SAFARI!

This weekend I got to go on SAFARI!! It was such a fun trip and a nice end to the week…even though I am in Kenya, it was finals week for me here too – lots of paper writing in addition to my daily work here.

On Friday, I set out with 2 other visiting staff from Tenwek for Salt Springs Mara Camp. A little bit about the Maasai Mara:

“The Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) covers some 1,510 km² (583 sq mi)[1] in south-western Kenya. It is the northern-most section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, which covers some 25,000 km² (9,700 sq mi) in Tanzania and Kenya. It is bounded by the Serengeti Park to the south, the Siria escarpment to the west, and Maasai pastoral ranches to the north, east and west. Rainfall in the ecosystem increases markedly along a southeast–northwest gradient, varies in space and time, and is markedly bimodal. The Sand, Talek River and Mara River are the major rivers draining the reserve. Shrubs and trees fringe most drainage lines and cover hillslopes and hilltops.

The terrain of the reserve is primarily open grassland with seasonal riverlets. In the south-east region are clumps of the distinctive acacia tree. The western border is the Esoit (Siria) Escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, which is a fault line some 5,600 km (3,500 miles) long, from Ethiopia's Red Sea through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and into Mozambique. Wildlife tends to be most concentrated here, as the swampy ground means that access to water is always good, while tourist disruption is minimal. The easternmost border is 224 kilometres (139.2 mi) from Nairobi, and hence it is the eastern regions which are most visited by tourists.”

That was completely copy and pasted from Wikipedia…my ‘finals week’ has exhausted all of my writing ability…I’m even surprising myself that I can write a blog at this point.

We were somewhere around here, I think:

[somewhere around Salt Lick, straight up from the word 'Tanzania' maybe?]

Anyway, the Safari was fantastic. Lots of animals, beautiful weather, amazing food. I even slept in a tent (which was AWESOME, by the way) with hyenas traipsing nearby all night. Don’t worry though, I was safe. The tents were really sturdy and there were Maasai warriors keeping watch through the night.

Throughout the weekend, I had a lot of time to love on God and let Him love on me. My friends, we serve an amazing God. The God that made every animal, the God that gives a beautiful display at sunset, the Creator of the entire universe wants to know us…like REALLY know us – intimately and completely. Wow…that blows my mind.

On another note, with 3 weeks remaining I think it is finally time to break into the candy corn.

Here are some pictures from the weekend…enjoy!

[wildebeests on the run]

[my awesome tent]

[zebras...there were thousands!]

[hungry, hungry hippo]

[Rachel and the lion's den]

[the king of the pride]

[i love the zebras - i wanted to bring one home, but the import tax is too high...]

[buffalo - scary and unpredictable]

[our safari group - our guide is on the far left - also, i want one of these vehicles]

[hippos and crocodiles]

[we visited a Maasai village]

[cheetah]

[lions are lazy...seriously]

[remember the buffalo from earlier?]

[don't judge my form, it still had skin on it and i was falling over because it was so heavy]

[nasty hyena]

[our amazing host team for the weekend]

[as we were leaving the park, we saw an elephant...and got REALLY close]

[i also love giraffes]

Changing Communities Through Women and Cows

“Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, you educate a community.” –African proverb

I am a HUGE fan of outreach that empowers women for the exact purpose expressed in the quote above (hang with me…this isn’t an uber-feminist blog :). Mothers are so influential to families and, therefore, communities. Think about all the things in your life that have been influenced by your mother…I can hardly think of anything in my life that doesn’t somehow have the fingerprints of my mom on it somewhere. Growing up, she has guided me and taught me, like her mom did before her, and like I hopefully will to my children. Women have historically been, and in most parts of the world still are, primarily responsible for child rearing and aspects of the home. So, to create change among future generations get the women on board and they will pass along the change to their children, who will pass it onto their children, and so forth. Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations, has said that the education of women is “the single highest returning social investment in the world today.”

