Steve’s Travel Diary

Hi Everyone,

This is a Monday-Tuesday report and I have to admit that it is hard right now to stay objective and unemotional. It has been a hard two days compared to the rest of this trip and most recent trips. There has been some positive and that needs to be the emphasis but it’s difficult to see through the good through the cloud of challenges.

A short but encouraging report today. We have broken new ground. Our team in Bujumbura crossed the border into the DRC and conducted our first seminar in the far eastern city in the Dem Rep of the Congo. I am including the coordinators report in my report today. Plus I am adding maps to the photo album to give you a picture of where all of this is happening. Plus an additional map of Burundi that explains what is going on and where, there.

Dear Prayer Partners,

Saturday has been a slow day and it was planned that way. After four flights and two, two-hour car rides in five days, I put a slow weekend into my schedule before heading to Liberia on Monday. The only activity was a 2 mile walk to and from YaYa Center to get a healthy Center at Java House; a repeat of last weekend. But I used some of my free time to write up a worldview response to the questions I’ve heard regarding war and genocide.

Hello Beloved Partners,

I am seated in the airport lounge in Kigali, Rwanda awaiting my flight back to Nairobi two hours from now (8:40AM PT, Friday). It was an interesting night (Thurs). For awhile I was wondering if I would make my flight Friday. But things worked out OK.

Dear Friends and Family,

I am at the end of my one day in Rwanda. I flew here early this morning, arriving from Kenya shortly past 8am. My only agenda item on the day was a meeting with the ITEM team. We met for about 3 hours around the lunch hour.

I am always encouraged by my time here with these men and today was no exception. But when I was talking about bringing apologetics into ITEM’s ministry, a question, unique to Rwanda came up.

Hello Everyone,

I am settling in for the night near the Nairobi airport. I need to be back for my flight to Rwanda early do didn’t want to stray too far from the airport tonight.

I started in Busia, Uganda where I’ve been for two days. I stayed around to have lunch with our missionaries (the Glasscocks). We had pizza. Then, Tom, an ITEM team member from Kenya, and I got in his car and headed to the border where we both had to clear immigration and start to 2 hour trip back to Kisumu, Kenya for my very short flight back to Nairobi.

The day’s highlight was my conversation with Amber Glasscock, Jim’s wife. She is meeting with various women’s groups and seeing some really good things happen as wives are applying the principles of 1 Peter 3:1-4.

Dear ITEM Partners, I am halfway through Tuesday. I’ve taken my Covid test for entry into Rwanda on Thursday. It came back negative…. as expected. I met with the teams from Kenya and Uganda and heard some encouraging reports. And in just about an hour I leave for Pastor Hillary Wafula’s church to try out what I’ve learned in the area of apologetics. This will be my first “test under fire,” so to speak.

Click on READ MORE to hear more about my meeting with the teams and about my time at Hillary’s church.

If I told you that I would meet you on the other side and when and when you got to the other side I wasn’t there and after about 30 minutes you asked a policeman to call me and ask where I was and when I was coming and I told the policeman said, “I’m coming.” What would that communicate to you? It is different here, I think.

From the beginning of ITEM’s ministry, there has been an awareness of the challenge of African Traditional Religions’ (ATR) influence on the church and Christianity in general. This morning I learned that it is making a comeback.

Happy Saturday to you! I landed at the airport last night, Friday, at 10pm and made good time through immigration, customs, and to the guest house. And I slept pretty well.

Today, Saturday, the main event was a meeting with Dr. Kevin Murrithi, (See picture album.) Do an internet search on his name…. he’s everywhere. I know him primarily as the head of Apologetics Kenya. I brought some apologetics books as a gift to his ministry and we talked awhile about doing apologetics in Africa.

All of this was expected but what wasn’t expected was Kevin and I talking about his future