Leaving Nairobi for DR Congo

Have had a great conference with African and Australian community and
church leaders, forming key strategic alliances and partnerships. Now
on to Kinshasa in DR Congo for a youth conference at the University
there. I won't be speaking - I'm travelling with some very learned
people who will do that, but I'll sing a song or two. Music is a huge
part of African culture so it's a great inroad. There's a children's
home there that I'm very keen to check out, so hopefully I'll spend a
day or two there next week. We really don't know what's happening from
day to day - our hosts probably have plans for us but from previous
experience we're generally not advised what they are!!

I'm at Nairobi airport at Java House enjoying a good coffee and free
wifi! :)
I'm not sure what access to Internet I'll have in Congo but I'll be
back in Nairobi on Wednesday night so hopefully will update then.

As previously advised, mac harddrive crashed so I'm glad I have my
iPhone!

Crashed and burned...

No no not the plane! My mac hard drive! So I can't post any pics til I get home. :(

Exchange so far...

A few quality issues with this vid, but it will give you some idea for now!

Exchange - we need to learn from Africa!

Exchange conference has been amazing so far! A great time of African and Australian leaders getting together to create strategic partnerships that will benefit both continents. There are many things we can learn from Africa - the spirit and passion here is wonderful, and some of the things we have lost in our Western culture need to be restored. As Australians we have an inbuilt disrespect for authority; in Africa, there is a great understanding of hierarchy and authority, however this has been abused all to often by those in authority. Where there is understanding of authority, based upon mutual respect and trust in balance, there is power! This flows from the core family unit, right up to the highest levels of the political spheres.
Our life in Australia is good, but it's not like we've got it all nailed completely. How many depressed kids live in our cities? How many people struggle for happiness amidst the relative wealth in our nation? How many men and women are feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied with their lives, searching for meaning and understanding. We have much to learn!

in case you missed the link to the video below...

Pics to date

Kenya believe it....?

It's been a while, sorry...haven't had internet up until now.  We've taken ooodles of photos which I'll get online when I get a chance to sort through them - hopefully soon.  We've had a great trip so far!

Thanks to the volcano activity shutting down Europe, our Qatar Airlines flight to Doha was about 1/3 full, so we got a whole row of seats (3 seats) each to stretch out on.

We have been based at Safari Park Hotel where the Exchange conference is going to be held over the next week, which is a very nice hotel with wonderful grounds and facilities.

To get a better taste of the 'real' Kenya, we travelled to the district of Kiambu where Bishop Thomas Muthee pastors a fantastic church called 'Word of Faith'.  We looked around at the church which is a work in progress, and also at the Community College which has been established to train and resource people to be able to get work for themselves and release them from the poverty cycle.  It's a fantastic setup, which has been established with great integrity and structure (somewhat unusual for Africa unfortunately).

A couple of years ago, the political riots in Kenya saw a number of children orphaned through the violence that erupted at that time.  Word of Faith established a children's home, which is not called an orphanage, but a 'Home for the First Born'.  Again, it's well setup up to be self sufficient, with a plantation of various crops, and some cows.  We added 700 baby chickens, which will grow to produce eggs to eat, and also for sale to support the children.  Had a great couple of days with them playing football (soccer) with a few balls that we gave them, and then presenting the chickens which was very exciting!
Check out this video!

Today I went with Ps Melinda and a group from Yarra Plenty church to Bishop Thomas's church, where Melinda spoke a great message on how God seems to work slowly, and then all of a sudden, something will happen.   Trevor Sampson and his son Jason, and I led the church in singing "Bambalela" and "As we Pray" which was fun, and the Yarra Plenty guys did a couple of songs and a fantastic drama that got rapturous applause.

We're now preparing for the conference to start tomorrow night. We've borrowed some gear from Word of Faith (PA, Drumkit etc) and Trevor brought up a heap of gear from South Africa, and the Yarra Plenty guys brought stuff too, so all up we'll have a good setup!

So, that's about the wrap so far - sorry it's not funnier or something!  I'm a bit brain to be more interesting right now... hopefully something more will come to me at another time!

Anyway... bye for now...time for some dinner!! 

The Final Countdown [do-do doo dooo, do-do doot-do-do]

Only a matter of hours before we board and take off for Nairobi via Doha.  I'm just starting to pack my bags now.. mmm... and my biggest concern is determining whether I'll get my mini-acoustic travel guitar on board as carry-on rather than having to check it in. (I got a Cort Earth Mini for those who are interested in such details).   I have a lappy, a DSLR and a guitar to try and negotiate on the plane, with my regular carry on bag so that'll be fun!  Hey we got an entire lighting case and video equipment on board on a previous trip so we'll give it a crack. 
Anyway, get back to packing ...

and...we're back...!

*cough cough* *splutter*....it's alive!!  Time to blow the dust off this blog, fire up the bellows and get this thing going again.  I'm heading back to Africa again this coming Monday for 3 weeks, taking in some work around Nairobi, including what will be the amazing Africa-Australia Exchange conference, and then off to DR Congo to link up with some projects there.   We're taking a super team from Imagine Church and joining with a bunch of other churches from Australia to be impacted, and to make an impact.  Check out http://www.africa-australia.org/exchange.htm for more info about the conference.  More later.  I'll be on Twitter too www.twitter.com/darynsutton :)