Final Days in Kenya were Sweet

The final weekend was brutal on Kyle as he was on call Thursday, Friday and Saturday night after working all day.  He is a trooper as he saw more sick and needy people and deaths than the previous week.  He worked most of the night on Sat and until after noon on Sunday and was ready for our break as we headed off for a few days of relaxation.  The rest of us attended a worship service at a sister church of the large AIC Church in Kapsowar.  I had been asked to preach again even though it was International Women's Day.  As I began speaking I told them I would have to do as the woman preacher of the day and they all laughed.  At the end of the service they thanked me for being the women preacher of the day and said they felt like it was a great message for the whole church.  They lined up and all filed by shaking our hands and continued the line till everyone shook everyone else's hand.  A great way to greet one another with the right hand of fellowship.  What a gracious and beautiful people.  It is amazing to me that so many of them knew English, but also Swahili, Kalagin and a few other languages.  The songs they sang that day were beautiful and in each of these different languages.  I was challenged to learn more than just English .

Off to Sunrise Acres about 3 or 4 hours away. The roads were rough and windy and many times a bit dusty.  Kyle said he was going to invent a video game called "Kenya's roads" where all kinds of things pop up like pot holes, donkey's, chickens, cows, monkeys, matatu's (taxi's with people packed deep and high), goats, dogs, people and of course the secret police (speed bumps out of no where).  You can not relax on these roads and you feel like you have driven for hours even if it has been less. The video game would be a great way for you to support their ministry, so keep a look out for the release!

Sunrise Acres is a place set apart by a retired missionary family to serve other missionaries.  What a great ministry and we appreciated the break and time to just enjoy one another's company.  Marv and Jan (Marlene's twin brother and his wife) met us there and had a great meal prepared when we arrived.  On Monday morning we took a drive for about an hour and half to a resort to use their swimming pools for the day.  One was hot spring fed and the other fresh water.  We had it to ourselves as no other guests were at the hotel that day. 

The next day we went to a tented resort near Nakuru National Park where we really got to enjoy being pampered with three great meals and gracious service.  During the night we heard eerie sounds as some lions nearby were enjoying a fresh kill.  We felt safe as armed guards patrolled the area around the grounds. The next morning we entered the national park for a drive.  Nationals can enter for a mere $11 per person, but Marlene and I were tourists and it cost $75 per person.  It was a fabulous time as we saw, giraffe, gazelle, water buffalo, flamingo, rhino, zebra, hyenas, monkey's and even the fresh kill of a water buffalo the night before by the lions. Not much was left and we did not see the lions but later in the day we talked to some other people in the park who did see 4 lions in the area of the kill.  It is a beautiful thing to see these creatures roaming around in the open.

We stayed in a small hotel right outside the park before heading back to Nairobi.  We stopped at a tourist trap "welcome to our store, no pressure, just great souvenirs and great prices"  Of course the pressure was intense but thankfully Jan would not let us pay too much for the items we picked and we got the price down to a reasonable rate.  A really cool opportunity arose for us to talk about a relationship with Christ with the workers as we were the only ones in the store.  A young man by the name of Alex was extremely interested and ended up inviting Jesus to be his Lord and Savior.  I shared a tract with him that had a Spiritual Birth Certificate in which he wanted to have a copy and signed it in front of me.  He asked for my contact information and then said he would call me to learn more about Jesus if that that was OK.  Interesting that many people in Kenya have cell phones and they can call us in America for about 3 shillings a minute which is about 4 cents a minute, compared to us calling them for about $2.00 a minute.  Can you imagine that?  What is wrong with our phone charges in America.

Off to Nairobi, the city full of traffic and pollution. But it was great to be back at Marv and Jan's home. We took Vanessa and Kyle out for dinner at a nice restaurant and Marv and Jan took care of the boys.  The place had all you can eat ribs for about $12 per person, we even had ice tea which was a first in about a month.  Ice is not too common as most Kenyan's drink pop without any ice. They think the cold would crack your teeth. 

The morning we left the hugs from the boys were tight and long.  They feel like the call that is on their parents is a call to missions for them as well and they handled the good byes better than Marlene and I did.  We are thankful for this opportunity to serve along side of them for the past month.  We feel blessed to be a part of what they are doing to serve these beautiful and precious people.

Pictures coming soon for this post.

The needs are overwhelming at times – God is good all the time, all the time God is Good!

 The past few days have been especially hard with the hospital packed with patients and even more deaths than we have seen since we have been here. Kyle has be on call and goes in all hours of the night. One patient passed away as he was working on him, another was brought into the hospital with her twins, one already passed away and then the mother passed away, one young 13 year old girl tried to poison herself and passed away right after getting here. It is a great reminder of the fact that life is short and we do not know when our time will be when we pass into eternity.

