Last post from Kenya!

We are back from Makueni and packing up to get ready to fly out tomorrow night. Our flight leaves at 10 PM tomorrow (Thursday)... and after several connections and layovers we should be to Louisville by 6PM on Friday! We said many of our goodbyes today, as most of the LIA staff we have been working with is staying with the medical team from Southeast to continue serving the people of Makueni in the medical camp. Needless to say, our tear ducts are all adequately flushed... The medical camp was amazing and God was really working in Makueni... Bwana asifiwe!

Thanks for your continued prayers. Prayers for safe journeys and the logistics of the flights would be much appreciated. We will be seeing our Poland friends soon in Amsterdam (yay!), so prayer for their last day and travels would be great as well.

You all rock. We love you so much!

- The Mi2 Kenya team

Where did the summer go?

Greetings from Nairobi. I sit here, baffled as to how fast time flies. Tomorrow, we are leaving for our final trip, a trip back to Makueni where we will be making final preparations and helping with the medical camp. We are so excited to see how God is going to move and work through the large team of doctors, nurses, and people who love the Lord next week in Makueni, but it is a bittersweet anticipation. Because, as soon as the medical camp begins, it means our time in Kenya is almost up. The medical camp starts on Tuesday, and our team will be driving back Wednesday and flying back to the states on Thursday. Don't get me wrong, we are excited to see all your beautiful faces once again, but it will be hard to leave all the beautiful faces that we have met here behind. We had our first round of goodbye's today at the office, as the LIA staff had a "goodbye" celebration and time of thanksgiving and rejoicing together for what the Lord has done in the last few months. I consider myself to be a pretty emotionally stable person for the most part, but I quickly learned that saying goodbye to those people that I won't see before we fly out turns me into a blubbering fool. I don't even want to know what will happen when we say goodbye to the rest of our friends at the airport...

But enough about my emotional instability issues. The main purpose of this blog post is to ask for prayers. The past few days have been crazy trying to get things together for the medical team. Prayers that the preparations would run smoothly and that all those details that need to be accomplished before Monday would be taken care of. Also, prayer for the hearts of the people of Makueni, that God would be preparing them to be open to the Gospel and His amazing plan for their lives as they come to the medical camp searching for physical healing. And also prayer for the medical team themselves, as they prepare to fly out to Nairobi very soon, that they would be strong and healthy and patient and ready to serve. It is going to be an amazing week... but without God present and working, no fruit will come of it. Thanks so much for your prayers. We will most likely be out of communication until next Wednesday or Thursday... but you all are continuously in our thoughts and prayers as well.

God is so good. Enough said. Have an amazing day :)

Lauren

Wherever He Leads I'll Go

This week was physically and emotionally exhausting. The trip to Kisumu was jam packed. However, it had to be the most rewarding by far of any of our experiences thus far. I could probably write a book on all the things that we did, instead I will go with a group of short stories.

Story 1:
We did home visits. My favorite was Margaret who I got to visit twice. She was about 80, widowed and taking care of her grandchildren. She was constantly cracking jokes, and kept everyone rolling when she was in their presence. She tried to find me a wife, then decided that she was single, but the language barrier was too much for her. Since she was the oldest of her church I asked her for advice. She said, "Go to America and tell everyone there that their are many believers in Kenya. Also, love the Lord more each day and never look back." A very serious and impactful note from a funny lady. She was also known to be a leader, challenging the other ladies to give generously by her actions, even when she didn't have enough money to feed herself. Quite an interesting woman. She is welcoming to all by her smile and laughter, yet courageous to stand up for what is right.

Story 2:
With many implications, the parable of the Church being the body of Christ was a theme for the two weeks. Whether it was the encouragement that each part needs, or the trust required to be one, or the uniqueness of the gifts each individual has to provide to the group, it was all there. We saw some amazing giving going on. We were at a church where 8 months of rent was past due and eviction was within two weeks...the offering was enough to cover that cost, and the Americans weren't the ones doing the giving. We were able to see how we could support our Kenyan counterparts in many unexpected ways. Words of evangelism reached hearts that had been prepared for years and were waiting for the moment. Testimonies related the similar problems all people face on the earth. Lifting up the ailing parts of the body came through for us Mi2's when we were introduced to a 16 year old leading a family of 3. His job was to drive a taxi bicycle called a boda-boda. We were able to empower the family by purchasing a bicycle he could take all the profits home and not just half from the rented one he was driving before. This and many other stories showed us how the body can do many things when it takes care of its members.

Story 3:
Personal evangelism has never really been my strength. However, the Kenyan culture has fertile soil for doing this good work. We were able to painlessly instigate conversation with people and then tell them the Good News we had. For me it was challenging to just walk off after someone gives their life to Christ and feel like the work is done. This became less disheartening (that you leave them) when we got to know the church people we were leaving them with. Of course I have a favorite. Eugene was a cool lady with some awesome kids. She was great to work with and you could tell devoted a lot of her efforts to reaching out to her community. She and many others sacrificed time from their jobs and families to help us get the information needed and relationships built to start this project and transform the lives of the Kisumu people. I am confident that if I were the seed planter, that they will not go unwatered if the heart was ready. The churches we were referring people to were amazing.

Story 4:
I can't tell you how much I have been stretched this week. When God asks you to do something, even though you might not be the best at it or have never tried it before, do it. Some amazing revelations come when you find out you are able to do things beyond yourself. A quote from Bishop Zephaniah, "When you are nervous about doing kingdom work, and you step out on that faith, you say things that you couldn't come up with on your own, and in the outcome you know the Spirit was working in you, and that is a great place to be."

Processing all of this material has led to a lack of sleep. I closely relate the experience I'm having to a song, because that is about all the thinking that I have been able to do. Hence the title and the point I'm making. Step out on faith and God can show you things you weren't expecting.

-Daniel

Twizzlers, Reese's, and Pretzels

We just got back from Kisumu. I figured I would write a blog post considering we haven't written in a while... travelling around makes computer access difficult. But, needless to say, we have returned to Nairobi encouraged and blessed by all that He has done in Kisumu both through us and in us...

Kisumu has to be my favorite trip so far. I could probably type for the next 16.72 hours about how amazing it was and how God moved each day we were there. For most of the trip we were able to have the Post college team from SECC there with us, and it was nice to be able to share the amazingness of Kenya with fellow Americans. I quickly learned that, when around Americans, I shift into super loud fast-talking Lauren again so then the Kenyans can't understand me... so it's been an interesting experience gauging how much I should articulate depending on who I am talking to... but that's beside the point.

Here's the point; Kisumu rocks. The LIA staff there, Oke, Ephantus, and Mary, are pretty much the most amazing people ever. They have such a heart for the Lord and for youth and have been awesome role models on what it looks like to live like Jesus, and they are pretty stinkin' hilarious as well.

As Holly said in the previous post, we have been doing alot of home visits, etc. I will share one experience that particularly impacted me, although I wish I could tell all of them. Probably one of the most impactful gatherings that I was involved in in Kisumu was the feeding of the street children. LIA is just in the beginning stages of it's work in Kisumu, and the churches there are beginning a street children program where they are targeting 50 children who literally live on the streets. We were able to help with one of the first meetings of the children, who were really mostly older boys from 13-18. We had bread and juice for them. It was a really rough looking group. I can't even imagine what some of those kids have seen and experienced at such a young age. They were unorganized, restless, rude, and sometimes rowdy... but I knew that they were only reacting to the way that everyone has treated them their whole lives. The boys all stood up in the front of the church and introduced themselves, and it might have been the first time in a long time that some of them have ever been recognized individually. My heart broke to see their situations, their tattered clothes, their tough-guy attitudes, and their hard struggles. We tried to show them all the love we could in a short time, and some were very receptive and others weren't. However, after a few testimonies and some words from the Pastors, 4 boys accepted Christ and 8 others said they wanted to get off the streets and go back to school. Hopefully, this will be the start of an amazing transformation of the streets of the Kisumu slums... and it was amazing to see the start of such a program. I am excited to hear where the same boys that we saw this week will be in 3 years after going through the program. They will be one step closer to being the next doctors, drivers, lawyers... because the church was doing its job of being Christ to these boys that had little hope before...

That is just one program that we were able to witness. It was hard to leave Kisumu after spending 10 days there. It was our longest trip away from Nairobi, but it was an amazing one. God is good. Prayer for the work that He is doing in Kisumu and in each project that LIA is involved in. Prayer that our last 2 weeks would be productive, joyful, and that we would continue to listen to God in everything we do. Prayer for Dane and Erich in Poland. And prayer for the medical team that is preparing to come.

Thanks again for still reading the blog after all this time. We really appreciate the prayers and support and are so blessed to have you in our lives...

Buana a sifiwe (who knows if that is how you spell it... but it means Praise the Lord.)
Lauren

Kisumu!

