1st week of main outreach! West Pakot

                While traveling to Pakot, I got my 1^st glimpse of what we’d be working with this week. Waiting for our transport vehicle, 3 little boys (probably 10-12 years old) came by, begging for money and food. At 1^st, I thought they were special needs or something, then I realized they were high. Having nothing to do, even the children resort to addictions to pass the time. Huffing industrial glue out of old water bottles, they stumbled around the streets. None of the native people seemed to care. It was “normal”.

My new little friend! This is how African
mothers carry their babies around: on their
backs. (It's actually really comfortable)

How we slept! Outside in the dirt. Gotta love it!

                After a hilarious ride on top of a lorry through gorgeous mountains, we arrived at our parched destination. Here in West Pakot, there is not water. And being no water, there is also no food. There is one well (that was put in place by another missionary team about 10 years ago) that people walk miles to and bring their herds to use. Everything is dust and dead, dry thorn trees. The daytime heat easily reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and with almost no shade, it’s quite intense. No electricity. No running water. Not even houses. There are some simple huts that they consider their “home”, but it’s usually so hot that everyone cooks and sleeps outside.

Gross!!!!

                Peoples’ priority here is their livestock. It’s ALL about their flocks. Their entire social and economic system revolves around it. Families will have as many children as possible because the boys serve as herdsmen and girls are traded as wives to gain more livestock. It does not matter that they cannot feed and clothe these children; their kids are simply a piece to acquiring more wealth. They don’t ever send them to school (you don’t need school to raise cows and have babies), so the entire area is completely uneducated. This lack of information causes some problems, such as not understanding the effects of alcohol to unborn babies and nursing infants. Again, having nothing to do in the middle of nowhere, the people have resorted to addictions to entertain them, and have become very good at making moonshine. It is the norm for people to be drunk all day, every day, including pregnant and nursing mothers. The rate of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was ridiculous. These women have no idea that they are damaging their own children.

Some of the Pakot ladies.

                So this week, we were able to work with the community as a whole. They are a very curious and welcoming people, and would usually come to where we were staying to sit with us, eat with us, and just spend time together. Since they are not educated they only speak their tribal language, so this made it very difficult to talk with them. We had a few translators, but not many. As a whole, we knew our main job as a team there was to help the people in the practical ways that we could (providing food and clothing) and interceding fervently. The people are so spiritually oppressed and witchcraft is extremely prevalent. When we were able to speak with them, we shared the gospel, and many were very open to it.

                One of the ladies that I had the pleasure of getting to talk to about the gospel was a little, old, blind woman. After a time of visiting with her, we learned that she had heard the gospel before, but she always felt overlooked by whoever was sharing it. That as “just a little old blind woman”, she was shoved into the background and forgotten about. She felt that she was unimportant to people, and therefore unimportant to God. We later learned that she is a widow; that she had 5 children and all of them died at infancy, and that now she is all alone. In a culture where you rely on your children to take care of you in your old age, this left her in a very difficult situation. She would go from family to family, staying with them for a bit until she had worn out her welcome and they sent her on her way again. This precious woman had never been shown love. She had never been told that she was valuable, that she has a purpose, that she is beautiful and treasured. As we began to share with her how God truly sees her: as his stunning creation and lovely daughter, you could see the walls of neglect and pain coming down. I sat there and cried with her as she finally began to understand: she IS important and the God of the universe loves HER. She accepted Christ as her savior that day. J

                We adopted her as our African Grandmother and call her “Coco”, which is Pakot for “Grandma”. Later that week, my friend and I went to visit her in her home and we brought the local pastor. As we visited with her some more, (this lady whom the pastor had never met) learned that she was very distantly related to his wife! After explaining the situation to his wife, they agreed to bring her to live with them. :D We praise God that she has finally found a home where she will be taken care of.

Prayer for the community of West Pakot:

-         - Freedom from the addictions that keep them bound from living their lives to the fullest.

-          -Continued spreading of the gospel in this land, and for full time workers to go there.

-          -That the Holy Spirit would continue to move in their community. Open peoples’ eyes and prepare their hearts.

