Now our bags are packed…

Håkan’s bags – two dark blue ones – are packed for Österängen, a short term care facility diagonally across the street from our house on Sigelhultsvägen – cool!

Imagine that we, Håkan and I, were out on Saturday and bought sweaters and pants, so now we’re slowly starting to build up his wardrobe again. Thanks for everything Håkan has received. He only had one sweatshirt left, which was fortunately lying in the dirty laundry. The coats which hung in the closet in the hall have survived. Thank goodness, one less expense!

My bags – two purple ones – are packed for the trip to Kenya. We will live at a guest house in Nairobi where we’ve stayed many times before. Simple, but nice. Our church friends there take good care of us, and are making two minivans available to us, with drivers and everything.

We’ll visit the Salvation Army orphanage we’ve been visiting since 2001. We’ll have with us balloons, stuffed animals, clothes and 18,000 crowns which have come in from collection boxes in Fristaden. Hallelujah! We love the children there who come from trying conditions, who the Salvation Army is taking such good care of.

We’ll work in the slum a few days. They have a school there with over 200 students, who also get meals every day, a clinic where they help people with HIV, and even a maternity ward where they do Caesareans on mothers with HIV so the babies won’t risk being infected.

Orphans can live in a home, near the school and the church, situated in the middle of Nairobi’s slum with about 500,000 people. As a private person, one should never be in the slum, but we go with the highly esteemed friends who have given their lives for the slum.

Second Hand has given 10,000 crowns, plus an offering from Fristaden. The money given will go direct into their work.

We have payed for our flights and lodging ourselves, out of our own pockets, but we’ve found cheap tickets. Living in Kenya is cheap, plus our church friends down there – a church with 7,000 members – take such good care of us. They are friends we’ve had down there for many years. Their pastor has visited us several times. Beckie was here for a week this August. The big church is in Umoja, a suburb of Nairobi. They have a big school there which we’ll visit.

On Sundays, they have 3 services in Umoja, with around 3,000 in each service – that’s a powerful experience. At the same time, there’s Sunday school for the kids and a youth service, which our youth will participate in.

A trip on a bus to Mombasa, a safari, markets, etc., are also on the program. Please pray that we will be a blessing to them!

We’ll be enriched, blessed and overwhelmed… Every time we’ve been there we’ve had the grace to see people get saved and healed, and those are the memories we bear with us, now as we travel again.

”We carry on – you go”, Håkan said, and with those words, I’m going with Janne and 11 youth, anxious and happy for the mission we’ve received.

Thanks for following along with us on the trip, with your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you, Lord, for letting us go on this blessed mission!

Thanks, Håkan, that you unselfishly wanted me to go. Next time we’ll go together again. Love you!

”…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Matt. 28:18-20

God bless you all!

Hugs,
Gunilla