Juggling

March 8-18
    Saturday March 8 was Samuel's sixth Birthday so it was a special day. Dad and the kids and I went to the beach in the morning to play a little and just visit with one another. We took the croquet set we have down to the ocean and had a good time playing in the sand then in the water. We went and had a special lunch at the Osteria.
    In the afternoon we went to the church for cleaning and I taught Bible study and answered a question. It was a great time. I taught in English and Swahili so everyone could hear. We had supper and a Birthday party in the evening for Samuel.

    Sunday March 9 we had a good service it was super hot! I taught the past two weeks on giving and I think it was received well. I had three people tell me after church that they were thieves because they were robbing God by not giving and they wanted to change. We had several visitors. In the evening we had our normal worship time at our house and the message was so good.    
    Monday was my day off and we had a good time visiting with my dad and playing games. Dub came in from Turkana late in the evening.
    Tuesday I was able to get our monthly report done and sent out for proofing as well as answer emails. Moses Wanjala is on his way in from Nairobi for classes on Thursday and Friday. I have a Skype meeting with Flatwoods MBC missions committee Thursday at 4:00am our time or 8:00pm Central time Wednesday evening. This meeting is to talk about Brother Mike Vickers and his family doing an internship with us this fall. We have been talking about this for a long time but I have not been able to meet with the committee yet to answer questions and share thoughts. Pray for this meeting and for the Vickers that God will make His will clear.
    It was a good office day. In the evening Moses Wanjala arrived from Nairobi. He came in to teach classes on the Tabernacle. Once he had supper we got him settled into his room for the night.
     Wednesday I spent the majority of the day working with Moses  preparing notes and talking about the classes for the week. We also discussed translation work that Getrude had done for us a couple years ago. Brother Bobby Sparks gave us permission to translate his books and lessons on the Tabernacle and Getrude did it but it has not been proof read or gone through to ensure flow. I gave Moses the files and he will be working on that once he returns to Nairobi. We also talked about translating the material that is on DVD that Brother Sparks has and decided that over the weekend and Monday Moses would focus on those studies. I also gave Moses a boat load of lessons and things to look over. It was a great time of fellowship and planning for the week.
    Thursday I was up at 3:30am to meet with the Flatwoods MBC Missions committee about Brother Mike Vickers and the possibility of doing an internship with us. It was a great meeting and I think we were able to accomplish what we hoped to. Pray for the Vickers and Flatwoods that the Lord will give wisdom and make clear his will. We are looking forward to working with the church and the Vickers as they continue through this process. The meeting lasted about two hours.
    We went the the church a little early to get things set up for Dub to video and for the students. We started the studies right on time and had a couple of students. As the day went on we added more and more students. It was great day of studies and Moses did an amazing job. We finished with the lessons close to five then went right into Bible Study. Moses taught our evening Bible study as well. We loaded up and had dinner at Shukarani.
Oh and Samuel lost his first tooth on Thursday evening. Well he did not lose it I pulled it for him at his request. It was minor surgery but he did awesome and was super excited .

    We spent the day in class again on Friday and had a good turn out. Moses was able to finish his lessons on the Tabernacle. He taught for another couple of hours on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as well as answered questions. We loaded everything up and finished around four. Kenya cooked lunch and prepared Chai for us each day. Joni came in for lunch and helped Kenya serve out the food. Everything went well and Dub was able to get all the lessons on video.

    Saturday Dub and his family, our family, my dad, and Moses all loaded up and went to the Marine park for a day of snorkeling. We got out to the first coral garden and the kids got into the water for a few minutes then started hollering about being stung. We pulled them all out of the water and sure enough they were getting stung by tiny JELLY FISH! Everyone got out of the water then a big rain storm blew in on us. It was looking pretty grim but the rain passed and we went to another coral garden and we were able to snorkel there, with only a few jelly fish here and there. We saw all sorts of fish. Moses even got in the water and used some goggles to see the fish. He was a little nervous since he did not know how to swim. He used the life saver from the boat to float and did a great job. My dad really loved seeing all the coral and fish. As far as the jelly fish go we were still being stung from time to time but it was not too bad.
    After looking at the coral for a while we went to another deep spot to swim and jump off the top of the boat. We had a blast jumping off the boat. It turned out to be great day and everyone had a good time!