-          -Strength and boldness for the believers living there.

getting ready for main outreach!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :D Wow, I can't believe it's already January! 3 months down, only 2 left.
Before we left for outreach, our camp was struck rather hard by sicknesses of all sorts: stomach infections, kidney infections, urinary tract infections, bronchial infections, strep throat, malaria, typhoid, parasites... if it was all the same illness it could have been pin pointed to something that we may have done or neglected, but seeing as how it was all different and not everyone got the same thing and it didn't really hit until RIGHT before we left for outreach, we difinitley feel it was a spiritual attack. Sadly it was severe enough that 2 of my fellow students re-agravated pre-existing health problems that were so severe that they had to return to the States for treatment. :( Our team will not be the same without them, but we are trusting God that His plans are perfect and He would not have taken them back home unless they were needed there more than they were needed here.
I was extremely ill myself; I had no appetite and wanted to throw up anything that I did eat for days (which was the symptoms of stomach infection). And knowing my appetite, that its alarming and quite out of the ordinary (I eat more than most teen boys). Before going to the doctor, my team prayed for me. I really claimed the healing as my own, knowing that God could choose to heal me then and there, or through medicine, but I knew my God is faithful. On the way to the doc, food was actually starting to sound good in theory, but I still couldn't stomach the idea of actually eating. By the time I was called in to see the doc a few hours later, I was actually hungary! After running multiple tests on me in the lab, they could find nothing wrong with me (and I was DIEING for some chicken and fries). ;) I know back in America we tend to doubt God's ability to do miraculous healings, but I will never doubt that again. I KNOW I was sick with what a few of my other team mates had, and that was a stomach infection. And it was gone. GONE! It took a day or 2 before I could eat a normal size meal in one sitting, but that's certainly to be expected when you haven't eaten in 3 days. I just really wanted to share that amazing experience with you guys. :)
Our last 2 weeks have been on outreach to Maasai land, I week in different villages. We had a kids camp during the week for ages 3-25, and revival meetings (really just church services focusing on encouringing and uplifting) every evening for the community. We would also go on home visits in the surrounding community; encouraging, praying for people, building friendships, and sharing the love of Jesus. At one home we came accross a mother who was re-mudding her house, so we got to help her. She was worried for my health though (apparently "white people are not used to hard work and I might just fall over dead at any moment"). Lol, but I had a great time helping her as long as I did and I did try to keep helping; she had to resort to telling me that she was out of mud. The people were SO friendly and welcoming! I had a hard time leaving. I made lots of new friends who all wanted to know when I was going to come see them again. It was very sad telling them that I really wasn't sure if God was ever going to lead me back here to Africa, but if He does, I will definitley be looking them up. :D
It's so humbling to visit someone who wants to give you a present of a goat or a chicken when they live in a mud hut and dont even know how they're going to feed their own family that weekend. And to refuse a gift in that culture is absolutely rude. It really makes you think about what you value: people or possessions?
My Christmas wasn't very eventful, traveling over Christmas Eve, a small group of us had decided to go ahead of the rest of the team to prep for when everyone else came, so 3 others and I were in a new village. We just went to church and ate dinner with the pastor's family. Nothing especially "Christmas-y", but it was still a nice day. Quite honestly, with the lack of Christmas music, decorations, and the 80 degree weather we're having, it didn't even feel close to Christmas time.
Funny random moments of outreach:
- all the Westerners bursting into line dancing when someone plugged their ipod into the portable speaker.
- scaring the stink out of people as they came in the dark to wash their dishes. (heehee!)
- being told by one of my African team mates that I look like Mr. Bean (I almost punched him).
- getting a Maasai name: Nolamala; "one who gathers groups of warriors". This is hilariously ironic considering all the random marriage proposals I've gotten since being here, yet on the other hand extremely profound from a spiritual perspective. :)
- swimming accross the river because I refused to go accross the REDICULOUS "bridge", which was really just 2 trees that grew at angles and were tied together in a GIANT arch over the water.
- getting a flat tire while on our safari.

