Texas visitors and birthdays

I'm not getting into blogger slacker mode.... Internet has been out.... again. As if I could come up with more excuses of why our Internet is out. But you'd be surprised. So this time the government changed the laws on how the internet runs. I'm really not sure how it works, but maybe it's the way it's connected? Does IP address sound right? I'm not sure but anyways, the company we use failed to inform anyone! So several of us were out of internet and then after a few days one of the missionaries figured it out and was so kind to come and fix ours for us.

(I can't complain though... missionaries back in the day used to have to communicate through snail mail and wouldn't have contact with friends and family back home for weeks, months and sometimes years. As much harm as the internet causes, at least there is good too, so I'm grateful! (oh and I'm aware there are still missionaries that can only communicate that way, I have a lot of admiration for them. God gives us grace to live in our circumstance.) ANYWAYS)

We've had a great week. Our house has been empty, well, empty of guest staying here. Not empty of a lot of excitement (Elisha and Claire). It was a bit sad, I have to say. Bud and I kept catching ourselves thinking Randy, Jesse, or Ricky were about to walk in. I made way too much coffee one morning. They were great to have around. And then Hollie left. I'm very excited for her to go home and have a break and all the excitement ahead of her but gosh I miss my friend. Life here without Hollie will take some adjusting! She'll be back. Just might be awhile until she is. Like, a long while.

Ok, but lets be honest. It's great having just our family in our house.

So last weekend we said our goodbyes to the group here from Texas. I really enjoyed their attitude while being here. They were constantly led by the Holy Spirit and here to take in the culture and learn. Several times Bud took them into the villages surrounding Mattaw to go and pray and evangelize to people. No agenda except to be used by Jesus. There were several people that came to know the Lord. All exciting, but the one I really got excited about was the woman that was taking care of Lucy when we rescued Lucy. It was the woman that the father of Lucy abandoned her with. PRAISE THE LORD! There were also some healed from sickness and fevers. Jesse mentioned that at one point they were out walking in the village, going from hut to hut, just loving on people and sharing Jesus. Isaac, our house one dad, was out with them translating. He grabbed Jesse's hand (it's common here for a man to grab another mans hand to talk to them) and told him this is what he was created for and how much he loved doing what he does. Cool eh?

Some days they would help with the staff, prepping food, hand washing laundry, or simply loving on the kids. Here's Randy helping with lunch. This is one of the most common types of food in Kenya. It's called Ugali. They grind up maize, put it in boiling water, and stir and stir and stir. Usually it's eaten with sukumawiki (collard greens) or cabbage.

We also had some birthdays. Birthdays kinda got mixed up this past year with us being gone, so we're kinda playing catch up. The good thing is, none of the kids know their actual birthday so we give them birthdays. The not so good thing is it's written on the profiles for those that sponsor the kids. But if the sponsor sends a card or gift, we just put it aside to give it to them when we celebrate the child's birthday. We've got it sorted now though. So we celebrated the birthdays of Juma, Jeftah and Eric. (not Elisha, he just felt the need to sit with them and they wanted him to). I didn't have time to bake a cake this time so I bought a brick cake from the grocery store. They liked it though.

Jeftah

Juma

Eric

Ricky, Bud, Randy, Me and Claire, Jesse

Julius, Jesse, Isaac. Jesse is a pastor so it was great to have him there to encourage Isaac and Julius. I know they all learned a lot from each other.

The day they left, we went out to Mattaw for goodbyes. The children sang and danced. Then they prayed for the visitors and we sent them off. Who isn't blessed by having a bunch of amazing kids pray for you?!