One of the ministries going on outside the hospital (of which there are many) is called the Tabitha Ministry. It is an outreach for women, many of who are extremely poor and/or widows. It began with Bible studies and has grown to assist with their practical needs, as well, such as building a home, buying seeds, giving start-up loans for businesses, and purchasing a cow, to name a few. The spiritual guidance and material provision assist in giving the women a sense of purpose and self-worth that enables them to change their families and communities.

Several weeks ago, Linda Spriegel, one of the leaders of the Tabitha Ministry, invited me to attend a cow dedication with her and her family. A cow dedication is a ceremonial ‘giving over’ of a cow to a woman and her family. The cows are purchased by outside donors from the US or other places and churches inform Tabitha Ministry of women in need within their congregation. The Ministry gives cows to women based on need and their location. They try to spread out which communities are receiving cows so that one village doesn’t get several cows at once, leaving others without any or a long wait. Once a woman has been selected to receive a cow, a date is set for when the woman and her family will receive the cow…this is the cow dedication. So, on that day (usually a Sunday), a representative of Tabitha Ministry will attend the church service and present the cow to the selected family. The church often gives a blessing to the family and also encourages the congregation, especially the men, to assist with taking care of the cow. The cows are worth about a year’s wages ($300), so it is a huge help to the family. It’s a really awesome thing to see the Biblical charge of ‘taking care of the widows’ in action. The cow dedication consists of a lot of singing and celebration and I tried to upload a video, but couldn't do so from here.

[the church put flowers along our path to welcome us]

[the woman who was receiving the cow]

[in the center, the woman and her family who were receiving the cow; others holding the rope are church members and Tabitha Ministry supporters]

[the church covering the family with a blanket symbolizing support and prayer]

[another cow dedication]

If you would like to learn more about Tabitha Ministry or financially support them click on this link: http://www.wgm.org/page.aspx?pid=6618

Easter weekend

I hope each of you had a blessed Easter! For me, this Easter weekend was one of the best I’ve had yet. I definitely missed being with my family, but I feel like this was one of the first Easters where I have intentionally spent a lot of time reflecting on what it really means to serve a risen Savior.

Here in Kenya, Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays so I had a nice 4 day weekend :)  However, there were lots of activities going on around Tenwek so, I kept myself quite busy.

On Friday, I went out with a few people to join the youth evangelism trip that was going on from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon in a village about 1.5 hrs away from Tenwek. When I first arrived, we split into about 6 teams and dispersed to do door-to-door evangelism. However, because each house was so far from the other, we ended up walking about 4 kilometers and went to 4 or so houses. I am a bit undecided how I feel about door-to-door evangelism and its effectiveness, but at the same time it was so good to be out sharing the Gospel with people who may have not heard it before and to pray with people that wanted to give their lives to Christ. I also realized how little of that I do back home. It’s easy to forget that people around me back home may not actually know about Jesus and that I need to be more intentional about sharing what he’s done in my life and wants to do in theirs.

                                                     [sharing with one of the elders of the village]

[one of the families we visited]

[just another day in Kenya - packing 12 people inside and 5 people on top of an 8-person Land Cruiser]

[Dr. Bemm (one of the Tenwek doctors) giving the Good Friday message]

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to the Bomet men’s prison with a small group of people who were showing the Jesus film. It was a “medium-security” prison, but I’m pretty sure anyone wanting to break out could have easily scaled the barbed-wire fence…and I don’t think the guards had guns, just large sticks. I really had no other role than being there to watch the movie with the prisoners and then help hand out soap, toilet paper, and cokes. You could tell, though, that the prisoners were grateful that people had remembered them and they were very appreciative of our visit.

My Easter Sunday morning began at 6am with a sunrise service. It was so very cold, but so wonderful to start the day worshipping with other missionaries at Tenwek and some members from the community. We sang Easter hymns (which are some of my favorite hymns) with a trumpet and guitar and had a message about the importance of the empty tomb and concluded by attaching flowers to the cross as the sun came up over Tenwek. It was such a beautiful service and was a perfect start to Easter.

