God's Purpose

There are two types of days: days when you accomplish what you want to do and days when you accomplish what God wants to do. Praise God, last Saturday was one of God's days.

David and I try to walk together regularly. Try is the operative word. Walking anywhere in Africa, especially on the back roads through the villages, is an exercise in greetings. Everyone greets, wants to know who you are and where you live, sometimes inviting you to their house, and sometimes asking for money or work. So we do our best to greet pleasantly while continuing to walk on by.

Last Saturday started the usual way. We walked and greeted. We passed by the local homemade beer stand - where the young guys tried to tell us they were waiting for tea. And then , not having walked ten minutes, we met two old men, who had both been drinking already that morning and were on their way to the beer stand that we had passed. One asked for money. The other began to beg us to pray that he would stop being a drunk.

It is embarrassing to say that stopping to pray for him was not our first response. We wanted to keep going. But he kept begging for our prayers. Reminds me of a certain widow in the Bible begging a judge for justice. Finally, I laid my hand on his shoulder and asked the Lord to take this addiction to alcohol away from him - not for this man's benefit alone, but for the glory of God to show these people that there is a true God in their land. He fell on his knees, raising his hands to the sky.

We parted and continued walking, but hadn't gone three minutes when we returned, calling to us. And he seemed different. His eyes were clearer, his speech was clearer. He was different. He asked us to come and pray at his house.

We followed him and he brought out a grandchild about 4 months old. She was beautiful. But it was obvious that there was something wrong with her vision. She didn't blink. She didn't focus on me or track with her eyes. She may not be completely blind, but she certainly couldn't see much. We prayed for her. I know that this grandfather's desire was for her healing. She wasn't healed at that time. Perhaps God will improve her sight. Perhaps God has a different plan for her life that means she needs to be set apart from others - even though it will be an extremely hard life. We blessed the other children there, as well.





Another lady asked us to also come to her house and pray. So we followed her across the way. Her mother has problems with her legs and one of her sisters has problems getting pregnant which they linked to the ancestors. So we prayed again, for their illnesses and to bless their children.

At this point we had been gone 40 minutes. Chloe was home alone and we don't like to leave her for more than an hour, so we turned around and headed back. It wasn't a morning of exercise, but it was certainly a morning of blessing. God wanted to use us and was gracious enough to open our eyes (often so stubbornly closed) so that we could actually see His workings. I am so thankful.

In this place, there seems always to be a backlash when we make ourselves useful to God. The Deceiver is never happy and lets us know. Two weeks ago David had a wonderful day preaching and our spirits were high. The next day he got sick - severe sores lined his throat and he couldn't talk or eat for 5 days. The day after this walk I described, I was in church looking forward to putting all the language skills I have been working on to use in listening to the sermon. I was nauseous the whole service and sat outside to get some fresh air.

These setbacks are always discouraging. We have become stronger, though, and are handling it much better. But your prayers for us are vital. Sometimes God protects and sometimes He wants us to "man up." It is a way to teach us resolve and perseverance. It is a testing to burn away the dross. It has not been something we wanted or were pleased to experience, but I have become thankful that God loves us enough to make us more like Christ. I am thankful that He is not content to let us be, but wants us to be more and has confidence that we can live up to His expectations.

Continue praying for us and for our pastors and leaders. We need you so much to keep us strong, to keep our eyes open to the Lord's will.

Blessings.

Language of the Heart

I praise God that He has provided me with the opportunity to do a language refresher course in Swahili. In these days, money is always as issue. Another of our missionaries had extra funds in his language budget and graciously offered them to us. Because of their generosity, I was able to start this course two weeks ago.

The course is at a Catholic language school which has been around quite a long time and has a good reputation. I am enjoying it very much. Most of the students are Catholic religious brothers and nuns. I have been learning quite a bit about the difference between a friar, priest, religious brother, and monk! It is in a town an hour away, so I stay at the school during the week and am home on the weekends.

It is difficult to be apart so much, but I am thankful that David is so willing to let me do this. Please pray that my very slow brain will finally click with this language and that David and Chloe will do well when we are apart.

It is exciting that two more pastors want to move from their homes to this area to start Kuria churches. We praise God for people who are willing to leave their own tribes to take the Word to the thirsty. Please pray for these pastors and their families and that God's plans will be made clear for where they should serve. Pray also for Pastor Mwita and his wife who both have health problems and who are so vital to the ministry here.

We praise God for you and thank you so very much for your prayers on our behalf.

Blessings.

Gathering Wisdom

We had a wonderful meeting with Muhia Kianjahi, who works for Tanari Trust, about rites of passage. Tanari Trust was created by a group of churches in Nairobi who recognized that the urban youth had become disenfranchised. They were left on their own to figure out what it meant to be an adult. Muhia led his church in beginning a rites of passage retreat for them. This quickly caught the interest of other churches and it grew. Tanari now runs a camp for Christian youth to lead them through a Christian rite of passage into adulthood and does teaching in local churches on this issue.

We were very blessed to glean from Muhia's experience and wisdom. Our context is very different, of course. We want to create a Christian alternative to the traditional rite of passage. Muhia was excited about our situation and seems eager to join our efforts. We are praying that he and some of his colleagues will be able to come to Tarime in February to teach the committee that we are gathering together.

The next step in our process is to finalize who will be invited to join the committee and begin meeting. Please pray for this. The pastors understand the process that I have in mind, and agree with it, but we will have to teach the committee members. Most of them will not have been part of something like this. They are more used to attending a meeting and then leaving, perhaps utilizing what they have been taught and perhaps not. Our goal is to deconstruct the rites of passage ceremonies so that we can reconstruct a new one, and then to actually put it into practice. I think that they will be quite excited to be  part of this when they understand how we want to go about things.

I would also like to ask for "blind" prayer about an issue that we cannot share publicly. I absolutely hate doing that, but I may be doing it often from now on. We are now finding ourselves quite often in situations that need a great deal of prayer support but are complicated by not being able to share details.

