Just a little update, things have been going really well here. We are both healthy…. Yay! Today Jeremy is speaking at a high school to about 100 students for 1 hour, and then Sunday he is speaking at a university for 45 minutes to around 1,000 students. He has to do the Sunday service twice. Needless to say, he has a stressful weekend, but it is a good experience. The kids are mostly healthy right now, making my job more enjoyable! We have one who has mumps, so hopefully we don’t have an outbreak.
We had dinner this week at the home of a family from church. It was definitely interesting. I learned my lesson about being careful about chewing slowly here as there may be bones or rocks in your food! After dinner the husband suddenly broke out his accordion and wanted to sing with us. Then he asked Jeremy to give a small message, I must say he did well for having to make it up on the spot. The fun part about being here is you really never know what might happen next, things are not predictable! ~Nicole

I have discovered that church services are run much differently here in Kenya. Planning is much less essential and time is relative. A few weeks ago, I experienced my first church service when the pastor arrived a half hour after the service was scheduled to start. It all worked out though because people here have a gift of waiting patiently as things usually start about an hour after the scheduled time. I am learning this well as Pastor Habib told me to be ready around 9:30 AM a few days ago to go visit some families that had lost children in the recent oil tanker fire. From experience, I planned to be ready to leave at around 10:30 AM. Our actual time of departure was close to 3:30 PM.
In another service, we lost electricity. Even so, we were able to continue with worship without missing a beat. I was reminded of the praise song Heart of Worship. The lyrics talk about getting away from our dependence on so much “stuff” (good music, projectors, a high tech sound system, etc) and just worshiping from the heart. It was a good reminder to me that most of what I worry about during a church service is trivial to God.
This past Sunday, I found myself playing guitar with the worship team (mostly without the lyrics or the chords for the music), helping to run the sound, running the PowerPoint for the lyrics, and (this is the best part) actually typing out the lyrics of some of the songs as we were singing them for the PowerPoint. All of these were occurring simultaneously, so as you can imagine, the worship was not as smooth as it could have been.
But even with all of the differences, we have a lot that we can learn from the Kenyan culture, and I feel very fortunate for the knowledge and perspective I am gaining from my experience here in Kenya. ~ Jeremy

Some things are much different in Kenya

Kenyan Hotel













Kenyan Ladder













Kenyan Bed

So it turns out Malaria is definitely something to avoid. Good news is I am feeling much better now. I feel almost completely back to normal. Still a little tired, but that’s all. I am back to doing nursing stuff with the kids during the day and it is so nice being up and out of bed again.
Jeremy is doing great with his duties at the church and helping around the baby center. He is also learning to be more tolerant of being peed on as well, which is vital when living with 29 kids/babies.
Once or twice a week I am going to try and start posting a picture of a child and what we know of their background and some general information about them (that is if our internet cooperates). Some of them have such interesting stories and really are survivors of unbelievable circumstances.
For the most part we stay busy enough that we are not terribly homesick, but there are times we just miss so many things and people. We are anxiously waiting to hear news from Brad & Erin about our new niece or nephew who will probably be born in the next few weeks. And after that Keith & Jenn will be getting little Collin Bradley. We are really excited about the new little arrivals and wish we could be there when they are born, sometimes pictures just aren't enough. ~Nicole

Malaria.....yuck

Hi everyone, I am writing this post from bed right now and still wondering how I managed to contract Malaria after only 2 weeks in Kenya. Really bad luck I guess. My family always jokes that if someone is going to get some weird disease, it will be me. I seem to attract these sorts of things.
I am slowly starting to feel better. Fevers are now consistently staying down between 100 – 101 degrees now, so that’s a nice change. I just remain really lethargic and achy. I am able to keep food down now as well.
It was actually kind of a relief on Thursday when we went to the hospital and had my blood drawn and were told that I had Malaria. Up until that point we didn’t know what was happening. At least once we knew what it was we could do something about fixing it. Malaria is the number one killer in Africa, and now I can definitely understand why. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford to go to the hospital and pay for tests, exams, and treatment. Most people here don’t have that privilege. Jeremy has been wonderful taking care of me. I don't know what I would have done without him.
Thanks everyone for all the prayers and support. We will keep you updated. ~Nicole

So Nicole’s introduction to Kenyan life has not been very pleasant so far. Though all the people have been wonderful to us, Nicole has already experienced the wonders of Kenyan food poisoning. At least, that is what we think caused her 30 hours of severe diarrhea and vomiting during our first week. We have also just found out that the fever, chills, severe stomach and joint pain that she has begun to become very familiarity with these past several days turn out to be the symptoms from malaria that a kind mosquito has decided to donate to her. Despite all that she has gone through, she still has been able to keep a positive attitude most of the time. I am so proud of how she has handled everything. We just got back from the hospital a few hours ago with medication, and she has finally been able to fall asleep, so she should be feeling better soon. We would appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery and that Nicole can recover her strength and health. ~ Jeremy

I did my devotional today after finding out that Nicole had malaria, and this verse really stood out to me.
“We work hard and suffer much in order that people will believe the truth, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people.” 1 Tim 4:10.
May this verse be an encouragement to Nicole and many others when they experience suffering in the midst of their ministry.

Gasoline Tanker Fire

Yesterday Pastor Meshack and I had the chance to go to the site of the recent gasoline tanker fire. It happened not too far from the baby center. Pastor Meshack is the new senior pastor at the Ngata African Gospel Church next to the baby center, where I am currently helping out with the youth. The site was very sad. We talked with one individual who lost one of his nephews. The place was devistated. The area burnt was something like the length of a football field. I have read that at least 120 people were killed. What I have also heard is that the tanker had flipped over. Then, people heard about it and came to take the fuel to sell. The local police, so I have heard, were charging people to take oil in order to make a profit themselves. One of the men got angry at a policeman and decided to light a match, which of course lit everything. I think they are going to have a mass burial site of many of the bodies because so many could not be identified. Hopefully, the local churches will be able to meet the needs of the victims' families. Next week our church is meeting with another local church to do a counseling seminar to help equip the leaders in the area to help the families. Our prayers are with them. ~Jeremy

Well, we have arrived and we finally have internet...sort of. It has definitely been a huge adjustment. We knew we were in Africa when we found a big bottle of spray for killing bugs next to our bed where we stayed the first night in Nairobi. We have begun settling in and have much to tell about our first two weeks. Everyone here has made us feel very welcome and at home. We want to especially thank Jamie, Stacie, Wycliff, Margie and all the other missionaries we have met so far that have been so helpful with our transition. We really appreciate all that they have done for us. We hope to be able to upload pictures soon and will give more detail in the next few days about our trip so far. We want to also thank you all for your prayers and support.