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.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

We may Friday a day of focus on handing out our “backpack Bibles” in the Sibanga marketplace.  This was a challenge since many people have gotten accustomed to us handing them out and frequently come to us asking for one of their own.  We like to be strategic about the giving out of this precious seed since we figure some are merely taking them to sell for shillings.  So we walked toward the back of the market place and began entering various businesses.  Our purpose was two-fold:  to explain to business owners about the vision of RUN and to leave them with copies of the Bible.  We handed out a total of 28 Bibles and had some great conversations with pastors, tailors, agro vets, clinic nurses, and many more.  God was so good to us during our conversations!

PROGRESS!  Small steps, but it certainly is worth celebrating!  We spent a couple of hours at the land yesterday talking with the workers making bricks.  It seems word was going ‘round that our workers were not being paid although our Facilities Manager told us they had been.  As it turns out, the foreman had been paid but he took the money and left without paying the workers.  We have made things right with several locals who helped with the brickmaking and our Facilities Manager will pursue the foreman to have the funds returned to us.  Tedious as it may become, we have had to resort to giving receipts for every single shilling handed out and requiring the person receiving the cash to sign the receipt.

Then we learned that water for brick making was still a problem and that the neighbor had offered to allow us use of her well.  Unfortunately, a length of rope was required to get the water from the well and no one told us of the need.  An $8 piece of rope was all that was standing between us and making bricks!  We also learned the djembe our workers were using was borrowed from someone else and each time the owner came looking for it, brick making was stopped again.  $5 later, RUN was the proud owner of its own djembe and work was under way once more!  So after two hours, one thing we learned was that $13 was all that had been standing in the way of production for two weeks!

Late Saturday evening we received a very distraught call from one of our board members, Grace, telling us her brother had died.  Night travel here is HIGHLY discouraged but we felt strongly that we needed to go to Grace’s home and show our support so with flashlights in hand we walked the short distance and entered to find many others already gathered with her.  We stayed for awhile and just hugged her and prayed with her.  Then the gathering of friends took up a collection to help Grace with transportation fees to go to Cheringani where the body was being taken for funeral arrangements.  Deaths seem so common here and place such a burden on family members.  Funerals require paying to have the body released from the mortuary, transportation fees to have the body returned home, and providing an enormous amount of food for the family and friends who come to mourn the person’s passing.

Prayer Points:

1.      Please for our friend and board member, Grace.  Although she knew her brother was ill, his passing has still hit her very hard.

2.      Pray that communication improves so that work on the land can move forward.  The solution to our brickmaking problem was two simple tools but for some reason, it was not getting communicated to the right people.

3.      Again with the “small” things!  One item needed to move forward with our NGO certification is obtaining copies of resumes from our board members but it is proving a difficult thing to accomplish.  Pray against even the small things the enemy is using to stop our forward momentum.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

We want to thank all of you for your prayers, especially during the past few days.  Although the problems we shared earlier are not completely resolved, we feel God has us in a much better place new.  As we stated earlier, we stopped for a period of time just pray and listen for direction.  Through the challenges, we feel we have more solid direction.  After meeting individually with each Kenya board member, we are confident that they are more committed than ever to stand in the gap in order to execute the tasks ahead of us.  What we have identified is something that we’ve known for some time but had lost sight of.  We are in a country where corruption and greed are very common and somewhat accepted.  Although this country isn’t the only place where corruption and greed exist, it can certainly be very blatant.  Please continue to pray as the task before is us is very large and far beyond our abilities.  It is only through God and His strength that these plans will come to fruition.

Our Kenya RUN board members have shown us their faith and their commitment to prayer!  It was encouraging during the 36 hours we committed to praying about direction that we received numerous text messages containing Scripture passages and other words of encouragement.  These people face trials of great magnitude every day of their lives and can’t get away from it.  Yet they have the fortitude and faith to continue.  We are humbled by their example.

On a side note, after months of trying to arrange for Blessings Hope to have someone come to them and build an incubator, God has provided!  One of our board members arranged for someone to go to the orphanage/school today and teach three other women how to build a cook stove/chicken incubator.  PRAISE GOD!!!  This will be one more thing Blessings Hope has going on which will help the school to become mostly self-sustaining.

Prayer Points:

1.      Our government certification is not completed.  We are still waiting to have our NGO registered with the government.  This will be required before we can complete the purchase.

2.      The board needs to come to an agreement on Agreeing on we will be using as our architect.  Several have been interviewed and now one must be selected.

3.      The land deed finalization process is long and difficult to complete when we are not here to keep things moving.  We need to finalize as quickly as possible so construction of the training center can begin.

4.      We need to find someone who can drill a bore hole so there is a constant source of water on the land.  Right now brickmaking is at a standstill because the piped water does not run consistently.

5.      Physical and emotional strength for Ellen and Dawn during the final stretch of their trip.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

As most of you know, Monday was a very difficult day for us.  We experienced opposition from many directions.  We encouraged our board members to commit themselves to prayer about our next steps.  Over the next two days (Wednesday and Thursday) we will be meeting with each board member individually to ask some very candid questions in an effort to make sure we are staying true to our vision.  We appreciate your prayers as we hold those meetings.

Today was dedicated to getting a few things done in town such as trying to move forward with getting the land deed finalized.  We would never have guessed such a thing would have taken us this long!  It is apparently still a couple of months away as there have to be two readings and the committee which hears the readings meets once each month.  Fortunately, some of this can be accomplished through a power of attorney.  Three Bibles were handed out at the land registration office today.  In typical American fashion we launched into our purpose without introducing ourselves which really set off Hussein.  We backpedaled until we had apologized for our unfamiliarity with some customs and then gifted Hussein with a Bible.  He was very appreciative, and it was amazing how much kinder he was to us during the rest of our business with him!  Two Bibles were handed out to the girls collecting parking fees at the land registration office parking lot and the rest were given to fulfill promises to people in the Sibanga marketplace who had asked for copies previously when we were out.  We also managed to stop by a local bookshop and pick up a dozen Bibles in the Swahili language but we’re not sure yet how we will give those out.

Prayer points:

1.      Pastor Isaac’s brother Wilson is now in ICU at a hospital in Eldoret.  Please continue praying for him as well as for his family which is trying to raise shillings to pay for the medical expenses.

2.      We need to be clear on direction from God before proceeding with plans on the land once it is finally in the name of Rise Up Now.