Week Five in Nakuru, Kenya

Oh my, the time is flying by. No pun intended. There are lots of flies here but most of them just congregate on food that is being served outdoors. Not much different from what happen at our picnics in the US. But that isn't really what I wanted to tell you.


What I wanted to tell you is that this week has been a very eventful week! Somewhat overwhelming.


Every week we go shopping on Monday to stock up on dry goods and produce. There are items throughout the week that we usually need to pick up extra but for the most part, Mondays are dedicated to shopping and getting our buying stuff out of the way. That is always and experience. Street vendors, hawkers, beggars and glue sniffing boys hooked on huffing and panhandling for more glue. 

Abba and I met with a pastor that comes to the Wednesday meeting. He has a plan for an orphanage, school and church complex that he is looking for funding on. We told him that we were not here to finance projects but to share what God had given us to share about Kingdom Life. There are many pastors and other persons looking for funding for their projects. We are more interested in seeing men work hard and growing into things rather than getting a sum of money to build things that may or may not work out. Plus, we don't have that sort of financing. Banks do but they don't loan on speculation. They loan on collateral. He has none. So if his project will be financed and built we offered he seek God for the timing and move slowly. There are lots of orphanages, schools and churches here. I think there are something like a 1000 or more of them here in Nakuru.  

Nakumat Devotions

We usually stop at a store called Nakuamt for some of the groceries. Amma met a man whose name is Glipson and he had invited Abba to speak at an employees daily morning devotional meeting they have. Imagine that. The whole store of employees, singing, praising, praying and worshiping God, in the store, with the owners permission (he's Muslim) and they invite us to speak. It was a real spiritual experience. All these people are devoted to following God and loved everything we had for them on Saturday morning. The owner of the store likes for them to do this because he believes that their commitment to God and righteousness helps prevent theft and employee issues. The atmosphere of walking into Nakumat is spiritual in that you know the employees care about you and show that freely. They are always asking how you are doing and what they can help you with in a way that is genuine and not pretend or for monetary gain.


Last week was not much different but that we started preparing the guest house for our new guests. Yes we have a guest house and it was in bad need of repair and painting. So, Patrick and Gideon began to clean up and paint on Monday. Here is a before picture of the shower to give you a feel for what they were up against. They work diligently cleaning, scraping and sanding the walls for application of paint. Almost every surface needed something done to it. I bought some electrical sockets and switches and repaired the electrical in the house. It's European style electrical but very easy for a do-it-your selfer like me. I would have got with John Fagan but he's not in town. We also repaired the window latches that were broken and got things so they would be able to open and close correctly. 

Paint job is done

Bright, fresh paint

At the end of the day we discovered that neither Patrick nor Gideon are painters. I think Abba took some pictures to share with Zemar and Nathanael. It looked horrible. There was paint all over the place and all in the wrong places. So, Patrick, knowing I wanted a good paint job and being the responsible man he is, found a fundi to help. A fundi is a trained and professional person. This one was a painter. He was pretty good too. They started to repair the mess-ups and get a good coat of paint on the ceiling, walls, doors, trim and floor. Yes, the floor was painted as well. The final product was two days coming but was well worth the $25 we spent for the fundi. Here are some after pictures.

Patrick at the slum house

 Patrick and Christine are now moved into this house and they are ecstatic about it. They were all smiles and giggles when they got here. They have been living in a very small two room apartment with five children, in the heart of the slums for 20 years. I have pictures of their old place to show you. It was a terrible place to live and raise a family. But that is all history now. God has given then a new home also. 

The old water source

The lorry

The old bath and shower

Newly painted Guest house

The kids are able to be with us and we are starting to feel like a real family. Patrick and Christine served us a new home meal Saturday night of traditional rice, ugoli, greens and stew. Patrick even found a pelipeli (hot pepper) for me. It was hot but I loved it. We spent most of Saturday morning helping them get things loaded into a lorry (truck) and then transporting it and unloading everything at the new house. Quite the ride too. I rode in the back part of the truck with some of the kids and Patrick. Very exciting. We videoed a lot of the move and interviewed Patrick and Christine before and after the move. I'll update those when I have some free wi-fi, since it costs too much to upload all that from my SafariCom modem. To say the least, everyone was so happy that they are out of the slum house and in the guest house now. 20 years of living that way, hawking belts and whatever else he could do to provide a meal a day, in a good week and pay the rent. We only wish we could help more get out of the slums. They are stuck there without someone lending a helping hand. They live on about $30 - $40 a month income. If you want to help someone better themselves and you feel inclined to assist them, please let us know and we will find a connection for you to do so. If you want to donate anything to helping this family stay out of the slums, please click on this link to do so.

