Sunflower fields

What day is it again? We've been wrapping up things around here. I'm thankful to see our family soon! Not so much to be in the cold. Although it does help the reality of it being December in just a few days because I really can't wrap my mind around that fact. The dry season is very much here. The red dirt here is dusty now. It adds another element to running here. Potholes, rocks, hills, and now dust. I am thankful to run though. I pop on a teaching or music and I'm zoned out for awhile. A good stress reliever as well. I would highly recommend it! I just made it to 11 miles in training. Bud was so busy with construction and cows that he decided not to train and run this race with me. I would of loved for him to but it'll be a good personal accomplishment to finish.

There's been a few hard realities to process lately. If you are a child, you can stop reading now. Or at least have your parent read before continuing. Or skip all these words and go straight to the pictures at the bottom. We were out at Mattaw on Saturday. Phil was shooting the final shots of house three built (yes! it is finished! and looks amazing!) and some of people painting the inside. I went out with Claire and Eli. When I got out there I was informed some of our girls have lice. So I turned around and went back to town to get medicine. I left Elisha and Claire with Bud. Dalene hopped in the car and came with me. As we were pulling back into town I notice ahead a mob forming. Any drama starting up and surely everyone from far and wide is sure to draw near. Personal space and privacy is defined differently here. People were all over both sides of the road and crossing back and forth. I just thought to myself to drive through and mind my own business, which I did, for the most part. As we drove by, the yelling and fighting caught my attention. Unfortunately I turned to look and saw people fighting and a man in the middle, stripped of all his clothes, and drenched in gasoline. Here they have mob justice. Usually if someone in town steals and is caught on the street, they strip them, pour gasoline on them, stack tires and light them on fire. Sickening. I know. I kept driving but freaked out and was totally shaken. I immediately asked Holy Spirit to give us discernment on how to respond. Dalene was shaken too and trying to figure out what to do. Out of reaction she asked if we can go and save him without thinking it through. But my response was no. If we tried, anything could happen, they could end up burning us. The ones doing it were raging mad and probably drunk as can be. The second thought was to call the police. But mob justice is allowed. And there's no 911. So I just started praying out loud with much desperation and asking for God's mercy. Who knows what that man did or what was going to happen. I just felt so helpless. Thankfully though I could take all of my concern to Jesus and ask for a miracle. A miracle that would either save that man from a miserable and humiliating death or that if that man didn't know Jesus, that he would before dying. We continued on into town. Everyone going about their business as usual and I couldn't help but think what the end result was. How can people just go about life as normal when a man was being completely humiliated and burned to death?! But isn't that what we do everyday? So many children go to bed hungry, so many die a painful death, people are hurting, injustice happens all the time. I'm so thankful to know Jesus. To know that his heart is for the lost, hurting and dying. I don't understand why things happen the way they do and why there is so much hate and cruelty. But I do know that God is good. All the time. And that's that. I trust Him. After-all he is my Heavenly Daddy. After picking up medicine in town and grabbing stuff to have pb&j for lunch for everyone, we headed back and I dreaded passing that scene again. It was about 30 minutes later and as we drove by we found nothing. Everyone was going about as if nothing happened. I saw no tires and it appeared nothing or no one was burned. I still have no idea what happened but I do know this. We cried out and God heard. I have hopes the result was life and even if it wasn't, I rest in our God who holds us. We felt the only thing we could do was pray and I know prayer is powerful. Later that night the scene kept playing out in my head until Betsy and I prayed peace over my mind. It was a disturbing reality to process.

Today we went into town to run a few errands. We went to the post office to pick some mail, to the atm, and walked down an alley way to a hole in the wall medical lab to get a few test for Eli and Claire. (this is africa and we're about to go to America, so without going into too much detail, I wanted to make sure they didn't have worms. And surprisingly they didn't. But it only cost $2.50 to get two tests done!) As we walked across to another alley way to meet a friend that was getting a malaria test done, we parted ways and we ran into three girls. Probably ages from 8-10. They were all carrying glue bottles stuffed up their sleeves. It was obvious they were very high on glue. It's not often I run into girls on the street that are high on glue. Once again I was so heartbroken. So we walked with them for awhile, held their hand, chatted a bit and then parted ways. It's just not right. They should be at home, being cared for by their mom and dad. I dream of seeing Kitale with no injustice one day.

On a brighter note, the kids at Mattaw are all doing great. They closed the school and are now on break until January. The boys are learning about cows and gardening. The girls are learning how to make jewelry and cooking. We're always looking for ways to train them in a way that will benefit their future and set them up for success. Sometimes the highlight of my day is to go out to Mattaw and see the children laugh and play and enjoy the basic rights of just being a kid.

I had mentioned before that for Thankgiving day we went out to a farm. It's the farm that we are getting our cows from. There's a dairy farm and tons of different crops. One being a sunflower field. There's a river with a dam. So we gathered a car full, including Elisha and Claire, and headed out for a turkey sandwich picnic. It was a beautiful day. We were thankful for Phil to bring his camera and take pictures of the event. Get ready for a picture overload of our day. You ready? Get excited mom. You are going to love this. (or even better, you'll have these photos in your hand sometime in the near future)

picnic

claire and i

huffmans

love

belly!

dalene. love the pose

Jordan and Bud being silly

claire is really not as big as she looks here. she really is just a little peanut.