Weeee're Heeeerrrreee! We arrived in Nairobi airport at about 9:30 last night, easily made it through customs (new visa fee is only $25 --used to be $50) with only three of our 26 bags being examined. All 26 bags made it through. Gloria -- that whole thing about numbering the bags...GENIUS! We immediately identified what we had and what we needed. It looks like several were opened by TSA and one duffel had a busted zipper, but everything was still in there--in tact! Praise God! So far, we've only found one leaky item..some suntan lotion, but it was contained in the Ziplock. Great job packing everyone who packed for us!!!
We were greeted at the airport by our director, Dwight, our accountant, Bernard, and by "Charlie" (as most of you know him from our story about the Chief who came to Christ), and his children, Josie and Josh - who we had met at our orientation 2 years ago. Josie and Josh are Ashley's age and enveloped her completely! By the time we made it to the compound, it was about 11:00.
We were taken home, and treated to homemade rhubarb and pumpkin pie made by my good friend, Susan, and ...get this... ice cream! :) Someone had gone grocery shopping for us to supply us with at least a little bit of food until we can get out, and the temporary housing folk made sure that we had beds and mattresses on which to sleep. We also had little presents on our beds and a great big welcome sign in our living room -- hand made by Josie who took it around the compound for everyone to sign. (There is no child quite like this little angel.)
God also greeted us with a "blue" moon. This is when two full moons happen in one month. Apparently, it only occurs every 19 years or so. Since we live close to city centre, we saw the new year's fireworks go off right from our front door! Wow! What a welcome to a new chapter in our lives. Starting 2010 in Africa!!
People were saying how chilly it was here,(70 degrees F), and yet we pouring sweat! We did manage to unpack a bit, in our sweaty state, and are really wishing we would have left some clothes home and taken more hangers! :) That's probably not the last "I wish we would have" we'll have, but at least we're here!!
This morning we met our house guest..a three inch gecko. Since I hate lizard poop a whole lot less than I hate spiders, we decided to let it stay and named it "George" I may recant that decision in a few days/weeks/months, but for now, George is welcome.
I feel pretty adjusted to the time, having slept well last night and got up at a "normal" time for here. Ashley did as well. Jeff, on the other hand, slept a lot on the plane, but not much here last night due to a nosy, biting mosquito in the room, so he's still asleep at 10am.
I've met one of our neighbors, the Crowders, this morning. They have two small children, boys, aged 3 and a year and a half. The Crowders are the directors of SIM Sudan. Now, I'm off to have coffee with our director, then get Jeff up in time for lunch with our friends, "Charlie" and Susan. BTW -- "Charlie" isn't Charlie's real name. His ministry is still pretty sensitive, so we're going to keep him at Charlie for the time being.
I'll post pictures later. I promised Ashley a walk around the compound.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
London
It's coooold here! And yes...a wet cold is definitely colder than a Colorado cold! It's not even freezing here, but I couldn't stay warm for anything.
Although we arrived at 10am, by the time we got out of the airport, to the hotel and checked into our rooms, it was 1:30. We all opted to take a short nap, then do some sightseeing with the remaining daylight. Unfortunately, we slept for 2 hours. After that and a shower for Jeff and Ashley, no daylight remained.
So, we decided to take the underground (subway) to Picadilly Circus and grab a bite. If time allowed, we thought we'd take in the play Grease. We didn't realize just how far it was from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Picadilly Circus or we mightn't have opted for this particular form of entertainment! It took us and hour and 15 minutes to get to town. Then, we walked around in the drizzle looking for an affordable place to eat...a tougher task than you might imagine considering we were in the theatre district. We did find a place with relatively no atmosphere, but really good fish and chips for an affordable price! Ashley thought the "mushy" peas were baby food. :)
After dinner we braved the windy, cold drizzle and huge crowds to walk around a few block and look at the Christmas decorations on Ripley's Believe it or Not building and some of the surrounding architecture. Our excursion didn't last long, though. It's hard to appreciate the beauty of your surroundings when you are hunched over and hiding behind an umbrella. One of the highlights, though, came in the form of a little yellow ball with glitter and a flashing light.
You see, shortly after Ashley hugged her friend, Emma, goodbye at DIA, her big yellow ball with glitter and a flashing light was confiscated by TSA for having too much water in it. Ashley, already tired and sad, melted down. I wanted to throw the ball on the floor and show the agent how the lights were triggered, but she would have none of that! So, when we found an identical ball, but smaller (less than 4 oz of water in it) at a trinket shop, Ashley was ecstatic! Please pray that this one doesn't also get confiscated!!
We got back to the hotel by a little after 9pm, but missed the shuttle by a few minutes and had to wait another 1/2 hour for the next. Jeff took a Percoset and crashed as soon as we entered the room. His knee is really hurting. He was an awesome trooper to walk around in London, but drew the line when I wanted to stop at Harrods! :) Probably a good thing.
We catch the plane for Nairobi tomorrow at 10am and would appreciate your prayers for an uneventful trip. The director won't likely meet us as he had originally planned as he'll be preparing egg rolls for the "annual New Year's Eve Egg Roll Party." Food and a party. I think I'm going to like it there! :)
Although we arrived at 10am, by the time we got out of the airport, to the hotel and checked into our rooms, it was 1:30. We all opted to take a short nap, then do some sightseeing with the remaining daylight. Unfortunately, we slept for 2 hours. After that and a shower for Jeff and Ashley, no daylight remained.
So, we decided to take the underground (subway) to Picadilly Circus and grab a bite. If time allowed, we thought we'd take in the play Grease. We didn't realize just how far it was from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Picadilly Circus or we mightn't have opted for this particular form of entertainment! It took us and hour and 15 minutes to get to town. Then, we walked around in the drizzle looking for an affordable place to eat...a tougher task than you might imagine considering we were in the theatre district. We did find a place with relatively no atmosphere, but really good fish and chips for an affordable price! Ashley thought the "mushy" peas were baby food. :)
After dinner we braved the windy, cold drizzle and huge crowds to walk around a few block and look at the Christmas decorations on Ripley's Believe it or Not building and some of the surrounding architecture. Our excursion didn't last long, though. It's hard to appreciate the beauty of your surroundings when you are hunched over and hiding behind an umbrella. One of the highlights, though, came in the form of a little yellow ball with glitter and a flashing light.
You see, shortly after Ashley hugged her friend, Emma, goodbye at DIA, her big yellow ball with glitter and a flashing light was confiscated by TSA for having too much water in it. Ashley, already tired and sad, melted down. I wanted to throw the ball on the floor and show the agent how the lights were triggered, but she would have none of that! So, when we found an identical ball, but smaller (less than 4 oz of water in it) at a trinket shop, Ashley was ecstatic! Please pray that this one doesn't also get confiscated!!
We got back to the hotel by a little after 9pm, but missed the shuttle by a few minutes and had to wait another 1/2 hour for the next. Jeff took a Percoset and crashed as soon as we entered the room. His knee is really hurting. He was an awesome trooper to walk around in London, but drew the line when I wanted to stop at Harrods! :) Probably a good thing.
We catch the plane for Nairobi tomorrow at 10am and would appreciate your prayers for an uneventful trip. The director won't likely meet us as he had originally planned as he'll be preparing egg rolls for the "annual New Year's Eve Egg Roll Party." Food and a party. I think I'm going to like it there! :)
Unexpected Blessings
Abundant unexpected blessings:
Blessing #1: Friends who are willing to work their fingers to the bone, until late at night, and drop everything to come back and help when we're in the 11th hour before leaving and still not done.
Blessing #2: Carpet cleaners who gifted us a free cleaning as we're moving on out.
Blessing #3. No one in line at the ticket counter at check in and a super nice ticket agent who comp'd us a bit on the baggage charges (ended up with 26 checked bags...didn't take the kitchen sink, tho..)
Blessing #4: A missed connection -- yes, this is a blessing! We missed the connection before we even left Denver, so..no stress in an unfamiliar airport. We flew into Heathrow as planned, and are spending a day here (and a night) and flying out on the same flight to Nairobi tomorrow. Plus...we get to sightsee in London!
Blessing #5: A nice lunch at the airport with friends and a close friend of Ashley's to see her off, too!
Blessing #6: A great night's sleep on the airplane for Julie..not so great for Jeff who couldn't sleep (but he's sleeping now! :) ). Ashley was in-between and got some sleep.
Blessing #7: Met a man at Heathrow who gave us his cell # and said to call with any troubles and he'd come to help out.
We're in God's hands..still..and still feeling loved and blessed beyond measure. Things didn't turn out as we'd planned or expected. Instead, God's plan has unfolded and we are enjoying his abundant blessings in the midst of life's unexpected twists. Can't wait to see what's coming next!
Blessing #1: Friends who are willing to work their fingers to the bone, until late at night, and drop everything to come back and help when we're in the 11th hour before leaving and still not done.
Blessing #2: Carpet cleaners who gifted us a free cleaning as we're moving on out.
Blessing #3. No one in line at the ticket counter at check in and a super nice ticket agent who comp'd us a bit on the baggage charges (ended up with 26 checked bags...didn't take the kitchen sink, tho..)
Blessing #4: A missed connection -- yes, this is a blessing! We missed the connection before we even left Denver, so..no stress in an unfamiliar airport. We flew into Heathrow as planned, and are spending a day here (and a night) and flying out on the same flight to Nairobi tomorrow. Plus...we get to sightsee in London!
Blessing #5: A nice lunch at the airport with friends and a close friend of Ashley's to see her off, too!
Blessing #6: A great night's sleep on the airplane for Julie..not so great for Jeff who couldn't sleep (but he's sleeping now! :) ). Ashley was in-between and got some sleep.
Blessing #7: Met a man at Heathrow who gave us his cell # and said to call with any troubles and he'd come to help out.
We're in God's hands..still..and still feeling loved and blessed beyond measure. Things didn't turn out as we'd planned or expected. Instead, God's plan has unfolded and we are enjoying his abundant blessings in the midst of life's unexpected twists. Can't wait to see what's coming next!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
God's Timing
I'm going to take the easy road on this and simply link to a blog about us, rather than by us. Thanks to my friend, Nikki, for her heart and her view on God at work.
http://starrchasers.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/gods-timing/
http://starrchasers.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/gods-timing/
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
I'm not an "up front" person
No, I don't mean like sitting in the front row. (Although I always feel like I'm blocking the view when I do that.) And, no, I don't mean that I operate with hidden agendas. I mean that I don't like being in a position where everyone can watch me. ..too many flaws to potentially expose ... too much opportunity to say or do something stupid (move over, Peter!) ... too much focus on "me."
Interesting that God has put me in exactly that position for the last two years.
