Return to Kenya coming soon!

We have our tickets! We'll depart June 15, 2011 for a 3 month stay with our friends and family in Nakuru,Kenya. As I think of all of them, one little person stands out in my thoughts today, Michelle Haviylah. 

She is the cute and mischievous 2 year old of George and Nelly. We call her "sticky fingers" because she is quite the explorer and believes that we should have 'all things in common'. She loves to play with the things we bring from America. So I wrote this little pictorial poem so that you too can meet our dear "sticky fingers".  

Safari and more....

Our safari was delightful! We not only saw the wild life of Kenya, except for the lion, but we saw the beautiful landscape and breathed the clean, fresh air of Rift Valley. It was a much need reprieve from the work, but not without it's own challenges. We have yet to go on a safari without some sort of car trouble. We got stuck in a ditch which we were able to get out of with the help of everyone pushing and pulling. But then the gears wouldn’t shift properly. We found a spot to work on it and out of the van and under it went George. Within moments a guard with a gun, and a worker came to assist us. The guard kept us safe from lions while the worker helped George determine what was the problem. We were able to drive away but not without a lot of clanking noise. We decided to go out of the park and get it fixed, then come back to finish our safari. As we were leaving the attendant said we would have to stay and let George go out and come back. Our tickets were for 24 hours in the park. They were afraid he would go out and exchange us for other tourists and not pay the price. No problem, we just went to the café to get some chai and wait. When George returned we were just finishing our tea and ready to continue our tour through the park. We went to the top of a cliff and had lunch. Of course there were armed guards to prevent us becoming lunch for the wildlife. We saw blue and orange lizards and had a clear view of the park and the town of Nakuru from our picnic pavilion. The day was absolutely beautiful and we had plenty of time to see all we wanted to see.  I am grateful to God for His creation speaks of His Glory!

Saturday we had a Kingdom Hikers meeting. Amy and Bob Miller led the meeting giving them some practical ways to begin working together and encouraging them to take care and watch over each other. Then we went to Helen’s house for dinner. Helen is a very humble servant. Her cooking is excellent. She is the clan leader and has demonstrated the life of God in such a way that her people love and respect her and follow her lead in taking care of each other and the neighbors. She has delightful children who are happy and secure and actively contributing to the formation of the Kingdom Hikers.

Sunday was our last gathering here in Nakuru. When we arrived the singing had already started and as we took our seats we all felt a spiritual battle coming on. We didn’t know what to do except pray and ask for God’s leading. Soon Noah was on his feet and giving an exhortation which chased away the enemy. It was a strong word and was received well by all. The young kids danced and sang for us. Then the Kingdom Hikers danced. We gave out baptism certificates, said our good byes, and then gave rice and beans to every household. We went from the church to Patrick and Christine’s while George had a meeting with the leaders. After that, Morelle invited us to dinner to meet her family. We are eating well, maybe a little too well. I’m feeling very stuffed.

Today, Monday, we visited 4 homes in the Lakeview clan. I really do love going to their homes. They are so amazed and grateful to us for visiting. One couple we visited have a business roasting and selling peanut, which they call ground nuts. We bought some and had a nice snack. We asked the husband why men don't come to church. He said they have to work. Noah encouraged him to come and ask God to make up for the time spent. He told about how Patrick did the same and has been doing well since he chose to trust God. He said he would be sure to come next Sunday and really seemed to mean it. I'm always amazed at how little it takes to encourage a Kenyan. All four of the ladies we visited said they like to sing. We encouraged them to start a choir. We said we would bring Kallah next time to help themJ

We went to see Mary our “priestess”. She took us to her land where she showed us how she is building a house out of bricks made with her own hands. As we stood in what will be the living room area I told her we would come back and sit here and have tea with her. She smiled really big and started pulling things out of her bag. She gave each of us a tea cup and poured us a cup of tea from her thermos. Then she gave us each a little plastic bag and served us meat cakes. The bags were to hold the meat cakes as we ate them. It was absolutely delightful to stand inside her mud walls with the sky above us, enjoying her hospitality! She says she will be done and moved in, in 3 months. The land was given to her because of her faithfulness in serving God. She says she will make new friends and bring them to church. She will!

