Home from Kenya

Oh God is good. I've just returned home and now I've gotten the house back in order. I've paid my bills and washed the clothes and posted a few pictures on facebook. I'm so thankful. We had a wonderful time in Kenya with our friends. How amazing to go back and see them so soon. Anita and I were just beside ourselves. God is so good! and how fun for Anita and I to be on the other side of the world together talking about Jesus after being friends for over 20 years. cool.

i need to make a report. i hesitate to even do it. once I've told people about it, it will just fade in their memory like an old story. Old news. yesterdays news. but it is happening NOW. The work of God is going on NOW and it continues!

I can't remember right now how much we had in donations. We have at least four people whose donations will come through their company's matching funds. We're willing to wait for it!

We purchased 100 children's chairs for the school. Your dollars at work! We purchased six tables and either two or three cabinets for books. We officially agreed on the salaries for the two current teachers. They are advertising for new teachers with certification in early childhood education. We may keep these two teachers on as aides and we have a cook hired, too.

We spoke with the architect about building plans for the computer lab and library. Eventually we'd like to have it be two stories with a carpentry school and a tailoring school on the bottom and the computer lab and library on the top. For now, we'll build a one story building with a foundation capable of expansion to two stories. The land was purchased with money we sent in January before we had Trinity up and running.

We hired three people for the computer lab. One main guy is already a computer teacher who knows programming languages. he's also going to be our administrator. We left a computer with him. Another guy got a computer and he's going to be training so that he can also teach others. then we have a librarian ready to begin once the library is there. We may be able to get the building up, but it may be some time before it is filled with books! books are hard to ship, very expensive.

We also spoke with a local clinic and found out their needs. We went to a hospital and spoke with a doctor there. We purchased VERY low cost government dispersed mosquito nets at 65 cents a piece rather than the five dollars they would cost at the grocery store. He let us purchase quinine from him to send to the local clinic. Mom got one big bottle of 1000 and we bought one bottle of 1000. each bottle has 2000 doses for children.

malaria is a terrible killer. pregnant and nursing mothers and infants are particularly susceptible. AIDS kills slowly, malaria is frequent and quick. The doctor said that prevention is the key and the nets have significantly reduced the number of cases they treat daily.

We brought the donated aspirin and tylenol, and feminine products to the clinic. Mom brought a stethescope and a blood pressure cuff, a merck manual, exam gloves and alcohol wipes. They were so thankful and grateful. Talk about a pleasure to give! wow! it just makes you want to go find more to give.

and the need is so great, it is only a drop in the bucket.

but if everyone gives a drop, the bucket could runneth over!

and so I pray that we will continue to get the message out and that God will encourage others to join us in sharing with the poorest of poor.

Anita and I really enjoyed going around to the churches. The people are so welcoming. they are so blessed to have the novelty of visitors come into their lives. they are so friendly and cheerful even in their poverty. They know they are suffering, but they really look to the Lord for provision and relief and healing and encouragement. It is such a blessing to be around them.

The camera helps make easy friends. they love their picture taken. i wish I could hand them a finished photo! i will send photos for some, but it would cost a fortune to make them all and the money is better spent elsewhere.

Little Paul had been in the hospital when my mother made the visit there. Titus and Rose prayed for Paul. A few days later, we headed up the road to Margaret's house to pray for little Paul. He was out of the hospital but he was still hot with fever. We purchased that Quinine and were glad to send him some medication.

Another boy named Paul attends the school. He is 7 or 8 but he's not been to school and cannot afford to go. both of his parents died in a car accident and his pre-teen brother was left to raise the family. There is no way they will be able to pay for the uniforms or the books or the daily meal that are required in order to attend free public school. But Paul is learning English and Swahili at our preschool and he gets a free meal each day. Let's hope he's a whiz at computers because we do not have an elementary school yet and it would be a shame for him to only have a preschool education.

On a lighter note, there was the free termite meal night. I was not there, but mom and anita were awakened by people crawling around their house and it spooked them. they finally got up to find out what was going on. people had come to the place where there was electric lighting. After the rains, the termites had come in swarms. to the kenyans, this was manna from heaven! they were out collecting them and sticking them in cups and jars to take home and cook. for the hungry, they can be eaten alive as a sweet snack. Our friends gladly demonstated. UGH! even little children pick them up and snack on them cheerfully.

and then there was the day that Anita received the amazing luxury gift of a rooster. She was blessed. She knew what a sacrifice this was for Godwin and Mildred. Mildred was pregnant when we were there in December and we gave her baby supplies because she had nothing. Godwin had been a muslim who came to Jesus and his family rejected him and cut him off. He had nothing.

