Today is Monday. I woke up and decided to write. i was sick in the night. it scared me. had to run to the bathroom. i texted Steve and Donna Rohwer to pray for me. I was able to settle in and sleep, Praise God! I was very thankful to wake this morning and feel okay. I went ahead and took an antibiotic because I’ve had this throat and chest cold continuing to plague me somewhat.
It is around 5am. That will give me some time to eat and get ready before my meeting. I need to see the preschool children, the computer students and the construction workers. I don’t get time to do it due to the schedule of visiting all the churches. There are so many! Anita and Medine have gone to a church every single day except when Anita left and we went to a funeral.
Still, when I woke this morning, I had a message in my heart. I was thinking, okay....maybe You want me to go to the church today. but I’ve got to slow this visiting schedule to be sure I get my work done for TGD. I appreciate Stanley and Joseph for all the work they have been doing. They are a joy to work with. Both are servants of the Lord and to the people. Joseph has really worked to represent the orphans and to check on their welfare. The church tries to do what it can for the orphans. Sometimes they take them to the doctor but then the family never buys the medicine for the child.
The four girls at Ebulechia church are living in the homes with widow Mama Violet and widow Mama Phanice. They each get 50 from my children in support of Mary, Brendah, Shaline and Morphine. Those girls don’t really even know me, but I sure love them. and I appreciate Mama Violet. She speaks good English, too, which sure helps when you are trying to communicate.
I think one of my qualifications for the workers with me in my home here must be English competency. I really want to be able to communicate and the barriers are high. True work is more than greetings and short phrases. It takes understanding.
I wrote a blog yesterday listing many of the words I know in Swahili and Luhya and it did not get posted to the internet. The connection was lost. We all know how frustrating that can be. But I am getting along well and impressing the people. They get great joy when they hear me. When I began in the church yesterday (the one like a catholic church, probably angelican,) I heard the pastor gasp in delight. He was surprised. and I am able to continue on for a few sentences which creates smiles over the audience. They know I’m trying. They appreciate it so much. Oh we have so much to learn in America. When someone speaks English poorly, they get disdain--as if we are the french and above everyone else. But here, when I speak in their language, they embrace me and it lightens their mood and it creates a bond between us. It encourages me to persist.
I gave 2 pairs of shoes to Willington, a worker for Titus and Rose. He comes in each day and helps the boys get ready for school. Then he helps them with homework afterwards. His feet looked the right size. I offered them to him in the name of Doug and told him to pass them along if he found they were not comfortable for him. I saw him wearing them today. Praise God. House workers only get paid about 26 dollars a month, so the shoes will bless him for a long time. Thanks Doug!
I am going to give the sewing project to the widows at Joseph’s church. Perhaps they can sell them for 100 shillings or something very low and reasonable? I will talk with Rose about it. Or it can be a practice project. The widows at Ebulechia are very industrious, though. They took a project of chickens and grew to gain a goat. Now the goat is pregnant. I think I am missing some other step that was in there, too. I really admire Joseph’s church. They work for the widows and the widows work! They work for the orphans. They work to educate children in a small free school using only a chalk board! I bought them chalk the other day. They need chalk desperately. They don’t have books and the children don’t have notebooks or writing utensils. But they are learning.
I reviewed a video of Cynthia, an orphan I took to the doctor yesterday. OH it was awful. you can barely even see her and several minutes of the video were just dark as if it were sitting face down. it has the audio, so maybe I can use it somehow. but I’ll have to have skill. At least I got a good video of her on the way to the doctor. I asked her if I could take a video of her. She was so sick, poor baby! How my heart ached to comfort her. We aren’t close, though, she doesn’t know me. I can’t just push myself onto her, but I loved her and talked to her and I’m glad I could get her medicine. People are dying from malaria all around us. It is depressing. Old, young, and in between. Horrible. They need nets. But even I find that some nights I am sick of messing with the stupid net. It was such a joy at first, like being a princess in a special fortress! But now it is something that I have to fight with every time I want to check the time or go to the bathroom.When I’m flopping around in bed, I get it caught on a foot or hand. Makes me crazy, so I throw it off. Not a good plan. I try to remind myself---do I want to lay in the hospital like those women I prayed for yesterday? I need to put up with the inconvenience. But I’ve been here over 2 weeks. There is plenty of inconvenience and I find myself starting to look for any way to minimize it.