In Africa, the position of honor is up on the podium, at the front of the church/building/gathering, facing the people in attendance. This is where we found ourselves each and every time we visited a new church. It's bad enough to be six feet tall and blonde in the middle of a jet-black crowd, but to try to worship or pray or ponder on scripture with all eyes on me is not even within miles of my comfort zone!
I imagine that this is why raising support has been such a challenge for me. Jeff and I have our presentation down to 30 minutes -- when we practice alone. But, as of yet, we can't seem to do it in less than two hours, if we even get around to it at all when we visit! I find it so much easier to focus on those we come to visit instead of us! I know that part of this stage the Lord has us in is ministering to others, but part of it is also in sharing His call and inviting others to join with us in this really exciting Kingdom work!
Then I think of Isaiah, who had to strip down to the clothes he was born in and preach warnings to Isreal, and God whispers that it's not about me, or Isaiah, but about the message He needs to communicate to the people within our circle of influence. The message that He is at work -- in our lives, in our church, in Kenya. The message that His children both here and in Kenya need to understand that He is all they need -- not amulets or crystals or statues, not material trappings or the admiration of others; that He has a purpose -- for every person in every place.
And I pick up the phone to make another call to set another appointment and I smile, because despite my discomfort, at least I don't have to do it naked!
Interesting that God has put me in exactly that position for the last two years.
In Africa, the position of honor is up on the podium, at the front of the church/building/gathering, facing the people in attendance. This is where we found ourselves each and every time we visited a new church. It's bad enough to be six feet tall and blonde in the middle of a jet-black crowd, but to try to worship or pray or ponder on scripture with all eyes on me is not even within miles of my comfort zone!
I imagine that this is why raising support has been such a challenge for me. Jeff and I have our presentation down to 30 minutes -- when we practice alone. But, as of yet, we can't seem to do it in less than two hours, if we even get around to it at all when we visit! I find it so much easier to focus on those we come to visit instead of us! I know that part of this stage the Lord has us in is ministering to others, but part of it is also in sharing His call and inviting others to join with us in this really exciting Kingdom work!
Then I think of Isaiah, who had to strip down to the clothes he was born in and preach warnings to Isreal, and God whispers that it's not about me, or Isaiah, but about the message He needs to communicate to the people within our circle of influence. The message that He is at work -- in our lives, in our church, in Kenya. The message that His children both here and in Kenya need to understand that He is all they need -- not amulets or crystals or statues, not material trappings or the admiration of others; that He has a purpose -- for every person in every place.
And I pick up the phone to make another call to set another appointment and I smile, because despite my discomfort, at least I don't have to do it naked!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Good News / Bad News
Well, the verdict is in on Jeff's knee. After seeing the surgeon on Monday, we found out exactly what he'd done to realign the kneecap and fix the meniscus tear. To sum it up...Ouch!
Jeff is healing well, though. Today he starts six weeks of physical therapy. Sadly, that means leaving at the end of September is no longer possible.
We also filled in the doctor on our plans for moving. To this he replied that we should not even consider leaving until Jeff was fully recovered...12 weeks from now. So, with a sad heart, I let our director in Kenya know that we wouldn't be expected until December now. I know that puts them in a bad spot. The director, assistant director, and accountant are struggling to handle their own jobs, plus those of treasurer, IT director, personnel, and media director. To top that off, the assistant director is scheduled to go on home assignment very soon, leaving 8 jobs to 2 people. Please pray for them and the staff who works with them as they handle this difficult task.
The good news is that we really feel the Lord's blessing on December, and feel that this will be the last time we have to move out our departure date. "Christmas in Kenya" is our new mantra! :)
I know that God's timing is perfect and all these delays are part of His plan. I also know that he's got a way for us to live, financially, for the next three months, though I can't foresee how He'll do that. Trust and faith are how we are living now -- even more so than we've done for the last two years. It's good to be here...takes a lot of pressure off having to sweat, and worry, and plan.
Jeff is healing well, though. Today he starts six weeks of physical therapy. Sadly, that means leaving at the end of September is no longer possible.
We also filled in the doctor on our plans for moving. To this he replied that we should not even consider leaving until Jeff was fully recovered...12 weeks from now. So, with a sad heart, I let our director in Kenya know that we wouldn't be expected until December now. I know that puts them in a bad spot. The director, assistant director, and accountant are struggling to handle their own jobs, plus those of treasurer, IT director, personnel, and media director. To top that off, the assistant director is scheduled to go on home assignment very soon, leaving 8 jobs to 2 people. Please pray for them and the staff who works with them as they handle this difficult task.
The good news is that we really feel the Lord's blessing on December, and feel that this will be the last time we have to move out our departure date. "Christmas in Kenya" is our new mantra! :)
I know that God's timing is perfect and all these delays are part of His plan. I also know that he's got a way for us to live, financially, for the next three months, though I can't foresee how He'll do that. Trust and faith are how we are living now -- even more so than we've done for the last two years. It's good to be here...takes a lot of pressure off having to sweat, and worry, and plan.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 4: 4, 6-7
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Recovery
Day 7 after knee surgery and we're all still here to tell about it! The local wore off totally and the pain kicked back in. A rash broke out on Jeff's back from the Percocet, so he's trying to figure out which is worse..an itchy red back or a painful knee. Hope the doctor will get back with us soon regarding a new drug.
Other than that, he's the model patient. It's tough just sitting in the same position for so long each day. On top of recovery, he's also taking the story-telling class I took last month. Now that he's got the time, we figured it would be good to be on the same page. It's kind of funny listening to him tell stories while doped up on Percocet! :) I promise...we'll get them cleaned up and much shorter before we try them out on anyone!
Jeff has a follow up with the surgeon on Monday. Please be praying all looks good and he's well on his way to recovery!!
Other than that, he's the model patient. It's tough just sitting in the same position for so long each day. On top of recovery, he's also taking the story-telling class I took last month. Now that he's got the time, we figured it would be good to be on the same page. It's kind of funny listening to him tell stories while doped up on Percocet! :) I promise...we'll get them cleaned up and much shorter before we try them out on anyone!
Jeff has a follow up with the surgeon on Monday. Please be praying all looks good and he's well on his way to recovery!!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Knee Surgery
I'm having flashbacks to that time of life just after Ashley arrived. Waiting for that last "right-before-bed" feeding, getting up in the middle of the night, waking up early...I barely made it through three months with Ashley. Now I'm back in that mode being nursemaid for Jeff and I'm struggling on the third day! I wasn't cut out to be a nursemaid. God has more patient, more tolerant, more cheerful people He's using for this job. Poor Jeff, though, is stuck with me. Pray for him!!
As for the patient, surgery went very well. Two small incisions on either side of the knee had very little drainage. He's still in a little pain, but that's probably because I'm rather harsh with him on his daily exercises. "Push through the pain. They said it would hurt. You'll live." Empathy is not my strong point!
Right now, he's using a flexion machine 8 hours a day and is already up to 75 degrees of flexion. The cold therapy machine that circulates ice water around his knee 24/7 is doing a great job of keeping the swelling down, but eats 20# of ice a day. We don't have storage for that much ice, so the people at Conoco are getting to know me pretty well.
Ashley has turned into a wonderful little helper. She never complains when Dad says "I need...", or "Ashley, get...", but jumps right up and does it.
Thanks to my super awesome life group, one thing I haven't had to tackle is meal planning or prep. That's been a huge blessing!!
So, we've made it through 3½ days of post surgery recovery. Dad's getting really bored, though and tomorrow Ashley and I start school and won't be as available to him for that glass of ice water, snack, pillow adjustment, TV adjustment (I hate digital TV!!!), or the half dozen other little things that come up each day. Could get interesting.
As for the patient, surgery went very well. Two small incisions on either side of the knee had very little drainage. He's still in a little pain, but that's probably because I'm rather harsh with him on his daily exercises. "Push through the pain. They said it would hurt. You'll live." Empathy is not my strong point!
Right now, he's using a flexion machine 8 hours a day and is already up to 75 degrees of flexion. The cold therapy machine that circulates ice water around his knee 24/7 is doing a great job of keeping the swelling down, but eats 20# of ice a day. We don't have storage for that much ice, so the people at Conoco are getting to know me pretty well.
Ashley has turned into a wonderful little helper. She never complains when Dad says "I need...", or "Ashley, get...", but jumps right up and does it.
Thanks to my super awesome life group, one thing I haven't had to tackle is meal planning or prep. That's been a huge blessing!!
So, we've made it through 3½ days of post surgery recovery. Dad's getting really bored, though and tomorrow Ashley and I start school and won't be as available to him for that glass of ice water, snack, pillow adjustment, TV adjustment (I hate digital TV!!!), or the half dozen other little things that come up each day. Could get interesting.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Prayers answered!!
God is listening!! Jeff went back to see his Workman's Comp (WC) doctor after getting the MRI. We'd been praying that this be covered by WC and that the doctor's ego not be involved. Thankfully, the doctor said he was reversing his previous decision and OK'd the surgery by the specialist. WC will cover the surgery and rehab and will even pay a WC salary during this time. Wow! That was even more than we asked for!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Update on Jeff
Just wanted to shoot out a quick update on Jeff's job and his knee for anyone following that. We've had a lot of questions on why Jeff was asked to resign from Schwans. I'll give you the long version here.
Last August (2008), when he started, the job was part salary and part commission. He was given a schedule of sorts that showed where his sales needed to be each month. After the initial training (about a month), the salary part went down each month as the commission was supposed to rise to compensate.
Unfortunately, Jeff's route was somewhat neglected before he took it over, and it took him a long time to build relationships and his route. In November he was bringing home about $450 / week, which wasn't enough to cover much and we'd discussed the need for him to find other employment. About that time, he slipped on some ice and whacked his right knee on the step of the truck. That put him out of commission for several weeks.
About the time he got back to work, they announced a new compensation plan, which would have a constant base salary and have commissions added to that. The base was enough for us to live on, and the company had designed a new schedule with a slowly increasing sales quota. Jeff thought that was do-able, so he stayed on.
Around May, however, the regional rep threw out those sales growth plans and upped every one's quota to a set rate. Jeff was far below this as were most of the reps in his depot. His depot manager, in an effort to get his guys selling more, imposed mandatory longer hours (be on-route at 8:30am and could not get back to depot until 9pm) and required Saturday work if the quota was not fulfilled during the week.
Over the next three months, the screws kept getting tighter, the hours longer and worked counter-productively for most of the guys in the depot. By July, the 14+ hour days, six days a week most weeks was exhausting Jeff, and not reflecting positively on sales. We knew he couldn't keep it up much longer, but his anniversary date was coming up and at that point he'd have some vacation.
Jeff's always been open about his working Schwans as a temporary stop-gap until we leave for Kenya, and, at the end of July, his boss asked for a set date that Jeff would be leaving. We don't have one of those, so his boss asked for his resignation immediately, but agreed to give him his vacation. We found out the next week that his depot had hired three new drivers and they needed to make room for these guys.
