The Endless Squeeze...,

When we left home, I had a travel size Colgate toothpaste tube with a little toothpaste in it. I also had just a tiny amount of Colgate toothpaste in those new holders that sit straight up. I thought to myself,"between these two supplies we should have enough toothpaste until I can get to the store." We now know that toothpaste is not something we have to bring in bulk to Africa because you can get all kinds of toiletries here. So I was thinking it would last us,at the most, a week.
This morning I was getting ready for church, and as I went to brush my teeth I realized, "we are still brushing our teeth with the same toothpaste we came with! Everyday, at least 2 times EACH we are using this same supply and they both look like they have the same amount in it. We will be bringing them home with us. I couldn't help reflect that this is God's miraculous way of reminding me that He will always supply our needs -- Even if we don't ask for it. But there is a deeper lesson for me. I was thinking each day He wanted to remind me that all he wants is His words, His kindness, His encouragement to come from a cleansed mouth and clean heart so they will bring forth fruit. This time at times can be a little hard for me. I have done almost nothing here this time but cook. But today the Pastor of the church we have been attending reminded us that Holiness is bringing comfort to others...loving and living as Jesus did. So if my words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart are acceptable to Him, and cleansed, I have done my part. So when I give that endless tube of toothpaste tonight a squeeze, I will thank Him that He has given me an illustration of my work here and I might even get a special "squeeze" from Him.

Today was my last time to evangelize in Kibera. We walked back on a very muddy path toward a small commercial area. People tend to visit in these areas and buy what food they can afford. We usually engage a few people in discussion and ask if they would let me talk to them. We present the gospel and invite them to pray. Today one lady asked if we would come to her home and pray for her son. She led us down this alley where people lived in unbelievable conditions. Walking through the mud we entered her home. They had a dirt floor and a couch were we sat. In front of the couch was a bed and a curtain hanging in front of it for privacy. That was all there was room for in the house. They had no bath room or running water (except for the mud outside). The cooking was done outside also. Under the bed I saw a family of mice running about.
It is hard to pray knowing how great their needs are and how little I can do. We asked God to bless and I will pray again for them tonight. They were very appreciative and we could only communicate by the interpeter. God does give grace to these people in their distress. Will you pray for Kenya tonight?

Out of Africa

It has been a long time since I have written. The reason is that everyday seems the same. But on Monday we like to think we had a day off...you know Memorial Day. They of course don't celebrate that here but we wanted to do something different. So, we met Matt at the Java House (Kenya's Panera), and got some lunch for the girls that he was going to take to the school. They buy a lunch and usually once a week and go and have a special time with the kids at school. Bridget was in bed sick. Afterward we decided to take in a movie. On Mondays they have a special where you can get a hot dog, coke, and popcorn for the price of the theatre ticket. We had time to kill so we decided to have a nice lunch at a Japanese Restaurant. The restaurant and theatre were in this unbelieveably beautiful mall. It had around 5 floors, escalators and all the modern stores. We really felt like we were "out" of Afric because everthing was so modern, spotless, and expensive. Because we were in such a spotless place I splurged by ordering sushi. It just seem proper to go with something brave. When we were finished we had enough time to take in coffee house which was in the mall also. It was so American and I had the best cafe con leche since I left USA.We were all ready to leave when the waitress brought us a beautiful chocolate mousse cake with lots of whipped creme. I said, "we did not order this."She said "I know. This is on the house. We just wanted you to sample it for us." So, we gladly complied...THEN we finally went up to the movie where after Japanese salad, soup, sushi, choc mousse cake, and coffee, we went merrily into the counter to get our FREE popcorn and coke. Matt thought we would notlike the Kenyan hot dogs so he took a candy bar instead. Into the theatre for a most exciting movie and for two hours I forgot we were in Kenya. It was a great way to celebrate our holiday here.
Soon, in less than a week we will truly be going Out of Africa. We have enjoyed our time here so much. I think we were made for the challenges we have here. They are like a tug of war between my early upbringing and the present age. Here my upbringing serves me so well, you know making homemade bread because I just can't eat the bread here, making everything from scratch, trying to find an appropriate food to replace what they don't have here, cutting the chickens up because a whole chicken is what you get at the butcher, racing the mutatu's for the road, and when you are home relaxing from a well earned day. But soon we will be back to a much faster pace of life where my days melt into each other and we once again enter Into High Point Life.

