Babies, Babies, Babies

New Life Home.

This kid's name is Koros...for some reason he LOVES anybody with white skin! As soon as he

sees me he'll get to me as fast as he can and demand to be picked up...and he will CRY and cry if I don't pick him up right away!!! It's so funny!!

One of the toddlers...(I can't remember his name...!!)

Benson...probably one of the brattiest kids I have ever met, but oh so cute!

Casey...this was the first baby I got to hold and feed at New Life Home...she's so sweet!!


And this...this is Bernard. He has already become my sweetheart..

Crispin. He's getting adopted really soon...so exciting!!!

One of my new friends, Evelyn, holding baby Joe.

The Day room ...through the glass windows/doors you can see where we take the babies outside every day to get some fresh air and sunshine.

Our Life Lately...

It has been a LONG time since I’ve updated…or at least that’s how it feels! As we settle into life, I sometimes forget to keep everyone up to date with what’s happening around here.

Well, I was sick for almost two weeks…let’s just say it wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had!! I had the stomach flu (which I was worried was malaria, but it turned out not to be, Praise the Lord!!), then I got a really bad head/sinus cold…and when you’re sick it’s sometimes really difficult to see the positive side of things!! It was a rough time for awhile, but thank the Lord I feel much better now!! I had planned on starting to volunteer at New Life Home the week I got sick, so I also had to postpone that, which was frustrating!! (see the previous blog on New Life Home.)

Trevor has been really busy at work…it’s been quite stressful some days, with the pressures of getting the vehicles fixed for the missionaries who have to get back up-country, and not being able to get them done because it takes so long to get the right parts… There is no such thing as a “Norpine” here…everything is sold separately!! There is a store for nuts and bolts, a store for filters, a store for some tools, and another store for some other tools…you get the picture!! Also, the pace of things is just different, slower and more laid-back, which we knew beforehand, it’s just that those are the things that can really be hard to deal with when there’s a time crunch!! There has also been a lot of paperwork and admin type things that are his responsibility, which can also be difficult when the system works so differently than in Canada.
A lot of up-country missionaries are in Nairobi right now because of the AIM conference they just had, and so a lot of them are bringing their vehicles into the shop…plus there’s been a service special on at the TAM Shop, so that also brings in vehicles. This is all really good for the shop and for customer relations, it just makes things really, really busy!!
So all this has been a real challenge for him, but he is learning A LOT, and God has been so faithful throughout the whole process. At times, when it gets difficult for him to see the big picture and why this is important, then that’s when it seems like God just puts someone in his path to remind him that he is working for God, and that’s all that matters, and to put his focus back on the Lord. It has been a real stretching experience for him already, but we know that God is in control, and that He is teaching us so much.
He also had his 26th birthday on November 10!! It felt strange to celebrate by ourselves (and this was also the day that I was awfully sick, so it wasn’t much of a celebration!!), but he also got lots of birthday wishes from family and friends, and received a package in the mail from his family!! That was really, really exciting!! So we weren’t alone, but had many loved ones celebrating with us, just not “with us”!!

We also had the privilege of having some new friends stay with us for about five days!! We met them when we were up in Kurungu, they are two guys from Australia who are missionaries with AIM, and have lived in South Horr (which is close to Kurungu), for the past year and a few months. They needed a place to stay in Nairobi for a few days, and since we have more than enough room for them, we offered our place, and are so glad we did! It was such a nice time of visiting and lots of laughter!! They were so encouraging to us, and it really felt like we made two new friends. We also spent time with other friends on the weekend, and had a bunch of people over for cake and a movie! It was so refreshing!! We really thank the Lord for giving us that time with new friends, and for giving us that time of good conversation and building relationships.

The other day we went to the store, and as we walked up the steps from the parking garage, we heard the sounds of music, and the closer we got, we realized that we recognized it! It was Boney M Christmas!!! It felt so strange to hear the music from both of our childhoods, and get that “Christmas feeling”, and see the decorations all over the store….and then realize that we are feeling very warm with the hot sun beating down on us, and that we are in Kenya…we laughed!! It will definitely feel even more strange the closer it gets to Christmas!!
We also had another interesting time…as we drove up to another place, Yaya center, and were looking for a place to park, we had to wait for two white tourist vans to unload all their passengers…and as we watched them with their huge cameras, huge gaping purses, wearing big sun hats…I looked at Trevor and said “We don’t look like that anymore, do we??”…it was really funny, because as we were watching them, we were grouping ourselves in with the nationals and staring at all these wazungu…!! At that moment we felt more at home than we had yet!! We are not tourists anymore, and we don’t feel like we are either!! YAY!!

