Catching Up!

Good morning! It's about 11AM on Tuesday, June 19th,. and I get to blog again! 

My favorite internet "cafe"

The scheduled visits and ministry that Pastor Benard Mose has planned for my time here, as well as a number of unexpected stops along the way each day, hasn't left me much opportunity for blogging. At this point it's averaged out to be once a week. I apologize for this blog being such a bust at this time.

When I have been able to blog, computer speeds have been an issue, especially when it comes to uploading photos. Today I've been to two internet cafes due to speed/uploading/downloading issues. Benard has a laptop given to him by a gracious donor in the US which from time to time, as funds allow, he is able to utilize to access the internet from his room (through a little, portable mini-modem of sorts), but I haven't attempted to see how it would work.

Relaxing in Benards's room after a day of ministry

I've also realized that I'm writing a blog, not a book, and so I will need to keep my entries brief until I get home. With 17 days behind me, over 500 photos taken and close to 3 hours of video recorded, it is obvious that even my lengthy blog entries haven't related all that I've experienced.

Here's a quick synopsis since I last wrote:

I have been to the sites and shared with the people and the leaders of the Keera (3 days), Kiabugesi (1 day), Igorera (1 day), Riomoyo (quick site visit - a future time of teaching is coming), Nyondoche Ibere (3 days) and Kerobo (1 day) churches. Each place has been different: a couple of them requiring long climbs up very steep hills on foot or lengthy drives along rocky, rutty dirt (or mud if it has rained recently) roads. I hope to blog about each one separately.

Yesterday I had the privilege of sharing God's Word and lunch yesterday with over 2 dozen men, women and children either affected by (orphaned, widowed or caring for orphans) or infected with HIV/AIDS (including young adults and children), who gather to support one another and to encourage others in their respective villages to "step forward" instead of handling the disease and its stigma alone. 

Children, mothers, caregivers - affected or infected

 Today is more of a "rest" day for me (hence blogging) and there may be a time later this week when I get another time "off" to experience a game park with animals roaming about instead of in cages (like at Kisumu two weeks ago).

Speaking of, let me end this blog by sharing with you how a cat ate my hat at the Kisumu game park (zoo)!

Robert introducing us to Eve at the beginning

After seeing many different animals (mostly in cages) and some roaming free (like impalas and monkeys), Benard, our "guide" Robert, who came along side of us and took us all over the park, and I ended our time as we began it: at the cage of Eve, an orphaned leopard.

Robert thought it would be "fun" to use my hat to get the cat to come off of her perch and onto the fence. He waved it back and forth and sure enough down she came. Robert then waved it up and down which caused Eve to jump onto the fence, climbing up it a bit.

Eve enjoying my hat for lunch!

I then had the brilliant idea of trying to get Eve to pounce after my hat. Not so brilliant - Eve was quicker than me. She lunged for the hat, which I had waved too close to the fence, and grabbed hold of it with her claws, and then with her teeth, drawing it through the fence. Robert and I tried to pull it from her, but she was too strong and too determined. She pulled it all the way through, ripped the bill of the hat from the fabric and proceeded to chew and eat my favorite hat. All's we could do was laugh while taking pictures and video of the experience.

It's a good thing that I brought along a second hat, much like a safari-hat! I will be much more careful with any animals I encounter - caged or not!

Thank you again for your prayer coverage during the past couple of weeks and for the next 13 days!

Meeting First with the First!

It is Monday, June 11th, and we have finally come back to "Kisii town" after spending three nights at the family home and three days with two amazing churches - but totally without any electrical power throughout! (I have just added a bunch of photos to the last entry, "Karibu Kisii!" that you might enjoy! Photos for this entry will have to wait for another day - sorry!)

Benard's mom, Grace, outside of the Keera building

Wednesday, Friday and Sabbath were spent with the "mother church" of the Kenyan Conference and the first SDB church of Kenya itself, the Keera church family. It is located north of the Mose family home on a mile or so long combination of paved and dirt roads (which we walked each day we were with them).

Wednesday and Friday were teaching days with the core people of the church who were not detained by work or other necessities. It was a blessed time of sharing from the Word of God words of encouragement and words of challenge to their hearts with Pastor Benard translating. I have learned that while in America we don't like to sit for very long, God's people in Kenya can and do sit for a couple of hours worth of teaching! That's in addition to some singing before and after the teaching time.

