Immanuel, "God with Us"

Hello All,
We have had a nice week with Christmas inserted right in the middle!  Work has been ongoing but minimal.  I have become known as the "cake lady" I think.  Not sure how it happened, but I have been asked about 7 or 8 times to bake cakes this week!  These are for the locals who do not have the resources to bake cakes (ovens).  I mostly make the Carrot Cake recipe - they seem to really like that.  But some have been chocolate.  I have been a cake making fool!  It is something that I can do and is pretty simple, so I enjoy doing it.

Christmas day was quiet around here.  It was so nice!  The kids all got smartphones (so that they will feel at home in America next year I suppose)!  Now maybe I can use mine without having kids run down the battery playing their music or games.

 This is a favorite saying of Trevor's

I read a great article on the web this week about the meaning of Immanuel, "God with Us."  I am paraphrasing or copying text straight from the article on www.orlutheran.com/html/immanuel
by Richard Bucher but you should go read the whole thing if you are at all interested - it is very good.

Immanuel - God with Us:
Many names were given to Jesus but none as significant as this.   
Wasn't God always with us?  Yes.  God is omnipresent, He remains with us but distinct from His creation.  With the birth of Jesus, "God with Us" takes on a whole new meaning.  John 1:1-3 and 14 
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.  3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made....14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 
God is with us = the meaning of Christmas!
But why do we need God with us?  We do not appreciate the cure unless we first taste of the sickness.  1 John 1:8 says, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  We all have sinned.  We are incomplete without Him.  St Augustine said, "For you have formed us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until we find rest in You."  (The following copied from the article):  "When the creature no longer has fellowship with the Creator, he seeks to find a replacement to make the gnawing emptiness go away. Some call this "man's drive to succeed", others "finding myself", and still others refer to it as "self-actualization." But these restless strivings are the creature trying to fill the void left by the Absence of the Creator. Some try to make the emptiness go away with romance and relationships, family and friends; Others throw themselves completely into a career hoping that will give their life meaning. Others find themselves almost obsessively buying one thing after the other, desperately hoping to find fulfillment under the sheer weight of the new. Sadly, many turn to the dark side of drugs, alcohol, crime, and other deviant behaviors to drown out the emptiness and lack of meaning in their lives. We need "God with us" because without Him we are incomplete."
He saw our dire need and wanted to save us.  He decided to die for His creation, but to do this He must become human. 
2 Cor 5:19 For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out...
Through Jesus coming to be with us, our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship with our creator again!

Hope you had a great Christmas and enjoy the New Year's eve celebration.  Jim has a birthday this week and will be an even older man (meaning that he is already old,  now just older)!  Our good friends Jenny and Rachel Rounds are coming tomorrow (they are actually already on their way) to visit for a while.  We are so excited to have them come!

Me and Mak who thinks he is a lap dog!

This was funny:  we went to see the Desolation of Smaug - The Hobbit movie this week.  Do you see something funny in the movie title of this ticket?!

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

Cocooning from the World!

Hello All,

We had a wonderful week in Naivasha just cocooning from the world!  Jim and I are so grateful that the kids are of an age that they can all cocoon with us and enjoy it (just reading, playing games and eating).  As we were packing up, Rose saw us packing all the large action packers full of food.  She said, "You are going to eat."  She was right on that account!  We brought enough stuff so that we would not want for anything!  Good thing we have a rack on the top of the car.  Here are a few pictures of our stay:

Timothy and Calvin

The things you see on the road here!

A wedding party we saw at a local swimming pool - these kids were so cute!

Beautiful!

Relaxing

The front porch

Sallie and a buffalo head

Hawk we saw in the yard.

Jim even read a whole book that was not a text book!  On that note, he is finished with his Masters Degree in Information Systems!  What an accomplishment.  He is so glad that is done.  We are very proud of him.  Too bad we don't have a real graduation ceremony but I think there is chocolate pudding and cream in his future to celebrate!

We heard a sermon in the last month or so talking about how we are not just God's toolkit to get things done.  He wants to love us and not just use us to accomplish his work. In the next passage Paul says,

2 Cor 12:7-10
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 
The thorn in Paul's side is a blessing to him.  If Paul were superman, we would look to him (or others like him) and not to God as our savior.  Before we can learn the sufficiency of God's grace we need to see the insufficiency of ourselves.

The Art Center project up at RVA is having its challenges.  We are laying the form work for the the upper ground floor (what westerners call the second floor) and things are a bit shaky. My partner in crime for the building who really knows rebar and concrete is not happy with what he is seeing.  All will tell in the coming 2 weeks as to what we will do.

standing on the new deck (Trevor is running - the white dot in the right in the distance).

The upper ground floor formwork.

I have been working on things like doors (fire, security, etc) and floors and a bit of building design.  These days are about 1/2 at work since everybody is gone now.  It is pretty lonely up at the office with just Darrell and I!

The Lala Salama - 100 Quilts Project is going well.  I think a lot of people who signed up will get started in Jan, but several have gotten moving already.  We are up to about 80 promised quilts!  Here is a picture of one in progress by Jen, Eliana, Noah and Katy - thanks so much!