We were able to go on a  safari while we were in Mara! It was AMAZING! Oh my goodness! Zebras, buffalos, wildabeast, hyeenas, elephants, giraffes, gazells, impala, dik dik, toupe, hippos, cheetahs, lions! It was crazy! The safari vehicles get SO CLOSE to the animals! It was rediculously amazing! We couldn't help poking a bit of fun at the tourists (having lived here for 3 months we consider oursleves pretty legitimately African.) We had forgotten how WHITE white people are! Seriously! We have all tanned so much! Lol. It was pretty hillarious.
After traveling all night (11pm-8am) we arrived back to our base in time for New Years. We had a Lord of the Rings marathon (how very American of us. Lol.). We also built a bonfire and chilled out under the stars.
Well, now we are leaving for our "main outreach": 6 straight weeks! I don't think I'll have any internet access durring that time, so I'm terribly sorry if I'm not able to update you durring that time.

Prayer requests:
- continued unity and creative ideas as we prepare for main outreach.
- safety and health.
- sensitivity to the Spirit and a willingness to learn and obey.

Praises:
- my finger has healed up VERY nicely! :)
- God has been shaping and molding us in such amazing ways.
- I've been abnormally NOT homesick! Yay!

Thank you all so much for your love and prayers!!! :D

My little friend, Edwin

Well, we survived our 1st outreach! This week was definitely AMAZING and I wouldn't have given up this chance to meet these wonderful children for the world. Each is so precious and unique, even if I could have adopted on the spot, it would have been almost impossible to choose.

Each day was filled to the brim with washing the kids' laundry (by hand, and quite full of mud, I might add), cooking (over fire, no gas or electric stoves), Bible lessons with the kiddos, songs and games, dishing out food, cleaning up messes, settling fights, and getting to just play. Even in all the "madness", it really wasn't that bad. The kids were great! My group of 9 and unders were fantastic, and I am horribly dissapointed that I don't have a house big enough to take all 45 of them home with me (or at least 10 of them). ;)



We learned a lot this week, about ourselves and our team. I have a whole new respect for caretakers, mothers, and teachers after spending 10 days with these rambuncious little ones. It takes a strong and commited person to be able to get themselves out of bed EVERY day just to look after others.

Precious Zipporah

Playful mayhem in the dining hall

With December now here, everyone is getting a bit homesick. Some of us on the team have decided to go old school and try to decorate everything with colored paper and whatever other stuff we can find. I had had too much coffee the other night, so I paper snowflaked the dorm windows while everyone was sleeping. :) We will be here at the home base for 2 more weeks of lecture, than we will go on a 2 week outreach over Christmas.

Prayer requests:
- Health. Some of the students have fallen ill with slight stomach problems and severe allergies. Also, I cut myself pretty good  the other day while trying to peel food (classic Sam. I really should not be trusted with sharp objects.) But it's nothing too serious. My only real concern is trying to keep it clean to avoid infection. :)
- Unity. Our team is really struggling in this area.
- Willingness to learn. I know there is so much more out there for me to experience and absorb.

Praises:
- we were safe on our travels
- I had a horrid rash from bug bites, but it's cleared up now.
- God continues to teach us amazing things each and every day.

Thank you for your prayers! I miss you all!

Kids Alive

Nairobi... how would I discribe this city? Capital of Kenya. Dazzling skyscrapers, next to metal sheet slums. Large stone walls, once pristine, now tarnished with grafiti. Tall fences intertwined romanticly with thick ivy, topped with barbbed and razer wire. A huge metal gate, painted a playful teal, in front of every drive way, with an armed guard and dogs right behind it. Hundreds of people walking the street at the same time. 75 people sitting waiting for a 12 seater mtahtu to drive their way. Peddlers selling candy, sugar cane, news papers, hats, bunches of bananas, and roasted corn for mere cents at every traffic jam. Certainly a loud and bustling city. :)

But this week, driving to our outreach, I can't begin to explain how beautiful it was, and is here! The sweet smell of honeysuckle and fresh grass, with the occasional waft of kitchen fire smoke, blew in through our open bus windows as we wound through vallys and hills covered in big tropical trees with bunches of bright yellow, neon orange, and brilliant purple flowers draping from them. Everything is green and lush... and quite muddy. We ended up having to buy rain boots just to be able to walk through the ankle-deep mud. Hahahaha!

