Tea with a Millionaire

Hello All,
We have had another busy week!  It seems to be the trend.  We started off by going to a friend's house for tea last Saturday afternoon.  The Kenyans love their chai and have a strict schedule for it.  Her name is Rachael and she lives in a mud hut with her 3 grown children.  We know her because she comes to sell us samosas and spring rolls.  Here is a picture that I got off the Internet of some samosas:

She makes the best!  I read a book by Ryan Murphy called Winter Spring Summer Fall: Living and Lasting in Missions.   He is a teacher up at RVA and it is a book about transitioning to life in Africa.  He has a chapter titled "Dinner with a Millionaire."  What that means is that I am the millionaire in this lady's eyes!  Even though we are missionaries and make a fraction of what we could if we had a "real job," we have so much more than she does and it is like us having a millionaire over for tea.  It must feel strange to her as it would to me.  She probably makes about $5 a day on a good day.  Some people talk about, "Well, isn't it all relative?  I mean she can live so much cheaper here."  There is some truth to that.  You can rent a place to live for about $40/month if you want just a 12 x 12 room with no water nor electricity.  You can eat for about $2.00/day if you eat just cabbage and rice (which is what a lot of people do here).  But, you can not save for school or other important things in life. And when emergencies come, you have nothing in reserve.  This is why they have gatherings called "harambees."  Rachael is having one next week for her daughter to raise money to send her to a technical school (she wants to be a lab technician).  People will come, there will be food (that she prepares), and there will be an MC.  At the appointed time they will start with the "call."  The MC will call people up one at a time and announce what they have given.  It seems deplorable to us, but it is the way they like to do it.  It makes it a competition of sorts and it probably brings in more money.  So, you have a circle of friends and family and they all support each other in times of need. Rachael had to have her teeth pulled back in Nov. She was in so much pain and had no money to get it done.  We loaned her the money and she works it off in samosas.   It feels funny being the "millionaire."  We experience that even when we walk down the street here. Because of our white skin, people believe we are wealthy.  I have talked about this before, but it really brings it home when you go to a friend's house and she serves you tea and she has so many issues and only makes $5 /day.  Please pray for Rachael and her family.  She is a great lady and is just working every day to survive (as so many others that we know).  Here is a picture of Rachael, her daughter Judy and her son Peter.

Butterflies:  there are so many butterflies here, it is amazing!  In the afternoon when it is hot, they are everywhere.  I tried to get some pictures this morning, but they weren't really out yet.  Here is one:

These little white ones are very common.  There are many varieties though.  A friend was sitting in her back yard and counted 24 different kinds!  Here are some pictures from the Internet of ones that I have seen here.  I don't know what they are called but they sure are pretty:

This past week there have been some extreme challenges, but we are working through them.  The trusses that had been erected on the MCH building blew down on Wednesday!  There wasn't too much damage, but it was just one more thing.  Jim has really been keeping quiet waiting for the guys to ask for help.  That is when he finds they are ready to listen, but there are times when you just can't keep your mouth shut!  But, positively, there have been a few times this week where they actually asked for his help and he went with them to solve the problem.  One of which was Ruth's water issue (I mentioned before that she has been without hot water for 6 weeks).  They finally are on the right track and Ruth had a hot shower 2 days in a row!  But, it was being with the guys and solving the problem together when they were participating which was key.  Hopefully, that trend will continue.

The pathologists have a great program here.  They rotate in about one month time slots to come.  That way, they don't have to leave their state side jobs and still get to serve.  There is a couple here that has been coming for about 16 years!  He was about 64 when they started, so they have decided that this is their last time.  They have been coming every year for about 3 months at a time.  She plays the accordion (for the kids in the ward usually) and he is a pathologist.  They have contributed greatly to the pathology program and Kijabe in general. They also do the same thing at a hospital in the Philippines.  Their names are Ace and Jean Barns and they need your prayers for peace in a life being still!

That brings up the discussion of short termers vs long termers.  Some people say that short term missions (2 weeks or so) benefit the person doing the mission more then the people they are going to see.  But, this type of visit can change the perspective of that person that will rub off in many places in their lives and affect others.   Long termers are a breed of their own!  It is so beneficial to have a skill set or program and go and live somewhere to get it done.  We have discovered that a short term group can have great ideas or get something started but if there is no one there to champion the project/idea, it just doesn't get done.  We are so glad to be here to champion the Bethany Kids Children's Center! 

