February 26, 2014

We began Tuesday at one of our restaurant “hangouts” enjoying tea with a missionary we met during our last trip.  Ron is much like us in that he is not ministering in Kenya with help from any particular church in the US.  Instead, his work in West Pokot is supported by believers across denominations.  We encouraged each other and also listened to some guidance he offered about navigating our way through levels of bureaucracy and corruption while trying to do the right things.

We were invited to lunch with our good friends Rose and Timothy Mahindu and enjoyed her wonderful chicken and chapatti (a type of tortilla).  The fellowship was good and we were encouraged to learn Timothy is preaching again after an experience at another church which left him and his wife brokenhearted.

Finally, we took our little friend Zipporah down to the land which RUN is purchasing.  She had asked us to buy her a pair of shoes for school because her sandals maker her “look like a street child.”  We want to teach the next generation not to be looking for handouts but instead for ways to help themselves.  So we showed her the brickmaking project going on at the land and asked her if she would like to earn the shoes by picking up all of the broken bricks and putting them in a pile for the brick makers to rework.  She has agreed and we think she understands what we are asking her to do!  Sometimes the young people say “yes” even when they don’t understand what is being asked of them.

We made one last trip to the land office this visit to try and keep the title deed transfer moving forward.  It is hard to believe the land was technically purchased in late 2012 but the paperwork has still not been completed to change ownership!  Things move at a much different pace in Kenya than they do in the US!

Wednesday’s plans changed for us unexpectedly.  After meeting with one of the Trans Kenya Women’s SACCO members we are now considering the possibility of placing a milk processing station on the land instead of milk cooler.  It seems the SACCO has already purchased land in Sibanga and started building a cooler. They see having two coolers in the same town as “confusing”.  We are prayerfully considering which direction to go at this point and fortunately have not moved far enough ahead with anything for it to matter if we adapt our plan.  It’s not surprising though because God has taken us from the small plan of simply living in an apartment in Kitale to having land on which to build something for the community.  We had planned to meet with a small group of farmers this evening about how a cooler would benefit them but because they had an all-day meeting to attend at school with their children and because we have this new opportunity, we decided it would be best to postpone the meeting for some time while we seek the Lord on this matter.

Meanwhile, our motorbikes have been put in storage once again, our luggage has been sent to Nairobi ahead of us, and we are enjoying one final evening sitting on the veranda overlooking beautiful Kenya.  We can’t “shut down” yet because more opportunities have been planned for tomorrow which involves how to use the land.  These will be in Nairobi right after our plane touches down around 10:00AM.  So look forward to one last post from this trip before we arrive back in the States and begin talking your ears off about what God is doing in Kenya through all of you who support us financially, through prayer, and through donations to the orphanges!

Prayer Points

1.      Our friend Ron shared with us that every night he wakes up between midnight and 3:00AM with an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety.  The work he does in West Pokot is striking out at the enemy because witchcraft has a stronghold there.  Please pray that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard his heart and mind so that he will be able to sleep through the nights.

2.      Pray for wisdom for the RUN board as we consider whether this new opportunity of placing a milk processor instead of a cooling station is something to be pursued.

3.      Pray for stamina for the two of us.  We still have a long road to go before our bodies are going to be able to adjust to the time, culture and food differences.  We have meetings with milk equipment manufactures in Nairobi tomorrow, 24 hours of flying on Friday followed by an early meeting on Saturday to help us learn how to write grant proposals and then a three hour drive to Indiana where we will have the opportunity to share on Sunday morning about the work in Kenya.  So although we arrive in the states on Friday afternoon, it will be Monday before we can begin to return to a “normal” schedule.