We apologize for being MIA for the last week! We did arrive safely in Kisumu, Kenya last Monday. We had another long bus ride to reflect, to rest and to view the stunning scenery of Kenya. You can drive for 6 hours in the USA and the vegetation and landscapes look pretty much the same, but driving 6 hours in Kenya takes you through so many different environments that you feel as if you’ve traveled across multiple countries! If you ever come to Kenya, be sure you take the bus from Nairobi to Kisumu, you pass through some of the most lush, brightest green tea fields you can ever imagine!
From Tuesday-Friday we are working with the churches which LIA is partnered with in Kisumu. 3 LIA staff- Epahtus, James “Oke” ( pronounced okay), and Mary have been there every step of the way to make sure we’re getting around in our new area! LIA is partnered with 5 churches in Kisumu, and similar to Thika, LIA has only been in Kisumu for about a year. LIA is in the process of working with the 5 churches to establish a program for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) within each church.
The LIA team along with the TOT’s (trainer of trainers- church members who have undergone training in Community Health Evangelism through LIA’s partnership with their church) has been identifying homes in which there is great need. Our team split up into 3 groups, each with an LIA staff and a TOT from a specific church. We went around in the slums to these identified houses to carry out a baseline survey that will show the LIA staff how to help meet the communities’ needs. Most of the homes we have been visiting have a widowed mother taking care of anywhere from 3-14 children (some take in other orphaned children from other friends or family). The baseline survey asks simple questsions about the health of the mother and her children, about how they earn money, about church involvement, and about relationships with their family and other friends. Many of the women are making 50-150 schillings per day (which equates to about $0.75-$2 a day) by selling charcoal, vegetables, by braiding hair or by selling other food items or groceries. The women also make so very little profit at the end of the day that there isn’t any left for saving. One of the strangest survey questions at first was “Are you involved in a merry-go-round?” A merry go round is a group who meets each day to contribute a small amount of money (10-40 schillings) to a group ‘pot’, and each day, a different person gets the lump sum. Sometimes, the merry-go-rounds are members of the church coming together, sometimes the women have the groups with their neighbors. While it may sound a little strange, it’s the only way for some of them to have enough money at once to purchase the needed supplies for their small businesses for the week.
We also heard many heart-wrenching stories of loss, abandonment and illness. I’m sure we could all go on for days about what these families have encountered. There are a few selected stories that will be posted at some point in the future- but be praying for the people we’re continuing to interview. Another question on the survey asks about their salvation status- “Are you saved?” I think my heart literally breaks each time someone says no. It’s so very apparent when the head of the home is in a relationship with Christ- they have such a faith and trust in God for EVERYTHING in their lives and those homes in which God is present is just so very apparent! Amen! We have gotten to experience many women who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior! Amen again!
Now, the Post College team has finally arrived! They are in Kenya for only 10 days, and they arrived in Kisumu on Friday night. Yesterday was our first full day with the team of 26. We broke into 5 groups, with a Mi2 “leader” and 3-4 Post Team members. We went on home visits yesterday, and today we are going to the 5 different churches for a Sunday service. It’s been a lot of fun to hang out with other people who are about our same age, it’s also awesome to hear their stories of how God has been working to bring them here. Be in prayer for our sleep at nights, the days are often very long (9am-9pm) and we all need as much refreshing sleep as we can get! Also be in prayer that the people we meet that have not accepted Christ as their Savior would have their hearts softened to hearing the Truth.
Stay tuned for some AMAZING stories from the other Mi2ers!
God Bless!
Holly

Sticks, Stones, Mud...and Prayer

From the actions of children to the prayer-inspired correction of false doctrine being preached, the work done in outskirts of Thika is beyond a lame adjective. The work done is incredibly good because it's of God.

We experienced several churches doing neat things. While 8 in the area are involved with LIA, we visited the five with Orphans and Vulnerable Children programs, two last week and three this week. Each of the churches are doing or planning economic empowerment activities, like chicken raising and gardening, to support the equivalent of pre-school and Kindergarten. In the Kenyan system it is required to do at least two years of pre-primary education to get enrolled in primary school, which is free. Most places charge for pre-school and it makes it very hard for poor people in rural areas to get their children into the school system. The churches have decided to offer this service for free. Where do they find teachers? Preacher’s wives or other volunteers are taking on these tasks. Kids are learning to write their name, interact with others, and how to sing songs of praise to God.

Here there is need. We are working on ways we can help them, without just giving gifts. It is obvious that the teachers that have training are able to see greater response out of the children. As a team we suggested that they collaborate amongst each other. One teacher could share with the others what they have found to be successful. Knowing what resources are necessary to be effective would be a first step. Secondly, acquiring these resources could happen several ways. Many of these programs have undergone government inspections and have been in violation of seating arrangements. We brainstormed ideas and thought we might be able to help not just take care of it for them…more to come.

For me, the most impactful thing was the medical need we found in the rural area that was widespread. Three cases went from simple, to moderate but treatable, to mind blowing. Each was essentially going untreated because of lack of funds to access doctors and knowledge to help their selves. First, we tended one wound and all it took was a first aid kit to prevent major repercussions. Mbithi was a girl that could run, but not stand, due to the pain of an untreated sore. They had suggested she go to the doctor but it wasn’t happening. We cleaned it out, bandaged it up, left some band aids and instructions to change it, and she was on her way to recovery. Then, we met a girl named Jane, she had club foot from birth. Her mom, Esther, described how she was mentally functional as a child until she developed seizures that ‘paralyzed’ her mind. At twelve years old she was very immobile, yet her mom would hoist her around when necessary. A wheel chair is a must as she grows. Lastly, we visited Sami. Just pray for him. I don’t have a clue where to go on this one. He has the scariest condition ever. His skin is essentially a scab in the winter and open wounds in the summer. It was scaly, dry and peeling. We all were dumbfounded. Evidently his single mother is getting some help with lodging and food from the local church, but not enough to cover the $3/day prescription that moderately suppresses the condition. You can see that this is most likely a time where even American medicine would struggle. God does some mighty things when all hope is in the world is lost. Please pray for Sami.

Hope this gives some insight and places we are being used here in a very busy week for us.

-Daniel

Just to continue on what Daniel said, God really showed us a lot in Thika this past week. Out of everything we encountered there seemed to be a recurring theme , hope. It is funny the little things people take out of situations that just present the slightest hint of hope to them and keeps them pressing forward. Everywhere we went to work and help out they assured us that our presence left them encouraged and impacted. We were able to help build a toilet, a kitchen, and a church this week in the most fun way I have ever experienced; out of mud and sticks. As we worked alongside the members of the community to do these tasks and “plaster” the walls with mud they were inspired that we were called by Christ to help them, and we were inspired at the fact so many people would drop what they were doing and help with such tasks. Some of our budget money is going to help them buy tin roofing for the buildings which is supposed to assure them that as they continue to work together as a community in Christ, he will continue to bless them and provide for them. We also were able to purchase two mattresses for a pair of children that do not know their mother and live with a family in the community on wooden slats, using their clothing as padding to sleep on. They were very shy children and spoke very little but the slight smile on their faces as they received the mattresses was all I needed to see to know that their lives were brightened a little that day. The churches in the area radiate a sense of responsibility and commitment to improving the lives of those around them. Everything they do is with unselfish motives and with giving hearts; it has been a real blessing to see this. While all of the building projects and playing with children all week was tiring, it was entirely worth it and the lessons taken from it will be engrained in our minds for years to come.

~Ben

Celebrate!

Today was a day for celebration. We know you all at home are stocking up on your watermelons, hamburgers, hotdogs and sparklers, here we were singing a different tune. At the Nairobi International School of Theology we, as in LIA, hosted a going away and commemoration celebration. The Mi2ers and other LIA staff also went to a unique pre-marital gathering as well.

First up, the former LIA Kenya director of two and a half years, Dr. Steve Muhindia was congratulated for moving on in his ministry, we as a team are looking forward to meeting up with him again when he joins the medical camp in Makueni.

Secondly, we were sending Joseph and Alice Mulaa off from their work in Thika, Kenya to work with the Bethal Church organization in Jamaica. Let’s start off by saying they are in good hands. Pastor Dean has been staying with us. He leads the team there in Jamaica and was coming to start the transition process for the Mulaas. These native Kenyans are not strangers to foreign missions. Previously they stayed in Cairo, Egypt for two and a half years, shortly in Uganda, a stint in Rwanda, and then to Thika where they were serving with LIA and praying for the call to go once again. They insisted to God that they go before they hit their “prime” time to settle down during the middle of their life. “Settling means you are done, let us never settle, even if we are in the same place for 50 years or more”, Joseph said. The call came, when the opportunity to spread the holistic gospel message was begged for by the Jamaican Church. This small island has the highest amount of per capita churches and homicides. Something is going wrong. 70% unemployment wreaks havoc on the land. They need the church to come back to life and give life that only Jesus can give, as well as an abundant life on this earth.

Sad statement of the day, was referring to this church gone cold scenario. A pastor prayed, “Let our Kenyan Church not grow tired and dead like the Churches in Europe and America”. The “God Bless America” was playing several notches softer in my head thereafter, very sad realization.

Talk about hearing the call. Alice had a story that I wish I could replicate. She wrote in her journal of a dream over four years ago while in Egypt that her mind had forgotten. After struggling through their decision between Finland and Jamaica and the end result was the island nation, but her heart was still weary. For some clarity she was going back and searching her notes. Four days into the year 2005 she found a dream that she was going to a Caribbean country to minister to couples punctuated with a question mark. Talk about affirmation. What I have noticed is that when you are spending that much time close to God, it isn’t hard to hear his voice.

Lastly, but surely not least, Gus and Rose(LIA staff) are getting married on Aug 8th. Since we will be flying back that day and unable to make the ceremony, we wanted to be as much a part of the preparations as possible. Tonight they had a special committee meeting. Once a week the planners meet up in the back room of a fast food restaurant. This week, family, friends, co-workers and guests were invited to join. It was much cooler than a bridal shower, but I’ll start there to get a picture going in your mind. We all crammed in a room, they had an MC, he introduced a particular group, and then they gave. Pretty simple actually, but of course this gets more interesting. Everyone was dressed up. The person who gave the most got to be the guest of honor. And the conclusion was the auction of some root vegetables. Just to let you know, Holly couldn’t resist, and won the largest arrow root.

