It's good to be back home!

We touched down last night at Dulles International Airport around 1 p.m. I had tears in my eyes when we hit US soil again. Interesting reaction, I thought. We arrived safely in Dallas at 7:30 p.m. and we were all so grateful to be home! After a short prayer and gathering of our bags, we all departed back to our home towns to start the recuperation process. It felt like Christmas as we handed out souvenirs and recounted some of the stories that we had to tell. All in all, it was a whirlwind day(s) of travel and it's good to be surrounded with family and friends once again.

I've added a few pictures, but there will be more to come. This is a team photo (minus Chuck who took a small break before we boarded), a photo of the beginning of vacation bible school (300+ kids and 10 workers), the house of the 100 year old grandmother raising two small boys who are AIDS orphans, and the new house we built for this family. We look forward to sharing this experience with all of you. Thanks again for your prayers and support.

We are in the home stretch!

We finished our week at Maua Methodist Hospital and it has been a hard week physically with the work, but also emotionally and physically as we have seen lots of poverty and sickness. Our team has continued to work hard laying brick, slinging mortar and building a wall for the staff flats. It's quite a process and the scaffolding is basically sticks held together with twine. OSHA would be scared stiff . . . but we have had no injuries and lots of good memories have been made.

Karol spent another day in the OR (also referred to as the theatre). She did a three hour surgery on a little girl who was burned by hot tea. Her right arm was completely devoid of skin and their were burns on her torso as well. The did skin grafts and hopefully she will escape infection and have a full recovery. However the family will struggle to pay the bills however small they seem to us.

Michelle spent 4 hours making rounds with the hospital chaplain. We began on each ward and prayed with the most sick. There is no privacy in the hospital and it is communal, so everyone participated and was roused from bed. On the units where people were being discharged, we did some singing, dancing, preaching, and praying. My heart was breaking as we consoled a mother who lost a one-year old child overnight due to burns. I hope God heals her spirit.

On Saturday, we spent a little time shopping for African fabric in Maua before we departed for the Meru farm. On our way we were stuck in a massive traffic jam because one of the local universities was having graduation and all of the families were trying to leave at the same time. The locals took over the streets and on a two lane highway, the cars began travelling 5 lanes deep the same way. May the best car win. It was very scary at times, but thankfully there were no accidents.

On the farm, we work early for breakfast and spent the day doing work projects for them. The farm is simply amazing. It is a microcosm of Africa and is used to teach farmers how they can raise animals AND grow food for them and their families at the same time. It teaches them how to be self sufficient with little land. We have helped cook in the kitchen, milk the cows (Brittani, Michelle, Cynthia), paint a worker's shed, paint the cow barn poles, move gravel and spread it down the road. We are pooped, but in a good way! By the way, one of our team members, Liz, came down with a bug and has been very sick for almost 24 hours, but now feeling a better. Please pray specifically that she feels better soon.

We are looking forward to departing in the morning at 7 a.m. and boarding a regional plane to Masiamara where we will go on Safari for two days. Upon return to Nairobi, we will go to the Elephant Sanctuary and do some last minute shopping before boarding our plane home at 11:45 p.m. It will be the longest Saturday in history for us going back in time!

This is probably the last time we have the opportunity to blog before we come home. Once home, we will upload some pictures so you can see the sights we describe and understand more fully what we have done. Thank you for blessing us with your prayers. We feel surrounded by them and know that God is at work in Kenya. We love you!

The work is hard, but the reward is beyond measure!

As the week goes on, the more blessings we receive! Yesterday, we woke up to cooler weather and a fine mist and a little trickle of rain. This was welcome to not only the Kenya people who need the precipitation, but also to us because it killed the storms of dust we walk through each day. I must mention, because I have not had a chance too in the previous blogs, that by cooler weather, I mean in the 50's. We could see our breath today. This is Kenya's wet time (winter) and it had consistently been in the low 60's. Most of us wear sweaters, jackets, and pants. But the Kenyan people think this is COLD, so they are bundled in wool hats, gloves, parkas, etc. If only they knew what cold is in other parts of the world! As I type, the rain is falling again, thank the Lord, and hopefully they will be able to fill their buckets.

