Thanks for bearing with me! I know that I am a little overdue for a blog and that my mom has probably been checking this 50 times a day wondering where I am, but I am back at the computer and ready to share more about how God is unfolding our journey.
We now have access to the computer lab at Rift Valley Academy which is a boarding school in Kijabe. The school houses and educates the children of missionaries while they serve anywhere on the continent of Africa. It is a K-12 program that follows an American curriculum. It really is a slice of the U.S. right in our backyard. I actually smelled onion rings walking by the cafeteria tonight and almost went into shock. We are very appreciative of them letting us take advantage of their facilities. The other day, we were approached by the Dean and offered several different ways to interact with the students on campus through things like tutoring and coaching and are in the process of figuring out the logistics with the administration. Everyone is pretty excited about the opportunity (and the possibility of eating in the cafeteria every once and a while).
The past week and a half has been a blur. We never stop moving and it’s great. The busy schedule doesn’t give us any time to lose sight of why we are here. Last week we started to fall into a routine of the different outreaches we would be doing each day during the week. Pastor Simon has a good structure for us which is going to keep us busy. We had our first day in the hospital which I will go into more depth with later. We will be involved with the hospital every Wednesday and it has been the highlight of my trip so far getting to spend time there. I feel very comfortable working with the patients and I am hopefully going to get the opportunity to assist there twice a week instead of just once. On Thursday we had an evangelism day in the mountains surrounding Kijabe. It was an amazing day filled with some awesome hiking, decent sunburn, and incredible conversations with the people we visited. Friday was another great day that we spent reaching the people in the area. It was also Mandy’s birthday so we all went into Nairobi for pizza! I’ve never seen people eat so fast. Saturday was spent in the displaced refugee camp out in the valley. We heard a lot of great things from those people and brought them bags of food. Sunday was our first church service in Kijabe. There are two services every Sunday morning. The first is in English and the second in Swahili. Pastor Simon asked us to attend both of them in order to be formally introduced to everyone in the church community. We also sang songs in front of the congregation at both. For some reason the English crowd seemed a little more receptive to our American worship music. Monday we were back in the schools working with Kijabe’s youth. I was partnered with Denise this week and we helped out with the four and five year-olds. We got to teach them a few stories from the bible through skits and then worked on English. It was so great seeing how quick most of the kids catch on to things and how excited they are to learn stories from The Bible. They are all very bright and we are lucky to get to work with them again every week. Tuesday we drove about 40 kilometers out into the valley to the Turkana tribe. We had translators lead us around the community to different homesteads encouraging those who were saved and trying to help those who were not. Our translator’s name was Peter. Peter was a 6’9″ aspiring rapper and a definite pleasure to be around. This guy was awesome and every inch of his body was filled with the Holy Spirit. We had a lot of fun working with him and learning about the Turkana people. Wednesday was again spent in the hospital. Thursday We attended a seminar on how to reach Muslim people. It was actually really interesting learning the ins and outs of their religion and ideas. The hospital treats a lot of Somalis so it will be useful knowledge to have since we spend a lot of time there. It is a 4-part seminar that meets every Thursday for the next few weeks. We’re hoping to be Quar’an experts by the time it is complete. On Friday we hiked to Kijabetown. It is about 4 kilometers away and an incredible trek through the mountains. I felt like I was in the jungle and I guess I kind of was. We finally had our first encounter with monkeys (of course, my camera was dead). We spent yesterday with the people in the Refugee camp again. We will be working there at least every Saturday, but something is in the works now of possibly doing a 3 day outreach in the camp. Hopefully the tents will stay dry this time.
Before I get all heavy with a story from the past few days, I’ll share with you a quick, kind of funny list of things that I have learned in Kenya so far:
1. If you are standing under a tree and hear a bird above you, odds are you are about to get something dropped on your head.
2. You will think that you are tan until you take a shower and realize that you were just dusty.
3. Pepto Bismo should be required for entry into this country.
4. Malaria medicine is a scam. I haven’t seen a single mosquito.
5. Kenya milk < Wisconsin milk (milk here is not refrigerated)
6. Passion Fruit shouldn’t be legal.
7. Hippos are just as mean as people say they are.
8. Obama and Tiger Woods are still heroes here.
Story time….
Like I previously mentioned, Last Wednesday was our first day working in the Kijabe hospital. The hospital is operated through the Africa Inland Church organization. We were given options for where we would like to spend our days there. I chose to work in the Men’s Ward with Blair and Brian. We met so many different types of people up there and heard so many great stories of the triumphs of faith through struggle and times of misunderstanding. We talked to this one man named Joel who was hit by a drunk driver. Joel’s right leg was severely broken and he lost his ability to walk because of it. He has been receiving surgery after surgery to try and right his problems, but has not lost hope in Jesus through any of it. He said, “The way I see it is that God knew that I could carry this cross and make it through this. He knew that I was strong enough and that is why he chose me. Someone had to carry this burden and he was sure that I wouldn’t lose my faith in him through any of it. I look to God for healing and I know that he is my provider and when he desires he will give me my leg back. If I never walk again, so be it. It isn’t worth sacrificing eternal life for.” Dang…. My eyes got a little watery.
