Final Thoughts

I am sitting in Jomo Kenyatta Airport, waiting for my flight home.  This has become my usual time to rehash what has happened on this trip and think about the future, so here goes.

I learned a lot on this trip.  My focus this time was "understanding."  I have been seeking to better understand the Kenyan experience, at least through the eyes of my workers here.  So I spent several nights in their homes, hanging out with their kids and the orphans, and generally try to understand their "context."  I think that I was successful, to a point.  I learned a lot about how these people live, work and do church, but there is still a lot left to learn.  There is only so much that can be conveyed in English; their language is a large part of the Kenyan lifestyle.  Until I learn Swahili, I will always be the mzungu saying, "What did he say?"

I practiced preaching a lot.  I expected to preach two Sundays, but every night at an orphanage and even at MITS, they wanted me to speak.  Years ago I took a Dale Carnegie course on public speaking, and did very well, but it has been a skill that has been dormant until this new Kenyan calling.  I really enjoy it.  I especially like that rare moment when you can see in their eyes that they just "got" what you were trying to say.  Now if I just had something worthwhile to say!  I'm counting on what God said to Moses, "I will teach you what to say."

Another goal on this trip was to become more self-sufficient.  On all my previous trips, I have completely been at the mercy of drivers and other Kenyans to get anywhere.  I made some good progress here, though I would want my language skills to improve before I would be completely comfortable alone in Kenya.  I drove for almost two weeks, and covered all the major highways that we use here.  I learned how to see the 'bumps' that are everywhere and how to chart a course through the mine-fields of pot holes.  Alfayo Bodi called me his "International, Professional Driver," and complemented me by falling asleep while he was supposed to be navigating.

The amazing news about the IDP camp from yesterday's post, punctuated by their astounding generosity with their new found land, was a great high point for this trip.  Many Americans have expressed their interest in helping build a permanent feeding station there, so we will begin that process soon.  God has shown up in many ways on this trip.  From keeping me from danger, to opening the hearts of his children for my visit.  I'll forever be grateful for this most incredible journey that I am on in His kingdom.

I'll leave you with my final words for Bernard Kibet, when we parted a few days ago. Know what you believe, and why you believe it.  Theology is important.  It's not OK to just keep doing the same old church that you learned as a kid, you must discover what God's kingdom purposes mean to you, and how you can participate in His redemptive process.  Thank you for listening and thank you, Lord for taking me on this journey.  I would not have it any other way.

Kikitemo Settlement

Tuesday morning we went by the IDP camp on our way into Nairobi.  The government has finally found some land to give them to resettle so they will not be forced to live in this camp.  The land is just one mile up the hill from their current location.  It consist of five acres that they can subdivide into plots that each family can farm.  Obviously, this is great news!

But something has happened to this group of displaced people while they wandered through the wilderness together; they have become a family.  More importantly, they have become a church.  Their first decision when told of their five acre gift, was to all agree to give one acre of it to the Lord, a first-fruits offering that is really hard for me to imagine.  They want our ministry to help take care of the orphans there, on the land God has given them, and they are willing to give 20% of it back to the Lord to make it possible.  That’s a God sized story that I would not have believed if I hadn’t been around to watch it unfold.

So in my meetings with them we have agreed that as soon as the funds can be found, we will build a full size feeding station on the land they have given us, which will include a hall, a widow’s dorm, and a kitchen.  Grace Njeri will run the feeding station make sure the orphans have someplace to sleep among the other families, just as they have been doing all this time.  We have agreed to purchase an additional acre of land adjacent to the one they have given us, to provide space to eventually build an orphanage when monthly funds become available and they have had time to establish themselves on their new land.

The paperwork for the land transfer in already in process, and the IDP’s expect to move next month to their new place.  This is an amazing opportunity to partner with God and a really great church in expanding His kingdom on earth.  If you would like to financially participate in building the feeding station at Kikitemo Settlement, please send me an email.

After our visit at IDP, Mbuvi and I went home to Nairobi.  Wednesday morning we will brave the city traffic to try to buy medical supplies for the medical trips that will be coming this summer.  More tomorrow.

Kipsenende Orphanage

Last night we got to worship with the kids at Kapsabet before dinner.  I was surprised this time by a new addition, a sound system.  They had an old Yamaha speaker and a powered mixer, two Shure wireless mics and a DVD/CD player.  It made me homesick a little. 

When we retired to bed, the rains came.  It was very heavy this time.  Last year the Kenyan government came to Kibet and required him to add lightning arrestors at his facilities.  I remember complaining at the time, but last night I was grateful for them, as we took two very close hits.  The orphanage sits near the top of a hill, so Kibet says they get a lot of close calls.  I was worried about the roads with all the rain, though.