I had talked previously about Jim going to Rwanda on another EMI trip.  That one has been delayed and looks like they will be going in May.

Sallie is a bit sick with a fever right now (she is sleeping on the couch as I write this).  Please pray for her to recover.

Sure miss you all!

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

The Hole in Our Gospel

Hello All,
We have had our first snake spotting here!  It was very exciting because we were in the car!  It was moving across the road right in front of us and went up the bank and disappeared into the grass.  It was a green momba.  They are a highly venomous snake.  We had the camera in the car, but were not able to move fast enough to get a picture.  Here is a picture of one that I got off of the Internet:

It looked just like this and was about 4 feet long.  I was so glad that I was in the car!  If I had not been, it would have been a terrifying experience to say the least. 

We are finally finished with the Valentines Day fund raiser for the sophomore class.  That seemed like a never ending thing!  As I told you in a previous blog, we baked then frosted, then delivered over 1000 items in a week end.  Last Monday was our day to deliver all of the hard sale items (flowers, baskets, mugs, balloons).  One of our sponsors went to Naivasha in the morning and returned about 1pm with about 4000 stems of roses!  We had to package them into groups of singles, 1/2 dozens and dozens with 3 different colors!  Thank goodness the class had previously sorted all of the tags into these groups as well as by location (dorms).  It went smoothly and 5 hours later we were finished!  Here are a few pictures:

We had another milestone with the sophomore class last night too.  Every year the junior class puts on Banquet for the Senior and Junior class.  It is a huge production!  We (the sophomore class) did dishes in the RVA kitchen till about 1:30 in the morning.  I tried to sleep in this morning but alas, I have kids! 

We have had a humbling revelation this week.  Remember a few weeks ago when I told you that we were praying for the continuation of the Bethany Kids Children's Wing?  The board had met and were debating whether or not to continue the project.  I think that part of their agreeing to continue was because Jim and I are here.  We have been here over a year now and have a working relationship with the people that matter for the building as well as have built up a lot of experience about how things work here.  God sent us here quickly (we got ready and left in about 7 months) and there was no building going on.  We were a bit dismayed at the physical lack of progress.  But, it is not everything that is seen that makes it all work out.  God has his timing and will teach us patience in it all!  We are humbled at the thought that our being here will provide a new center in the next few years for the children in East Africa.  But it is not just us - all of you who support us with your dollars are part of it.  Thank you so much!

Weariness - we take so many things for granted in our culture.  One of which is communications.  I am not talking about just being able to speak Swahili or someone being able to speak English, it is about understanding.  There are so many times in which you have to follow up with an issue and follow up again and follow up again!  The Kenyans will say, "Yes" to just about anything (because they don't want to tell you "no").  We learned about that in the book African Friends and Money Matters - great read by the way.  But, living that reality is nothing like reading about it!  No one here will follow up on an issue.  For example - the hospital was supposed to order the trusses for the MCH building before we left to come home in Dec.  We left the order with the material department.  They had some issues and didn't call anyone to resolve those and nothing happened, but the engineering department didn't follow up to see that it was done!  It was Jim that called the company when we got back here and asked when the trusses would be delivered and they said, "For what order?"  Things like this (usually on a smaller scale) happen all the time.  One of the apartments in our old apartment building has been out of hot water for 6 weeks now.  Poor Ruth has been taking a sponge shower in her kitchen (she now knows why they put a drain in the kitchen floor!) with a kettle of hot water!  But it has been Jim that keeps dogging them to continue researching the problem until it is corrected.  It just is a wearisome process.  Please pray for patience and dogged stamina as we continue!

