Leadership Summit

I am SO thankful for getting the opportunity to attend Global Leadership Summit 2008 here in Nairobi. This was my first big adventure out on my own away from our area, so that was exciting too. I decided to take a taxi each way, just so I wouldn’t get lost and I’d be on time. We have this guy named Karanja that has been our sole taxi driver while we’ve been here, so I asked him to take me back and forth these past 2 days. This is cool in itself because I think he’s the only non-christian that I’ve met in Nairobi. So its’ been good to get a different perspective on life here in Nairobi, as well as being able to build a relationship with him.

Anyway, it was good experience..basically the same speakers that ya’ll had who went in the U.S. in August… the cool thing was that bill hybels was here in person! He did a good job of speaking in a way that Africans could connect to—using different words and ways of explaining things than he would have in the states. Surprisingly bill was a bit more revealing on his political leanings (probably thinking that the government cannot change the world, only the local church can, be he’s definitely excited that barak won the election).

The vice-president of Kenya also made an appearance on the first day of the conference, which was particularly exciting for me, as a westerner who has never met him.

International justice Mission has an office here in Kenya, so one of the guys that actually was rescued from prison by IJM now works here, and I got to meet him! He actually lives near us, and he is a pastor at the Methodist church right down the road (at least that’s what I can gather). For those of you who went, I think he was the guy that Gary Haughn profiled in his talk from Kenya.

The worship through music was also really cool the second day. Everyone was really getting into it—I’ve found that when we sing praises in Swahili, everyone gets super excited and dances around. Some of the guys in front of me, probably in their 30s, were doing the robot and twist and a bunch of 70s dance moves. It was so refreshing and exciting! No matter how old or young, people were dancing, singing praises to God out of a joyful heart. Surprisingly that doesn’t always happen here—it doesn’t always look like that, many times it looks like it would in the U.S., but once you start singing in Swahili, watch out—they come alive!

Anyway, I’m thankful to jake for making some serious time sacrifices (especially this week as the term is coming to a close and everything is compiling paper-wise), and making it possible for me to go.

For those of you who went in the states, was there anything specific that God impressed on you at the summit?