We are at Kids Alive; a really cool organization that is in multiple countries throughout the world. They save children from abusive homes, orphans, and abandoned kids and raise them in a loving and safe environment, wether they are HIV positive or not, or special needs or not. This K.A. base has about 80 children from the ages of 3-24. 45 of them are in the 3-9 range, which is where I've been placed to work this outreach. I have to say, considering the large amount of children, I'm very pleasantly surprised at how well they are taken care of. A few people had told me to prepare myself for horrid conditions in 3rd World orphanages, but quite honestly, these kids almost have better living conditions than my own team at our home base! They are well fed, have acres and acres to run and play, their own school, running water and electricity, and are even split into "homes" (about 20 kids in each house) with "house mothers" so as to have a more "normal" lifestyle. Each of them is so sweet, and I know I'm going to be absolutely miserable when it comes time for us to leave. (Many of us have already started to ask our team leader about the Kenyan adoption process, and we've only been here a few days. lol.) But we all know that we have to return to our training after this week.

I'm so sorry it's been so long!

     1st, I want to say if you've been watching the world news on whats going on here in Kenya, we are totally safe and aware of what is going on. All the issues are miles and miles away, so don't worry about us in that respect. :)
      I am SO, SO, SO sorry that I haven't updated y'all in so long, I've been trying to figure out how the internet works around here... apparently I've been doing it wrong and it wasn't working for me. But I think I've got it now. AND I figured out pictures! (yay!)
      Our 1st Sunday we went to one of the staff's church and the 2nd Sunday we went to one of the student's church in town. On our way there, the mutatu (like a taxi bus) ran out of gas. So we all just sat there until the driver came back, lugging a giant vegitable oil can (apparently filled with gas) and we were off again. The church was nice, but had a very "western" feel (meaning it was a lot like church back in the States). As awesome as it was, traditional African church service (like our 1st Sunday here) is a totally amazing experience! The loud (very, very loud) prayer and singing for hours on end is actually really refreshing. There almost seems to be no scheduelle. The pastor of the traditional church said, "we come to church to spend time with God, not to come and leave. We stay until we feel that God feels that He's been blessed." This easily means that church goes on for 5 hours. Sometimes I wonder if we should have a bit more of this mindset back home. Now I'm not necessarily saying church should be 5 hours long (though that works for some people), but how many times have I been guilty of rushing into service halfway through worship, then checking my watch every 20 minutes to make sure that the pastor isn't talking over time, then run off to do errands or whatever I need to get done. How nice to really be able to say, "this day is to bask in the Lord's presence".
     We are now on week 8 of our DTS, and I'd be lieing if I didn't say it's a bit hard. I'd been warned by other YWAMers that week 5 and 6 are the hardest emotionally (extreme homesickness sets in as culture stress begins) and sure enough, a few of us struggled. But we are doing much better by now and are rather enjoying our life in the "bush bush".
     We've had the opportunity to do some weekend ministry, since we have classes all week. One weekend we met with the girl's high school near our base. On Saturday we were able to talk with the high school Seniors about their life plans after high school and their plans for college. Here in Africa, to graduate high school, you must take an acumulitive exam of all 4 years of high school. Your score from this test determines your future. See, here, you can't apply to college, the college has to invite you. If you score well, you have a higher likelyhood of getting into a good college. If you do poorly, you may not get invited to attend a college at all. They don't get to choose what they persue as their major, it is decided by the classes that they took in high school and how well they did in those classes. And you cannot change your major. That is what you will study, and that will be your profession; no 2nd options. So there is quite a bit of pressure on these young ladies, not just from themselves, but from their families as well. But "college life" is still "college life" all around the world. Many of them don't know how to function with all of this freedom and the decisions they will have to be making for themselves, especially if they've attended private boarding schools most of their life where all the decisions were made for them (as many of them have). So it was a good time of expressing frustrations and worries, and advice on how to remain dedicated to the Lord and your studies in such a new environment.
Sunday when we went to their school for church service, we were able to do a skit for them. We did "Everything" by Lifehouse (You can probably find a version on youtube if you're curious). I got to play the Devil... it was super fun! I smashed up charchoal since we have no stage make up, and smeared it all over my face. I was totally creepy. :D After the service we were able to chat with a few of the girls and they felt that it really spoke to their situation and they had been encouraged by it. That was such a blessing for us to hear.
     2 weekends ago we split up into 4 teams and went to different churches in the area. My friend, Rachel, and I taught sunday school. It was so much fun! We went outside and played some games first, which ended up drawing a HUGE crowd of street children. Then we went back to the class (the number of kids had about doubled by now) and taught on the joy of salvation and forgivness (in kid version): how Jesus never intended us to feel guilty, which we feel when we do bad things, and Jesus wants to make our hearts happy again by taking away our sins, and He forgets about them forever.
     I think I'm getting used to the fact that noting is really ever truly clean here. Clothes, bedding, water, food, dishes, your skin... yeah, there's just a layer of grime on everything. lol. But I'm doing surprisingly well with it all. One of my African friends' joked, "The germs here in Africa are different than those in America: when you drop food on the ground, they are so surprised, that they all run away... You have a good 10 seconds at least!" HAHAHAHAHA! I really did almost die laughing.
     Next week we will be going on a short 9 day outreach to one of the local orphanages. We will be living with the kids, helping them with chores, and doing a sort of Bible camp. Though the Gospel does need to be told, we feel a stronger compel to show it in how we live, as we interact with the kids on an everyday basis. So it will be a lot of interaction, and a lot of fun. Challenging, but fun! I really can't wait.
     Prayers for safety as we travel, continued health (praise the Lord, no one has been seriously sick), and filling of the Holy Spirit so we may demonstrate the love of Christ in how we live are appreciated. :D