We're not sad, and we're not panicked. At this point, we don't even feel like the Lord is pushing us to find other employment. Actually, we feel the Lord's hand in this entire situation. We'd been praying very hard for God to relieve some of the pressure Jeff was feeling and also very hard for our funds to come in so we can get to Africa. I'd been having difficulty with making calls for appointments to share our ministry. (It's very discouraging when people ignore your emails or don't return your calls.) With both of us now working at sharing God's call on our lives, we're able to connect with many more people who have a heart for Africa or who want to be a part of an amazing growth in the church there.
We also found out that Jeff will need arthroscopic surgery on his knee. (The one that was damaged in his November fall). The kneecap is out of alignment; he has bone spurs under it, and there is a tear in the meniscus that needs to be mended. He's scheduled this for August 20th and will need four to six weeks of rehab after that. He would be out of work anyway. At this point, we're praying for Workman's Comp to cover the claim and for Jeff to be able to use the specialist that diagnosed him to do the surgery. (Workman's Comp wants him to go back to the WC Dr. who wiggled his knee and said he didn't have a problem!)
So, there you have it. God is in control. We're at peace with that, and we're anxious to leave for Africa by end of September!
Last August (2008), when he started, the job was part salary and part commission. He was given a schedule of sorts that showed where his sales needed to be each month. After the initial training (about a month), the salary part went down each month as the commission was supposed to rise to compensate.
Unfortunately, Jeff's route was somewhat neglected before he took it over, and it took him a long time to build relationships and his route. In November he was bringing home about $450 / week, which wasn't enough to cover much and we'd discussed the need for him to find other employment. About that time, he slipped on some ice and whacked his right knee on the step of the truck. That put him out of commission for several weeks.
About the time he got back to work, they announced a new compensation plan, which would have a constant base salary and have commissions added to that. The base was enough for us to live on, and the company had designed a new schedule with a slowly increasing sales quota. Jeff thought that was do-able, so he stayed on.
Around May, however, the regional rep threw out those sales growth plans and upped every one's quota to a set rate. Jeff was far below this as were most of the reps in his depot. His depot manager, in an effort to get his guys selling more, imposed mandatory longer hours (be on-route at 8:30am and could not get back to depot until 9pm) and required Saturday work if the quota was not fulfilled during the week.
Over the next three months, the screws kept getting tighter, the hours longer and worked counter-productively for most of the guys in the depot. By July, the 14+ hour days, six days a week most weeks was exhausting Jeff, and not reflecting positively on sales. We knew he couldn't keep it up much longer, but his anniversary date was coming up and at that point he'd have some vacation.
Jeff's always been open about his working Schwans as a temporary stop-gap until we leave for Kenya, and, at the end of July, his boss asked for a set date that Jeff would be leaving. We don't have one of those, so his boss asked for his resignation immediately, but agreed to give him his vacation. We found out the next week that his depot had hired three new drivers and they needed to make room for these guys.
We're not sad, and we're not panicked. At this point, we don't even feel like the Lord is pushing us to find other employment. Actually, we feel the Lord's hand in this entire situation. We'd been praying very hard for God to relieve some of the pressure Jeff was feeling and also very hard for our funds to come in so we can get to Africa. I'd been having difficulty with making calls for appointments to share our ministry. (It's very discouraging when people ignore your emails or don't return your calls.) With both of us now working at sharing God's call on our lives, we're able to connect with many more people who have a heart for Africa or who want to be a part of an amazing growth in the church there.
We also found out that Jeff will need arthroscopic surgery on his knee. (The one that was damaged in his November fall). The kneecap is out of alignment; he has bone spurs under it, and there is a tear in the meniscus that needs to be mended. He's scheduled this for August 20th and will need four to six weeks of rehab after that. He would be out of work anyway. At this point, we're praying for Workman's Comp to cover the claim and for Jeff to be able to use the specialist that diagnosed him to do the surgery. (Workman's Comp wants him to go back to the WC Dr. who wiggled his knee and said he didn't have a problem!)
So, there you have it. God is in control. We're at peace with that, and we're anxious to leave for Africa by end of September!
The Bible in Any Language
Mission Network News reported July 09 that a coalition of Bible translation and mission agencies are working together to provide a database of Scripture in multiple languages. The Forum of Bible Agencies International has launched Find A Bible, an innovative and interactive website that gives easy access to 15,000 Scripture products in more than 3,000 languages. Jon Anderson with World Bible Translation Center says, "Find a Bible is a website that comprises all Scripture resources that we can access either in print, digitally, audio, or in any other format that we can find." Do try http://www.findabible.net/ . The coalition includes Audio Scripture Ministries, Faith Comes By Hearing, OneHope, Open Doors, SIM International, World Bible Translation Center, Wycliffe, and dozens of others. Anderson says veteran Bible translators agree, "This is the one place that has the most Scripture available to the most people in the history of humanity." Pray that God will use this Scripture resource to draw many to Himself.
OK! I hear you! So you want these Bibles to TALK to you? Try http://www.talkingbibles.org.
OK! I hear you! So you want these Bibles to TALK to you? Try http://www.talkingbibles.org.
Monday, July 27, 2009
New Pics!
OK, it only took me two years, but I've finally got new Africa pictures up. Check out the slideshows on the blog home page.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Id-Ra-Ha-Je
Ashley loved IdRaHaJe. Mostly, she loved the Sweet Shop and Rockie, her trail "ride"! She really wanted to stay another week. Too bad. Mom wouldn't have lasted another week without her!!
Some kids' parents don't let them go to church even if they want to. (Tepee mate came to camp only because she was staying with grandma and grandpa.) Interesting note here: This little gal accepted Christ at camp.
Hiking gets easier the more you do it.
"Everyone always tells the same old Bible stories", i.e. Noah, Moses, David & Golliath. Hmmm...maybe we should change that. It's not like we don't have a zillion to pick from!
How to ride a horse.
What pretend rabbit tastes like -- popcorn! (It was really chicken....you know how kids are...)
Huge thanks to everyone who made it possible for her to go!!!
Some pictures:
Things she learned
If you lay on the ground at night and hold your thumb up to the sky, it will cover up 10,000 galaxies. (And yet, the creator of all that knows who I am and cares about me.)Some kids' parents don't let them go to church even if they want to. (Tepee mate came to camp only because she was staying with grandma and grandpa.) Interesting note here: This little gal accepted Christ at camp.
Hiking gets easier the more you do it.
"Everyone always tells the same old Bible stories", i.e. Noah, Moses, David & Golliath. Hmmm...maybe we should change that. It's not like we don't have a zillion to pick from!
How to ride a horse.
What pretend rabbit tastes like -- popcorn! (It was really chicken....you know how kids are...)
Huge thanks to everyone who made it possible for her to go!!!
Some pictures:
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Led By a Child
Serving where you are
The last day of our VBS was an all girls night. As we put together bags for the homeless we practiced our verse, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph. 2:10) We talked about how we might not have money to give to the person on the street corner, but we could give them what we had, just like Peter and Andrew had done for the lame man at the temple. (Assuming we didn't have the gift of healing that they did, we made sure to include a first aid kit!)
When the night was finished, I have to admit a bit shamefully, that I was relieved. VBS didn't work smoothly into my plans this summer and had gotten postponed once already. I truly wrestled with cancelling it completely, but it had been pretty well publicized at church already and I am supposed to be a missionary after all, right? But now, now that it was over, I could get on with summer!
A day or two later, I got an email from one of the girls who'd helped put the bags together. It read..
Oh yeah...it's not my plans that matter, but Yours, Lord! Thank you, Marah, for reminding me that the Lord will always use me where I am, and for learning your lesson so well that you taught it back to me.
The last day of our VBS was an all girls night. As we put together bags for the homeless we practiced our verse, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph. 2:10) We talked about how we might not have money to give to the person on the street corner, but we could give them what we had, just like Peter and Andrew had done for the lame man at the temple. (Assuming we didn't have the gift of healing that they did, we made sure to include a first aid kit!)
When the night was finished, I have to admit a bit shamefully, that I was relieved. VBS didn't work smoothly into my plans this summer and had gotten postponed once already. I truly wrestled with cancelling it completely, but it had been pretty well publicized at church already and I am supposed to be a missionary after all, right? But now, now that it was over, I could get on with summer!
A day or two later, I got an email from one of the girls who'd helped put the bags together. It read..
hay!!!!!! thank you sooooo much for letting me come!! god had this
planed out for you.GOD BLESS YOU!!
love marah
Oh yeah...it's not my plans that matter, but Yours, Lord! Thank you, Marah, for reminding me that the Lord will always use me where I am, and for learning your lesson so well that you taught it back to me.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Freedom is never free
I borrowed this from a friend:
Freedom Is Never Free
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners. Men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
So, take a few minutes and silently thank these patriots. What a price they paid!
Remember: freedom is never free!
Freedom Is Never Free
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners. Men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
So, take a few minutes and silently thank these patriots. What a price they paid!
Remember: freedom is never free!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Encouragement from the Lord
I attended a prayer retreat this morning that my small group did with another small group from church. It was a lovely time of refreshment and connection with God, though I did enter into it with a bit of trepidation.
You see, it was a similar retreat where, when I presented myself to the Lord, He upended my life by telling me to go to Kenya. After having been in the process for five years now and not being further along with support raising than we are (45% as of 4/30), I was a bit fearful of what He would say this time around.
What He gave me was in Isaiah 41.
"I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Reminds me of the song lyrics:
Thank you, Lord.
You see, it was a similar retreat where, when I presented myself to the Lord, He upended my life by telling me to go to Kenya. After having been in the process for five years now and not being further along with support raising than we are (45% as of 4/30), I was a bit fearful of what He would say this time around.
What He gave me was in Isaiah 41.
"I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Reminds me of the song lyrics:
Strength will come when we wait upon the Lord, wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord our God; who reigns forever!
Thank you, Lord.
Hormonal update
Once again I'm delinquent in updating this online journal. I'm just following a pattern set early on. You should see my diaries from middle school and high school. Um, well maybe you shouldn't. The point is that I'd have four entries in a row for four sequential days. Then there would be one entry about four months later and then nothing for another six months, followed by another four entries in a row for four sequential days. I'm nothing if not inconsistent!!
This time, however, I have a good reason. Remember I told you I'd gone to a hormone doctor? The supplements she recommended after my first visit did wonders to clear my brain fog! Wow! I have my memory back! Even though I'm not following the "white" diet to the letter, I did end up losing about 15 pounds and felt much better.
