Hello to all from Kenya on another beautiful Sunday, July 14, 2013.
We finished our first week of teaching, and we praise God for answered prayer so far. We seem to be doing pretty well in understanding, and the best part is that the students are telling us how the Word of God is impacting their hearts. As with students in the US, many of the students here bring much relational baggage with them. As Ann taught about children in the home and mentioned that sometimes parents discipline out of anger and abuse their children, she saw many of the students who had been watching her intently suddenly lower their eyes and heads. One girl wrote on an assignment that she’s tired of feeling angry all the time, tired of feeling constantly unhappy, and tired of always lying. So, the students are hungry for the Word of God. They are eager for truth. What a blessing to teach them!
The printer for the printing business was an HP deskjet. It was giving out, and we weren’t able to print notes for the students. It was finally decided that a new printer was a necessity. Silas spent a whole day in Eldoret and came home without a printer. The one we were after was sold out of every shop. However, we received a call the next day that one had arrived. So Silas made another trip to Eldoret, and on Friday evening we set up the new printer and did our first printing by running it off a car battery. If we have enough electricity, we may have notes to give to the students for their second week of classes.
Transportation has been interesting. The little car that had been loaned continued to have problems. It left us stranded a couple times. The steering linkage started coming apart, and fixing it with pliers was difficult. The front wheel alignment was so off that the wheels were heading in different directions. Thankfully, due to the rough road, we never traveled over about 25 mph. Failing bearings meant we went down the road with a loud squeak every turn of the wheels. Then the fuel line sprung a leak. We wrapped a strip of rubber innertube around it. By Wednesday, the car was abandoned in favor of the little Peugeot pickup of Silas’s brother. On Thursday, we ran out of fuel on the way to the college. We caught a ride with public transportation to finish the trip. They put a little more fuel in the truck later. On the way home, we ran out of fuel again! Fun times.
Silas was so apologetic about the car and the printer and other things. We kept assuring him that we were relaxed and were just fine. We started class 40 minutes late, but hey, we could praise God for just allowing this all to happen! However, I will admit to a moment where I felt very frustrated when, on Friday, the first power strip that was daisy-chained to a second one to give enough length, melted to the second one. When we tried using another outlet in order to use just one power strip, the chord on that one (which was hanging on by a thread) gave out completely. That left us with no projector. I felt a surge of frustration at the sin in societal structures that results in people building such incredibly worthless things and selling them to others. It seriously hindered the teaching because I’ve found that the students do so much better understanding me when they have the gist of what I’m saying in print before them. Since I hadn’t been able to give printed notes, I’d been relying on the projector to put things on the wall for them to see. Without either, I just had to take a deep breath, shake it off, ask the Lord for help, and do the best we could.
So, I guess these examples have given another glimpse into the third world. Now, let me get back to the people.
Yesterday’s church meetings were a combination of the seven churches. Most of the churches still met on their own and only sent some of their leaders as representatives since transportation is a problem. However, there were easily 150 people by the time it was all said and done. Every wooden bench was jam-packed full, and they ended up moving all the children out to make room for more adults. When the Bible study hour began, there may have been 20 or 30 adults and maybe 15 kids. Then people kept trickling in. By the time Andrea was finished teaching the children we guestimated about 40 kids. The Bible Study hour flows immediately into the main worship service. So we went from 9:30 to 12:30. Art taught the adult Bible Study hour from Genesis 24. The pastor over the seven churches preached from Philippians 2 for the main service. Then, all the people stayed at the church grounds. There was a large meeting of leaders for the men’s and women’s ministries immediately following the main worship service. While this meeting was happening, many others worked to prepare food for everyone. They cooked large pots of rice and beans. A second service was planned for 3:00, but since not everyone had finished eating by then, it got started about3:30. I preached for that service, continuing the series on discipleship.
Last night we had a long conversation with Silas in which we discussed all sorts of ideas for how future teams might best be used in Kenya. This was an exciting conversation. One of the purposes in this trip has been for us to “scout” out these sorts of opportunities. I feel like I’m now starting to see real possibilities and to get a realistic picture of the needs and challenges. Please pray that God will give us wisdom as we seek to continue discerning these things over the remaining weeks.
We praise the Lord for good health overall. Gracie was sick early in the week for a day – fever, vomiting, and no appetite, but recovered by the next day. Then, I think on Wednesday, I ended up really sick and had to quit teaching early (if I hadn’t, things would have become very embarrassing for both me and the students!). I spent the rest of that day in bed, but was able to go again the next day. Mom has had touches of stomach stuff, but has been helped by the medicine we brought along.
The rest of the crew is outside right now to see Silas’s bee hives. We had some of his honey this morning, and it was delicious. Later in the morning, the plan is for us all to go to Gladys’s parents’ home for lunch. We got to meet her mother and brother yesterday. Also, another brother of hers is a student, as well as a half-sister. Both Silas and Gladys come from homes where the fathers had two wives. They can readily testify to the fact that God’s design for families of one man and one woman is best.
Yesterday, we again were in the home of a widow named Mary. Her home is right next to the church building and was used as the staging area for all the cooking for the crowd and the place for folks to sit on the grass and eat. Two of Mary’s children are students of ours. At one point in our conversation Art asked how she is supported. She got a huge smile on her face as she said, “It’s just God!” She began relating stories of how she just prays and prays and has seen God miraculously provide over and over again. She raises a garden and has chickens and two milk cows. This woman has a huge heart. She served us meals last week and this week. Later in the afternoon, we observed her giving vegetables from her garden to other women. It reminded me of the woman who put the two little coins in the temple treasury. Jesus said she gave more than all the others. Nancy and Edward, her daughter and son who are our students, exemplify their mother’s kindness. Over and over again I see them serving others with wonderful smiles. Edward is student teaching in a primary school, but especially requested these three weeks off so he could take our classes. (This is Ann—just wanted to add another word about Mary. She and Edward and Nancy have been riding back and forth to classes with us in the back of the truck. It has given me good time to visit with Mary and hear encouraging stories of how God has provided for this widow. I think our experience of widowhood has drawn our hearts together and it is so wonderful to realize that God hears the prayers of a widow in Kenya and so faithfully provides for her needs in amazing ways just as He does for a widow in USA—or anywhere in the world for that matter. Understanding that has brought tears to my eyes on several occasions and fills my heart with overwhelming praise. I treasure several heart to heart conversations I have had with women here. Our culture and skin color is different, but our hearts are so much the same. Even though I can’t really communicate with Silas’s mother, our daily hugs communicate a growing love and appreciation developing between us. And of course the children—many can’t speak English yet—but they recognize love in any language. Andrea and I have enjoyed being able to teach them together with Mary as our interpreter.)
OK, I know others would write about different things than I would. I also know this is getting very long, so I’m going to sign off for now. Andrea and the kids were just out feeding termites to the baby chicks. Andrea has informed me that they are missing me on my one and only free day here. I need to go spend time with my family.
With love to all,
Ryan for the crew here.
