Africa By Radio

After being in Africa for a few days, still not really over jet lag, the Ginters, Laura, and I were up at 2:30 am to head to the airport to catch an early flight to Nairobi, Kenya. We were headed to the Africa By Radio Intercontinental Conference in Limuru (a suburb of Nairobi). We were joined by Every Village’s radio voice, Daniel who is a South Sudanese man from the Dinka tribe. After a short flight, we made our way through a big tent housing the Kenyan customs due to the recent fire that destroyed much of the Nairobi airport. Outside the airport, we were greeted by a driver who was holding a sign for us. (I have always wanted to be picked up that way, so I can cross that off the bucket list!) The drive through Nairobi was rather entertaining as well as nerve wracking. Imagine a 6 lane divided highway, with groups of 10+ people randomly rushing across the lanes of traffic.  It was kind of like an arcade game simulator as we weaved through traffic dodging the groups of people. I was very happy that I was not driving. We even witnessed a man on the side of the road get a running start towards a moving matatu (minivan public taxi crammed full of people) with the door open, and he jumped right on the side for the ride.

After arriving at the conference and settling into our rooms, we connected with a lady from KSBJ (a radio station in Houston). She was such a blessing as she was able to introduce us to many of the other organizations that were present. This gave us many connections with people who have been doing radio outreach for years, which will be handy in the near future as we try to figure out how to do radio since no one on the team has any background at all in radio or any type of communications.

The conference consisted of a series of main lectures with breakout sessions focused on specifics (technical, reaching kids, writing radio dramas, etc). Every morning we began the day with worship. It was like a small glimpse of heaven being able to corporately worship with so many different races. We were able to meet people from all over the world that use radio to communicate the Gospel. People from over 20 African countries were represented.  It was such a blessing to be around people so passionate about using media to spread the love of Christ. It was a huge encouragement as we sat through different sessions at the conference to continually hear strategies similar to the one of Every Village. Radio and media are great tools to be used and should be taken advantage of, but nothing can take the place of face to face discipleship in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. 

Probably my favorite part of the conference (besides getting to hear the stories of well-seasoned missionaries in dangerous parts of the world), was the last night when they had an awards gala. The attire for this event was traditional African dress. Getting the opportunity to see all the different garb was awesome. There was more worship and even some dancing! I’m pretty sure there are some random pictures out there of the mzungu (white person) trying to dance.

Conference room

Tea time!

Traditional African garb

Worship in dance