January 14, 2011

Yesterday, while standing in the Daleville Country store waiting for the Ladies Lunch group, I was able to talk with Eliud Ekadeli Lopurucho …. In Kenya on my cell phone!  Even after so many years working in Africa , I am still fascinated that I can stand in rural Mississippi community and talk with an African who is a fellow missionary/priest in the Turkana region of Kenya!  Two worlds SO different…connected by airways and a common language.  

Eliud

Eliud confirmed  that I will need to schedule my flight to his region ( Turkana) from Nairobi on a Monday.  Since there are only two days on which return flights are scheduled , I will need to schedule the return flight on the following Friday.  We will visit four of the churches he works among, he will send the  name of the locations later.

Today, the days that we will spend in Kenya at the beginning of the mission were confirmed with Rev Bryson Samboja.  We will visit his region and see some of the work he is involved with among the Digo people.

The Digo are an ethnic and linguistic group based near the Indian Ocean coast between Mombasa in southern Kenya and Tanga in northern Tanzania. In 1994 the Digo population was estimated to total 305,000, with 217,000 ethnic Digo living in Kenya and 88,000 (1987 estimate) in Tanzania. Digo people speak the Digo language, called Chidigo by speakers, a Bantu language. They are part of the greater Mijikenda ethnic group of people which contains nine smaller groups or tribes, including the Duruma, Giriama, and others.

Zondervan is giving the mission a 70% discount on books that are going to Africa.  We are raising funds for 15 NIV study bibles.  They will be an invaluable resource to the seminary students long after they have finished studies and returned to their villages.  The cost to Emmanuel Connections will be $552 which includes postage from my home.  Next step is to send them to Rwanda  and pray that they will get there before I do in April. 

On the home front, I continue to learn and love this rural community.  Early in the morning, I took Barnabas for his walk and spent a few moments afterward by warming up with a fresh cup of coffee at the Daleville Country Store.  Later in the day, a friend gave me a took of closeby small communities ..Porterville, Scuba, Dekalb.