But the baby died in her womb and she delivered a stillborn. We were so grieved. Anita and I were talking on the phone when she got the email. We cried and prayed for young little Mildred.

so it was with great joy that we saw she was doing well. Anita accepted the gift graciously. She and mom headed to bed early that night. About 10pm, someone peeked into the room......was she ready to get up to eat dinner? ......no thank you, she was already asleep.

when she got up in the morning, she saw the boys eating the night's leftovers. it was rooster. and not any rooster, but her gift rooster! Gone, eaten. and they enjoyed him. Oh well, you can't exactly take him home, right? mom wishes she'd have gotten a picture of that bone on the plate. evidence that mr. rooster did indeed exist. but he passed into obscurity instead.

then there was my food poisoning. should I make a story out of that? ha ha! it was very public. everyone told me wherever i went afterwards that they were praying for my sickness. hooray! but I am glad they prayed. all through my misery, i continally thanked God telling Him, It is worth it. I am glad to be here. this is nothing. it will pass.

and it did.
and I'm fine.
i lost 10 pounds and then gained it right back, darn it.
slim for three days.
oh i guess there are more important things.

we did get to go around to several churches and preach the good news and rejoice with our brothers and sisters. We got to worship with them, which is always fun. especially at Joseph's church ---and I heard that Thomas Boya's church is very lively---but I was not able to make that one. We went to Sony's church, Boniface's church, Geoffrey's church at pastor cosmos' house, Stanley's church, Joseph's church, Thomas' church, I'm sure I'm missing some. We visited the high school, an elementary school, 2 hospitals and a clinic.

oh man, at one hospital there was a 19 year old named Japeth. Japeth was in hideous shape. We laid hands on him in prayer. he looked like a late stage AIDS patient but he wasn't. He had seizures and epilepsy and other things like maybe TB or something. He was all drawn up and skinny. He barely seemed coherent and was clearly in great pain.

His father used to care for him, but his father died a year ago. since then he'd been basically left to himself. The doctor, a very good man who runs the hospital in a rural area plus a clinic in kakamega and is a pastor, too---He made house calls in the area and found this boy uncared for. He demanded that the family bring him in for surgery. his bedsores were like giant holes the size of oranges eating into his hip. they brought him in a green old wheelbarrow that rested outside of his door. The pain that must have caused him! Japeth is often on my mind and I hate to consider how he suffers every minute. How he has suffered this last year! and he is just one of many who are unseen suffering in a world without treatment! But this doctor will care for him. He was going to take him into surgery that same day to remove the dead areas and put the boy on the path to healing.

there was so much fun there, though, too. i loved meeting Melab, wife of pastor Steve, mother to baby Anita, named after Anita when she came in December. Melab is a beautiful smart woman who sings and plays the drum for worship. She has a beautiful happy fat baby, which is so good to see when many babies are NOT fat. it is rare.
Steve asked Pastor Steve to stand next to his wife and get close to her. bishop titus is encouraging local pastors to love their wives as christ loves the church and to be affectionate with her. So pastor Steve sort of lays hands on his wife. My steve says, Hey, you look like you are PRAYING for her, get closer, so Pastor steve just takes a step closer but leaves his hands there on her neck. THIS CRACKS ME UP EVERY TIME I SEE IT!!! IT IS SO LOVELY AND DORKY!! He was trying.
They are a great couple, great people. one of my favorites. I look forward to getting to know them more and more.

okay, nap time. a little quick snooze so I can serve my hubby when he comes home from his first day at the office. he was sick from a cold he caught in kenya and suffered on the plane trip home. we got home at 1am on saturday morning and then went to garson's baylor graduation in waco first thing on saturday morning and did not get home until 7:30pm!!! so we crashed and then Steve slept most of sunday and the night too, and now he's had to go into work.

i've worked these past days, too, getting everything back in order, house restocked, bills paid, laundry washed, ....and so I'll get a little snooze to perk back up again.

God is good, all the time, in all ways, Amen!