Then came the second visit. She'd gotten my blood tests back indicating my hormone levels and decided to put me on a daily regimen of a very low dose of estrogen and testosterone bioidenticals, combined with a cyclical regimen of progesterone. After starting the E/T regimen I slowly morphed into Jezebel. My mood disintegrated way past cranky and on into seething. I was mad at everyone and every circumstance. Jeff was blessed by his 14 hour a day job which kept him away from me, but poor Ashley bore the brunt of my PMS on steroids.
I really wanted to give it a month to see if eventually my mood would even out, but after putting Ashley in tears three days in a row by being just plain mean, I gave up. The P hormone seems OK, but the E/T made me feel extra-terrestrial...and not the warm, bald E.T. type, but the fangs hanging out, claws beared, Alien vs. Predator type.
Consequently, nothing happened that didn't have to happen from mid April to mid May. Blog updates fell into the latter category.
What did have to happen was mostly schooling. Ashley's teacher sent out a notice saying if she was 80-90% finished with a course and we wanted to work on next year's curriculum this summer to let her know and she'd get the curriculum to us. Ashley had all of her vocabulary and grammar complete as well as most of her spelling, but still had a significant portion of literature and composition to do. The way it works with COVA is that these five are averaged into "Language Arts." The average was about 90%, so I ordered up grade 5 Language Arts and grade 5 math, 'cause we were at 80% with that. Little did I realize that "advancing" to the 5th grade meant 4th grade went away, which further meant that we had to finish 4th grade Language Arts by Apri l 30, and 4th grade Math by May 29th! Of course, I didn't clue into this until midway through April. So, not only did Ashley have to put up with ferocious mama bear teacher, she also had to do six hours of Language Arts a day for the last half of April, and nothing but Math for most of May. She did it though! And now we are two tests away from being done for the year!
Yipee!!!!
This time, however, I have a good reason. Remember I told you I'd gone to a hormone doctor? The supplements she recommended after my first visit did wonders to clear my brain fog! Wow! I have my memory back! Even though I'm not following the "white" diet to the letter, I did end up losing about 15 pounds and felt much better.
Then came the second visit. She'd gotten my blood tests back indicating my hormone levels and decided to put me on a daily regimen of a very low dose of estrogen and testosterone bioidenticals, combined with a cyclical regimen of progesterone. After starting the E/T regimen I slowly morphed into Jezebel. My mood disintegrated way past cranky and on into seething. I was mad at everyone and every circumstance. Jeff was blessed by his 14 hour a day job which kept him away from me, but poor Ashley bore the brunt of my PMS on steroids.
I really wanted to give it a month to see if eventually my mood would even out, but after putting Ashley in tears three days in a row by being just plain mean, I gave up. The P hormone seems OK, but the E/T made me feel extra-terrestrial...and not the warm, bald E.T. type, but the fangs hanging out, claws beared, Alien vs. Predator type.
Consequently, nothing happened that didn't have to happen from mid April to mid May. Blog updates fell into the latter category.
What did have to happen was mostly schooling. Ashley's teacher sent out a notice saying if she was 80-90% finished with a course and we wanted to work on next year's curriculum this summer to let her know and she'd get the curriculum to us. Ashley had all of her vocabulary and grammar complete as well as most of her spelling, but still had a significant portion of literature and composition to do. The way it works with COVA is that these five are averaged into "Language Arts." The average was about 90%, so I ordered up grade 5 Language Arts and grade 5 math, 'cause we were at 80% with that. Little did I realize that "advancing" to the 5th grade meant 4th grade went away, which further meant that we had to finish 4th grade Language Arts by Apri l 30, and 4th grade Math by May 29th! Of course, I didn't clue into this until midway through April. So, not only did Ashley have to put up with ferocious mama bear teacher, she also had to do six hours of Language Arts a day for the last half of April, and nothing but Math for most of May. She did it though! And now we are two tests away from being done for the year!
Yipee!!!!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Emerging Missions in Kenya
Friends, this article was recently sent to us and we wanted to share it with you.
Emerging Missions in Kenya - Could SIM-Kenya Play a Part?
By Howard Brant
The landscape of emerging missions in Africa varies from place to place. Nigeria sends the most with 5,600 missionaries serving outside their country. Most go to nearby West African countries, but many go into North Africa and some even as far away as Russia or the United States. South Africa would be a right behind the Nigerians – although, so far, most of those who have gone out are from European background. Ghana would be third – led by the Church of Pentecost which has sent over 600 missionaries all over West Africa and beyond. Other countries like Ethiopia and Malawi are coming on line sending their missionaries to Sudan, India, Pakistan, and Mozambique. But what about Kenya? When one looks at demographics you would think that Kenya ought to be one of the largest mission sending nations in Africa. The colonial British left behind a high standard of education and even today most schooling is in English – the international language needed for global missions. The number of high level Bible Schools and theological colleges in Kenya is unparalleled in Africa. The number of Christians per capita is second only to Zambia on the continent. Upwards of 80% of all Kenyans would call themselves Christians. Hundreds of Christian missions and NGO’s work inside and out of Kenya. Many, if not most of these, have senior Kenyan leaders who are well trained and qualified to lead. With all of this, one would expect that the global missionary thrust of Kenyans would be enormous. It is true that quite a number of small indigenous missions are working within Kenya. But it is totally shocking to find that indigenous global mission efforts outside of Kenya are almost non-existent. There are plenty of Kenyans working outside of Kenya in Christian organizations, but almost all of them are funded externally by the organizations with which they serve. It is very hard to find a Kenyan who is supported and sent by local Kenyan church or indigenous mission working outside of Kenya.
Why is that? Is it for lack of vision or calling? Likely not! As one talks with committed Christians in Kenya, you will find that there are quite a number of Kenyans who have felt the call of God upon their lives for foreign mission work. Is it for lack of training? With all the excellent training schools and programs all over Kenya, this cannot be the reason. Is it because Kenya has a poor economy and cannot support such a movement? Count the Mercedes and BMWs outside of Nairobi Chapel, Nairobi Baptist or Valley Road Pentecostal and you will have your answer. One Kenyan pastor tells us that he only needs to mention a needy cause in his church and his parishioners are very quick to respond generously. What then is the problem? Rev. Peter Kinuthia met the Lord through the Assemblies of God and eventually graduated from the East Africa School of Theology. He excelled to the degree that he was asked to teach there as well as at the Africa Center for Great Commission. The call of God on his life for missions was unmistakable. He talked to many pastors and churches in Nairobi and even received some funds from Nairobi Chapel and got temporary support from a well known church in North America. Peter wound up as a missionary to Congo and settled in Bukavu. a city of about 500,000 people which is just across the border of Rwanda and very close to Burundi. This was shortly after the Rwandan civil war and so he started by holding trauma seminars in Swahili. He planted a church in the city. Not too long after that, he began a radio ministry which was aimed at teaching Christians how to live out their faith. In order to keep churches back in Kenya interested in what he was doing, he used to bring teams of Kenyan church leaders to see his ministry. One would think that with all this energy and talent that Peter would be able to find the necessary support to stay in Congo for many years. Not so. Within three years he returned to Kenya in order to find sustainable support. But he could not. He tried every way he knew how but failed. Peter finally decided that the only way to get support from Kenya was to start new mission minded churches which were taught to give to missions from the start. Duncan Olumbe came from a non-Christian, Catholic background but was radically transformed when he came to know the Lord in high school. Duncan went on the University of Nairobi where he studied mechanical engineering. During those years, he became involved in a Christian students association known as the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES).
After graduation he was asked to join the IFES staff for a year and that led to 14 years of leadership in that organization. During that time an Operation Mobilization missionary challenged Duncan and other students to go as missionaries to Northern Sudan. He and 10 others set out but the government found out of their plan and only one of the ten was ever able to get there. The same OM Missionary wanted him to go to Jordan but again financial constraints held him back. He could get not support from the local churches. Duncan did manage to get to the UK and attended the famous school "All Nations" for two years. He returned to Kenya in 1998 with a great vision go out as a foreign missionary but could find no sending church to support him and no sending agency that could send him. Others of his friends wanted to go to China and could not find the financial base that would send them either. So Duncan stayed with IFES and began putting on missions conferences. In AD 2000, 2000 students attended the missions conference and up to 500 signed pledge cards saying that they would be willing to go as cross cultural missionaries. Only 10 of them remain today. IFES held another such consultation in 2004 and again 600 students made decisions to become cross cultural missionaries. None of these were able to raise support in Kenya to go. One of these students even went to the Iranian embassy and learned Arabic – but has not gone on to become a missionary. In an interview with the author, Duncan identified two key factors holding back the Kenyan foreign missionary movement: 1. The Kenyan churches do not seem to be willing to support those who go out of their country and 2. There are few if any indigenous structures in place to send missionaries outside of Kenya. Support Issue: Two salient points affect missionary giving in Kenya. First is that Kenya has been on the receiving end of things for a very long time. Under the British, most of the large churches were built with foreign funds. Training was free if not subsidized. Christian NGO’s have poured money into Kenya. It is expected that if a mission or agency comes to Kenya to do something, they will provide the money. The idea now of giving money to send someone to another country to work as a missionary is counterintuitive. The perception is that if that person is going to work with an outside mission – that mission ought to pay their salary. As most Kenyans who go out of the country come back wealthier than when they left, the expectation is that a missionary who goes far away will make a lot of money and come back with plenty in hand to give out to all their friends. As a result few Kenyans have learned to give money for foreign missionaries.
Many mission agencies would be delighted to have Kenyans working with them –but when perspective missionaries go to their churches for support – they find that all funds have been committed to other causes and there is no discretionary money left for missions. It is just not in the Kenyan Christian culture to give to foreign missionaries. Even Kenyan mission agencies working inside Kenya like Sheepfold find it very difficult to sustain support for their missionaries. On the other hand, Kenyan’s who want to go outside of their country, find it exceedingly hard to ask for money. It makes them feel like "beggars" and is just not done in their society. As a result, few Kenyans have been able to break the support barrier and the Kenyan missions movement remains still borne. We suspect that there are culturally appropriate ways to raise sustained support in Kenya. So far the standard method has been to seek that support from local churches or denominations. These sources have proved insufficient. Someday, God will show one of His servants a mechanism by which this can be done in Kenya. The funds are there and the need is there. It is now only some creative method of taping into those funds that needs to be discovered. A second sub-point under the matter of finance is that by and large Kenya has been relatively peaceful and prosperous. The church has never faced severe persecution. When Christianity first came to Kenya, the British provided political shelter for the church and religious freedom has been sustained. In such an environment, Christians become inward looking and to some extent materialistic. They are willing to pay for what they see – church buildings, and sometimes even radio and TV programs. But to take some of their wealth and send it to reach the lost souls of people in another country – that is just beyond the vision of many Kenyans. So they do not give for missions. Sending Structures: Duncan’s second point is also very important. In order for a country to start sending its own missionaries, they need both internal and external sending structures. That is, they need a "sending church or agency" which will send them from Kenya. They also need a "receiving" agency to receive their missionaries in the countries to which they are sent. While in Kenya, there are many large denominations which have corresponding churches in other countries, the huge need in Kenya is to establish an international, interdenominational mission that could send out Kenyan missionaries. While there are many churches or individual ministries that could become sending agencies, there is no interdenominational Kenyan mission to send Kenyans abroad. And while there has been some effort through groups like Finish the Task to target Kenyan unreached peoples, their vision does not go beyond the borders of Kenya.
