Nairobi!

Tomorrow I'll fly to Nairobi, Kenya, with my friend Al Willingham. We'll arrive Friday evening, 7:30 PM (Kenya time). Saturday will be a chill-out day for us, hopefully getting in sync with Nairobi time.

On Sunday morning I'll preach at Cliff Msioki's church in Nairobi. Cliff's church has three Sunday morning services, but they will combine together when I am there. Cliff has been praying and fasting all this week in anticipation of what God wants to do on Sunday. I am very expectant about this!

Then Cliff will drive Al and I down from Nairobi (elevation 5500 feet) into and through the ancient Rift Valley and to Eldoret to the northwest (elevation 6500 feet). The drive from Nairobi into the Rift Valley is supposed to be spectacular. When I was in Israel I took 2200 pictures. For this Kenya trip I am very prepared to take 2-3 thousand pictures. My theory is: just keep snapping, even randomly. One good, even great, photo can come out of the many.

From Monday - Friday next week it will be my privilege to teach and minister to pastors from Kenya and Uganda at a retreat center in Eldoret. I will use my Spiritual Formation & Transformation teachings as a platform for the Holy Spirit to move and have his way among us. I know God is going to do unexpected and great things in our midst.

Then, back to Nairobi, and home to Monroe via Amsterdam.

Travel time, from takeoff to touchdown in Kenya: 17 hours. I fly, therefore I read books. My style is to read multiple books at a time. I'm taking with me, on my new Kindle (yay!):

• Religious Experience, by Wayne Proudfoot (This is a classic, and necessary reading for the " Nature of Religious Experience" section I teach in my Philosophy of Religion class at MCCC.)
• The Dark Night of the Soul, by St John of the Cross (I'm re-reading this, and will teach this at RMS II in a few weeks.)
• The Spirituality of African Peoples, by Peter J. Paris (I am immersed in African-American spirituality studies. Paris's text looks like must-reading for me.)
• A Year With Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton (my daily Merton fix)

I'll take the following hard copies:

• Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King Jr., by Lewis Baldwin (I am so excited about this new book, especially as it relates to my Spiritual Formation class I teach at Payne Theological Seminary.)
• Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, by Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o
• The Evidence for God: Religious Knowledge Reexamined, by theistic philosopher Paul Moser. (What I've read of Moser so far is brilliant and different. I just got this book yesterday, and think I'll take it with me.)

I won't read all of these, but will finish some of them and be deep into all the others. 34 hours on a plane. Some books. My mp3 player loaded with Kenyan music (Suzanne Owiyo, e.g., called the "Tracy Chapman of Kenya"). If Linda were with me this would be perfect.