Our work continues at the AIDS Orphan Home. We have completed the walls, the roof, the concrete, the windows, and patching the holes. Today's work will complete the house as we waterproof it and paint the trim. The materials seem substandard compared to what we are used to, but the finished product is beautiful. The work is hard. They do not have electricity, so we use handsaws to make all the cuts on the wood. My upper arms has used muscles I may not have known I had!

The dedication will take place at 3 p.m. and we will all go down there to take part in the ceremony. Alisalana is the mother who will receive the home. She lives with her three children and possibly more extended nieces and nephews. We are unclear right now, but we believe her husband has died of AIDS and she may be positive as well. Right now she lives in a small shack and she cooks over a wood pile outside and washes her dishes in a small dirty bowl. Her grandmother lives out back and is blind. We found out that she is 100 years old! Our team looks forward to presenting their small village with a soccer ball so the kids can play together.

Another part of our team worked hard yesterday at the staff flats on the hospital compound. They build the flats out of stone and mortar. There is no wood, drywall, etc. These are meant to last a century! The team moved stone and threw mortar at the walls. The scaffolding is quite primitive -- twigs and wood tied together -- and several had very unique experiences trying to lay brick. Many came back with mortar in very interesting places!

Shirley continues to work hard in the sewing room and they are so appreciative. The Kenyan people reuse everything until it wears out. So to have new medical supplies is a godsend.

Today, we continue work on the flats, on the AIDS house, in the sewing room and Karol will work in the ER. I will be making rounds with the Hospital Chaplain and praying with the wards before they go into surgery and see the doctors. We even preach to the visitors before they can enter the hospital. Interesting system . . . but all for the glory of God!

We look forward to updating you in the next few days. Thank you for your friendship and Christian care!

Giving Hope / AIDS Orphan Homes

So much has happened today and I struggle with where to begin. Our team was split up for different purposes today and each of found blessings sprinkled throughout. The challenge for today from chapel was to find God in everything today, the happy, the sad, the sick, the poor, nature. And he showed his face many times.

Karol Clay began her day in the Operation Room, called the Theater here. She was working with some wonderful doctors and nurses and learning their procedures. She had several biopsies and a thoracotomy scheduled. But when we checked in with her at 4 p.m. they had only done 1 of the scheduled surgeries because they had several emergencies come in. Karol's face was radiant when we went to retrieve her before dinner. However, she wanted to stay and continue her work until the last patient had been seen!

Shirley Smith spent her day assisting the hospital with sewing projects. At last count, she had completed 8 slings and had 4 more ready to finish. She, too, wanted to complete her work before dinner and chose not to leave. The room she is working in has wonderful acoustics and she said she passed her time singing and sewing.

Jim Takamoto and Liz Reed worked away on the AIDS orphan home. The continued the work from the day before and were completing the walls of the house, putting up the roof and adding the windows. At the time of the post, we have not caught up to them, so we don't have further report yet.

The rest of our group had a phenomenal trip that was educational and connectional. Our day started out with an hour of briefing on a program called Giving Hope. They work with orphans who have lost their parents mainly due to AIDS. As a result, they have been charged with being the head of household and raising their siblings. In this program, they are taught a trade and given psychosocial support to be able to take care of their family. We visited at least 7 of these children in different parts of Maua and the countryside. Some were tailors, one was a barber, another is learning how to be a mechanic, and still yet another had been taught to run her own vegetable stand. Each child was extremely thankful to God for letting them be part of the Giving Hope program. Many of them would have died and just been left to fend for themselves otherwise. It made us stop and think about how we choose to spend our money and what abundance we have been given. Our eyes have been opened to the fact that God works in every situation.

