Just Call Me Doctor...

That was me today. I often get called Teacher, but today I was Doctor. :o)
I spent the day in Mitumba Slum again today, and here is what I did:

Gave all the kids multi-vitamins.

De-wormed about 100 kids.

Cleaned and bandaged a profusely bleeding cut.

Cleaned and bandaged numerous small cuts and scrapes.

Gave a child medication for an amoeba problem.

Cleaned and medicated a scraped up face.

Helped another child suffering from swollen glands and infection.

All this, and much, much more!! :o)

It was quite the day!! I really enjoyed it, as when the children come up to the clinic for help, that gives me some individual time with them, to talk with them, and make them feel important. I love it. And I love them. And yes, I have explained to Pastor that I am not trained in any medical field, but then he reminds me that neither is anyone else there, and somebody has to do it. So I am willing. (there is also a doctor on call whom we can call for advice and help, so that is really good.)

I will be doing a lot more of this in the future. Pastor and Violet also asked me today if I would be willing to take all the Class 4, 5, and 6’s (about 50 kids) on Wednesday mornings, and have discussions with them on different topics relevant to their age group, whether it be simple things like cleanliness (how to keep yourself clean), changing bodies, puberty…(all these things are so important as a lot of them don’t have parents or anyone who cares enough to explain some of these things to them.) The topics may also range to spiritual things, studying the Bible, being strong in the Lord…so I am very excited about this, as I welcome any chance I have to get to know these youth!! I wish you could all meet them. It would change your life, as it has changed ours.

Another interesting thing happened to me today at the slum. I was up in the clinic, doing some organizing there, when all of a sudden I heard a sound like gunshots (but not quite as loud), and people yelling and screaming loudly! I was a little uneasy, so I decided to just stay up there behind closed doors (I was the only mzungu (white person) in the slum, and figured that down in the chaos was probably NOT the best place for me!!). I was trying to hear what was going on, but everyone was just speaking Kiswahili, so it left me with no clue. I looked outside, and saw the corridors CROWDED with people, but still had no idea what had happened. Later, I found out that there was a group of electricians coming to do some wiring (btw, lately, many people in the slum have been stealing everyone else’s wiring for electricity, because it is expensive. But through that, people have also been getting shocked and killed by the live wires)…anyway, the electricians came with security…three policemen with rifles similar to AK-47’s, (which is common for anyone coming to the slum to come with some form of security). Some people living in the slum (for some reason unknown to us), starting throwing rocks at these electricians and policemen, intending to stone them. The policemen, however, had brought tear gas, and used it on the people…and thus the gun shot noise I heard!! This brought chaos, and everyone running in separate directions. Crazy!! But it was effective enough to stop the rock-throwing and bring about some sort of peace. But Pastor told me that if the electricians had not brought security with them, there is a good chance that they would have been killed today, or at least very badly injured. Such is life in a slum.

Oh, and on another note…an update on Trevor’s life :o). He has been SOO busy at the shop these days again, especially since taking a few days off when his sisters were visiting, so the work all piled up!! But another awesome praise item is that he is getting such great feedback from people…everyone is so happy that he is here, and are so thankful that he takes the time to help them and answer their questions. Just the other day he got two Java House (our favourite place!!) gift certificates from a customer, just to say thank you!! Steven, Benedicto and Mark are dreading him leaving in August, and are praying continually that we will return soon. There have been many jokes and threats to tie Trevor to his desk, or to the shop…or to tear up his passport so he has no choice but to stay! :o) Their relationship is really, really cool, and it is so great to see how God brought Trevor to the TAM shop at just the right time. It is amazing. We are so thankful for what HE has done.

Here is a quote I came across the other day…it’s a secular quote, but has made me think a lot lately.

"Don't ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

- Howard Thurman

YAY for Family!!