We have 3 days left in Nakuru. Today we visited 4 homes; went to see Mary’s land. Later this evening we’ll visit Patrick and Christine to video tape their story. Tomorrow we’ll have lunch with Petranila; video tape Petranila, George and Nelly; go to Helen’s clan meeting. Wednesday we’ll stay home and pack; spend time with visitors who drop in and meet once more with the Kingdom Hikers. Thursday we’ll wait for George to go to his court date and pray they don’t put him in jailJ Then we’ll head for Nairobi. Our flight doesn’t leave until 9:55 pm so we’ll go to a reptile and aquarium zoo to see the rest of the wildlife in Kenya. Then we’ll fly 9 hours to Paris, but, we’ll only see the airport and hopefully the backside of our eyelids for a 4 hour layover, 9 hours to Newark, then Nashville, by then it’ll be Friday with a 3 hour drive to home sweet home! We should arrive at about 8:30 pm if all goes well.

As I reflect over the past 6 weeks I realize once again how quick I am to grumble and complain. I'm learning to be still and seek God's grace. Many times I need grace from God. He has always been faithful to pour out His grace for the mere asking. How quickly I forget! I’m assured that no matter what the circumstances His grace is sufficient for me. This is a reality I cannot live without. What a wonderful Savior we have in Christ! He turns all things to His purpose when I give all my anxious thoughts to Him. I feel more free to serve Him and follow His leading in all things. Then only do I see how much I have to be grateful for. What a privilege it is to serve the living God!

See you soon! Love to all!

(I have more pictures but I can't get them to upload so I'll try a web album)

Safari not!

Today we planned to go on Safari in the beautiful Rift Valley.  George says this is a good time to go because the animals will be moving around and visible.  I’ve been looking forward to this since the first time I came to Kenya. I am still looking forward to it because it’s 10am and we had to postpone the trip once again. Hopefully we’ll go tomorrow. 

The reason for the delay is that we have been having water problems since our first week here. It’s been working ok but not much pressure until Saturday when we got up in the morning and there was no running water at all. So for the last 5 days it has been on and off with Fred, George, Bob and the plumber in and out trying different solutions. It seemed yesterday we finally had it fixed with good water pressure. We went to town to get groceries for lunch and to the Safaricom store to fix Joy and Amy’s modem. Suddenly George gave abba the keys to the van and took off saying something vague about the water pump. So we waited for Amy to finish her business. A car pulled up behind us and blocked us in. About the same time the driver disappeared Amy walked out. No problem, this happens all the time. Abba went to find the driver of the car who had disappeared. He talked to the security guard who had no answers so we waited….. I thank God that I’m a midwife and have learned the valuable lesson of waitingJ Abba kept looking in nearby places but couldn’t find the man. Joy, Bob Miller, Amy and I waited in the van. After about 20 minutes we decided we might just as well have some ice cream while we wait. So Bob and Amy walked back to the store to get some. Now these ice cream bars are really good…chocolate covered vanilla ice cream on a stick … ummmm… They were only gone a minute or two when the dear driver showed up and apologetically moved his car. Abba got in the driver’s seat of our van and backed out. Now that may sound like a simple thing, backing a car out of a parking place, but it was not. With poor visibility Joy and I were trying to direct Abba – “Wait! There’s a pedestrian. Wait there’s a car, another pedestrian, a motorcycle, a bicycle, a pedestrian, more cars”. “Ok , Go NOW!” “What?” “Go NOW!” Whew! We made it. Now that we’re on the road abba noticed that Amy and Bob are gone. We told him to go back to Tusky’s (grocery store). As we turned the corner we saw them walking back towards the Safaricom. Joy and I yelled across the traffic of cars, motorcycles, bike and yes, of course, pedestrians, “Hey!! Hey!!” Everyone on the street turned and looked at us mzugus yelling out the window with a mzugu driver. Fortunately Amy and Bob looked too and crossed the street to board the van. We laughed and ate our expensive ice cream bars (295 shilllings each) while abba drove us home on the wrong side of the rode dodging cars, motorcycles, bicycles and, did I say PEDESTRIANS? When we got home there was no water again, Morelle was cooking dinner, so we got ready to go to a clan meeting.