It should not be difficult to start such an agency. If a key group of Kenyan Christians could come together and form a Kenyan Evangelical Mission Board, this problem could be easily solved. But given the independence of each group, Kenyans are reluctant to do so. There needs to be some independent person or group that could initiate such an action – with the blessing of the major denominations. If this formed and became established, they could second their missionaries to any agency around the world. Actually Duncan is trying to do that. He is presently the head of Mission Together Africa which is a group of very committed Christians in East Africa (not just Kenya) who have bonded together to think and pray about starting such a ministry. The other side of it is to create or find existing structures which could help Kenyans find their way to other countries and provide the infrastructure to sustain them there? This is a very serious problem which Duncan has tried to address. He contacted groups like Overseas Missionary Fellowship to see if they would be interested in receiving Kenyan missionaries. So far he has found the right connections. We have held some very brief discussions with Duncan on this topic in relation to SIM but these were cut short due to our furlough time. The truth is, however, is that a well established international mission could play a very helpful role for the Kenyan church at this time. SIM is well positioned to send missionaries to Latin America, Asia and works in over 30 African countries. But if you look at a map of SIM sending offices something very interesting pops out. SIM is presently recruiting missionaries from all parts of the world – except East Africa! Latin America has bases in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Brazil. Asia has places in Korea, Singapore (and its 10 satellite offices), North East India and another office will soon open in the center of China. In Africa, SIM has been recruiting from South Africa for many years. A new sending office is being opened in Abidjan for West Africa. East Africa remains the only part of the globe where SIM does not have sending capacity. We are in no way suggesting that all Kenyans should go into global missions through SIM. What we are pointing out is that there is already a felt need in this country for an organization like SIM or AIM to play an important role in helping Kenya become established in other parts of the world. If there were a mechanism for a Kenyan based sending body, to partner with such agencies, a highway would be created for Kenyan missionaries to serve anywhere in the world. Will Kenya have a part to play in the last final days of the missionary harvest? We believe that it should, and that it could. It can if Kenyans can transition between being a "mission field" and become a "harvest force." There is no reason why Kenya cannot become one of the leading mission sending forces in this century. Kenya has been blessed with the Gospel. It is time for Kenyans to rise up and bless other nations with the Gospel with which they have been so blessed.
Howard Brant
SIM
04 February 2009
New Initiatives In Mission: Preparing a highway for all nations to become involved in global mission.
Emerging Missions in Kenya - Could SIM-Kenya Play a Part?
By Howard Brant
The landscape of emerging missions in Africa varies from place to place. Nigeria sends the most with 5,600 missionaries serving outside their country. Most go to nearby West African countries, but many go into North Africa and some even as far away as Russia or the United States. South Africa would be a right behind the Nigerians – although, so far, most of those who have gone out are from European background. Ghana would be third – led by the Church of Pentecost which has sent over 600 missionaries all over West Africa and beyond. Other countries like Ethiopia and Malawi are coming on line sending their missionaries to Sudan, India, Pakistan, and Mozambique. But what about Kenya? When one looks at demographics you would think that Kenya ought to be one of the largest mission sending nations in Africa. The colonial British left behind a high standard of education and even today most schooling is in English – the international language needed for global missions. The number of high level Bible Schools and theological colleges in Kenya is unparalleled in Africa. The number of Christians per capita is second only to Zambia on the continent. Upwards of 80% of all Kenyans would call themselves Christians. Hundreds of Christian missions and NGO’s work inside and out of Kenya. Many, if not most of these, have senior Kenyan leaders who are well trained and qualified to lead. With all of this, one would expect that the global missionary thrust of Kenyans would be enormous. It is true that quite a number of small indigenous missions are working within Kenya. But it is totally shocking to find that indigenous global mission efforts outside of Kenya are almost non-existent. There are plenty of Kenyans working outside of Kenya in Christian organizations, but almost all of them are funded externally by the organizations with which they serve. It is very hard to find a Kenyan who is supported and sent by local Kenyan church or indigenous mission working outside of Kenya.
Why is that? Is it for lack of vision or calling? Likely not! As one talks with committed Christians in Kenya, you will find that there are quite a number of Kenyans who have felt the call of God upon their lives for foreign mission work. Is it for lack of training? With all the excellent training schools and programs all over Kenya, this cannot be the reason. Is it because Kenya has a poor economy and cannot support such a movement? Count the Mercedes and BMWs outside of Nairobi Chapel, Nairobi Baptist or Valley Road Pentecostal and you will have your answer. One Kenyan pastor tells us that he only needs to mention a needy cause in his church and his parishioners are very quick to respond generously. What then is the problem? Rev. Peter Kinuthia met the Lord through the Assemblies of God and eventually graduated from the East Africa School of Theology. He excelled to the degree that he was asked to teach there as well as at the Africa Center for Great Commission. The call of God on his life for missions was unmistakable. He talked to many pastors and churches in Nairobi and even received some funds from Nairobi Chapel and got temporary support from a well known church in North America. Peter wound up as a missionary to Congo and settled in Bukavu. a city of about 500,000 people which is just across the border of Rwanda and very close to Burundi. This was shortly after the Rwandan civil war and so he started by holding trauma seminars in Swahili. He planted a church in the city. Not too long after that, he began a radio ministry which was aimed at teaching Christians how to live out their faith. In order to keep churches back in Kenya interested in what he was doing, he used to bring teams of Kenyan church leaders to see his ministry. One would think that with all this energy and talent that Peter would be able to find the necessary support to stay in Congo for many years. Not so. Within three years he returned to Kenya in order to find sustainable support. But he could not. He tried every way he knew how but failed. Peter finally decided that the only way to get support from Kenya was to start new mission minded churches which were taught to give to missions from the start. Duncan Olumbe came from a non-Christian, Catholic background but was radically transformed when he came to know the Lord in high school. Duncan went on the University of Nairobi where he studied mechanical engineering. During those years, he became involved in a Christian students association known as the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES).
After graduation he was asked to join the IFES staff for a year and that led to 14 years of leadership in that organization. During that time an Operation Mobilization missionary challenged Duncan and other students to go as missionaries to Northern Sudan. He and 10 others set out but the government found out of their plan and only one of the ten was ever able to get there. The same OM Missionary wanted him to go to Jordan but again financial constraints held him back. He could get not support from the local churches. Duncan did manage to get to the UK and attended the famous school "All Nations" for two years. He returned to Kenya in 1998 with a great vision go out as a foreign missionary but could find no sending church to support him and no sending agency that could send him. Others of his friends wanted to go to China and could not find the financial base that would send them either. So Duncan stayed with IFES and began putting on missions conferences. In AD 2000, 2000 students attended the missions conference and up to 500 signed pledge cards saying that they would be willing to go as cross cultural missionaries. Only 10 of them remain today. IFES held another such consultation in 2004 and again 600 students made decisions to become cross cultural missionaries. None of these were able to raise support in Kenya to go. One of these students even went to the Iranian embassy and learned Arabic – but has not gone on to become a missionary. In an interview with the author, Duncan identified two key factors holding back the Kenyan foreign missionary movement: 1. The Kenyan churches do not seem to be willing to support those who go out of their country and 2. There are few if any indigenous structures in place to send missionaries outside of Kenya. Support Issue: Two salient points affect missionary giving in Kenya. First is that Kenya has been on the receiving end of things for a very long time. Under the British, most of the large churches were built with foreign funds. Training was free if not subsidized. Christian NGO’s have poured money into Kenya. It is expected that if a mission or agency comes to Kenya to do something, they will provide the money. The idea now of giving money to send someone to another country to work as a missionary is counterintuitive. The perception is that if that person is going to work with an outside mission – that mission ought to pay their salary. As most Kenyans who go out of the country come back wealthier than when they left, the expectation is that a missionary who goes far away will make a lot of money and come back with plenty in hand to give out to all their friends. As a result few Kenyans have learned to give money for foreign missionaries.
Many mission agencies would be delighted to have Kenyans working with them –but when perspective missionaries go to their churches for support – they find that all funds have been committed to other causes and there is no discretionary money left for missions. It is just not in the Kenyan Christian culture to give to foreign missionaries. Even Kenyan mission agencies working inside Kenya like Sheepfold find it very difficult to sustain support for their missionaries. On the other hand, Kenyan’s who want to go outside of their country, find it exceedingly hard to ask for money. It makes them feel like "beggars" and is just not done in their society. As a result, few Kenyans have been able to break the support barrier and the Kenyan missions movement remains still borne. We suspect that there are culturally appropriate ways to raise sustained support in Kenya. So far the standard method has been to seek that support from local churches or denominations. These sources have proved insufficient. Someday, God will show one of His servants a mechanism by which this can be done in Kenya. The funds are there and the need is there. It is now only some creative method of taping into those funds that needs to be discovered. A second sub-point under the matter of finance is that by and large Kenya has been relatively peaceful and prosperous. The church has never faced severe persecution. When Christianity first came to Kenya, the British provided political shelter for the church and religious freedom has been sustained. In such an environment, Christians become inward looking and to some extent materialistic. They are willing to pay for what they see – church buildings, and sometimes even radio and TV programs. But to take some of their wealth and send it to reach the lost souls of people in another country – that is just beyond the vision of many Kenyans. So they do not give for missions. Sending Structures: Duncan’s second point is also very important. In order for a country to start sending its own missionaries, they need both internal and external sending structures. That is, they need a "sending church or agency" which will send them from Kenya. They also need a "receiving" agency to receive their missionaries in the countries to which they are sent. While in Kenya, there are many large denominations which have corresponding churches in other countries, the huge need in Kenya is to establish an international, interdenominational mission that could send out Kenyan missionaries. While there are many churches or individual ministries that could become sending agencies, there is no interdenominational Kenyan mission to send Kenyans abroad. And while there has been some effort through groups like Finish the Task to target Kenyan unreached peoples, their vision does not go beyond the borders of Kenya.