I shared from 1 Corinthians 3 on Wednesday regarding dynamics of church life such as their foundation, their framework, their focus and their future. On Friday I shared with them dynamics of the "great confession" from Matthew 16 and what it means to them as a church.

There were very special times within the teaching for addressing from the Word of God their questions as well as particular burdens that were weighing on them and it was evident that God was speaking into each and everyone's hearts by His amazing grace! Each day ended with incredibly humble and heart-felt comments of thanks and blessing that just melted my heart and, as Benard often says to me, "filled my eyes with tears".

Lunch - Kenyan style!

The "sessions" were broken up by a mid-day meal cooked in the kitchen house next to the church building. It was an interesting dynamic to eat with the men in the church house while the women, youth and children ate outside. Also, often times the meals I have had, whether in a restaurant, with Benard in his room, at the family home or at the church site, are preceeded by a washing of hands and then eating with your right hand (primarily).

Sabbath Day began with Sabbath School with the teacher utilizing the latest quarter of the Helping Hand (in particular, being in the lesson from John 9). With most not being literate, the teacher had to read parts of the lesson to the people and then there would be discussion. This class time lasted for more than an hour.

Keera church celebrating their Savior & His Sabbath!

Next came a 2-hour+ worship service filled with singing, dancing, prayer, Scripture and my opportunity to preach. I continued the thrust of what I feel God wants to speak into the SDB Kenyan peoples' hearts through words of encouragement and challenge for them as churches, this time focusing on the Great Commandment and Great Commission. A children's choir, a youth choir and an adult choir all presented inspiring songs throughout.

After lunch, while the adults held a special meeting, I got to sing and teach the 4 dozen or so children of the church on the hillside next to the church. Local villagers passing by stopped along the hedgerow above us and watch as I got to share stories from the Bible, lead them in songs and share butterscotch candies. At the end, the children led me to a spot on the hillside where a big hole had been dug to plant a banana tree in honor of my visit with them.

A handful of school children I saw around Keera

The children, by the way, both in the communities that I've walked and ridden through, and in the churches, are very wide-eyed by having a "mzungu" (white-man) in their midst or just going by. The local school children on Wednesday and Friday, upon seeing me outside during their recesses, would shout out "Mzungu!" upon which when I would wave they would fall down giggling, or wave back. They would imitate me in my motions, ask me to take their picture and run and tell others of my presence. It was pretty humbling to have the opportunity to make them smile.

Hillside children's time!

 The day ended with the Keera church family, young and old, sharing with me their hopes and dreams as the "mother church" of the Kenyan Conference, both for themselves, their pastor, their Conference and SDBs world-wide. It was an incredible privilege to have that opportunity with them. (These hopes and dreams I will be sharing with my fellow SDBs in the USA and Canada, as well as the World Federation, when I get home.)

There remains so much more to share, including my outing on Thursday to Kisumu where I went to the Kisumu Game Park (and lost my favorite hat to a "cat" - a leopard to be exact), saw Lake Victoria and the Kisumu Museum, my time spent at the family home each night from Friday through Sunday nights, of my time with the Kiabugesi church on Sunday and of other random experiences interspersed throughout including today.

Banana tree planting (left, between two boys)!

I've realized that much of what I want to share (both in photos and writing) will have to wait until I get back when I have regular use of electricity and a computer. This week holds more times of connecting with more churches and leaders. I praise God that He holds this week and that you are holding me in prayer!

Karibu Kisii!

That's "Welcome to Kisii" in Swahili!

What a whirlwind of a couple of days it has been! Unlike anything I've ever done or experienced before - being totally out of my element and totally immersed in every way in a completely different element! (Although basic training and AIT for the Army in 1983 comes pretty close!)

There is SOOO much to tell it's going to be hard to decide what to include in each blog entry. The best thing for me to do is to just take my time and share as I have opportunity at the local cyber cafes here in town. (I have as yet to find a Wi-Fi hot spot that "works" for me.) I also will start with being here rather than my good-bye "there" in Syracuse...but there are some really cool things to share with you about that experience

A quick overview of the last couple of days:

After getting my visa and bags, I met Pastor Benard Mose, 34-year old leader of the Kenyan Conference and the "bishop" to the other SDB pastors of Kenya. It was a great first meeting.