I got a good video of the roads. It is hard bumping around on these roads each day. We go way back sometimes and it is just a chore if you are not feeling well. On a strong day, it is fine. You can handle it. but with the heat and the constant jarring jostling, you just want it to stop. You start to wonder, “how much longer?” but we keep going. sometimes two hours.
TODAY IS MONDAY!
HOW COULD I TYPE THAT THE OTHER DAY WAS MONDAY! TODAY IS MONDAY!
Today was a busy day. I woke before 5 and laid in bed. I thought about where I was and what I needed to do. I considered not going to the churches today. I had a 9am meeting with Pastor Titus and Pastor Steve--we were meeting the health and sanitation officer. ( i think i have a mosquito bite.) So I woke early and began to get ready. I ate some cereal--the chocolate puffs. they are not my favorite but their taste is familiar. I am needing that now. I have reverted back to an “eat more” mentality that I wish I could shut off.
But i was sick in the night. bad. serious runs. I ran to the bathroom. I immediately prayed. I took some immodium. I did not have a panic attack like usual, which was a tremendous and unusual blessing. One other time I had the same problem and it was also without a panic attack. I’m grateful for prayer! I hate this weird quirk of my physiology and want to be healed of it! I also went ahead and started on the antibiotics because I have had this voice issue and in case it is not allergies. and just to kill any bug. But truly, it seemed miraculous to have only one brief bout and to be able to return to sleep after such an event!
So in the morning, I decided to get up early and get ready. I went and got my two tubs of water. Today I did not even want to bother with warm water. I blow dried and had put my hot rollers on to heat earlier. So I was completely ready for the meeting by 7:30 and had one hour to do other business. I went and had an interview with Pastor Juma, Henry Juma. He is now our foreman. Then i had another interview on camera with Clement, a man who was without a job until Trinity work arrived.
I took some pictures of the workers and then went up to the computer students. I talked to them about how to carry themselves professionally. You will see from some interviews with them that they are timid. you cannot even hear them. This has to change. It is time for them to come up higher. They can do it with encouragement and training. They need to be prepared for jobs around the world. They need to work on their English but mostly their presentation. I’m eager to work with them again.
I took some candy to the children before Titus was ready to leave. They see me and get so excited. They love their pictures taken or a handshake and a smile. They all shout, Welcome to our school! in unison. I make them all sit and they hold out their hands and I go around and bless them. I only made it to the first two classrooms and had pastor Steve finish the third while I got my stuff. We had a very good meeting with the officer who was a smart and interesting kind man. He laughed and joked. He will be inspecting for sanitation and building requirements. I am eager to exceed international standards. In fact, he said what they needed was a place for birthing mothers. What? You got it! My very heart indeed! and he mentioned that they don’t even have a nappy (napkins are diapers) and Anita and I want to work on that very thing!
