Thanks for Many Blessings!

Hello All,
Thanksgiving is such a special day for us.  We really love the tradition of it.  Setting aside a day to be thankful to God for all of our blessings and doing that with friends and family is very special.  This kind of celebration does not happen here in Kenya.  We had Rose and her granddaughter Yvonne celebrate with us.  Yvonne will talk to her friends for weeks about how she had a "sherehe" (celebration) with the Wazungu (Whites)!  We made some traditional foods:  Turkey (very expensive but worth it!), cranberry sauce (found 6 months ago and saved for this day), broccoli casserole (traditional sister's recipe), Potato Gunk (yummy potato casserole that Jim makes), Stuffing (from a box that was donated to us by some short termers that were leaving!), home made rolls (Rose makes the best), gravy and Aunt Georgia's Apple Crumb Pie (with ice cream - not Bryers but sufficient).  There are things we do as a family that just ground us, and this is one of them.  Thank you God for the ability to have a wonderful day!

Last Saturday was a banner day for the Taubitz kids at the races!  Pinewood Derby that is.  We had a great time watching the kids race their cars.  Timothy made an Ark with animals on it and Sallie made a slick pink and purple car.  Sallie came home with a second place win in the men's division (because of her age group, she had to make it "with Dad" so they were in the men's division, but she really did most of the work).  She was out of first by one last race where her car slowed to 5th place.  If she had even placed 3rd in that heat, she would have taken the gold!  She even had the fastest run time in her division of 3.611 seconds!  She and Jim had a great time and it was so fun to watch.  Timothy came home with a "Special Award" for creativity and workmanship.  His car was great and very creative.

Lauren and Timothy with their cars

 

Sallie's getting ready (Lane E)

 

Fastest Adult Men Speed - Sallie and Jim!

 

Sallie and Jim waiting for the start

 

The Victors!

 

The awards given.

 

I talked last week about getting a part for the CT Scanner from the states.  Well, it came late on Friday night and the guys installed it on Saturday, ran calibrations and by Sunday they had taken scans on 2 patients!  One of the patients was a small baby with hydrocephalus.  Jim was amazed at the lack of brain inside the head cavity and how much fluid is there.  It is the reason that most of these kids have very little hope.  The choice for the parents is to have a shunt put in to drain the fluid and the child can live for 20 years but at the level of a 2 year old, or do nothing and the child will die within a few years.  Not a situation I would like to be in.  Please pray for the families that have to choose every day here.  Haivng the CT up and running makes it a banner day for this hospital.  It is so important to have this ability here.  We have been told that once we start being able to get scans, the whole thing will grow exponentially and we will need another!  We were also told that having a second will help with maintaining at least one running, because parts will have to come from the states.  Hence, another project - sourcing a scanner, shipping it and building a space for it!  Here we go again - Hey, I thought we were done with that one!  We had a little fair well dinner with Jim (the expert) on Sunday.  Here is a picture - but notice the Cheese-It crackers on the table!  The kids came toward the end and were thrilled!  It is the simple reminders of home that are fun!

With the Engineering team at Jim's farewell dinner.

Trevor had his end of the term band concerts this past week end.  Sunday night was the wind ensemble and the concert band.  He plays in the wind ensemble.  They were great!  They did a song called Fire Bird from the ballet.  It really makes me want to see the ballet!  Monday night was the Jazz band.  That is my favorite.  The kids all wore funny hats and other paraphernalia and played for over an hour.  They did some very traditional jazz songs (that even I played when I was in school!) and some up to date ones.  We noticed that the trumpet line, made up of 4 boys, are all the top players in the calculus class too!  Hummm, what is the connection there?

Blurry Picture but not blurry sound!

 

 

School closed on Friday (they even had 1/2 of a day on Turkey day!), and they are out till Jan 3.  They take long breaks between terms so that the dorm kids can get to where they live (sometimes very far) and spend time with their families.  We are taking 3 of these 6 weeks off of work too, so maybe we can keep our sanity.  My Mother is coming next week end with a bag (or 2?) full of EBay purchases and other important things like ranch dressing, hot chocolate mix (even though it is summer weather) and Christmas sprinkles!  We really are looking forward to seeing her too but sure hope the bags make it OK!

