Jeremy & Nicole

We are back

2009-11-15T11:05:00.001-08:00

We are finally back in the US. Returning to the US has been different than what we expected. We have been feeling a little out of place here, but after a few weeks, we are feeling much more normal and are adjusting back to life in the US. It is difficult to describe the emotions we have been going through. It has been great seeing friends, family, and our dogs, but we also miss our friends in Kenya and of course the babies at the baby center. We look forward to hearing about how they are doing. As we moved in to our new place we have realized just how much stuff that we have. We have been here for over two weeks and we are still unpacking. Nicole and I have enough shoes for a small village in Kenya. It will be a challenge for us to keep living more simply here in the US. As for what we are doing next, Nicole and I don’t know. We feel a little lost as to the direction for our lives. We are looking for jobs and are planning to wait about six months and then evaluate whether we will return right away to Kenya or not. We are so grateful for all our support while we were in Kenya. We will be posting many more pictures of our trip on the web in the next few days. We will post a blog when they are up. ~ Jeremy

The End of Our Term

2009-10-14T03:29:00.001-07:00

We have reached the end of our term here in Kenya. We will be flying out late Tuesday night, October 20th. Nicole and I are going through a mix of emotions as we are preparing to leave. We are very excited about seeing our family and friends as well as being in our own culture again. I personally have been really craving pickles and pretzels. But we are also leaving behind many friendships we have made with missionaries and Kenyans, and of course, we are leaving the babies at the Baby Center. We have become so attached to them over the past 9 months. Saying goodbye will be very hard. There is so much that we will miss about Kenya: the beautiful animals, the inspirational stories of the missionaries, the smiles, laughs, and sayings of the kids, and the many adventures of Kenya, where you never know what exactly to expect. I am sure we will never see guards in America carrying bows and arrows or a man walking in the city with about 20 chickens strapped upside-down on his shoulders selling them. We feel so blessed to have been able to work at the Baby Center, and it has been a privilege to work beside many people who have dedicated their lives to being servants of God. I am beginning to understand a little more fully what Jesus meant in his favorite phrase found throughout the gospels: “If you keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.” My wife and I came here to serve as best we could, but we have received so much more than we ever could have given. As St. Francis of Assisi says truly in his famous prayer, “It is in giving that we receive.” My wife and I have been blessed in more ways than we could ever have imagined, and we are grateful for all of our supporters who have made this experience possible through their generosity. Thank you so much. ~ Jeremy

Before & After

2009-10-09T00:15:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite parts about living and working at the orphanage is watching how the babies change so rapidly once they are here getting food and attention. Below are pictures of Jesse upon arrival to the Baby Center in March when he was almost 4 months old and weighing only 5 pounds. Myself, our social worker, and another missionary picked him up from a hospital in Nakuru where he had been abandoned and awaiting a home since birth.

Jesse after 6 months at the Baby Center:

~Nicole

Triplets

2009-10-06T00:08:00.001-07:00

Last week we got orphaned triplets here at the Baby Center. They are pretty darn cute. There are 2 boys; Caleb and Benjamin, and 1 girl; Lydia. We are hoping to be able to find a home where they can stay together, but obviously taking on 3 infants is a pretty big task. They are about 7 weeks old and are small but doing really well. ~Nicole

August is Over

2009-09-20T05:22:00.001-07:00

August is finally over, and Nicole and I have finally had a chance to take a few days off. We were very busy last month because of the youth being on holiday. After the Losam trip, we had many other youth activities each week, including discussions, movie nights, and a baby center outreach where about 20 youth came to spend time with the babies. In addition, I was asked to preach the next two Sundays after the Losam trip. It is safe to say that I was exhausted, though the experience was also very interesting. One quick example of this occurred on the second Sunday as I was walking to the pulpit to begin my sermon. As I am about to begin, one of the elders came up to the stage and called me to her. I took a few steps toward her, and she whispered to me that Pastor Meshack, who was away that weekend, had called and wanted to talk to me. I was caught a little off guard since this was the last thing I expected as I was about to begin my sermon. I told her the call would have to wait and assured her that Pastor Meshack would understand. Interruptions are not uncommon during our church service. In August, we also finished building our brand new ping-pong table thanks to donations from family and the help of a few friends in Kenya. We ended the month with a day trip to a nearby university, where we played volleyball, badminton, Phase 10, Uno, and many other games with the youth. We had 36 youth overall and ended the trip with a devotional and time of sharing about the many barriers and challenges we face as Christians in school, at work, and in our communities. We, of course, had the many traveling woes, which I am now coming to understand are a necessary part of any youth trip in Kenya, whether I like it or not. I guess Nicole and I can’t expect not to have adventures here, though I am sure that our “adventures” will be some of our best memories/nightmares of our experience in Kenya. One thing that we always enjoy is the good laugh we get seeing the many odd things we don’t see in America; such as the Lazarus Funeral Home, or seeing a guy working under his car on the side of the rode while the car is jacked up with two big stones under two of the wheels rather than using a car jack. Or seeing the “fire equipment” at the AGC Bible School. Apparently, the school was required to meet certain fire safety specifications, so they added a bucket full of sand near the center of the campus. Overall, things are going well and after our short rest, we are now preparing for a new sports ministry we have helped to start in our community as well as our church mission trip to Tanzania. I am a little nervous about it, but I know that the trip will be a once in a lifetime experience. Nicole is off to Tenwek Hospital (about a 3 hour drive) this evening as one of the babies is very sick. Please pray for a save journey and for the health of the baby. She will also be going through surgery in a few weeks because of a problem with her heart. Nicole and I appreciate all of your support and prayers throughout our stay here in Kenya, and we hope that our short blogs are able to give a small picture of how grateful we are for the opportunities we have had because of so many of our friends and family. God bless. ~ Jeremy

2009-09-18T02:18:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We have been here, there, and everywhere the past few weeks. This past weekend we were in Nairobi doing immigration stuff and taking a few days rest. The weekend before that we were at Tenwek Hospital for the World Gospel Field Meeting. It was nice to get out of the Nakuru area and spend some time with our friends at Tenwek.

