Today:

Today I took a break from working in the office; this was a very good thing for me. I stayed home (well after running in to work on the call and ward schedule just for a bit lol) to work with Sarah, our house help, to learn a few things in the kitchen. She has worked for families for 26 years and definately knows a thing or two about cooking- real cooking. We (she mostly) made bread and tortillas today, so that I could learn. I took about 3 pages of notes on everything we did today, plus like another 2 out of a cookbook today; Wayne definately made fun of me for this! We did a lot of other simplier tasks throughout the day, but going through the process of the bread and the tortillas was something I had never done before. Hopefully I will eventually get this down and be able to make the same delicious bread that she does! Yummy.
disclaimer, to briefly explain the culture: it is very common to have house help here. They will cook and clean for the going rate of 399 Ksh per day, this is somewhere in the range of $5. Many Kenyan families will hire like their younger relatives to be househelp.

An afternoon at an orphanage

Some playing outside :)

We played outside for a while. Most of the time I played a volleyball of sorts with a kickball.

Group picture, right before they performed a song for us! So amazing; they sang and danced, and we were told the main point of the song was, all things praise the Lord. I have a video I would love to show you when I get home. It was really awesome!

Visors!

View of the landscape from the orphanage

Some of the village children, watching as we were making crafts with the other children.

(don't worry, we had them come in to make something also)

One thing I have wanted to do while I am here is visit an orphanage; up until now, I have not been able to go along based on my working schedule or a vehile being too full, ect. This afternoon we went to a children's home that had about 40 children, I believe 38 is the exact number. (25 boys, 13 girls) We were able to greet all of the children when we arrived; they were lined up and waiting for our arrival. We were able to get a tour and see the dormitories, kitchen, library/schoolroom, and multi-purpose dining area. Any of you who have heard from Thomas and OAFA; I thought a lot about that ministry while visiting this orphanage today. There is just soo much need! The boy's dormitory has 13 beds for 25 boys, and the girl's room is very small with 8 beds crammed in for 13 girls. They have light bulbs in the rooms, but they do not have electricity, the boys' room had a kerosene lamp hung on the back wall, which a large smoke/burn mark which made it appear quite dangerous. The drought in Kenya has made it difficult to have water, and as the people at the church are hurting with crops and financially, they really feel that at the orphanage. They do not have so many essential things, and I know that there is nothing I am doing to help (in the large scheme of things at least). I wish I could raise support for their buildings, beds, electricity, more workers, and just dedicate my life to pour into them. There are so many needs and makes me wonder, how do you determine which ministry in which to pour your life into? The awesome thing is to know that these children, despite their unfortunate life events, is having Christ as part of their life. I hope they will all come to know Christ through the church and ministry of the home. Even if I spent all my time and dedicated my whole life to these children, making their physical and emotional lives better, I could not provide the purpose or hope that Christ ever could. He truly is the Hope and Life in a world of need-hope for today, life eternal. I guess that is my only consolation to avoid discouragement when thinking about all of the injustices in this world.

Sleepover!

Friday night, Wayne & Anna's family were at Safari, and Peter & Lisa were also gone, so I went down to Lisa's house and spent the night with Carol and Maria. It worked out well so that none of us had to be alone. We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but sometimes I enjoy those times the most, just living life together. Eating, talking, watching the news...

Yesterday Carol had to work in the kitchen with Livingstone up at the guesthouse (here), so Maria hung out with me in the apartment; she is 5 and doesn't speak much English. This made for a bit of an interesting morning. My main hope is that she had fun and didn't just do things because she is obedient and options were set before her. I could really tell that she enjoyed a Where's Waldo book that we had though; she spent a lot of time doing this over and over until she had memorized where he was on each page. We colored and drew pictures, did searching books, and also watched a little Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island on the portable DVD player. I really enjoyed spending some more time with Maria the past two days, because the other couple times I had been around her, she was very stand offish, but last night, she actually wanted to share my bed. I just have like a sense of victory and excitement when a child begins to warm up to me that has formerly been very reserved.

I have really enjoyed getting to know Carol the past two weeks as well. She has invited me to a Bible study that has allowed for some good connections, and I am actually learning some things as well. For example, the study is on the Names of God; this week the little thing I took away was mainly that in the Bible when it says "Lord" that = Adonai (My Lord and My God). If it says "LORD", that means Jehovah. This was a quiet question from Bible reading that I had never had answered, so it was cool to be like- that's why they are different. But yeah, Carol has been a great friend to talk to, pray with, and enjoy learning from one another.