Last weekend Coulson went on a 3 day trip to the coast of Kenya to Malindi to go deep sea fishing with Matthew. So Rich and I are holding down the fort here at the house. We will probably write more about this when he gets back. I am so glad he has a chance to do something like this with Matthew.
Meanwhile, we are having missionaries from Tanzania as our guests. They are a family of 6 children with a new baby being the youngest. They wrote apologetically for having so many to handle and then Coulson wrote back how we love large families since he is #8 of 10 children and I am #6 if 9. I am sure that served to set their hearts at ease. The preparation for them has been so much fun. Since my only job here this time is to feed everybody, I try my best to do that. So all week I have made preparations for their coming. One day I baked yeast bread and banana bread and froze them. Another day I made homemade applesauce. Today we put together a broccoli casserole, cooked carrots, fruit salad, and a chocolate cake. This all to compliment a special chicken meal I make. It calls for Russian dressing and since I couldn't get that here, I made my own. I just love cooking for a group. I realize how I missed cooking for many people because with just Coulson and I you just don't cook what can't be eaten.They will be here at 6:00 and hopefully we'll be ready for them.Coulson really hates he is going to miss them and even told me they can stay 2 nights for the price of one is they stay with us on their way back to Tanzania.
Along with making the meal, I made two cakes. One for the missionaries and one for Indiazi. Indiazi is one of the pastors who ministers along with coulson and Rich in Kibera. He contacted a bad case of Malaria last month and it came back again last week. So I wanted to take him some chicken soup. You know all Jewish wives say that is the best rememdy for what ails you. Then Rich said, I will tell you what will make him well quicker than anything, Make him a cake. He loves them so much he finds it hard to share even a piece with anyone else. So this morning I baked him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, If that doesn't heal him, nothing will. Rich has to speak tomorrow morning at his church and will take it for him. We love this man of God and feel so privileged to work along side of him.
P.S. This is written two days later. The missionaries were a fabulous family. I thoroughly enjoyed their stay. They both attended Taylor U. when Matt was there. The children were so precious and helpful. They called me Grandma Mimi. By coincidence, his grandparents (now deceased) lived in High Point. Coulson is going to post a picture of the family.

...The Street Boys

Yesterday, I went into the slums of Kawangare with Coulson. Rich couldn't go because he had a meeting so I decided it was time for me to go with him. Last trip I went every week with him and then went over to the school to give a flannel graph story while Coulson evangelized. It was amazing to me how nothing has been done there to clean it up like in Kibera. The conditions are worse than I remembered. When we arrived at the church, I had prayer with the pastors and then they left me there with Monica, pastor Jacob's wife. Monica can't speak English so they called the school teacher over to help interpret. When it comes to communicating love we really don't need an interpreter. She and I love each other very much and how she shows it! When she greets me she goes crazy and lifts me in the air with her hugs. But when we want to share things we need an interpeter.
Anyway, Monica has started a new ministry. There are so many orphans in Nairobi, mostly from the aids epidemic. When they are young they go to school and have at least one meal a day there. But, the older ones have no where to go. So they go to the streets, sniff glue and other stuff. They are just filthy dirty because they have no where to clean up. They live on the streets and sleep on the streets at night. They carry their glue and stuff in a bag so before they are allowed to eat there they have to relinguish their bags to Monica. She tells thems "I was an orphan, I know what you do". She then gives their bags back to them when they leave. She now feeds these guys (we call them the street boys) once a week. They range in age from 10-17or older. Yesterday they had around 45 of them come for lunch. Rich said when they first started doing this, they had to go out and round the boys up. But now since they are doing it consistently, they come on their own. They came around 11:00am yesterday and kept coming until it was time to eat. While they are there Jacob talks to them, takes their name and is starting to get information about them. Some of the boys are starting to show up at his church on Sunday. They are sweet and respectfully, but they are so misguided and need to know the love of their heavenly Father.
The process in just making the food is so foreign to us. First Monica has to peel the potatoes and slice the cabbage. Then she has to go buy the meat for the day. The meat consists of about 1/2 lb. of chicken gizzards and another kilo of beef bones with a little meat on them. Then she has to build a charcoal fire by burning a box torn into small pieces placed under the coals. When the fire is hot enough she puts a big pot on it, 2 cups oil, and starts cooking chopped onions, about 8 tomatoes cut up, and about 3 dozen potatoes cut up. When they are soft she adds the meat and puts in a seasoning that they call mchuzi mix(a spicy meat flavoring). Finally she dumps in a waste can size amount of cut cabbage. You add a few pitchers of water and you have a delicious cabbage stew. Then because they only have one large charcoal burner, they switch that stew over to a little burner to stay warm. Then she starts over making rice on the same charcoal stove. She said she wished she could afford to get an electric burner to make the process easier and faster. The she just smiles big and says," but....AFRICA!!!" This costs Chris's ministry 2,000 shillings a day to supply this food. That is about $26.00. Their prayer is that they will be able to feed them every day. The next step is to get them off the streets and they are prayerfully considering how to do that.
Monica doesn't just make this meal but feeds the children in the school they have. On the days she feeds the street boys the children at the school just get juice and bread. The other days she cooks for the school children. When her daughters are off school, they help their mother, but now she is doing it alone. She asked me to pray that her health stays good and that God will give her strength, but most of all that she will be able to get someone to help her on a regular basis. Monica has diabetes and since I have it also, I was very sad to hear she cannot afford to take the medication she needs to manage it, The needs here are just so great. I was so overwhelmed when I came home from being there I couldn't eat or sleep well. May God forgive me when I complain about anything I find not to my liking.