Life at the Baby Center is going well. We are up to 29 babies. We had 30, but Joy (whom I had blogged about a few months back) was adopted last week. We have one baby who just returned from Tenwek Hospital. She was admitted due to some severe cardiac complications accompanied by pneumonia. About 3 weeks ago we also received a new girl that is about 11 months old and clearly the product of severe abuse. She finally smiled this week and it’s amazing to see the change in her as she learns that she doesn’t have to be afraid anymore.

As for our date to return to the U.S., we are still deciding. Hopefully we will have a decision by next week. Our 9 months that we originally committed to is up on October 20th, and currently we are scheduled to fly out that day. We may extend a little longer depending on the needs here at the Baby Center and our funds, but we haven’t decided for sure. It’s bittersweet as we think about returning to the U.S. We are anxious to get home to friends and family, but definitely not looking forward to saying goodbye to the kids/babies and some other friends here. ~Nicole

Faith

2009-08-18T02:01:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I had blogged about receiving 3 new girls; Faith, Elizabeth, and Deborah. What I didn’t have a chance to write about was Faith’s story. Faith was abandoned in a town about one hour from the Baby Center. Apparently she had been thrown into a choo (outhouse). She was thrown down into the hole and left for dead. Eventually someone heard her down there and called the police to rescue her. It’s amazing she didn’t drown. Upon getting her out she was covered in maggots from head to toe. They said that every orifice of her body had maggots in it and her stomach was bulging and hard from all of the maggots inside. They took her to a local hospital for treatment and were able to get her cleaned up and stabilized. It looks like she was in there for over 24 hours. Upon receiving her here at the Baby Center she looked mostly normal except her eyes were swollen and one eyelid was drooping. We took her to Tenwek Hospital to see one of our Missionary ophthalmologists. He said that her eyelids had grown into her corneas (this was due to the maggots having been in her eyes and causing an infection). He was able to cut the lids and cornea apart and we expect her to make a full recovery. Currently she is doing really well. ~Nicole

Losam Part 1 – Ready Or Not, Here We Come

2009-08-07T08:11:00.001-07:00

After a crazy few days of scrambling to make all the last minute arrangements and a prayer from the church elders, we set off for Losam. We didn’t make it too far before the first issues arose. After about a half hour of driving, we got stopped at a police check, which is usually no big deal, that is, unless your driver does not have his license or permits with him. Thus, we waited around for almost an hour. I finally went to talk with police myself, and he told me our driver was being arrested. I told the policeman that we would make arrangements for the company we were using to send us another car. After about 5 more minutes, the policeman let us go when he realized he was not going to get any chai (bribe). We were off again. Luckily, at the other police checks, they never asked to see our driver’s documentation. We arrived at the church in Kitale where we were going to sleep for the night at about 7ish. The food was not prepared as it was supposed to be so we went to town to make arrangements for the 80 plus youth that had come from several churches from around Kenya. The planning committee met while the youth were eating to make all the arrangements for transport and food in the morning. We finally finished at around 1 in the morning and tried to get some sleep. I woke up around 6 to discover that my sandals and my hat had walked off with one of the youth. This was the first of many of my things taken and one of the cultural differences that I don’t think I could ever get used to. I learned quickly not to leave my stuff in the open. I finally found my stuff and explained to the youth that he was not to use my things without asking first. We set off for Losam in the morning and arrived around 6 in the evening with only a few minor issues. The trip was long, hot, cramped, and bumpy. Upon arriving, we received a great welcome from the locals (welcoming party video), and the youth were excited about the coming week. ~ Jeremy

Losam Part 2 – Life is Different in Losam

2009-08-07T08:08:00.001-07:00

The first evening we set up all the tents that we had. There were about 20 or so boys that did not have room in the tents so they had to make arrangements using tarps and rope. I also got the chance to sleep outside later in the week when one of my youth was getting pretty sick and the doctors did not want him sleeping outside. He thus took my tent, and I took his spot shown in the picture. But the first few nights I had a nice tent. We then went to sleep around 11 that night. My tent mate and I awoke in the morning at around 5 am and discovered we had some uninvited guests. After getting bitten several times, we finally found that we had slept with hundreds of ants. We spent the rest of the morning getting them out of our tent and getting some insect repellant powder to put under our tent to avoid future visitors. This was when I first realized that life is going to be much different this week. The people of Losam, called Pokot, have a very simple and difficult life. They live out in the middle of nowhere, and food and water supplies are scarce. When we were there, it was even the rainy season, but water was very limited. We had to dig down several feet in a dry river bed until we found water. Then we had to scoop out all the dirty water and let new water filter in. After that, we filled water containers and carried them for drinking water, cooking, and showering. It was a long process. I am not sure how the Pokot women survive. They have to fill their containers and carry them on their heads for several kilometers. As for the showers, they consist of filling a bucket, walking around the corner of the river, and using your hands to get wet, lather, and rinse. The showers are very simple as you can see in the first photo here. I also sometimes had visitors who were very interested in what this white person was doing out in the middle of nowhere, showering out in the open. Here they are in the photo to the right. Bathrooms are also much different in Losam. The good news is that they are all around everywhere you go. The bad news is that they are only bushes. At a few places the Pokot people have built some coverage around the bathrooms as in this photo. Naps are also very common for the Pokot people when they are out traveling in the desert. The men carry this chair here, which also serves as their pillow. The women and the children usually just find and stone to use for a pillow. It is safe to say that I had to make a few adjustments while in Losam. ~Jeremy

Losam Part 3 – The Real Work Begins

2009-08-07T08:02:00.001-07:00

Definitely, the best part of the trip was the ministry. Each morning, we woke up and had a short time of praises, prayer, and devotions together. We then took breakfast and were off to work. We divided up into four teams, and we took turns with the different responsibilities for the week. One group collected water and one group cooked food. Both of these tasks were challenging and took a lot of hard work. The third group helped with construction and the fourth helped at the medical camp that we were providing for the people of Losam. I have already discussed the challenges of water, but the food was also a challenge, especially when cooking for 80 plus people with nothing but a few stones, a few fires, and a couple really big cooking pots. We had traditional Kenyan food the whole week, which consists of ugali, beans, or rice with no drinks. Needless to say, there wasn’t a moment the whole trip where I was not thirsty. Occasionally, we had some goat meat, which was very fresh as you can see from the photos. Some even enjoyed it raw.