[I had previously written this post but it failed, so this is the shorter and water-downed version, sorry]

ok, so after the first of these pictures, I was like, oh yeah, forgot you don't normally smile in pictures, just laughing about it...so then she said we could take a smiling one, but then we were both laughing so much and still trying to hold smiles, that it turned out like this! Not the most flattering but fun and funny so it's ok haha.

Wherever you are

As I am here, I am more and more convinced that the way you live your life depends very little on your location. This is not to say whether you are hanging out at church or at the bar, don't get the wrong idea... but by location I mean the country and culture in which you are a part. If you are striving to glorify God, your spirituality or the way in which you live out your faith does not depend on whether you live in the city or in the country or in the US or Africa. On one hand, some individuals are called to a very specific purpose in life, or at least for a portion of their life, like you could be called to _________ location, but I believe that for the majority of Christians, we just need to focus on our personal relationship with Christ and also seek to develop real community, wherever we are. The church extends over any distance, as well an any culture.

A few great memories from the past week or so have been with the reality of the body of Christ. Last Sunday, the church service I mentioned with the hundreds of children... there was one girl who I sat with and was able to talk to throughout the service. She was 13 and a Christian, it was such a neat thing to tell her that she was my sister in Christ. In my Bible, I had a wordless book flip chart thing that was purdy cool; she liked it a lot, so I gave it to her. Of course, before I could give it away though, I wanted to make sure she knew what all the colors meant- so that was fun to share, although very very briefly, with the children around me. My ultimate hope is that she may even remember what they mean and use it to tell the story of the Gospel to others-maybe extremely hopeful, but still cool to dream of :)
The other time that the body of Christ was very evident was just a few days ago; one of the women who works in accounting lost her brother-in-law. The departments at Tenwek both mourn and rejoice in the happenings of others lives, so with working in the offices, I was invited to visit her home for a "service" of sorts. Lisa and I walked in a bit late, so chai had already been taken and much had already been said when we arrived. It was really awesome though to see this true form of community so evident; each person shared some thoughts and encouraged the family that he was a believer. Actually, all that was spoken showed such strong faith and such an eternal perspective, it was almost unreal to me that these people had just lost a loved one. I guess I am not really sure how to properly describe that whole experience without typing soo much, but just know that the body of Christ and NT-like church community was very evident in the people here. Just the fact that I was welcome, I believe, is a huge reality of the all-encompassing ties of trusting in the same Savior.

Anyway, back to the main point. The fact that I am living on a missions compound does not make my personal, spiritual life any easier or any harder than any other time in my life. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson that must be learned and truly experienced. Missionaries aren't super heroes; they are regular people and regular families trying to keep up with a million things that need to be done-just like anyone in full time ministry!

[this is a topic for another post, but the similarities of living on a missions compound and at a Christian camp are strikingly similar!]

Men of Zebulun

As I have been reading through the Word, I am now in the middle of I Chronicles. For some reason, one small and rather insignificant verse really stuck out to me.

12:33 says, "men of Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty-50,000;"

Our theme this summer at BLBC is STAND based off of Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. Even if this wasn't our theme, I think that this summer we all realized that we were entering into very real spiritual warfare. The description of the men of Zebulun is such the essence of what we should strive for! I want to be an experienced soldier, prepared with every form of weapon (or the full armor of God), and to have completely undivided loyalty-such a beautiful thing.

BABY!

Wayne's friend Vincent became a daddy today! Vincent worked under Wayne two years ago when the Ellis family came to Tenwek for the first time

I love babies, and I think it is really cool that we got to see little Jesse at just one day old.

Wayne, Damaris, and Vincent just two days ago.

The adorable baby Jesse!

Current prayer...

This song has been resounding in my head the past two days:

Lord, I need You.

Lord, I need You.

You are all I desire.

I need You, Lord, I need You.

I need You more than life!