Birthday Party #2 Zan's

Last weekend I went back over to Bridget's to help her plan for Zan's party. She had originally told me there would be around 12 girls for a overnighter. Well it turned out there were 20! What a blast. Mind you this is 20 eight and nine year olders. She had shorts and shirts and new underwear for each girl so they wouldn't have to bring anything but a bathing suit and towel. That included a new toothbrush kit with tooth paste.They went swinmnming in the compound pool, she had four teachers from Saina's school come to do manicures, Pedicures, and facials, They all tie dyed a shirt. She had running suits for them and since they didn't fit, she had a semstress come and personally fit the pants for each girl. The cake was prepared by another lady. I baked it and made the icing and she decorated it. Then she made a pendant necklace for each and an album that she is going to put some pictures in for each of them. They actually all were down in sleeping bags all over the living room by about 10:00. I never heard them although I got up at 2;00am and they were still talking.
The next morning Bridget and Matt took them all to the Java House for breakfast. That is like America's Paneras.By 1:00 oclock the last kid was gone and Matt and Bridget drove me home. We were all so exhausted and ready for our own rest. It will be a year before their birthday's come around again. I am glad mine will be celebrated in Dubai with just Coulson and I. I am getting too old for this stuff.

Mr Clean

Today was very interesting. We went to Kawangare as usual on Tuesday. The Pastor mentioned that there was a man that had come to the Church for help. He had refugee status and needed to get to a refugee Camp in the north of Kenya. He had no means because he had to flee the Congo with very little. He had spent the last two nights in another Church and was seeking assistence when he met our Pastor. You have to understand that the Pastors in these slums are also very poor and are able to provide very little. He shared this man's situation me and with Rich, the young man serving with me. Ordinarily we cannot respond to all the requests we get but felt led of the Lord to respond. We inquired as to the cost for him to travel to the refugee camp and provided the funds for a bus ticket plus some extra.
In talking to him, I learned that his name was Michelle an his wife had been shot by rebels in there town in the Congo. She died later from the wound and he fleed to Kenya for safety. He has a 3 year old son who his aunt or sister, I am not sure, took and also fleed. He is not sure where they are. The papers Kenya gave him expired and he was picked up by the police and put in Jail. I asked how that was and he said the guards were mean and he had been beaten. He is a believer and we prayed with him. I know God brought him to us to minister to. You have to be carefull because so many people create stories to get help but this was diferent. We saw the papers declaring him a refugee. We also saw the pain in his eyes. I cannot imagine what he has been through the past several months. Please pray for him -that he will arrive safely at the Refuge Camp, That he will get the help he needs, and also that he will find his son and other family members. What bothers me tonight is that I most likely will not hear the outcome of his story until glory.
On a lighter note, I went to the barbershop today. Sometimes I have trouble undertanding the Kenyan's accent when they talk English so I try not to embarass them by making them repeat themself. So today when he said do you want a cleancut I assumed he said do you want a haircut which I thought was pretty obvious so I said yes. Well a clean cut is not the way I usually cut my hair. Usually it's a little off the sides and clean the top. Well a clean cut is fashioned after Mr. Clean. Yep that my new look! State tuned it may grace ur blog soon. Mimi was not impressed.