I cannot express the impact that your prayer has here - on us and on our ministry. Please do not ever feel that even the smallest lifting of our names to God is futile. We feel the strength that comes through your prayers and know that God listens to you in order to work out His will here. I won't understand that cause-and-effect relationship or why God chose to do things that way until I get to heaven. All I know it that this is how it works and that we are truly thankful for you.

Blessings.

It's a Party!

We were invited to the party of a neighbor celebrating his father's 88th birthday. It was a fun day. We are always so glad to be able to experience some new Kuria culture.

It started in the morning. We were told to arrive about 10am, but in good African style (we have lived here 14 years) we showed up about 11-11:30. And, in good African style, we were still pretty early. When we arrived we were taken around to all the different places where activities were happening. We greeted people at the gate. We went inside a house to greet the old ladies (the father lives in this house and the son and his family live in the other). We went around behind to see where the meat was being cooked and were treated to a piece of very tasty and completely un-chewable beef. Then we went to where the chairs were set up in the yard for the actual party. We greeted the old man and several other people before being shown to our seats.

One truly neat thing that we experienced was the "music man". He is like the traveling minstrels of centuries ago. He has a traditional instrument that is like a violin that echoes into a wooden drum. It is not played with any sort of tone or melody. It is used just to accent the lyrics. And the lyrics range from the hilarious to the mundane. As the party went along, the minstrel narrated. He told who was arriving. He told that this person had gone to Dar es Salaam. He sang of the Wazungu (us). It didn't really matter what he said. He said it all. And as he moved around the group, if you liked what he said you put a little money in his drum

One thing you have to know how to do in Africa is sit. Sit and wait. David likes to say that waiting in Africa is not a passive action, and I think that is true. So we did a lot of sitting that day, moving our chairs every few hours to keep in the shade. And we met new people and visited. As honored guests we had our own little coffee table that always had at least three drinks per person. And, as outsiders, we observed.

Off and on there would be dancing. That was not accompanied by the minstrel but by a modern sound system. The music was Swahili, but not traditional, and not the modern rock you hear today. Someone told us it was from the seventies. Anyway, when the music began it was the old people who got up to dance. They did not gyrate and run around, but it was like dancing in a group, moving your feet to the rhythm, just enjoying yourself. Even I got up and danced, too!

But there's a story that goes with my dancing. I asked why the younger people weren't dancing. It was only the truly older ones with gray hair. I was told that it would be disrespectful for the younger people to dance when the older ones were dancing. But I could go and dance if I wanted to. I was one of their "age-mates"! Just to be very clear: I am 38. We are rationalizing this away as I was an honored guest and therefore had the respectful place that an elder would hold. Trying.

We ate a huge feast, which is always wonderful. We love traditional food. We do not, however, like intestines. Even David, who likes everything, doesn't like them much. David's friend said, "You have just not had them cooked properly." He used this as an opportunity to make sure we tried intestines again. Did you know there are different kinds of intestines and that they look very different? One looks like spiny fruit. One looks like a book with pages when cut open - and is called "book" by the local people. Yeah. None of them are good. Even cooked properly.

After the feast was the gift giving. The old man and his two wives, his third one wasn't there for some reason, sat in front of the group. Several people gave them blankets and vitenge (cloth). The fun part was that the giver would drape the blankets and cloth over their laps and heads!

The party was ended with another dance, but this time in true Kuria style. Again, it was mostly the older people, but the middle aged ones joined, too. The dance is very similar to the Masaai with a kicking back of the heel and jerking forward of the chin to the beat. We felt that we were seeing a little bit of true Kuria culture that hailed back to the traditions of the past.

We arrived home in the late afternoon, tired, a little sunburned, but so glad that we were invited. It was a day of people and fellowship. Watching little two year old girls jerk their hips in perfect rhythm when the kids had a dancing contest and laughing at the older boys who were doing their best to imitate music videos. And watching the old people display the true Kuria traditions. It was a blessing.

Blessings to you, too.

14 Baptized!

We were so glad to be present when 14 people were baptized at Remagwe a couple of weeks ago. We hiked from the church to a stream about a mile away. The church members had made a little dam so that there would be a deep enough spot to baptize. It was a clear, hot, sunny day. We rejoiced in God's harvest the whole day - which included Sunday School, the baptism, worship, a meal at the church, and then another meal at the house of one of the ladies who was baptized!

This was a direct result of our volunteer group's hard work. After they left, 30 of those who accepted Christ began attending new believer's classes. This is a huge number. Only 14 were baptized because Pastor Mwita required attendance at a certain number of classes. This is wise and we support him. We are confident that the others will be baptized soon.

Two of the ladies who were attending the class have been stopped by their husbands. One was beaten and threatened by her husband so badly that she ran away to family in Kenya. The other is still in Remagwe but not attending church or classes. Please pray that they will have more opportunities to act on the faith that God has planted in their hearts.

To update on our circumcision plans, we have met with our Baptist pastors. I praise the Lord that they are excited about this idea and fully supportive. We have decided that we will first create a committee that is only Baptists. This will be 12 people and David and I. We will research the traditional ceremonies, meet with people who have introduced Christian circumcision ceremonies in their churches successfully, and begin putting together our own plan. After that, we will begin the process of figuring out how to take this to other denominations and churches besides just our own.

Thank you for your prayers. We cover them with all our hearts. It is what enables us to stay here.

Blessings.

Growing Up in Africa

Growing up, the official change from a child to an adult, in many cultures requires a ceremony. In many cultures this ceremony includes circumcision. That is not earth shattering news. It is very common.

