Took a break from blogging yesterday due to extreme exhaustion. I am feeling my age, but believe me we are having the time of our lives. It’s just one amazing event after another. As usual the stuff that is happening in the sidebar is more incredible than stuff on our itinerary.
Prayer Alert
Today as we got out of the car to enter the Kibera slums Valerie came down with a severe nausea that lasted all day today. We think it might be salmonella. I have come down with a severe sinus infection from breathing Kenyan dust. Started taking antibiotics today. Sylvia Hendrix is not feeling well either. Please intensify your prayers for us. We are about to go to bed and you all are about to get up. Please pray for a healing sleep tonight. It always makes a huge difference.
Random thoughts from the last few days!
As usual our Sunday service at Kakamega PEFA Church was a joyful and raucus affair. We danced in the conga line! The Lord especially anointed me as I shared a message on generosity. Not generosity with money, but generosity in our service to others; generosity in our forgiveness, generosity in loving strangers and loving our enemies and so forth. It’s been a few years since I felt that kind of a powerful anointing.
The only transportation available to us for our trip from Kakamega to Kisumu was a big yellow bus with “Pendo School” boldly written on the side. Pendo means “Love” so I called it the love bus. Not only that, it was huge so about 20 Kenyans jumped on the bus for the free ride to give us a great send off at the Kisumu airport. What marvelous love the Lord has given us for each other. Makes you feel good all over.
Today we visited the Kara Kibera Kids Center. The odor in the slums was especially pungent today and the walk from the road to the center was especially treacherous. So our team had to hold their noses and watch their step. I hope such comments will not deter you from taking a trip with us some day, because it is genuinely worth it.
Once in the Children’s Center we had a precious time with the kids and the staff. We gave each of the 17 teachers and workers $50 and thanked them profusely for their sacrificial love for the kids who live in the slums. I asked them what their greatest need is and they told me that the government was threatening them because they recently passed a law that all school records and test results had to be digitalized and sent to the school authority electronically. So at this time their greatest need is a laptop computer, a printer/scanner, and a fifty dollar internet hot spot. I told them without hesitation that we would supply these things. So we need $600. I know! I am a shameless beggar, but I just can’t stop spending our money. Please help.
Once we pried ourselves from the arms of the Kibera Kids, we headed over to the Lenana School. School is out of session for two more weeks but we were greeting by 30 of our kids anyway. They were there to prepare for their upcoming exams in a few weeks. They welcomed us with poems and song and dance. Again at Lenana we gave each staff member $50 in cash and sincerely appreciated them for literally working for nothing, but the glory of God and the success of these kids. They are truly heroes of the faith in my book. I also asked them about their greatest need and they said the same thing. They need a computer and printer/scanner to comply with the new government regulations. Now we need another $600. They also need some money for school supplies and curriculum materials. They have 400 kids, not just a handful. They have been making due by having a few curriculum books and writing every lesson on the blackboard (bless their hearts). I am thinking that if could raise a few thousand dollars we could make a big dent in this need.
In spite of these needs they are getting high academic marks and, as usual, they are doing incredible in sports. I believe that both of these things have something to do with the fact that we are feeding them at school two meals a day. It’s very hard to think and compete on an empty stomach. Again my deepest thanks to all of you who have supported our children’s feeding program.
Tomorrow it’s the Nairobi game park. This will be the first day we’ve had off since we arrived, but we’ll be standing up in a moving van for most of the day so we’ll come back very tired.
Bless you all back home for following us on this journey.
All our love,
Richard and Valerie