The Last Day

This is our last day in Kenya. We had a great time with the country director Jean Paul, and we did a lot of video photo and had several meetings, and Trina did some Grant proposals for the Child Survival and VST (vocational skills training) programs. Though we have hours of video and hundreds of photos, I think it will be a week or so before you see media pop up on Trina's blog. I'll see what I can do to make video available. I haven't got that hammered out yet. Also, to our wonderful, and fantastic support team Trina and I will be updating you with our monthly update very soon. Within the next two weeks for sure. We've discovered that the electricity is far superior in Kenya as are the roads, but that's no suprise. The class gap between the rich and poor is staggering in Kenya. I'm told Kenya is in the top 4 worst coutries in the world for income gaps. Nairobi is also home to the second largest slum on the continent. The largest is in South Africa. I'm confident I will be back in this neck of the woods for future projects. World relief is working in one of the slums partnering with churches helping provide moms with orphans jobs to allow their kids to eat and go to school, they also help AIDS victims with medicine and education, and income generation. There is also an orphans and vulnerable children program for kids in the slums. There is a lot more in the works, and we'll keep you informed with what all we are doing in Kenya. Trina will in fact update you on that very soon. So tomorrow we're off to the airport.

Back to the grind

Well, some very big transitioning is happening in our African Great Lake region. I'm still in Kenya back to work with the country director Jean Paul. We will be going to the slums of Nairobi today or tomorrow I believe. Back in Burundi I am confident that there is no internet still so I'll try and get back to as many people as possible today. The good shepherd team is back in the states, and we had a successful visit to a refugee camp in Tanzania, and the team preached and worked with youth in Nyanza Lac. In the midst of their visit the Brose family left the region. It was a difficult departure for many but the staff seems to have adjusted back to work same old same though I think Dan's office is empty, I'm working on putting a life sized cardboard cut out of Dan behind his desk with the classic Dan smile.
In my world, I moved my editing suite to a different room, but it's still incomplete, there is much more work to do. It was great to hang out with Troy in the middle of all the transition. We are both surfers though my skills have suffered these passed 10 years where Troy has grown to new levels of ability. But we had that surfer connection and had great fellowship. I can't thank the good shepherd folk enough, in addition to all our friends and family for all the gifts and goodies you brought out and gave to us. It's huge. We feel the love. I think in two days we will be back to Burundi to sort out all the suit cases and I'll organize my new office, and we'll start setting up our abode and getting back to the daily grind in the heart of Africa. I want Greg from Mars Hill to know that I got 5lbs of green Burundi coffee, I will be sending his way with the next mars hill team or possibly sooner with a front line team. So get ready to roast some Burundi beans, we'll see what we can come up with... micro enterprise baby!!! Get your four wheelers ready.
Okay, sorry about those personal messages in the middle of blog posts. I don't even know if Greg will see it. Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated as much as possible.

no internet warning

There is no internet so I apalogize for not responding to emails. If we get internet again I will get back to everyone. I am with Ken and Sue Newcomb currently at a grocery store\resturaunt\ with a few computers attempting to post this message. We will travel to Kenya tomorrow. Possibly Kenya still has connectivity. If so, I will fire off some communications. I hope all is well with everyone. Possibly sombody can tell Jeremy Pietzold to come to Burundi and help us get back online. You can do it Jer.

we're off... sort of

We're off to Tanzania with a short term mission team from Good Shepherd. At least we're in process, there are always complications to be worked out. We fueld the vehicles this morning (there is a gas/diesel shortage in the country) and the lines were crazy. I'm packed as is Trina, and we will be working with youth in Southern Burundi, and then traveling to a refugee camp in Northern Tanzania or possibly the other way around. We will return on Wed July 11th. Be well till then, and I will update you later this week. Big happenings in Country with our little NGO. Dan Brose and family are leaving, and will be officially back State side on Thursday (after a brief stint in Israel). We had several fairwell parties, and it's been a difficult time for many. Life shall go on however, it must. Many don't realize the pivitol role Dan Brose plays in the region, and since I haven't done any videos on him, you may never realize how important this man is to the heart of Africa, so let me just tell you. He's very, very, very, very, very important. Just ask any local from Burundi, Rwanda, or Congo. They'll tell you. Often it's that way, the heroes story is never told, possibly via oral transmission, then maybe someone tries to make a movie or write a book years later, but by then, well, by then it's just different, and the "heart of it" is seldom captured well. So, all this to say that this week is a very big week in the history of World Relief Burundi. I think that's all for now, simply because we must go pick up the team from Good Shepherd, and travel south for 8 hours or so... should be an adventure. It's been a while since I've done a road trip. I suppose I'm do for one. A la prochaine.

Struggling with Internet

What shall we say, then? Is "web surfing" sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have wasted so much time on the internet except for email. For I would not have known what time wasting really was if not for blogger. For I would not know what "surfing the web" really was if internet marketers had not said: "This is the internet, spend countless hours here!" But email, seizing the opportunity afforded by the internet, produced in me every kind of desire for aimless reading and internet communication. For apart from the internet, email is dead. Once I was alive apart from the internet, but when the internet came, wasting time sprang to life, and I died. I found that the very websites that were intended to bring knowledge actually inspired an endless trail of too much information and mindless entertainment. For blogging, seizing the opportunity afforded by the "listings of friends blogs," deceived me, and allowed me too much temptation to read an endless slew of friends blogs. So then, the internet is convenient, and internet communications are practical, effortless and good.
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Unfortunately it did! But in order that internet might be recognized as simply too much of a good thing, it produced death in me through what is good, so that through cyber space, time might become utterly wasteful.
We know that the internet is useful; but I am addicted, sold as a slave to web browsing. I do not understand what I do. For when I mean to return emails, I do not return emails, but simply read various news and movie sites. And I do whatever is the most inefficient activity on the most efficient communication tool of our time. I agree that the internet is effective. As it is, it is no longer I myself who am effective, but rather the internet living in my computer. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my desires to waste countless hours on the web. For I have the desire to return emails and blog effectively, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is read about why garlic is the worlds healthiest food, or why Venezuela strengthens ties with Iran, or downloading songs and media, or on-line shopping! For what I spend time doing is not what is the efficient thing to do, no the wasteful pointless reading and purchasing of random things, this I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but cookies living in my web browser facilitating the return to time wasting websites that I am slave to.
So I find this law at work: When I want to return an email or blog, conveniently cool entertaining websites are right there just a click away. For in my inner being I delight in high speed internet; but I see another law at work in the members of my cyber space habits, waging war against the law of efficiency and effective use of time and money, making me a prisoner of the law of aimless perpetual web browsing, blog reading, and internet purchases. What a wretched man am I! Who will rescue me from this age of information and consumerism? Thanks be to Africa -through complete lack of good internet connectivity!