Benard and Bob at the restaurant

The drive was right out of an episode of The Amazing Race from getting out of the airport parking lot, through the unlit city streets of Nairobi onto the open, long and winding roads, full of mud run-offs from unusual June rains and very deep chuck holes. We stopped for some food at an open "restaurant" where I had goat, ugali (greens), chai (Kenyan tea leaves with milk) and the staple of Kenyans, maize (corn).

A shot of my room at the Hotel Dados

After dodging some recently chopped down HUGE sections of tree in the middle of a road, I was brought to a "good" hotel at 1:30AM (Kenyan time) where I would spend my first night in Kenya by myself (gulp), called Hotel Dados.

Benard told me that it was not wise nor "safe" for us to go together to his room at that hour with my luggage because no security would be able to accompany us up (and I mean UP) the 1/4 to 1/2 mile long trek in total darkness with extremely slippery mud and deep washed out ruts under our feet. (When I did move to his room the next evening, I found out for myself why this was so true - all of the elements listed above being the same except we had "security" with us, helping to carry my two 50-pound bags.)

Inside Dorica's store

The next day I saw the office for the SDB Kenyan Conference, graciously provided for in its setting up and in its monthly rent by funds from a very generous state-side SDB (whom will remain unnamed until I have permission to give more open appreciation). Some of the other things there have also been provided for by one of our churches, the Seattle SDB Church, if I'm not mistaken, in addition to support in various ways by the Verona church herself over the last 10 years.

The next part of the day was spent doing some shopping of things that would be needed at Benard's family's compound (their piece of land on which lives his mother, Grace, his sister Jackie with her husband and two boys, his three younger brothers, Shem, James & Edwin and soon to be wife Dorcas (in Benard's hut that is undergoing renovations for his bride's arrival after the wedding on the 29th).

Store owner Dorica and Benard

The main store where we went that day was owned by a woman named Dorica, to whom I would be the age of her 7th born child (which she does have) or her first-born grandchild. She was fun to talk to.

We then used Bob's car and made our way outside of Kisii to where Benards's family lives. The welcome was so very, very humbling and warm by all of his family. It was just amazing - the word I find myself saying out loud quite often since arriving here. Grace shared chai and bread with me, I had a tour of the "compound" that makes up the family's home (don't let the word fool you, it only conveys the place where everyone lives together as family and not a description of means or wealth - as they, like much of Kisii, are very impoverished).

The SDB Kenyan Conference office is housed here

I saw the addition being put onto Benard's hut, made out of mud and limbs of trees. I saw their goats and cows (once stepping where I shouldn't have). I was shown the tree under which Benard's dad, taken tragically by an accident in 2002, is buried. I saw some of the preparations being made for the upcoming wedding, where, by custom, some of the festivities will take place, including the rebuilding of the main outhouse, which is just an open hole covered by boards and, after the renovation, will be enclosed.

Purchasing goat for dinner from Thomas the butcher.

After spending time with the family, Benard and I made our way back into town and rented a taxi to take us out to the other side of town to his room. It was a very hard journey on foot. Before going there, we made another stop to another store where we picked up a few more things needed to stay in his room, including what I found to be very essential, my new knee-high rubber boots to make the walk up to his room and, the next morning, down to the main road.

Hopefully today, Thursday, the path won't be as wet or as rough.

Along the streets of "Kisii town"

I will end for now, but stay tuned for more including my time with the mother church of the SDB Kenyan Conference, the Keera church, yesterday (Wednesday), in teaching and fellowship, my encounters with dozens and dozens of school children who were in school that day but who saw me from their playground next door or from the dirt road that went by the Keera church building as they went to and from their lessons. 

Part of the family compound: dwellings; kitchen; dining

I'll also share my experiences in using 3 different modes of transportation from Benard's apartment to the Keera church and then, last night, to Kisumu, Kenya, where today I spent some free time at the Kisumu "game park", seeing Lake Victoria and the sights at the Kisumu "museum".

Thank you for your prayer support, and it is definitely SUPPORT like I've never needed before. I am glad that I'm here - that I'm experiencing so much first-hand for this month. I miss Debbie, Keith and the Verona church BIG TIME! But this is God's call and God's timing and I am trusting His heart and His hand.

The "muddy" addition to Benard's hut for his marriage

Benard's mother, Grace, and I in the kitchen/dwelling

Grace at her favorite place, making chai.

Safe, Sound and on the Ground!

Good morning!

I have arrived in Kisii, Kenya late last night (er, early this morning actually - Kenyan time) and am trying to get my bearings as to incorporating blog time with mission time and some "me" time. Thank you for your patience and your prayers! I will post more later!