A Weekly Update

All in all, it has been a good week. I think I went through a one to two day period of extra emailing and such to avoid missing home, but now I am feeling even more at home here after that short time. Monday I went with community health, but since then I have been working with a lady named Lisa Kuyaya who does sooo much here at Tenwek. She is a super secretary, doing projects for the medical superintendent, managing all the guest services needs and arrangements, and fixing daily problems. Anyway, I just kinda shadow her and assist in the ways that I can around the office and compound. One day I helped organize and take inventory of the guest food pantry; other days I did more typical office work. On Thursday, I had to man the office on my own the best I could which was actually kinda fun. Some things I (attempt to) do are organize and reply to emails, type of minutes from medical staff meetings or reports, answer phone calls, and help to organize files. None of these things I feel like I am necessarily adequate or helping, so my main hope is that I am not too much of a bother. I really am enjoying learning so much and doing the work that I am able to do. A few things I have done this week: a Sunday night church service that was out of control but so fun (prolly shook 200-300 school children's hands), went to a Bible study with many local Tenwek workers at a permanent staff home, bought lots of gifts to bring home for all ya'll, and went to dinner at Peter & Lisa's house last night. I was purdy excited about spending time with them and being invited into Lisa's home; I also hope to become better friends with a lady who works for them named Carol (she invited me to the Bible study). Last night was super relaxed... after dinner we sat on the couch and watched NCIS and the news. This was great though, because I felt very at home, as if I was visiting with a good friend from back home. Today, as I already mentioned, I did some shopping-that was also fun, but I probably spent more than I should. After that, we went for a walk down by the river which was really gorgeous. I can't wait til the next time that we can go kick around down there. Weelll I think that is all I have to say; hopefully soon I will write a post with deeper thoughts thus far. It is hard to be in the mood to write; I would always much rather just post a bunch of pictures to tell the story of my day.

BTW: these pics are all from today :)

Nice work, Aliya!

Not a great picture of the falls, but I really like it down there- so gorgeous!

Ohhh so common :) Just thought I would share a piece of reality.

Love the motto! Very very true :)

So cute!

Note: mosquito nets over every bed in the ward.
We took some pictures in the hospital, since we didn't have any "Tenwek" pictures yet.

***Grace and Peace in Christ!

Abide in His unfailing love and depend on His complete faithfulness.

Coca-cola wins!

Disclaimer: if you aren't on Senior Staff, you won't understand.

Coke kiosks are everywhere in Kenya; Pepsi is not here. Sorry Sarah!

SAFARI!!!

The safari was great to learn about Maasailand and see soo many awesome animals!

This first picture is the inside of my tent! I will have to show you more photos of the extravagant resort.
Just check out the pictures! I don't feel like I have a lot to say right now, but as the saying goes-"a picture's worth a thousand words"-so here ya go!

My favorites to see were the elephants and lions (especially lions!); we saw one male lion Saturday night and two Sunday morning! We saw a lot more animals but this is a taste of what we were able to see!!!

KENYA: Days 2&3 at Tenwek >>> Community Health

Riding along on red clay two-track roads with more rocks, ditches, and mudpuddles than ever thought imaginable- this has made up many hours of the past two days of my life. I have traveled with nurses and doctors to faaarrrr out villages and communities to do immunization clinics for children (usually babies) and pregnant women. Yesterday we rode in a small truck that had a cap of sorts with two rows of seats facing each other in the back, that is where I rode. Today we had a bit more of a normal vehicle but definately no shocks. I actually love the rides though, because the countryside is soo beatiful and riding bumpy 2-tracks reminds me of Drummond Island. But yes, yesterday we had an extremely busy clinic. Upon arriving I had no idea what to do or how to help, but thankfully there was one other American girl yesterday who could show me the ropes- and I needed the basics!- I learned how to assemble different simple medical instruments, diluted one of the vaccines, and was able to give orals to the children (being Vitamin A gel and Oral Polio droplets, if you care haha). Today I did many of the same tasks but was the only non-Kenyan in the group; I really enjoyed talking to the men more and being able to ask them questions and begin learning a couple Kipsigis words. I can say them once, but I REALLY have trouble remembering them...ugh. This afternoon on my "lunch break" I just took my water bottle and camera with me and was able to take a few photos of/with the women at the clinic. They knew nothing about a camera and thought it was awesome to see the picture on the back. One man I took a picture with wanted a copy immediately; unfortunately I had to tell him I could not do that ;) This was a really great ice breaker though for a group of people that only speak Kipsigis...sometimes language barriers REALLY STINK but taking a few pictures was fun. One lady, Estell, invited me to her home, but when Alfred came to ask how far it was and to translate, we found out that is was quite far away so I could not go, but thankfully with Alfred translating, he made things clear and the decision was more reflected on him than on me- I didn't want to offend.
Something that is definately a part of the culture here is CHAI! We have tea twice a day, morning and afternoon. The past two days, our afternoon chai has been in restaurants on the way home from community health. It is just funny, because a cup of chai is 10 shillings, which would be somewhere around $.15. I thought of fifteen cents compared to my like $5 typical Bigby/Starbucks treat and could only laugh. One thing though, you always here those stories of people drinking coffee in foreign countries and having their glass refilled over and over; well, today in the White Hotel, I had to learn to be strategic in my chai drinking. My glass was refilled once, and from then on... I casually watched the waitor as he made rounds and when he would near my table, I would take a sip, assuring that my glass was not on the table at the time he came. Yes, this was not the best thing I could have done-but at the time, it is what I did.
And as far as lessons learned from this trip... I cannot tell you what they will be, but I do know that God is frustrating me in ways that I would have never expected and has much different (and I am sure much greater) plans that I had ever imagined.
Praise the Lord that I have been able to have my computer and the internet both function long enough to write this blog.
Hope you are doing well; I would LOVE to hear from anyone who reads this!
I will write soon and hopefully put up pictures; tomorrow morning I leave for an overnight Safari! -Adios all.

