October 3, 2012

“One can get real tired in Kenya.”  When a new friend shared this comment he was not only talking about the sleeping lion we spotted in the Nakuru Game Park, which I used in today’s Prayer Nudge(1), but about his and our recent personal experiences!  Our trip to western Kenya with leaders from the Baptist Convention of New Mexico was incredible, but it was really, really, really tiring! 

As often happens, things did not always go as planned! Last Wednesday’s early morning flight to Kisumu was cancelled, so our trip with volunteers began with a 6+ hours road trip, requiring Jack and me to leave home at 4 in the morning!  This was difficult for us, but the volunteers had arrived the night before after two 8+ hour flights and didn’t get to bed until midnight!  BUT all the scheduled ministry opportunities with the Baptist Convention of Kenya did go as planned once we arrived – which meant a very long day after a very short night! 

Our first stop was at a rural Baptist church with a nursery school for kids, many of them orphans.  The teachers, volunteers from the community, not only teach the kids songs (2), numbers, reading, etc., but they feed the children a nourishing lunch when funds are available.

Afterwards, we visited a village in need of clean, pure drinking water and prayed as we walked through the market among people who also need Living Water!

Next came a visit to the site where local Baptist Believers dream of having a rural hospital providing a place for safe arrival of babies and health care for families.  The most heart breaking part of the day came as we arrived at a national hospital and met a young boy in great pain leaving the hospital without medicines for his very treatable infection – the hospital had none to offer! The volunteers prayed with the boy and his father, with a special prayer that  the larger hospital in the next big town could offer the boy treatment the next day!

After praying with those in the hospital’s children’s ward, we travelled to a high school and heard the dreams of teachers and students to improve the lives of all in their rural area.  The volunteers were able to share of the greatest thing the students could learn – our Father’s Good News!

The next two days were just as hectic and just as rewarding as the volunteers helped communities build homes for two widows – the volunteers provided money for the tin roof, nails and a carpenter and the community provide a spot for the homes and logs for the house frame which the women fill with mud that hardens to become a secure wall!

On the first day, the widow and her two children were living in a ‘borrowed’ room. On the second day, another woman and her children were provided a home with a roof that did not leak and without leaning walls or extra ‘sky-lights’ or windows!  Below are two before photos of the second widow's home and photos of her new home as it was being dedicated!

Both families are now living in their new homes – they lived in their new homes on the night of the construction!

This trip was quicker than most made by volunteers, but we did find time on Friday morning for a boat ride around one of Lake Victoria’s  bays where hippos can be found.  Then on the return trip to Nairobi on Saturday, we drove through the Nakuru National Park and viewed lots of animals, including the sleeping lion!  We arrived just in time for our guests to take quick showers at our house before they returned to the airport for a midnight flight which would begin the reverse of the two long flights taken earlier in the week!

If you have taken time to read ALL of this Update, I want to thank you!  God is at work in East Africa, allowing both local Believers and those from other continents to join in His work.  It is tiring work, but it is also exciting work!  And as always, the  house buildings and other activities included times for the volunteers to share their testimonies and their Good News.

This week’s praise:  Many people did respond and claim our Father’s love and salvation.  Pray for the pastors and other Believers of this area as they disciple these new Believers.  Pray also for the Believers living near the first home built during this trip as they plant a new ‘church’ in their village, which reminds me of another potential ministry site which we visited last week, the Kenya Baptist College seminary extension in Kisumu, where pastors are trained!  Pray also for the leaders of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico as they encourage Believers in their state to join in God’s work in the Harvest Field of East Africa!  BERT

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(1) For a view of recent Nudges from East Africa, go to http://easternafrica2012prayernudges.blogspot.com/ .

(2) For a few seconds of the kids singing songs, go to https://plus.google.com/photos/105343089902291545775/albums/5793933491763666033?authkey=CMjE3tTRx6222wE