We did do work this week too.
BK Wing:  Jim was busy with the contractor rerunning a water supply line, and tracking them as they source a good supply of sand for concrete works.  That has been surprisingly difficult.
ENT building:  I have been working on the ENT building still.  We are almost in agreement on the design.  These things can take a lot of time especially when the players are in the states!
House for Tracy and Craig: Jim and I are taking on another project I might have mentioned before.  We are helping our neighbors design and build a house.  They are with Care of Creation http://kenya.careofcreation.net/  We went to a company in Nairobi called East Africa Canvas Company.  They make the big tent safari tourist camps.  They have a steel frame construction that is very interesting.  In the states, there is quite a bit of this going on, but here it is pretty new.  We are exploring doing this with their house. 

 

 

We are heading for Kampala, Uganda tomorrow for just a few days.  Please pray for safe travels for us.  We just had the car repaired (steering column, suspension, air condition) and will be in it for about 10-12 hours depending on the traffic and boarder situation.  Kampala is where the East Africa EMI office is located.  We are going to meet those folks and get to know some of the other things that EMI is working on here.

Take Care and be Thankful for all!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

To Be found Wanting in the Balance

Hello All,
It has been such a busy week here (don't I say that every week)?  The deputy Prime Minister came on Thursday to dedicate the Palliative Care building, the Mother Child Health Facility, the CT scanner (looks great right now but not functioning yet) and ground break for the Bethany Kids Wing.  Here in Kenya they have a President, a Vice President, a Prime Minister and a Deputy Prime Minister (in that order).  It is part of the power sharing set up they developed after the violence in the 2008 election. They were painting and gardening and general sprucing up all the way up till Thursday morning!

The Kenyan Flag

 

Mrs Mary Muchendu (Executive Director) and Uhuru Kenyatta on the left

 

The guys painting the gray cement gray!

 

 

The Bethany Kids Ground breaking plaque

 

Trevor playing Jazz!

 

The RVA Band all set up

 

The RVA Band was all set up and ready to go by 9:30.  Kenyatta did not arrive till after 10:45.  Then, the band played the National Anthem and a song and got stuck!  It was impossible for them to leave as they would have made a real commotion.  So, they stayed till the end (around 2:00).  The cafeteria saved lunch for them and some were glad they got out of class for most of the day!  They sounded amazing as always.

 

Timothy had his first concert also this week.  He is playing the French Horn.  His band did great too!

 

 

 

Sallie also had a reader's theater (right in the middle of Kenyatta's speech)!  But we were there cheering her on because of course she is more important!

 

 

Here is Sallie as "Sallie Spine"

 

I got to teach Sallie's class this past week too.  It was not as scary as I thought it would be!  The kids were good and the day just flew by.  We had a great time.  Here is a picture of all the urchins.

 

Well, with all the commotion going on this week, we actually did get something done.  The part that is broken on the CT scanner was located in the states.  Our Medical Director was in Georgia and coming this way on Thursday, so we had it shipped to him to hand carry here.  It arrived last night (and him too) to the cheers of many!  Not really, as it was about 1:00 in the morning when he got here.  But, the technician we hired from the states stayed a few extra days so that he could test it and the guys are up there now getting it installed.  Hopefully, it will work as planned and we will get a test subject today to run a scan on.

The Technician (Jim) and the scanner

 

I also got to do some drawing this week.  I have been working on revising the ENT space with the doctors.  We are almost done with it and they are very happy.  They have a specialist coming this summer to stay long term and it sure would be nice to have this building operational.

 

We meet every week on Wed nights to have a bible study.  This week we were studying Daniel 5, "The handwriting on the wall."  Belshazzar sees a hand writing something on the wall and Daniel interprets it.  Belshazzar promises a purple robe and a golden collar and to be 3rd in the kingdom to Daniel if he can interpret the writing.  Daniel says to keep the gifts but interprets it anyway.  He says it means that Belshazzar's reign is over and he was found "wanting in the balances."  Belshazzar was killed that very night and the kingdom taken by the Medes.  God sees our actions and our hearts and inevitably interprets whether or not we "weigh" in. 