The construction teams worked on building a school for the locals. This is a huge need since there is not a school within probably about at least 30 kilometers, which is a long way to walk. The youth did a wonderful job with the help of one construction worker. All of the 2x4’s and poles were cut by either a machete or chainsaw, and the wood was carried by foot, sometimes for up to 5 kilometers or more. Even though it was a lot of work, we accomplished our goal and the school was completed by the end of the week. Now, the Kenyan missionaries need to find good teachers to run the school. The medical camp was the last of the 4 ministries we had during the daytime. This was also a very important outreach because medical care is very scarce out in this area. I met several people who are currently blind because they didn’t have means of treating some of the eye infections that are so common in this area. With the team that we brought, we had two doctors, a nurse, and several other medical staff. Nicole was very disappointed that she missed out on this ministry. We had the medical camp each day and the medical staff saw and treated hundreds of people. They worked very hard and had a huge impact on the people of Losam. During each evening, we had a church meeting with the locals. The first night, we sang some praises and introduced ourselves. I also had the privilege of preaching to the group, though I was not well prepared since I was asked to preach about 3 minutes before the sermon was to begin. I decided to speak on one of my favorite passages from Luke 10, when Jesus answers the question, “And who is my neighbor?'” The pastor of the church translated to Pokot and our youth really enjoyed my accent and attempts at speaking Swahili. The following nights, we showed a Jesus film in their own language. Though it was a great deal of work to set up and prepare the film, there was a huge response, and we saw God move in a powerful way throughout the week. Around 300 or more people came each night to view the film, some who walked 30 kilometers or more to see it. We did face several challenges though. The first day we got there, the generator was broken. Luckily, we were able to borrow one from a center not to far away. On the last day that we were showing the film, we did not have our sound equipment because it was sent back to the church in Kitale for a wedding. Thus, we had to use a very old megaphone type speaker that the missionary used in the area. The problem was that the input for the speaker was a headphone jack, and we only had RCA jacks. After some discussion, we decided that we could try cutting the headphone jack from one of the pastor’s headphones. After about 30 minutes of work, we were finally able to connect it to the former RCA jack wire. After some adjusting of the wire, we kept the sound from crackling as long as no one touched the wire. We then switched back to our generator, which had been “repaired,” and we returned the old one. After that, we set up the projector and discovered that it was not turning on for some reason. The only thing we could figure out was that the generator wasn’t producing the proper voltage because it was powering everything but the projector. After another 30 minutes or so, I heard a pop from inside the projector and then saw some smoke coming from the lens area. Needless to say, there was no Jesus film that night despite all our efforts. All in all, we spent about 3 hours and ended up with ruined headphones, RCA cable, and projector. Hopefully we will figure out a way to replace the projector. Even so, the Jesus film was a complete success and many people committed their lives to Christ.

In addition to the ministries that we provided, we were also able to give loads and loads of clothing and food to the pastors to disperse amongst those in need. Several youth even gave much of their own clothing and shoes to help the locals. We also donated a water filter and 3,000 Kenyan Shillings to each of the pastors and the Kenyan missionary family. They really appreciated the gifts and they will go a long way in helping out the people of Losam. The youth were also able to spend some time getting to know others from different churches and played many games together, such as Phase 10, Scrabble, and Uno. We also showed a few movies, such as National Treasure and Batman Begins, which they really enjoyed. On Saturday, our second to last day, we also went on a long and challenging hike up a local mountain. We named it Mlima Wa Mzungu (mountain of the white man) because I was the first white person to climb it . Overall, from what I have heard, they had a great time and were heavily impacted by the trip. We appreciate all your prayers and support. ~ Jeremy

Losam Part 4 – The Journey Home

2009-08-07T07:50:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, we woke up early, packed up everything, and went to attend church with the people of Losam. Pastor Bones, self-named “the general,” was the pastor who lead our entire group with assistance of the youth pastors. He gave a powerful sermon in the church service and shared his testimony about growing up as an orphan. After the service, we set off for the church in Kitale and then for home, or so we thought. What follows may be hard to believe, but I assure you it is not exaggerated in any way. I tell this story exactly as I remember it.