In Africa, these ceremonies have traditionally included witchcraft. This is also not surprising news to anyone. There are always certain old people whose role is to lead the children through the ceremony, which usually takes several days. These old people are not witchdoctors, but their roles include witchcraft. Witchcraft is used to ask for health, wealth, fertility, strength, a good education - any number of different blessings. In direct relation to this, it is believed that if these ceremonies are ignored then these children will suffer and even be cursed.

Many tribes do this, but the Kuria tribe does it in a much more ominous way. From what we have learned, it is not just simple witchcraft. It is truly demonic. That may sound odd to many ears, but the whole process from the highest to the lowest levels involves ceremonies that truly frighten us. I want to write about this as I learn more, but just trust me. This is not like circumcision in any other tribe I know.

Both churches and the government have taught against total female circumcision and against the unsanitary practices used in male circumcision. Sometimes the parents are convinced but the children literally run away to be part of the ceremony. Sometimes the children are convinced but the parents are adamant that culture be preserved. Sometimes no one is convinced.

But there is great pressure to continue in the old ways. Unless the circumcision ceremony is pursued, these youth will always remain children in the eyes of the community. They will not be given the respect of an adult. Girls may not want to marry the uncircumcised boys, and vice-versa (because the Kuria also practice female circumcision).  They may have to live with the curse of not pleasing the ancestors and spirits by keeping culture. There are a myriad of obstacles to overcome in a life without circumcision.

We have come up with a different idea, though it is not new. It is already done in many places successfully. We want to create a Christian circumcision ceremony that will replace the traditional one. We will take the elements of Kuria tradition that are important but change them to glorify God and add a lot of teaching about becoming an adult who loves the Lord.

The idea is not to tell them to stop having this important rite of passage, but to do it in a Christlike manner.

We are talking with our 3 local Baptist pastors. This is a new idea for them. They are used to attending training and educational meetings, but not planning a whole procedure and then trying to put it into action. This is our action plan:

Step 1

Our pastors decide who to invite onto a committee which will begin looking at the traditional ceremonies and deciding how a Christian ceremony should look. This committee will be made up of other evangelical pastors.

We will also need to make sure that we have good, Christian men and women from various Kuria clans. There are 16 clans. We aren't aiming to have a representative from each, but if only one clan is on the committee then the other clans will be less likely to accept this plan.

We would also like to find a person who once led these ceremonies but is now a strong Christian. This is a strong matter of prayer. Such a person would give us great insight and would help us in introducing the new ceremony into communities.

We will need to have a subcommittee that deals with female circumcision. This is a much more difficult situation because we would want a ceremony, but not the actual physical circumcision. I think that this one will be even harder to accept than a new male circumcision ceremony.

Please pray for Step 1. It is a lot, in and of itself. We so need God's guidance in choosing the right people to invite onto this committee. If the committee does not work then the plan will not succeed.

Blessings.

But We Want to Know Christ

While visiting with Pastor Mwita this week he told us about two ladies who received Christ when our volunteer group came a couple of months ago.

One lady was so excited about her new salvation that she kept coming to Pastor asking to be taught more. She joined the classes that Pastor began for the new Christians. During one class her husband showed up. He stood, arms crossed, watching. When the class was over, he grabbed his wife and began hitting her. He yelled at the pastor, "Why are you ruining my wife? She is not at home cooking for me like she should be! Why are you causing trouble?"

The other lady Pastor Mwita told us about is in a similar situation.

Change is not welcome in the village. Any shift in the status quo is a great threat to stability and is resisted strongly. As a social rule,  people are not allowed to be different. Different is bad. Church isn't necessarily bad, but it is if it causes real change at home.

Please pray for these two ladies who so obviously desire Christ. Pray that their husbands will have a change of heart and allow their passion for Christ to grow. And pray for all the others that we do not know about - women, men, children - who want to be different but are afraid of challenging the society they live in.

Blessings.

Demons among us

It was the day I had been dreading - the day that our kids witnessed demon possessed people. That is to say, the manifestation of demons in people. I know that we interact with people everyday who have demons but who act perfectly normally and no one would know until those demons were rebuked.

In all our years in Malawi only David saw them when he went out to the village for long evangelistic meetings. We just didn't see them on Sunday mornings in church. But Sunday morning seems to be the norm here. I had my first experience a few months ago. The kids' had their first yesterday.

We went to a church that is not actually Kuria. It is Luo, but still in our same association and so a part of our group. Pastor Mwita from Remagwe (leh-mah-gway) visited our church in Shirati (sheer-ah-tee) to teach for the weekend. We took the kids out Sunday morning to join him.

It was a fun day - though, when you go to the Luo churches you have to put aside all concerns of time and agenda. Things happen very slowly and no one really knows what to expect. But their singing is very different from the Kuria. It is lively and joyous (not saying that the Kuria singing isn't) and then a few will come forward and form a tight circle clapping their hands faster and faster. When the circle breaks there just seems to be a feeling of victory in the air.

David did a great job preaching (in Kiswahili with translation into Kijaluo). The Luo are not as reticent as the Kuria seem to be so it is a little easier to joke and interact with them. At the end of the service people came forward for prayer. This is a normal part of church - it is a time when people who wish to be prayed for come to the front. David, the pastors, and I laid hands on them in prayer.

As I was returning to my seat, two of the ladies fell down. When a demon decides to rear its ugly head, the person often becomes violent, thrashing about and trying to run away. They will moan and hiss and sometimes yell. Blessedly, these ladies were fairly quiet. They were surrounded by the pastors, church leaders, David, and I - and we prayed.

The kids were concerned and felt very much out of their depth, but were not scared. We were able to talk to them quietly and explain what we knew of these things and encourage them to pray. Abby said that one thing kept running through her mind: Jesus is power. Jesus is power. Jesus is power. When faced with something frightening, Christ filled her with Himself.

These things can also take a long time, but was, again blessedly, brief. We finished the service, had a great village "lunch" (it was past 3pm), and went home. We have talked with the kids and they have not been disturbed by the experience overly much, but their eyes were certainly opened.