We also visited the Grace and Mercy Center that another one of the pastors takes it upon himself to provide administrative and provisional services for the school. Everything they get is donated either by James’ church or other people who want to help the school. The teachers who are there at the school are literally dirt poor but they teach, feed and minister to these children who are worse off than them. The children are mostly orphans because their parents abandoned them, died from aids or violence, or were left with a relative and they are not able to support them any longer. There about 85 of these children and they are all in varying age groups and a quick needs assessment showed that they may only receive the one meal a day that they get for a school lunch. That is if the school has enough resources to provide a lunch that day. Old rickety benches serve as community desks and smaller rickety benches serve as the chairs. Some have plastic chairs to sit on. There is not enough room to put two books back to back on some of the tables or contain the number of children needed to teach. Our visit was a very cheerful visit for the children as our three youngsters played games and spent time talking with the kids. It was hard to leave but we have an open invitation to come back this week. School is out for a month after that.

Later Wednesday night we invited Tabu, Millie and Leon, their son, to dinner. We hadn't seen Tabu for over a year and really wanted to visit and catch up on how they were doing. We would also like to do something with Tabu and Simon is a business way. I'm thinking computer and website work. Simon is being trained in website construction and Tabu has prior experience in computer sales and repair. We will see what God puts together for us.

Suzy helping Kate make pizzas

Elizabeth's daughter Modesta

Friday night we got together with our neighbors, Johnny and Kate, the kids (14 of them) and had a pizza party. Suzy and Zach helped put things together and we brought salad fixin's (my favorite part) to the party. Modesta was spending the night with our girls and she fit right in to the mix of people that were there. It was a refreshing time of good fellowship and fun. Kate and Johnny are trying to buy an 8 acre piece of land to be able to move onto. They want to have plenty of room for themselves, orphans, produce growing, livestock and additional dwellings for facilitating their ministry goals. They have made a video and signed up for a fundraising site like Kickstarter called Indiegogo. You can watch their video for raising money to buy the land here. If you would like to donate to their campaign, please do so. It's for a really good cause and their heart is to take care of orphans and those suffering from AIDS/HIV here in Kenya.

Children at Peter's Church

Thomas's 500 chickens

Saturday Amma was able to address the ladies of Peter Melody's church. They really love her and all she brought to them. They served us rice and beans when Abba and I arrived to pick up Amma. Watch Amma's blog for details. Sunday both Abba and I were in different churches preaching. Abba went to Thomas's church and I went to Peter's church. I sort of got hijacked by Peter (in a nice way) when we were picking up Amma on Saturday. Zach came with me and we had a good time there. The church building is not much more than a small room in a multi-room building with another church competing for time and space at the same time. Interesting dynamics for both churches. Not sure why they aren't together in all that. Yes I am, I just wish they could see themselves working together. The picture they represent there is that Christ is divided but I can only pray they see that one day and allow God to bring them together. Anyway, afterwards Abba picked us up and we went to Thomas's house for lunch. Traditional meal of ugoli, rice, stew, chopoti, peas and beans, chicken and soup. Some of the elders of the church were there and we were packed into one small living space for a couple hours visiting and eating together. Thomas raises chickens and he has 500 of them. He uses the income to support himself and the church.


Well, that's a lengthy rundown on last week but I wanted you all to know that there is a lot of things happening here. So many needs. So little we can do other than try to find where God wants us to be involved and sharing the Kingdom life we have with others. In regard to that Kingdom Life, almost everyone we talk to about that life is amazed that we have been together 20 years and still are able to love one another, live with each other and take that life out to others around the world. I only hope we appreciate all of that as much as they do and not be lax in our responsibility to share all God has given us with others around us. No matter where we are, I want to be the first to stand up and say, God is Good, All the Time and Living this Life is an extraordinary and amazing privilege for me to be a part of. Thank you my brothers and sisters in Christ back home, for praying for us and taking care of my wife and children there. Thank you for supporting us and encouraging us here as your sent ones in Africa. May God bless your socks off and enlarge your hearts for all those around you. I know He will. I'll leave you with this video of Noah and some of Patrick and Christine's children to enjoy.