Kenya Diary - Day 2

Got up at 8am and saw the surroundings for the first time - it is SO GREEN here.
Tropical plants everywhere - moist. Last nights sleep was average, it was nice and cool.
Today early we start meetings - the real reason I am here. Tom is very tense. I find he has strong giftings and I so admire the way here goes about confrontation - I can learn much from him. I can't say too much of what happened - those details are written elsewhere. ****** can not stop thanking us for coming. I feel a huge burden lifting from him the further we go.
We had no bfast or lunch today - it was good for me!
We headed down to Nairobi around lunch time to visit the ******* fellowship. There were about 20-30 people there. They were so happy and open in contrast to the ***** people I have et in Minneapolis.
I sat with everyone else and listened to a seasoned missionary give a message - way too long, and way too short of the gospel. God help us if this is what we are spreading. He gave a clear and in-concise summary of the gospel without once ever mentioning the word LOVE. To quote Dallas Willard, it was all about "sin management". Later Tom and I talked about how messages like that make the whole question "What is the Gospel?" very important and worth relentlessly pursuing.
I felt for the first time in my life today that being white was a disadvantage. It was good for my soul to get the equivalents worth of a fading polaroids worth of a taste of what many Africans and Asians feel in my world.
Driving in the 4WD was an experience - the roads are practically nonexistent, heavy traffic and no observable road rules.
I was also shocked today. There is so much poverty here. For some reason I had imagined that Kenya was somehow different than the so much of Africa. Not abject , just poverty. (only someone relatively rich like me would have the audacity to suggest a difference) It reminds me so much of Thailand that way.
Every place has a guard - you feel a real separation between the have and have nots - much like I imagine roman Palestine days.
For dinner (first meal of the day!) we went to an outdoor mall - there were lots of UN type white people around - it didn't feel right. I had my first fresh squeezed mango juice at Toms insistence. It was very good. We also had samosa at the fellowship (I forgot).
It was good though to have a meal in clean surroundings. The trip home was scary - the driver was angry!
Afterward - the evening meeting went as expected - thats all I'll say.
We left early and walked back to ****** compound in the dark - I mean Dark. It was good to do so - much humour and joy in the midst as well as an informal debriefing on the way.
Tomorrow will be free until lunch. I am planning to do some videoing and maybe get some local fruit for lunch. The drop in intensity will be good for everyone.