We tend to hear these stories and we have visions of the Christian being filled with power and confidence and the demons immediately obeying and running in fear. But that is not how it always happens. It is disturbing and difficult, even though we are assured of the victory. And I have learned that demons do not immediately run away. They fight to stay. And if the person has willingly invited them into their lives it takes more than just rebuking. The person has to admit to the act in order to break the covenant made. Not what we are taught, is it? It's a lot more complicated than we are led to believe.

But God always proves Himself Good and Faithful. He always takes care of our children. We were together as a whole family, a unit, when my young ones were introduced to this part of the spirit world. And together we are strong. It was a quiet casting, as casting outs go. And it was a short one. It was calm and orderly and life went on as usual afterwards. There were no other difficulties to upset the spirits within us.

I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. Isaiah 49:25b

I love my God.

Blessings to you all.

Family Time

I was laying in bed last night listening to music. That sounds lovely, doesn't it? I like to put a nice spin on things, but it wasn't my choice of music. It was music from town. We are often the civilian casualties of the bars in town. We are not terribly close to them, but our town is situated in a little valley - the town is on one side and we are on the other. The geographical result is that we end up being a captive audience to whatever happens after dark.

This time it wasn't the bars, but a revival. It still wasn't all that enjoyable late into the night. Especially went it started again before 5am. I end up spending a lot of time laying in bed awake. It gives a lot of time for thought.

Our kids are home from school, so they are mostly filling my thoughts. I often check in with them about how they feel about boarding school - they are in the best school I could ever imagine, but I always want to make sure that they are content. They very much are, even when they have struggles. It is great for us all to be home together and we focus most of our time with them during these holidays.

I can never say enough how proud I am of my kids. It amazes me what God has done in their lives and I constantly thank Him that He has used me to encourage that. I really do not take responsibility for who they are. I mostly feel that the good that has come through me has been a direct result of my pleas for Him to make me a good mother. Not that I am a good mother, but God has been able to make me a tool in my children's lives.

So this 6 weeks is full of them. I spend a lot of time cooking - making up for them suffering three months of cafeteria food. It is what a mom's life is like over here - hours in the kitchen. But it is wonderful to serve them this way and they often join me in the task. We will have a couple of projects to do together for fun.

I do have results from our volunteers' visit, but not right in front of me! There were over 100 confessions of faith and about half that number have expressed interest in joining the church. We praise the Lord for His glory being spread through this wonderful group of people.

Please pray that these new Christians will seek their faith, will attend our church, and have a burning desire to grow in their relationship with Christ.

Blessings.

Willowbrook Volunteer Trip

We were blessed to have a volunteer group from Willowbrook Baptist Church, Huntsville, Alabama. Willowbrook has come out several times and is always great. The point man, Nelson, is a laid back guy - perfect for Africa. They always bring us a breath of fresh air and renewed vigor for the work.

They worked in Remagwe (lay-mahg-way). It is a village just off the main road. The church in Remagwe is mostly children. The usual congregation is made up of about 50 children and youth and 10 or so adults. The first time I visited there I was very disappointed. I was sad that the church was all children and wondered how it could make an impact in the community.

Then God woke me up. He reminded me that today's children are our future leaders. "Children are the future" has become a stale line, but it is never-the-less very true. We have learned from our own past experiences that these young disciples will become the strongest church leaders.

So we asked our volunteer team to lead a Vacation Bible School program. This is often a "busy time" provided for kids while other, more serious work goes on. But in this case the children's work was vital. The group did an outstanding job. They taught the story of the Bible in 4 days - hitting some important events from Creation to Christ. It gave the children an overview of the world from a Biblical perspective.

They also taught some fun songs and played games. Our daughter, Chloe, helped out one day. I asked her if she wanted to go witnessing with the group I was joining or stay with the kids. Melissa, one of the volunteers, was teaching the kids the song "Pharoah, Pharoah" and Chloe was helping. She said, "I want to stay here. This is hilarious!" She had a great time.

During the children's program, other volunteers broke into groups and headed out with translators to witness hut-to-hut in the village. People often come out quite intimidated by the thought of witnessing. After all, in America no one wants to hear it and people are often offended when you bring it up. But it is different here. Everyone is thrilled to welcome a guest and they want to visit. Even Muslims will sit and talk about God and faith very openly. In the afternoon there was a Bible study for adults who made decisions, or just wanted to find out more. Every evening was a crusade led by our pastors - who came from near and far to help - and a showing of the Jesus Film

We do not yet have the number of decisions made, but at least 25 new adults attended church Sunday. We praise the Lord for His good work through these that were willing to sacrifice their time, money, and energy to work for the Lord in a foreign land. We do not take their sacrifices for granted, and neither does God.

It doesn't take a miracle to come out and work with us. If you are interested, please let us know. There is so much more to do!

Drowning the Car

If anyone ever disparages volunteers to me, I will remember this one thing: Kasi brought me Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls. Thank you, Kasi!

We had a great week with our volunteers from Willowbrook Baptist. Every group from there has been exceptional and this one was no different. But it didn't start off so easy.

David was in Nairobi to get the volunteers. He'd been sick the weekend before and was still dealing with some stomach problems but was managing. He went to a store about a mile from our guesthouse to pick up a box of water for them. It was raining. Not just a little rain, but a torrential downpour complete with hail and lightning. The water was over the road. You couldn't see potholes or even the ditches on the side.

Returning to the guesthouse, David passed someone who was stuck. He stopped to help and as he pulled over the car slipped into the deep side ditch. It was now at a 45' angle and water filled the passenger side almost to the dashboard. He attached a chain from his winch to a tree across the street but was unable to pull himself out. David is now standing in the rain and hail beside his drowned car, watching as bicycles disappear into these "puddles" and then are fished out by their drenched riders, and he has an hour before he is supposed to go to the airport to pick up the volunteers.

