Dad in the air and Texarkana Baptist Children's Home Team on the Ground

March 18-25

March 18-25

Everyone loaded up on Tuesday evening to go down to the ocean to see a Moon rise, however it was a little later than we thought. I ended up taking everyone back home after about an hour and a half of waiting. Dad, Julius Ayugu, and I went back down to wait it out. The clouds got in the way a little but we ended up seeing a beautiful site!

    On Wednesday morning Dad and Julius got up early and went down to the ocean for a walk together. They walked all the way to the river and back before breakfast. I was so glad that they went together because Julius is one of the godliest men I know and he loves to talk so I knew it would be great for my dad. Julius said he had a great time with my dad and that they talk a little about everything and had a good time. One thing has been for certain with dad’s visit, everyone has shown him love and tried to encourage him.
    Julius and I were in class all day on Wednesday and I spent the evening with Dad and getting things ready for Julius to run classes on Thursday with Kenya and I taking dad to the airport in Mombasa.

    Thursday the kids said good-bye to “Nub Nub” or papaw Taylor. The gave him a big squeeze and we snapped a quick family photo then got on the road to Mombasa. Kenya and I took dad to Haller Park in Mombasa for one last chance to visit and experience some of Kenya’s wildlife. We had a great time talking and walking through Haller Park. After Haller Park we had lunch and it was time to take Dad to the airport. We said our good-byes and just like that he was gone.

    We really had a good time with dad here even though it was crazy busy. I am so grateful for the advice my pastor gave me when Dad came over, he said , “make some memories”. I think we did that he and I and with the whole family. I pray that God will use our time with Dad to impact him as he returns to the states to figure out what is next in his life. He has no home, no job, no money and really no plan. Crazy! For now he is staying with my aunt and will figure it out from there. Please pray for him to find stability in life and we know for certain that will only come from the Lord. We love dad and want the best for him.
    It was a full day in Mombasa. When we got back Bible Institute classes were over and Bible study had just finished as well so we picked up Julius. At the house Julius and I had a chance to visit for a little while and just talk about what the Lord was doing in our lives. We had a great visit before calling it a night.
    Friday was a half day of Bible Institute classes. Julius was able to finish his lessons early and we had about two and a half hours before lunch. I ended up teaching for that whole time. We had some visiting Masai brothers that had some really good questions that needed some explaining. Julius did not know why I was spending so much time until after the teaching was all over and it came together. It was great to teach along side Julius.
    While we were in class Kenya ran to the Airport and picked up Heather Thompson and her team from Texarkana Baptist Children’s Home. Heather and Kristi from the group came in and had lunch with us. After lunch we loaded up and headed for the house where we met the rest of Heather’s team. Julius and I visited a little then we loaded up with the Texarkana crew and took Julius to the bus stage. Julius was spending the weekend in Miritini to teach classes on Saturday and preach on Sunday at Mnara wa Kweli LBC. Elly and Julius know each other very well so it was  a good chance to share the teachings with Miritini.
    After we dropped Julius at the Matatu stage I took the Texarkana team to the Crocodile Farm. They had a good time seeing the animals and even got to see some Baby Crocs hatch. I think it was a great introduction into the country.
    Saturday the Texarkana team had culture and language orientation with Getrude in the morning while I got some office work done. In the afternoon we all went to the church for cleaning and for Bible Study. Sam from the Texarkana team brought a great devotion to get our Bible study started. It was his first time to ever do anything like that and he did so well. After the devotion I went into our regular lesson. We really had a good study. It was beneficial for everyone since it was in English and Swahili. We had some Shukarani for supper.
    Saturday evening we got to know each other a little and I spoke to Heather a bit about the schedule.
    Sunday we all loaded up and went to Jimba for services. Kamila and Kari taught sunday school for the kids and I taught for the adults. In the worship service Samuel gave the opening devotion and and I preached. Once again I preached in English and Swahili so everyone could hear. Services went well and it was good for the group to experience services at another church because they will be in Malindi next Sunday.  We ate some Shukarani for lunch. It was a little late when we got to the house but we had a little time to relax. Oh and our van lost the use of Reverse on Sunday so it had to be pushed out from Shukarani. Not the best timing for vehicle trouble but anyhow…
    Before our regular English evening service I fired up the grill to get it ready to cook out after services. We sang and I preached in English for our evening service. Heather had shared her  vision for what the kids would gain by taking this pilot trip from the children’s home so I knew the message God wanted me to share. I believe the message went well and it opened up some time to talk even after the services while we were grilling and eating. Heather brought Kristi,  one of the fill in house parents, Camilla, Kari, and Samuel three High school seniors from the Children’s Home. They all have a lot ahead of the them and we are praying this trip will have an impact on them spiritually as they look to their futures.
    Monday Kenya took the group to town to do some shopping and to see Malindi. They also dropped the van off at the shop to work on the reverse issue. The group maneuvered around Malindi in Tuk Tuks which is an experience of its own as well as haggling for a good price at the tourist market. We all met back up for lunch then the group had a time of learning to cook some local foods with Mama Cedric. Before supper we ran down to the beach also so everyone could dip their feet in the Indian Ocean and get  a picture by the awesome Land Rover we drive. : )

    Today the Texarkana team headed out at four in the morning to go on safari for the day. Kenya was up with them and had little breakfast bags for them and snacks. Kleopus is taking them to the park in a safari van with the open roof. I am sure they will have a great time. I am working on office work and plan to run to Gede after lunch to set up a visit to the Special needs school with the group tomorrow and to see Juma. Please pray for Juma’s grandfather Arabu, he was in an accident on the highway and is in the hospital.  I hope to find out more when I see Juma later.

By the way Kenya’s dad is doing ok. He still is having the internal bleeding and will be going for more test this week to determine where the blood is coming from but he is out of the hospital. He is not at one hundred percent and the doctors are still treating and trying to find the source of his problems so please pray for him and for Kenya’s Mama. Also pray for her parents financially they do not have insurance and have not been able to get the Obama care or whatever that all is so this is all going to hit them hard. Also pray for Kenya it is hard to not be there with her parents and to not be able to help more.

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.