Thank you so much my friends! Much love!!! <3

Week 1

So I'm really bummed! My internet here is so weak that there is no way I can upload pix or videos! (friends who wanted to skype me, this also means that skype will not work) :( I really wanted to get to show you guys everything! But I'm afraid I cant. :'( Darn. I guess I'll just have to use words...

Orientation week! Yeah! We got a tour of the base, and it's pretty huge. We walk a lot. A LOT. We walk almost everywhere and almost everything is spread out. There's a girls dorm, guys dorm, guys shower, girls shower (which is really just a bunch of stalls where you bring your bucket of water and attempt to remove the layer of dust/sunscreen/bug repellent that has built up over the last few days), guys toilet, girls toilet (and actually the bathroom situation isn't so bad! It's kind of like a port-a-poty back home. I was afraid I was going to be digging a hole.), dining hall, kitchen, base office, staff houses, children's foster home, children's school, and our classroom. Everything is built out of some kind of brick and very simple. There are shrub like trees all over that are covered in huge thorns, they live on very little water. They seriously look like the trees from The Lion King. Absolutely beautiful in their own kind of wild way.

Kenya has been experiencing a drout right, so everything has been rather dry and dusty until it rained yesterday. Dirt paths connect everything on the base. However, November is their monsoon season (yay?) so they are hoping for some good rainfall this year to help relieve the stress.

So the neighbor guy has his own minagery with lions, cheetahs, an eagel, turtles, ostritches, goats, and buffalo! :O And he is totally cool with people just coming by to check them out. So during free time we did. It was pretty amazing! The cats are still wild, and only chainlink and barbed wire seperates you. ...Yes, I pet the lion. Of course they said not too, but seriously, when am I EVER going to get that close to a lion again? Not at the zoos back home! I just couldn't resist. ;) The guys were enjoying proviking it and making it growl at them... made for some good pix! :D

All my new Kenyan friends mock my dream of riding a girraffe... I guess giraffes are hard to catch. >.<  So I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Roommates! Lets introduce them, shall we? :D In my room is Fran from Southern California, Katelyn from North Carolina, and Carol from Nairobi, Kenya. These 3 ladies are absolutely fantastic and I couldn't have asked for better roomies! They have been a constant support and abundance of friendship to me. They are helping me to make the cultural adjustment much easier.

Most of us girls got braids this week. This involved walking to town, going to numerous shops looking for hair to match (which is rather hard in dark buildings. we need extensions cuz without textured hair, the braids wont stay), starting the braiding process then realizing that we don't have enough hair and walking around for the rest of the night with half a head of long braids, and finally getting them finished the next day. They look AMAZING! I may want to keep this look up when I get home. :)

Prayer requests:
-for generous and unselfish attitudes amongst the team; whatever one does not have, often another is willing to help out with. This has been an encouraging blessing that we would like to see continue.
-relief of homesickness amongst the team; many of us are having a difficult time with the lack of ability to contact and communicate with home.
-continued unity; though English is spoken by all students and the rules suggest that we all speak it in order to bond easier, it is not most of their 1st language. So many students drift back to their native language with others that can speak it. This can cause grouping that boarders on cliques, which is very unhealthy for a team.
-ease of transition; a lot of us are having difficulties adjusting to the culture. We all knew this would happen, and will continue to be a challenge for a few months, but if the stress of it could be lightened as much as possible, that would be so, so, so nice!

