BLOG Tuesday JUNE 23
First, I pray this makes it online. It is a hard day. I fought cockroaches two nights in a row. Then I had very realistic dreams that demons were attacking me in the bed pinning me down and not allowing me to speak the name of Jesus. It was far too realistic. I’d sure like to have a nice night of sleep, but the Lord sustains me. Today is a particularly hard day made harder by lack of sleep, I am sure. I have so many decisions to make all day long and so many instructions to give people. Steve is far better at decisiveness and yet I am growing daily. I want to just sit on here and mourn. I want to just complain. I’d like some sympathy, some comfort. I’d like a break. I praise God I have no desire to quit or run away.
The building costs are much more than estimated. The salaries for the medical clinic are even $2000 a month for only a doctor and two nurses! We need an autoclave. We need to dig some sort of pit where they dispose of medical waste. They call them sinks. (like a sink-hole, I guess) I saw some at an area government hospital that I toured briefly but the quality was so low. They tell me you may show up with malaria and go home with typhoid. Scary. We have issues with the building plans. The original plans were only for the computers, a library, tailoring and carpentry. Now we are just computer lab and medical clinic. We have orphans everywhere. Even if I blink, the number of orphans grows. But I am halting at 19—although I am willing to profile 3 more, which makes 22. There are three older boys who need school fees.
I was to go to the bank today. I went the other day. Every time I get in the car, it costs me 6 to 13 dollars, even 29. I want to stop getting in the car! Well, be careful what you pray for. The car broke down today. So I took the Matatu—minivans that function as a public transport system. It was a nice one. The Lord blessed me. Then I get to the bank and now they want my passport. I had come with my passport the first time. They only used my drivers license. I even came another time with only my license. But this time, I had no car. They wanted my passport. The bank tells me, “Go back and get your passport if you want your money.” Well, I asked for a superior because I was in a difficult situation. I prayed. I explained. The amount of withdrawal was huge. She finally relented. I will bring it from now on!
Then I realized. Okay, I’ve got $9,000 US dollars on me. And I need to take public transport back to Shibuli, ALONE? (gulp) Okay, you have to know I never even walk around with cash at home. Seriously, I never even have over $80 on me at any time. I usually have $20 that I got from the grocery store and I end up giving that to children or spending it quickly. So we called Frank to come and get me to give me a ride back on his motorcycle. The roads here are scary and ridiculous at times. They do not bother me, though. I just take it in stride. There is constant waiting around here. I just take it in stride. But this was not a “take it in stride” day, so had Henry call Frank. Henry, our accountant, had to go into town with nearly $2000 on HIM in order to buy supplies for the building. We are trying so hard to finish the building! It is so expensive. I pray God will make it in some sort of miracle, but I think we may need to look at storing the equipment in these upstairs rooms at the church and just pray mightily for protection over it all. The building needs changes—I was mentioning that. We have to put in extra sort of electricity for the medical equipment. A doctor was advising us of what we needed. He is such a good man. He works up at Emusanda. Every medical professional has been so kind and welcoming. They have assisted us in any way they could and have been very free with instruction or information. They are so thankful we are coming to help the people here. The need for maternity services is tremendous. I have such high hopes and big prayers, but financially, I am just wondering today if I am stretching too far. Unless we have regular donors to support the hospital, it may just have to wait. I would have to just give away this wonderful equipment we have purchased, but the area hospitals could put every single piece to good use. They work in such lack.
Also, one horrible thing is that at some point the government will come and make sure our employees are paying their taxes (that part is good and normal) and then they will make us put them on health insurance but their national program is HORRIBLE. It is expensive with minimal benefits. I realize why the government has it----because most of the services rendered here are LOW priced or even free. So the workers with jobs are subsidizing the rest of the population. Doesn’t seem fair but I suppose someone has to pay.
And now to make things WORSE, the lawyer came today. He says he needs another 40,000Ksh in order to get the signature for our Kenyan NGO. We have already paid him nearly $800, which he said would be total. But now he needs another payment of over $500? He said the registrar’s is suddenly requiring a late fee.
OH BUT PRAISE GOD!! As I sat typing, in comes an Apostle of God. My eyes turned to Jesus. He sent me a miracle! This man comes in and immediately begins to preach faith to us and wow! I was so blessed! He spoke some amazing things over us. He said some people had some money they were going to give to some other organization, but God would not let them. It was for Trinity Global Development.
He said that we would have the building. He spoke so many good things over us. He spoke about the hospital. He prayed over the land for the orphan house. He told me he would come back and tell me how it should be. I will make it like that, whatever he tells me. I am trusting God, not this man. God is speaking to me through him. I had him pray for the preschoolers. I had him pray for our computer students that were in class. I had him pray for the construction workers.
I am going to post. I haven’t had time to write because people come in over and over for meetings. We have 10,000 details to deal with (that might not even be an exaggeration.) But God is stretching me and I am excited about how Great the Work of God can be!