Jason’s Trip

The day at the slum in
Nairobi was the most difficult time of the entire trip.  The reality that humans live in a place like that is unbelievable.  All of us spent the evening in a new sense of reality.  Wednesday morning we boarded a flight and headed to remote
East Africa.  Our destination, Masia Mara (moss-eye marr-ah.)  We were met by Masia warriors on the dirt airstrip we landed on.  We stayed at a nice place with the nicest tents I have ever seen.  Thursday morning we visited an authentic Masai village.  It was a crazy experience.  I didn’t know anything about these people until I was in the middle of them.  They live a few hundred decades behind the rest of the world, Joe stated, and he is right.  These people live in grass, mud and cow manure huts.  They live in tribes and do a host of a ton of other wired stuff.  Your assignment is to research the Masia of East Africa.  One thing I will throw in is that they used to kill all other humans…yucky…missionaries visited in the late 1800’s and through a process that only God can provide, today, 50% of Masai people are Christian.  That is good news, but other good news is they don’t kill people anymore. 

I did film a bunch while we were in the Masia village, they look scary, but they aren’t.  We spent a few days driving through the

Masai
Mara
Park looking at every kind of animal.  We caught up with the migration of Zebra’s and Wildebeest.  It was very cool.

My
Africa mission trip is growing to a close and it is bitter sweet.  There is so much work to be done in Uganda and
Kenya.  The way of life is so different.  This will be my last blog entry while on the trip. 

As I write this I am stuck in the
Atlanta airport hoping to catch my last flight.  Pete, Jim, Mike and Paul left around 6:00p.m. on Saturday evening from
Nairobi.  Joe and I left after midnight.  On Joe and my flight there were two mission groups.  There were lots of teens in both of those groups.  I learned some good things of what to do and not to do by observing those groups. 

As I sit in the Atlanta airport, it is good to be in the
U.S., but it is also very difficult to adapt back into the culture I am well used too.  Everyone is in a hurry, and most everyone is in a bad mood.  Honestly, I wonder how I combat those same tendencies.  I am so thankful for the life changing trip to
Africa.  The biggest struggle I face is not to forget the lessons I learned. 

I am so excited to see Julie and the kids.  This is the longest I have been away from them.  I am feeling it in a huge way.  The Lord is granting me opportunity to grow patience in that I have spent most of the past two days trying to get to them.  Again, I praise God for always knowing what is best and providing endless opportunities to learn about Him.  Thanks all of you who read the blogs and posted, it is such a great testimony to the Lord. 

I am planning on leaving jasonstrip.today.com open and post things from time to time.  If I know my God, He’ll always make something amazing happen. 

Check back here and see what is going on from time to time.  Especially as our
Africa ’08 team comes together.