New Video

This Video was made by Newspring Church and the 410 Bridge during the May 2010 service trip.

May 2010 video (5 min)

Wow! I'm in Africa

While I was walking around the mission I climbed up some rocks. In front of me in the distance was one of those crazy African trees that everyone sees on TV and in the disney movies. To the right was a dense area of shrubs, this is where the baboons lived. The baboons would sneak into the mission at night to steal corn. Elephants would drink water in the river behind me.

This river is the life blood of most of the people and animals in the area. The water is very dirty and it never flows quickly, even in when it rains. This slow moving river has cut away at the ground slowly. It has taken many years; hundreds or thousands to cut down 30 feet from the surrounding land. This river is very, very old.

Above is the view to the other side of the river.

This was the view to my left. I started to think about all the things around me and I heard a song. Someone had started a generator and hooked up a microphone with a keyboard so that one of the girls could sing. Her voice was incredible. She was singing about "Christo" which is Jesus in swahili. The music was very real and very African. I stood on the rocks looking around. I got goose-bumps and at this  moment I realized I was in Africa. I was in Kenya and I had a job to do. I prayed that I could do it well.

Pics from the Segera Mission

Segera Mission: David

David uses his bike to get water for his family with two flat tires. Like all the children I met he is very smart. David can speak swahili, his mother tongue (tribal language) and english. In school he studied calculus. He knows world geography better than I do. He is also very curious about everything we can tell him. For most of the children that can get to a school, education stops around age 12. After age 12 most of them start living life. They are treated like young adults by their family and tribe. The teenage years of western culture do not exist in the outback of Kenya.

Segera Mission: Our first look

We drove through the village of Nanyuki to the mission. All of the work projects that Newspring will do are located and arranged with the Segera Mission. It is a large compound with a church, school, farm, doctors office, library, barracks and community center.

The Mission was open to children from all over the surrounding area. Children were everywhere and most of them had seen Mazungos (white people) before, but not all.

Most of the Children had never seen a picture of themselves. When we took a picture of them and showed them the back of the camera they were fascinated.

Video using our Spiritual Gifts

Check out this video from the August trip.

Video 3 minutes long

Breakdown: On the side of the road

In Nairobi security guards were everywhere. Neighborhoods had gates with guards and the walls around the neighborhoods had broken glass or razor wire on top. Businesses had guards at the front door. The cops carried AK-47's. The police made check points by dragging logs with giant spikes in them across the road. This made vehicles slow down and drive through the barriers in a "S" pattern. We cleared the city with its traffic and about an hour later one of our buses blew a coolant hose.

It was warm so we all got off the bus and looked around. The British left Kenya in 1963. Many of the things the British built have deteriorated since their departure. Check out the telephone poles with no wires in the picture above. Almost every road, town, bridge or city that we visited showed signs of decay. Decay of something that was nicer in the past but was presently wasting away.

Children showed up to see what was going on. We took pictures of them we turned the cameras around to show them the picture. They were amazed. Most of the children we had contact with had never seen themselves before. They did not have mirrors at home so they had no idea what they looked like.

The children were grazing their sheep. They would have to walk for miles to find a spot where their sheep could find something to eat. Some times they would not even go home for days.