Halfway already?

            Sorry for the delay, but I promise you all that I am still
alive.  The past couple weeks have flown
by. The days are moving very fast and it’s
hard to believe that we are time here is already half over.  We are leaving for a week stay with the
Turkana tribe this morning.  We will be
there until Sunday. The following week
we have time off and are staying in Nairobi.
 After that, we only have 4 weeks left of
ministry before a one week final debrief somewhere else in Kenya.  Then, it’s back across the ocean we go. It’s hard to believe that in a little over a
month and a half I will be back in Fort
Atkinson, Wisconsin.  There is so much stuff left to do here!

            Last week,
we finally started to gain some ground in the I.D.P. (Internally Displaced
People) camp. Our first few weeks there
seemed so hopeless and we really needed to step back and find a different approach
to reaching those people.  I wish you all
could see this camp. It was very
overwhelming and I had never been exposed to anything like it. There are thousands of people living in the
middle of the Great Rift Valley inside of
tents that the U.N. provided for them.  They
had their homes and farms burnt to the ground by other tribes after the problems
with the Kenyan election arose in 2007.  People were pulled out into their front yards
and killed in front of their families.  In
one of the villages, the people ran to the church to be safe.  There were 150 of them inside. The men of the other tribe blocked off the
church and burnt it to the ground before any of them got out.  Five people survived. So, you get the idea…. These people have been stretched.  Stretched further than I could ever imagine.  Stretched to the point where some of them aren’t
just concerned with a relationship with Jesus, but with the existence of God in
general. I was a little out of my
league. We prayed A LOT about our
ministry down there and really had our eyes opened up.  We just kept asking God to break our hearts
for these people.  We know that there is
no possible way for us to relate to them, but we still want to be able to help
them.  I’ll just say, God blew our minds! The next week we all went down there with a
new attitude and ready to break down these walls that had been built around the
hearts of these people.  We split the men
and the women up instead of keeping them in one large group while we spoke to
them.  The guys went with the men and the
girls with the women.  We really got the
men to open up, which was fantastic.  We
talked with them for probably an hour and a half.  We asked about the problems they have in the
camp and what needs to be different.  We
eventually tied everything back to their doubts in God and, thanks to the Holy
Spirit and Blair, the walls came tumbling down.  When we were done they all came running up asking
where they can get bibles!  AMAZING! 

            A few of
the men walked around with us as we did house visits that day.  They took us inside of their tents and
introduced us to their families.  One
man, Francis, took us into his tent and sat us down.  He pulled out a photo album and started to show
us pictures from his past.  He used to
live in a brick house! He used to have a
truck!  He used to have a job working
with computers! Now he is here, living
in a 15 ft. x 8 ft. tent and has been for the past 2 years.  Francis is one of the men in the community
that has never lost his faith.  As we sat
in his tent on a bench made of scrap wood, he told us about all the amazing
things God has done for him.  He never
dwelled on the negative. It broke me
down. This guy was incredible.

            So, this is
probably the worst blog I have posted so far… I am sorry about that, but time is precious these days.  Before I go, I want to tell you a quick story
about something else that has happened to me in the I.D.P. camp.  This is the hardest God has hit me since I’ve
been here.  Two weeks ago, I met a little
boy named Mike. Mike is twelve years
old. When I met him, he was wearing a
Green Bay Packers hat which I knew was God’s way of saying “Regan, he needs
you.” Both of Mike’s parents were murdered during the post election violence.  A woman from his village took him in with her
6 kids and brought him with them to the camp.  This woman is a real blessing and who knows
where he would have ended up without her.  She started telling us that she is running out
of money and is unable to provide for her family anymore and that she is going
to have to take Mike to an orphanage.  Mike
knows about the situation and I can tell that he is scared.  He is such an awesome kid and such a joy to be
around.  I know that he deserves better
and that God will provide for him.  I
told Mike that I’m not going to let anything happen to him and that God is
going to keep him safe until I figure something out.  Please, PRAY FOR MIKE! He needs us! I tried posting a picture of him today, but it wouldn’t upload.  Next time I will have more time and get it up
so that you can see this awesome kid.

            I heard an
awesome quote the other day that I would like to share with all of you: “Pray like it all depends on God. Work like
it all depends on you.” How awesome and
encouraging is that? What a phrase to
live by! Thank you for reading this and
please keep all of us in your prayers as we breach the halfway mark on our
trip. It is also suppose to pour down rain the entire time we are with the Turkana this week, so please also pray for dry tents!!!  It’s so crazy to think that I will
be saying a lot of your faces in 6 weeks!