UPDATE from Kenya...from Ross Boren

First of all, we want to thank you for your prayers on our behalf. The trip here, though very long and tiring, went extremely well.

Yesterday (Saturday) we rested some from our travels and then Chris, our host and director of First Love Kenya, took us to see the orphanage at Karen. It is nothing short of amazing what God has provided to enable the 22 girls at the orphanage to start life anew. In the Kibera slum, they knew only loss, squalid living conditions and abuse from adults. In their new home, they have come to know newness of life, clean and safe living conditions, and unconditional love. It was exciting to see the new dormitory building going up and to imagine how many more young lives will be changed in the future as a result.

Today we attended the worship service at Mavuno Downtown church in Nairobi. We were made to feel very welcome and enjoyed thoroughly spending some personal time with Pastor Kyama at lunch afterwards.

That's a brief overview of what we have been doing so far. Now for a couple initial thoughts about Africa. One of the first things that struck me here is the redness of the soil almost everywhere one looks. It occurs to me that this is a particularly appropriate color in a place that has been ravaged by centuries of war and tribal bloodshed. Yet other blood has been shed over this continent as well -- the redemptive blood of Christ. While our Savior was not crucified on this continent, countless numbers of His faithful followers have given their lives here so that people throughout Africa might know the transformational love of God.

The other thought involves a man we met in the Amsterdam airport while waiting for our flight to Nairobi. He was a Christian man who had fled Rwanda years ago during the civil war there (think Hotel Rwanda) and ultimately ended up in Los Angeles, teaching at a Christian School. He was heading to Nairobi to attend the funeral of a close friend who had recently passed away. However, he had never been back to Rwanda. When we mentioned this man to Chris, it reminded him of how many African Christians have left their home continent to find better lives elsewhere. He pointed out that Africa's greatest hope lies God's people being willing to stay here and bring Christ's redeeming love to their communities and nations as they apply their spiritual gifts and talents to the brokenness around them.

As I sit here thinking of these things, I am saddened by my own tendency to want peace and safety more than taking the love of Christ to the places where it is needed most, whether in places like Africa or in my own neighborhood back home. Yet, the same loving Father who gave his son to demonstrate His love for Africans continues to patiently call me into a closeness with Him that will make my highest joy to join with Christ in His suffering, in order that I may someday share with Him in His glory.

Tomorrow we will experience the Kibera slum for the first time, as well as see the ministry that is taking place at the Raila School there. Please pray that God will fill us with a fresh vision of Himself, even in the midst of a place that defies imagination as to the sheer scope of its hopelessness."

Ross