After visiting the orphans, we also visited a house being built for one of the orphans through the Giving Hope program by the Zoe program. This house was incredible and was being built in 4 days. Currently a 16 year old female named FAITH is raising 5 siblings and living in a 6 foot by 6 foot shack built of sticks and twigs with a tin roof. All 6 of them go to school and have to take turns studying because of lack of room. On Friday when she takes possession of her new home, it will have 2 bedrooms with a concrete floor and 4 windows. They will be able to split up to study. She said she will put the primary students in one room and the secondary students in another. She runs a tight household! She has aspirations to go to nursing school and continue to make a better life for herself. What we learned is that with perseverance, a good attitude and God on her side, the is HOPE. We encourage you to look at the Zoe Program website to see more about this program. You can google Zoe International.

The last thing to report today is that we stumbled upon a primary school during some of our village visits. The headmaster let us visit them. There were between 65 & 70 students in each class with 1 teacher. She had 10 desks and 2 blackboards. One class was learning the body parts in English and they began to sing the song head and shoulders, knees and toes. We sang with them and they thought we were fun! They left for lunch shortly after and stampeded us. It was the first time they had seen white people and they wanted to touch our blonde hair and rub our skin. They also wanted to "bump" fists, which was quick entertaining. What a special time for us. Many of the students didn't have shoes, wore torn and worn clothes, and were so dirty. But they had joy and passed that on to us!

Thank you for continuing your prayers for our team and for the people of Kenya. They long for God, as we do, and realize that faith is what carries them through tough times. Today we offer them blessings as the kids did to us at church. We hope they caught them and remember that their Christian brothers and sisters around the world know that we care.

Our first day of work

It is lunchtime at the hospital and we are taking a break to nourish our bodies and get ready to work more this afternoon. So much has happened in two short days.

On Sunday, we attended a local Swahili church service at St. Joseph United Methodist Church. The pews were packed and they kept making room for more as the service went on. By my best estimate, we had over 500 people in the building who were singing and praising God. Lots of good music and a wonderful service. We were actually able to sing the hymn "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus" in Swahili with the Kenyans. The children are beyond precious. They are beautiful, dark skinned little children who seem to radiate joy even when they are hungry. It was a special time for us when they sang us songs and threw blessings to our team. We were encouraged to "catch" them and put them in our pockets, shoes, bags, and everywhere we could. They thought that was so cool!

After the church service, we were able to take a hike up a nearby mountain to see the water supply for the hospital where we are working. At the top of the mountain we saw an incredible water fall, banana trees, avacado trees, and many other lush tropical plants. We walked through tea crops and most surprising of all, there were palm trees all the way up the mountain beside the pine trees. Quite a sight to see, given there is no beach in sight! The country of Kenya is in a drought -- not like a Texas drought where we have to forgo watering our yards at certain times of day or endure brown grass on the side of the road. This drought has killed their crops and is causing starvation and dehydration. Just before we arrived, the hospital lost a 6 year old from malnutrition they fought very valliantly to save. His loss caused tears to be shed by our missionaries who see death all of the time. It is a hard time for this country.

This morning we began our day at 6:30 a.m. We arrived at the hospital for chapel service, which included communion with all of the employees. Shortly after we toured the hospital. My eyes filled with tears of joy and tears of sadness as we saw all of the good work going on here. However, there are many who cannot afford to pay for the care and they will die here. The hospital serves a population of 1 million in Maua and the surrounding villages. They serve the poorest of poor, but everyone has to pay something or the hospital cannot stay in business. The fees are posted on the walls. It costs $1 to see a nurse practitioner or $2 to see a doctor. Medicines, labs, maternity, etc. all cost additional monies. If a patient is going to be inpatient, they have to take off their clothes and put on a uniform for the duration of their stay. This ensures that they do not put on their clothes and walk out of the hospital with out paying. Sometimes, patients cannot pay and they must stay at the hospital until a family member comes and offers some type of payment. They have had one person stay almost a year.