I am reading a great book called The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns.  He is (or was, not sure) the CEO of World Vision.  He writes about how the American culture is living in a world far beyond the reaches of the majority of the world and they don't even realize it.  He says that American Christians give only 2.58% of their money to their churches and only 2% of that money goes outside of our country!  We are blind to the challenges that most of the world faces.  Earning less then $4 a day is a reality to most of the world and for that matter for most of the Kenyans here that we know.  There is a pastor here who has a program going where he is trying to teach people to earn up to $10 a day!  That would be earth shattering if all of the people here in Kijabe made $10 a day.
There is a quote from John MacArthur in the book:
Mankind wants glory. We want health. We want wealth.  We want happiness.  We want all our felt needs met, all our little human itches scratched.  We want a painless life.  We want the crown without the cross.  We want the gain without the pain.  We want the words of Christ's salvation to be easy.
We are a society that has lost touch with the reality of the world.  Being here really brings that home to us and the kids.  Sallie ran into some teenage girls and a small boy last week who asked her for some food.  She ran inside and asked me if we had something.  She took out a bag of English muffins (that is one of the things the ladies come around and sell us).  They were so grateful!  She ran back inside and asked if we had any clothing to give them.  We rifled through some drawers and found some things.  Sallie was imprinted with the gratefulness on their faces for just these few "extra" things that she gave them.
There is another thing he talks about in chapter 7: "Another excuse we often use effectively to avoid serving God is that we don't have the right skills or abilities.  We bow to feelings of inferiority, which tell us again and again that God can't use someone like us."  Jim and I almost fell into this one.  We didn't have specific construction experience (except for our house building project) and were not sure about how we would be useful.  It was revealed to us very soon after coming here how God was going to use the skills he gave us to help his project come to life.  2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." NIV version.
Another thing he points out is how "for most of the poorest people in the world, their hard work doesn't matter.  They are trapped within social, cultural, political, and economic systems that do not reward their labor.  The result of this entrenched futility is devastating to the human spirit." (page 119)  Ruth and I were talking about this just last week!  We see here a hopelessness that whatever they do, doesn't matter.  In America, we believe that if you work hard you can climb out of your circumstances and reach to whatever you want.  But, it is just not that way here.  If you try to better yourself in this society, your neighbors and friends (and family) will not cheer you on, they will want to bring you down because you have no right to be better (or have better things) then them.  It permeates a feeling of hopelessness that we can feel everyday.
I have been impacted by this book this week (I got to read for 4 hours last Sunday)!  And I thought I would just share a little bit of that.  I highly recommend picking it up and letting God speak to you through it.

Please know that we think of you often even if we don't communicate directly.  I surely appreciate that you come to this blog and we can talk that way!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

Blogsite Update

Hello All,
Jullie and I know that it has been a while since our other pages have been updated on our blog.  In fact, it has been since October.    I am happy to report that the Kijabe Project Page and our Prayer request page are now up-to-date. 

Thank you and bless you all for your patience.
Jim

Water Woes

Hello All,
This has been a busy, but satisfying week.  It started this past week end with baking 500 + cupcakes!  We (the Sophomore class sponsors) got together with some of the kids in the RVA kitchen and they had all the equipment we needed to bake these in 2 shots.  They had a mixer that was like a kitchen aid that had taken growth pills!  It was about 5 ft tall and was able to handle 52 cups of flour, 34 cups of sugar, 1 c baking soda, etc, etc.  It was very cool!  Then they had enough muffin tins to fill 500 at one time.  That's a lot of muffin tins!  We baked them all in an industrial oven.  We did the cupcakes and the cookies (heart shaped sugar cookies) in about 2 hours.  We then spent another 2 hours cleaning all of the muffin tins!  I hate cleaning muffin tins.  It's that little bit that drips on the edge and burns onto the tin that is the problem.  But, all said and done, we had 450 + cookies and 560 + cupcakes!  We let them cool overnight then started on the frosting.  It was quite a production.  We had a frosting maker, a frosting crew, a sprinkle person, a bagging and tagging crew, a sorting crew and a delivery crew.  We got them all frosted, sprinkled, sorted and delivered from 1:00 - 4:00!  We were a machine!  These were all a part of the fund raiser that the Sophomore class does every year.  The kids made about $4,000!  They were selling the cupcakes, cookies, roses, baskets with chocolate and other sundry items.  We actually have to do it all again on Monday!  We will deliver all the non eatable items then.  One of the sponsors will go to Naivasha to pick up over 4000 stems of roses in Yellow, Red and Pink.  That's a lot of roses!  There are big flower farms in Naivasha.  They export to Europe mostly.  We are getting 2000 for free and have to pay about 1 cent each for the others.  These are all the rejects because they are not allowed to sell within Kenya.  What a blessing! 
Jim and I are heading out right now for a 6km run!  It is all up hill for the 1st half and downhill on the way back.  So, I will finish this blog later and let you know how it went.

OK - We are back.  It only took us an hour and 1 mintue to get up the hill and back.  Here are some pictures that Sallie took before we left:

It was fun, but I was glad when it was over!