If there's a monkey wrench, Satan will throw it....

With some help from other good Samaritans and missionaries, the truck was pulled out of the drink. The car was not an easy fix, though. The engine had sucked in liters of water and bent a couple of pistons. David was able to help the volunteers get to the guesthouse with their rental minivan and taxis.The volunteers came on to Tarime in the minivan, and David, Chloe and one volunteer stayed an extra day in Nairobi and then came down on the bus with most of the luggage.

God is good to work everything out, and the drama at the beginning was not a continuing theme for the week. We spent the first day with the group making introductions at immigration - it is something that takes a whole morning and seems pointless, but is very important - and at the church in Remagwe. The next day, with David here and the group intact, they got to work.

I will write more about their time with us in the next post, but, for now, this is the story of how David drowned the car.

Little Debbie and Other Thoughts

The other day I started craving Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls. And Star Crunches. and Oatmeal Pies. Not one. The whole box - one of each - to myself. Just a little homesickness, I guess. Unable to get my hands on any of those, I broke into our chocolate chip stash and made a batch of cookies - I try to keep the chocolate chips for when Jon and Abby are home for their breaks.

David has been putting our home movies on DVD - some old ones and some from this last Stateside. He and the kids love to watch those, but they make me too nostalgic. Every Stateside we go on a family skiing trip with David's parents and sister and her husband. It is so much fun. David's dad turns 75 this year and still goes skiing every year. If I ever feel like we are sacrificing by being out here, it is that we miss that opportunity every year.

However, one verse that has meant a lot to me through the years - in reference to being on the field and also to just everyday life - is Psalm 16:5-9
        Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant place; surely I have a delightful inheritance....

That is just a little of home life for you.

On a completely different note, I so don't understand God. I am really ok with that because I fully understand that I have a finite mind that could never comprehend the mind of God. I don't need to understand God, His every intention and plan. I think that simplifies things for me and I often feel sorry for those who need to understand every little intricacy. I am mostly okay with my lack of intelligence. And one of my favorite quotes is by Brennan Manning: An understood God is no God at all.

However, I have returned to Genesis in my daily Bible reading and just stay baffled. If you think that sex is a new issue of sin in the world or that it is at an all time high, you don't know much about human nature. Every time we read the Bible God points out a different facet of His word. And every time He does that I think, "Where was I the last time I read this?" This time what I see is that there is a lot of sex in the Bible, especially in the early generations. And I don't understand what was accepted as normal. I question, "Was that okay then or was it sin? Were the sad events that followed a direct result of that sin or simply part of God's plan?" God does not choose to explain a lot of these issues.

I have not yet discerned if God is trying to teach me something with these observations or simply opening up a new aspect of the Bible. I do know that because we have shaped our view of God through the lens of the new covenant of Christ we often have a difficult time understand the Old Testament. Sometimes I just have to accept that limitation and move on.

This entry has had little to nothing to do with our missionary life or ministry and simply is waxing eloquent (eloquent may be an overstatement but I love that phrase for when I get a little long winded). Welcome to my inner world. But I want to encourage you to be okay with not understanding. The need to make sense of everything can be a major stumbling block in the Christian walk. We want to understand why God allows us to struggle financially, to give us a child with physical or mental struggles, to allow a good person to die, to only bring salvation through those who are willing to speak up. We can stumble over the strange events in the Bible and why God doesn't explain His intentions.

This is my take: God is God. Who am I to question Him? I am not the greatest, the smartest, the one most capable of judging fairness. I do not decide what I need or what my purpose is in life. I have to trust that to my Holy Father who is the Only God.

So try to let go of understanding every little thing without letting go of caring. It is a fine line. Care a lot. And let God be God - that phrase will never become trite. Neither will this one: There is only one God and I am not Him.

Blessings.

Daily Life

Hello, dear friends.

I think that sometimes what I say can seem overly dramatic. Part of the reason is that I try to share what I think is interesting, different, or unusual about our lives. Another part is that I share the prayer needs, and they tend to be a little more on the edge than our moment to moment living.

Actually, we are quite boring. Seasons of life determine our days. The last several weeks have been the season of unpacking (finally!!!! after 3 years!!!) the boxes in our house onto the shelves and dressers that came in our crate. A lot of time at home.

A lot of our time since being back has been spent in construction. Putting in the rain catchment system (Praise the wonderful name of Jesus!) took months. This is Africa. It required that David stay around the house so that he could go out several times a day to check progress and make sure that the decisions made were good ones.

Right now, David is dealing with trying to get our on-demand gas hot water heaters to work. They came in the crate and we are thrilled to have them but now we have to work out the kinks because nothing, yet nothing, can work easily the first time. That is a prayer request. It would be horribly disappointing to have finally gotten these heaters and not be able to make them work.

I will admit that homeschool has suffered lately. I feel guilty, but try not to. Chloe is very young for her grade and we have decided to repeat 6th grade next year, so we have some wiggle room. I keep her doing bits and pieces, but have focused on other things since her schooling is not so urgent.

These sound like little things, but nothing is simple here. Everything takes a great deal of time and energy. There is little multitasking in Africa. It means that we have not focused as much on ministry. This is not something we like. David is often, in fact, brought down spiritually and emotionally when he is tied to the house. So, I could ask for prayer there, too, that we quickly come to a place where we are released from our house. David likes to say that the more stuff you have the more it drains your time and energy. And yet, a lot of this is necessary to our home being a relaxing place to re-energize.

I am not complaining. Really. I just want to give a window into our daily lives. It is what it is. And, frankly, it is not that exciting. We often go to bed before 9pm. How's that for being party animals?

We look forward to the day - prayerfully soon - when our time will be focused on ministry. We are doing ministry now, but not in the way we would like. I sometimes ask myself why we bother to do so much to our house when we already live in luxurious circumstances compared to our Christian brothers and sisters. Would it not be better to be content?