Each day I have had the opportunity to visit with groups of people and individuals. I spoke to the Nursing School students one morning and spoke to them on The Character of Jesus as seen in His own words from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and then His final words in Revelation 22 – “Surely I am coming quickly”. I visited the girls school and spoke to the teachers and a classroom of students, and then took a tour of the future AIC Kapsowar School of Theology, visited with Robert the pastor of the main Church at the hospital where they have a Christian school for about 300 students and quite an outreach in the community with church planting, outreach to other schools and training young people and others to understand their faith. The thing that came out in each visit was needs that they made available for us to consider. The needs were from $350 to over $20,000 to meet the immediate needs. Then there had been the ones coming to us and Kyle and Vanessa's home daily with needs from just small amounts of shillings to meet their needs to larger amounts. The requests are never ending. I trust that God gives wisdom and that He loves a cheerful giver. What a great opportunity we have had to be here these past few weeks in Kapsowar and see what God has been doing though these saints here in Kenya.

I had a most exciting experience on Friday as I got to experience a surgery of a man who had lost most of his left hand in a grinder. It was a two hour reconstructive surgery in what some have said is the 2^nd worst surgery room in the world. Thankfully `Kapsowar has received a gift to build a new double surgery room which should be open within a few months. I visited with the patient later about 4 in the afternoon and he was one of the most gracious people I have met. He was so thankful for the surgery and even my follow up and prayer with him. I took many pictures during the surgery as many years ago I had two employees working for a company I worked for that were de gloved just like this man. I find the patients at Kapsowar so thankful and also so needy. Each day I have had the opportunity to share Christ with patients and have seen not only the patients that have prayed to receive Christ but also some of their family members. We have loved the whole body ministry that Kyle and Vanessa have here in Kenya

Saturday was Hudson's 6^th birthday and 29 African children came over for the party. It was a wonderful time and Hudson said it was the best birthday ever. The gifts were few and a few homemade including a stick with a couple of lids nailed on the end of the stick to roll around. The kids loved the games, the cake was wonderful and it was a delight to see them enjoying the simple things of the day. We were reminded that gifts are not what birthdays are all about. Little Hudson gathered all the kids at the end of the day and thanked them for coming and invited them to stay as long as they wanted.

As Kyle and I went into Center (which is the main street in town) we were approached by the Pastor of the main church in town to tell me that I am preaching on Sunday morning at one of their sister churches. We leave for a few days of vacation with Kyle and Vanessa and the boys Sunday afternoon. Kyle has been on call for the past three days and worked lots of hours. Pray for his strength and ongoing ministry to these precious people.

Life in Kenya

We are learning more and more about Kenyan culture here at Kapsowar.

When invited to someones home, you wait for them to “release” you. It is rude to say “We need to be going home now”. And Kenyan women don't ever talk about their pregnancies. They even tell their children they are going to “buy a baby”, when the wife is full term, then show up with a baby.

I think some Christian women are realizing they need to just be truthful about it though, thankfully.

But culture is hard to change.

On Sunday we went to 2 services. The first was at the hospital chapel, where Kyle preached, then it was on to the Kenyan church where they normally attend. Travis preached at this service. Just for the record Travis only preached for 30 minutes and had been asked to cover 7 chapters of Nehemiah. Then, since we were guests, they presented us, along with the other medical students who were guests, with gifts. All of this took a very long time. Kenyans are so warm and welcoming, and were very gracious to do so much for us. After the service they invited us to stay for Chai and bread. We walked back home at around 3:00 I think.

We have been invited to people's houses quite a bit. On Monday night we took Agnes (Vanessa's house helper) home. She is so sweet, and a big help with Jude and Isaac while Vanessa does homeschool with Hudson. While there, the car got stuck in a hole, and without prayer for wisdom, it could have been a disaster, because the car wanted to keep sliding forward whenever Kyle put it in reverse to go back up the hill, but by putting the emergency break on, and then slowly giving it gas while letting up on the brake, he was able to reverse and go up the hill.

Tuesday night we went to 2 other homes for dinner and sodas. Both homes were very small typical Kenyan homes with a separate mud wall kitchen with a fire hole for a stove.

But all are so kind, and loving and hospitable. We walked home in the dark up and down the dirt road, with flashlights, stumbling ocassionally.

Today, Wednesday, some of us went on a community outreach trip. We took Jude with us. Vanessa stayed with Hudson to do school work, and to get ready for her ladies Bible study which she leads on Wednesdays.

We went to visit the village of Embobut. Travis and I and Jude and Kyle, andHaley (a medical student) and 2 Kenyan Christians went along. It was a 2 hour drive on some pretty treacherous and dirty bumpy roads. No one threw up this time, which was a good thing!

They were able to minister to about 75 -100 people that gathered and sat in a field for almost 3 hours. Each member had a chance to share a message including a gospel presentations, health education and encouragement as to how to better their lives by developing skills to help them. I was able to visit with 2 women who know the Lord. One has a sewing business and opportunities to share about her faith with her students, and the other a school teacher who was excited when I shared a children's bible tract with her and left it with her. She said she would use it in her class.

We made it home in time for me to see and participate in the women's Bible study.

We are thankful for the opportunities God is giving us each day. Travis goes part of each day to the hospital to make rounds with the Chaplins visiting and sharing and praying with patients and giving out Bibles. Thank you for your prayers. We will leave this area on Sunday to go with Kyle and family to meet up with Marv and Jan, to enjoy some fun and relaxation.