It has been such a pleasure to get to experience so many cool things. These events don’t just happen every day at LIA, but are rewarding to witness when they do occur. We had fun, inspiring, and laughter-filled time with our international family today.

Nathaniel (Thats what Gus likes to call me now)

Thika Part 1

So it’s been a few days! This is Courtney, and we’ve just gotten back from Thika, a rural area right outside Nairobi. There are 5 churches in Thika who work with LIA on numerous projects, many of which I’ll talk about! I titled the blog Thika part one because we have visited 2 churches and will head back to Thika for the whole of next week (We’re in Nairobi for the weekend).

So after the prayer time on Monday, we went to the office on Tuesday to help out with some things, work on the newsletter, and go to the hardware store. Quite a successful day. Wednesday was when the fun began and we headed off for Thika. We first went to the guest house where we were staying and dropped some things off before heading to the first church, Christian Church International. The pastor, Rose, was excited to greet us and led a large group of small children up to shake all of our hands. We learned how to say ‘hello’ in their mother tongue and they shyly smiled as these strangers spoke a word of their language. They led us down to their church building which was doubling as an Early Childhood Development Center. The community had banded together to provide these kids porridge – a staple food – to sustain them through the school day. Several of the kids did not have lunch because there was no food at their homes. These rural areas are suffering very heavily from droughts. Well they introduced us to all of the children and we had what I like to call a ‘song exchange’. The kids would sing a few songs that they knew and then we would do a few. Funny thing is, we looked a little ridiculous dancing around in front of them while they had no clue what we were saying but they laughed at us and we laughed at us and it was wonderful! Pam had something great up her sleeve, though. She pulled out this awesome song called ‘Glory train’ and we all paraded around, kids and teachers included, making train noises and following Pam. After that we had some time to play some different games before heading out. I know we all enjoyed seeing the kids and playing with them, they are OVC (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) and some are HIV+, and it is so encouraging to see these churches wrap their arms around these hurting children and their families. Be in prayer for the church, they are in need of good school chairs/benches in order to conform to government standards. We have decided as a team to commute from Nairobi each day to save on lodging costs and are prayerfully considering how to use these extra funds. We have some ideas for creating good school benches but are waiting to visit all the churches and pray through what God would have us do. Please join us in that. One quick story to hopefully bring a reality to us all before I move on to the next church – when we left the church we gave a little girl a ride to her home which was about a 15 minute car drive away. She walks this distance each day, barefoot, to go to this school, which is free. The government school is closer to her house but she can’t afford to go to it because she needs a uniform and school fees. A school uniform costs about around 50 shillings. That’s about 65 cents. My friends I don’t even think we fathom this kind of poverty.

We came back to our guest house that night and enjoyed our time as a team discussing ideas for the benches and making a new friend, Wycliffe. I think Wycliffe is probably one of the sweetest men we have ever met. He was the head chef of the dining hall where we had dinner and breakfast and what a sweet spirit he had. He was so excited to cook for us and let me tell you, it was incredible. Highlight: Wycliffe brought us ice cream for breakfast. I think that was a first! We chatted for a while about what we were doing and he had us promise to come say goodbye before we left. I don’t think we wanted to leave because we all wanted to see Wycliffe each night and morning!
So today, Thursday, we got to visit another church called Redeemed Gospel Church with the pastor, Julius. This place is a true testament to the effects of wholistic ministry, community cooperation, and God’s grace. Within the last 6 months this tiny church has been able to start a gardening project, chicken project, OVC care, and a small feeding program for the kids. We looked out over the span of land that was being cultivated and there were a good 2 acres of crops, a strip next to a stream waiting for banana trees, and another 2 acres waiting for corn to be planted. They were growing tomatoes, collard greens (they call them ‘skuma week’ which means, ‘carries one through the week’), peas, and zucchini. For the chicken project, they have around 30 chickens that they use to sell eggs and meat. They sell these crops, eggs, and meat at low costs to the community and the money supports the OVC program. There are 24 children total in their program, most of which are orphaned. In the field, we got to help prepare the zucchini block for irrigation, Ben and Daniel helped water the plants with water pumped from the river, and we all helped transfer some new skuma into fresh holes. In between all of this we had plenty of time to play with the kids. They were precious and were so ready to play. They spoke the same mother tongue so we only knew how to say hello. But, as my campus minister and great friend says, the international language for kids is the same – play! My favorite game was when I walked to come say Hi to them after being in the field and they ran away, wanting to be chased and tickled! The best was when they ran into the church/schoolhouse and as I acted like a monster of some sort, all 18 of them crowded in the corner, hiding and giggling under a desk that couldn’t have been much larger than a few feet wide and deep. I just lost it, it was so cute and so funny! That game bonded us all and we got lots of hugs and smiles before we left. God is doing so much in that place and it is obvious that His blessing and His hand is all over the church, pastor, kids, and so much more. It touched us all.

I hope that you guys will continue to partner with us in praying for these churches and I know that we can’t wait to share some amazing stories after interacting with this community more after next week! Be blessed!

Just monkeying around...

So today is Monday. That means a day of prayer and fasting with LIA, which has come to be one of my favorite parts of the week. I love being able to listen and learn what God is doing in the lives of the LIA staff members and what they are hearing and learning in reference to their ministry as a whole. It's definitely the part of the week where I learn the most and try to just listen as much as possible...

But today was an extra exciting day. It was the last day of LIA's "quarter", and so we went with the staff to an arboretum about 10 minutes from the office. Just picture every amazing tree that you have ever seen in National Geographic, add about 20 more different kinds of trees, and then put them all right next to eachother in a big forest. It was beautiful. We each spread out a towel on the ground under a tree and were able to have personal God time for about 4 hours. It was awesome. It's pretty easy to worship Jesus when you are surrounded by the most beautiful trees you've ever seen and monkeys are just hanging around. (I know... bad monkey pun, I couldn't get them out of my head all day. Hey hey there's the monkeys... no more monkeys jumping on the bed, the list keeps going...) But yeah, it was definitely a great day to completely devote to reading and praying and worshipping. I'm definitely going to have to incorporate that into my pharmacy school curriculum somehow.

Also a cool part of the day was that Gus, an awesome LIA staff member who pretty much smiles all the time, graduated with his masters in Sociology last week. So we went back to the office and had a big celebration for him... he put on his graduation gown and we at cake (obviously the fast was over) and it was great. There was so much encouragement from the LIA staff, it was really cool to see them all hanging out and completely enjoying eachother's company.

This week we are going to Thika, but we don't leave until Wednesday. So prayer for our trip would be much appreciated. We're not really sure what we are going to be doing, but LIA has a number of partner churches there so we will be helping them out as much as possible. Also... continued prayer for health would be much appreciated as we continue our journeys and endeavors. And shout out to our Poland-mates, because they are just stinkin awesome and deserve a shout-out. We can't wait to hear all the cool things you are doing there!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support, as always. I think I can speak for all of you when we say that we love you guys and are so glad that you are supporting us in this amazing experience.

Mungu aku bariki!
Lauren

2 Timothy 1:1-2 reads:
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

We attended a graduation unlike any I had ever seen before. LIA hosted a 10 day training session for pastors wanting to effectively minister to their communities spiritual AND physical needs, as well as developing leaders in a simultaneous Training of Trainers course. We had the privilege of helping them celebrate their achievements. It was more like a worship service than a commencement. Each graduate had a testimony to share about the fruits that were already being harvested in their local congregations. What an awesome time of fellowship and witnessing strong Christians become qualified to teach others.

During the event, all I could think about was the need for the American church to employ these same principles of holistic ministry. We do satisfactory jobs at tackling either spiritual, in church, or physical, on missions, but rarely do we put it all together for the average seeker. Yes you can find exceptions in homeless ministries and other likewise services for the monetarily poor. What is the Church doing about climate change? Child neglect? The recession? Abortion? Lack of health insurance for 60+million people? These burdens are intensely physical, but are affecting more people than need to be forgotten. These are not alone, they are endless. How do we 'incorporate scripture and ministry into these needs? That is what I’d like to explore more in the long term, maybe if you could think about these things and collaborate with our team when we get back.

My thoughts on this started when we had a great discussion with Pam and us Mi2ers about her work ministering to Islamic Somalis. She indicated the difficulties opposing their ministry, because what they teach in Islam is easy, do these 5 things and you will be a good Muslim. Christianity is hard, it takes faith, perseverance, and yet you are not guaranteed a prosperous earthly life. What we have that they don’t is hope (and so much more like grace, forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, etc… but let’s focus). And when we stop spreading this spiritual and physical hope, we miss the opportunity to spread the Truth and the people can fall into temptation that Christianity is not for them.
~Dan "ain't very tan" Bachman

Makueni Special; It's all good in the hood.. entitled by Pamella Bukatchi

It is begginning to seem as if you drive over an hour in any directiron away from Nairobi you will end up with a surrounding complete unlike the witnessed previously. This week our travels have brought us on a 4 hour drive to Makueni, which is one of the dryest experiences yet. The river beds have all dried up, the grass is reminiscent of a Texas ghost town, and the flies/mosquitoes don’t even bother coming out. Our mission here is to prepare ground for the medical camp that will be held here in August. African Inland Church has an old missions hospital here that has never been used besides for the dispensary. The good news for the medical team is that the hospital here is very spacious and will have plenty of room to operate and serve the community. The bad news for us in the meantime is the condition of the hospital as every room is extremely dusty and has old, unused materials clogging the way. Daniel and I have taken on the mission of designing a shower that can be used in the guest house to supply the 30 people coming with a place to refresh in the mornings. Shower actually may be an uderstatement as it will more than like just serve the purpose of dumping water on the individual. Everything else here is going well so far as we have already cleared out the rooms that will be used for the clinic and designated each room to a specific task. We have created areas to hold an eye clinic, dental clinic, triage center, registration, pharmacy, HIV testing, immunizations, and consultations. Even though there is a lot of work left here, our outlook is looking up as things are moving quickly towards the way we are dreaming them to be. It has been so great to see how evident God’s hand has been in all things we have done so far from our travel to the work that he has done through us. To those who are reading, please pray especially for Makueni as we try to prepare everything exactly how the medical team needs it to be so when they arrive there is no wasted time in preparation. In Him, Ben

Reflection

We are back in Nairobi safe and sound! This week yielded two main inferences that I have made. On top of great yet short relaxation, we had some extra time to read and reflect on the many thoughts that being in Africa has provoked.