It should not be difficult to start such an agency. If a key group of Kenyan Christians could come together and form a Kenyan Evangelical Mission Board, this problem could be easily solved. But given the independence of each group, Kenyans are reluctant to do so. There needs to be some independent person or group that could initiate such an action – with the blessing of the major denominations. If this formed and became established, they could second their missionaries to any agency around the world. Actually Duncan is trying to do that. He is presently the head of Mission Together Africa which is a group of very committed Christians in East Africa (not just Kenya) who have bonded together to think and pray about starting such a ministry. The other side of it is to create or find existing structures which could help Kenyans find their way to other countries and provide the infrastructure to sustain them there? This is a very serious problem which Duncan has tried to address. He contacted groups like Overseas Missionary Fellowship to see if they would be interested in receiving Kenyan missionaries. So far he has found the right connections. We have held some very brief discussions with Duncan on this topic in relation to SIM but these were cut short due to our furlough time. The truth is, however, is that a well established international mission could play a very helpful role for the Kenyan church at this time. SIM is well positioned to send missionaries to Latin America, Asia and works in over 30 African countries. But if you look at a map of SIM sending offices something very interesting pops out. SIM is presently recruiting missionaries from all parts of the world – except East Africa! Latin America has bases in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Brazil. Asia has places in Korea, Singapore (and its 10 satellite offices), North East India and another office will soon open in the center of China. In Africa, SIM has been recruiting from South Africa for many years. A new sending office is being opened in Abidjan for West Africa. East Africa remains the only part of the globe where SIM does not have sending capacity. We are in no way suggesting that all Kenyans should go into global missions through SIM. What we are pointing out is that there is already a felt need in this country for an organization like SIM or AIM to play an important role in helping Kenya become established in other parts of the world. If there were a mechanism for a Kenyan based sending body, to partner with such agencies, a highway would be created for Kenyan missionaries to serve anywhere in the world. Will Kenya have a part to play in the last final days of the missionary harvest? We believe that it should, and that it could. It can if Kenyans can transition between being a "mission field" and become a "harvest force." There is no reason why Kenya cannot become one of the leading mission sending forces in this century. Kenya has been blessed with the Gospel. It is time for Kenyans to rise up and bless other nations with the Gospel with which they have been so blessed.
Howard Brant
SIM
04 February 2009
New Initiatives In Mission: Preparing a highway for all nations to become involved in global mission.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Letter From a Friend
The drought in Kenya is severe and is taking its toll on many. Below is an excerpt from a letter I received from a friend ministering in Kenya. Please pray for rain to come to this area soon!
Stories in the newspaper abound about people starving, families subsisting on wild berries, children missing weeks of school because they are either searching for food or too hungry to attend. The areas that are not starving have felt the impact in rising food prices.
We have heard from many of you and started the work of food delivery to the most desperate areas. Yesterday I went to Oldonyonyokie to deliver water and food with Williams and Charles Wakaba (our Financial Manger). We had hired a truck that holds 13,000 liters of water … and had an agreement with Magadi Soda Co to haul 5 different trips with this truck of their spring water … we arrived about 9:30 AM (we left our compound at 6:30 AM).
We were greeting the large number of people that were gathered to meet us when we got a call from Counselor Jackson. He said the water truck had arrived at 7 AM and was told to wait till 8 AM and then told we could only have one load of water … Counselor Jackson was at the Management Offices trying to get more water released and asked us to come. We rushed to Magadi and spoke with Kantu, which is with the Magadi Management, whom we have dealt with for years. He was gracious as always and explained that they are alarmed as one source of water is not producing … they are a business … they are located at Magadi Lake (salt water sea) and harvest salt. They need water to process their salt. After discussions and understanding that our truck cost us a lot of money 80,000 Kshs ($1,013) they agreed to let us have four tanks … by this time it was almost 11 AM. Now we were in the rush against the clock. We found it necessary to work between the two villages receiving food and water and to stay right on the water truck to continue the work quickly.
The food truck arrived and all were able to receive 5 K packets of Unga (corn meal) in both villages. The people rejoiced and I was decorated with Maasai beaded necklaces … they were very grateful!
The area is so dry and the sun so hot and intense … people were so weaken … many sitting down. The animals you saw made you want to cry. The cows could hardly move … have to helped up by their owners. Kantu said, “if the rains do not come with two weeks all the cows will be dead”. This is the wealth of the Maasai people … they are quite desperate [sic].
Your donations are making a difference. As we left yesterday for Oldonyonyokie our visiting team and Joseph, one of our staff, headed for Machakos … they also were taking food and water. I have not heard their report yet. Also our Field Officers left on Wednesday to investigate and make a strategy on how to best get food to Meru, Namelock and Taita Hills! The distribution logistics are important. We do not send food without a staff member going with us because of possible corruption. The food is better than gold right now.
The intense heat in Oldonyonyokie was so hard and I was only there one day … I arrived home so weak … just from the heat exposure … showered and went to bed. I cried myself to sleep …realizing again … these wonderful Maasai people will never ever even know what a shower feels like. I could see in my mind their smiling faces and the hope in their eyes as they carried their bags of meal back to their home … water on their backs … food in their hands … wish you could have been there with me!
Stories in the newspaper abound about people starving, families subsisting on wild berries, children missing weeks of school because they are either searching for food or too hungry to attend. The areas that are not starving have felt the impact in rising food prices.
We have heard from many of you and started the work of food delivery to the most desperate areas. Yesterday I went to Oldonyonyokie to deliver water and food with Williams and Charles Wakaba (our Financial Manger). We had hired a truck that holds 13,000 liters of water … and had an agreement with Magadi Soda Co to haul 5 different trips with this truck of their spring water … we arrived about 9:30 AM (we left our compound at 6:30 AM).
We were greeting the large number of people that were gathered to meet us when we got a call from Counselor Jackson. He said the water truck had arrived at 7 AM and was told to wait till 8 AM and then told we could only have one load of water … Counselor Jackson was at the Management Offices trying to get more water released and asked us to come. We rushed to Magadi and spoke with Kantu, which is with the Magadi Management, whom we have dealt with for years. He was gracious as always and explained that they are alarmed as one source of water is not producing … they are a business … they are located at Magadi Lake (salt water sea) and harvest salt. They need water to process their salt. After discussions and understanding that our truck cost us a lot of money 80,000 Kshs ($1,013) they agreed to let us have four tanks … by this time it was almost 11 AM. Now we were in the rush against the clock. We found it necessary to work between the two villages receiving food and water and to stay right on the water truck to continue the work quickly.
The food truck arrived and all were able to receive 5 K packets of Unga (corn meal) in both villages. The people rejoiced and I was decorated with Maasai beaded necklaces … they were very grateful!
The area is so dry and the sun so hot and intense … people were so weaken … many sitting down. The animals you saw made you want to cry. The cows could hardly move … have to helped up by their owners. Kantu said, “if the rains do not come with two weeks all the cows will be dead”. This is the wealth of the Maasai people … they are quite desperate [sic].
Your donations are making a difference. As we left yesterday for Oldonyonyokie our visiting team and Joseph, one of our staff, headed for Machakos … they also were taking food and water. I have not heard their report yet. Also our Field Officers left on Wednesday to investigate and make a strategy on how to best get food to Meru, Namelock and Taita Hills! The distribution logistics are important. We do not send food without a staff member going with us because of possible corruption. The food is better than gold right now.
The intense heat in Oldonyonyokie was so hard and I was only there one day … I arrived home so weak … just from the heat exposure … showered and went to bed. I cried myself to sleep …realizing again … these wonderful Maasai people will never ever even know what a shower feels like. I could see in my mind their smiling faces and the hope in their eyes as they carried their bags of meal back to their home … water on their backs … food in their hands … wish you could have been there with me!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Just news
Hi all! This post isn't thought provoking or inspirational..just a note to catch you all up on life at the Vigil's.
This past week Ashley and I have been pouring hours and hours into schooling trying to get her prepared for the state testing next week. Since our homeschooling is actually through the State of Colorado, she's subject to the dreaded CSAPs. I think we are both thrilled that it’s Friday!!! Please pray for her testing next Monday - Wednesday to go well, and for her to stay focused (that’s her biggest problem).
This month was so fun getting to speak at various places, but after the intensity of preparation and presentation, my body has taken a forced siesta and I’m battling a stubborn cold. Hope that will go away soon. Jeff seems to have something going wrong with his poor "old" body every day. Sometimes it's knees, last night it was stomach trouble. He's much more subject to stress than am I and I think the job is taking its toll. Please pray that the Lord provide a quick transition to Africa before Jeff falls apart!!
I went to see a hormone doctor a couple weeks ago to figure out why I’m losing my memory and constantly crabby. She put me on a vitamin regimen and severely restricted my diet. No “white” foods like pasta, potatoes, white rice, ice cream or anything else that makes eating fun like cheese or sugar of any kind is allowed to pass my lips. …and she thinks this will improve my mood?????? Not likely, though I have lost 10 lbs. Thank heavens she didn't take my coffee away!! She also told me that if I get the munchies I should tear into two or three heads of Romain lettuce. Umhmm. Do I look like the Big Green Rabbit? Oh yes, and she told me to exercise (the nerve of her!) If I’m able to keep up this insane eating pattern, I may actually be able to fit in an airline seat without putting the arm up when we head to Kenya! ;)
We may have a buyer for the Durango we've been trying to sell for the last year. A friend got rear-ended really badly a couple weeks ago, and his truck is totalled. Praise the Lord he's fine, but he needs a new vehicle. He's going to test drive ours this weekend and if he likes it, he'll buy it. Please pray that he doesn't change his mind, that the truck performs well for him, and that he likes it. It would be nice to be rid of that insurance payment! Oh, while you're at the throne, would you please pray for that sale to be finalized by April 15th. We need to use the $$ for taxes as we owe Uncle Sammy this year.
Jeff's Aunt Faye went into the hospital last Friday with a suddenly discovered brain tumor. They operated on Sunday morning and she went home on Wednesday. Amazing how fast the medical system takes us through the process, isn't it? The surgery went well and the surgeon felt he got the whole thing. She has good motor function and now just needs to heal. Thanks to you prayer warriors who prayed for her! Please keep her full recovery in your prayers as well.
We watched Ben Stein's movie, Expelled, last night. I wasn't sure what to expect as I'm not typically a big Ben Stein fan, but I must say it was chilling! If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. The most horrifying thing I learned was that Hitler espoused Darwinism. It was that belief set that got him thinking he should do his part to further "natural selection" and purify the human race. Yikes! And to think that Darwinists truly believe that getting rid of "religion" will make this a better world! Have they learned nothing from history?
Thanks for praying for us and for checking in!
This past week Ashley and I have been pouring hours and hours into schooling trying to get her prepared for the state testing next week. Since our homeschooling is actually through the State of Colorado, she's subject to the dreaded CSAPs. I think we are both thrilled that it’s Friday!!! Please pray for her testing next Monday - Wednesday to go well, and for her to stay focused (that’s her biggest problem).