After church, we left for Kitale around 1PM. All in all, we had one Land Rover packed with 12 of us and pulled a trailer full of luggage. We had two public matatus (14 passenger vans) that came the night before, and we had two of our own matatus that we had been using all week. The trouble was that our two matatus were not running well at all because we had spent the week packing them full of up to 25 youth and many full water containers, driving on the Kenyan roads, if you can call them roads at all. Thus, we had big problems. I talked with the other pastors after church, and they said that the vans were almost fixed, so we took the Land Rover to the next center about 20 kilometers away because we had to drop of the rest of our remaining medical supplies at a local dispensary. We waited at the center in the Land Rover, and we assumed it would only be about 20 minutes or so, but after a few hours, we were really starting to get concerned. We had no cell phone signal, so we could not call them. Finally, the two public vans arrived and the youth informed us that one van had broken down after about 15 kilometers. They also informed us that one of the youth in the van was convulsing. The drivers of the public vans refused to wait around so we sent them to Kitale. We were not sure what to do. We finally found a mechanic, discussed what was wrong with the one vans, named Posta Pay, and sent him with the doctors and a rope in the Land Rover while the rest of us remained with the trailer at the center. You might be asking yourself what the rope was for, and you may not believe the truth but here it is anyways. I discovered that the main problem among many others with Posta Pay was that the belt had broken. I know that I said they were repairing Posta Pay in the morning and they were. The problem is where do you get a fan belt for an engine when you are out in the middle of nowhere? Well, their idea of repairing meant that they had reconnected the several pieces of the old belt together with speaker wire. Don’t ask me how or why they thought this was a good plan. Anyways, the belt of course broke after 15 kilometers. This is were the rope comes into the story. The mechanic’s idea was to replace the belt with the rope, which was more like twine. We had no other option, so he hooked it up, and surprisingly, the fan was running. So finally, at around 7, we see the other vans and Land Rover arrive at the center. After six hours we had made it 20 kilometers. Those of us that were waiting at the center were relieved to say the least because it gets dark at 7, and we had no place to sleep nor any idea about where or when the others were coming. So we all set off together again for Kitale. We made it another 5 kilometers or so, and Posta Pay starts overheating. Apparently, the rope is not running as efficiently as a belt. The other van goes ahead a few kilometers, and we remain behind to help Posta Pay. The driver removed the water cap and steam flew everywhere. We added what little water we had left and waited. We were finally able to get ahold of the other van by cell phone after walking around everywhere to try to find a signal. To our dismay, we discovered that the other van had broken down as well. To add to our problems, we had one youth, who was throwing up, and another who had begun convulsing again. Luckily, we had the doctors with us, so they were able to manage it. It was close to 10 o’clock by this time, so we had traveled around 25 or so kilometers in 9 hours and still had over 100 to Kitale. We had not eaten lunch or supper and had to conserve what little water we had for the vehicles, two of which were overheating after about 5 minutes of driving. Our only hope was in another van that was sent to us in the afternoon to replace Posta Pay. The problem was that we could not reach them by phone. So we waited and waited. When we finally got hold of our rescue van, we discovered that they had taken a wrong turn, were lost, and were about 5 hours away. So here we are in the middle of nowhere, we had two vans broken down, our third was leaking brake fluid, we had no food, very little water, one youth sick, and another that needed a hospital, and our only hope of rescue was lost 5 hours away. All the leaders that remained met, and we had literally no idea what to do. We discussed all our options, laughed a lot (I think we were on the verge of insanity), and in the end, we decided to go forward very, very slowly. At least it was a moral victory as we were going toward our destination rather than just sitting, even if we only made it a few kilometers ever hour. We decided that before we set off, we better pray, so we joined hands, prayed, and discovered that one youth passed out during the prayer, but we set off nonetheless. We continued to laugh at the whole predicament that we were in and began singing praises, especially “Blessed be Your Name” because of the bridge that says “You give and take away” for we joked that the Lord had given us two vans and He had taken them away. But we kept our spirits up and kept trudging along. I began timing the time between breakdowns. We usually made it around 4 minutes and one time we made it almost 9. We finally made it to an area that had a clearing on the side of the rode and decided to stop and hopefully the other rescue van would arrive. We also discovered that another rescue van was sent by the team that went with the two public vans. We set a tarp down, unpacked our blankets, and sent the Land Rover ahead to try to go to the next small center to get some food. Luckily, they came upon a drunk lady, who was on a motorcycle that had broken down. They brought her to where we were sleeping and brought the soda and crackers that she had with her. They then bartered with this drunk lady from Uganda at 2AM for sodas and crackers out in the middle of nowhere. Only in Kenya can you have this experience. I think it was around 4AM that our first rescue vehicle finally arrived. The second came an hour later. Thus, the remaining youth were on our way while Bones, a mechanic brought by the first rescue van, and a few youth remained behind with the two broken vehicles. Eventually, the mechanic got one of the vans fixed and they towed the other the rest of the way. I talked with Bones later that day when they finally arrived about 16 hours later. He said they made it, but it was pretty frustrating because the twine that they were using to tow broke about 150 times. By the way, throughout the whole ordeal, I did not hear one complaint from any of the youth. I was very impressed. The Kenyans have a proverb that says, “polepole mwisho hufika” “slowly slowly the end always arrives.” Never has that saying been more true.

The most memorable moment for me was when we were praying together at the end of the trip before setting off for home from Kitale. Everyone was exhausted and ready to be at home, but we still had two youth in the hospital, and Bones and a few other youth had not yet arrived with the broken down vans. Just before the prayer, one of the youth began leading us in the praise song, He Knows My Name. There was something so powerful in the words of the song, and they were so appropriate.

I have a Maker, He formed my heart

Before even time began, my life was in His hands

I have a Father, He calls me His own

He’ll never leave me, no matter where I go

He knows my name, He knows my every thought

He sees each tear that falls, and He hears me when I call

The song brought tears to my eyes and reminded me about what missions is all about. My Creator cares deeply about me. He cares so much that He sent His son to die upon a cross for me. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16) Our Creator also cares deeply about the people of Losam and every where else in the world for He commands us “to go and make disciples of all nations.”

I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from many of the Kenyan pastors and churches of AGC (Africa Gospel Church). They have so very little, yet they give so much. I have learned much about the few verses that follow 1 John 3:16 through the examples of these dedicated disciples, and was able to see the fruits of their labors through the four mission trips over the past 5 years that the urban AGC youth have taken to Losam. The youth have made a lasting impact. There is now a local church, which the youth built on their first trip to Losam 5 years ago. The church is thriving with over a 100 members, who attend regularly. There is a Kenyan AGC missionary couple in Losam full time. The church is beginning a school and the health of the community has been impacted in a profound way. One Pokot man that we visited used to be one of the worst cow thieves in the area. He was angry and a drunk. Because of the ministries of the youth, he is now saved, an active member of the church, and is a leader in evangelizing to the rest of the community. What a privilege it has been for me to work with these fine young men and women. ~ Jeremy

“People will always look at our lives before they listen to our words.” Richardson

The New Girls

2009-08-03T05:25:00.001-07:00

Deborah

Elizabeth

Faith

Teresia

New Roommate

2009-08-01T08:02:00.001-07:00

I had blogged on Tuesday that we were to get 2 new girls on Wednesday. We ended up only getting 1 because the other baby’s paperwork wasn’t ready. Anyways, the one who came (Teresia… previously named by her mother before she was abandoned) brought a little surprise with her. She has Chicken Pox. As it happens none of our other 25 kids have ever had it. Also, most of the caregivers haven’t either. As you can imagine, if we had an outbreak of Chicken Pox at the Baby Center it would be disastrous. Trying to manage that many sick kids would be awful not to mention we currently have several new babies who are malnourished, underweight, and immunocompromised. If one of these babies contracted Chicken Pox it could be deadly for them. So as soon as she got here we got her up to our apartment and have been keeping her quarantined here. Luckily both Jeremy and I have had it in the past. Teresia will be 5 months old next week and weighs only 7.9 pounds. She is doing well right now and will be staying with me until she is no longer contagious. I will post pictures once Jeremy returns with the camera.

