Mom and Dad

 

Last week Nicole and I had the privilege of having my parents come visit us here in Kenya.  We were very excited about them coming, and it was great to be able to see them.  We have missed them a lot.  Nicole’s parents are also coming to visit us this Friday.  As many of you probably know, my mom was very nervous about the trip.  I am not sure where she came up with many of her scenarios about being eaten by a lion (Mom's Theories) or getting malaria, but in the end, she survived.  I think she actually enjoyed the trip as well. You will have to talk to her yourself to confirm.  We had the opportunity of taking them to several Kenyan homes, where they were able to learn a little about the culture and about how people live in Kenya, which is much different than in the United States.  We take for granted things like clean water, food, and shelter, but many families here struggle to survive because a lack of these essentials.  My parents were very open and willing to get outside of their comfort zones, which impressed me very much.  We also got the chance to go on our first safari with them, which we really enjoyed.  It was a wonderful experience, and I cannot think of anyone I’d rather go with on safari.  We saw many many animals including elephants, zebra, hippos, hyenas, cheetahs, warthogs, buffalo, giraffes, and of course lots of lions. The landscape is beautiful and getting to see animals in the wild is much more exciting than seeing them in a zoo.  We were able to get very close, within a few feet of many of the animals, including lions, elephants, and cheetahs.  The lions were the most exciting and a little intimidating.  One morning, we found six male lions and got within 10 feet of two of them, who were feeding on a young buffalo that was killed earlier that morning.  The other four were waiting their turn.  As we pulled up, my mom  saw the six male lions and whispered, “This is awful.”  My wife and I had a good laugh later at her expense.  The most exciting part was when the two that were feeding began to growl at each other and even began fighting over the buffalo.  You can watch the video of it here, (Lion Fight) though it is not very good quality.  We also got the chance to visit a real Maasai village, which was a wonderful experience.  The Maasai taught us about their way of living, showed us their homes, and danced and sang with us.  As you can see, my dad struggled a little during the jumping ceremony as seen here.  Above all else though, it was just nice to be able to see my parents again.  It has been a long time, and we missed them a lot.  Mom and dad, we love you both so much and could not be happier that you were able to come stay with us.  Thank you so much for everything.  We are looking forward to seeing you again in a few months. ~ Jeremy      

Youth Retreat

Not too long ago, we had an over night retreat for the youth.  The youth really enjoyed it, though it was exhausting.  I slept for about 30 minutes the whole night.  We started out the event by going to a local university, where we had swimming, ping-pong, volleyball, and other activities for the youth.  They don’t get the opportunity to do these activities often, so the had a lot of fun.  The swimming was interesting though, as only about three of the 38 youth knew how to swim.  Nicole and I thus were lifeguards for the day.  We then returned to the church in the evening.  Of course the vans that we booked showed up late.  The first arrived about an hour after we were supposed to leave the university.  The second about an hour after that, and we had to send that van back to get the rest of the youth as the third van just didn’t show up.  Anyways, we finally made it back to the church and had a short video and discussion afterwards.  Later we had a great discussion on relationships, led by our senior pastor.  The youth really opened up and I was very excited about the impact of the discussion.  The rest of the night we had movies, video games, and other card games for the youth.  The youth that wanted to sleep went to the senior pastor and our apartments while the others and I remained at the church.  The girls slept in our apartment, which was quite the experience.  They were supposed to bring sleeping bags and lay on the floor, but half way through the night, my wife discovers a few visitors sleeping in bed with her.  All in all, she had about 17 girls on the floor and 2 that just showed up in her bed with her.  In the morning, I lead a  devotional while half asleep and the youth went home.  It is safe to say that though I think the retreat had a great impact, Nicole and I  were glad when it was over.  It took me about three days to recover.  I guess I can’t stay up all night like my college years. ~Jeremy

Busy, Busy

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately.  Nicole and I have been very busy this month.  We are going to try to take most of the day off today to catch up on blogs, emails, etc.  Things are going well for us, though we miss our friends and family a lot.  My parents were here for the past week and a half, which we really enjoyed, but the visit has left us a little homesick.  Even though we have been busy, this month has been great and we are looking forward to the rest of this month and July.  Next week we have a work team coming from Nappanee and Nicole’s parents are coming at the end of June.  We have another work team coming in July as well.  We are also starting language classes for 4 hours a day beginning tomorrow.  Not sure how we are going to fit them in as our schedule is already full, but we are grateful for the opportunity. The more Swahili we learn, the better equipped we will be to reach out to the poor here as most of the poor do not speak English.  Things are continuing to go well with the youth, and I will be publishing a blog shortly about some of the activities we have been doing with them.  We recently had a movie day with them where we watched part one of the Lord of the  Rings called the Fellowship of the Ring.  They enjoyed it very much, but I am not sure how much they followed it.  I heard about one youth asking another youth about who the character with the big white beard (Gandalf) was, and the other youth replied very seriously, “Santa.” ~Jeremy