Oh there is so much to say. We also went to a Muslim hospital to pray for one of the church members. A boy of three is urinating blood. When we got to the hospital, they would not let us through the inner gates to get to the family. We were turned away. Two mamas came out. We laid hands on them, embraced them, and prayed for them. They appreciated us. We went on to a new church led by Pastor Ken, a young man with a sweet wife with a lovely booming singing voice. It is called Kisumu Kidogo, small Kisumu. Medine began and told wonderful stories I had never heard about how God called her to prison ministry. She was praying, ‘What do you want me to DO!?!” and she banged her fist on the bed at God to tell her RIGHT NOW---and the phone rang. Well, she never answered during prayer but it seemed timely, so she answered. The voice of a woman she did not even KNOW told her to be at the prison at 9am monday morning. She asked, Who is this??! and the woman said, I don’t know you but God told me to call you. She said, “I suppose God gave you my number?” Yes, He did! and she hung up. Medine didn’t want to go to the prison. she didn’t like them. she tried not to go on monday but God just pressed her and pressed her, so she went angry. she stood in the parking lot and told God he had 10 minutes. she was down to the last minute and even counting the seconds on her watch. in the last 5 seconds, God told her PLAINLY, “you are not in the jail, you are in the parking lot.” she looked down. yep. she was in the parking lot. so she went to the door. when she had one foot on the first step, the door opened and a large lady said, I’m the one who called you now come inside. Well, they did a Bible study. Medine did not believe in healing and there was a large black man who had been in the war when his tank blew up. He lost his hearing (in at least one ear, I can’t remember) but the woman told Medine to pray for him to be healed. she didn’t want to and told the woman she didn’t know how. the lady said, Just say be healed in Jesus’ name. so medine started to pray and the woman said WAIT, God wants you to spit on your fingers and put them in his ears. Well, she thought that was gross, so she just barely touched them to her tongue and the 6’4” man bent over for the 5’ woman. She prayed. He shouted and picked her up and twirled her around! and then he even kissed her! she was shocked and said, No! You can’t hear! and somehow she just kept insisting it was not true, but it was true. and she told many other amazing stories, like one where she was smuggling Bibles into China. One where she was gathering coke cans to buy bibles for India, one where she was hit by a tree and died and went to Jesus but came back to life. It was great. She was sharing the promises. It was amazing. and so then they had her pray for people and I did, too. We laid hands on the sick and prayed. I can’t say we saw any immediate miracles. I admit I am discouraged that God has not done more miraculous healings. How come He healed my headache and He healed my stomach? why won’t He heal the malaria and the sickness or blindness here? Medine prayed for one guy’s foot that was broken and then he could walk on it and he got saved. so that was amazing. that’s the only one I know of besides my migraine. I think we heard some other smaller testimonies and some people have gotten well, but people have still died, too! like the guy steve went to pray for..... he died as they walked in. (had not prayed) and then I went to his funeral. He was a good Angelican. Actually, he had just become born again five days before he died! wow! thank God!
Well, we went to lunch. I got some cute pictures but i’m not very good with this intense camera. but it sure takes nice pictures if I can get it right! so I will keep it up. I love you guys! if only I could share with you from my heart! if only I could share with you from my mind! if only I could bring these people to you or you to them (it would be easier for you if I could bring them to usa! it is HOT here!)
then I preached. I was going to speak on 2 corinthians chapter 4. However, during Medine’s talk I felt VERY impressed to do Matthew 20 where Jesus says, What do you want me to do for you? and I felt it was a Word to this small group. So i told them to ready 2 corinthians 4 later and I told them some stories from my own life--about how God answered prayers I asked of Him and How He showed Himself to me.
well, we were winding up when Titus comes along. He has a man with him. it was incredible. He asks us to give this guy just some few minutes of our time and he comes out with major blessing! It was the same message as me but totally different in African Man Preaching Style (I LOVE IT!) I wanted to wave my scarf. I wanted to jump up and down. I was shouting Amen even with baby Precious Marion in my arms. I had to get off the front and go into the audience so I could face him from the back and wave my hands without being a disturbance. He was awesome speaking the word of God over us. He was saying God is with you. Speak to the mountain. Ask anything in my name and it will be given you. Oh it was a faith filled message filled with the glory of God. He started off saying stuff about the Lion of Judah. Oh, he said he was a LION. He said God is with me. but he was talking about provision in God and you know, I can get so weighed down with the size of what I am asking God to do, but I just received this message FOR ME! God was speaking to me! I know God was saying to ME that He would do it! It comes from His heart! It originates in His Heart and He will carry out His Kingdom. Hallelujah! I jumped and shouted. It was a rousing Glory to God event!