As for Jeremy, I haven’t heard anything from him since Monday night. I don’t think they have cell phone reception out where they are. I’m sure he will have some interesting stories to tell when he returns on Monday. ~Nicole

Baby Center Update

2009-07-28T01:29:00.001-07:00

Well, Jeremy left for West Kenya on Sunday after church with his group of 13 youth. During the night on Saturday we got a call saying that the people who were supposed to transport them had decided to cancel. So after a lot of scrambling on Sunday morning they were able to get some last minute transportation arranged. But as of when they left on Sunday they still didn’t have enough tents…. so I’m not sure what they are going to do about sleeping arrangements. I got a text from him last night saying that they had arrived safely to their destination, but that’s the extent of what I know about how things are going. I was unable to go with the group due to a lot of needs at the Baby Center from us having been in the U.S. and many sick babies. Also, there is a work team here now from World Gospel and they were in need of some help since none of them had been to the Baby Center before.

Last week we got 3 new baby girls at the Baby Center. Their names are Elizabeth (4 months), Deborah (4 months), and Faith (3 months). The ages are all just guesses since they were all abandoned and we have to estimate based on their development, looks, etc. We are also supposed to get 2 more girls tomorrow. We currently have 25 babies/kids (27 after tomorrow). The older kids have been getting fostered or adopted a lot lately. It is really changing the atmosphere here. We currently have about 9 who are 2 years or older. I will try to post pictures of the new babies later this week. ~Nicole

Off to the bush

2009-07-25T14:36:00.001-07:00

Last shower for a while. Wish me luck. ~ Jeremy

Back in Kenya

2009-07-24T10:04:00.001-07:00

After the long and cramped flight, we are back in Kenya. We arrived Tuesday evening and are adjusting back to life here. We were very glad that we were able to make it back for my grandpa’s funeral. He was a very special person, and we will miss him very much. I will carry with me so many wonderful memories and feel very blessed for the time I had together with him. My grandma and grandpa have always been there for me and gave me support in everything I did. I am grateful for all they have done for me. Our prayers go out to my grandma, my mom, her brothers and sisters, and the rest of the family. The trip was bittersweet as we said our goodbyes to my grandpa, but we also were able to meet our two new nephews for the first time. We were glad to be able to see our families and friends as well. We have missed them so much. It was also nice to be around our own culture again, if only for a few days. Now, we are back to our busy schedules. It has been a crazy few days as our church youth are taking a medical missions trip out into the middle of nowhere in northeastern Kenya. I was very fortunate because an intern just started at our church a week before we came home, and he has done a terrific job helping to organize the trip while I was away. Even so, we still have a lot of catching up to do as we prepare to leave on Sunday. We have about 50 youth that are going from several churches. We are staying in tents, but we have not yet been able to allocate them (AHHHHH). All of our hopeful sources have fallen through. It will be an interesting trip to say the least, though I am very excited about the impact that it will have on our youth. I am not as excited about no showers for 8 days with 50 youth. Hopefully I can find some nose plugs. ~ Jeremy

New Videos

2009-07-17T10:18:00.001-07:00

If you read my wife’s previous blog, you know that we are in the states for a few days. We wanted to take advantage of this time to upload some videos and photos, since the internet in Kenya is terribly slow. Here are two links to some photos and videos we added from our safari trips with our parents. ~Jeremy

Maasai Mara Videos

Maasai Mara Photos

We’re Home… well just for a little while!

2009-07-13T03:20:00.001-07:00

The past few days have been an absolute whirlwind for us. My parents just left last week from visiting us in Kenya (which I still need to blog about) and we found out on Thursday night that Jeremy’s grandfather had passed away in his sleep. We were faced with a decision we hadn’t encountered since we’ve been in Kenya. We wanted so badly to be home with family during this difficult time but it’s also difficult to get half way around the world within a few days. After a lot of searching we were finally able to find plane tickets for a good price and decided to come home for the funeral. We arrived in country Sunday afternoon. We are only here until next Sunday, but are really grateful we were able to come home. Jeremy’s grandfather was an extremely special person, to us and his whole family, and he will be missed so much. We are experiencing a bit of reverse culture shock right now. It kind of feels like we are in a dream or something. We are enjoying being back with family and having some American luxuries (Subway, McDonalds, milk, smooth roads, carpet, etc.) but will also miss the babies and kids at the Baby Center. Life just doesn’t seem right when you don’t get a hundred hugs a day! ~Nicole

Mom and Dad

2009-06-23T09:50:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-18T08:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-11T07:01:00.001-07:00

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

Joy

2009-05-21T04:10:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday we got a little, actually very “little”, surprise at our gate. The police were standing at our gate with a baby girl. She was apparently abandoned in a bush not too far from the Baby Center. She was found by two women who were walking by and heard her. We are not sure how long she had been left there, but she appeared no more than a day or two old. She was naked with nothing but a tiny little shirt and covered in dirt, grass, feces. She looked terrible to say the least. Our social worker got the approval for the Baby Center to keep her so we moved her in. Her temperature was low and she only weighs 3 pounds, so keeping her warm without a warmer has been a challenge, but she is doing well. One of our caregivers named her Joy. The picture to the right was taken yesterday and already she looks so much healthier than Saturday. She is a fighter to say the least. ~Nicole

Flight (forgot to post so this is a little late)

2009-05-12T04:36:00.001-07:00

We made it safely back to Nairobi. We are staying overnight with one of the missionaries and will be back at the baby center tomorrow. The airport in Malindi was one of those small, single airplane, high security types. The check in was a kind of do it yourself check in. I went through the metal detector, the alarm went off. Nobody was concerned or even paying any attention, so I decided to take off my belt and go through again, but I don’t think it was really necessary. They didn’t even check our IDs or passports. We just showed our handwritten boarding passes which had the names Jeremy and Micola. The plane arrived and we just sort of found our way to the plane to get on and then chose our own seats. It was very relaxed to say the least. Not what we are used to. ~ Jeremy (written just after our Malindi retreat)

28 Reasons

2009-05-08T02:22:00.001-07:00

First of all, in case anyone was wondering, we have been able to reclaim Jeremy’s email account and also have locked the “fake Jeremy” out of our bank account. He was apparently having quite a good time spending our money applying for colleges and signing up for online dating services! Luckily our bank has reimbursed us, so no problem there.