Oh, and on another note…our youth Bible clubs in Mitumba have been postponed for the next couple of weeks because the kids are on a break from school, and it won’t work very well to have the clubs right now…so that was disappointing, and kind of felt like a set back. But we really hope that we can get them going again not to long from now.

I have also felt pretty low for awhile…trying to figure out why God brought me out here…what my purpose is. I see how God is using Trevor and his skills to bless other people and further His kingdom, but I was losing sight of MY reason for being here. God used the time that I was sick and sitting at home to show me that I, first of all, need to be here for Trevor. He has brought both of us out here together, and I need to be a support to him, especially when he is feeling so tired and stressed, and has so many responsibilities. That should be my priority, and I need to be the helper that God has asked me to be. The second thing that God showed me is that I am not here to DO all these things for him…I am still here to worship God with my whole life, and to be the person He has called me to be. I’ve been caught up in the feeling of not “doing” enough…but God really showed me that it’s not about that. He has just asked me to trust Him, and to give up all the great expectations I had about all the things I was going to do here, and to just give that up and be willing to listen to His voice. It has been a real learning time for me already, and God has proven Himself to be faithful, just like He promised. I will be volunteering at New Life Home for a few days a week, and getting involved in Mitumba again whenever we can start up the club again, but that may be all. That leaves me time to be home and keep things going at home, and not be involved in so many different things that it feels like Trevor and I are living two separate lives.

So we would appreciate prayer for all of this, and please just pray that we would continue to be open to hearing God’s voice, and obeying Him. Please also pray for Trevor in his daily responsibilities at work, and that he will remember what and Who he is working for. Pray also for wisdom and guidance for him as he deals with the challenges that continually come his way. Please pray for me as well, that God would give me contentment and fulfillment in the things that I am involved in and in the time I spend at home. We know that God has a purpose and a plan, and that we are just here to do the one small task He has asked of us.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement…we can’t tell you how much it means to us when we hear from you…you have been such a blessing in our lives, and we are SO thankful. God has used YOU to encourage us, and to give us new excitement and perspective. We are all in this together!! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

New Life Home!!

I am excited to report that I have started volunteering at New Life Home, which is a baby orphanage not far from where we live! I have been wanting to do this for a long time, but I hadn’t yet been able to yet with the way things worked out. So I went yesterday for the first time…it was a great day! I kind of felt like I got a new excitement for being here, and it was really encouraging.

I walked to New Life, which takes about a half hour. It was a nice walk, and I only have to cross one busy street, so that’s bonus too!! I met a lot of friendly people, (some a little too friendly, maybe!), but it was not as intimidating as I expected, and was actually quite enjoyable!! Just being outside in the wonderful Kenyan sun, and seeing the local people go about their day…

The orphanage is run by Kenyans, and staffed by Kenyans, so that was part of the draw for me to get involved here, so that I can get to know the local people. They were all so welcoming and excited that I was there to help out, and I am so looking forward to getting to know the ladies there.
The babies are split into four different groups…the older toddlers, younger toddlers, babies and sick ICU babies. I helped out with the babies for most of the day…and while they napped helped out with the toddlers.
It is an excellent orphanage…it is very organized, the kids are all on a schedule, they get fed really well, and the staff are very loving and really do all they can for the kids living there. I was very impressed by what I saw, and am very glad to be able to help them out.

I am planning on going there three days a week for now, and see how things go. The day was filled with feeding babies, holding them, loving them, comforting them…playing with the cutest kids ever, breaking up fights, getting peed on…!!! It really was great!! I know that God has a deep concern for the fatherless children, and I am convinced that we need to help them as much as we are able. It truly was a joy to be there, and to get to know the most vulnerable ones in society, and show them the love of Christ.

"I'm No Longer the Same..."