This month was so fun getting to speak at various places, but after the intensity of preparation and presentation, my body has taken a forced siesta and I’m battling a stubborn cold. Hope that will go away soon. Jeff seems to have something going wrong with his poor "old" body every day. Sometimes it's knees, last night it was stomach trouble. He's much more subject to stress than am I and I think the job is taking its toll. Please pray that the Lord provide a quick transition to Africa before Jeff falls apart!!
I went to see a hormone doctor a couple weeks ago to figure out why I’m losing my memory and constantly crabby. She put me on a vitamin regimen and severely restricted my diet. No “white” foods like pasta, potatoes, white rice, ice cream or anything else that makes eating fun like cheese or sugar of any kind is allowed to pass my lips. …and she thinks this will improve my mood?????? Not likely, though I have lost 10 lbs. Thank heavens she didn't take my coffee away!! She also told me that if I get the munchies I should tear into two or three heads of Romain lettuce. Umhmm. Do I look like the Big Green Rabbit? Oh yes, and she told me to exercise (the nerve of her!) If I’m able to keep up this insane eating pattern, I may actually be able to fit in an airline seat without putting the arm up when we head to Kenya! ;)
We may have a buyer for the Durango we've been trying to sell for the last year. A friend got rear-ended really badly a couple weeks ago, and his truck is totalled. Praise the Lord he's fine, but he needs a new vehicle. He's going to test drive ours this weekend and if he likes it, he'll buy it. Please pray that he doesn't change his mind, that the truck performs well for him, and that he likes it. It would be nice to be rid of that insurance payment! Oh, while you're at the throne, would you please pray for that sale to be finalized by April 15th. We need to use the $$ for taxes as we owe Uncle Sammy this year.
Jeff's Aunt Faye went into the hospital last Friday with a suddenly discovered brain tumor. They operated on Sunday morning and she went home on Wednesday. Amazing how fast the medical system takes us through the process, isn't it? The surgery went well and the surgeon felt he got the whole thing. She has good motor function and now just needs to heal. Thanks to you prayer warriors who prayed for her! Please keep her full recovery in your prayers as well.
We watched Ben Stein's movie, Expelled, last night. I wasn't sure what to expect as I'm not typically a big Ben Stein fan, but I must say it was chilling! If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. The most horrifying thing I learned was that Hitler espoused Darwinism. It was that belief set that got him thinking he should do his part to further "natural selection" and purify the human race. Yikes! And to think that Darwinists truly believe that getting rid of "religion" will make this a better world! Have they learned nothing from history?
Thanks for praying for us and for checking in!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Let Go and Let God
I think one of the hardest things about Motherhood, as a Christian mom, is to relinquish the ultimate care of my child into the hands of God. I remember when I was a child, nearly half a century ago, I would take off on my bike on a summer morning, play all day riding through every inch of town (small town!) and be home by dinner time. Mom didn't seem to give it a second thought. Now days, with all the worries about child abductions, molestations and all the awful news we see every day on TV, I have a hard time letting Ashley out of earshot. And yet, God has shown me that, as she grows, I can’t be there every minute to protect her. The older she gets, the less of a barrier I’ll be between her and the world.
God loves our children infinitely more than we do, and yet we still want to do everything in our power to protect them and make life easier for them. But are those God’s plans for our children? God tells us that His ways are not ours. (IS 55:8-9)
It got me thinking about some of the women in the Bible and the similar struggles they had with entrusting their children to God.
Take Jochebed, the mother of Moses. (Ex 2:1-10) For three months, she hid her infant while she continued to work. There was no formula available, no breast pumps or cold storage in which to keep her milk. She had to have Moses with her while she worked. Think of your children when they were three months old. They are big and squirmy! It’s no wonder “she could no longer hide him” at that point. Moses must have been the world’s best baby. A little colic, a too wet diaper, just a tiny little fuss and he’s a goner. Can you imagine her anxiety each and every day, just praying that he doesn’t make a noise, trusting in the Lord that He’ll send some miracle to save her baby.
But the Lord didn’t send a miracle, at least not when she thought He would. And when she could no longer hide the child, she’s faced with a huge dilemma. I can’t even imagine the sick feeling she must have had while preparing that basket for Moses. I’ve been on the Nile. I’ve seen the dozens upon dozens of crocodiles floating in it and sunning themselves along the banks. What a choice to have to make!
I wonder if she sent Miriam to watch the basket or if Miriam simply snuck off? Scripture doesn’t say, but either way, we know that God’s plans for Moses were far greater than Jochebed could even have imagined and Miriam was used to fulfill them. Not only did the Lord rescue Moses – by the same people that wanted to kill the Isrealite children -- but the Lord also returned him to Jochebed to be raised. AND she got paid for it to boot! Moses grew up to lead his people out of slavery and to the Promised Land. What a destiny!
Then there’s Hannah who couldn’t have children. (1 Sam 1:4-11) The desperate woman was so agonized that she constantly cried and didn’t eat. In her desperation she vowed to dedicate her child to God if only he would give her a son. Promises are easily made when we are in grave situations. Deals made with the Lord in these circumstances flow freely from our lips. Vows back then weren’t as easily broken as they are today, however, and Hannah was true to her promise, yeilding Samuel to the temple when he was weaned. Scripture tells of her elation at finding herself pregnant. At what point do you suppose it hit her that she wouldn’t be by her son’s side to guide him, to hug him when he got those scraped knees, to nurture him to adulthood? I’ll bet it wasn’t long after her celebration.
Last year, when Ashley turned 9, it hit me, “I’m halfway to seeing her go off on her own.” This year I thought, “I’ve only got her 8 more years.” What was it like for Hannah who knew she only had until he was weaned and then she’d have to give him over to a man (Eli) who couldn’t even raise his own sons? Scripture says they were “exceedingly wicked.” What went through her heart knowing her son was growing up with those wicked men? With no nurturing presence of a woman?
Yet the Lord watched over Samuel, even in those early years. Samuel learned to listen for the voice of God and he got the great honor of annointing Isreal’s very first King, Saul. And before he died, God granted him the privilege of annointing David as Saul’s successor.
There are so many more of our sisters in the Bible who time after time laid their desires for themselves and their children aside and accepted God’s desires for their children. And time after time, God’s purposes for their children exceeded anything they could possibly have imagined.
Little girls are especially dear because we see our lives through theirs. As our daughters grow, we constantly think ahead..to when she’s old enough to play tea party with us, to the cute little outfit she’ll wear on the first day of school, to the day you can take her shopping and she likes it as much as you do, to sharing your favorite books from your childhood with her and teaching her your favorite recipes…and on into envisioning her first boyfriend, her first dance, her wedding. But whatever dreams we have for her, they’re miniscule compared to God’s dreams for her.
It’s our job to remember as we go through, when some of these dreams are realized and some aren’t, that God’s ways aren’t ours and it may not always go the way we envision or dream or even pray. But God is good, all the time. And he has promised to be with his children, all the time. So pray for them to love God with his or her whole heart, and to trust the Lord completely. Parent with open hands. The paths our children walk will be much smoother if we allow them the freedom to follow His lead.
God loves our children infinitely more than we do, and yet we still want to do everything in our power to protect them and make life easier for them. But are those God’s plans for our children? God tells us that His ways are not ours. (IS 55:8-9)
It got me thinking about some of the women in the Bible and the similar struggles they had with entrusting their children to God.
Take Jochebed, the mother of Moses. (Ex 2:1-10) For three months, she hid her infant while she continued to work. There was no formula available, no breast pumps or cold storage in which to keep her milk. She had to have Moses with her while she worked. Think of your children when they were three months old. They are big and squirmy! It’s no wonder “she could no longer hide him” at that point. Moses must have been the world’s best baby. A little colic, a too wet diaper, just a tiny little fuss and he’s a goner. Can you imagine her anxiety each and every day, just praying that he doesn’t make a noise, trusting in the Lord that He’ll send some miracle to save her baby.
But the Lord didn’t send a miracle, at least not when she thought He would. And when she could no longer hide the child, she’s faced with a huge dilemma. I can’t even imagine the sick feeling she must have had while preparing that basket for Moses. I’ve been on the Nile. I’ve seen the dozens upon dozens of crocodiles floating in it and sunning themselves along the banks. What a choice to have to make!
I wonder if she sent Miriam to watch the basket or if Miriam simply snuck off? Scripture doesn’t say, but either way, we know that God’s plans for Moses were far greater than Jochebed could even have imagined and Miriam was used to fulfill them. Not only did the Lord rescue Moses – by the same people that wanted to kill the Isrealite children -- but the Lord also returned him to Jochebed to be raised. AND she got paid for it to boot! Moses grew up to lead his people out of slavery and to the Promised Land. What a destiny!
Then there’s Hannah who couldn’t have children. (1 Sam 1:4-11) The desperate woman was so agonized that she constantly cried and didn’t eat. In her desperation she vowed to dedicate her child to God if only he would give her a son. Promises are easily made when we are in grave situations. Deals made with the Lord in these circumstances flow freely from our lips. Vows back then weren’t as easily broken as they are today, however, and Hannah was true to her promise, yeilding Samuel to the temple when he was weaned. Scripture tells of her elation at finding herself pregnant. At what point do you suppose it hit her that she wouldn’t be by her son’s side to guide him, to hug him when he got those scraped knees, to nurture him to adulthood? I’ll bet it wasn’t long after her celebration.
Last year, when Ashley turned 9, it hit me, “I’m halfway to seeing her go off on her own.” This year I thought, “I’ve only got her 8 more years.” What was it like for Hannah who knew she only had until he was weaned and then she’d have to give him over to a man (Eli) who couldn’t even raise his own sons? Scripture says they were “exceedingly wicked.” What went through her heart knowing her son was growing up with those wicked men? With no nurturing presence of a woman?
Yet the Lord watched over Samuel, even in those early years. Samuel learned to listen for the voice of God and he got the great honor of annointing Isreal’s very first King, Saul. And before he died, God granted him the privilege of annointing David as Saul’s successor.
There are so many more of our sisters in the Bible who time after time laid their desires for themselves and their children aside and accepted God’s desires for their children. And time after time, God’s purposes for their children exceeded anything they could possibly have imagined.
Little girls are especially dear because we see our lives through theirs. As our daughters grow, we constantly think ahead..to when she’s old enough to play tea party with us, to the cute little outfit she’ll wear on the first day of school, to the day you can take her shopping and she likes it as much as you do, to sharing your favorite books from your childhood with her and teaching her your favorite recipes…and on into envisioning her first boyfriend, her first dance, her wedding. But whatever dreams we have for her, they’re miniscule compared to God’s dreams for her.
