Last Sunday was a red-letter day for my trip preparations. That afternoon, my parents dropped by a check from a family friend, the Rev. Dr. Beryl West, which put me over the top in my fund-raising. I have now submitted everything I owe to LEAMIS International Ministries to cover my trip and air fare -- more than $3,500.

I may still receive a few checks in the mail from out-of-town friends or relatives, and if I do I will apply them to some other trip-related expenses, such as buying materials for my soap-making workshop. But I don't have to worry about the big expense now.

And I was, I'm ashamed to admit, worried about it. My previous two foreign trips should have taught me about God's provision. Every time I've gotten ready to go on a trip, the money has turned up. Sometimes, it turns up in unexpected amounts from unexpected sources, as if God wants to remind me who's really in charge of my preparations. But it always turns up.

I also got some in-kind gifts this week. I had posted a message to a soap-making message board on the Internet, asking for advice about a particular recipe, and one of the members, on hearing of my mission trip, offered out of the blue to send me a couple of brand new stainless steel pots. (Because the lye used in soap-making is so reactive, only certain types of cookware, such as stainless steel, will work.) That kind of generosity from a complete stranger is humbling.

I asked my church for help with safety glasses for the workshop, and they came through as well. And a local businessman has promised me a few Bibles or New Testaments to take along. I gave away the Bible I carried on last year's trip -- not during our work week in Kibera, but while we were en route to our debrief site at the Masai Mara National Wildlife Refuge. A man standing outside a souvenir shop in Narok had asked me for a Bible, and as our van drove away I could see him sitting on the porch reading it.

It was appropriate that Dr. West's contribution put me over the top. Dr. West, an irrepressible Baptist preacher and Middle Tennessee State University psychology professor, has been on numerous mission trips to China and I consider him one of my early inspirations to mission work.

Sadly, I will miss his wedding -- which my father is officiating -- while I'm on the Kenya trip.

Speaking of Baptists: Sunday night, still on a high from meeting my financial goal, I went to Fair Haven Baptist Church to hear a presentation by Wilbert Nelson and Randy Swift. Wilbert, who's widely known here in town, and Randy, who comes from Chattanooga, had just returned from their own mission trip to Kenya. They were in Homa Bay, which (as best I can tell) is not too terribly far from Kegogi, the town where I will be working next month. Wilbert had gone over thinking that his role would be purely evangelistic, but he was moved by the horrid contaminated pond which the town had been using for its water supply. The water was directly responsible for a high mortality rate in the town.

He and Randy were in the town to check on the completion of a well which Randy had seen being dug the year before. Wilbert was so moved by the situation that he now wants Fair Haven to commit to paying for another well in Kenya.

I'm going to get them some information about New Life International, an Indiana-based Christian group which produces an inexpensive water purification system for use in such remote locations. LEAMIS has begun installing New Life purifiers on its trips.

The New Life web site offers this statistic from World Vision: "In the developing world, contaminated water accounts for 80 percent of all diseases and claims the lives of 5 million children a year."

Think about that the next time you use your faucet.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com. "Countdown to Mission" will appear each weekend from now until his Kenya trip in August.