Thank you to my host, Pastor Benard Mose and Bob for coming all the way from here to Nairobi to get me (no easy task, I can now assure you, having ridden back along the same route)! It is just past 11AM here in Kenya - we've had breakfast, I've met some of Pastor Benard's friends and future family, have seen the SDB Kenyan office, the local bank and (obviously) the cyber cafe.


I've had a whirlwind experience of walking along the streets of Kisii as traffic made up of people, motor bikes, cars and trucks zip past you. Lots of busy-ness all around.


Soon I will post photos as well.

Today Pastor Benard and I map out the mission with more particulars and I understand that I may meet his mother this day as well!

I would covet your prayers as I take this journey one step at a time for AND with my Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you!

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane...

....I know when I'll be back again (by God's grace)! Click here for the "new" countdown clock if you're interested!

After a fair night's sleep, and a bit more "wrapping up" of some things this morning, I'm just under 6 hours until my scheduled departure from Syracuse, NY to JFK in New York City. 

From there I am scheduled to leave the US at 6:10PM EST for Zurich, Switzerland. I arrive in Zurich at about 2AM EST (8AM Zurich time) and leave for Nairobi, Kenya at 3:25AM EST (9:25 Zurich), arriving in Nairobi at 6PM Kenyan time (11AM EST). Pastor Benard Mose and friends will pick me up and it's 192 miles from there to Kisii, Kenya which will be our base for the next 4 weeks!

 

Click here for the trip stops and here for a map of Kisii, Kenya! (It's very cool to zoom in and out as you look at the areas!)

Thank you again for coming along on the journey and for your prayer coverage! The whole experience of getting ready has been BIG for Debbie & I and we are sure that the time in Kenya will be just as BIG if not more so! (Thank you to  my sister, Marcy, for getting that word ingrained in my vocabulary when something off the chain is happening!)

Wrapping Things Up!

Today was quite full with Spring Association in Leonardsville this morning and wrapping up last minute things related to tomorrow's (Sunday's) trip to Kenya! And when I say wrapping, I mean literally - as in enjoying one of our favorite meals out in the process....a turkey club wrap on a spinach tortilla complete with bacon, turkey, grated cheddar cheese, romaine lettuce, tomatoes and mayo - all from a local Nice & Easy!

While we wrapped up packing - and I must say that Debbie's strength, calm and wisdom carried the day with so many pieces parts to pack - I was able to catch a photo of the last Verona "end of Sabbath" sunset I'll get to enjoy until July 7th. The next sunset photo I'll get to post, which should be right here on the blog, will be from Kenya, Lord willing!

 
So now my bags are packed, I'm ready to go (hmmmm - sounds like a song from the 70s!)......we're calling it a night and calling on our Lord for grace, peace and strength as we take the next step into this exciting ministry opportunity that God has called us to! We're down to hours now - thank you for your prayer support!

Coming and Going!

There have been a number of times during the last two weeks especially that I've felt like I've been coming and going as I've been preparing to be going literally! Ever felt like that?

There are things to pack, both personally and pastorally, for this missions trip. There are things that I needed to be sure were in place at home and at church. Being gone for a little over 4 weeks is a BIG change from the normal 1 week here and there that we had come accustomed to, which meant that the "normal prep" I would do was multiplied times 4!

Before I entered into this final "two week stretch" I was also doing some part time work at the Dollar General in nearby Vernon (great place to work, by the way). I felt a bit overwhelmed by all of the trip dynamics coming to bear on me, and so I asked to be let go in order to get ready to go. Efrain Irizarry (Chino), the store's manager, was more than accommodating and very understanding. I am so very glad that he was able to work things out so that I could focus on what needed to be done to make this trip the best it can be.

Another "coming and going" dynamic was getting to chat online with Patrick Bentz, whose family have been in Lesotho, in southern Africa, for about two years and are now preparing to come back home to the U.S. I thanked him for his part in his family's ministry, even if he felt like he wasn't on the "front lines" while attending school there. It was neat to realized that here I was going and there they were coming at about the same time! You can read about their experiences on their blog here!

Now I'm just a few hours away from enjoying my last Sabbath here in Verona, NY until I get to celebrate our Savior and His Sabbath with the Verona church 5 weeks from now on July 7th. Thank you for sharing in this part of the journey - I hope you'll accompany me on the trip itself - which begins in just under two days!