Giraffe Centre!

Last Sunday, Pastor Frank and his wife took us to a wonderful Lebanese restaurant called "The Phoenician". Then we went to the Giraffe Centre! It wasn't very big, but it was good to get out and get some pictures.

 Valerie trying a brave way to feed the Giraffe.

Daniel left for Tanzania today to take a break. He's been working nonstop for 10 months and he definitely needs a break. He'll come back next Thursday (Nov 29), and he leaves for Cameroon the following Tuesday (Dec 4). I already miss him!

Life with pictures!

So many things have happened since my last update I don't even know where to start! I'll try to start at the beginning, since that's usually the best place to start.

Pastor Frank & Valerie Ricks have joined 2CBN! They retired and came to Africa a few years ago and most recently have been working with a radio station in Baraton at the University of Eastern Africa. But after seeing the need at 2CBN they felt impressed to come and help. Frank is going to be taking over as director! That will allow Daniel to leave and go to Cameroon (He was planning on going there in March!) and then back to the States. This is what we've been praying for and God answered the prayers, in His time.

In my last post I talked about doing playlists, and how Daniel asked me to perfect it and then pass it on to someone else. Well I think I perfected it as much as possible without changing the work flow. When I first started making playlists, it took me about 4-5 hours for each one. But now I can do a weekday playlist in less than 30 minutes. And my record is 21 minutes! (That was for a weekend one which is easier) If that's not improvement I don't know what is! God is good! So now I'm training a few other people to do the playlists, and moving on to bigger things! I'm doing more Content Management right now. That is basically taking programs that we have permission to air, making sure they are converted to the right format, and adding an intro if needed. Certainly much more what I like to do. But I'm happy to do playlists if we get in a pinch. After all, I can do a week of playlists in a day! :)

Now for the pictures. I haven't been able to take as many pictures as I'd like, because I have to be careful where I take my camera out. But this week we went to see some property that has been donated to build a studio on. So I was able to take some pictures. :)

Any volunteers? That's one guy pulling and one or 2 pushing from behind. 

This is a Matatu! Not the best picture but at least you know what it looks like. Its a 14 seater, that means 14 passengers plus driver and conductor!! 

Driving to see the property. This was my first time out of the city since I've been here.

Pastor Frank.

Valerie, Salome Lenana (she took us out there) Daniel, and Pastor Frank. 

An African Mahogany tree! 

A cow herder. 

I'm usually behind the camera, but here's a picture of me. 

Life

11-1/2 days... That's how long I've been in Africa.

Perhaps because of jet lag, perhaps a short circuit between my ears, but it seems like I've been here a month, or two, or three... more on that later.

Before I left America, several people said something like this to me, "keep us updated." So after 10 days of keeping you in suspense, (or not) here is another post. 

I'm here to help at 2CBN. A TV station, so naturally I thought I would be doing stuff with media, video editing, camera work, etc...  Well, since I've been here I haven't touched a video camera, and I haven't done any video editing. But nonetheless I'm helping with the TV station. How? Making playlists... That's basically the schedule... what goes on the air, and when. Its pretty simple, but very important.

Tonight I asked Daniel what I would be doing long term. He said he wants me to perfect the process and work flow of making playlists, and pass that job on to someone else. That's exactly what I intend to do. How? I do not know. But I will do it. Because I don't believe that God had me travel 9126 miles just to make playlists.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might..." (Eccl. 9:10) I think everyone has, at one time or another, wanted to do something great. But a baby doesn't start learning to walk by running a marathon. They learn by taking that one step, and then another, and another, until you can hardly keep track of them. I'm starting small, not necessarily by choice. But that's okay, God knows best...

On a side note, last week Daniel and I went to Mombasa, to take pictures at the wedding of one of his friends. We rode the overnight bus, which was interesting. Mombasa is on the coast, so I got to see the Indian ocean for the first time!

Back to what I started back at the beginning. It doesn't really matter how long it seems I've been here. I'll be here until God sees fit to put me elsewhere.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Please keep praying for 2CBN and those involved with it.

Africa!

I'm here! The flights went very well, I was able to sleep some thankfully. Its not every day you have 2 nights in 24 hours!
I landed in Nairobi yesterday at about 12:35 local time. I met Titus(one of Daniels friends) and had no trouble getting my visa and luggage. And praise the Lord, customs went fine! I was through in less than a minute! (that doesn't happen very often so it was a real blessing!)
Traffic going home from the airport was quite the experience! I wouldn't survive if I had to drive here! Maybe sometime I will post some pictures of it.
I was very thankful when we got home to Daniels apartment! It was like Christmas for Daniel! Got his new computer and a bunch of other things for him and for the studio. I'm so glad I could bring so much stuff that is needed. (tripods, computers, hard drives etc.)

Thank you for the prayers for safe travel! I'm a little tired today but I don't seem to have too much jet lag. We'll see how the day goes.

Here are some pictures from the trip over.

I'm not sure how the pictures are going to work because this is the first time posting from my phone. The first picture is of the clouds coming into Nairobi, I love African clouds! Second picture is of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the airport. Third picture is from the flight to Nairobi from Addis.

On my way!

I still can't believe its happening! I'm currently in The Washington Dulles airport. My plane left portland 22 minutes late, but thanks to a healthy tailwind we weren't very late. I was a little worried because I only had 43 minutes in L.A. to get to my next flight. But Praise God, I walked off the plane, figured out where my next gate was, walked directly there and started boarding! (It was kind of a long walk, but I was really only in that airport for maybe 20 minutes.) I was able to sleep for 2-3 hours on that flight. I have 1-1/2 hour wait until the next flight starts boarding.

I'm very tired, but I've been enjoying myself so far. Thank you for the prayers!

Tickets!

I have plane tickets! I'm leaving Oct. 2 at 7:21PM from the Portland airport. And arriving in Nairobi at 12:45PM on Oct. 4. God is good! Please continue to pray for the preparations and details.

I'm incredibly busy, so this is only a short post to let you know I have the tickets. I'll post more later.

It's happening!

If you took the time to read the title, and you've read the previous post, you probably know what's happening. If you haven't read my first post, I'll tell you what's happening, in 4 words. I'm going to Africa!

My passport came last Thursday! After 10 weeks and 3 days, its finally here. I couldn't believe it for awhile. But its finally sinking in and the reality is that I need to get tickets. But before I get tickets there are some things that need to get worked out. I've decided not to go to AFCOE (Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism) in January. So that gives me flexibility on return dates, but please just pray that God would lead clearly so I can buy tickets soon. I'm tentatively planning on leaving on Oct. 1 or 2. 

Just on a side note. Daniel's computer got stolen last week, and the devil is working overtime to hinder the work going on. God provided the money to get him another computer, which we're praising Him for. But it's making me realize more and more that I'm not just going on a mission trip, I'm like a paratrooper jumping into the heat of battle. Please pray that I'll be prepared to serve God in the heat of the battle.

I'll tell a little bit about what I'll be doing there, in the next post. :)

Preparing for service,

Jonathan