Sunday

This last Sunday we attended church in village outside of town known as Tongeran. One of the four local church leaders for the Church of Christ is acting as an interim house parent (along with his wife) for us at the Children's Home. He wanted us to come see his village, his home and church. To the left is the footpath we drove down to get to his house! "Hakuna Sheeta": no problem! He had a very nice, newer home built of mud, of course. We took many of the children from the children's home with us, who enjoyed feasting on the sugar cane that grows on his farm. I also had my first sugar cane experience, which was very fun! There's a picture of me on Carrie's blog enjoying my treat, for those interested.

After we had our chai & scones at Johnstone & Elizabeth's house, we headed back down the footpath (in our truck, mind you) to go to church. Here's a picture of what going to church looks like here in Kenya. This church is a very nice church, for the village. In fact, the cornerstones of this church were layed by Milt & Barbie Jones, Sandy Roberts and Shawn Tyler last February! There were many visitors on this particular Sunday. We had about 5 different denominations represented. We think word spread that the wazungu (plural for mzungu)were going to be in attendence!

Worship, in the Churches of Christ at least, in Kenya typically involve a woman, sometimes a man, who leads off by standing and starting a song. Everyone joins her or him in clapping, but waits until she finished the first verse to join in. The congregation usually sings the chorus only; the leader sings the verses. Most of the songs are fast, but some are slow. Most of the time, people join her in standing. The woman standing in this picture is the afore mentioned Elizabeth. We have not caught on to many of the songs yet. They sing so fast, its hard to catch the words!

Work

This pic is for you, Jim Nichols! *smile* I was interviewing a CRF sponsored child and her mother in this picture, updating her file. Which reminds me, I have been meaning to post about our work on here and keep spacing it!
We have been consumed with work at the Kenya Church of Christ Children's Home in Kitale. The situation at the home was much more bleak than we realized coming in, so we've been spending a lot of time fixing things up a bit. The main thing I've been involved with is re-structuring their financial system. I created a new way of keeping their books, since our team is currently acting as the administrator for the home. I wanted to create something simple that we will eventually be able to train a local person to take over and run the home with. If you know me very well, you know that math & finances have never been my strong suit, but it seems that God has suddenly given me the ability to understand what I need to be able to understand in order to do a job that involves finances, so I feel very blessed! Everything here works on cash basis, no credit or debit, which I've found to be a lot easier to work with. We've also been seeking out ways to farm the land at the Children's Home to cut some of the food costs. Carrie & Kelly have been the primary workers on that project, while Greg & I are focusing more on the business administration side of things. We have quickly learned that the more skills a missionary team has, the better. Missionaries have to know how to do all sorts of things! We have already encountered situations in which we needed to use skills like business, mechanic, medical, computer tech...the list goes on!
Our work in AIDS education is getting off to a slower start than we anticipated. The problem is more vast than we can even imagine; and there is no simple solution. We have discovered that our training needs to be more than just the basics. It needs to involve marriage and family training, general health education and basic life skills as well as address spiritual maturity issues. We don't want to re-invent the wheel OR put the cart before the horse, so please pray for us as we prayerfully decide each step we take toward fighting the AIDS pandemic.

More Kisumu Pics

James, Lauryn & their daughter, Sandra.













Lauryn's African home cookin'!

Kelly, Carrie & me on Lake Victoria.

Kisumu

Last week was filled with lots of traveling, great food, and good fun! We started out the week by attending church in the border town of Malaba, about 2 hours away from here. The Churches of Christ were having their annual national meeting, so we joined them for Sunday service and got to see our good friends, Shawn Tyler & Stephan Shelburn from Uganda. Shawn was the special speaker.
Monday morning we got up early to head down to Kisumu to visit our CRF works going on down there. TEN hours later we arrived in Kisumu, which was only supposed to be 2 ½ hours away! Yeah…we got a little lost, but we got to drive through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Rolling hills of tea, dotted with little white houses for the tea workers. It was incredible. We decided to practice our P.M.A.’s that day… Positive Mental Attitudes instead of our “Where the heck are we?!” attitudes! :)
When we arrived much later than expected, we were still very welcomed by James & Lauryn (last name escapes me) and Jared O. James & Jared are leaders in the local churches in Kisumu and run the Christian Relief Fund programs there as well. They are very cool people! Lauryn, James’ wife made us an awesome meal of Fried Tilapia, Rice, Ugali, Sukuma, Beef, and onion & tomato salad.
Tuesday we spent time meeting with James and Jared about CRF finances and checkin’ out the CRF works, which are both going really well. We also got to “see” the equator! We ended the evening by enjoying delicious Chinese cuisine at “The Oriental Restaurant” (original, huh?!) in Kisumu.
Wednesday morning we got to meet a bunch of kids in the CRF program at a party that the CRF school threw for them. We also got to meet many of the teachers at the school. Northwest Church pays their salaries, so we were introduced to them as their “bosses”…I laughed in my head, wondering what they though about that! After the party we went on a “cruise” on Lake Victoria…the four of us, James & Lauryn, and 3 Africans in an old, small wooden boat with waves 2-3 feet high…I was a little freaked out! But it was all worth it when we saw Hippos swimmin’ around about 200 feet from our boat. For being one of the most dangerous animals in the world, they sure are cute! We also got to see King Fishers, and some other birds. Thursday morning we finished up some “big city” shopping and drove home…2 ½ hours later we arrived in Kitale!
But the traveling was not over for the week. Friday morning Kelly & Carrie spent the day down in Eldoret, about an hour away, learning more about farming goats and how to use a wood burning oven for the children’s home. Greg & I spent the day traveling around Kitale running errands, which included loading 10 large bags of maize into a Subaru Legacy wagon. The Kenyan Red Cross donates to the Children’s Home every year around Christmas. That was both a blessing and an adventure! On Saturday, Greg & I met with the parents at the home about how the budget for December was going, and then we ended up spending the rest of the day with the kids. I got to play volleyball and football (euro syle) with some of the girls, which was REALLY fun! These kids are so sweet. It was good bonding time for us. Then, we ate a really yummy traditional African meal that John, the cook at the Home prepared for us. Chicken in a special sauce, rice, chapatti (like thick wheat tortillas), ugali, potato soup, and onion & tomato salad. Oh, but the good food part isn’t over! Saturday night we went out to eat with some missionary friends at this awesome Chinese/Indian restaurant here in Kitale. We didn’t even know it was here, so we were pretty excited that we could get really good Chinese food in Kitale and not have to drive to Kisumu…even though we now know exactly how to get there! :)