First, the trip to Fort Jesus was awesome. However, it was almost stalled twice, once by the guards wanting to charge us the tourist price of 800 Shillings, which Beth negotiated down to the Kenyan resident price of 100 Shillings ($1.33). Then we got inside and they were going to let us look around on our own. If you have ever been to a historical site, it really lacks significance when you don't understand the landmarks or the meaning behind what you are looking at. This closely parallels confusion to our Christian walk. When ever you have a tour guide, or a mentor, it makes understanding the intricacies much easier. Luckily for us, there is a good example of this in the story of Paul’s relationship to Timothy. Paul gave many words of wisdom to Timothy, and it was reflected in his spiritual growth. Maybe if you are getting older, but aren’t too old to stop learning, you should have both a Paul and a Timothy in your life, that you can gain wisdom from and pass that on to a younger follower of Christ. I thought it was a neat connection, but as I’ve learned, there are few people on my wavelength so I’m sorry if I go on a Daniel tangent.

Secondly, give it all. Give all of yourself, all of your time, all of your effort, all of it. Frida touched me. She spent two days with us, talking, listening, and being with us. She left her awesome household to shepherd us, since we ‘needed’ a guardian. She made sure all of our needs were met, being a local of the area, when we probably could have made it on our own. Then she invited us in for dinner the next day, showing even more affection. The food was awesome as usual here, but they gave us more than what it looked like they could afford. I felt as if I’m not giving enough, when someone can do so much with so little. Inspiring. While at her house, she mentioned she was ashamed of the size. I tell you, if I am living in those conditions, with the amount of love that was shown by this family, the size of the house would be my last concern, God has expanded their boundaries in more meaningful ways. They had quality, that’s what I liked so much. They have five beautiful and ambitious children that could each light up the room with their smile. They have a God priority, shown by the way the children respect one another and their parents. These things just don’t come when you are foremost living the American dream, and they don’t come on accident. This is good parenting, in what most of us would call poor circumstances; however there is much we can take from what they do right.

Daniel

Ps: Please pray for me. I am making a tough decision on how to pay for medical school, loans vs Army for those who don't know. I want to hear what God has to say on the situation, but I'm being confused by what I want. Thanks so much for all your guys prayers and support, it means a whole lot to all of us!

Mombasa fun with Frida, Rose, and Seashells

So it’s been a few days! This is our last night in Mombasa and as Holly mentioned in the last post, it is just beautiful here on the Indian Ocean. This is Courtney by the way. So the first day that we were here we spent it on the beach, reading, talking, and exploring. We met a few friends, Frida and Captain Marco Polo. Frida is related to some of the staff at LIA and she was just so wonderful. She spent the past couple of days visiting and traveling with us. Captain Marco Polo made friends with Ben and wanted to take Ben scuba diving but he didn’t have any equipment.  So, Ben said No thanks. Our second day here we saw some of the sights and it ended up being a really busy day. First stop was Fort Jesus, an old Portuguese fort that was built in 1593. It was overtaken by the Arabs from Oman in the 1800’s and then Britain took over in the late 1800’s up until 1950. We got to explore all over and there was a beautiful view from some of the lookout towers. We had lunch outside the fort and then headed to Frida’s church for a midday service. Talk about hot weather, the church service in the middle of the day definitely made it hard to concentrate. I looked down the row at one time and everyone was just pouring sweat, and Lauren even pretended to dance in order to swish her skirt around and cool off! But the message was very heartfelt and I know I learned a lot. We got to meet some of the people and the pastor and then we headed to a hotel to meet another LIA volunteer, Rose, (she was a former staff and will be re-joining LIA in Nairobi in a few weeks and will be getting married to Gus, another one of our staff friends at LIA Kenya, in August) and she was just wonderful! She works at a beautiful hotel resort called Voyageur and we got to join her for tea, a tour of the resort, some great time of conversation, and dinner. It was very relaxing but a little weird for us considering we were hanging out at the resort, which to us looked like a very safe, stereotypical replica of Africa. It was lovely no doubt and apparently a great place for a honeymoon Rose said, but I think it just felt funny for us. So that was yesterday, and today we spent the morning on the beach and then the afternoon at Frida’s house. We got to meet her family and talk for awhile before heading back on motorcycle taxis! We squished two people on each bike and held on for dear life. Luckily they didn’t go too fast, and Daniel made sure to get everyone’s picture before they left. I think we were sort of allowed to be semi-tourists this week before we get ready to go back to Nairobi tomorrow. It’s been a nice rest and I think the favorite part of the trip was standing in the breeze and seeing the wonderful ocean. The funniest part of the trip – Ben and Daniel decided to fashion their own seashell necklaces and spent time collecting the shells, making holes in them, and threading floss through the shells. Then they wore them around and posed for pictures together! We were all a little concerned about the time and effort they put into the project. But, that gave us a whole lot of time to make fun of them. A picture is coming soon. Mombasa has been great, we’ll see you back in Nairobi!

Indian Ocean!

Hello blog readers! We arrived safely after a 8 hr bus ride to Mombasa. The Mi2 team is now stationed till Saturday on the east coast of Kenya, we’re going in the Indian Ocean tomorrow! We really didn’t do too many interesting things on the bus- there was a rather violent American movie playing for the first two hours, then some flashback to the 80’s videos played- I slept through most of the trip, as did everyone else. I apologize for not having a more interesting story!
Last night we met up with Holly Garret (LIA field reporter and friend) and a team of 10 people from all across the USA. The Americans we met last night had just arrived from Ethiopia, where they got to see first hand what LIA is doing in Ethiopia. They arrived in Kenya on Sunday, and we had the chance to sit down with them and talk about our LIA expeience so far. These people are members of churches that support LIA, and they were getting first-hand experiences of what LIA was doing so that they could go back to the States to help LIA with fundraising. Ben and I sat with two middle-aged women and we shared some of our Kenyan experience, and we also listened to their Ethiopia experiences. We didn’t have much time to talk- the other team had visited the Kibera and Mathare slums that day, so they had quite the poverty-overload on their minds. At the end of dinner, we got mom-hugs from our two dinnermates. I love mom hugs, they’re just so welcoming and soft! It was an enjoyable time for us to talk to others who had seen some of the same things as we had.
Then, we had a chance to debrief with Holly about how the trip was going so far. We told her lots of “you had to be there” stories, but she pretended to know what we were talking about even though she probably had no clue. For instance, I almost killed a motorcyclist with a jar of peanut butter. How? I will share with you: we were walking back from the LIA office after prayer on Monday. We had purchased a large container of peanut butter (for no-bakes and for the Mombasa trip). In addition to the peanut butter, the grocery bag also contained a couple containers of juice and a container of drinking chocolate powder. So, needless to say, the bag was fairly full. The peanut butter jumped out of the bag as we were walking back home, and it almost rolled into the water runoff ditch to our right. Then, after I placed the peanut butter back into the grocery bag, it decided to abandon ship again. This time, the jar rolled into the street to the left, and we all laughed for a split second before a motorcyclist rode by. The motorcycle was probably not more than 6 inches away form the jar. As soon as I saw the cyclist coming, I imagined peanut butter being splattered everywhere, and a very confused motorcycle driver. Everyone was safe, the peanut butter made its way into the no bakes and into our bellies, and Holly laughed at our story. Basically, talking to her was awesome. And we’re getting REALLY excited for the Post team of college-aged students from Southeast. They’ll be here mid-July, and we can’t wait to share a weeks’ experience of serving with them! Hi to you all if you’re out there reading!
That about wraps up our past 24 hours! We'll be spending the day relaxing on the beach tomorrow, we'll put on loads of sunscreen, so hopefully there won't be any burn stories in the upcoming posts. Thanks for continuing to follow us online, and we're praying that everyone back home is being ministered to during this summer!
Love you all,
Holly

Remember that one time when everyone thought we were doctors...?

