Waking up on the left side of the road...

When the airplane landed in Nairobi I was a terrible mix of emotions - partly because I was so excited to be back in Africa, but mostly because I was extremely tired! After two long flights (around 7 hours each) and a four hour layover in Amsterdam I was beat. After waiting for my bags at the conveyor belt I walked out to look for the person picking me up. It took me a while but I finally found the guy - he was holding a small sign that said "Aron Wilcox"...I didn't even try to correct him, for the short ride to the Sam's Purse guesthouse I had no problem being Aron Wilcox. Part way to the guesthouse we randomly stopped on the side of the road and I was handed the key to the guesthouse...I felt like I was on some sort of covert mission being given my keys at such a random place...but anyway, I made it to my room and a comfy bed so that's all that counts.

And when I woke up -early enough to for the sunrise - I was on the left side of the road. Yep, when I hopped in a car yesterday morning I just about had a heartattack when we pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. The left side of the road is not only a little bit of a shock to the system because its not the right side of the road but it is also a shock because the left side of the road also includes..the middle of the road, the side of the road, the shoulder of the road, the ditch next to the road, the pothole in the road, and just about anywhere that can get you where you are headed faster. I've only been in Kenya for a day and a half so far but I can asure you - my gaurdian angels are already wishing I had stayed in New Jersey where the drivers are calm compared to Nairobi.
Ok, well the main point of this post is that I'm in Kenya. I will try to post again before heading to Sudan next week. For now I'd better sign off and try to get some stuff done ...ie - brave the roads once again!

grace and peace,
"aron wilcox"

final boarding call....

When I was little and we flew KLM I loved it - we used to get these cool pins that had the wings just like a captain and for a little rascal like me who dreamed of being a pilot it was the greatest thing ever. We used to stare out the window at the giant airplanes trying to guess which one was ours...and here I am again. In a little over an hour I will be boarding my flight and taking to the air. I have spent the last few days packing and getting ready and now here I am ready to go - just waiting for that boarding call.
It hasn't quite sunk in that I am really on my way but I am. Four years ago when I left Africa for the US I wondered if I would ever be going back and now here I am about to return to the land that I love so much.
I am not real sure what to expect as I head out and I feel like this is just a rambling entry but mostly I just wanted to let people know that I am leaving the US and will be in Kenya by tomorrow. I will be there until the 5th of July when I head up to Sudan. I am excited about starting my activities there and you can pray that the Lord gives me calm and confidence as I head out.

You are all in my thoughts and prayers.

And so it begins...."the most exciting adventure ever..."

Looking back it seems as if yesterday I was being bundled into a small Cessna airplane to head off to boarding school. Mom was crying because her little boy was leaving home, but I, of course, had on a brave face; after all, school was a great adventure waiting to happen! Or perhaps it was yesterday that I was looking out a bus window at my family as I headed off to college orientation – mom may have been crying, but that didn’t matter, I was terrified! Yes, it feels like that was yesterday, but no, yesterday was the day I walked across a stage and into the arms of “the real world”. Besides being one of the most overused, irritating phrases every invented for the English vernacular, it also happens to be one of the most exciting and daunting – so I think maybe I’ll just call it “the most exciting adventure ever that’s likely to scare the pants off me at times”.
So you may be wondering by now what “the most exciting adventure ever, that’s likely to scare the pants off me at times” has in store for me at this point in my life. Well, I’ll tell you, but first I’m sure it would be a comfort for all of you to know that so far I haven’t lost my pants - though to claim that this adventure isn’t scary would be a lie.
On May 21st I graduated from Wake Forest – yippee!! - and I have spent the last few weeks doing maintenance work for a little extra cash in NJ. My time here in NJ is quickly drawing to a close and the next few weeks will be very busy for me. As many of you know I will be headed to Sudan to work for an organization called Samaritan’s Purse doing logistical work for one of their projects.My job will be to make sure that the project gets the supplies that it needs and keeps running smoothly –ie keeping vehicles in running condition. I leave for Africa on the 25th of June.
As I head out, there are several things that you can be praying about for me. First and foremost that I would keep my eyes on Jesus and be filled with the Spirit as I head out into this great unknown that is ahead of me. Secondly, please pray that God would bless me with an uncanny ability to learn Arabic – for my job it will be important to pick up a basic understanding of the language fast. I have spent a year studying basic Arabic but I am not sure how useful it will be when I get there – so please pray! Thirdly, pray that I will make many friends among my coworkers and the Sudanese people I live among and that I will be humble and willing to learn from them all. Also, pray that each day I will understand more fully the grace in which I stand and the riches of the inheritance I have received. Finally, please pray for my safety.
As this great adventure begins there have been a couple of things that have struck me which I would like to share. The first is about the potential “danger” of what I am about to embark on. I have been reminded of a conversation in The Chronicles of Narnia in which the Pevancy children ask the beavers if Aslan is safe. The beavers laugh, “who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” This little passage from fairytale has a lot of truth behind it. Is our king Jesus safe? Of course not!! He calls us to carry a cross and follow him – I don’t know about you but carrying a cross has never sounded safe to me. The good news though is that our King is good!! Yes, he is good! – and at the end of all of this he will wipe the tears from our eyes and say well done. A while back I wrote the following: This journey has its moments when today’s trials never end and tomorrows troubles seem too big; when the weight of life just won’t let go because eternity has slipped from my eyes. I forget that I have been bought not just for today or tomorrow, but for eternity. In those moments Lord give me a glimpse of heaven to remind me that I’ve been bought for eternity. This journey is certainly filled with many scary moments and traveling with a lion as guide is both assuring and terrifying but like the great men of faith in Hebrews 11 I hope that my eyes too will be fixed on the eternal and thus find the strength to carry on.

Hebrews 12: 1-3 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

“This is the world as best as I can remember it”,

Aaron

"This is the world as best as I can remember it" ~rich mullins