The clan meeting was good. It was easy to find the little one room house because we heard the singing from a distance and were able to follow it to that house.This particular clan has been struggling with commitment to each other. Abba started by asking Joy, Amy, Bob and I to tell our story with God and why we were here in Africa. While they were speaking I was silently asking God what He would have me say to these precious ladies. I told them how God had brought me out of a horrible pit that I had dug for myself and that He had set my feet on a solid Rock, Himself, Jesus Christ. I told them that I am in Kenya to share the “abundant life” He has given and taught us to live.  Abba started by telling them that was exactly what he wanted to talk to them about, “abundant life”. Abundant life is not money, houses and cars but comes from giving to each other even the little we have, taking care of each other and living in each other’s hearts. He challenged them to take care of each other and to become the very best clan. That we would return and find them the most talked about clan because of their faithfulness to each other. They listened intently and agreed that they needed to do that. It amazes me that God has given us faces to express the life inside of us. When we entered that room the faces were sad and depressed. As we left they were full of light and life. The Word of the Lord had come through earthen vessels and filled their hearts and minds with His Love.

Back to the water story….. It wasn’t until breakfast this morning that we got the whole story. We really didn’t know what caused George to abandon us in town except that it had something to do with the water problem at home.  It seems while we were in town George got a frantic phone call from Beatty, the house girl, saying the plumber ran away and some men were there taking the water pump away. George went down to the agent and recovered our pump with a promise that it wouldn’t happen again. We have water again so I think I’ll close and go take a showerJ

Hopefully my next blog will be all about our Safari to the Rift Valley!


[I can't get pictures to upload so I'll have to try later.]

What a trip!

We have been given the privilege of working in the clinic in Migori with the Kenya Relief team. But before I tell you about our time there I must tell you about the trip to Migori. We got up at 3am and were on the road by 3:30am. We had packed food for the journey, boiled eggs, scones (later given a name change by Abba, “hockey pucks”, popcorn, and of course Chai. Beatty got up when we did to make the chai for our trip. We hadn’t gotten far when Joy realized the thermos had leaked. When she picked it up all but ½ a cup had disappeared into the side step of the van. We couldn’t even find the lid. So abba emptied the thermos since he was the only one that wanted any at that moment. We rode on for about an hour when George suddenly pulled onto the side of the road, leaned his seat back and closed his eyes. We couldn’t believe he got us up at 3am to drive for an hour and then sleep. We asked what he was doing and laughed so he decided to go a little further. It was a cold night we were shivering to try to get warm. Half hour later he stopped again so we let him doze for about 15 minutes. He said he didn’t know why he was so tired. I think taking care of mzungus for 3 weeks might have something to do with it. I pulled out my Withania (Medi Herb energy pill) and gave him 2 tabs. We drove on over very bumpy roads that rearrange your insides. We finally got to Kissi where we were promised a nice hot cup of chai to warm our chills. There we found a familiar Tea Hotel. The nice man at the gate let us in. George went in to find out when we could get some tea. He came back and said they don’t open until 7am, it was 5:50am. Now we have to decide whether to wait or go on. George assured us there were no other places to go between here and Migori. We waited a while. We voted George should go back in and talk the hotel man into making us some tea. He has Nathanael’s gift of talking people into things. Didn’t work this time though, but he did find out where we could go to get tea. We went a little farther into town to a little hole in the wall place and got some very hot tea. We were grateful and were ready to continue our trip, the Withania and 4 cups of tea got George going pretty well by now. The sun was rising and the scenery was beautiful! Tea plantations went on for miles.

We finally arrived at the Brittany Home of Grace without car problems or getting lost. We were ever so grateful to be there. We were greeted by Alice who manages Kenya Relief from this side. She is a very hospitable, stately lady given to take care of the needs of those who come to help her people. George and Abba left us in our cozy bunk room and headed back to Nakuru to meet Pastor Daniel from India.  We were there before the rest of the team so we took a tour made ourselves at home and rested a bit. Bryan (nurse anesthetist) and Emily (photographer, and friend of Steve James family)  arrived next and offered to take us across the street to see the clinic. K.R. has about 45 acres of land with a highway dividing the 5 acres where the orphanage is and the rest is for clinic, farming, and a future hospital. Little did we know we would be packaging pills. It was a good time to chat and get to know each other a bit. We later welcomed the rest of the team, Dr. John Roberts, (pediatrician), Dorothy, Emily, and Lauren (pharmacy students), and Josh (chemical engineer). This was a very diverse team and a small one compared to others. We went to church on Sunday and visited a widow with 6 kids K.R. supports. By this time I wasn’t feeling too good but I assumed I was just tired from the trip. I went to bed early every night and missed out on some of the evening social time. 