Sorry we have been slacking a little on the blog posting. Today we spent the day in prayer and fasting with the LIA team again, which was amazing. We also had a great weekend doing an outreach with children from the Kibera slum on Saturday and eating a delicious meal with Nancy, an LIA staff member, and her family Sunday after church. But I'm going to rewind a little bit and talk about one of my favorite parts of Kajiado, simply because last week was so ridiculously amazing. So the Thursday we were at Kajiado, we had a makeshift medical camp. Daniel explained about the dam building project on Wednesday, and we mentioned to the 30-40 people at the dam that we would be having some medicines/a medical camp for them the following day at 10:00. We had no idea what to expect, I was thinking we might get about 50 people. Well, apparently the land of the Maasai with no cell phones and good old fashion communication (aka talking) caused the word to spread like wildfire. We ended up treating 150 patients! And I use "treating" in a very loose term. Holly headed up the check ears and nose station, Ben took blood pressure, Daniel soon became Dr. Bachman as he diagnosed people, and Courtney and I headed up the pharmacy. Allow me to paint you a picture of the scene: As I looked up from the "pharmacy" in the corner of the small church, I turned to see Holly gently wrestling a writhing,screaming child to the ground while attempting to get close enough to stick a otoscope in their ear. I was suddenly distracted by a row of old Maasai women in their traditional attire and beadings patiently sitting with their arms straight out, waiting for Ben to take their blood pressure. In the small "consultation room", Dr. Bachman sat, listening very attentively to a patient even though the patient was speaking Maasai and Daniel had no idea what they were saying until the translator started talking. And then I looked back to the pharmacy, where Courtney and I stood, making babies throw up left and right (actually, only 3) from the deworming syrup that we were giving them. We were quite a sight to see, probably the biggest posers you would ever meet considering none of us had ever done a medical camp before, let alone diagnosed patients. However, Pamella was with us and she is a nurse, and so luckily she was patient enough to answer any sort of question you could possibly imagine. It was an amazing day... a long day... but amazing nonetheless. For me, it was great to see how pharmacy could be used in a missions setting. I pray that we were able to share the love of Christ through our actions with the Maasai people even though we couldn't speak their language. God is good, Kenya is amazing, Kajiado was awesome, and we are continually encouraged and excited about what each new day brings...

- Lauren the wannabe pharmacist

P.s. Holly's blog address is www.faithtogo.wordpress.com if you are interested... and don't forget about our fabulous friends who are doing amazing things in Poland!

Week In Kajiado

Here is what is going on in a Maasai community, 35 kilometers outside of Kijado. As most of you may know, I really don’t like being physically idle for very long. Our long awaited first day of physical exertion came this past Wednesday. This day we lent our hands and legs to the benefit of a dam building project. The need for consistent clean water in semi-arid regions is huge, since rains come in spurts.
First, we got to meet the crew. We saw 60 year old plus ladies cracking rocks, twenty something girls mixing mortar and sand, and about ten guys sitting under a tree watching. So I freaked out a bit, but they did the back breaking jobs later. We were first asked to carry boulders using wheel borrows, they probably would have had us stop there, but we found places to be useful. Tea time was unique as the men and women separated. It was interrupted by one guy wanting to get back to the grind. We joined in the water addition and assembly line of mixed mortar. It is quite frustrating when you are used to American machines that do the work for you, and I know that Dad would have been begging for his bobcat and a mixer. However, without construction ‘toys’ this community poured the man and God power into the project, when they didn’t have anything but their time to offer. After eating a very late lunch of beans and ugali, which is a solid rice and corn flour mixture, we found out that we made their day much easier than normal. We left them with our blessings, and Pam put it awesomely that without an amazing God, we would have never got to experience their community and meet them.
I know they needed the encouragement we were able to give. People’s bodies were exhausted, and it looks like about 15 more solid days of similar work for them to get done with Phase 1. It was way more inspiring for me to see what God can do when a group of believers take action together on projects that are beyond their own capacity to finish, than the help I provided. I think their community has something special that the world needs, yet it is hard to describe.
The Maasai make great believers, always knowing that only one god existed. Many have and are becoming Christians because of how well it fits their culture. There is rarely a hungry Maasai person, because everyone shares; they respect people with morals, and not those who have a lot of cows if you can catch the insinuation; and no one is a stranger, since they want to meet and genuinely greet every new person. Although not perfect by any means, they are a great model we should all strive to live as. Putting Him and His people first in all situations, I think that is it. Hope you all are as inspired as I am, I think it will take lots of pictures and talking to do it justice which may have to wait since our internet is quite fuzzy of late. ~Daniel
The most breathtaking part of the entire trip had to have been the scenery. Waking up every morning and walking out of our tent to the site of Mt. Kilimanjaro was remarkable. We would then venture out before breakfast to see the giraffes, wildebeasts, zebras, and gazelle that were grazing in the plains. Night time would be capped off with another viewing of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a bright orangish/red sunset, and the uncountable amount of stars that dotted the African sky late at night. I don’t believe any of us had ever taken the time to actually watch the moon rise before this trip but it became almost as beautiful as watching the sunset. It was hard to believe that Josiah and his family had lived on that land all of their lives because they were just as excited for every sunset as we were. It was by far the most picturesque place I have ever seen with the giant acacia trees dotting the plains. ~Ben

Running Adventures and Good Coffee!

Hey blog readers,
We decided to do a two-day post today!
Yesterday, we participated in the Run for the Bibleless! Daniel and I ran the 10k, and Lauren, Ben and Courtney did the 4k walk. We got up at 5:30 when it was still dark out! It's pretty chilly in the morning, we could see our breaths as we made the trek to Nairobi Primary school where the race started. While jamming to Christian music being played over loudspeakers, we did a group warm up which consisted of jumping, skipping and swinging our arms. We looked pretty hilarious!
The races went well, the walkers had a nice time capturing pictures of the mass of people wearing the blue and white "Run for the Bibleless" T-shirts, and Daniel and I had a good run. I ended up being the first female finisher, and I was awarded a hot pink bible as my prize, they even made a little joke as they presented it to me, the announcer said "We present Holly Christian with a Holy Bible" (when they say my name it doesn't sound much different than Holy, that got a few laughs out of the crowd). We made a few new friends as well!
After getting sweaty, we headed to downtown Nairobi to meet Pam and Jacob of LIA. They were helping us go shopping for a football to take to the various villages we'll be visiting! Ben and Daniel each purchased a ball, I'm sure the kids will have a blast with them! We then visited an outdoor Maasai market, the market moves to different locations each day of the week- this location was larger than the one that we've visited close to our guest house. We purchased a few things, the guys seem to be having fun bargaining for their souvenirs, the girls haven't really purchased anything- I may just have Ben or Daniel haggle for me! It was a fun day in downtown Nairobi!
Today we went to church, to the "Vibrant 10am Service" and then to the teen service. The "big church" service is awesome, there is always so much dancing and excitement throughout the service. Today was communion Sunday, and the message was about being Thankful. They encouraged us to think of something in the past year that we've been thankful for. I think we can all say that we're thankful for being here in Kenya, it's been awesome to see how God has been working to get us to this point, and it's also encouraging to see God working in each of our lives right now!
I also got to meet up with my friend from school, Anna, for a few minutes. She has been in Kenya since February, she was studying abroad for this semester! It was just kind of funny to see someone I knew in KENYA! Ah- and the good coffee refers to our purchase today. We bought a small french press and some delicious Kenyan coffee, so now we can have genuine coffee (we usually use instant)!
Keep the Poland guys in your prayers, it sounds like Erich is battling some minor sickness, so pray for his quick recovery! Just pray that Erich and Dane are able to effectively reach out to those that they meet, it kind of sounds like the language barrier has been an issue at times during their trip, keep up on their action at www.mi2poland09.blogspot.com. Also, you can check out my blog, www.faithtogo.wordpress.com to read more about our slum experiences, and please keep my boyfriend, Daniel in your prayers- he arrived safely in California to work with organization called InnerChange in San Francisco- you can check out his blog at www.godismhyjudge.wordpress.com! AND, of course, keep our Kenya team in your prayers- we travel 2 hours to Kijado tomorrow to live with a missionary couple working among the Maasai people for a week! We'll be in Kijado Monday-Friday, so just pray for safety, pray that the food agrees with our stomachs, and pray that we will be helpful in any way possible!
Just a warning: we may not be able to post until next weekend, we're not 100% sure of our internet availability! But have faith that we are in God's hands, and we'll post our exciting stories and revelations as soon as we can!
Alright, I'm off to whip up some no-bake cookies for travel snacks!
God bless you all!
Holly

America the Generous

The last two weeks have been the nicest wintertime I have ever seen, rarely getting below 70. Today was our last and final day to explore the different facets of the Kenyan healthcare system. We saw their national research lab, KEMRI, the clinic for Kibera slums, KICOSHEP, and the distribution facility for non-profit medications, MEDS.

Several lessons can be leaned from the relief organization exploration we have been doing. Deviation from God-centered, mission oriented, and church involved programs have huge consequences. The second place we visited had strayed from its Christian beginnings. Choosing to teach safe-sex over abstinence, planning buildings and facilities based upon dreams and not prayer and petition, as well as becoming dependent on donation and not self-sustaining. These fallacies were not seen in the hospitality, this is ingrained in Kenyan culture; however, the constant subliminal reminder that the only reason we were that welcome, was the fact Americans bring money. Here is how you can ‘help us’. This was so strange, because this was the first time we were faced with this challenge. I have known that any help we may provide was much appreciated, but this was the first organization asking for a handout. Just to let you know, there was no affiliation with LIA, and we were just observing.

Part of this problem, may be from the stigma we gain. Gifts are not supposed to be given with ‘trumpets’ playing. Just so you know the Clinton foundation and George W have given lots of meds to Africa through the right well run Christian-based organization. However, we love to slap USAID on these gifts, proclaiming to the world that the American people are the most generous. It is probably a good thing in some respects that some people in the world like us, but it really isn’t the God way to do things. Let’s look at Matthew 6:1-4 for the reminder of the way we are supposed to give.