I come to the answer that we have repeated to ourselves many times: we are in it for the long haul. We need to do what is necessary to keep us here. If spending time on this now helps us to stay the course for many years to come, it is what we should do. There are others who would be more content to do without a hot shower. We have dear friends, in fact, who lived that way for years and saw it as only a minor inconvenience. Perhaps we are spoiled.

But we are all different. I, for instance, need color. I paint my walls - the living room is blue, the kitchen red... It rejuvenates me, whereas staring at extra glossy cream walls (that is the norm here) drains the life out of me. I need books and sewing and crafty things. I need to be silly and fun and different.

Am I getting too far off the ministry subject for this blog? Not sure, but welcome to my world. These are the things we think about as we live here. How best to balance our time. What our priorities should be. How to make it for the long haul.

These are matters for prayer as you think of us. Some missionaries think that prayer letters and requests should only be for ministry. I think that we need prayer as much or more than our ministry. We can be the weak link in the chain, and we fight against that. We are humans with feet of clay and we patch up the cracks daily.

But don't think that there is not joy. Our house is full of laughter. We make fun of ourselves and life as much as we can. I can't imagine taking myself or life too seriously. I am much too much of a fool to be given such importance. I hope that the people who see us on a daily basis think of us as people of laughter. That would be a very high compliment. Unfortunately, you tend to see my serious side!

We love you and we thank God for your interest in our lives. And most especially for your prayers.

Blessings.

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Battling Circumsion

In my last entry I left you hanging as to our last ministry vision idea. It is a daunting task, as I will explain.

This vision is the most important and in some ways the most dangerous. The Kuria do male and female circumcision during the month of April. Most tribes have an initiation process into adulthood. These almost always involve witchcraft of some kind and often include a sexual initiation. We are not sure of all that is involved with the Kuria's tradition but we know one thing - it is more evil than most.

Whereas some witchcraft is usually involved, we feel that the Kuria traditions are much more tied to Satanic rituals. I will tell you why we think that. The Kuria people have different clans and not every clan circumcises every year. The leaders of each clan come together at a certain place at a river. They place food offerings on the ground and then turn and leave for a little while. When they return, whoever's food was eaten are the clans that can circumcise.

Then the highest ranking boy from each clan comes to that sacred place in the river. They go under the water and when they come up they have been circumcised. The pastor who was telling us about this truly believes that this happens. He is a strong man of God that we highly respect. I am not sure what to believe, except that I believe Satan has the power to do it.

There is another story, one even more scary. A female government official who was not Kuria came to this region and began trying to enforce the laws against female circumcision. One night the spirits came while she was sleeping and circumcised her. She left immediately. Was this Satan or was she drugged and attacked? I cannot say. I just know that it is evil.

Our plan is to create an initiation process that glorifies the Lord. It would be a time when the boys or girls are gathered together and taken through a time that signifies the entrance into adulthood. This would include some physical tasks as well as teaching Biblical principles about being a man or woman of God.

Our process would start with bringing this to our pastors, gathering together other evangelical pastors, and bringing in teachers from places where it has been done successfully. We would then look at our particular people group and make a plan that would be the most meaningful.

This is risky business because it is where Satan reigns over these people. Breaking this could be a huge breakthrough in reaching the Mara area.

Please continue to pray for us. Bathe this in prayer. We have not yet taken these ideas to our pastors, but hope to do so soon.

Blessings.

Vision

Well, it has certainly been a time lately! We have had some great praises - our crate arrived! That has made us quite busy, but in a wonderful way. We have put together shelves and finally starting unpacking boxes! We even have an armoire and hung up clothes! It's amazing! There are quite a few stories of how Africa works - or doesn't - with all this, but I won't bore you with that.

We had a great meeting with the Eastern clusters. During that time, God began to show me a vision for our ministry and I want to share that with you so that you can be praying with us.

One thing we have not done is worked on a people group world view. This is done by surveying random people as you drive through the area and ask questions about their life and beliefs. Examples of questions might be: Do you believe in a single god or many? Who do you worship? What is love to you? What does friendship mean to you? These questions can give us important insight as to how we communicate the gospel.

Another idea that I feel God is leading us to is providing clay water pots that clean water for drinking to some of the people in the neighborhoods around our two town churches. These pots are made by local people in Kenya. As water seeps from the original pot to a second pot it is cleaned enough to be drinkable. This project would communicate the love and concern of our Baptist churches to the community and create a more known presence. Baptist are almost unheard of in this area and we need to communicate who we are and why we are here. Of course, an important part of this project would be deciding who would receive the pots. We would probably focus on older people and ones who are taking care of orphaned family members.

The last idea that God has led me to is the most important and, in some ways, the most intimidating. I will tackle that one in my next entry as it is a long explanation.

Please be in prayer for us as we approach our pastors with these ideas. If they agree then we will begin to make plans to proceed. Pray for our wisdom in all these decisions and that God will use our every action to His glory.

Blessings.

Discouragement vs. Gratefulness

This has been a difficult few weeks. That is one of the reasons why I have not updated the blog. When I am discouraged I turn inward and have a hard time communicating, which is not good because that is when I need prayer the most.

It has seemed as if everything conspires against us. The littlest tasks become long, drawn-out challenges because something breaks or can't be gotten in town. Ministry tasks are thwarted by sickness or flat tires. All the little things build up and even the normal annoyances that we live with become great burdens to bear. These sound like little things, but when you are thwarted, frustrated, and downright blocked on every side it becomes too much to bear. And there were some quite larger disappointments and struggles which I cannot share so publically.

And I started wishing we could just go home. I think that in the last month I have wanted to give up more than I have since our first term - and that is a very normal first term reaction to all the major adjustments of living here. For the first time I have truly regretted moving from our beloved (though also annoying at times) Malawi. I have been pushed to the point of asking God what more He expects of me, how He could possibly ask any more of me, how He expects me to make it.