We have had problems with water supply this past few weeks.  Some people have been without water for 4 weeks or more.  It is very frustrating.  We sit below the tank that supplies us, so typically, we are OK.  We have only had sporadic days with out water.  Some say the issues are with supply, but most likely they are with allocation.  The Hospital does not control the water supply so, when things like this happen, they can just make phone calls to inform people and sit and wait.  Can you imagine a maternity ward with out water?  It happened 2 times this past week!  Jim and I want to get out there and do a hand over hand of the system and just see where the problems are, but alas, we can not.  There is a big meeting coming up this month where the powers that be will address these issues.  Just pray that the problems will be rectified and control will be established with the hospital.

Our Mother Child Health (MCH) building now has trusses up on it!  It was quite an ordeal but, it was spot on!  Jim and the guy's measurements were very well done.  The company increased the height by 40mm (about 2 inches) and so we are off now by about 2 inches.  But, I don't think that will be too noticeable.

As you can see in the middle picture, the peaks are dead on now.  They put a level on that stick and it was level - Amazing!  But, we have to add purlins and tin to the top, which will bring it up a few inches.  Too bad.

We have a supper busy week coming up:  4000 flowers to deliver on Monday, Jane Gravis the founder of IAA orphanage is coming on Tues, another EMI friend from Kampala is coming on Thurs, big meeting with the architect this week as well as one with our Tech group to sort some things out.  Makes me tired just to think about it!

Thank you all for what you do!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

Bats, do they pee?

Hello All,
This has been a busy and somewhat frustrating week.  We are finding that dealing with the cultural issues regarding work ethic are extremely difficult at best!  Jim has had to be pealed off the ceiling at least twice this week, but that is what I am here for.  I will not go into details, but you all know him and know how to pray for us as we push on.

I forgot to mention a milestone last week.  Timothy had his 11th birthday on the 23rd.  We were able to get him a bicycle and he was thrilled!  Our Kiswahili teacher, Edward, calls him Bwana Off (Mr. Off), because he is always off somewhere. Now he is Bwana Haraka (Mr. Quick)!  Here is a picture with the new bike:

I was able to catch up with him long enough to get this picture, but we don't see him as much now a days!

Here is a picture of the moon.  We love the fact that here, near the equator, we see it laying down!  I think it is because the sun is direct (and not at an angle) to us.  But now I have a hard time knowing if it is waxing or waning.  Since it goes around the earth counterclockwise, when we are in Michigan I know that it is waxing (getting bigger) when it is shining on the right.  When it is shining on the left, it is waning (getting smaller).  At least that is the way my brain can understand it!  Here is a link to a web sight that shows what I am talking about:  http://www.ilovemedia.es/moon-phases/

You can change your location and time of day to see what the moon looks like.  You will see that at the equator, the moon is more like a bowl (or upside down bowl) at times.

I think I mentioned last week that the kids (Timothy and Sallie) and Jim went camping in a nearby cave while I went to a lady's retreat (pedicure included)!  Here are some pictures from their trip:

These black thing are bats.

Sallie was a bit upset because she thinks they got peed upon by them!

This is a cool formation.

Timothy and Nathan following Jeremiah

A cave painting - origin unknown

Jeremiah, the Masai guide

The kids had Titchie Field day in January also.  It is a fun event filled with water and sun.  Here are some pictures:

One of the blogs that I read as often as I can is called Paradox Uganda.  I have the link on the sidebar.  It is written by one of the doctors here.  She is an excellent writer and shows the hospital and patient side of things.  If you are interested in the patients and what goes on with the children (she is a pediatrician), then go there to read more.

Here is one last picture of me at my birthday celebration with chocolate goodness!

We had a meeting this week with the Architect and the team involved with BKCC (Bethany Kids Children's Center).  It was good to get moving again!  Plans and schedules are being made.  There is so much to do that I think our focus will be shifting to almost full time in that direction.  Looks like we are planning on official ground breaking in May.  Please pray that things will move along well and we can meet that time frame.

Jim's trip to Rwanda has been postponed.  He was going to go in Feb for 10 days to help another hospital with a 20 year master plan.  They have had some key people back out, so now they are trying to schedule for May.  I think he will be able to go as long as our official ground breaking doesn't happen at the same time - that would be Murphy for you!

Thanks for reading our blog.  Again, it is good to know that people are there and supporting us in many ways.

In His hands,

Jullie T.