1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Keep praying that we are going to be useful hands to those hosting us. Our work starts this week as we are joining the Maasai warrior community for a week of adventure building dams, helping teach at their school, and hosting a mini medical camp with Pamella the registered nurse who also hosts LIA’s short term teams. We are getting excited and hope you are too.

Another prayer request is for Juliet, you don’t know her, but she is going through a lot at a very young age. She lost her husband last fall, and now is jobless and raising her two kids in the Kibera slum totally relying on God to provide and get through this phase of her life. She needs reassurance that only God can provide. Pray for miracles, it never hurts to ask.

Please pray for me while I’m running a 10K for the Bible translation benefit tomorrow, I can run about 8K and still breathe, and I’m going to need some help with the last two. Holly is joining me; she is a professional runner though. Ben, Lauren, and Courtney are opting for the 4K walk, a much smarter choice from this perspective.

Kwaheri (Goodbye),

Daniel

Jambo! Today we were able to visit the Mathare slum. While it isn't as big as Kibera, the poverty is just as evident. I still can't fathom exactly how living is possible in these areas. Without having faith in Christ and the hope of a promising future in Him, survival would be impossible and depression a definite. While we were in Mathare today we visited Believer's Center Church/School. It is amazing the work God is doing with what little they have. Originally it was one of Life In Abundance's first community health evangelism projects as they helped turn a mud house that only held a Sunday service, into an outreaching church that doubles as a primary school during the week. Amazingly they are almost fully self sufficient now and provide free schooling, free uniforms for the students, and free meals to the children that go there. The children we met today were full of enthusiasm and it was evident the work that the church was doing in their lives. Currently, the school serves four grades of students and each year they expand the school one grade higher with the finances they are creating. The pastor of the church, Isaiah, was more than willing to proudly show off the school he helps run and even invited us back for church service on Sunday. This trip was very encouraging for all of us as we saw just a smidget of the awesome works God does in this world. To see what these people have done with so little makes us ask ourselves what we can do in our lives with the abundance we have been blessed with.
~Ben

Chipati is my new best friend.

Another day in Nairobi has come to an end, and we were all over the place learning about different ministries and services that the people of Nairobi are providing to others in Kenya. We first met with Dr. Florence’s (the founder of LIA) brother, Julius. He started an organization called Youth Redemption Africa (YRA).This organization works with different churches, schools, etc. to provide them with the skills and resources they need to get youth excited about God in Kenya. The organization has compiled a one year intensive bible study that Julius wrote that comprises almost all of the important issues about Christianity, from starting out as a Christian to deepening your walk with God. We were able to talk to Julius a lot about how he got to be where he is today. Probably my favorite thing he said was when he said, “I felt called into this work about nine years ago, and so I just starting writing bible studies on whatever I could find.” And now, nine years later, he has a whole book that is an amazing resource for youth in churches everywhere. Awesome.

We then went to talk with REAP. REAP is an organization that works to teach more rural areas how to use plants and herbs around them for medicinal purposes so that they don’t spend their needed money on counterfeit or sketchy pharmaceuticals. I’m a pharmacy major, I like talking about drugs. So this was very interesting to me. The meeting went like this: We walked in to a deliciously herb-smelling small building, learned that charcoal-fired cow bone can suck out snake bites and papaya skin can cure wounds, broke off a piece of aloe plant and rubbed it on our sunburns and left. It was great.

Our last stop for the day was New Life Home Trust, an orphanage that cared for abandoned orphans. It was a super nice facility, full of donated toys, clothes, beds etc. for the babies and toddlers.There were volunteers everywhere caringly helping the children. The facility we visited cared for up to 55 children from ages 1-4, but it had other facilities nearby that housed older children. There had been about 1,100 children that had been there in the past 10 or so years, and over 700 of them had been adopted. Many of the children were orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, and others were just dropped off on their doorstep completely malnourished or brought in by the police after being found abandoned somewhere. The stories were so sad, but the rehabilitation by New Life Home Trust was amazing. Courtney, Holly, and I stayed back to play with the kids. We also were lucky enough to experience play time and potty time. We left with a little more wet biscuit pieces then we had on us when we came, but playing with little kids is always worth it.

That’s it from here. God is good in Kenya. We are praying that you are seeing the goodness of God in America, Poland, or wherever else you might be reading this blog. Lauren… signing off.

This is real.

There aren’t many words for today. We had three activities today, in the morning, lunchtime, and afternoon.

We spent the morning talking to Pamela about the HIV/AIDS situation here in Kenya. We went through a lot of material and articles in order to better understand the virus, and the way that it is viewed. It was heartbreaking to read the questions sent in by readers to the editors of the magazines. What we discovered was a lack of education and an enormous social stigma. Basically, people will not go to get tested, even if there is a chance they may be infected. This was extremely hard to swallow and to understand. We just hope that we can play a tiny small part in educating while we are here. I know that there will be plenty of opportunity to help with education and testing as we work with some of the medical camps/clinics. Be praying for an opportunity to help this crisis in any way possible.

Lunchtime was very exciting! We met with the Kenyan missionary couple from Kajiado (we will work with them all of next week). They live in Maasai (a tribe in Kenya that has preserved its culture very well) land in a very rural area. We will join them next week and help in the schools, with a health clinic, in the church, in the villages, on the farms, and on a community development water project –building a small dam. We are excited about our chance to be able to experience and serve in a more rural village. Another thing that left us busting with excitement on our walk back to the guest house for lunch was the answer to a seemingly basic question from Holly. She asked the missionaries if she would be able to run sometime. They said, ‘Well yeah sure, there is a lot of wildlife around, like zebras and giraffes. You can chase the giraffes if you want.’ I don’t think we stopped talking about that all day! I think a few of us are now motivated to get into better shape so that we can go running in Kajiado!

After lunch, we met back up with Pamela and headed to visit some partner churches in Kibera. Some of you may have heard of Kibera, it is the largest slum in Kenya and supposedly one of the largest in the world. We were split up into two groups – Daniel and I went with a pastor and two LIA staff, and Holly, Lauren, and Ben went with Pamela and another pastor. Daniel and I visited the pastor’s church, where his wife was teaching preschool. I can’t even describe it to you, except that there was a packed dirt floor, mud/concrete walls, and a tin roof. All of the kids were adorable! Some were kids of church members and a couple of them were orphans. We got to visit with them for a bit and I got to hold a lovely little girl while the kids enjoyed their snacks. We then went to a nursery where three women were taking care of about 8 or 9 babies all under the age of 1. They were in a little building; similar to the church, but it was about the size of a standard walk-in closet. We were blessed to be able to visit with these women and encourage and pray for them. Last, we went to visit one of the women from the church in her home. She touched my heart. Her name is Juliet, and she is a beautiful young woman. She has a son and a daughter, ages 1 and 4. Last September she lost her husband and she recently got tested for HIV and was found positive. We can’t even begin to imagine how hard life is for her. We gave all the encouragement that we could give and were blessed to see her smile as we left. Please keep her in your prayers.

On our way out of the slums, it began to rain. This meant that dirt turned to mud and small puddles turned to tiny streams, full of garbage and sewage. The rain felt beautiful and created a wonderful rainbow, but the knowledge that everything we just walked through would make its way into the houses of those who lived below was heartbreaking – if that’s even the right word. Needless to say, the ride back to home for us was pretty quiet. I don’t have many more words to describe today, except that it was full of excitement, crushing realities, and a drive to prayer.

We're alive, look for a post!

Hey guys, internet has been on and off here for the past few days! But, it looks like we'll have enough to update you guys on what we've been up to! Stay tuned for an update post! Sorry for the missed/delayed posts!

Cows, Snakes and Keith Urban

Lauren mentioned in her post yesterday that we were preparing to lead discussions in church today, well, in typical Kenyan fashion, that didn't happen. We went to the "more Vibrant" 10am service today, where most of the youth of Nairobi Pentecostal Church attend. After that service, which featured an AWESOME visiting choir, we headed to the Youth Pastors office. When we walked into the room, Toto, the teen pastor informed us of his plan for the day "Okay, so today we're going to do a discussion format. We're going to be talking about sexual purity."

It just goes to show how we need to be flexible, Daniel and I were planning on talking to the 18+ group about being created in God's image, and Lauren, Ben and Courtney had been planning on talking to the high schoolers about being a follower of God, not a fan (from Kyle Idleman's "Not a Fan" initiative at Southeast). Anyways, I'm glad that "flexibility" has been drilled into our heads. We're a collection of semi-perfectionists who like things to go our way, and I think God is showing each of us each day that it's not about us and what we think is right. We actually laughed when Toto told us what we would be doing for the service. Courtney didn't actually get to join us at church, she was feeling a bit under the weather, but she's perked up since this morning! Keep each of us in your prayers as multiple foreign germs are trying to work their way into our germ-o-phobic American bodies.

But church went well, the youth are pretty quiet, and it takes some prying to get them to speak. I'm not sure if it was because we were newcomers or if it was the fact that we were talking about sexual purity with 13-17 year olds. It was a little awkward for all of us, but in the end I think that God facilitated good fellowship between our team and the NPC teens!

We did have a few interesting encounters on our walk home from church today (it's about a 45-50min walk from our guest house):
1. We were walking on the "sidewalk" (packed down dirt used as a footpath), and a heard of cows was in our way. The skinny brown, white and black cows had horns, and some even had rings through their noses. Their keepers held long sticks to "heard" them. The cows were very close to us, it was kind of strange.

