My very first personal encounter with the Swahili language was about a month or so before my first trip to Kenya, during August 2002 in Zurich.
At the time I was able to help a Kenyan businessman, James Omwakwe, who got stranded at Zurich Airport with a visa that had expired.
I managed to get his visa extended so that he could complete his business trip in Belgium.
"Asante Sana" James said as I drove him back to the airport, having successfully gotten the visa extended. Not knowing at all what that meant, I just nodded and dropped him off at the airport. We said good-bye to each other and that we hoped to see each other again on one of my trips to Kenya.
However, I did wonder what it was that James had said. To me it sounded strange enough, but as I did not know anyone who spoke Swahili at the time, I simply forgot about it.
Little did I know however, how much those words and also James would become a part of my ministry in Africa.

For those who have read the January 2003 magazine ... God always comes through ...
(it is online if you haven't yet)
... will know how James helped me in Nairobi on one of my trips to Kitale, Kenya, and I was able to say "Asante Sana" to James, which by the way means "Thank you very much!", as I had found out by then.

I have since had many opportunities to say "Asante Sana ... Thank you very much" particularly to God, for what He has done for me every step of the way!

Preparing the way...!

On my trip to Mombasa in November this year ...
... God truly showed Himself strong in a very physical way.

We left Nairobi in the rain on our way to Mombasa. The rain eventually stopped about halfway to Mombasa, just  before we got to a 30km gravel detour. Yet due to the heavy rain that had fallen on the gravel section, even the tar road was half covered in mud.
Just before we reached the detour,  as we were coming around a bend in the road, a Truck trailer that had jack knifed was blocking 2/3 of the actual road & all of the right verge as well. At the same time another truck, coming our way, was passing it taking up the rest of the road including all of the road verge on the left. That quite simply meant there was no road left for us ... Except for trees and less than half a meter of muddy verge.
Dawson, the Covenant Ministries director in Kenya, who was driving at the time, automatically put his foot on the brake ...
... the wheels stopped ... but the car did not!
Well the choice was rather limited ...
Truck and trees on the right ... Truck and trees on the left ...
... and a car that was not about to stop!
We probably had about 10 seconds before hitting something.
Yet something inside of me said ... "Left"
I thought to myself ... 'there is only a half a meter of mud and trees' ...
Again something in me said ..."Left!"
"Left Dawson! ... Left!" I shouted, and praise God he responded immediately.
How that half a meter of mud became over 2 meters wide only God knows... All I know is that another 10 seconds later we had missed both trucks and all the trees, and were sliding sideways at around 60 km/h on the muddy verge with Dawson trying to correct the slide and stop the car from rolling ...
A few seconds after that we were heading in the right direction, on the tar road, still traveling about 60 km/h with not even a scratch to the car.

Without God and His protection we would have been just another road accident statistic ...
With God ... we continued on our way, as if nothing had happened! Why?
Because nothing did happen ...
... except that God showed up and did what only He can do!

That did not stop the devil ...
... because, not 50km further we had 2 front tyre blowouts ...

and ...
... the closest town was over 30km away!

But neither did that deter us ...

A passing truck stopped, gave Dawson a ride to the next town ...
... and less than 2 hours later, we were on our way again!

The reality of it all is ...