...That was a phrase in a song that some of the teenage girls were singing the other day at our Bible club in Mitumba Slum.. “I’m no longer the same…” and this is true…

Last Saturday Trevor and I went to our first Bible club out at Mitumba. We had a really great (and tiring!!) time! It had been raining off and on all week, and Saturday morning it was pouring, and so we were prepared with an umbrella and rubber boots to battle the mud and rain!!
We walked to the Ngong road, and waited there for Pastor Shadrach to pick us up, and then went to Mitumba. The slum was even more mucky and muddy than last time…everything was so incredibly dirty…and yet the kids were happy and joyful with huge smiles on their faces…what a contrast..

We just sat in while Pastor Shadrach told the smallest kids (there were close to 100 of them) a Bible story, and they sang some songs. We were amazed at their singing, and how he just asked if they could sing a few songs for us, and one of them started them off, and they were all trying to compete in volume and expressiveness with each other! It was really cute!!

We waited till some of the youth showed up, and met with them for awhile. (There were about 15-20 youth.) It was a neat time of visiting and going through a short Bible study with them…but we do realize that it will take awhile before they completely trust us enough to really open up and have real discussions with us. That was why I was shocked when a few girls hung around after most of the youth had left, and asked Trevor and I a lot of questions…like “where did God come from?” and “Why doesn’t He always answer my prayers?” “…it was so awesome that they felt free enough to ask questions, especially after only the first time we had met! After we talked for awhile, then the girls started whispering amongst themselves, then whispered my name to get my attention…it turns out that they had SO many questions that needed answering, and wanted to ask with no boys around!! So we went to sit in a quiet corner, and they asked questions about life, relationships, boys, puberty, kids, HIV AIDS…the list goes on and on! I couldn’t even finish answering one question, then another girl would have another question…it was so awesome! I was so excited to be able to have this chance to interact and get to know them on a deeper level…already!! One of them asked if we would ever come back to Mitumba, and I told her that yes, we were planning on coming back most Saturdays…the girls all looked at each other, grinned, and the questions stopped! They realized that they did not need to get all their questions answered in such a hurry, but they would have time to ask me another day if not today…it was funny, and yet broke my heart at the same time…these teenage girls are in such need of role models, of women in their life who will be there for them, and give them Godly and Biblical answers to their very real struggles…and so many of the questions they had were so basic, and yet they did not know, because no one had ever taken the time to tell them. They blessed me so much just by their willingness to be open and honest with me, and I just pray that God will give me the answers to their questions, and the love that these girls need. A lot (or maybe even most) of them have made commitments to follow the Lord, and yet a lot of them don’t really know what this means, and struggle a lot with different issues…so please pray for these girls…
In the meantime, Trevor was meeting with the boys (we had not intended to split them up, but now see that it was really good that it happened), and they also had really good discussions about abuse (what to do if they or their family members are being abused), how to handle it when a friend wrongs them, and questions about if they will go to Heaven right away when they die if they are believers. They had really good, deep discussions, and a lot of questions, and Trevor was able to help, counsel and encourage them with God’s Word. It was so incredible how they opened up so soon, and are just hungry for advice and for someone to take the time to listen to them and their stories! These young men need a lot of prayer, as they are facing so many pressures and struggles…their lives have been so difficult.

Some of the beautiful children who live in Mitumba Slum.

A little history on Mitumba…the name that has previously been used for it is “Sodom and Gomorrah” because of all the immorality and sinful things that happened there… it’s people were viewed as cursed and demon possessed because of the slum’s appalling immorality. Parents would give their children alcohol to daze them, and would teach them crime…there was no law and order. Many, many other sad and awful things were normal in this place…but things have changed somewhat now…since Pastor Shadrach and his wife Violet felt the call of God to help these people six years ago, God has done GREAT things in Mitumba slum, and is changing lives, one by one!! They are counselling adults, and being able to influence the children through the school and Bible clubs…Pastor Shadrach says that now, as the children learn about morality in school, they will act as their guardians’ moral keepers, and not tolerate “misbehaviour” at home. There is still so much need, and so many lives that are still caught up in the bondage of sin, but we do know that God is in the business of changing lives, and that is what He is doing in Mitumba Slum!! All glory and honour goes to God!!