Monday morning was our first clinic day. We didn’t exactly know what to expect but felt comfortable. The team was very relaxed and created a non stress environment. We arrived to see hundreds of staring, pleading eyes that seemed to say, “can you, will you, help me?”  We greeted them with smiles and Jambo’s  (hello’s). Knowing some would be waiting all day to be seen. I was assigned to Gyn/adult assessment room with Beatrice, a Kenyan nurse. I really had no idea what I was doing. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any medical care and never in a foreign country. I said a little prayer and rested in knowing God would give me what I needed. Beatrice was very sweet and helpful. She had a cold and wasn’t feeling well and the colicky pains in my stomach interrupted my train of thought on more than one occasion. So we were the sick treating the sick. We worked together well. She deferred to me which was a humbling experience since I knew she was very capable of doing this without me. We saw a lot of infectious diseases – malaria, parasites, fungal, viral, bacterial – gave out a lot of meds, counseled and prayed with them. One particular woman came to us with a lower abdominal mass, nausea, fullness, backache. When I examined her it was obvious she was pregnant! We did a pregnancy test to confirm it. Now that was fun! This same scenario happened again the next day. I have stories to tell that wouldn’t be appropriate to put in a blog, so we will talk laterJ

 I took a break from my room and went to watch Caroline in the pediatric room. The timing was perfect. Her patient was a baby and nursing mom who had a serious case of thrush. Caroline looked to me so I suggested nystatin drops for the baby and mom and vinegar water to cleanse with and stop the passing of the thrush back and forth.

Back to my room. Another patient had all the symptoms of sciatica. I had her lie on her back and showed her exercises to relieve the pressure on the nerves. Beatrice thought I was crazy at first. It was hard for her to interpret so I just laid down on the table and showed her how to do the exercise. Now that was comical. But it helped. A little while later we had another patient with back pain and Beatrice started explaining to her the exercises. Many have back pain, hip pain and neck pain from the work they do bending and carrying water and things on their heads. But you can’t tell them to take a couple weeks off work. They would starve.

Overall I believe I got a better picture of what we want to do in Nakuru. The clinic was interesting. I gave out A LOT of antibiotics. These people have very bad infections and a real need for medication. There’s plenty of access to medical care in Nakuru but to educate and teach wellness is needed.  I want to do a wellness clinic to try and teach them how to stay healthy. Herbs have a bad reputation here because of all the abuse by shaman ‘witch doctors’ so I will just teach nutrition and vitamins, exercise and body mechanicsJ  A prenatal clinic would be good too because many of them don’t go until they’re almost due. Anyway it gave me a lot to think about.

After 2 twelve hour days I was exhausted and realized something was going on inside. I going to blame it on the boiled egg I ate on the way here. Being as careful as possible doesn’t guarantee you won’t get something. I got on some antibiotics to get rid of whatever the cause of my distress. Thank you for your prayers. I’m finally feeling normal again.

Love to all!

Every day is the Lord's day!

August 30, 2010

Sunday was a very full day for all of us. We went to church to find only a few people inside the tent waiting. This is pretty typical. They usually sing and pray long enough for everyone to arrive. The singing was lead by Morris who is a very sincere man but full of charismatic practices. He was yelling so loud I had to plug my ears. Crying and taking deep breaths in preparation for the next long sentence he was about to speak. This went on for, well I’m not sure how long, but it was too long. We all wanted to get up and walk out but at the same time, wondered what God wanted to do about it. George went to the back of the tent to try to catch his eye and put a stop to all the theatrics. As I said in the beginning Morris is a sincere man and probably just needs help to see that what he was doing was fruitless. When it came time for Noah to speak he very carefully but clearly said things to help everyone see that God wanted to do a new thing in them. When they started to collect the tithes and offerings he suggested they give the money they intended to put in the offering to a neighbor in need instead. They wondered how they would pay the rent on the building if they did that. That amounted to 3000 shillings. Noah said he would cover it so they all agreed to do what he suggested. I hope to hear stories about people in their neighborhoods.