2. There was a snake on the side of the walking path. I, being somewhat fearful of snakes (I wasn't really aware of this fear until now), gave out a shout that may or may not have attracted the attention of Kenyan bystanders. I was concerned, because it looked like Ben was about to step on the snake. But apparently, my concern was unecessary, because the snake was dead. It was laying all coiled up, with it's white belly reflecting in the sun. But, my brain only saw "snake" and it didn't take the time to analyze to see if the snake was actually a threat or not. I only embarrassed everyone a little bit, no big deal.

Tomorrow some of us are celebrating June 1st, Madaraka Day (when Kenya attained Internal self rule). We're taking a trip downtown to see the parade, we'll post tomorrow with details!

And to add to he list of prayer requests:
Keep the Mi2 Poland guys in your prayers, sounds like they had an awesome Men's retreat weekend (check out their blog, www.mi2poland09.blogspot.com), and on a personal note, my dear boyfriend, Daniel Cooper is preparing to head to San Francisco for the summer (check out his blog, www.GodismyJudge.wordpress.com)- keep him in your prayers as God prepares his heart to reach out to the challenged youth of San Fransisco!



May the Lord be with you all!
Holly

Ps Daniel helped some kids build a fort today, hence the picture above! And the ice cream tastes like frozen whipped cream, it's delicious, just different.

Remember to look left, then right, then left, then right, then left, then right again before crossing the street.

We officially can say that we can get places in Kenya by ourselves. Today was our first day without a member from the LIA staff with us, and we are all safely back at the guest house after a long day of riding matatus (Kenyan taxi vans) and walking places. It was a great day.

The day started out with a round of haircuts for the guys. For those of you that don’t know, today is a super special day b/c it is Ben’s 22nd birthday, so he got a stylish new do for his big day. Surprisingly, both of the haircuts look normal, even though the Kenyan barber who cut Daniel’s hair can probably count the number of redheaded customers he has ever had on one hand.

We then headed over to NPC (Nairobi Pentecostal Church), the church that we are attending and want to get more involved with. We met the youth pastors, and they were super enthusiastic and excited that we were there. We were able to also join a young adults bible study/discussion and meet some Kenyans our age. They were really cool, but very confused at first as to why 5 new white people were meandering into their meeting. It was interesting to be able to hear their perspectives about how they deal with some of the things that American young adults also struggle with.

We talked a lot today with the youth pastors about what our role would look like in the church. Turns out we are teaching/leading discussion in the teen service tomorrow. We are all really excited about the opportunity, but none of us are really “preachers”, so any prayers you might want to throw up for that would be greatly appreciated. We are super stoked to be able to get more involved with the youth at NPC, but we have to make sure that we don’t have the “American way is the only way” attitude. They do things a lot differently here, and so I’m excited to learn from them equally as much as we attempt to leave with them…

That’s about it from Nairobi. Keep praying for our Poland buddies, Dane and Erich. And sing happy birthday to Ben, I’m sure he’ll be able to hear you if you sing really loud into your computer. We attempted to make him a fruit pizza tonight for his birthday… it was the thought that counts I guess…

We love you guys and are glad that you are still reading our ridiculously long blog posts…

"Where is Him?" "Who's Him?" "Him, what's his name?" "Him! We want to kick Him!"

Okay today was as awesome as the rest, yet challenging in a new way. Over the past few days we've been experiencing Mission and Public hospitals, uniquely motivating and eye-opening respectively. Today we visited the private sector. Strangely, The Nairobi Hospital looked like a US hospital from the facilities. What a bummer I thought, there is nothing I can provide the people being seen there. However, it really was more about me than I thought. The faces were different. Everyone was smiling, happy to be in a hospital, happy to be served, happy to have the job they were very thankful for, and just really happy.

Lets analyze what we've just seen, because that is what I do. These are 200 beds of adequate facilities for serving 3.5 million Nairobi Kenyans, the numbers don't add up if you are wondering, many can't go here, so what determines that? Money. This hospital was made for privileged people like me, those carrying a special card in their pocket.

Hospital number two for the day was the Gertrude children's hospital. Hard to describe it, but it was nicer. Seems like this lovable population melts peoples hearts and donor's wallets, still there are restrictions, the location makes this virtually unreachable by poor people as it is in the heart of the embassies and state houses of foreigners. Once again this was serving the people like me that live in Kenya. Somewhere I missed the point, I was almost angry that the facilities were nice, something that each person deserves. Yet, I should have been more concerned with the disparity from my situation to the rest of the world.

We went to a third hospital, a Coptic (Egyptian orthodox) missions hospital, and it was nice, yet obviously a step below the others. After these three impactful experiences, I have some serious thought that needs to be put into the understanding them, and I'm sure God will speak through what we have seen, he hasn't failed yet.

Now, lets look back to the lessons on missions yesterday that I obtained from talking to Dorothy, a German missionary, serving the hard to reach Muslim Somalis in Kijabe. She and her husband have a really cool story, just believe me on this one.

Lesson 1: When God calls you to missions, and you want to know if it is right, ask the question: Do you have any reason not to go? This came from her mentor 30 years ago. What a great truth.

Lesson 2: Find a burden. Dorothy's husband was looking through a book and saw that Somalis were 100% unchurched and hard to reach, and that was enough. You can see from what you have heard about large parts of Kenya and the developing world, or urban US cities, or far eastern KY, that the need is there. What burdens you? Do something about it with sharing Christ's love in mind, that is a mission.

Lesson 3(for overseas missions): Learn the culture and work with people at home before you choose to go long term abroad. You know nothing at first. You cannot assimilate to the community until you have learned their language and ways of doing things. The awesome thing is that there are Bantu Somalis in Louisville, getting involved with them is really easy. For other groups that burden you and have refugees in the US, you can easily move to where they are. This is a great means to get your feet on the ground and start out running.

Lesson 4 (nearest and dearest to my heart): You must first have a set of believers that you call your home church to support you in your mission efforts. God speaks through these people in marvelous ways. They can hold you accountable, and they can prayerfully support you. I am so blessed that this has always been evident in my life, a supportive family that we call Mt. Olivet, but now even more as I take this journey. You guys have shown the perfect model of sharing faith by action, and not being afraid of God-sized projects when they come your way. I love you guys.

So as you can see, we are being challenged. Pray for us, pray that the directions we take are driven by God, and not our own selfish motives. I wish I could type for hours.

Lastly, we want to send a special shout out to our Polish Mi2 counterparts. Be sure to check out their www.mi2poland09.blogspot.com one as well. Erich and Dane are doing some amazing things and we want to share our encouragement of them with you all.

-Dan, the guy the Kenyan kids in our apartment complex like to kick, pinch, and play soccer basketball with.

Ps: I like comments, and bragging that I got feedback.
Pss: It is Benry's birthday tomorrow, or in like 2 hours here.

Jambo!
Today we had the pleasure of going to a missions hospital in the city of Kijabe and also visiting the Cure hospital located in the same town. At the missions hospital we were able to talk with a missionary from Germany who first came to Kenya to minister to the Somali population that has migrated to the region. It was very evident when we first stepped in the building that there is a vast difference between American healthcare and Kenyan healthcare. We were told that people come from all over to this hospital because of its affordability and capability to treat anyone. Another exciting fact we learned was that some people actually pretend to be sick just so they can visit the hospital and hear the word of God; which is amazing to think about considering the amount of people who turn a deaf ear to the truth in the U.S. After the missions hospital we walked next door to Cure. This is a childrens hospital that is located in several areas of the world including the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. They were very open and excited to show us the work they do and the equipment they have, even showing off their new "theatres" or operating rooms. Cure focuses on treating children with physical disabilities such as cleft lip, club foot, scoliosis, and other ailments. The most interesting part for myself was seeing where they actually make prosthetics and specialized shoes to help children walk more normally. All of the equipment used in each process seemed to be very outdated but it is amazing the amount of children they are able to help each year with inferior technology. The doctors and employees at both of these hospitals definitely are disadvantaged in the world of device technology or even sterility; however, their passion for helping others both physically and spiritually far surpass the people I have met in the States. It is really humbling and encouraging to talk with the people who give their lives to these causes and learn how they arrived where they are today. To cap off the day, we traveled through the Rift Valley to and from Kijabe and enjoyed the surreal scenery from the mountain tops looking over the valley. It was just another testament to how great our God truly is.
~Ben

Working Wednesdays!

We had our first day of work!
The LIA staff asked us to look over their quarterly newsletter that they send to sponsors. We sat down and watched a few movies about CHE (Community Health Evangelism). CHE (www.CHEintl.org) is the model which LIA uses to minister to churches in the various locations we'll be visiting during the summer. CHE is a wholistic organization focusing on evangelism and discipleship with disease prevention and community based development. After the CHE videos and "tea time" (hot milk, instant coffee and drinking chocolate), we started to plan out the new layout for the LIA-Kenya newsletter! Maybe we'll give you guys a sneak peek sometime later in the summer ;)
We also traveled to downtown Nairobi to visit with Dr. William Obwaka (the LIA Kenya director's husband). Dr. Obwaka is an obstetrician/gynecologist. He showed us around his office suite, which housed a reception desk, as well consult, an exam room, and an operating room. We were all a little shocked when we walked into the "operating" room. The room was not much larger than the stainless steel bed that was placed in the middle of the room. Along the edges of the room were colorful bottles filled with various chemicals and sterilizing fluids. Dr. Obwaka told us that many of his outpatient operations are performed under local anesthetic or sedation, but not usually under anesthesia (yikes!). Perhaps the most exciting sight was the anesthesia contraption that looked like it could have been in the movie Frankenstein!
Dr. Obwaka was so kind to show us around his office, and he even took time to answer some of our questions before he saw his next patient! Talk about hospitality!
We then scarfed down some Kenyan cuisine for lunch (fish cooked in a tomato sauce, green mashed potatoes (potatoes, spinach, beans), some veggies (kale) and chapati (a kenyan bread)).
We walked to the bus stop while the skies looked ominous overhead. We heard some claps of thunder and saw a few flashes of lightning as we waited for bus number 40. Apparently, buses only travel to the popular areas, and where we were going was not a popular area. You would not believe the amount of black exhaust and swirling dust there is in the city. It's quite difficult to breathe when you're standing at a bus platform, your lungs begin to burn after a while. Jacob, an LIA employee picked us up and brought us to Kenyata Hospital a public hospital. We waited to see a doctor who would take us on a tour, but he was in a meeting until after Kenyan closing time (4pm).
We made a stop at the market to stock up on food for the week, and walked down a couple of muddy streets back to our apartment. We're getting ready to make dinner now!