On the Kenya front, things here continue to be going well. We just wrapped up April which was one of our busiest months. The kids here do year round schooling and are off in April, August, and December. So as the youth leaders here this meant a lot of work for April. We had youth events usually 3-4 times per week. I now have a new appreciation for my youth group leaders!

The Baby Center is doing well. We have had an increase in Kenyans interested in fostering or adopting. It is exciting to see the kids get homes, but at the same time it is really difficult to say goodbye. Lately a few of our older kids (2-3 years) have left. I worry about them the most because the Baby Center is all they have ever known. I am sure they are so overwhelmed first of all to see the outside world and secondly not to be around anyone that they know.

We got a new baby last week. Her name is Jessica. We guess she is 3 months old. She is actually pretty healthy and only slightly emaciated, which is a switch. I was excited to finally get a girl. We currently have 21 boys and only 7 girls (including Jessica). Needless to say, the girls here quickly become very tough having to live with 21 boys. I’m really enjoying working with the kids here. I told Jeremy that I definitely have 28 reasons to get up and go to work everyday! ~Nicole

Malindi

2009-04-22T13:40:00.001-07:00

This week we have had the privilege to spend time with many of the WGM missionaries from all over Kenya at the annual WGM retreat. Despite what a previous blog said, which we just deleted, we are not in Europe (there was a scam posted asking for money for Jeremy Greenlee, who lost his wallet). Don’t know where the posting came from. Anyways, the retreat was actually held at a beautiful hotel on the coast of Kenya in Malindi. Though we have enjoyed our stay greatly, we have frequently been blessed with the scoots (sorry, probably too much info)! Our intestines are not yet adjusted to the extra parasites in Kenya. The hotel is an all inclusive resort and the food is wonderful. We had to pay the expensive rate of 5000 shillings (about 60 US dollars)! That included all our expenses while here, so the trip was well worth it since it was so cheap. We also were able to get a free 30 minute windsurfing lesson. It was a blast. We have had meetings throughout our stay here and had the privilege of hearing from Roy Lauter, former professor at Asbury College, who gave us powerful lessons about centering down with God. We also were able to get to know many of the missionaries a little better. We feel extremely blessed to be able to work with these amazing people who have given up so much to serve God in difficult circumstances throughout the country, many for over 20 years. It is amazing to hear about all that has been accomplished through these dedicated and humble servants. We live where we work, and thus we often do not get much time to relax, so the timing for the retreat was perfect as we were able to get away and take some much needed rest. Though we have not had much free time because of all the meetings, which were very enlightening, we feel refreshed and excited to return to the babies! ~ Jeremy and Nicole

Mt. Longonat

2009-04-10T22:25:00.001-07:00

Planning for any youth event in Kenya is significantly more challenging than in the United States. Today, we took a hiking trip to Mt. Longonat with the youth, which would seem to be a relatively simple event with little or no room for complications, or so I thought. It is safe to say that I am completely exhausted tonight after the day’s events. The few main tasks in planning this hiking event are relatively simple when in the United States, but they are definitely not so here. My first task was to arrange transport and determine the cost of the trip. Pastor Habib and I contacted a few people and worked out a deal with one of our church members, who owns a matatu (public transportation van). We were given a price of 300 shillings per person and reserved 2 matatus for Friday. I inquired whether there would be any other expenses and was told that there was no entrance fee to Mt. Longonat so we set the price for the youth to be 300 per person. Nicole and I planned to provide breakfast for the day, which of course is chai and bread. We decided to have the youth pack their own lunch. My second task was to announce the details to the youth at church and have them sign up. On Sunday, after we made the announcement and had the youth sign up, the church member informed me that they could no longer provide transport for 300 per person but could do it for 400. I talked with Habib, and we decided that the church would supplement the remaining since we had already told the youth 300. I then was informed that there was a 200 shilling entry fee for Mt. Longonat and that some people lit the mountain on fire because they were angry with the government and that the park had been burning for 4 days. Luckily, it rained the next few days to put out the fire. A few days later, on Thursday, which was the day before we were leaving, I received a call at about 9 PM stating that one of the matatus was in Nairobi and would not be back until 9 AM the following day. We needed to leave by 7 so we had a big problem. I then talked with the owner, who assured me that the Matatu was coming back Thursday night instead now so it could be ready by 6:30 AM Friday. I then discovered that our other reserved Matatu was headed for the Masai Mara. Another big problem. The problems continued for another 2 hours until we finally were able to secure another Matatu, but for a price of 450 now per person, which meant we would have to pay our first matatu 450 as well. Friday morning comes and I have no idea how many youth will actually come because you can never be certain despite having a sign up sheet and calling to confirm with them the night before. I told them to be at the church no later than 6 AM and that we were leaving at exactly 6:30 (I actually had the goal of leaving by 7 because time is very relative here). The youth finally arrived and were ready to leave at 7:30. We had another big problem though. One of our promised matatu was still in Nairobi and could not come, thus we needed 18 seats and only had 14 available. Luckily, we had a missionary’s car that was available, so we took that as well. Habib also informed me that the other matatu that had arrived was refusing to take us now unless we paid 500 per person. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! We finally left at 7:30 and of course, some of the youth did not bring any lunch, so the youth leaders in the front Matatu, without being kind enough to let me know (I was in the car), told the driver to pull in to a near by grocery in Nakuru so the youth could pick up some lunch. I assumed we were just picking up our other youth member in town, as we had planned. We then had someone, not sure who he was, take the licenses of our two drivers and refused to return them until we paid him a 500 shilling bribe because we were “parked illegally.” I am not sure what exactly transpired after the matatu driver and I began negotiating with this man (most of the conversation was in Swahili). One of the youth then told me that things were taken care of, whatever that means. I am not sure if the driver paid the bribe or not, but we left after about an hour of delay. So we finally reached Mt. Longonat. Margie and I, the two wazungu (white people), also discovered that we were being charged 8 times the amount of the Kenyans. Since Margie didn’t have her residency papers with her and I have not yet gotten approved, we were forced to pay the extra charge. I also had to supply each youth with a bottle of water, since most did not think to bring water when hiking one of the highest mountains in the rift valley (I figured they would forget). We ate breakfast and began our ascent at about 11 AM, about 2 hours later than when I planned, which meant that we were joined by the sun’s most intense rays as we climbed. Somehow, we managed to get everyone up and down the mountain and returned safely. As my wife and I like to say often to each other, “Nothing is easy in Kenya.” The youth did have a great time and were able to bond well during the trip so that’s what is important. ~Jeremy