Then He, also, conspired against me, but for my good. A dear lady wrote concerning my last blog - where I waxed eloquent about a thankful heart. I was reminded that this is foundational to me, to what I believe, to how I manage to make my way through life.

My Bible reading was then a mild scolding.

 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:24-25

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Romans 9:20

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

I could go on with the verses. This is also where Paul talks about missionary call, how can they believe if they have not heard? So, basically, God told me to get over it. I cannot fathom the mind of God. That is not my place. It is my place to glorify Him in my life through thanksgiving and through doing the task He has set our hands to do. Even if the task is hard. Even if it is impossible - for nothing is impossible with God.

The more positive voice would say, "I can't wait to see how God is going to overcome in these situations." I sometimes have a hard time being positive. Right now it feels as if we are buried under an avalanche. But the cornerstone is that God is good. I am blessed. I can't forget that.

If you think of us, pray that we would pursue thankful hearts, for it is a choice. Pray also for protection against all the things that drag us down, especially ongoing illness. And pray for our children. The two at boarding school are extremely content. They have so many wonderful things in their lives. The youngest will homeschool at least another year. For reasons that I can't share here, she is not ready to go to boarding school. And yet, this is also a great trial because there is nothing for her at home and she is often very unhappy. Our children are a higher priority than ministry, and yet they also sacrifice.

But God has also promised through many rich verses in Isaiah that He will love and take care of our children.

In all things we will remain thankful. Any other way leads to death of the spirit.

Blessings.

Always Joy in the Journey

I am sitting at our Baptist guest house in Nairobi. Doctor appointments again. David has not ever fully recovered from the terrible bout of stomach problems over a week ago. We threw one medicine at it and it seemed to help and then he got worse, so we threw another medicine at it and had the same results. Figured it was time to go to a professional.

All the problems that we have experienced in our 6 months back on the field can be very disheartening. Living is more difficult, our home situation a little more unpleasant than we'd like (still bucket bathing - and that never gets fun). We've had a lot of illness, disappointments, and unforeseen challenges. And when we really get to ministry the attacks snowball. It is enough to make us want to throw up our hands. Life would be so much more predictable in the States. Sometimes predictable is pretty good. It can be easy to regret our move to Tanzania and long for the joys we had in Malawi.

But then God reminds me of all the ways He has blessed us in this stage of the journey. We did not choose Tanzania - in fact our plan all along was to probably move back to the North of Malawi where ministry was greatly needed after helping the very established area of Zomba get a new vision. But God changed that in a way that could never be doubted. We were then given two job options in Tanzania and were encouraged to take this one. In doing so we went from a 2 1/2 hour flight (or 1 week's drive) from Malawi to RVA where the kids go to school to just a 7-8 hour drive. It has meant that we can see them every six weeks instead of every three months and that we can attend band concerts, plays, and other important events. This blessing has kept us going through many difficult times.

Even since we have been back this 6 months, God keeps reminding me that for every trial there is a blessing. Chloe has had several difficulties - some of which we have shared through prayer requests, but not all. If we were still in Malawi we would have to fly to Johannesburg (another 2 1/2 hour flight, but in the opposite direction) for help. We would have gone down for a week, hoping in that time that we could figure out the problem and figure out the solution. We might have to stay for longer. We might have to return home and rely on our own wisdom and the guidance of the Lord to see if our plan of action was working or not. Any adjustments would be through email, phone calls, or another flight down. From Tarime, Nairobi is an 8-9 hour drive. We can come up for a few days and then return later if we need to. It takes a great deal of stress out of an already stressful situation.

For this, I really do not have words to express my gratitude to the Lord. This is my child and He has taken care of her so very well. He knew three years ago that she would have these issues and He began making provision for her even then. How can I be anything but thankful? How can I refuse to go through any trial that God sees fit - to lovingly take care of my child and to reach the unreached?

If I had any word of wisdom for you it would be to maintain a thankful heart. Even in the bleakest moments God provides blessings of joy - but we have to look for them and we have to appreciate them. Dear missionary friends lost their 12 yr old to cancer just last month. How can I compare our current trials to that? And through it all they have searched for the blessings - and found them. What an encouragement to my heart. If you are working to further to the kingdom of God there will be even more trials. And if it seems that you are disappointed and waylaid at every turn, perhaps the answer is to look for contentment and gratefulness in what you do have.

Enough preaching. I do not claim to be an expert at this - I fall down on the job often enough. But my experience has been that one of the greatest tools for a Christian to conquer in this life in thankfulness.

Be thankful, my friends.

Blessings.

Busy, Busy

This has been quite a busy week for us. A lot has happened.

Last Saturday David taught TEE (Theological Education by Extension - a Bible course) at Remagwe. That is our "young" church. The church is usually filled but only about 6-8 are adults. The rest are youth and children. All of the students in his class are youth and at least one cannot read. He will be out there again today. Please pray that this course will be the foundation for Christ's presence and glory for this generation in this place.

One thing I forgot to mention about our witnessing last week is that we were served a rubber chicken! This is the second time in our years on the field that we were served a chicken so tough you couldn't even take the outside skin off. Chloe, our little carnivore, managed to tear off most of the meat on one leg, but I couldn't even make teeth marks! Chloe and I didn't go witnessing this week. Chloe had big plans for a fancy meal that she wanted to put on for Dad and I needed to study my Swahili lesson for the next day. David said that he and the pastor and his wife had a good time visiting and encouraging some of our Tarime church members.

Thursday, David went out to a village called Shirati. A pastor's house burned down and the little churches up here had gathered some things together to donate. David and our local pastors spent the day down there fellowshipping with them. He said it was humbling how this family took the iron sheets off the burnt house, put up a shelter, and just moved on with their lives. Even though David very much enjoys these times of fellowship, he had an extremely bad headache the whole day. Imagine sitting for 6 to 8 ours in the sun in a dry village with a pounding headache!

