As I boarded the plane to start our adventure to Kenya, it was my only hope our plane would perform better than my nose diving 401-K. The flights to Chicago and London were pretty uneventful, although about ¾ of the way across the Atlantic, I started feeling in my legs thre reason why people pay so much more for Business class.
Our flight from Heathrow to Nairobi was a lot less crowded, which I was glad as it was going to be another eight hours in the air. Of all the flying I have done in my life, I have to say this was the most incredible “look out the window” experience. It was truly amazing as we crept across the top of Africa across the Saharan and Libyan Deserts. For three hours, from horizon to horizon, nothing but sand and rock -- blue, brown and blue and nothing else. The enormity of the Saharan is mind blowing. The barren desert skin is sliced open occasionally by a steppe plateau, but for the most part, it is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles of sand.
From 36,000 feet, I could see great lines of sand dunes crawling across the desert floor like snakes looking for rocks to escape the brutal heat. Then out of nowhere appeared a distant pattern of honeycombs and circles carved in the sand. As we flew closer, I could see it was some sort of man-made oasis carved out of absolutely nowhere. Deep drilled wells and irrigation were obviously the source of life for this community. What it was I have no idea. It left me with a great curiosity to understand why anything would be built in the middle of the world’s largest flying pan.
As darkness set in, we proceeded to sail over the Darfur Mountains and down the Great Rift Valley, the Nile River out of site beneath us, with locations like Luxor and Aswan flashing on my headset map.
As our wheels touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International, I was glad our 24-hour trek was over. Much to my surprise and delight, we breezed through Customs and they didn’t even look inside our big blue tub containing the New Life water purifier system. We were thankful our taxi ride to the Gracia Guest House was not in our hands. After a whole day of travel, I know neither John or I were in the right state of mind to try to drive on the left-hand side, weave through the police roadblock chicanes or avoid the bicyclers and walkers on the pitch black road.
As I lay my head down last night, I couldn’t help but think about the week ahead and how much we have to learn. The thing I am most excited to learn, though, is to discover “the good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). God has been working for eternity in this little corner of His Kingdom named Kenya, and it is so exciting to join Him in His work.
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