Thank you all for your prayers and love!

Finally in Kenya!

I made it! Sorry it's taken me so long to give you an update, it's taken me a while to purchase an internet modem since we have to go back onto town to get it, and we only go into town once a week...

Whew! After two 9 hour flights and a 10 hour layover, I finally arrived in Kenya on Saturday morning! I met up with 4 of my other team mates in Amsterdam, and we got along great! We were hoping to get to explore the city, but we were all so tired that we decided not to go out, and we all ended up sleeping in the airport chairs... or on the floor. We did get to talk quite a bit though, and I was so blessed and encouraged to get to know them and fellowship with them before our next flight.

We were met by one of our DTS leaders, Joram, and other staff, then we were led to our waiting vehicle, which was perched precariously over the sidewalk... and not in a parking spot. (Talk about parking violation back home!) We all crammed in (no one wears seatbelts here) and drove the 45 minutes to the base. The drive was like nothing I've ever experienced! 1st off, Kenyans are VERY aggressive drivers. Horns honking all the time, though not in anger or frustration, more of a "hey, I'm here and coming into your lane, so watch out!" kind of way. People walk all along, and accross, the roads and highways and think nothing of it. Apparently people get hit/run over all the time, and seeing a dead person on the side of the road is common. Sometimes the roads are paved, and sometimes main roads just turn abruply into dirt, no cones or warning signs, continue on dirt and eventually return to pavement. There are no signs or posted speed limits; each car is allowed a maximum speed by law, varying by vehicle. Some of the roads dont have lanes marked, and it is totally fine to drive on the "wrong side" of the road to get around other cars. Just move back into your "lane" before running into oncoming traffic. At first, we were quite alarmed by all this, but we realized that the people living here have been driving this way for years and know what they're doing, so it doesn't bother me too much. I just know that I wouldn't want to drive here! :) On the road leading up to the base we passed zebras, gazelles  and giraffes just grazing on the side of the road! Crazy!
Our 1st day, we went into Nairobi to do some shopping for things that we need. We definitely stand out; white people are called "muzungus", and the local guys show no shame in hitting on the muzungu girls. I'm curious to see which of us gets the 1st marriage proposal. Hahaha! There are so many people! And everyone walks or takes public transportation. Few own cars; they take something like a taxi, called a mutahtu. It's kind of like a mini van that seats 12 but usually ends up taking 20. It's hilarious. Yes, we took one back to base with our team in it. So funny, and quite bonding. Haha!

My roommates are awesome! There are 4 of us in our room. We all get along great and our personalities mesh wonderfully. I see no reason for us to ever have any quarels, praise the Lord.

The rest of my team is great! Originally we thought there were only going to be 13 of us, but it turns out that there's only 13 "Westerners". :) There's almost 25 of us in total! However, the boys are horribly (yet somewhat hillariously) out numbered by the girls. There's about 7 guys and the rest are us girls.

We started the 1st day of classes on Monday, and I'm very excited to see how we shall be growing individually and collectively as a team. Each morning we have breakfast at 6:30, devotional time from 7-8:30, classes from 8:30-1 (we get a tea break, don't worry), lunch at 1, jobs on base (helping cook food, split firewood, pre-school/elementary school help, cleaning bathrooms, etc) from 2:30-4:30, free time till 6, dinner at 6, bible study at 7:30, and lights out at 10. Right now I'm assigned to miscellaneous help, so my dutys will differ every day (most likely peeling potatoes or helping sweep out the dinning hall). This week we are studying the book of Titus.

I would difinitely appreciate prayer for health (the food is very... *different* here.), as well as against homesickness; continued bonding of our team; and a listening heart to wherever the Lord is leading.

That's probably more than you want to hear for now, but so much has happened and I'm afraid this is the condensed version! :) Thanks for checking in! I'll try to post again soon!