 

Today is the big race!  The pinewood Derby.  Timothy and Sallie have cars entered and it will be a very exciting time.  The school has a huge track with electronic gates.  The event starts at 8:30 and ends sometime around 3:00!  Then tonight, Trevor has all of his calculus buddies coming over for Pizza (does that mean that they only eat the square root of the radius of each pizza)? 

 

This week is Thanksgiving and the end of school (the kids are thankful for that)!  We are so thankful to God for showing us who He is and allowing us to serve.  We are also thankful for many things:  Family, friends, kids and so many blessings.  We are also thankful to you all who come to this blog to spend some time with us every week.  It is good to know we are not forgotten even though we are physically far away!

 

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

PS - Jim updated the "Project Page" (tab at the top) yesterday.  Please go and look at the update on all of the projects.







And If Not....

Hello All,
The CT team has arrived!  They actually got it spinning the other day before they found out that there is a part that is broken.  They have tried to source one from the states to see if it can get here quickly (good luck with that one!) and have not had any luck.  Jim is going up there with the team to pull the old unit out and see what they can find.  These units are refurbished sometimes so they figure since it is already broken, they can't do much more damage - Right?!  Pray that they will see what the problem is and they will have the tools and knowledge to fix it.

The guys getting it ready to spin

Sallie had a show and tell of sorts recently in class.  They are studying mammals in science class and wanted an example.  So, pepper (the dog) and I went to show them an example of a mammal.  Here are a few pictures:

 

I get to teach in this (Sallie's) class next week for a day.  It should be like herding cats!  Please pray for me!

Trevor attended a college fair this past week at another close by school.  He is searching for the right one.  I am glad I am not in that position anymore.  What a tough job.   Can't believe he is less then 2 years from being gone from home.  We would really like to visit a school or 2 that he is interested in sometime next summer, but will have to wait to see what that might look like.

This week at our bible study someone mentioned the quote, "And if not."  Do you know what it means?  Apparently, all of Britain new what it referred to during WW II and through the prayers of a nation, men were surely saved. Below is what I found on a forum about it:
"And if not. . ." This was a message from the trapped British army on the beach at Dunkirk. It was an allusion to the words of Daniel's 3 friends, Shadrak, Mishack, and Abednego. When threatened with being thrown in the furnace unless they worshiped idols, they refused to yield, and professed their faith that the Lord would save them, "and if not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Dan. 3:18) The British people immediately recognized the biblical allusion as demonstrating their soldier's resolve to stand to the end and not surrender. It galvanized them and launched the great rescue effort that became "the Miracle of Dunkirk." I believe this was recently mentioned in an article in World Magazine. The point of the article was that today, such a biblical allusion would fly over the heads of most people, as our society is now biblically illiterate.
It is very interesting how true this is.  Can you imagine sending out a 3 word message, "and if not" and the whole nation begins to pray because they know you are facing death.  God is good!

A pastor preached recently about "acknowledgment." We all want it. To be acknowledged for your hard work is just a basic humanness. But, we have set our sights too low if we are waiting on people to see what we have done and celebrate. We need to focus on God. Having acknowledgement from Him who created us is more important. To know that you are doing what he deems for your life is what we need to care about. Jim and I received an acknowledgment two weeks ago from a very important person. That was nice, but it is not all that is important. Keeping our sights on the real matter is what is important!

Here are a few more pictures that I took around here this week:

A nice catctus nearby

 

Steven the Flower guy

 

ENT:  Ear, Nose and Throat - this is a new project starting hopefully soon up by the existing Dental building.  They want to build a clinic because there is a full time audiologist coming in the next year.  The program that they want to establish will be precedent setting for Kenya I believe!  I will be keeping you up to date about that one as it continues.

