One week in the bag...

Hello friends. First I must apologize for no pictures...the Internet here is extremely slow and has a hard time uploading pictures. We have been in Kenya now for a week. I'd like to leave you with a few of the highlights from our time thus far.

*Making friends: We have had the opportunity to get to know a handful of couples who go to the seminary near where we are staying. We have shared several late evening teas as we get to know each other and hear the others dreams. This has been a joy, especially as we are missing our close friends from back home that we usually do this sort of thing with.

*Time to read, reflect, and be with the Lord. Life in Kenya is much slower paced than any of our journey thus far. We have tried to make the most of this by taking time to sit with each other and talk about what's on our mind, dream dreams together, read, and be with the Lord.

*Connections with Kenyans. The people here are so full of life. Huge smiles, eagerness to talk with us and share stories, and wanting us to see what they are involved in.

Well, this is how our time has been spent. Tomorrow we go for two days to an orphanage for school aged children. We are looking forward to this.

Not Quite Ready to Look Back and Laugh

A week in Italy has come and gone. Italy was amazing... Rome, Florence, and Cinque Terre. Of the three I (Cole) most enjoyed Cinque Terre - mostly for its "adventure" aspect. Rome and Florence were tourism overload - though I leave those places feeling more cultured. Our time in Cinque Terre was filled with explorations of the Mediterranean coast. Somewhere around 16km of ground covered trekking through the rocky hills as we made our way through all five of the Cinque Terre (= 5 villages). Our arrival in the final village awarded us with a dip in the cool Mediterranean Sea.

Some thoughts and reflections on Italy:
* To get coffee in Italy, you go to a Bar, where a)you're charged extra if you sit at a table and, b) it's not normal to order coffee with any sort of cream except in the morning (and by coffee, I mean straight expresso).

* Streets in Italy are primarily one-way. Not only this, it's common for them to be one-way in a certain direction and then for a few blocks one-way in the other direction. We experienced this first hand as we rented a scooter for a day in Rome.

* In Italy, dinner is best enjoyed starting at 8:30 or so, and then with at least 4 courses (and a drink to go with each course)

Now, here is a recounting of the "wonderful" happenings of our final hours in Italy. We were driving down from Cinque Terre and pulling into the Rome area (about a 5 hour drive) in search of the hotel we had booked for a few hours of rest before catching an early morning flight to Kenya. Unable to find our hotel, and getting lost in the maze of one-way streets, we stumble across a Sheriden. I pull in to ask the valet for some guidance. He says we are close, hands me a local street map and traces the path that leads to the hotel. As we pull out of the Sheriden and attempt to turn the direction that the valet had drawn for us, on the first street we were looking for, we are hit hard by the wonder of the Italian one-way streets. After about 30 minutes of driving in circles, the tension in the car begins to rise. We're tired. Hungry. Wanting desperately to find our hotel (We should have been there by 6:30, and it is now approaching 9pm). My eyes drift to the gas gauge. Empty. The on board computer tells me 0km until empty. Crap. My mood shifts to frantic as I desperately search for a gas station. I find one. The station is closed except for a self-service machine. The machine takes only European credit cards and bank notes. All I had was 1 and 2 Euro coins. No luck. The frantic search continues - "closed", "closed", "closed". Then at last a station that has MC and Visa logos on its card reader. I insert my card and wait. Nothing happens. I try pumping gas. Nothing. I try pressing the enter button, Nothing. The franticness returns, my Mastercard is still in the machine. "Cancel", "Cancel", "Cancel", "Cancel". Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing. No hotel. No dinner. No gas. No credit card. Crap. To spare you the rest of the drama, we ended up back at the same blessed Sheriden (not the hotel we had booked), got our hands on some cash, called to put a hold on our now lost credit card, booked ourself a room, found a gas station to fill up with some heavenly fuel, and enjoyed a few short hours of sleep at the Sheriden. Someday it will all be very very funny...


P.S. While walking around Rome, there were a million pigeons flying over our heads one day. About 2 minutes after Tina said "I hate when birds fly overhead! They better not poop on me!"... guess what happened. Poop all over her shoulder! I thought it was hilarious... until about 5 minutes later, I got hit too. It's like they were aiming for us!

P.P.S. We are now safely in Kenya and loving it. More to come about our time here. But Tina was welcomed to the country by getting peed on by a dog.

P.P.P.S. This computer is having trouble uploading photos, so that is all you get for now!

Harvest Conference on a shoestring

We have been with the Harvest Evangelism Conference now for 4 days. It is so exciting to be with other believers from all over the world, praying for our nations and learning what it looks like to be so intimate with God that He begins to give you strategy and vision. The Lord has been speaking to our hearts in many ways, there is much we hope to bring home from this time. Instead of trying to cover all we have experienced we would like to share one encounter with you.

The second day of the conference was spent in jail. Our whole group visited Christ the Only Hope Prison in La Plata. This is a prison that has become entirely sold out for the Lord... the inmates are all Christians, and so are the guards. There has been an incredible revival in the prison system of Argentina, and we were told that over 9000 prisoners in the region of La Plata are now believers! In fact, all of the security guards that have been watching over us during this conference are ex-prisoners, turned into sold-out men for God! (who better to know if people are trying to steal from us, huh?) It has been a blessing to have them minister to us and pray for us.


Our trip to the prison was not to bring Jesus to the inmates, as most Christian trips to prisons are, but to allow them to show us how they worship in the prison. We had church with them. Throughout the day, the one thing that I (Tina) was so aware of was the birds. I know that sounds silly, but as we stood in the courtyard of the jail, I was so tuned in to the birds flying over us. There were some times when worship was so powerful and I would all of a sudden notice how these huge flocks of birds would soar beautifully overhead and land right on top of the prison. At other times, they would all soar together off the roof and land somewhere else, but it was as if they were choosing to stay close to the prison and be a part of the worship. It was, to me, such a cool symbol of FREEDOM. These birds had the freedom to go where they wanted and they flew so beautifully and gracefully. As I looked around at the faces of the prisoners, and as they prayed for me and blessed me, I sensed the same freedom in them. They had found a freedom in Christ that was beyond explanation! I read something yesterday that reminded me of these amazing prisoners: God does not see us as we see ourselves, He sees us as so much more. While we look at ourselves and see our past failures, He looks at us and sees our future victories. These men did not live in the guilt of their former lives, but were truly set free and were understanding the purposes for which they were created. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom... and the Spirit was in Christ the Only Hope Prison!

(All of the pictures in this post are from the prison)

P.S. Thank you to all who have been praying for my health. I am feeling much better today!