We went home to refresh ourselves before the ladies meeting, then headed out again to Carolines house. It was already packed out in the two small rooms she has for a house. Ladies were singing and dancing and enjoying each other. They took turns singing tribal songs but didn’t ask us to sing this time. I think they wanted to spare us the embarrassment. As they were singing I realized our problem is our songs are so different it just didn’t work. I started thinking about African Americans and the songs peculiar to that culture like “ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down”. As I was thinking that song they sang a song about what it will be like when they go to heaven. I tried to fool myself into thinking I really didn’t have to sing that song for them but it didn’t work. So I stood up and told them I was going to sing them a song. No turning back now. Thankfully Amy helped me sing it. They loved it and all joined in. I want to learn some more spiritual African American songs to bring back next trip. We had tea, donuts and ground nuts (roasted peanuts)…..talked and then left to walk over to the hotel conference room we had reserved for the meeting with ladies and Kingdom Hiker girls.

The purpose of this meeting was to open their eyes to see the need of the young people and guide them in how to work towards bridging the gap between them. The older women will teach the younger women as they have been taught of the Lord. They all seemed surprised to know it really didn’t have to be the way it is. They have watched the relationship Joy and I have with Amy and have never seen such a thing. Joy, Amy and I gave them a new vision. I gave each of the girls a pretty handkerchief (like the ones at Dassi and Nicoles passage) to remind them to work together with sweat and to share life’s tears of pain and joy together. 

We gave the women scripture cards to remind them to seek God’s wisdom as they walk together with the young ladies. Nelly, Helen, Mary, Petranilla and Christine also shared. They all seemed to be excited about the future and how they can help each other keep the youth on the right path with God. The young people were encouraged to know they would have somewhere to go with their struggles. Everyone had tea, sausage and cole slaw and visited with each other. It was nice to see them enjoying each other and being in a hotel restaurant. Most of them have never eaten out.

Noah, George and Bob Miller showed up at about that time to pay the bill and pick us up. We got Helen and Petranilla and went to a local restaurant for dinner. It was a good day. We were all very tired and slept well. Which was a good thing because Monday was another very busy day.

We did 5 home visits. We videotaped all of them telling their stories. Abba was the director, Amy the camera woman, I did the interviews with George interpreting, Bob Miller calculated the shillings to dollars when they told their stories and Joy kept us light and helped everyone including the Kenyans. Abba’s blog gives a very good report so I’ll refer you to the tab – Abba’s blog – at the top of this page. I couldn’t do a better job of describing these visits.

I realize I haven’t written a blog in a week. Last week was rough for me with 4 bad days of side effects from the malaria pill so I wasn’t up to writing. Today is Tuesday and George went to apply for his visa. They turned him down again saying essentially he doesn’t make enough money. Although it was a disappointment to all of us we are sure God is in it. We’ll just have to wait.

Reflecting on the events of the first half of our mission I’ve been asking myself, “why we are here?” There are so many humanitarian efforts helping people all over the world. There is so much need. We seem to be doing something a bit different than most missionaries we know of. Our focus is to build the church indigenously - to help them learn to help themselves and each other, to teach them the scriptures that they might learn to live their lives for Him alone, to worship God not only on Sunday but with everything they do and say. God has gathered together the very finest of the wheat to pour out His spirit upon here in Nakuru. May we do all that He asks us to do. Please do not cease to pray for us. 

We need your prayers every minute of every day. Our time is short and we don’t want to waste it.

We are His family…

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We had a busy day! Since we take our malaria prevention pill on Monday I’m not feeling my best. It makes me dizzy and a little nauseated not to mention the constant ringing in the ears. Better than having malaria though… or is it?  We started the day with oatmeal pancakes with honey and bananas made by Joy. Have you ever noticed when we pray for a meal we often say something like “bless the hands that made it”? You know we actually know who made it, so we can bless them, so we do that now when we pray. It’s kinda nice and more personal. After all, we are His family.

We did three home visits today. First we went to Sycilias house. She is such a wonderful person. She always has a really big smile beaming across her face. She tells everyone in her neighborhood about the gospel of Christ and the Lakeview church. Many have come because of her and her daughter Janet.