    After lunch at Shukarani we headed back to the house. We got Moses set up on the translation project of Brother Sparks DVD Material.   
    Sunday March 16 was super hot. The temperature gauge said it was 46 C or 115 F! It was a sweaty day! The worship service was awesome. Sadie and the girls sang a special song and we had several other specials as well. Moses preached the message and hit a home run. I loved it. He is such a gifted teacher. After another lunch at Shukarani we headed to the house. Moses worked a little on the translation project. We had a great evening worship time.
    Monday Moses continued to work and finished the translation work on Brother Sparks DVD lessons. I spent the day with my dad. We went and had coffee in the morning then went out to Marafa to Hell’s Kitchen. We had fun driving out and hiking through Hell’s Kitchen. We ate lunch at a little local place in Marafa and I introduced dad to Matumbo or Stomach and Intestine. He did great and ate about half of his . I told him that the Macaroni looking things were not macaroni… later I told him they were intestine! After lunch we drove out to Garashi and around the villages we work in near Singuaya. We even got some mudding in where it rained earlier in the week. It was a lot of fun!

 Before our trip CLEAN LAND ROVER

After our trip NOT SO CLEAN LAND ROVER

    We got back in the evening for supper then ran to town to pick up Julius Ayugu who was coming in to teach this week. Julius will be teaching Wednesday-Friday. He will be teaching Bible Doctrines.
    This morning Julius and I drove Moses into town to catch his bus back to Nairobi. Again Moses did an amazing job teaching and I look forward to continuing working with him on some other translation projects. Today I have worked on getting things ready for our lessons this week with Julius. We got all the notes and notebooks ready for class as well as looked over some other lessons together. I gave him a bunch of lessons and notes to take home with him as well as a couple books. Julius is a good friend and one of the most godly men I know bar none. I enjoy spending time with him. I also was able to work on the trip for the Texarkana Baptist Children’s Home. Heather and her team will be arriving Friday.
    I thankfully have gotten this update put together and I hope to get some finances done as well. I worked out with Ernie for our teacher next week Julius Kalande to have  classes in Nairobi rather than here since we will have a team on the ground. Dub will fly to Nairobi Monday  and film classes Tuesday - Friday and return Friday evening. Dub and I will be running to town here shortly to purchase tickets. I will still be teaching classes next week on Friday and Saturday but it will be a little easier than juggling another visitor  and more classes. I appreciate brother Hopper having the classes in Nairobi and Dub’s willingness to travel.
    Please continue to pray for this ABA Media filming project and for Dub as he works on editing and putting everything together. At the rate we are going we are going to get close to 15 classes on video. Brother Hopper is already planning to use the teachings while he is gone on furlough so classes can continue on in his absence. We are so grateful to Dub and his family for giving themselves to this ministry!

My dad will be traveling on Thursday to go back home. It has been a good time with him although juggling classes, other visitors, and regular work has been a task but we have made memories and it has been awesome having him here.

Random Pictures

Sadie and Babu at church on a Saturday. Babu is so CUTE!

 

 

 Kenya, Sadie, and Jone took a girls night out.

Samuel and his very own Litter of Mountain Dew...Lord help us!

 Dub and Joni's Daughter Chloe taking a bath. Nice spike hair...

CRAZY SARAH

CRAZY BABA

 Saturday at Church

 Masai do some Jumping during worship service and spice it up!

 Karate Loves kides!

 Baptism on Sunday this week

 Dad working on some projects for Kenya,

Dad is here!

