monday PM in shibuli

BLOG UPDATE MONDAY MORNING
The lawyer has not registered us. Frank is in Nairobi. He went to the registrar’s office. They checked and the name has not been registered and is available. Frank has picked up the forms for registering an NGO. The office told him that if we are registered as a charity in the USA, then we need to submit those official forms with our application. And God will be with us. Always. God is with us always.
I am sitting here in the office with Catherine. We are discussing the students. She was a great help to me yesterday. I could rely on her at a moment’s notice. We were in the church service and the Apostle (his name is so difficult. He is a Nigerian. Much easier to call him Apostle. He calls me Missionary.) He came as a special guest. He prayed blessings over so many people. We did communion and it was chaos but lovely. I had to be at his beck and call (my joy!) and Catherine was a real servant to me as I was a servant to the Apostle. We all worked in sync. Evelyn also was a great. If I needed something, she found a way to do it. So as the apostle relied on me, I also had opportunity to test my workers in other areas. One of our students, Jack, who is an outstanding young man, really hesitated when I was calling him out of the audience to assist me. Charles, an evangelist sitting in front of him, kept thinking I was calling on him. A widow who was sitting to the side of them, but closer to me, thought I meant her. We were all signing back and forth until finally the widow got up. I just said thank you and got her to hold the blood of Jesus for communion. Turns out she is one of the widows in Bulechia church (which I’ve been calling Ebulechia) where Joseph is pastor. She cares for the orphans in her home. She is precious. I’ve met her many times but now I know her name. Then I’ve heard of her many times and now I know her face. It is good!
I am having Catherine rank the students according to ability. I have spoken with them today about not being like others. You have to rise above others. You cannot rise above if you are just like everyone else. But it is difficult to avoid doing what everyone else does. But the reason AVERAGE is average is completely due to the clumping of people in the center. We want to be the outliers. The one in the chart that is way off in front. If we are not in the front, then we want to look out to see who is in front. Find out what they are doing and work to be like them. Ask them to help you. When you are in front, you turn around to teach others everything you know. You help others rise. You help others avoid just going with the crowd. You cannot just be a Kenyan. You cannot just be American. You have got to be a citizen of heaven. If you find your culture is not heavenly, then perhaps your home is not heaven. Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. If you look just like the people around you—you are not rising above. Jesus is WAY above us and we must keep our eyes on Him. We don’t even listen when people criticize. We listen for the rebuke and we check ourselves—if we are in the right, we keep going. If we are in the wrong, we correct our course. Otherwise, we ignore it. It is small minded people who need to criticize. Even I am small when I am criticizing. It just shows that I am weak. Instead, we want to build up or rebuke. But criticism? It is never motivated by love. Suggestions should be welcomed…they are usually motivated by a helpful heart that cares about the goal. They do not always need to be heeded, but a wise man welcomes suggestions at all times—and even course corrects when someone has made a good case for something different. I’ve been attacked for suggesting a different course of action. It just reminds me to listen to other’s suggestions more openly, but we alone stand before God, therefore, choose wisely always unto the Lord.
We have more news back from Frank, who has spoken with a lawyer in Nairobi and received feedback. We need evidence of what business has transpired. We need to send a registered letter outlining our negotiation history with him, including the day he came for the extra money “for late fees.” We need to find out where he delivered our papers so we can verify with the place he claims he has submitted. We need copies of the forms he created for us. We can do it. It will happen.
Tomorrow, Henry will submit papers for a CBO, a community based organization. We can have that within a week. We can begin work on exemption papers. We need those before July 10th. PRAY. BELIEVE! Trust.
Joseph came today with an amazing and terrible story of the trials he suffered when returning the orphans to their homes. The truck was lodged in the mud twice. The first time, drunk men came and recognized Titus’ vehicle and even though they were all drunk, they pushed him out of the mud together. Then they were stuck another time, but without gas. There is so much more to the story but I will wait until I can copy his notes. I’ve requested a summary so I can type it out on here for you.
The apostle came again today. He prayed over the building. He is leaving this area today. He prayed over the land. He showed me how much land God is declaring mine for the future. It was huge. He showed me where I should put my house in the future. He said to build the orphan home for now, but later put my own home in another place. He said God showed him a great Bible College there in the future. I like it! This is all the most fun stuff in the world! (not the heat. Not the bugs. Not the food.)
I cannot even imagine all that God will do—and I am so eager to see these things unfold. The computer lab is now the smallest of activities! And it was such a grand plan to begin with! We have already purchased the computers. We have the employees. We have the building (which will be finished by fall—sooner if you send support!) and we have the students. They are coming along fine. Catherine has ranked students according to programming skills with input from Walter and Joseph. Then I’ve asked them to grade those students on five elements: Positive attitude, Practical working, Entrepreneurship, Faithfulness, and Professionalism with a typical A, B, C, D, F sort of grade so I can see their strengths.
I’m going to talk with them more on body language. I wish I had shipped my book on world business culture and manners. It is a wealth of information that I could share with them. I would like to make a seminar sort of day but that is not likely to happen under current conditions. But there is much to share. They are young—near 20 as a rule. I was so pleased and surprised to see it is a female who is in 2nd place in class. Her name is Dorcus Ogola. When I get home—oh the photos I can upload when I talk about something or someone!
I sent Pastor Joseph home with my small camera to get photos of Daisy tomorrow. I will send Pastor Juma with my camera tomorrow so he can bring me photos of Evangeline, but when I tried to tell him, he did not really understand me. OH that I could speak in many languages!