Praise God for His Word and His Promises. I am so encouraged. He spoke over me prophetically, too. He said Apostolic Ministry. Now, an apostle plants churches. that is crazy serious. I cannot imagine planting churches, but I receive any and all God has for me and I say YES and AMEN. He prayed that I would get none of African diseases and we would be comforted on our return flights. He is coming again in two weeks and how eager I am for this man to preach the Word and bring me close to Jesus and to encourage me to trust Him at His Word and not to look at circumstances.
TODAY IS TUESDAY
Right now I am in the computer class. The students are supposed to review what they have done so far. They are working on Microsoft Visual Studio. They are working on creating a database. They gave it a name. They imported an image after resizing it.They wanted to learn how to make it so on a website someone could click on the picture and they would get information about the program. Then the message would display. They want the application to connect to the database. Frank is asking the students to explain bit by bit. They use regular language trying to say what they do and then he rephrases it so they know what the right way to talk about the subject. For example, when they say “made the picture smaller,” Franks says, “We resized the image.” another phrase, “We define the fields.” They talk about the database and the tables. Frank sits at the front of the class with a laptop in front of him but the students have a separate computer that they all look at together with the screen facing the students. Behind Frank is a white board with diagrams. There are signs on the wall showing “increment and decrement operators” --whatever that means! And another chart, Visual C#types and value limits.
He is saying they are at a design phase and he is explaining that term.
You know, it does seem that they are a long way from providing services for a company. God speed them. Quamba Tu--translates to “Just Praying” which means this comes about by prayer and praying to God repeatedly so until He answers.
My goodness these students need computers! how thankful I am that they have already begun learning! Now I cannot imagine if they were only at square one on the first day that Steve could get the computers together. One serious problem is that we will only have one floor ready. ONE FLOOR! and we need TWO. We need to be ready to set up the computer lab immediately with the wiring and electricity. Do the students get opportunities to work on this computer alone? How could they advance by sharing?
We have gone over several concerns with the hospital. I see now that I must go view the good hospitals in the area. There is a good hospital in Eldoret and there is a good one in Nairobi. I think I should fly Joseph with me to Nairobi rather than have him take a bus. Definitely. I will ask Steve for clearance. When I get to Nairobi, Walter has a brother there who can drive us around. There is a good hospital there and we can get pricing information and learn from them. We have so much to consider, it boggles my mind. We have prayed for so many with malaria complications. It is terrible. Little babies and pregnant women and old ladies. Men get malaria as well, with alarming frequency. Pastor Steve had malaria when we came last time. Titus had it while we were gone. One of his children had it and Sheila and Rose got Typhoid. Now I have taken one of my very few little children in for Malaria after seeing her one day, she came down sick that evening. It is terrible.
Joseph is on me about getting an ambulance. He tells me how good it would be for all the distant church members to only have to pay for the gas of the vehicle. They could call them and get picked up for only the price of gas. But a CAR? Very expensive. If I had the money for a car--i would be buying an autoclave, an incubator, a baby warmer, a surgical suite, a generator, a doppler, suction machine, drugs for the clinic and more. I am building an orphanage without the money--so I do not have time for an ambulance. I am right near our TGD building so the orphans that we are caring for will be certain of medical care immediately. They are near all levels of schools. The preschool is here at the church compound, the junior high and high school are across the main road. Only five minutes or less walking time door to door. They will be well positioned. If God sovereignly brings me a CAR, then I will give Him glory and bless His name. For now, I do that anyway, but I cannot yet imagine going as far as an ambulance. I am already so far out of my comfort zone that only God can save me. He has the cattle on a thousand hills and the universe is His creation. He has all riches and can bring me everything I need. He controls the atoms and holds the world together; the world that was made through Him. Therefore, I am in good hands. The children are in good hands. God is doing a mighty work here among His people. He gently cares for those who have young. He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds. A bruised reed He does not break and a smoldering wick He does not snuff out. He daily bears our burdens. He will fulfill His purpose for me. It is God who works in me to Will and to Act His good purpose. He is able to make all grace abound to me so that in all things and at all times having all that I need I will abound in every good work. I know this work is good. I know this work is God, therefore, I am anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, I present my requests to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
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