I also talked with a man named Isaac. Isaac didn’t look much older than I was so I figured he would be a good person for me to sit down with. He turned out to be twenty-three and actually spoke great English so I got to have a long one on one conversation with him. Isaac had just had his right arm amputated. He had injured it in a car wreck and it became infected to the point where any form of medicinal treatment was a lost cause. He had just had the procedure done the day before and I could definitely see fear in his eyes. I didn’t bring up Jesus or the bible right away because I didn’t what his beliefs were and didn’t want to scare him away. I just sat and talked with him. We talked about his accident and where he was from. He told me about his family and all the other common conversation topics. He asked me about my life and where I had come from. I could hear God saying, “Regan! This is your chance!” I told him about our team and that we had come to Kijabe from America and what we were here for. We started to talk about our relationships with Jesus together. I told him my story about my long and twisted road towards Christ and how I used to doubt this thing people called “God’s Plan” and that it is hard to find meaning in some situations. He told me about his coming to Christ and how this was really the first time his faith had been tested. I could see in his eyes the same question that I used to ask myself over and over again. WHY? Why do these things happen to us? Why does God let these things happen to us? I sat with Isaac for a while just trying to encourage him and give him someone to talk with. Eventually he asked, “Will you please pray for me?” I was totally up for it. I must have stood there with my hand on Isaac for 5 minutes praying over him. I couldn’t explain it. It was the first time I had really felt the Holy Spirit lead me in prayer. I had never felt that way before. After we prayed I started thinking to myself: “Who am I? A month ago I was sitting in Wisconsin snowboarding and playing video games. Now, I’m in a hospital in Kenya with a buzz-cut praying over this guy? Can I actually be hearing and feeling God? What the heck? I didn’t understand it. I knew that these 3 months here were going to change me and I wanted them to, but I didn’t realize it would all be happening so fast. If this is the first month, what is in store for the next 2? It was the first time that it felt good to be overwhelmed. Back to Isaac…. After I finished praying, I read him a couple verses. James 1:2-4 says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” He asked me to write it down for him before I left so I did. He asked if I would be back again because he was going to be there for another 2 weeks and I told him I could come see him the following Wednesday. I prayed for Isaac that next week and for his strength and perseverance. “Perseverance”… That is a strong word. As ridiculous as this is, before I read The Bible for encouragement, I used to look that word up in the dictionary and read the definition over and over again to get through rough patches. I now know that The Bible is a little more powerful than Webster. The next week when we got to the hospital we picked where we wanted to work again. Of course, I chose the Men’s Ward. I went up there with one of the Chaplains from the hospital and started looking for Isaac. He wasn’t in his bed and I didn’t see him walking around anywhere. I started to go around to other beds with the Chaplain hearing stories from new patients and encouraging them. I was probably there for 15 minutes when Isaac walked in. He immediately recognized me and I went over to talk with him. He looked so strong and had a big smile on his face. I could tell that he had made his peace. I noticed that there was a windbreaker and jeans where his hospital gown was worn the week before. He told me that he was going home and that his family was there to pick him up. We got to talk for a few minutes before his family arrived. I introduced myself to them and told them how encouraged I was by Isaac. I asked Isaac to write his e-mail down so that we could stay in touch. He did and then asked for mine. I reached to tear a page out of my notebook before he said, “Here, write it on this.” He set this little piece of wrinkled paper next to where I was sitting. The paper said, “James 1:2-4,” and I knew exactly where it had come from. Before he left he said, “Thank you, Regan. You have taught me how to Persevere. God bless you and your team.”
Meeting Isaac has been the biggest blessing to me so far on this trip. He didn’t realize it, but I learned a lot from him. I think we can all learn a lot from him. It took me 8 years to make my peace with God after I lost my sister and used to let minor struggles just pile on top of that anger. Here Isaac was, a week after losing his arm, still thanking God for life and thanking Jesus for dying for us. Never lose that hope in The Lord, never second guess his plans for you, or fear things to come, and in times of struggle remember what it says in James Chapter 1: Persevere.
I hope that this story finds you all well and that you enjoyed hearing more about what we are doing here. I really am sorry that I haven’t posted in so long. Everything has just been going so fast here that it is hard to find the time. We have a scheduled blog time every week now so I will be posting every Thursday. I couldn’t have done it without any of you. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Meyer and Mark. Thank you Aunt Nancy and Uncle Steve. Also, thank you Dr. and Mrs. Wilson and again to Dr. Kontny and anyone else supporting me through donations, or prayer. Also, God has been putting some things and future choices in my mind and on my heart quite a bit lately. I just ask that you pray for some clarity in that for me. Keep praying for me and also please include Isaac in your prayers this week as he returns home. God bless all of you.
In him,