Urban Pastors Conference

2009-04-03T12:16:00.001-07:00

Last week I had the chance to attend an Urban Pastors Conference in Nakuru for 3 days. Though the days were very long, it was a rewarding experience as I learned much about the culture and was able to meet many Kenyan pastors from around the country, who were very accepting and kind. I was very humbled as I began to get to know some of the pastors. Many of them are serving in some extremely difficult situations. One pastor I met has a budgeted salary of only 5,000 Kenyan shillings per month (about 60 dollars) and the church cannot afford to pay even that. He has a wife who does not have a job and, I think, three children, and he cannot afford to pay for their schooling. He said that many of members who do tithe can only afford to tithe about 50 shillings, which is around 60 cents. One pastor was asking for prayer that they could afford to get electricity for his church, another was thankful that his church could replace windows on one side of the church and was praying that they could raise enough money to replace the windows on the other side, which was a much needed project. Another pastor was asking for prayers that the church would be able to install bathroom facilities as the congregation is currently using his own personal bathroom at the pastor’s house. It made me realize how feeble some of the things are which we worry about having in our churches in America. It makes me wonder, with over a billion people in the world living in desperate and grinding poverty, most of whom are starving, have no health care or access to clean water, and cannot afford education, about how much the churches and Christians in America, if we gave just a portion of what we spend on our lavish sanctuaries, new cars, and bigger houses to aid in fighting poverty, what a difference it would make. Ronald Sider, in his wonderful and very challenging book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, quotes “The Christians of the world enjoy an income of at least $10 trillion a year. It takes only about $500 to create a new job among the poor and improve the living standard of a family of five by 50 percent within a year. At $500 per job, 1 percent of Christian income for just one year could create new small loans producing 200 million new jobs. In one year, that many new jobs could improve the well-being of one billion people.” I do not think that spending money on buying nice things or building up the church is a bad thing in itself but hearing the stories of the many pastors who are making an impact with what little resources they have makes me wonder whether our priorities are up to par with the way Jesus would have them. I am reminded of God’s anger for Israel in Isaiah chapter one and also Amos 5, where God declares that he is sick of all their sacrifices, prayers, offerings, celebrations and pious meetings because they forgot about the poor. “Give up your wicked ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of the widows.” Isaiah 1:16-17. “I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry.” Amos 5:21-24. Apparently our worship for God is not enhanced by upgrading our sound systems if we forget about helping the poor. I need to reevaluate my priorities. ~ Jeremy

Panya Hunting

2009-04-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

We had an interesting day today at the Babycenter as we were hunting for some unwelcomed panya (rats). A few of the workers, including Sammy, Mwangi (pictured here and below), and I had a successful hunt. Apparently, the Kenyans are not at all afraid of rats as they were enjoying the hunt. One worker had even taken off his sandals to use as projectile devices and used his bare feet to kick the panya. They were also trying to get the rats out from under tight places, so they would lay down on the ground with their face about 6 inches from where the rats were hiding in order to get a good view. I guess they are not afraid of the rats having a good shot at biting their noses. They were more courageous than I. Nonetheless, I was able to kill two. In all we killed 26, including 10 babies and 16 adults, and about 6 of them were big boys. Nicole is glad that we are on the second floor. We are both glad that my mom has already booked flights here so there is no turning back for her despite reading this post. Even now, as I am writing this, Nicole is freaking out because of a spider crawling on her while she is in bed. Such things are normal for the Kenyans here. ~Jeremy

New Pictures!!

2009-03-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

We have uploaded some new pictures this morning such as this one. I am not sure if you can see very well, but this giant ball of straw in the background is actually a man on a bicycle, hauling more hay than you can imagine. When we passed him on the road, you could not even see the biker. The hay was all around him and packed up to about 10 feet high. I have put a link on the photo so you can hopefully zoom in. It was quite a sight to see. Nicole and I laughed out loud for about 10 minutes. The Kenyans are very versatile with their bikes. One of our friends actually carried a couch (yes, I know it is hard to believe, but I am actually talking about a regular size couch that fits 3 people comfortably) on his bike about 10 kilometers on a horribly bumpy dirt road to his home from our church. Regrettably, Nicole and I were not able to get a picture of it. If you want to see our other new pictures, you can check out our link on the right of this page. ~Jeremy

Kenyans and Tacos

2009-03-24T11:18:00.001-07:00

Apparently, the youth here in Ngata have never eaten tacos before. Nicole and I had the older youth (anywhere from 18 to 26 years old)over to our apartment on Sunday after church. We were expecting around 5 or 6, but we discovered that whenever you mention food, the Kenyan youth are listening. “If you feed them, they will come.” And they did, about 20 of them. Though we were excited to have that many, we were completely out of food by the end of the day. We served them tacos and pizza, but the youth were a little confused. Even after I demonstrated, they still did not understand. One was even trying to wrap his piece of pizza inside his soft taco shell (chepati). ~ Jeremy

Lost in Nakuru

2009-03-08T10:58:00.001-07:00

So Nicole and I made the major mistake of thinking we could find our way at night to a church in Nakuru called Lakeview from the directions of one of our Kenyan friends. We took his word that it would be easy, and we would have “no problem.” So we dropped him off in town on his way home, and he told us to just go straight on the road that we were on. We would not go very far and then we would see a “center” and turn light (right, his r’s sound like l’s). We would then turn left on the second road. Little did we know that “not very far” to Kenyans can mean 500 meters or 50 kilometers. It did not take us long to realize that we had know idea how far we were supposed to go and that we had know idea what was meant by a “center.” So we decided to call Pastor Habib. He told us just to pull over, and we told him what building we were by. He then told us, “I am coming.” It did not take us long to realize that he had no idea where we were. So we called him several more times describing where we were, with each conversation ending with “I am coming.” Eventually we called him back and told him that we would drive to where he was. We ended up driving back to downtown Nakuru to meet him at a local grocery store. After another hour or so of observing the night life in downtown Nakuru, Habib finally found us. We were only about two hours late for dinner at the home next to the church! We learned an important lesson that if we need directions, we ask one of the missionaries. ~Jeremy

Sorry It’s Been So Long!