Walking through the neighborhood from house to house is quite an experience. Children run up to us saying, “howwaaru?”  Cows and goats grazing and wandering around, people staring out their doorways. When they stare at you they look mad until you speak to them and then they light up. They are shocked that mzungus would come into their neighborhood. The ones we are visiting are so proud to show us off.

We went to Seline’s house. She told us what happened last year when her 2 year old son died. He had been playing outside when she called him in to get ready for bed. She tells the story with great detail, especially the dialog between her and her son, which was the last time she spoke with him. She found in the bed the next morning, dead for no apparent reason. I asked her why she didn’t get mad at God. She said her faith had grown because of the love and support she got from the church during this time. We recorded the story and asked other questions too. I wanted to know how often the family gets to eat. She said once or twice a day they have ugali and vegetables. I don’t think they are starving but they are hungry. We pray that God will show us how to help.
Although it’s very emotionally taxing, home visits are my favorite thing to do here. We really get to touch their lives and it changes us inside in ways I can’t even describe.

Tonight Abba taught the clan about being the family of God. He started out talking to them about how we need to love God first and then each other. We had just finished recording a video interview with a few of the clan members. Kennedy told how his father left him when he was a young boy and Violet told how her husband left her with 4 children, one of them cripple. Abba tied that into his talk, encouraging them to be the family of God and to never leave each other as they had been left. It seemed to have a real impact on them. It’s really hard to tell if they are understanding or not, but as I watched their faces they slowly began to change. Where there was sadness, hope appeared!

We gave them a kerosene lantern because they have no electricity and have to use candles for light. I noticed Dorris had red and weeping eyes, symptoms of a severe eye infection. So we went to the Chemist and got her some eye drops for just 300 shillings. That’s about $3.50 .

When we give money, medicine and food it is a good thing, but it will soon be gone. When we give them the love of the One who first loved us, it is eternal.

There is no greater gift.

Comic relief…

August 21

One of my favorite proverbs is …. a merry heart is a good medicine. God gave George a great sense of humor. Sometimes he makes me laugh until I cry.

He’s been telling us for a year what a good cook he is. We never believed him because he never did cook. We challenged him to make good on his word so he decided to cook on Friday. This little video shows the fun we had with it. Actually, it was a great meal. As you can see he had help with the prep work but the cooking was his.

Sorry the video didn't upload. Go to my web album to view video.

Now a little story about Morelle. She cooks for us every night except Sunday. She decided to play a little practical joke on me. That was her first mistake

Here’s the rerun of the August 19^th blog in case you didn’t read it:

When we got home Morelle had dinner prepared for us. She greeted me with a concerned look on her face and said, “Amma, I am sorry. I dropped the chicken on the floor.” I said, “OK….” And went to see what had happened. Then she broke out laughing to end the practical joke she wanted to play on us. I let her have her laugh and then warned her that there will be payback. Amy told her I am a brownie. When you least expect it. Anyone have any ideas? Now she's worriedJ

Saturday night she made curry chicken. I taught her how to make it so she was following my recipe. We decided to tell her the food didn’t taste good. Noah Pavao would start it so she wouldn’t suspect anything. He began with, “I don’t want to be rude…but….this doesn’t taste good.” I chimed in with, “What did you do? This just isn’t right”. Morelle was shocked, we always praise her cooking. She didn’t know what to say so she just said, “I did what you told me.” Amy started laughing, Joy didn’t know what to say. Abba said something like, “There’s something wrong with this chicken.” George and Nelly watched the whole exchange. I could see Morelle was getting upset so we ended it pretty quick. It took her a while to recover. She said she was turning red. (we couldn’t tell) and her face was hot. We all laughed. Finally she said, “Amma, you got me good!” After all that there were many reassuring comments. We wanted to make sure she came back.

Sunday’s gathering

Teresa went to church with us so we brought her home for lunch. Nelly stayed home and cooked lunch for us so it was ready when we got there. After we ate we went over to Teresa’s to look at some paintings by a man named Peter. His paintings will be in an art show in New York. He gives 10% of the profit to a Kenyan ministry of the buyer’s choice. They were really good paintings. Joy bought 4 in hopes that we can sell them and raise money for our work in Africa.

Now on our way to Teresa’s this is what we saw…

 Janam Funeral Services

         Mombasa

                                                                                      Can I help you?

Don't worry. We arrived safe and sound.