It’s our job to remember as we go through, when some of these dreams are realized and some aren’t, that God’s ways aren’t ours and it may not always go the way we envision or dream or even pray. But God is good, all the time. And he has promised to be with his children, all the time. So pray for them to love God with his or her whole heart, and to trust the Lord completely. Parent with open hands. The paths our children walk will be much smoother if we allow them the freedom to follow His lead.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Encouragement from Discouragement?
OK, it's official. I'm horrible at efficient blogging, or even adequate blogging! I'm not giving up though. At some point, I'll get the hang of this. Bear with me!!!
We've been seeing the Lord move in some marvelous ways these last few weeks. We're excited and amazed at the work He's doing toward getting us to Kenya. Why amazed? We've never lost sight of the fact that God can do anything. Yet the way in which He works is still such a source of wonder for us. His ways truly aren't ours, and I for one, am very glad of that.
Many of you have been with us from the start of this journey that began over five years ago, one cold, November morning. You've shared disappointments with us (when we didn't see the "burning bush" in Kenya for starters), gave us counsel (thanks Puringtons for telling us we needed a sending agency), and shared our joys (wahoo, we've been accepted by SIM!) in those early years.
You were there with us when we entered our seemingly endless desert of preparation, and it seemed like Kenya was so far off we didn't even talk of it very frequently. You took care of Ashley when we needed sitters while attending classes or for one function or another we needed to be at. You brought us food or took us to dinner when our job situation was so up and down we couldn't get a handle on monthly expenses and ended up short for far too many months. You clothed us as Ashley was (and still is) growing in weed-like fashion, and as Jeff and I ran out of winter stuff because we gave it away last summer thinking we wouldn't need it any longer. You've encouraged us, hugged us, and supported us for a really, really long time.
The Lord's been with us as well, never letting us go under financially or emotionally (though we've floated at surface level quite often!) He's encouraged us along the way by working through you in big ways (a $30,000 donation!) and in small (roses from a friend on my birthday.)
In the last five years, moving to Africa has escalated from being the last thing on earth I wanted to do to being the most cherished desire I have. In this time, each of our lives, Jeff's, Ashley's and mine, have flipped upside down and then twisted and flipped again. We've been stretched in so many ways it feels like we've been on one of those medieval racks! But although it's been painful at times, we can look back and see God's hand in each step of every stage. I have learned and have come to accept (that was the really hard part) that God is in control, not me. God is faithful and even if the money to pay the mortgage isn't there today, it will be when the mortgage is due. His timing is perfect. I've learned to be creative in gift giving and in food preparation. I've learned that no matter how bad I feel that day, someone not far from me is having a worse day and needs whatever encouragement I can muster. I've learned not to look to tomorrow, but to focus on today. These are things that will be vital to know in Africa. These are things I needed to learn before going.
And yet, through all the support and the love you have shown; through all the rescues and faithfulness the Lord has showered on us; through all the lessons we've learned and seen that we needed to learn, we have still managed to get discouraged. Sometimes our discouragement lasts for a day, but sometimes it feels like weeks before the fog lifts. I'd love to blame it on an inherited condition from the Isrealites, but I can't...I'm not Jewish! Perhaps it's just part of this fallen world we live in.
So imagine our surprise, when over the last two weeks we've had several people tell us, "I've found your story so encouraging!" What???? You've found our discouragement encouraging??? Only God can do that! Glory to Him who can make all things good. Thank you for telling us that hearing about our last five years have had a positive effect on you. You've encouraged us!
We've been seeing the Lord move in some marvelous ways these last few weeks. We're excited and amazed at the work He's doing toward getting us to Kenya. Why amazed? We've never lost sight of the fact that God can do anything. Yet the way in which He works is still such a source of wonder for us. His ways truly aren't ours, and I for one, am very glad of that.
Many of you have been with us from the start of this journey that began over five years ago, one cold, November morning. You've shared disappointments with us (when we didn't see the "burning bush" in Kenya for starters), gave us counsel (thanks Puringtons for telling us we needed a sending agency), and shared our joys (wahoo, we've been accepted by SIM!) in those early years.
You were there with us when we entered our seemingly endless desert of preparation, and it seemed like Kenya was so far off we didn't even talk of it very frequently. You took care of Ashley when we needed sitters while attending classes or for one function or another we needed to be at. You brought us food or took us to dinner when our job situation was so up and down we couldn't get a handle on monthly expenses and ended up short for far too many months. You clothed us as Ashley was (and still is) growing in weed-like fashion, and as Jeff and I ran out of winter stuff because we gave it away last summer thinking we wouldn't need it any longer. You've encouraged us, hugged us, and supported us for a really, really long time.
The Lord's been with us as well, never letting us go under financially or emotionally (though we've floated at surface level quite often!) He's encouraged us along the way by working through you in big ways (a $30,000 donation!) and in small (roses from a friend on my birthday.)
In the last five years, moving to Africa has escalated from being the last thing on earth I wanted to do to being the most cherished desire I have. In this time, each of our lives, Jeff's, Ashley's and mine, have flipped upside down and then twisted and flipped again. We've been stretched in so many ways it feels like we've been on one of those medieval racks! But although it's been painful at times, we can look back and see God's hand in each step of every stage. I have learned and have come to accept (that was the really hard part) that God is in control, not me. God is faithful and even if the money to pay the mortgage isn't there today, it will be when the mortgage is due. His timing is perfect. I've learned to be creative in gift giving and in food preparation. I've learned that no matter how bad I feel that day, someone not far from me is having a worse day and needs whatever encouragement I can muster. I've learned not to look to tomorrow, but to focus on today. These are things that will be vital to know in Africa. These are things I needed to learn before going.
And yet, through all the support and the love you have shown; through all the rescues and faithfulness the Lord has showered on us; through all the lessons we've learned and seen that we needed to learn, we have still managed to get discouraged. Sometimes our discouragement lasts for a day, but sometimes it feels like weeks before the fog lifts. I'd love to blame it on an inherited condition from the Isrealites, but I can't...I'm not Jewish! Perhaps it's just part of this fallen world we live in.
So imagine our surprise, when over the last two weeks we've had several people tell us, "I've found your story so encouraging!" What???? You've found our discouragement encouraging??? Only God can do that! Glory to Him who can make all things good. Thank you for telling us that hearing about our last five years have had a positive effect on you. You've encouraged us!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
How it works
We've gotten several questions lately about how the whole financial support thing works, so I thought I'd outline it here and just refer to this from our newsletters. Please let me know if after reading this, you have any questions and I'll refine it further!
We have four "chunks" of funds to raise. The first two are monthly recurring costs. The second two are one-time costs. The amounts were decided upon based on standard costs for living in Kenya, insurance costs, taxes, administrative fees, visa fees, travel costs and estimated costs here in the US for our Home Assignment travel and living expenses.
MONTHLY SUPPORT
MONTHLY MINISTRY
Like monthly support, monthly ministry is a recurring cost. Ministry expenses are sort of like business expenses. Although they must be raised monthly (and are typically expended monthly), they are taxed differently. These are costs directly related to expenses incurred through our ministry....mostly on Jeff's side. This covers communication expenses, gas and vehicle maintenance for his travel throughout Kenya, and security expenses. We have budgeted $670 / month for ministry expenses.
TRAVEL
We call this First-time Passage. This is a one time amount that is needed to physically get us and the stuff we are taking from here to Kenya. It also includes the first month's salary. We have budgeted $13,638 for three round-trip plane tickets, 6-7 extra bags (maybe more depending on the cost of airline tickets at the time of purchase), and the first month's salary.
MINISTRY SET-UP
This category is a one time amount needed to set up our life in Kenya. It includes the cost for a vehicle, home furnishings and tools/equipment, inoculations (nearly $2,000 worth!), language school and deputation travel. We have budgeted $32,310 in this category.
______________________________________________
TODAY
Praise God, He's brought in all of our one time costs, both ministry and first-time passage! We have about nine month's worth of monthly ministry "in the bank." SIM requires us to be at 100% of monthly support in pledges and giving before we can go to the field. Currently, we are at 46% of that goal..approximately $2,600.
So, the thing holding us back is about $3,000 in monthly pledges. One time donations do not count toward this goal, but do work wonderfully toward our monthly ministry needs. Annual or quarterly gifts are prorated out to a monthly equivalent and count toward our monthly support. However, if a donor has not specified that their year-end or one-time gift will recur next year, we cannot count that toward our monthly goals.
I hope that helps! If you've given a financial gift, THANK YOU! If you gave a one-time gift and mean it to recur at some fairly regular point (i.e. once a year, twice a year, etc.), please let us know.
We have four "chunks" of funds to raise. The first two are monthly recurring costs. The second two are one-time costs. The amounts were decided upon based on standard costs for living in Kenya, insurance costs, taxes, administrative fees, visa fees, travel costs and estimated costs here in the US for our Home Assignment travel and living expenses.
MONTHLY SUPPORT
Monthly support includes not only our monthly salary, but prorated expenses such as home assignment travel and living expenses, visa expenses ($3000 / person every 2 years), admin costs, health insurance and retirement. The total monthly support is $5,638. It's broken down in the following way:
MONTHLY MINISTRY
Like monthly support, monthly ministry is a recurring cost. Ministry expenses are sort of like business expenses. Although they must be raised monthly (and are typically expended monthly), they are taxed differently. These are costs directly related to expenses incurred through our ministry....mostly on Jeff's side. This covers communication expenses, gas and vehicle maintenance for his travel throughout Kenya, and security expenses. We have budgeted $670 / month for ministry expenses.
TRAVEL
We call this First-time Passage. This is a one time amount that is needed to physically get us and the stuff we are taking from here to Kenya. It also includes the first month's salary. We have budgeted $13,638 for three round-trip plane tickets, 6-7 extra bags (maybe more depending on the cost of airline tickets at the time of purchase), and the first month's salary.
MINISTRY SET-UP
This category is a one time amount needed to set up our life in Kenya. It includes the cost for a vehicle, home furnishings and tools/equipment, inoculations (nearly $2,000 worth!), language school and deputation travel. We have budgeted $32,310 in this category.
______________________________________________
TODAY
Praise God, He's brought in all of our one time costs, both ministry and first-time passage! We have about nine month's worth of monthly ministry "in the bank." SIM requires us to be at 100% of monthly support in pledges and giving before we can go to the field. Currently, we are at 46% of that goal..approximately $2,600.
So, the thing holding us back is about $3,000 in monthly pledges. One time donations do not count toward this goal, but do work wonderfully toward our monthly ministry needs. Annual or quarterly gifts are prorated out to a monthly equivalent and count toward our monthly support. However, if a donor has not specified that their year-end or one-time gift will recur next year, we cannot count that toward our monthly goals.
I hope that helps! If you've given a financial gift, THANK YOU! If you gave a one-time gift and mean it to recur at some fairly regular point (i.e. once a year, twice a year, etc.), please let us know.