June Twenty Sixteen- shared from Kenya

June 30, 2016

a photo journal of our month in Kenya so far this summer.... 

"Lord, you have called us to be servants in a world of great need, but we have focused our first attention on making ourselves comfortable. 

You have called us to give special care to the least, the lost and the broken, but we attend most to those who are most like us. 

You have called us to live the gospel, but we have been content to simply to hear and agree. 

We confess that we have often missed the joy of living our lives wholly abandoned to you. 

Forgive our hesitancy, our passivity, our comfort with superficiality.

 And grant that as your people, we might grow to serve you with joyful hearts and eager hands. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

(thanks to Evelyn Raines for first sharing this prayer with us.) 

Lodwar to Nairobi

June 29, 2016

Yesterday was quite an emotional day as we said 

goodbye to the place we called home for the last three weeks.  

last ride in the truck to the airport in Lodwar

Our flight was smooth and we even got to be on board with our good friend Agnes Lodepe Nakara who was also heading to Nairobi.  I got to sit next to a beautiful woman from the Congo who had lived in Kakuma Refugee Camp and who had been given a scholarship to study in the US. Having just been to that refugee camp, it was remarkable to hear her story.

Bijoux whom we met on the plane 

with Agnes when we arrived in Nairobi 

We arrived in Nairobi and we were greeted at the airport by Joshua Matuu Matuku, a dear friend we have known for 12 years. He brought his children (Emma (age 11), Grace (age 18) and Emmanuel (age 20) and it was a sweet reunion indeed. They came with us to the retreat center and we were able to visit with them and catch up on our lives (as we have not seen them since 2009).  Their family has gone through some very difficult times over the last 4 years as his wife Lisper has been in and out of the hospital.  The medical bills wiped their family out and they lost just about everything and yet the joy that exudes from their family is extraordinary. 

Taylor, Emma and Anna 

Taylor and Emmanuel 

Grace, Anna and Joshua taking a selfie :) 

As we sang this song last night back with the students, I certainly think that Joshua and his family live this out better than anyone I know:

“Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful

Where your streams of abundance flow, blessed be your name

Blessed be your name when I’m found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be your name.

Every blessing you pour out, I’ll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say…

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord- blessed be your glorious name.

Blessed be your name when the sun’s shining down on me

When the world’s all as it should be, blessed be your name

Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering

Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be your name.”

-Matt and Beth Redman © 2002 Thankyou Music

We are so very grateful that we still have a little over two weeks here in Kenya. Brian made the comment last night in our meeting that this time is just as important (if not more so) than the time we have had. I look forward to the ways God will continue to water us and grow us more into the people he created us to be as we soak this all up. 

Anna and Dani 

last post from Lodwar

June 28, 2016 
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a]in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 

We are so grateful for the many ways God has filled our cups to overflowing here in Lodwar over the last three weeks. As C.S. Lewis writes in the Narnia series, “Further up and further in….”

We leave for the airport in an hour and look forward to the next chapter of our time here in Kenya back with our team in Nairobi. 

at Chok Chok Village church on Sunday 

Rose's son Carson reading the Bible that Taylor gave to him 

Sunday worship 

Taylor's message about the parable of the unforgiving servant: 

 He did some amazing math and put talents and denaria into Kenya shillings. 

1 denarius=  1 days wage 

1 talent = 6000 denarii

10,000 talents forgiven = 600,000,000,000 shillings = (160,000 years of labor!!!) 

100 denaii= 1,000,000 shillings 

We have been forgiven MUCH!! 

last school visit on Monday 

banquet with the staff on Monday evening 

With David Loreng and Anna Ekiru 

Taylor and David 

with Sabina 

with John and William (the coordinators of Children of the Kingdom here in Lodwar) 

thorn trees

With one day left before we leave Lodwar and head back to Nairobi, I wanted to share these pictures of the thorn trees. They symbolize this region of Kenya for me and the incredible resilience that the people have in this place that can be harsh here in the desert. The words below are ones that Jason and I came up with when talking about them and what they represent to us here: 

fierce

tenacious

enduring

We are thankful for the time among these thorn trees as they have been and continue to be a good teacher indeed. 