2009-03-08T08:52:00.001-07:00

Wow, we haven’t blogged in a long time. Things have been crazy busy here and then every time I go to blog I don’t do it because I don’t even know where to start. It seems like we have a million new experiences daily and so much is always happening. We have both been busy with our jobs. We try really hard to keep Monday as our one day off, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. I think part of it is that we live and work at the same place so sometimes there seems to be no escape, but at the same time it’s great not having to commute and we love living with the kids and babies! I have had many sick kids lately, but everyone seems to be recovering. Once one kid catches something it spreads like wildfire. Priscila, the Kenyan nurse that I work with here is gone for training this week, so it will definitely be an extra busy week for me. Healthcare here is enough to make any American crazy, but I’m adjusting!! We have had 3 kids leave in the past week. One was adopted, one went to a foster home, and another to a home in Nairobi that is better equipped to handle children with disabilities (she had cerebral palsy). Which means we have openings for more kids! On Monday we got a new little boy here, we guess him to be 4 months old, but it can be so difficult to tell. He was abandoned recently in a nearby village. Overall he seems to be healthy which is amazing considering the circumstances he is coming from.
We are also driving now! It’s nice to have a little bit of freedom. We share vehicles with other missionaries here. The driving is so hard to get used to. Opposite side of the road and car and there are absolutely no rules at all. Pretty much, the most aggressive driver is the one who gets through. Jeremy loves it because that is about how he drives in the U.S. He was driving in downtown Nairobi last week and did great, he fits right in. As far as Swahili goes, we are getting there. We can now at least communicate with the kids.
Since Jeremy works at the church as well as the baby center we get invited to homes for dinners or lunches A LOT! It’s been a great cultural learning experience and has been very entertaining as well. Sometimes it is a 4 or 5 hour ordeal, patience has been something we have really had to learn since being here. A couple weeks ago Priscila and I sat in a hospital waiting room for 9 hours in Nairobi with 4 kids, two of which could not walk. So we are definitely having to learn to slow our pace sometimes!
We will try to blog much more frequently! We have moments of getting pretty homesick, but overall we love it here. I tell you what, first thing I’m doing when I get off the plane in the U.S. is getting a giant fountain diet coke!! Oh my gosh, I can’t wait! ~Nicole

2009-02-20T04:34:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-16T09:10:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-15T10:00:00.001-08:00

Kenyan Hotel

Kenyan Ladder

Kenyan Bed

2009-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-07T06:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T12:32:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

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.

Packing AHHHHHHHHHH

2009-01-18T19:23:00.000-08:00

After a weeks worth of running around like crazy, we are finally finished packing (hopefully)! It has been quite the experience trying to figure out how to pack for a year. The missionaries in Kenya have been extremely helpful in advising us on things to bring. Nicole, of course, has taken the brunt of the load with all the planning. I am just the work horse and just do what I am told. It works out much better that way as she has been so organized and has done a terrific job. Typically what has happened through this whole process has been that I, (the one with ADD), would start to panic as a thought came flooding into my mind among about 10 other thoughts (that is why I often will look confused or in a daze as my mind works a little differently) about something we really needed to take care of right away. I would then rush off to tell Nicole and would undoubtedly find that she had already thought and taken care of whatever we needed to do. She has been truly wonderful through this whole process of raising funds and planning. I am grateful to have her as my partner as we take this journey together. So after about 20 hours of packing over the past few days in addition to the couple of hours of weighing bags tonight and moving a few shoes and other items from one bag to another and back again, (one shoe even went into my guitar case, which turns out to stabilize the guitar quite well. who knew!) we have our bags packed full, and I mean full!!!! Nicole had to leave as I was stressing her out because our bags are probably going to literally burst somewhere over the Atlantic. We are so grateful for how supportive our families have been and have been EXTREMELY blessed by the generosity of so many friends and family, who have supported us through prayer and financial donations. God has already increased our faith as we had to trust that the money would come in when we both resigned and had less than half of the support we needed. We now have enough to go at least 9 months! We want to thank you all again for making this trip possible and for joining together with us in the ministry at the AGC baby center. We have had a mix of emotions as we are both anxious and excited that our departure date is finally here, but it has also been difficult to say goodbye to so many that we love. We are also quite nervous, but as a close friend reminded me recently, we have to first step out of the boat before we will walk on water. We continue to ask for prayer for wisdom, courage, and strength as we continue to say goodbye to the rest of our family over the next two days. ~ Jeremy

2009-01-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

We finally have our leave date for Kenya!!! We are going to be leaving at 5:00PM on Tuesday, January 20th. We will be flying through London and arriving in Kenya January 21st! We are excited and also nervous about leaving. Currently we are scheduled to return to the U.S. on October 20th, but that is subject to change. We will try our best to keep this page updated while in Kenya. We are so grateful for all of the support and prayers that we have received and we are going to miss friends and family A LOT while we are away.

2008-12-10T21:42:00.001-08:00

Well, we are packing up our apartment in Fishers this week and moving our stuff up to Wakarusa this weekend. We are still hoping to leave in January if everything goes as planned. We are looking forward to getting things going and getting on our way as well as spending time with some friends and family over Christmas!

meeting the missionaries:

2008-10-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Last week we were able to meet with one of the missionaries that is living at the baby center in Kenya. We also met with two of the leaders from Nappanee Missionary Church that have played a large role in building the baby center. It was nice to get some questions answered about what we are going to be doing while living at the orphanage. There are currently about 30 babies living at the orphanage awaiting adoption. Nicole will be providing nursing care for these babies and Jeremy will be assisting with adoption placement and youth ministry at the African Gospel Church next to the baby center. We are getting both excited and nervous about moving across the world and fulfilling our roles in Kenya. Thanks to friends and family for all your support and prayers.