[flowers on the cross at Sunrise Service]

[the view from Motigo]

The rest of my day was filled with amazing food, great conversations, a 6-mile hike up to Motigo, and a phone call to home to remind my parents to buy the 50% off Cadbury eggs and Reece’s eggs from Kroger after they went to church :)

I hope your Easter was full of love, and family, and celebration, as well. Love and blessings!

FINALLY!

                                           [the beautiful highlands of Kenya]

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been in Kenya for a month. So much has happened since I arrived at Tenwek…so, I will try to summarize and share as much as possible….

A few days after arriving at Tenwek, I jumped right into the Community Health and Development (TCHD) program. The first few days I spent in a training about community/capacity building, which I am really interested in, and it was so cool to share ideas and stories with people who are out in the field. For the following 2 weeks, I went out with different TCHD groups to see the work they are doing within the surrounding villages…and let me just say, there is so much good work being done here! I have primarily been going out with the water project, which focuses on the installation of biosand water filters within homes to provide clean drinking water, but have also worked with a maternal and child health clinic and met with the HIV/AIDS team. I want to go into detail about each area of TCHD so I can fully describe (and show pictures when the internet is fast enough to upload them) of the amazing projects that are in progress daily…and to provide ways that you can be specifically praying and/or supporting the work here…so look for an upcoming blog(s) about that.

Last week I had the opportunity to teach a lesson in a Community Resource Person (CRP) training. One of the primary methods that TCHD uses is to engage and empower communities to take ownership of public health initiatives so that projects will be more effective and sustainable. Specifically, they train interested people to become CRPs within the villages and provide leadership and mobilization for projects to be accepted and promoted throughout the community. Though I couldn’t speak the language (the primary language of the villages surrounding Bomet is the tribal mother tongue of Kipsigis), I gave a talk about waterborne diseases and transmission routes by way of a translator. The CRPs-in-training were so welcoming and receptive…I felt so blessed just by being there!

Then this past week I spent in Malindi at the beach J Lucky for me, I was in Kenya during the annual WGM retreat and they needed childcare workers, so I happily volunteered for the job…especially since it meant a free trip to the coast for a few hours of work each day – totally worth it. The Indian Ocean is stunning and incredibly warm and has a really great reef. After working hard for the past month, the mini-vacation of snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, and lots of sun was a welcome one.

On a more serious note, I, along with 2 other friends and our driver, was nearly carjacked last week during my travel to Malindi. We were on our way to a hospital to take care of some business for a few patients when three men appeared on the road. One man jumped out in front of our truck with his fingers pointed like a gun (though we aren’t sure if he actually did have a gun or not) and then as I looked to my right, two men with pangas (large machetes) were charging toward us. One of the men actually hit my window with a panga and I was certain that he was going to break it. However, through God’s grace and protection, the window held, the men were not able to jump into the back of the truck, and we were able to escape with no harm to any of us. I have never before experienced such violent evil, and what’s worse is that so many people live in that fear everyday. Though it was one of the scariest moments of my life, I had no doubt that God was with us and that his hand was on us.

I am currently back at Tenwek and will be diving headfirst into several research projects I have in mind for the remainder of my time here. I still don’t know all that God has for me here, but please be in prayer that I won’t miss out on anything that he’s doing, that everything I do will bring glory to him, pray for the work going on at Tenwek, and pray for the safety of us and for the safety of the people of Kenya.

March Madness Goes International

Any of my friends could tell you I’m a huge sports fan…especially when it comes to Kentucky basketball…and even more especially when Kentucky basketball is combined with March Madness. I have forced many a friend to forego site-seeing during spring break to find a tv to watch UK in the tournament. This doesn’t stop when I’m in Kenya, either. :)  Fortunately, there are people here who are just excited about the tournament as I am and had a satellite installed prior to my arrival. So, Saturday morning at 4:30am (9:30pm Kentucky time), I awoke with several other dedicated basketball fans, albeit OSU fans…, to watch the game. SUCH a good game by the way…and I will be watching again tonight at midnight our time to cheer on the CATS to the Final Four!

More about what I am actually doing here to come… :)