Church of the Brethren Sudan Initiative

I was very pleased at the support that my local church has shown for me, and I know that Phil and Louie also had a commissioning service at their church. Boy, we sure appreciate the prayers.

Our trip out from Indianapolis to Detroit to Amsterdam to Nairobi went far better than expected. Our efficient travel agent made sure that we didn't have long layovers anywhere, but having only 47 minutes to change planes in Detroit for an international flight seemed a bit tight... and that became critical when our initial flight from Indy was delayed--yikes! To save as much time as possible, just before the final approach to Detroit the three of us found other passengers toward the front of the plane willing to change seats with us, so we could be close to first off and running without delay. As we were landing in Detroit, they announced that all passengers on international flights had to be on board 30 minutes prior to departure for security checks... and as they opened the plane door, we had less than a minute left. I started running, still carrying all the tech equipment; Phil and Louie found which gate and yelled it to me, and I was off with them running behind--it was on the other end of the long terminal. I managed to arrive before they closed the doors, and delayed while Phil and Louie arrived several minutes later--we made it! We thought about taking bets about whether our luggage would arrive, however!

After that excitement, tired as we were, we didn't sleep over the Atlantic... for one thing, it started getting light at 1:30am, since we were flying east six time zones (here in Nairobi is now seven hours different). So we were pretty zonked as we deplaned in Amsterdam, and the boards said that our next flight to Nairobi was already boarding, so we hustled to the next terminal to reboard. Fortunately, we rested on that next 8 hour flight, but as we arrived in Nairobi after 7:00pm, we're still tired and looking forward to resting (which is one reason I want to stop typing soon--Phil and Louie have retired already). Our luggage also made it! So all is very well.

Interestingly enough, even on the planes and in the airport waiting for passport clearance we have already made good contacts. Phil talked to someone as we headed into Amsterdam who will soon be in Nairobi; then on the flight to Nairobi we talked with a Samaritan Purse worker, and a Sudanese from the Nuba Mountains who was flying in for a SPLM meeting up in Juba (where we will be in a few days). Then we ran into Linda Robbins from South Bend, who recognized Brethren as she as done work with CWS/CROP for 40 years--even filmed one of the CROP walks I was in at Pomona, CA back in 1977 (remember that promotional video?). Amazing.

I'll leave you with this image: an hour out from Nairobi, we flew over the equator... and saw the sun setting off to our right. I could just imagine the line that the sun traces circling the globe beneath us, as that brilliant fire settled behind the horizon, and darkness began to set even at 39,000 feet. Truly, all this world is God's... and we hope we can bring some of God's love to those we meet.

--Enten (for Phil and Louie also...)