with a pizza (especially since they were two for one!)!

Everybody is excited about the week ahead- two days here with schools, then flying on Friday to Kisumu, so we can be a part of the Bukura School that we support with their students, faculty and staff of about 1000!

We are not sure we are going to be able to keep feeding the kids there but the staff reminds us every time we visit- “For many of these kids, the food they get from the lunch program is a literally a matter of life and death!”