Otter Creek Missions

Day one in the Kamulu region of Kenya. We arrived here last night nearly without a hitch. One of sixteen bags went MIA, but that's not bad for Nairobi's Airport. Well, one other thing: Keith Brown's guitar and its hard case were smashed into 144,000 pieces, but we think they'll reimburse him (with depreciation…) in the end.
We're all kind of in-between sleeping and awake, today, but that's to be expected. We slept from 4pm to midnight Nashvile time and have been awake from midnight to 1pm Nashville time. This takes a few days to get used to. Mike Rivlas from a supporting church in California is here as well. In past years he coached soccer at Hume Fogg and worked with Lipscomb University's Basketball team when Don Meyer was head coach there. He's an inspirational speaker of sorts, and the kids really seem to like him.
The new guys (Dan, Carrie, Katie, Mary Pullias, and Keith) went into Eastleigh today to get their first impression of the second-poorest slum in Nairobi. The streets are paved with trash and street kids live and play here. All of the kids at Made in the Streets are from this area. It's difficult to imagine that the amazing kids at Made in the Streets were once the disturbing children that approach us in Eastleigh with one hand extended for money and the other hand grasping a glue bottle. (Glue is the drug of choice for street kids. It costs less than a meal, and it curbs hunger for a while.)
In an successful effort to summon a rare Kenyan rainstorm, we ate outside tonight. It worked like a charm. As soon as we had sat down with our food, the evening rain began, chasing us into the shelter of the Made in the Streets Sewing Shop(pe). My bed is calling me. Day two awaits. Pray for us, please.