This past trip to East Africa was filled with crazy travel adventures as I navigated unfamiliar places in Kenya and Tanzania. I travelled solo, and the thought occurred to me several times that if someone less familiar with traveling in Africa had tried to do what I did, it could have gone downhill quickly. I relied heavily on my limited knowledge of Swahili and African culture as well as strategic African partners and the prayers of the saints as I worked my way across borders and hundreds of miles of African landscape via planes, buses, dala dalas, matatus, three-wheeled bejajis, ferries, taxis and a lot of walking.

I arrived in Nairobi late at night, and my good friend Kioko met me at the airport. Five hours later we arrived at the home I would stay in with hosts George and Katherine. After about four hours of sleep I got up and prepared for three packed days of training with the AIC network in Matiliku. They showed progress as we went through Psalms (Pathways workshop 5), and by the end I left them with high hopes they will put the Pathways principles into practice. Each evening after the training before it got dark, I took a run for about an hour up steep winding dirt roads past small bush huts, and numerous kids from the community joined me cheering and laughing and running along with the “mzungu.”

Click the video below to listen to Pastor Charles share about Pathways training in Matiliku, Kenya:

After finishing the training, I quickly made my way back to the airport for an evening flight to Mombasa. I was met by a couple who were friends of Kioko’s, and they were a great blessing as they got me to a cheap local guesthouse. A short night of sleep, and then I got to the bus station where I was scheduled to take the 7am bus to Tanga, Tanzania. I arrived at 6:40, and found that the 7:00 bus was cancelled and the 6:30 bus had already left. No other busses were going that day. As stress mounted, my new friend and I managed to figure out that the earlier bus might not have crossed the ferry yet (Mombasa is an island), so we raced across town, and I made it onto the bus just before it boarded the ferry. The border crossing went fairly smoothly, and five hours later a new contact in Tanzania, Pastor John Karozi, met me at the bus station in Tanga.

After wandering around a bit in the city, we boarded busses to get to his village a couple hours west of Tanga. We reached his rural home where I stayed for a couple nights while preaching in his Anglican church and leading a training on Monday. He raises chicken, ducks, turkeys and geese, and we had good conversation and prayer times together as he shared his struggles with the very “catholic” Anglican church in his region, locked in traditions and absent of evangelical ethos.

Sunday’s service was a joy as I preached about spiritual healing of forgiveness of sins by Jesus from Mark 2, and we celebrated as most of his 50 member church came forward to place their faith in Christ, or to receive forgiveness of sins with which they struggled.

Monday I gave an overview of the Pathways program to about 40 pastors from the neighboring villages who are interested in receiving our Pathways program.

Click the video below to hear from Pastor John and his desire for Pathways to be taught in his region:

Then I began the 60 hour journey retracing my steps through Tanga, Mombasa, Nairobi and home. Whew, I’m still recovering, but am thankful for the Lord’s care and provision, and for your prayers. Ever onward, Eric