Palliative Care (hospice):  The building is just about ready to be turned over to the client.  The Palliative care people will be very happy!  This coming week we may have a very important visitor here to dedicate this building as well as have the ground breaking ceremony for the BKCC wing and dedicate the CT Scanner and the Mother Child Health building.  President Kibaki may come.  We are waiting to see if it will be a reality, but at least if there is a possibility of him coming the road may get repaired! (I had some pictures but my Internet is not cooperating).

Bethany Kids Children's Center:  Things are progressing.  They are a little bit behind because of material delays, but all in all things are going well.  They have the site pretty clear now and will start soon on the footings.  Here are some recent pictures:

Ivan Stewart (BK Board Chair) visiting the site

(I had some more pictures, but my Internet is not playing nicely)

 

I am sure glad that you all (most of you) changed time again.  Now I have an extra hour to get the blog done so that it is there waiting on Saturday mornings!  We are 8 hours ahead of the east coast now.

 

Have a great week and please pray for Kibaki's visit and getting the CT up and running.

 

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

 

PS - A great song I can't get out of my head is "How He Loves" by David Crowder Band.  Great words!

 

 

 

 

CT Scanner - The final Push

 

Hello All,

Well, the EMI team has departed.  They did so much work while they were here, it is amazing.  They had people scattered everywhere around the hospital.  Here is a picture of the team along with some of the E&F (Engineering and Facilities) team from the hospital:

 

The Whole team

 

The E&F team (some of us)

 

Sure hope they all got home safely.  One was going to Dulles when Sandy was going by.  I am sure some of them will be back and hopefully see some of their projects implemented or they can come back to help implement them!

 

Jim has been busy this past week getting ready for the CT Scanner technicians to come from the states.  The team here needs to have the basic electrical and mechanical hook ups done before next Wednesday.  We have waited almost 6 months just for the UPS (uninterruptable power supply) to get here to do the electrical hook up.  It finally arrived last week and, with some problems along the way, the company that supplied it helped hook it up.  It is a big one.  It will supply the critical hospital loads and the CT Scanner. Here are some pictures:

 

Loading it in the generator room

 

moving it (it was 1.8 tons!)

 

 

 

The team of 2 coming, will spend a week getting the CT operational.  Hopefully, things will go well and all the parts we need will be here.  If we have to delay because the parts need to come from the states we are in trouble!  Here is a picture of Jim working on the scanner:

 

 

They really let him do that??

 

Please pray that the guys coming will arrive safely and that the week will go well with all parts available!

 

We get short term doctor visitors coming and going all the time.  They sure are a blessing to this place with their skills and attitudes of "givingness" (is that a word)?  There have been some here recently who have really made a difference.  Thank you to all who come and go and leave your mark!

 

We had a potluck up at the motel this week for the missionaries.  We do this periodically and it is nice to see people who, because we are all working most of the time, we don't get to see.  The kids have a great time too.  Here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

We sure enjoy these people.  Thanks to the ladies who organize us to get together!

 

 

In the last month or so, there had been a rash of robberies here on lower station (below the RVA school).  Someone has been breaking in homes during the day and stealing electronics and cash and clothing.  The person was deemed to be a child or very small because they were getting through barred windows.  He was finally caught as he broke into a building at the school in the night!  He apparently got through an opening of 8" x 10"!  He was caught and said he was working alone, but that will remain to be seen.  We think we have not been targeted because we have the dog in the house and Rose is here all day.  We are very careful to lock doors even on the other side of the house if you are not in that area.  We left the laundry room door open once and a jar of kerosene was taken from its place!  It is a lot like Italy here in the sense that people don't want to harm you, they just want your stuff.  We just pray that they will come to know God loves them and will provide for them if they can trust (without the stealing)!

 

This coming week will be filled with CT Scanner operations (and through the weekend and on through Wednesday of next week).  Please keep Jim in your prayers as he is running on empty.  Once we get through this, we will take a few days off.  We are thinking about going to Uganda soon.  The kids' last day if school is Thanksgiving day (it is just wrong to go to school on that day)!  Mom comes in December, so times of rest are coming!

 

Have a great week and send us a note if you can (see the contacts at the top of the page).  I sure enjoy hearing from you!

 

In His Hands,

Jullie T.