Update: this is our dinner! AND here is an article on LIA's website written by our friend Holly Garret! http://blog.liaint.org/?cat=35

Twinde! (Let's go!)
Holly

PS Tomorrow we're traveling west towards the Rift Valley to stop in Kijabe to visit another hospital. Courtney also has a contact at a Cure International hospital that is nearby! AND, we also get to be tourists! We can't wait to take pictures of the spectacular landscapes that God created!

Blog-aholic

New word I made up today. You should use it and become one.

Today, the team met with Dr. Emily in efforts to learn the Kenyan government and health care systems, since this is so vital to our mission this summer. We covered many topics from tribal rituals that promote disease to common mistakes that are made by uneducated people anywhere when it comes to taking medicines and performing preventative health tasks. LiA focuses on the latter.

We also had the chance to meet with Paasta (sound it out) Jeff that is going to help us get involved with the Youth and Ex-cons (don't freak out like I did...Ex-candidates for college) that are in the NPC Wooldley ministry. Pray for us as we are going to be asked to preach and lead worship very quickly once we get involved. Lots of churches here have the visitor of the day be the preacher, what a concept we need to get started back home!

Kwaheri,

The Kenya Team

This is where it all begins...

Hey – this is Courtney here – I am so excited to share with you all about our day today! So Mondays are very special days for Life in Abundance International. Every Monday each LIA staff member and volunteer in every country fast and pray for the organization, each other, partner churches, their country, and more. It was such a blessing to take part in this with our LIA Kenya friends. We got to see what the organization truly is about and from where they draw their strength and guidance. Our lovely friend Pamella shared with us that when Jesus called His disciples, he first called them to spend time with Him and He then sent them out to care for people and spread His word.

And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach... Mark 3:14

Thus, the ministry of LIA begins the week first with drawing close to Jesus and then scattering across East Africa to care for people and spread His word. We were blessed to spend most of the day in prayer and in song for the people and ministries of LIA, Kenya, the US, and all of Africa.

During a break towards the end of our prayer time I had a very cool experience. I walked down the street with our LIA friend Beth to meet some of her friends at another organization, Theovision International. Her friends were refugees from Somalia and they were working with this organization in order to create an audio bible in the mother tongue of those in Somalia. This is crucial for believers and nonbelievers there who can neither read nor understand English or Kiswahili. It was amazing to hear their stories and talk to them about helping them with their project over the next few months!

All in all today was a much needed day for our team of focusing on what is really important. It was so great joining LIA in giving thanks for what has been accomplished and requesting strength and wisdom for what is to come. We are so excited about our first week of work and are ready to go, especially after today! Please be in prayer for us as we tour the Kenyan health system this week and begin to learn how we will be able to be plugged in and used here. Pray also for the connections with the local church – we are really hoping to be able help out with their youth and teens. You all are awesome and we love you guys,

The Kenya Team

Side note – we are now learning two and three word Kiswahili phrases: Jina langu ni Courtney (My name is Courtney)!

Fanta is Awesome

Hey it's Ben-jammin here. We've ben doing good in Kenya here so far. It has ben quite an experience to this point. Today we went to church with Dr. Emily which was amazing. The singing, dancing, and enthusiasm put into all aspects of the service were unrivaled to anything any of us has ever seen. It is a joy to see how other cultures worship and a blessing that we have been placed somewhere that takes such joy in honoring God. The sermon in itself was spoken with such a thundering passion and conviction that you felt like the Red Sea was being parted all over again in that very room. We could not have ben blessed with better people to take care of us as Dr. Emily and her husband William took us to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. They brought out the food on two giant pita style breads and in order to eat the food you had to peal off a piece of the bread and scoop up the meat. After lunch we were able to go to the Masai market for the first time and witness the insane confusion of bartering. Every which way we turned there was another salesman attempting to trade us something or begging us to make him an offer on his goods. It was nice though talking with the market people even after we would tell them we were just browsing for the day and didn't have any money. Everyone here is genuinely enthusiastic to learn more about where we are from or to teach us a little more about their own culture. As a team we have decided to run in a 4k in Nairobi on June 6th to raise money for BTL, which is an organization that translates the new testament into tribal languages of Kenya so the word of God may be spread even further. Well it has ben good catching you all up on the exciting things going on here abroad. Continue to pray for us, especially us non-runners in this race because I have a feeling we are going to come in last.
~Ben

I promise I don't believe in witchcraft...

Lauren speaking… first off… WE’RE IN KENYA!! It still hasn’t quite sunk in. Even though everything is very different here, the fact that we’re more than 14 hours of flying away hasn’t quite clicked. We’ve all really enjoyed starting to try and adjust to the culture, but it will definitely take a long time to stop looking and pointing at things.

This morning we went to downtown Nairobi, and it was amazing to see the floods of people everywhere… literally everywhere.. Pamella, Jacob, and Beth (3 LIA staff members/volunteers) took us to the markets downtown to stock our cabinets full of yummy yummy Kenyan food. Praise the Lord that Holly and Courtney are on the trip, because they both really enjoy cooking. If I were in charge of cooking, we would be eating a lot of Kenyan PB+J’s… but we have been eating in style for the past few days. Today was one where I was completely out of my comfort zone, first because I was in Kenya (obviously) and secondly b/c I don’t cook. But it was a good day of learning more about the culture all around…

OK… I realize I’m not very good at blogging b/c I keep getting off topic. Anyway, today we went to downtown Nairobi and here are a few things we learned:
1. We would never, ever be capable of driving in Nairobi. It’s craziness. Apparently rear ending someone here isn’t nearly as big of a deal as it is in the states. And if you “break” a traffic violation (which I don’t really know how it’s possible to determine), the cops will jump in your car with you and drive your car around to “guilt trip” you for as long as they see fit.
2. While they do have a few “supermarkets”, most of the stores downtown are very small with a few select items. There are also several open air markets to get vegetables, fruits, etc.
3. Oranges in Kenya are not orange. They are green..
4.. The most embarassing thing I learned today was that I looked like I believed in witchcraft all day. I have a toe ring and an anklet on my left foot/ankle. Today, Beth asked me what they meant. I told her that they meant absolutely nothing. She proceeded to inform me that, in Africa, you only wore jewelry on your feet if you were trying to keep yourself from being bewitched, and that if I told someone about Jesus while wearing such items on my feet that they would be very confused b/c they would think that I believed in witchcraft. So, the rest of the morning while walking around in my witchcraft jewelry I felt a little awkward… but needless to say I took them off when I got back to the condo and now my feet are witchcraft free.

If I could, I would love to write for 4 more hours and tell of all the things we are learning and seeing and experiencing here, but unfortunately, that is all that I can report at this point. If you could be praying that we would be as helpful as possible even though we really don’t know anything that’s going on, that would be awesome. I don’t really know how to end this post, if I knew how to say “bye” in Kiswahili I would…

P.s. I write really long blog posts apparently. Sorry.

Habari Yenu? (How are you?)

Well if you respond with "mzuri sana" then you are probably doing very well like we are. Kenyan hospitality is really indescribable. So far we have met with several members of the LiA-Kenya Team and each have several things in common, a beautiful smile and a warm heart. And not to be left out is their incredible faith and commitment to the cause of Christ that is shown in each of their actions.

A couple of us on the team like to see a little direction for what the summer has in store, and today we got it. It might be hard to understand from home, but there was a strategic plan by those in charge to let it unfold before our eyes as to not have us come in with huge assumptions. I'll be the first to admit that I can be very foolish of what I create in my mind.

One thing I have noticed and the team discussed this morning is in our situation of tiredness and culture shock, that we may have forgotten some of the essentials to living as a Christian is instructed to. For me, Philippians 2:1-7, is a good reminder of the guidance we were given for personal interactions, and if you haven't noticed yet, that is a HUGE part of our trip. We all came to serve, but humble acceptance of our host's service is also of utmost concern. Diving through our team's need for unity amongst ourselves and the LiA staff was also of great concern. How awesome is it that a plan was laid out for us by Jesus himself!

A little side note just to let you worry warts know, we are in a very secure location with nice amenities. The guest house is very cool and only slight modifications to a typical schedule are needed. Shower with your mouth closed, plug in an adapter before you start your computer, and take your malaria medicine with breakfast are about it.

We look onward with great expectations and no reservations that God is really going to work both through us and in us over this summer, hope you are now updated and as excited as we are!

-Mi2 Daniel