There is a time for everything under heaven

As you already know, in August 2006, I had the chance to fulfill a life-long dream, by going on a mission trip to a third world country. I traveled with fourteen others to Kenya, as part of the last Life Missions team to travel to Africa. Our goal was to educate the Kenyans about disease prevention and to share the word of Christ.

Each day one of our team members was assigned to lead devotions. The day I was scheduled for devotions, we had just left the "Bush", the land past the end of the road, near the tiny village of Mosiro. We had held seminars and medical clinics for the Maasai warriors, a people whose lives have not changed in 2000 years, except that now many of them were dying from AIDS.

I had left my prepared devotion and Bible back at the HEART compound in Nairobi, but somehow now at the edge of nowhere, that passage seemed inappropriate. I had just taken my first shower in five days, and all the water I used amounted to two pitchers full, but it was the best shower I had ever taken.

I borrowed my daughter Val's Bible, and opened it to Ecclesiastes 3. I was amazed that every line was something we had witnessed since being in Africa. Shortly after returning home, I wrote a short book using those passages and pictures from our trip. Over the next several weeks, I will share that with you on my Sunday blog.

A Time to be born and a Time to die

While in Nairobi's Muthari Slum, our team members met many victims of AIDS. This young mother, Eunice, was too weak to get out of bed the day some of our team members visited. Whatever food she was able to obtain, she gave to her baby or her other two children.