While David was gone, Chloe and I walked to Tarime Baptist Church to teach the women's group. It is not a bad walk, except that I wore a pair of Abby's (my older daughter) shoes and immediately had horrible blisters on my toes! On the way there we passed over a stream. A group of men were bathing. Instead of turning away or discreetly ignoring us, they started calling out, "Wazungu!" - which is what we are called everywhere - white people. My teaching was less than inspiring but the ladies trudge along with my language skills and are very gracious.

Then, when we returned to the house there was a huge electrical surge. Lights started blowing out loudly - scaring Chloe to death. The tv started smoking horribly. I turned off the power to the house, but the damage was already done. We lost the tv, dvd player, satellite decoder, and many power supplies and converters. We praise the Lord that the computers (which were mostly not plugged in), the fridge, and the freezer are fine.

And these are just the highlights to a week that involved all the usual life tasks! And it is not over yet. Chloe has the pastor's daughter over today to play and teach English. David teaches TEE again this afternoon. I am supposed to go to the church this afternoon to help clean the little room we use for our services. I say "supposed to" because I am not feeling 100% at the moment. We'll see how the afternoon goes.

Continue to pray for us. Hopefully these little bits of our life will help you to see our prayer needs, where our challenges are, and why the joy of the Lord always floats to the top.

Blessings.

Chloe's Work

Chloe, our 11 year old, is starting her own little ministries. This is a big deal for her and we are so proud. She is an extreme extrovert but quite timid of new things at the same time. Perhaps that is one reason she has not embraced being out with local children - the idea of not being able to communicate scares her.

However, she is now starting two neat ministries. One she begins today - inviting our Tarime pastor's daughter to begin learning English. Knowing English is crucial to success here because secondary school is supposed to be taught in English (though isn't always as the teachers are not all that fluent). Certainly any training after secondary will be in English. Neema (nay-mah) is close to Chloe's age and also a bit shy. Chloe's plan is to have her over every Saturday. They will spend time learning English (and my hope is that Chloe will also learn more Swahili - we do lessons as part of homeschooling) and playing. This will also fill a great for a friend.

Chloe has also started her own blog for MK's (missionary kids)! It is at http://www.mkworld.blogspot.com/. Feel free to visit and please tell any MK's you know about it. We just started so it is not polished and there is not much there, but we plan to do more and the hope is that other MK's will contribute so that it will be more in a magazine format than just Chloe's thoughts.

Please pray that her plans to have Neema over will succeed and that nothing will prevent this from becoming a weekly event. Pray also for her blog - that others will join it and that it will be a joy.

Blessings!

The Office of Redundancy Office

I am still sorting out how all these communication avenues should work. I have a Facebook group (feel free to join - Light for the Kuria), this blog, and try try to remember to send out a regular prayer letter every month. My dilemma is mostly about how much family information should I include - should one be all work and the other include family? Should they both be all work or both include family? And also what to write in each one.

I know that many of you who read this also get the updates from the Facebook group. But some of you don't. And I am never sure how much to repeat. I don't want to be completely boring and repetitive, but want good stories to get out to everybody. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Today I will just say that I sent a great story out on my Facebook page and will tell just another here.

I have been in Nairobi for a meeting and doctor appointments. Sunday I went to church with some dear friends. They introduced me to the pastor and, as is customary, he introduced me to the congregation. He also asked me to come forward and talk about our work. I was blessed to be able to tell the church about my family's time in Africa and to explain who we are working with. The Kuria people, you see, are half in Kenya and half in Tanzania with the border splitting them in two. The Kenyan Kuria are well evangelized. The Tanzanian Kuria have been forgotten.

The pastor used this opportunity to remind his church that we are here for the purpose of sharing the gospel with others. He even offered to bring a volunteer group of Kenyan believers to help us. This idea is very exciting because it could be such an encouragement to our little congregations.

Please pray with us that if it is in God's will that we could have a Kenyan volunteer group come and share their experiences and encouragement with the Tanzanian Kuria.

Baptism

Please enjoy the slideshow of the recent baptism that we were blessed to witness. We praise the Lord for all He is doing to shatter the darkness of this area. Please pray with us that hearts will softened, eyes will be opened, and fears will be conquered.

Prayer that this is the year that the Kuria people will know the Lord in His gracious love and mercy.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you! We pray that this year will bring you s greater understanding of God's love and mercy and a greater desire to share it with those around you.

I haven't kept up the blog very well the last few weeks because we lost the good internet connection that we had been enjoying. The phone lines have been stolen in town - several times in succession. The plastic is burned off and the copper wire sold. The phone company here is at a loss as to what to do. We have bought a little, portable modem which we are now using. In the beginning it was so slow I thought I would have to abandon the blog for a while, but the speed has improved a bit now. We are hopeful that this will work for us - especially since we don't know when the other will be restored.

We have had a blessed, wonderful Christmas. Time with our children is precious and we have enjoyed every moment of peace and joy - and every moment that wasn't so peaceful or joyous! Jon and Abby return to boarding school tomorrow, which makes us all sad. Please pray for their continued enjoyment of school, health, protection, and growing maturity in Christ. Pray also for Chloe and me as we stay behing to do lonesome homeschooling!

We were so pleased to see several new adults in Tarime Baptist Church! Those who were reached by our September volunteer group are starting to come! Even the pastor is not sure why, but it seems that the Kuria are hesitant people, slow to act until they are sure. We are praising the Lord, though, that they are now joining thr group. Pray for their growth and for the church to have unity and vision.

David and I are making plans for ministry for this new year. Please pray for our wisdom as we go forward. Pray for energy and health and protection. Pray that God will open our eyes to see the world as He sees it.

We are still yearning to learn about the Kuria and to share what we know with you. As we gather information, we will send it your way.

Blessings.