Update 5/18/09

Good morning Monday. It's been awhile since I've updated. Our computers have issues. It was a good weekend. We've been super busy getting house two ready. It is almost painted on the inside completely. The furniture is almost finished being made. And something exciting is we have solar power out in the homes now!!!! The children and parents are super excited. They are able to have lighting for around 11 hrs straight. They can also charge cell phones. The good thing is it's rainy season and the charge is that good. They told us the first night when the children ate dinner, not one piece of food hit the ground since they could see. They no longer have to use kerosene lamps. Church was great Sunday morning. The lesson for the children was on tithes and offerings. Thankfully Hollie is now helping by taking the younger children to play on the playground. We'll sing, then I'll teach a short version of the lesson and then dismiss the younger ones. Then after the lesson the younger ones come back and we have scripture memorization time and coloring. There's always a color page that goes with the lesson with the scripture on it. We then have snacks and go play. I absolutely love this time with our children and the neighborhood children. They are just precious. You can see the hardship in some of their faces though. We just love on 'em and ask Jesus to and we're starting to see them know that its a safe place to come. Our vision with the church is to do cell groups. There's a consistent group of around 25 people so we are about to split into two groups. Isaac will head up one and Aaron (a man Bud and Isaac have poured into) will lead the other. It's a simple strategy of discipleship and multiplication. We're just following the way Jesus did it!

Today Hollie, Nickole and I went out with Humphrey. We drove around to the future children of house two, Raha house. First we made a food delivery to Mary and her family. I was thankful only Mary and her nephew were there. Humphrey translated and we were able to talk and pray with her. It was heartbreaking but we feel the Holy Spirit directed and we prayed what we were supposed to. She has so much inner healing to go through but the Lord is at work. Mary is the girl, probably a teenager, that was severely malnourished and was found by a group from a team last year that was prayer walking in the village. The father is still free from alcoholism but they still are living in a lot of poverty. Mary has some mental problems but was somewhat understanding what we would talk to her about. She wanted Jesus in her life and I thought she understood the gospel but then towards the end I asked if she understood the difference in heaven and hell and if she wanted to be in heaven when she died and she said no. We continue to ask God to save her soul and restore her mind. She hadn't eaten in a few days and devoured some bread that I brought.
We then went to Sophia and Jose's house. They live with their grandmother. The grandmother has 8 children of her own. She is a sweet woman but you can see the hardship all over her face. She works hard in her weak body to provide the best she can for the many children living with her. All the children were home from school for lunch break and we could tell they were hungry. I had a box of food that we were going to deliver to Eunice (another woman I'll talk about soon) so we gave them some banana's, bread and margarine. The children quickly grabbed it when they knew it was for them, danced and screamed, then ran into the mud hut to dig in. Little Jose got trampled on so I went in to make sure he got some. He ended up with three bananas and ate them so fast. He sat in my lap while eating so I was blessed to love on him for a bit. We got the background information on the children, prayed with them and then off we went.
Last we went to Jenifer and Mercy's house. These are the twin girls. This is the area we got Lucy from. The Aunt was not there. The girls were so happy to see us and ran and jumped on us all. They were wanting to leave with us but we assured us we'd be back. While getting information from them for their profiles, the woman that was keeping Lucy came up. She asked how Lucy was and was happy to hear she is improving. She asked to see Lucy soon and we said we'd try and bring her when we come back for Jenifer and Mercy. She also told us how Lucy's father came back for a few days. He eventually asked about her and after the woman told her we took her, he said good now she's your problem. A few minutes later three drunk women came up talking to us. One of them happened to be related by marriage to Lucy. The woman not drunk that was keeping Lucy started to tell us how the woman related to Lucy refused her and took her to the area Chief of that village. Not long after that the chief took her to the woman's house and, as they put it, "dumped her off". I didn't really care to hear anymore, I just said well now she's home, safe and taken care of. The drunk relative tried to argue that she didn't refuse Lucy and it almost turned into a fight. Humphrey urged us to leave... so we did.
So that was our day. Bud was running errands back and forth from town to Mattaw, trying to get as much done on house two. Today the plumping, toilets, and showers were finished in house one. It looks great! This will be great to have for the children at night. It will help with those that wet the bed because they are scared to go outside to use the outside toilet at night. I probably would too!

Here are picture updates from Bud's birthday last week...

The cake I made Bud. It's a German Chocolate cake, from scratch.

I surprised Bud with a picnic at the Kitale Nature Conservancy. We call it the funny farm (you'll see why in a minute). I told him to make sure he met me at Mattaw for lunch. Hollie and Nickole dropped me at the place and went to Mattaw to deliver a not to Bud. It said something like "I found this "funny" little Mexican restaurant hidden away by a river, thankfully they don't use the beef from the cows they scientifically are researching. Meet me there, Love, Kimberly" So he showed up and took a hike down their trails in search of this little Mexican restaurant and finally found me. I made him enchiladas and other Mexican food. It was such a good little get a way for lunch.

Doris was checkin us out at one point, some deer type animal.And here are a few pictures of why we call it the funny farm! They have a heard of animals at one point of the trail that are all mutated animals! It is hilarious and cruel all at the same time.

A three legged cow
A cow with four horns, three eyes, and jacked up jaw. There was more but I'd rather not post them. They get UGLY.
Here's the river we ate by. It was like a rainforest. This river runs nearby our property at Mattaw

A waterfall on the trail. They also have debrazzos monkeys, which are endangered and soon they'll have crocodiles and reptiles

While I took Bud on a picnic, Hollie and Nicole decorated the home with the children for when we came back. We then had a little party for "Baba Bud" (Baba is father in Swahili, which is what the children call Bud)


I told them a few days before that it was his birthday and maybe they could make something. I had no idea they were working on this though! It is all the children's hands with their names and in the middle it says Happy birthday Baba

Here's Daisy giving him the sign they made as well

That night I cooked Bud a good southern meal. We had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn. It is Bud's favorite meal. Around here you have to get creative with special occasions! It's the fun of it though. More to come, hopefully tomorrow if the power stays on, the computer is working, and the Internet is connected. Ha.

Created for this,

Kimberly