Korr...

This past week was another one of intense temperatures and interesting experiences. We spent a week up country in Korr…a small desert village in northern Kenya. First of all…it was hot. Not warm, or comfortable, or sitting and tanning kind of heat. Hot, like sweat constantly dripping off your body like water, drying wet laundry in a few minutes, temperatures upwards of +50 C, NEVER dropping below +30 C in the afternoons…hot, hot, hot!!! Even the lightest, thinnest clothing is not light or thin enough. We had never experienced the direct heat like this before! Nothing grows…vegetation is sparse…the sound of rain is so waited and prayed for…This was Korr.

We arrived in Korr on Saturday morning. The purpose for our trip was to help the missionaries who live there. They had some vehicles in need of repair (this is an understatement…all the vehicles up country are in such bad shape…Trevor has been astounded over and over again at the beating the vehicles get on these “roads”!!) and pleaded for someone to come and help out, and Trevor was more than willing to volunteer!!

There are three missionary couples who live in Korr, and we were thoroughly amazed and challenged to meet them, and see there unselfishness and willingness to serve in such a difficult place. One couple, Nick and Lynn Swanepoel, have served there for 28 years!! They are translating the Bible into the Rendille language for the Rendille people who live in the area. Another couple, Grant and Loki Swanepoel, (Grant is Nick and Lynn’s son), and their two daughters have lived in Korr for almost 5 years now, and they are working on getting a Bible school up and running. The third couple is Jim and Laura Propst, and they have been in Korr since May of this year, but both Jim and Laura grew up in Africa, and have now been missionaries for more than 20 years, and just moved to Korr. They are in charge of building projects, and any other “hands-on” type of work.

There is so much happening in Korr…God is working mightily, and doing wonderful things in the lives of the people who live there. The Rendille people are nomadic, and have quite a few similarities to the Samburu people that we met in Kurungu a few weeks ago. They live in small huts, travel with their animals, live on a diet of mostly goat/cow/camel’s milk mixed with blood, walk miles and miles to fetch water, find food for their animals, get to school…some will walk 55 km to get to the hospital, or walk 15 km with babies and small children just to attend a Bible study, and then walk back in the dark the same day!! The Swanepoels have seen a lot of progress in the ministry…they have started literacy classes to teach the Rendille people to read, and through that are able to present the gospel, and many lives have been given to Christ through this program!! Nick and Lynn are constantly handing over leadership and responsibilities to the Rendille, who are now teaching the literacy classes, and teaching in the Christian primary school, and preaching in Church…it’s amazing!

The Rendille are a “begging” culture. They pride themselves on their begging, and will beg and beg until they wear someone down enough to get what they want. They all beg…the “rich”, the poor…they beg from each other, and they beg from the missionaries. The missionaries will have people outside their door and in their house EVERY DAY…begging, begging, begging. There’s a story that’s told of a Rendille man who died, and at the funeral, the tribute to him was “He was a good man…he knew how to beg.” Nick also went to visit a family while we were there, and the mama asked him “Are you Nick?” and when he said he was, she replied, “I’m coming to beg from you tomorrow!” This is every day life for them, and it’s very, very tiring. Yes, the need is there, and it’s a great need. So many people are starving and completely destitute, with NOTHING to feed their babies, and NO WAY to get ahead. They told us of a time in the 1980’s when the people were going through a famine, there were sometimes 3000 people camped outside their house, begging for something, anything. So the missionaries do what they can, and leave the rest up to God.

“We Fear the Dark…”

Saturday night was interesting…there was a seminar that was happening all day Saturday for a bunch of the Rendille Christians…and they had walked to Korr from their manyatta villages in the morning to attend. Some walked for 15 km with babies on their backs!! They were all going to walk home close to suppertime, and had yet to fetch water and firewood to make some supper for their families, and it was already getting dark. So Swanepoels decided to drive them home, and we tagged along. Let me remind you that this is the desert…at night it’s completely DARK…there are no roads…very little vegetation or landmarks…the odd scraggly acacia tree and some bushes and shrubs, tons of very hard lava rocks scattered on the sand, and the “luggas” (dry riverbeds) to mark the way. As we were trying to find these villages, Lynn commented, “we fear the dark…”, and it didn’t take long for Trevor and I to understand what she meant. It’s so easy to drive around in circles and completely lose your way. It took awhile, but we finally found the manyattas with the Rendille ladies’ help…but after we dropped them off we were on our own. Just us and the dark…and the occasional African rabbit getting confused by the headlights and running in front of the vehicle…we were trying to follow our tracks to find the way back…but the tracks were so faint that they were very hard to see…it was very disorienting…We eventually made it back, but now in Korr, we now fear the dark as well…