***These are some of the women from the clinic today. The picture below is from a walk with Michael and Aliya today near the compound.

So this is Africa.

Well, this won't be poetic or probably even using proper grammar, but I will give a quick update of our events so far. The travelling here consisted of 3 airplanes, no misses flights, and only one engine repair (which apparently was a long 2 hours for everyone else, but I slept). We arrived in Nairobi Sunday night [which would have been Sunday afternoon or evening for you; we are 7 hours ahead of MI time]. We stayed two nights in Nairobi and relaxed, doing more touristy yet fun things around town. We saw baby elephants, warthogs, a couple rhinos (one Aliya named Jim), and fed giraffes. At the elephant place, I saw monkey's in a tree, that was purdy cool! We went out to lunch at a really nice outdoor restaurant that day, and our afternoon was spent at Kazuri Beads. This is somewhere that had been recommended for me to see, yet I did not think we would go, so I was very excited to see Kazuri. It is a ministry where single mothers are provided with work, and they make beaded jewelry and pottery. The whole process is very open to visitors, so we saw the clay to the molding, where they fire, paint, ect...
So anyway, around the city, it was not too different, because it was still a city BUT there were some fun sights, like men herding goats or cows along side the road, women carrying jugs of water on their head, random markets and kiosks, baboons along side the road, dangerous driving -basically just being in a foreign city :)
Ok, fast-forward to yesterday when we drove to Tenwek, which is about 3-4 hours outside of Nairobi. The nearest town to us is Bomet if you want to see kinda where I am. It was beautiful to see some of the countryside. We stopped at one point where we were able to take in the beauty of the Rift Valley. It was one of those roads along side the mountain with the valley below; we passed a huge semi-truck that on a curve had rolled and seriously could not have gotten ANY closer to rolling ALL the way down the side of the mountain into the valley. But reguardless, Rift Valley- gorgeous!- even though pictures don't look that amazing. After this, we continued driving, first in an area of great drought. This is very sad, because the people already struggle and now this. We passed one spot that was a place of government food handouts; giant white bags filled with rice. Our driver, Gerald, said that people would have walked for miles and miles to receive these handouts-so sad. But later in the drive, nearing Tenwek, things became much more green.
Ok, well let's see; now we are here! I must say that already the compound is not really anything like I had imagined it. It is much larger than I pictured and different in ways I cannot necessarily describe. Today I got a tour and saw my way around a little bit, but I still have a lot to learn about where things are and have lots I want to see! Late this morning I began working with a lady by the name of Lisa who runs all the visiting guest coordinating; she described to me all that her job entails and what she does everyday and WOW. So, I did different just following things today, helped with some filing, helped to sort through "application" type packets for future doctors-small tasks to help her be [hopefully] more efficient. Tomorrow I am going out with Community Health to fairly far away village and be gone all day. I may be organizing vaccines or holding screaming babies while they are given immunization, but I am excited to see what tomorrow brings. The next few days I will be doing a lot with community health and just see from there when they have need for more people; starting the 8th a group of student nurses will be around helping in that area. Other tasks I will be doing will be making rounds with chaplains (probably what I am most nervous about because being in the hospital and around all the medical is not my strong point at all, just getting the tour today was somewhat difficult) and I may be doing some just excel type number entry things for one of the permanent staff surgone. A lot of my schedule is just day to day though, which we will have to just figure out as time goes on :)
So yes, sorry for this not being thought out or profound in any way, but we are doing well. Evenings are the roughest for me with feeling the time difference. Anna and Michael are struggling with sleep deprevation, but for the most part everyone has been healthy and happy.
Hopefully I will be able to write on here again soon, but the internet is unpredictable...so hope to hear from you, feel free to comment and email.
Adios and God bless :)
Psalm 145!!!