February 18-March 8

There has been a lot happen in the past two weeks so I will do my best to try and catch up on all the happenings since I wrote last. The big news is that my Dad is here with us! Crazy I know! We’ll get there…

    Tuesday evening I spoke to Ricklynn for quite a while about some family things. I also spoke to Ben Ashioya on the phone about coming to the coast to teach a class for Dub with ABA media to film. We made all the arrangements and planned for his arrival the following week. I also spoke to my dad and was able to book his tickets to come see us. There were two options one was in May the other was the end of February. He took the one in February and I made the reservation.
    Wednesday February 19 I spent some time studying. I spoke to Emanuel about the church in Jimba and some concerns he had. I encouraged him to communicate his concerns on Sunday at the church and if the church needed me I would be happy to come and visit with them. I also went by and worked on Clayton’s immigrations paper work. We got our dryer belt in the mail and I installed it.
    I spoke to Juma and he had to take his wife Mercy to the hospital because she fell out of a stool onto her pregnant stomach. Then while he went to get money to pay for the hospital his 2 year old daughter went home with his sister and she drank some Kerosene and they rushed her back to the hospital. Juma was having a rough day to say the least. Thankfully Mercy was ok and Juma’s daughter did not ingest enough to hurt her. 
    I spoke to Ben on the phone again to confirm everything and send the money for his trip. I spoke a little to Daniel about the building in Jimba. Clayton also called and we had a good visit he also told me he was MARRIED! He and Lindsey married a couple months earlier in order to get everything done on her name changes and paperwork before they move over in June. 
    Thursday I spent working on my sermon for Sunday. I also emailed Heather an itinerary for the Texarkana Baptist Orphanage Trip that is scheduled for March. I also sent a detailed email to Mike Vickers about the possible internship they are wanting to do with us this fall. I was able to send out some text messages concerning Bible Institute classes and to church members. Before we left for Bible study I spoke a little with Getrude about starting a Bible Study near her place and she seemed really excited about the possibility. She said she would talk to her husband about it.
    We went to Bible study and had a good devotion from Godfry. After the Bible study I spent a few hours talking to Godfry and Ricklynn about some family matters. When I finally got home I called my dad to talk to him about his trip and the details of his flight on Monday. He was excited and ready to go. While I was on the phone with my dad the dogs killed a huge RAT. Kenya and Sadie said it was huge, but I thought, sure it was big, but they were right it was HUGE! I never seen a rat that big. It made a great meal for the dogs…

     Friday I worked in the office then made ten or fifteen calls to talk with church members that have been out for a while. I also talked with Obed to see how he was doing since he was poisoned. Thankfully he is doing better and his wife came in to take care of him. After the phone calls I caught up on some emails. I tried to confirm the evangelistic outreach with Alfonse and when we finally got connected he said he needed to cancel again.
    Saturday I made calls again to a few more church members then we went to the church to work. I taught Bible study and answered questions. It was a great study time and we had a good turnout. After Bible study we went to Taheri for lunch. We took Dub and Joni’s daughter Chloe with us and she loved the Chicken Tikka. We also went out for some Ice cream! When I got home I finished up working on the Sunday Sermon.

 Sunday we had a great service both at church in Malindi and in our evening worship time. We had several visitors and I think the message went well.   
    Monday was our day off.
Tuesday February 25 Josiah and I ran to Mombasa to pick up my dad from the airport and Ben Ashioya from Ely’s house. We went by for Josiah’s orthodontist appointment first then picked up some toner for the copy machine.
    We had an interesting incident happen while we were stuck in traffic. Two guys tried to jump in the car to snatch my iPad that was sitting between Josiah and I in the Land Rover. They used a trick that is common in Nairobi. One guy bangs or gets your attention on one side of the car while the other reaches in the window from the other side. Back in 2000 during our initial survey trip Kenya’s purse with her passport was stolen by thieves using this trick in Nairobi.  I told the guy on my side of the car to stay away from the car after he initially grabbed the door handle like he was opening the door. He came close again and I warned him not to touch the car again he backed off then I saw his buddy out the side mirror so I covered the iPad with Josiah’s backpack. I thought it was all over and they tried again. This time the dude on Josiah’s side started to stick his hand in the window and I drew back on him to punch him and he ran off. It was a close one…oh and it all took place about 100 feet from a police officer at the roundabout…. It was a nice try but thankfully we knew the trick.
    We picked up Ben on the way to the airport to get my dad. My dad got in safe and sound. It was his first time to fly out of the country and he did great! I could not believe he made it all the way with no problem. Praise the Lord. We headed for the Malindi. When we got home we grilled out burgers and I spoke a little to Ben about classes and notes and also got dad all settled in.