This morning, the sky was still overcast and it was quite cool, probably 60 or so.  I took my now familiar Kenyan “shower”, a basin of warm water in the bathroom.  It’s not as bad as you think it will be, and it’s possible to get quite clean.  Harder to get used to is that many Kenyans do not use towels, they just drip-dry!  I remembered to bring some micro-fiber towels this trip and they have saved me.  After breakfast we left early for church in case the roads were bad, but they were OK.

Arriving at Kipsenende, the kids were all lined up to greet me.  There were some familiar faces and some new ones.  The best surprise was all the new buildings.  Kipsenende has recently been upgraded to an orphanage and Kibet has done a wonderful job building here.  The hall is big enough for 150 kids and the dorms were spacious and well made.  The latrines and bathrooms were similarly sized for expansion, and the water well had been upgraded to a submersible pump and storage tank.  It was all really first class.

But it was the kitchen that had me really floored.  It was large, with great ventilation, and Kibet had found these absolutely beautiful stoves.  They are huge!  The large, single opening stove was designed to make enough rice or ugali for 400, and the smaller, two opening stove used the more familiar 24in size pots.  These are wood burners, but they are so well insulated that Kibet says they are using half of what the used in the old, feeding-station kitchen.  The smoke removal system is very well done, and I had to check to see if there was any fire burning, because the kitchen had absolutely no smoke at all.  These stoves have become my new favorite upgrade, and I can see us adding them at all of our places that need this capacity.

The site is big, 1.8 acres, and the buildings are well situated for expansion.  The church here has been running a nursery school for some time, and this year they have added 1^st grade.  The church elders told me they were planning to add a grade every year, until they reached 8^th grade.  This school makes the church enough money to pay for the orphans that go there and all of their incidental fees.  That’s good for everybody.

Soon, it was time for church.  All of the members and kids from Kapsabet had joined us for a community event, and so the place was packed.  There was great singing, both accapella and instrumental, and then they invited me to preach.  Since this is Kenya, I added every bit of detail I could think of to lengthen my sermon, so I was able to go 40 minutes.  That’s still a little short for them, so their usual preacher added another 30 minutes in preparation for communion.  In all the service was two hours and 40 minutes.  A little short for this church, but acceptable.

While we were eating lunch it started raining again, and Kibet suggested that we leave soon so as to be the first vehicle on the mud road.  I’m glad he did.  It was quite slippery and at one point there was some construction, which meant a large pile of dirt that was now a mud pit.  Now my driving skills were really tested, as I floored it and skidded my way through with no problem.  Kibet was all smiles.  We made it back to Eldoret this afternoon without difficulty, though it is still raining.  Kibet says this is the start of the rainy season now, so all the farmers will be planting this week.

Tomorrow we head out to Londiani, assuming the road there is ok, and we will spend the night there with our worker, David Koech.  This will be my last orphanage for this trip, only a brief stop at the IDP camp remains before we head back to Nairobi.  I will be making a big announcement about the IDP camp after that visit, so stay tuned…

Kipsenende Orphanage

Kapsabet

Thursday night we got to spend some more time worshiping with the kids at Dirubi.  I cant say enough about that experience.  They really welcomed me and many of them said too-kind things about me.  In reality, they hardly know me, but to them I represent you, all of those Americans who care about them and support this work.  To me, they look like Jesus.

Friday morning Kibet and I set out for Eldoret.  Its about a 4 hour drive from Sondu, and some very interesting roads.  Along the way, in the Nandi hills, we saw a few burned out buildings and many sugar cane fields that had been burned.  This is the boundary between two tribes that sometimes have some conflict, usually over cattle rustling.  There were even some UN inspectors, taking pictures and doing what bureaucrats do.  There were also a lot of national police, with guns.  Not something you see every day, but I was actually glad to see them here where order needs to be restored.

We arrived without incident in Eldoret.  We ran into a rather big traffic jam and had to make a detour.  This through off Kibet’s directions and I was forced to make a u-turn, in traffic.  Let me tell you, mutatu drivers do not take kindly to that, nor do they give you room to complete your turn.  It was a test of my patience, as many choice English words came to mind, (those of you who have ridden with me understand), but I held my tongue and we eventually made it around. 

After we ate lunch at the Sirikwa Hotel, we set off on foot in search of a battery for Kibet’s laptop.  You may think that is a fools errand, but we eventually found a little shop that knew a guy that had the original HP part in stock, cheaper than we could have found it in the US.  That was an interesting experience and I got to hang out in a computer shop in Kenya for a while and see what was available.

We spent the evening resting and had an uneventful evening; just what I needed.

This morning we made the short trip to Kapsabet, Bernard’s home and our second orphanage.  We toured the place and saw what was new.  Then I listened to several ideas that their board members had, some were even good.