WARNING…This will be a long update!! A lot seems to have happened over the past two weeks, so if you’re up for it, grab a cup of coffee (or a bag of chocolate chips), sit back, and enjoy! :o)

So, we just spent the last 13 days with Trevor’s sisters!! It was a busy, busy time with them, but definitely well worth it!! Here are some of the highlights…

1) First of all…we had so much fun going to go get them at the airport…waiting, waiting, watching for them to come down the stairs, waiting some more, making bets to see what time we would see them…(I guessed 10:15 pm, and Trevor guessed 10:20 pm…and they came down the stairs at about 10:17 pm!!!)…then when we FINALLY saw them I held up my sign that said “Karibuni Kenya, Leona and Wanda” (which means Welcome to Kenya, Leona and Wanda)…but in my excitement I held it up upside down…! There were happy tears, of course, and excited talking, and lots of hugging…it was so much fun to see family again!! They brought us soooooo much stuff..we were quite overwhelmed with it all!!! The first thing they brought out of their suitcases was….Tim Horton’s Timbits!!! Can you believe it?!?! And pickles, and cheese, and chocolate chips (wow, were there ever chocolate chips!!!), and other chocolate, and cards and pictures from friends and family at home, and many, many other gifts and necessity items…we felt so incredibly blessed!! Thank you so much to all of you who sent stuff along with them for us! You made us feel so loved! :o) And another thing that was so exciting was that they brought a bunch of tools for the guys at the shop, which was such an amazing blessing for Steven, Mark, and Benedicto to receive. And after all our plans to get to bed early so that they could get over jet lag and adjust to Kenyan time…it obviously didn’t happen!! We all had too much to talk about :o)

2) We went on a few day safaris…safaris are so much fun!! The first one was driving down through the Great Rift Valley to a place called Crescent Island, on the shores of Lake Naivasha, near the town of Naivasha. It was a lot of fun…no vehicles are allowed on the Island (well it’s a peninsula now, but still called Crescent Island!) so we walked around, through groups of deer, close to giraffes, wildebeests, and zebras…the only warning we were given was “just make sure you stay far from the buffalo”…!!! It was HOT that day…and we all burnt! But a good time was had by all!

The next day we decided to go to Nairobi Game Park, which is just a short drive from where we live. It was even better than we expected, with the drive starting out with seeing a whole herd of Cape buffalo…then, right before lunch time…seeing a group of about eight lions, feasting on a zebra, right beside the road!!! Incredible!! We were in awe, and stayed there to watch for at least 45 minutes. We were so close that we could smell the blood, and hear the crunching and eating noises, and the growls coming from a lion's mouth. There was a huge male in the group as well…it was seriously amazing!!
We then stopped to have lunch outside at a picnic site…where we were joined by a group of feisty and aggressive baboons determined to steal our food!!! No joke! First just one of them came out of nowhere, jumped up on our picnic table, and grabbed our backpack! We were all feeling stunned, and couldn’t really move for a few seconds…what do you do with a huge baboon that looks and smells nasty, and has your stuff??!? We scared him enough that he dropped the backpack (thankfully, because it had important things like KEYS in it!!), and just stole our bag of fruit instead. That we could deal with. In this entire time of panic and confusion, all I could think about was wanting a picture, so I’m holding my purse, camera case, lunch kit, and at the same time, trying to take a picture of the baboon stealing our stuff…but couldn’t figure out why my camera wasn’t working…(it was turned off :o)…I apparently can’t think under pressure!!) . Not long after we had calmed down somewhat and put our stuff back down…we were surrounded by a whole huge group of baboons, all trying to get our stuff!! Good thing the park warden was there and had already given Trevor a stick, so we kept Trevor busy with “Trevor, there’s one here!!!” “Trevor, behind you!!” “Trevor, there’s one on the table!!” “Trevor, over here!! Trevor, over there!” Oh…and all of this through almost uncontrollable laughter…really, you should have been there!! It was hilarious!! Trevor got a few good whacks in though, and scared them away enough for us to get to our vehicle. We are just glad that none of them attacked us though…it has been known to happen...these are vicious creatures. But it was a really fun day, and made for some really good memories. :o)

3) For the past few months, our gardener, Elly, has wanted us to come visit him and his family in their home, but his wife has been so sick since November (with TB, typhoid, malaria, pneumonia..!!) so we have had to just wait till she felt well enough for company. Well, it turned out that we could go and visit now, when Leona and Wanda were here in Kenya! It was such a great time. They live in a slum area…in a tiny, one room mabati (tin) house, with their two young sons, Wesley, who is almost six, and Timothy, who is three years old. They welcomed us in so warmly, and served us chai. This was our first time meeting Violet, his wife, and even though she is getting well, “pole pole” (Swahili, pronounced “po-lay, po-lay, meaning “slowly by slowly“, in English), she didn’t even resemble the pictures that we saw of her, taken before she got sick. She was so thin and frail, and yet so incredibly happy to have visitors! The Kenyan hospitality is amazing. Elly and Violet have so few material possessions, and so many struggles in their life, and yet the joy in their eyes, and the true warmth of the welcome we received was real. We have so much to learn from them.