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
Isaiah 35:1-2 



Whistling Thorn
Common Name: Whistling Thorn, Swollen Thorn Acacia
Genus: Acacia
Species: dreparalobium

The whistling thorn is an acacia tree commonly seen on the savannas of equatorial East Africa, particularly the Serengeti plain. This acacia can grow about 18 feet tall, but is often stunted in its growth. The whistling thorn acacia protects itself with pairs of long thorns up to 3 inches long. Interspersed with these are modified thorns, called stipular spines, which are joined at the base by hollow bulbous swellings about 1 inch in diameter. These are home to four different kinds of stinging ants who pierce these swollen thorns with tiny holes. When the wind blows it turns old and abandoned spines into tiny whistling flutes, which gives the tree its name. It isn't clear yet whether the relationship with ants is a symbiotic or parasitic one. This particular acacia doesn't have the toxic chemicals that ward off insects and browsers like other species of acacias do. The stinging ants protect the tree by swarming out of their nests and attacking an intruder at the smallest movement. Giraffes and other browsers are thought to be able to detect the pheromones the ants give off, and leave the tree alone.

However, some ant species, like Crematogaster nigriceps, will prune the branches and flowers of their whistling thorn so that enemy ant colonies on other trees can't get to their tree. This pruning stimulates the acacia to produce a sugary secretion at the ends of their leaflets which feeds the ants. Unfortunately, it also kills the tree's growth tips and effectively sterilizes it so it can't propogate itself.

It is believed that the ants have developed the habit of living in trees because the soil of the savanna turns spongy in the rainy season and dries out and cracks in the dry season. This makes it very difficult for ant to build nests under ground.

The whistling thorn acacia, like other acacias, has developed several ways to survive the severely hot and dry climate in which it lives. Because of the heat the tree must find ways to conserve moisture. Their leaves have evolved into many tiny leaflets (pinnae) which can turn to absorb sunlight, or avoid it and reduce transpiration. The many leaflets are also beneficial when animals graze on them. Some will be left behind to continue the vital task of photosynthesis.

During the dry season on the savanna, the whisling thorn acacia will drop its leaves to conserve water. At the beginning of the rainy season fragrant creamy-white flowers bloom before the leaves grow back. The flowers look like little puffballs and resemble those of the cultivated mimosa tree, which are in the same family. Long seed pods develop, whose seeds are very nutritious and a favorite of many animals, including humans.

growing pains

June 26, 2016

I have been praying lately about how I really want this to be a time for Anna and Taylor that stretches them and helps them to grow. The tricky part is for this to not stretch them so much that they feel like they are going to break and that they harden their hearts feeling bitter about some of the experiences. It’s that balance of wanting things to be uncomfortable (but not too uncomfortable) and for things to rock their reference points without swinging the pendulum too far in one direction that it backfires and swings back the other way.  While it is normal to feel disequilibrium, it’s also good to be able to have the maturity to take a step back and recognize that as part of the process rather than seeing that as the defining part of the experience.

This thing called parenting sure is humbling. I need wisdom each step of the way and am so grateful that we are not leaving Kenya on Tuesday when we get on a plane to go from Lodwar to Nairobi. I am so thankful that we get to go back and be with the team for the next few weeks to engage conversations around these topics with many of the college students and with the staff. I know it’s a bit of a cliché that “it takes a village,” but it certainly applies here.  I’m grateful that we have many in our village here in Kenya to help us chart this path together.   

Anna and Taylor made s'mores for Joshua and Mary in the kitchen here,

 and they were a big hit! 

We gathered our team together yesterday and we did an affirmation circle passing around papers for everyone to write words of encouragement for each person. They had never done this as a staff so I was a little nervous how it would go, but it was such a blessing for all around. We are so grateful for this amazing group of people! 

roasted corn! YUM!!! 

sharing love with the New Hope office 

(New Hope is a program to kids who were living on the streets that grew out of Children of the Kingdom a few years ago, and we are so thankful to be partners with them) 

We planned games for the New Hope children yesterday and had so much fun with duck, duck goose, elbow tag, red rover, sharks & minnows and soccer. :) 

I was the one trying to tag the kids during sharks and minnows, 

and it took me forever to catch any of them as they were all SO fast!!