We visited with this family outside their hut one evening...despite the huge age difference, they are a married couple with their first child. (She is still in her teens, and he is over sixty years old!). She shared her testimony with us (in Rendille, and Nick translated into English)...how she was forced to get married to him when she was basically still a child, how she longed for a baby...she then attended the literacy program, heard the Gospel and gave her life to the Lord...she prayed for a baby (in the Rendille culture, having babies is the highest calling for a woman), and after a few years the Lord answered her prayer. She loves God so much, and gives Him all the honor and glory for blessing her with a child. It was interesting, because her husband takes care of them so well, and was doing laundry while we were there...which is VERY unusual for a man to take on those responsibilities. He loves his little baby too...he is not a believer, but has not stopped his young wife from talking about God or serving Him.

Cockroaches…and other Creepy crawlies…

I hate bugs. I hate snakes. I hate anything that moves too fast for me to run out of the way. I hate things that fly at me. I hate things that buzz and bite. Well…all of these fears and dislikes of mine were challenged during the week!! First thing we had to deal with…the cockroaches in the outhouse. This outhouse hadn’t been used in awhile (a fact we did not know at first), and so we used it without really thinking twice…until the inhabitants who were there first got irritated at us! I was closing the lid and happened to look down and make eye contact with a monstrous cockroach! It was so big and ginormous…(yes, that’s a word!)…the size of a cat! (ok, exaggeration, but it really was huge!!!) So I ran to get Trevor to save the day…and he sprayed Konk-like stuff around the edge of the hole while I stayed a safe distance away..and all of a sudden the outhouse was FILLED with cockroaches of every size, trying to get away from the killer spray!! GROSS!! My first thought was…”now how am I going to get away with not using the bathroom for the next week…I can‘t do this!!” We were both thoroughly disgusted!! But all was well when we found out that there is another outhouse that did not have the bug problem…whew!
Next…the scorpions. When walking after dark, you have to make sure you are carrying a torch (flashlight), and keep your eyes on the ground ahead of you to watch for the scorpions. They are very difficult to see, as they are the same color as the sand! This makes for a very paranoid Andrea!! But…thankfully, we killed the ones that we saw, no one got stung, and all was well!
The room we stayed in had many spiders in it, and at night, when the flashlight was on, also had many moths and other creepy bugs…so, needless to say…we were constantly surrounded by the scent of konk, and slept much better for it!
Some of the men killed a snake one afternoon…they said that this snake, although it wasn’t very big, was very deadly…if it bites you, you start to bleed from your nose, eyes, ears, etc….and you die within the hour. Not really something we wanted to contend with!
So yes..there were many bugs, and many more than what I’ve mentioned here…just a small taste of what it was like for us to conquer some of our fears!!

The Vehicles

Trevor had his work cut out for him…it’s a whole different story fixing vehicles when you live in the middle of nowhere, and have to fly the parts up to you (and fly the mechanic up as well!!). They say that driving a vehicle for one year in up-country Kenya is like driving it for 10-15 years in Canada!! The vehicles are also so needed in a place like this…they need them to haul water, both for their homes and also for the schools there. They also need them to bring teachers to the literacy classes, and to the preschool and primary schools. And because so many of the Rendille villages are so many km away, they need the vehicles to be able to effectively keep up with visitation and ministering to the people who live in these villages. So when the vehicles are out of commission, it really affects the entire ministry and daily living becomes a challenge. There were a few Christian Rendille men, Joshua and Rafael, who have taught themselves a lot about fixing vehicles, so Trevor worked together with them. They worked on Nick’s land cruiser for the first day or two, then while we were there, their other land cruiser broke down! Trevor was able to get parts for that vehicle flown up on an AIM Air flight, and fixed it the day we left (finishing about a half hour before our plane was supposed to leave!!). There were a few days that he was waiting for the parts to come, and so he was able to fix a couple problems on Grant’s Land Rover as well. It was an eye opening experience for Trevor to fix vehicles in Korr…to not have access to proper or specialized tools, to have to get parts flown in, to have to be very creative in how the vehicles get fixed…It was a challenge as well for Trevor to work in the intense heat, wearing shoes and coveralls!! And another thing was that as he was working on the vehicles, there were always other Rendille guys hanging around, watching, visiting…all day. They have nothing else to do, and so if there’s something happening, well it’s better than sitting in their huts, so they may as well be where the action is! So he had a constant audience!!