I met their star high school graduate Winnie Osebe, who made a solid B on the KCSE exam.  That’s their exit exam for high school, the SAT and the ACT all rolled into one.  Coming from a poor provincial public school, that’s quite high.  With her score she could be admitted to university.  She wants to be a pilot, now we will see if we can find some money to send her.

After lunch we went over to Ngenymesut.  There I met with the widows and saw the usual things, it really looks good there, and then the kids asked me to join their volleyball game.  Now, no one would call me an athlete, but being six feet tall in Kenya is a decided advantage in volleyball.  Let’s just say I held my own, and scored a few points.  Unfortunately, they do not keep score very well there so the game went on for more than an hour.  I was looking for a graceful exit, and soon one was found in the form of a ball to the face.  No blood, just wounded pride and I bit my tongue for the second time.

While the game wound down, I got to spend time with the younger kids as they practiced their English.  We did body parts, hand elbow, ears, etc, and some of them asked me about my family and parents.  I answered them as best I could and was ready to disengage when one of them asked me what my job was.  Without thinking, I said, “You are my job.  I represent you in America.”  The boy who had asked the question got a very serious look on his face and said, “May God bless you.  Thank you very much.”  It choked me up for the thousandth time this trip and reminded me how important it is to spend some quality time with these kids.  They are starting to feel like my own family. 

We are back at Kapsabet now, where we will spend the night.  Tomorrow, I’ll preach again at Kipsenede so I’d better study.  This missionary stuff is hard.

Kapsabet Day one

Back to the Training Institute

One week left.  I’m remembering today how hard it is to be gone this long.  This is the point in the trip when I start to really long for some American things, food especially.  I really need a pizza.  Kenyans don’t know cheese.  I asked my worker today, how many had had cheese and the answer was, “What is cheese?”  Might be fun to learn how to make a simple cheese, since they all have cows. Hmm.

Last night, Bernard Kibet and David Koech met me at the Dados.  These men are our workers in Kapsabet and Londiani, respectively.   This morning we waited at the hotel for the other orphanage workers to arrive.  The plan was that we were all going to drive together to the training center.  I had told them all to meet us at the Dados Wednesday morning early.  To some of them, early meant 8am, to others 10:30 was fine, and one we picked up at the bus stop at 11:45.  Kenyan time.

We made the drive from Kisii to Sondu with no problem. The highway is paved, but full of holes, forcing me to weave and dodge traffic to miss them.  At home it would have been 25 minutes to go that distance, here it took an hour.  Once to Sondu, you weave through the stalls and kiosks of the town’s market area to pick up the bad dirt road to Dirubi.  It takes 15 minutes on this road and it’s only 1.5 miles.

At the Institute, we toured the place.  Most of the workers had never seen it, and they were amazed that so much had been done.  It seems they were not as upset as I was with the delays, that kind of thing is normal here.  Like me, they are all excited at the potential this place hold for our work.  God will do some amazing things here, I believe.

After a very late lunch, we started our meeting.  There were many things to discuss, mostly about how we plan to begin measuring all the expenses of our orphanages for the first time.  Currently, each man accounts for all of the money we send him, but we know that we do not send enough.  We expect that profit making ventures and church donations will make up the rest.  What we don’t know exactly is how much we underfund them.  This makes it difficult to know weather to say yes or no to all kinds of requests that I get from them.  Hopefully our new system will be simple enough for them to use and give us in America better information to act on.

We also discussed various ways to reduce the cost of food, even in the months leading up to harvest when the maize prices are very high.  We made some progress there, but we still have a lot of work to do.  As our system of orphanages and feeding stations has grown, the numbers for maize alone have gotten to be pretty staggering.  At our current size, each year we buy about 14,560 kg of maize.  (That’s 32,100 lbs or just over 16 tons) The low price is 30 shillings a kg, but the high can be as much as 80!  Lots of potential savings there.

Later, after dinner, we were able to join the orphans for evening devotional.  Each of the workers encouraged the orphans, as did I.  These devotionals have definitely been the highlight of the trip for me.  100+ redeemed children and widows, singing praises to the king in the near-dark.  It reminds me of youth group or Single Parent Family Camp, only for them it’s every night.   On future trips I think we will plan on at least one night of “camping” at an orphanage.  Many mzungu need to experience this.  As we walked back to bed-down at one of the dorms in the training institute, it was sprinkling.  As we closed the door, the rains came.  Sleeping under a metal roof in the rain is very cool.

This morning we continued our meetings and finished about lunch.  After we ate, I drove all of them except Kibet and Thomas to Sondu to catch their busses home.  Kibet and I will stay here again tonight and leave tomorrow morning for Eldoret, and a night of rest at he Shirikwa Hotel.  Then it’s on to Kapsabet, Ngenymesut, and our newest orphanage, Kipsenene on Sunday.  I’ll write more when I can.