After several emails from friends and family saying they aren't getting my email updates, I decided it was time to perhaps be an official blogger? Funny tho b/c back in Jan in my first blog I mentioned that I am now an official blogger. Ha! That's a hoot since I haven't been back much since. I will try much better now.
Back in May my computer crashed and unfortunately could not be restored. All my info, data, fun stuff, pics, etc was lost. That included all my mailing list. I was devistated. It happened 4 days before a ladies retreat that I was co-hosting. I had spent weeks putting together some multi-media productions and before I could burn them on to cd's...BAM! Out went the computer. I cried for several days...so upset that I didn't think to back up my system and so frustrated that nothing could be retrieved. I will say tho that we got the computer up and running again. The only unfortunate thing is that it has a mind of its own now and I can't predict what it's going to do. I'm just thankful it's still running again. I have learned my lesson tho. If it's important.. back it up!
So much has been going on since I last shared. Where do I start? We have moved out to the mission center. THat is exciting! We love living in country life. We wake up to the screeches of our neighbor's donkey. We drink fresh milk from our cows. I even make my own butter and sour cream. How fun is that?! One of my favorite things has been getting out in the villages for walks and getting to know the people. Most of them are Warush tribe which is very similar to the Maasai. They all speak Swahili which is nice. We've been blessed to know that our presence here (CMF) has been a welcomed one. It's exciting to see how God wants to use us right here in our own back yard, so to speak, as well as out in the rural, unreached areas.
We gradutated another round of students back in June. They are now out in their perspective places of calling. We look forward to touching base with many of them real soon to see how things are going since graduating from our course. We had several tribes represented which is always interesting and exciting. I think we learn just as much from them as they do from us. :-)
A couple weeks ago our family took part in a traveling immunization clinic out amongst our maasai church plants. It was an eye opening experience, for sure! My heart was broken to see so many sick children. It's all I can do not to cry. We hosted the clinic in 2 different places. The first one was at Matale B where Peter and Solomon live with their families. I was asked to teach on HIV/AIDS awareness. I was shocked to find that even though they all knew people with this disease they had absolutely no idea where it came from or how to avoid getting it. It was mind boggling to me! We take so much for granted in the west, don't we? I mean, we all grow up hearing about HIV, how it's spread, avoided, etc. Tho people are still greatly affected by this dreadful disease in the US, we still have hope and access to powerful meds to combat it. In Africa, however... a whole different story. These people literally knew nothing. I was completely at the mercy of our precious Holy Spirit to know where to begin. He truly is the One that guides us into all truths. I didn't know where to start but He did. I simply trusted Him to anoint my lips with His words to show His heart for those precious, lost people. It was a profound moment for me. The enemy did not want those people to hear the good news. The distractions and cacaphony (sp?) were truly beyond normal. It was demonic. There was one point where my interpreter was lieterally yelling to translate what I said into Kimaasai. The distractions escalated to the point that a holy anger erupted from inside me. Out loud I just denounced the power of the enemy over those people and declared in the powerful Name of Jesus that "the True Light has come" and the enemy wasn't going to stop those people from hearing the good news.. not that day.. praise His name!
Our second clinic was literally a clearing in the bush. The drive just to get there was a challege in and of itself. The people are so thankful for our presence there that they have been working for months by hand to take out the brush to make a "road" for us to come. Now when I say road I'm simply meaning a clearing... we still have to navigate over large rocks, over brush and thru dry river beds. But it was worth it. When we got to the village of Laseret I was overcome with the compassion of God for those people. Many of the children didn't have clothes. They simply wore a cloth much like a cape. What gripped me most was the amount of eye infections. It was epidemic. I couldn't believe it. Several of them were so severe that any chance of sight being restored was at the mercy of our Healing God! Lorivi, our tanzanian clinician shared a lesson on hygeine and eye care.The people were so grateful as they simply didn't know all the things that we think are common sense.
Maasai are herdsmen so cows are an integral part of their lives. In fact, their lives revolve around their cows. All around their bomas is cow dung...everywhere. We were invited to one man's boma for tea. We literally sat on stumps in a "yard" of cow dung...I mean everywhere. The flies were like something out of a horror movie. You can understand then why I wasn't shocked to find all the children in that boma with eye infections. My heart broke. They didn't understand that doing something so simple as cleaning up the cow dung from around your home would cut down on illnesses being spread by infectious flies. Imagine! They didn't know that a simple washing of your hands and face will help in the prevention of disease. It was all new to them. They were soooo grateful to receive our lessons. Once again, they had no basis of understanding on what AIDS was or how it was transmitted. This time tho there were no distractions. In fact, there were times you could have heard a pin drop. It was amazing. I was humbled. I left heavy hearted but hopeful that the Light of Jesus has come to the village and the darkness could not contain it! We will be doing further immunization trips to more villages in that area come Oct. I'll keep you posted!
For now we work on finishing building our house. Our plan is to be in by November, Lord willing! Todd will be working on enrichment programs for our graduates out in the field while working to prepare for our next round of students. I continue to home school the kids and juggle all the other things that come our way. Right now most of those "things" are dealing with the various people helping to build our house. Whew... what I wouldn't do for a Lowe's right now! :-)
Well... this should do it for now. I'll try and be better at blogging. Please do email us when you get a chance and fill us in on your lives.
Blessings!
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