Hello Everyone,
It is Tuesday evening in Nairobi, Kenya and everything is on track. Chris and Jayson are in Malawi with no internet so I am not sure how much we’ll hear from them until they get to Zambia. As I mentioned, things are on track and tomorrow the schedule picks up steam.
My flights from Portland to Seattle to Amsterdam to Nairobi were uneventful, thankfully. The flight out of Amsterdam was 30 mins late but that happens. I got to Nairobi about 11pm Monday. Cleared immigration and customs and got to bed somewhere around 1AM Tuesday morning.
Today (Tuesday) was a prep day. My taxi driver, and long-time friend, George Waswa, had arranged for a doctor, a mobile covid tester, to stop by and administer the covid test needed to enter Tanzania tomorrow (Wed) and Uganda on Friday. Nathan Chiroma, ITEM Director of Mentoring, who is based here in Nairobi, stopped by to pick up something I brought for him. And a rep from International Leadership University to pick up another load of books from my library. I’ve now provided more than 200 pounds of books from my personal library with more coming in future trips.
Tomorrow morning, I will be on an early morning flight to Mwanza, Tanzania by way of Kilimanjaro. I will meet with the ITEM team after I arrive. It has been awhile since we’ve had them together so it will be a re-grouping time and we look to the future. On Thursday I will come back to Nairobi, spend the night, and Friday I’ll fly to Uganda where I’ll have my first chance to apply what I’ve been learning in the area of biblical apologetics. But more about that another day.
COVID TEST REPORT
I have added just two pictures to the album but they are noteworthy. The first is a picture of the ITEM Church Growth Strategy that has been translated and printed in Kirundi, the local language in Burundi. This is the first non-English version of this key booklet that outlines our strategy to see churches transformed. We have approved the publishing of this same booklet in Swahili (Tanzania and Kenya) and Kinyarwanda (Rwanda). We have two other booklets that will follow. One is on spiritual warfare, the other clarifies the issue of apostles and prophets today.
NOW WHERE TO HIDE
The second picture is of the two forms I need to get into Tanzania. One is a covid test report stating that I tested negative. The other is a form that is generated when you register online for a given country. As you can see in the picture, it generates a QR code. When traveling internationally, the traveler is being asked to fill out forms online that create QR codes. I had to have one to enter Kenya and will need one to enter Nigeria later in the trip. So, what’s the big deal?
This is all being done in the name of “contact tracing” which is has come about ever since the Covid outbreak two years ago. They know where I’ve been and where I’m going including the hotel where I’ll be staying.
Another phenomenon that is catching on is using face recognition technology to allow you to board a plane. When boarding in Seattle we were given the option to use face recognition rather than showing a boarding pass. It was optional and I used my boarding pass.
I am not one to rush into the world end-times-prophecy and I won’t do it here. But it is obvious that we are being followed and there is nowhere to hide. The good news is that God knows where it’s all heading that the last chapter is amazing!
That’s it for today.
Thanks for your interest in this ministry. Thank you for praying.
By His grace,
Steve