4) We were also able to bring Leona and Wanda to Mitumba slum quite a few times...to meet Pastor Shadrach and Violet, and to spend time with the kids there. I had also mentioned to Pastor that if the new clinic that they’re setting up would be ready by then, then to please put us to work in organizing it!! So Leona, Wanda, and I spent time doing that as well, which was great to do with them, instead of just by myself! (as organizing is not really my skill!!) Wanda also came with a donation from the school where she works, to spend in Mitumba and New Life Home, so that was really great, to be a part of blessing them in that way. The money was used for a lot of textbooks…all the ones they needed for the Standard 6 and Standard 7 classes, as well as some other school supplies!!

5) We also did other fun things…like visited the Hangar where Trevor works and they got to meet everyone there, and present the tools to the guys in the shop, go out for Indian Food a couple times, go to Java House, went to New Life Home a few times, took them shopping at the markets, went for walks around our neighbourhood…etc, etc.

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that friends from home, Craig and Ruthie, came to visit us here as well from Rwanda!! They only stayed for one night, but it was great to catch up with them, and hang out, play Dutch Blitz, and just spend time together as friends!!

Anyway…all that was to say that we had a wonderful time these last few weeks!! Having family over was also just what we needed to keep going here, and to realize that we are not ready to leave yet, and knowing that God has us here for a purpose. We said goodbye to them, realizing that we are more than happy to be here right now, relieved that it wasn’t us who were flying away from this beautiful country, and so excited about what God is doing here in Kenya.

Please continue to pray for us here…specifically about direction for the future. We don’t know what is going to happen, but we do know that all God is asking of us is to trust Him, so trust Him we will!! We are seeing so much need here, and are falling in love with the people we are meeting, but are still unsure if we are being asked to come back to Africa after our year here is done. All we know at this point is that God called us here for this year, and that we are willing to go wherever He asks us to go in the future, whether that is coming back to Africa, or staying at home, or somewhere completely different. He blesses obedience, and we want to obey Him. Thank you so much for your prayers…we have truly been so blessed.

I want to leave you with a verse, found in Jeremiah 6:16. (Thank you Esther Ford, for reminding us of this verse..)

Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.

Visitors!!

Well, the purpose of this post is to let you know that Trevor's sisters are coming TONIGHT (!!) and are staying until February 20th. So we may not be updating you as much during that time, as we have many plans and will have a very busy 13 days!!

Things have been going really well here...we've been quite busy lately, but it's good. Trevor's days at the shop are challenging, but he is really enjoying the time he has there. We have also had some really good times at Mitumba slum lately, and look forward to what God is going to do in the lives of those kids. I'll leave you with a few pictures..and will talk to you again soon...

Steven and Gabriel...two of the youth in Mitumba.

Spencer with a goat :)

Another Day in Africa

Trevor and I went to Mitumba slum on Saturday for Bible club and to have a Bible study with the youth. There were some things that stood out to us as unique and really cool about that day. First of all, this was our first time driving there by ourselves, and we were not quite sure of how to get there. So Pastor Shadrach offered to come to our compound and we could follow him there…but before he could do that, Trevor got a call saying that an alarm was going off in a car at the TAM shop, so we needed to go there first to take care of that. So we decided to meet Pastor at a fuel station and follow him from there.
So we waited…and we waited…ate some skittles (thanks family for the care package!!)…and waited…talked about how insanely hot it was in the car and how I was glad I was wearing a skirt and Trevor wished he was, haha :) …and waited…chatted with a guy who was changing a tire on the vehicle next to ours, who spoke to us in Kikuyu and was SOOO surprised when we said that we don’t speak Kikuyu!!??…and waited…watched the police stopping almost everybody on the road…and waited…looked at the sign in front of where we were parked that said “15 minutes parking only”…looked at the time and knew that we were well over that!!…and waited…said a couple of times over “This is Africa!!”…and about 45 minutes after the time we were supposed to meet, we finally saw Pastor Shadrach’s car! Yes, that is normal, and we are getting used to it and are able to smile about it! (well, most days!)