     I felt bad but we had classes Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at the church in Malindi with Ben Ashioya teaching on comparative religions. Dub got all the sessions on video for us also. I know dad was bored but he was able to come in and out and see what all was going on. He said the thing that was weird to him was seeing me speak Swahili with everyone. We went to class each day from 9 to 5 and Ben did a great job teaching. We also had a good turnout each day. On Wednesday Ben and I had a meeting with Ricklynn’s family and Godfry’s family to settle a matter. I was grateful for Ben’s help in the issue.

     Saturday Dad, Josiah, Ben and I loaded up and left for Miritini at about 6am. We had classes until about 3pm. Ben taught on giving to the guys in Miritini and did a super job. Josiah and dad kept busy with playing ipods... Ben did one section in English on sanctification for the students and for my dad's sake. It was really good. I appreciated Ben reaching out to dad.  Dub left out to go to Turkana to be with Eddie  for a video project and to film a class with John Wanyoni. After the class time in Miritini Josiah, Dad and I left and passed by and watched a movie on our way home.

     Sunday we had a big day with a baptism and business meeting at the church. We had several things to do so the meeting ran a little long. We finally pushed one item to next week for the sake of time. It was a good, productive meeting. We had a good evening Bible study. However dad did not join us for Bible study which was a little disappointing, but I know that he does not attend church regularly. Pray for him that we will be a blessing to him and he can see real faith lived out.
    Monday was a good day off just playing and relaxing. I took dad to the doctor to have a cyst removed from the back of his head. They had to cut it out and send it off so he has stitches in his head now. He has needed to get this done for a long time.  And since it was so cheap here, I am glad we were able to do it. The procedure only took about an hour and the doctor said the test results would be in next week.
    Tuesday we headed out at 4am for a day at the Game Park with my dad. It was a fun day and we saw all kinds of animals. We saw lions and dad even spotted a cheetah. The cheetah was really cool! Unfortunately we did not get any pictures in all the excitement of seeing the cheetah… It was a full day and we were all pretty wore out. I spoke to Ernie Hopper on the phone about scheduling teachers for the ABA Media project. I think we got it all sorted out for the rest of the time Dub is with us. We are going to have a lot of material on video for future use. These classes will enable the school to continue even when we are on furlough!

     Wednesday I talked to a few folks at the church about teachings and prayer needs. I ran dad back to the doctor to have his head looked at to be sure everything looked good. While we were out we dropped the van off to have a window welded before it fell out. We decided to walk back to the house on the beach and visit. It was a nice walk although we got toasted and wore out. When we got to the house I worked in the office on finances primarily. There were a lot of receipts and things to get together.
    Dad got pretty over heated during the day and even burnt the tops of his feet being on the beach walking so he was not feeling great. He went to bed pretty early. I think also it was a little home sickness.
    Thursday I worked in the office most of the day working on emails and lessons and taking a few breaks to talk to dad off and on. I know he is a little bored with the kids in school and me doing things in the office but we have some things planned this weekend to do with him. I spoke with Eddie and Dub about John Wanyonyi in Turkana and it seems they are doing well up there. They had to modify the videoing of the classes because the Turkana church members needed the Swahili teachings translated into Turkana. Eddie and John decided to do the teaching at his house on Saturday in Swahili so we will be able to use them in the other churches.
    We went to Bible study in the evening and had Shukarani for supper. It has been fun watching dad play with the kids. He is pretty crazy!