Brian's Blog
Midwest Estate Buyers Blog
Observations from 36,000 feet
Friday, 27 January 2012 09:47
Our journey home has begun but I don’t believe our journey from Kenya will be over for quite some time. I know we all will have many opportunities to share our experiences both briefly and at length, and I am certain that as time goes on we will be able to sharpen our focus and articulate in a clearer fashion, what we experienced.Bill and Don Fredricks are on their way to one of the IDP camps in northwestern Kenya (please continue your prayers of safety for them. Ann, Al and I are headed to Amsterdam on the first leg of the trip home. We will gain 8 hours, so that will be a gift, but also certain to mess up our internal clocks.
Yesterday we were able to get the final installation done at Jared’s church on the other side of Nairobi. Moving around in the daytime in Nairobi is just awful but we made it just the same. Before we went there we were able to spend a little time at the Nairobi Safari Park.
The parks here are massive, I’m talking the size of counties. We drove in for miles on dirt roads in search of wildlife. We were treated to numerous species of gazelles and antelope as well as a family of warthogs (even the babies are ugly). We even saw a couple of rhinoceros chase some giraffes out of the bush. So if you are keeping track at home, we saw 3 of the big 5. The big 5 are the major game animals that live in Africa. We saw water buffalo, rhinos, and elephants, but we did not see either of the big cats on the list; lions or leopards.
One of the places we went to was an orphanage for elephants. It was fascinating what they have to go through to save an orphaned elephant. For instance they are incredibly emotionally sensitive and need a keeper with them until they are 2 years old, 24/7, or they will get sad and die. I was happy there are people doing that to save these creatures. The center was endowed 60 years ago, and yet relies on private donations from around the world. That’s all well and good, but Pastor Elias needs a cow to make his orphanage self-sustaining. If I am going to donate money to worthy orphans, my money is on the human ones.
I can not in good conscience give money for the elephant survival when so many worthy places exist. Places that are vetted and doing a remarkable and inspiring job raising children that wouldn’t otherwise have a chance.
In my first post, I talked about transformation. Last night as we were sharing around the dinner table about highs and lows for the week, Pastor Elias began talking about how the system we put at the home there will transform the place. Those were his words. The transformation he was speaking of has to do with quality of life, but if anyone deserves it, it is they.
The transformation I was talking about was of our hearts. That has unquestionably happened but it will probably be a long time before it fully takes shape in us. I can only speak for myself, but humility and appreciation are two of the feelings that don’t want to lose as the world comes crashing in upon our return. Deep humility for being a first hand witness of people who are all in for the most vulnerable; following Gods call on their lives passionately and selflessly. And an appreciation for the wealthiest nation in the world and all of the unappreciated blessings that it affords. The list of things we take for granted in the states is endless. I even found myself thankful for the EPA as I had a headache from all of the exhaust fumes almost everyday. Transformations; unquestionably.
I thank you for joining us on this trip, it has been quite a ride, hasn’t it? I thank you for your prayers, they worked! I thank God for the work he is doing in Africa. And I thank God for the words He gave me to write these posts. I hope they were inspiring and informative but most of all…..transforming
Mission Accomplished
Sunday, 22 January 2012 02:27
I would like to amend my last thought from yesterday. I have to confess that I was very tired and words were not coming easily. When I am speaking of God and what He has done and created, I could go on for paragraphs and pages and never get to completeness because of God's unsearchable depths. After I had sent my post and was nodding off, a picture came to me that better illustrated what I was trying to say: Imagine a 7 year old child who has just learned how to do a cartwheel. She runs inside the house and gets her mom and dad and says "Come quick! Look what I can do!" She does it for them and turns around and says "Wasn't that cool?" She wants them to share in her exuberance. This is how I imagine it with God. He throws a few billion galaxies in the universe and says "Isn't that cool? Share in My joy!"Now imagine that same 7 year old who runs in the house and says, "Come see what I can do now!" And she does a triple flip with 2 1/2 twists in the full layout position and sticks the landing. Her parents stand there in slack-jawed amazement. So it is with God, "You think those galaxies are something? Watch this!" and he creates mankind. This is what I was trying to convey.
Church today was quite good with the pastor teaching from Genesis 13 about slowing down to do the right thing; fulfilling the commission that God has on each of our lives. There were over 3000 people in that service this morning and there were two more services yet today.
After church today we were able to have some fried chicken and milk shakes at The Oasis not far from here. It was a welcome bit of comfort food for us. We then had a few hours to kill and were able to take a little drive up to another part of the Rift Valley. Other than some more incredible birds we did not see any other wildlife, but were treated to magnificent vistas that rival what we see at the Grand Canyon. We learned that the Rift Valley is a giant crack in Africa that is approximately 10,000 miles long and runs from Egypt to Mozambique. We were several thousand feet above the valley floor and able to see for many miles the rich valley.
From there we were able to go back to the Neema House and finish the installation, with one minor problem. When putting in a water purification system it is usually customary to have water. The government turned off the water in this area without warning for several hours meaning we will be doing training tomorrow and be delayed a day getting back to Nairobi. We would ask for prayers of peace in the people here in Eldoret as Monday at 1:30 the ICC ruling comes down for the accused political insurrectionists. You will have to Google it for the full story but just know this is where the worst violence was post election 5 years ago and this is what the ruling has to do with. The feeling is that it will be a non event either way the ruling goes as the mood is quite different now, but the media here seems to be blowing it up (sound familiar?).
Finally we shared a meal with Mariam and Joshua who are founders of Neema House. There are 42 orphans there, 32 of which are HIV positive and 15 have AIDS. All of these children are considered theirs legally. They provide them with clothing, shelter, education, medical treatment and most of all an unconditional love which shows in every one of the children's faces. By the way, they made it to church this morning with 14 kids under 9 all well dressed, fed and on time. We were all mesmerized by the testimony they were telling about starting the home. Miriam was an orphan who was angry at God. Joshua was a pastor at the hospital where she was training to be a nurse.
When you want to get a sense for how far some one has come in their healing process, just listen to them for a bit. When they get to the place where they thank God for the hardship that they have endured in their lives, because without it they would never have made it to the place they are now, you know they are completely healed. This is the story that Miriam tells.
If we do and see nothing else this week, we will feel accomplished because of our experience with Neema House.
God bless you all for your thoughts and prayers.
More Articles...
Page 1 of 5
Email Us - Click Here!
