Sunday: August 6, 2006; 1:52 PM CDT

We are having an amazing time here.  Our trip over was fairly non-eventful, just long and kind of tiring.  We went to the Fregerio's Church this morning and the worship was so Spirit-filled.  Their building is brand new and the sanctuary is like an auditorium which seats 3500 people. They had an awesome worship team; 10 singers, bass guitar, pianist (on a grand), synthesizer, drum set, and alto sax player who just improvised all the time, and the main worship leader.  They sang praise music similar to ours. It was especially beautiful when they sang in Kiswahili, it was very moving as they worshiped Bwana and Yesu (God the Father and Jesus).  The speaker was a man from North Carolina, a quadriplegic who is here with a group that has a wheelchair ministry which was started by Joni Erickson Tada, who is also a quadriplegic and a well known speaker and writer.  They are distributing chairs and walkers to the disabled in Nairobi and sharing the gospel with them.  It was so amazing being there.

Nairobi is a very international, modern city.  The drivers are nuts!!!  This driving on the left is really freaky.  Lorna and I are both very glad that Fred's behind the wheel and not one of us.  We went to an open market today and they had all kinds of hand-crafted items, some beautifully made.  Fred talked me into really trying to haggle, and I had a blast!   What a hoot it was to talk with the vendors and try to bargain with them.  They had great senses of humor and joked about how I was killing them with the offers I was making.  We spent three hours there and we came out with about five things.   During the negotiations one man I was haggling with started at thousands of shillings above what it was worth, and promptly came down two thousand shillings, at which point this woman who was with him looked at me and said, "Whoosh, did you see that?   He came down with that price like a monkey down a tree!  Now you have to climb up!"  I was laughing so hard I had to buy something from them.

We are enjoying all the wide variety of fresh fruits.  The night we got in we had the freshest pineapple I've ever experienced and this morning for breakfast we had mango and finger bananas.  Lorna was kind of funny at dinner, she ordered a hamburger and fries (okay, the truth is, we met some of the Joni and friends team at an American restaurant).  Even though Lorna ordered a hamburger, she thinks it tasted a little goaty (oh, that's baa-aaa-aaad)!!!  Luckily, I traded her my meat and cheese quesadillas.  How's that for interesting Kenyan food??  Don't worry, the Fregerios assure us it'll be strictly authentic Kenyn from here on in.

We're still getting used to the 8 hour time change and we love you and miss you all.

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The Marches in Kenya: Calendar Index