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Nearly a Decade Later

This past week was the culmination of a process that started nine years ago when I fell in love with Africa for the first time. It was during a college trip to South Africa in 2000 that I discovered the beauty, needs, and receptiveness of this vast continent. As I was about to graduate from [...]

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Hitting a Cow

A wonderful week in Gulu, Northern Uganda, has kept me away from the web but now that I am back I have so many stories to tell. Let’s start with the trip up to Gulu. We were cruising along and around 40 kilometers from Gulu when all of the sudden our van lurched forward and [...]

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Listening to the People We Are Trying to Help

During my layover in Oxford I looked up a guy who I met last time I was in Kenya. Benny and I had become fast friends in Nairobi and kept in touch over email. Having since moved to England to pursue his studies, we were able to meet up for an afternoon. He drove me [...]

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Welcomed in Kiambu

Stepping off the plane into the Nairobi Airport seemed surreal. It is a place so far away yet after one trip here in the past it seem so familiar. I remember the unknowns surrounding our last trip here. Before I came as a visit and now I am returning as a welcomed guest. Rather than [...]

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The Eagle & Child

I’m sitting in one of the most appropriate places to reflect on the power and influence of writing; under the shadow of two of the greatest writers of the last century, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Overjoyed to find an empty table in the Rabbit Room at The Eagle & Child, I am enjoying a [...]

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Not About Me

Sometimes I forget that life is not about me. Okay, most of the time. I was greatly regretting my agreement to carry a box of books with me to Uganda. After all, the rest of the time was going from San Diego straight to our final destination in Uganda while I had several places to [...]

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Feeling At Home

“He’s someone who cares ridiculously much about the intimate details of our lives.” I overheard this statement from a girl sharing her faith with a friend at The Eagle & Child. Her expressed confidence in God’s concern for our best interests made me feel even more at home here at Oxford. This place feels wonderfully [...]

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Conversation With an Oxford Drunk

I was walking along Headington Road toward the city centre when a drunken man said hello and struck up a conversation with me. Amidst laughing my head off, here are a few of things that I remember him saying:

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Everything is So Different Here

When I finally made my way through the long lines at customs, I walked through the welcoming area at London Heathrow right into a Starbucks. I guess we have globalization to thank for that and in this particular moment drinking an Americana in London was most welcome. So I guess the culture shock will have [...]

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Going Back to East Africa

Perhaps you’ve heard by now that I’m heading back to East Africa so here is the story. A couple of months back I walked into the student lounge at Bethel Seminary and noticed a flyer about a trip to Uganda. Having visited and fallen in love with Uganda and the surrounding region several years ago, [...]

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