Collins, the engineer here at the hospital, is leaving for a new job this next week.  He is going to go and work for the new Kenyan railway project.  The Chinese are supporting the building of a new railway to replace the one built around 1900 that runs from Mombassa to Nairobi.  Then, they are going to connect the surrounding countries.  This is a long range project but one that will greatly change many aspects of this part of the world.  He is happy to be going to be a part of this but we will surely miss him and his ability to lead this Engineering and Facilities Department.  We wish him and his wife blessings as they start a new chapter in their lives!

Francis the electrical dept head is also leaving

A farewell tea at our place

accepting a gift

The whole team!

Sallie and the kids had a fun time decorating a ginger bread house.  It was fun and very tasty!

The Bethany Kids wing is doing well this week.  The contractor is still working hard and throwing a lot of resources at our project. Our architect is even saying that it might be done by June or July when before he was saying Jan of 2015!   Here is a current picture.

We have sure seen God working in our lives this past year and hope you can look back and see the same.  Miss you and hope you have a great Christmas celebration as we remember His coming to earth to be with us as we are.

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

One more picture of the kinds of things you see on the road here!

Advent = As we wait and prepare

Hello All,

We have had a week of ups and downs!  Jim had "the worst day since we have been in Kenya" this week but we have also had other things happen that were positive.  Let me tell you about "the worst day":

BKCC wing:  There was a big meeting this week where there was actually a bit of heated talk going on!  The contractor is so upset that he is over the top with concerns.  

Upendo Village:  Jim went to the monthly meeting alone this time as I had to stay here to take care of a few things.  This meeting also got a bit heated and Jim was accused of "never saying anything nice!"  This brought him down a bit, but what that tells me is he is doing his job!  We are here to help our clients get what they are paying for.  We point out the issues and are not "paid" to be cheerleaders for the contractor or consultants (architect, engineers, etc).  And, the very next day, the paper work that finally came in showed that the project is 1.5M Ksh ($17,000) over budget!  The contingency was 1M Ksh and now the board has to wrestle with what to do.  This information should have been told to the client at least 2 months ago, which is how long we have been asking them for it.  Oh the challenges never end!

Solar Panel Wows:  The Bethany Kids apartment complex where we first lived, has had issues with one of the apartments' solar panels for over a year.  It has not been working and it has been a struggle to get the hospital to move on getting it fixed.  The family that lives there has been more than patient in living with no hot water from the solar.  They finally got around to replacing it.  Jim got a call at the end of the day saying it was done and could he come and look.  He came back just laughing because they did the work but on the wrong unit!  It was so unbelievable but believable!  They did go back the next day and took the unit that they removed (that was working) and put it in place of the broken one.  We have not gotten results from the family yet to see if it is working or not - but we pray that it is!

These 3 things added up to "the worst day."  Jim is also trying to finish up 2 classes that will finish his masters degree in Information Technology.  He just completed the last paper for one of those classes and has 2 papers left.  He will officially be done on Dec 24th and we will celebrate!  We are heading out of town this week to a cottage in Naivasha were we have stayed before.  It is beautiful and quiet and we are looking forward to a needed rest - especially Jim - please pray that he will come back refreshed.  I spoke to a friend who lives out that way and she said her dogs treed a leopard right outside of this house just 2 weeks ago!  It would be really cool to see the leopard from inside the house!

Good news on the BKCC project:  The contractor and Jim had a really good talk yesterday and they have come to an agreement.  This is based on the fact that the contractor has performed some amazing work and made a lot of progress in a few weeks.  They are looking at a new program that will be amiable to all parties.  Thank God for this and please pray that it will continue!  It is a bright little spot in all the turmoil.

Our Lala Salama quilt project is going great.  We have over 75 quilts promised!  Here are a few pictures:

 Lorna's the "Tree of Life"

One from the group in Australia called "One Green Quilt for Kenya"  

Thanks Rose, Diane and Lorraine

This is the season of Advent.  We count down the days to the celebration of Christ's first coming with advent.  Adventus comes from the Latin meaning "coming."  It is a time to remember and prepare for Him.  We (especially in the west) can get caught up in the gift giving aspect of Christmas.  We are constantly reminded that if we don't buy that little plastic toy for Johnny, he will be scared for the rest of his life!

2 Cor 8:7

But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us — see that you also excel in this grace of giving. 

NIV

God wants us to give.  But he wants us to understand giving brings more blessing to the giver than the one who received the gift!  2 Cor 8:8-9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 

NIV

Your joy will be stolen away if you are giving out of "arm twisting."  When the giver is reluctant, the joy is robbed.  Money will flow to the things of your heart gladly.  You want to spend your money in those areas.  Its the other things (car repairs, utility bills, etc) that are no fun to give your money to.  But, when we grasp how much God loves us, we will want to give to those things that are dear to His heart with gladness.  Don't let the pressures of the season ruin your joy.  The size of the gift does not determine the amount of love it was given in!  Here we are at our first advent night with the neighbors.

The kids made snowmint snowmen and Trevor played a wonderful Jazzy version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.  We had a great time together as we wait for the coming day of celebration.  Please remember this time and have joy in your heart at how much He loves you!

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

PS - We will be gone for a bit so I will probably not post next week.  Look for pictures of our time in Maisha the following week (and hopefully pictures of the Leopard, with all of our body parts still in tact)!