We are all in awe of the medical personnel, the missionaries, and the staff who make this place run. God has given them opportunities to serve and they take that seriously. I, and my team, feel privileged to be part of this special outreach project and hope that together we can make a difference in the lives of some of these families.

There is so much more to write about the culture, the country, the problems, the blessings, and our travels. But for now I will end as we are off to work. God is good, all the time. We are blessed!

We are almost there!

We are sitting on the mountain top of Meru eating lunch. We are about 1 hour from our destination of Maua. The weather is about 60 degrees and beautiful! We have been travelling now for over 24 hours and we are experiencing some jet lag. However we got about 6 hours of sleep last night. As soon as I can, I will update photos! Keep the prayers going as the driving around here is tenuous at best (wink, wink!).

And we're off . . .

It's 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 16 and we are getting ready to head to the airport. I guess anticipating the trip, I had a hard time sleeping last night. Hopefully that lack of sleep will help me pass out on the flight to Nairobi! Of course, getting off the ground is never an easy task. I began the morning with two children whose heads hurt terribly when I touched them. We made a 7:45 a.m. trip to Carenow and found out we have two inner ear infections. It's never dull around here! But God is good and we got everything taken care of. Now I can focus on getting to the airport and off to God's work. Thanks to everyone for their prayers for the team. I know they will surround us and strengthen us throughout our trip!

Commissioned by the Church

Last Sunday, FUMC Arlington commissioned two teams in morning worship who are leaving for different parts of Africa (Maua Kenya and Ganta Liberia) in July. The congregation blessed our service and prayed for our safety and ability to share Christ's love in the world. Our families stood behind us and laid hands on us at the pastor prayed. It was very moving and made the trip more of a reality! Cannot believe we will be leaving in 48 hours.

Acts 6:4"But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word".

Pictures of the bio-intensive farm

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Packing Medical Supplies to Take With Us

On June 13, our team met at FUMC Arlington to pack medical supplies and other donations that we will take to Maua Methodist Hospital. Shirley graciously travelled to Houston to pick up the supplies, so all we had to do was inventory, pack, and weigh the suitcases. It was a joyful day as our preparation became reality. And the big news was that all of the bags, including the ones with books, came in UNDER weight! Once unpacked, there will be lots of room for souvenirs!

The countdown is on . . . .

It's almost time to go and it seems like we've already been on such a long journey to get there!

In the fall of 2008, several members of the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church came together in a preliminary meeting to find out the specific information about a possible mission trip to Maua Hospital in Maua, Kenya Africa. After that first meeting, we were armed with costs, potential projects, and all sorts of information about how we could be in service with the people of Kenya through our faith. At that point, we all had to pray, raise money, talk to our family, and make a decision about being part of this team.

Within a few weeks, the team began to solidify. We come from several different churches around the conference including FUMC Stephenville, FUMC Keller, FUMC Arlington, and other individuals. We have a total of 10 Volunteer in Mission Team Members.

July 16, 2009 is the departure date from Dallas/Fort Worth. We will be travelling via Chicago, London, and Nairobi. From Nairobi, we will travel by van several hours to the base of Mt. Kenya to Maua. That is when our mission work begins.

Our work will encompass several different things: construction at the hospital, building an AIDS orphan home, conducting a one-day Vacation Bible School for 200+ children, and working on a bio-intensive farm run by missionaries. This website will give you more information about the farm: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/Advance/projects/search/index.cfm?action=details&id=3020875&code=14217A One of our team members, Karol, is a registered nurse and will have the opportunity to work in the OR assisting with surgeries. At the end of our mission work, we will take a few days to debrief and enjoy safari before coming home to share our experiences.

I can't tell you how excited we all are before we even leave. God has given us a tremendous opportunity to serve. We have so much to absorb and learn from the people of Kenya. I'm sure our faith journeys will stretch and grow farther than we ever imagined. May God watch over us as we travel and may we glorify him through our work!

Michah 6:8 God has told you what He wants, and this is all it is: to be fair and just and merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.