So off to the slum we drove, over some roads that made us feel like we were up-country, the car getting jostled and bumped and dragged along…thankfully we haven’t had any rain in awhile, or those roads turn into one big mud hole! We also had to stop for a herd of goats that were taking up the road…!! (and I wished I had brought my camera!!) We get to the entrance of the slum, past the piles and piles of garbage and goats on top of the piles eating the garbage. The car is stopped, and before we even had the chance to get out of the car, we could hear the sounds of little voices saying “Trevor!! Trevor!!” Trevor hasn’t been to Mitumba since the end of November!! These little kids, about five or six years old, remembered his name and were so excited! OH what that did to my heart!! We locked up the car, grinned while Pastor Shadrach took a sharp object from one little boy who was using it to poke our tires :) , and walked through the narrow slum corridors.

We spent time with the youth again…this time we split them up into two groups, Trevor took one and I took one…both groups studied different verses and then after the groups explained to the other group what they learned…we are trying out some different things to try and get some more discussion and interaction, instead of us just standing at the front and “preaching” to them…so we would appreciate prayer for wisdom as we try and figure out what will work best. A lot of the youth are still quite shy around us, so we are also trying to make them feel more comfortable and are looking forward to the time when they know that they can trust us. Until then, we’ll just continue to be their friends, spend time with them, and earn their trust and respect. What a great group of kids though!!

After the lessons were over, we joined in the chaos of serving the kids bread and juice. Chaos, but organized chaos!! There’s a lot of little mouths to feed! A lot of these kids will not get any other food than this for the day…and my grumbly tummy was a good reminder of the hunger that so many of these kids live with all the time. These kids know what it’s like to be hungry. We have no idea. Some of the mothers in the slum will sell their own bodies for 50 shillings (less than a dollar)…enough to put one meal on the table for their children. Oh the pain and heartache these families go through. (these pictures were taken in November, not last Saturday, but I wanted to post them anyway! I haven't taken recent pictures of the Bible club in Mitumba.)

Another one of those heart-warming moments happened as we were getting ready to leave the slum. Well, a couple moments actually. First, let me say that there are often little, little kids coming to the Bible club. Think of your four-year old child (for those of you that have kids) bringing her nine month old baby sister to the Bible club, and this little four year old trying to comfort the baby as the baby is crying…this is very normal to see. Anyway, so we were about to leave, and I see this little boy, only a few years old, just wandering around in his bare feet. He sees me. I smile at him. He comes walking toward me, with his arms outstretched. I kneel down and wrap my arms around his little body. He puts his arms around my neck. We stay there together for awhile. He can’t understand me, he has not yet learned English. It’s time to go. I give him one last squeeze and he lets me get up. We’re both a little happier now. :)
Trevor was chatting with two boys, both probably in grade six or so, Amos and Cosmas. They are still pretty shy, but have big grins on their faces. They tell him they like to play football (soccer!). He talks to them about it for awhile, and finds out that they often play in the field close by. Shyly, they ask him if he will come and watch them play football.
Oh these moments are so exciting! It may seem small or insignificant, but they are starting to realize that we love to be there with them, and it’s so cool when they are the ones inviting us into their lives, and we could not be happier to have those little moments!! So of course we went to the field and Trevor played football with the boys for awhile, (he says they’re way better at it then him!! :) ) while I swung a couple little kids around, played in the grass/dirt with them, and ooohh-ed and aahhh-ed as they were showing me all their cartwheels and other cool tricks that they could do! Can I say it again…??? What beautiful, sweet kids!! Oh we love them!

So that was another day in the slum. How we wish all of you could experience some of the things we are experiencing, and meet some of the sweetest kids you will ever meet. Life has not been kind to them, but they are hearing about the love of Christ, and lives are being changed. And it’s been another exciting day…

Oh, and one more short story…a little while ago, Trevor gave Mark (the Sudanese guy who works at the shop with him), some money to buy clothes. Mark has very little clothing, and most of it really old and not in good shape. One morning for work, Mark shows up, comes to Trevor and says “How do you like the new Mark?”…wearing his new (well, second-hand, but new to him) clothes!! He was so proud! And Trevor made sure to tell him how good he looked!! What a privilege for Trevor to know this young man!! Trevor just really enjoys working with all the guys at the shop and they enjoy working with him. It’s already hard to think about leaving them, and vice versa. They have asked a couple of times.. “What are we going to do when you leave, Trevor??”…and then we have to ask ourselves… what are we going to do when we leave?? Something we don’t really want to think about yet. Letting go will be tough.
Steven and Mark working on a vehicle at the TAM shop.