A Rendille Child...

We were supposed to leave Korr on Wednesday, but due to miscommunication, we ended up missing the flight…and there wasn’t another flight scheduled till the following week! It was frustrating for us at first, but after realizing that we didn’t have a choice, and that when you live in Africa, you HAVE to be flexible with your plans…so we decided to just make the best of it. We prayed about it, and gave it to the Lord. It was neat, because God knew what He was doing all along (of course!!) and Trevor was able to get more work done on the vehicles, and get them fixed properly! The way we ended up getting home was interesting…Friday morning, Loki, Laura and I were going to spend some time in prayer, and one of the things we were praying for was a way for us to get home. But before we even started praying, Trevor came over to where we were sitting, and said that he just heard that there was a plane coming that afternoon that had room for us! God is so good! He was also able to get some more parts flown up in the plane as well! What we didn’t realize at the time was who was on that plane…a bunch of big shot Kenyan government officials and MP’s were coming to Korr to have a celebration for the Rendille people because they voted the new MP into power…so we flew back with all these important men! Very interesting!! They had chartered four planes and a helicopter…I don’t think that Korr has ever had that much traffic on their airstrip before!!

So, it a nutshell…this was our experience in Korr…a land that is not so immediately beautiful, but if you look hard enough, and let yourself get to know it’s culture and people, you begin to see a raw, natural beauty that comes through. We experienced just a taste of what life looks like there…and know that the missionaries serving there need so much prayer to keep going, to press on in the task that God has called them to. It is not an easy life, but through their stories we sensed the call of God on their lives, and the joy they find in serving Him in Korr…it truly was amazing.

~A

American Elections...

Well, even though we are half way around the world in Kenya, we have heard more news about the American Presidential elections than ever before. Why, you ask? Because Barack Obama is one of Kenya’s own, or at least they like to think he is, as his father is Kenyan. (We have just heard that Obama's brother actually lives in Kibera slum as well..) Everywhere you go, you can find Obama t-shirts with his picture on it, or the saying “Kenya says, YES WE CAN!”… you can find beaded bracelets with the Kenyan colors of green, red and black, and Obama’s name on it…posters suggesting people write to Obama…and the list goes on and on! People on the street or in the stores will assume that we are American, and ask who we are voting for…in Church people talk about and pray for the American elections…it’s all been pretty crazy! Most people here have NO idea what Obama stand for, they only know that he is half Kenyan and assume that Kenya will be a priority for the US, and that they will be able to get visas easier…won’t they be disappointed when they realize that things don’t work that way in the rest of the world. It makes sense for them to think that, because here in Africa, it’s all about tribes. They vote for their president based on what tribe he’s from, not based on what he stands for, or what he will do for the country. The tribe that is represented in the presidency is automatically given special privileges…it’s just how it works here. Remember the election violence in January??? It was tribal, not political. So for the Kenyans to now be so excited that AMERICA is going to have a Kenyan president??? It just couldn’t get any better than that!
There was even live coverage here in Nairobi for all those who wanted to watch the elections and voting coverage today! Extra police were called in to parole the streets of Nairobi in the event that Obama would win the presidency…and now that he has won…President Kibaki declared that tomorrow is a holiday in Kenya! No joke!! Nobody is working tomorrow and everybody is partying because the United States elected Barack Obama as their next president!! What??? So, we are on holiday tomorrow as well, here in Nairobi, and all for the new American president…